RUMFORD — Missions-at-the-Airport committee member Ken Couch of Rumford is once again looking to God for a little weather help for this weekend’s fourth program by Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service of Waxhaw, N.C.

According to the National Weather Service in Gray, a major coastal storm packing heavy tropical rains and strong winds could arrive offshore in time for the event Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29 and 30. It will be held off Route 2 on Zinck’s Field along the Androscoggin River.

Last year, a hurricane kept the JAARS Helio Courier Bush Plane mostly grounded. However, a window of calm weather allowed Missions’ pilots to take an estimated 250 to 500 people on 10-minute area flights in their Robinson R-44 Raven II helicopter.

“God put this neat little slot in the middle of the hurricane for us,” Couch said Tuesday.

Despite bad weather, which has plagued the evangelistic and promotional community outreach program for three years, Couch said every event has been well received by the River Valley community.

“Twice before, we have had very successful events in Dixfield and once in Rumford,” Couch said, respectively, of the 2005 and 2006 missions in Dixfield and the 2008 event in Rumford.

The free nonprofit event brings together area churches and Wycliffe’s technical support branch JAARS, which provides air transportation, computer, radio and telecommunications services for missionaries worldwide.

Through Missions-at-the-Airport programs, the public can meet and talk with jungle pilots and translators, get hands-on with translation technologies and demonstrations, learn how technology is helping locally and in the mission’s field, and take in 8- to 10-minute flights in the helicopter or short-takeoff-and-landing bush plane, Couch said.

Pilots also demonstrate the bush plane’s precision take off and landing capabilities.

This weekend’s event also includes live music by Maine artists Ron and Deb Hodge, band Greater Purpose, Alan and Leanne Hewey, Alan Hutchinson, Sammi Angel, and more.

Vendors and area youth groups will be selling refreshments, while local camps and ministries will offer informative displays.

Pilots Glen Ferguson, Dan Miller, Nard Pugyau and Mike Mower are expected to arrive with the plane and helicopter sometime Friday, Aug. 28.

“As long as they get here before the weather arrives, we’ll be good to go,” Couch said.

The full event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29. Depending on the weather, 8- to 10-minute flights will be offered at $20 a person for the bush plane and $25 a person for the helicopter.

General admission and parking is free. For more information, call 357-1250 or 866-552-4184 or e-mail [email protected]. For more information about Wycliffe/JAARS, see www.jaars.org/MATA/index.shtml.

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