Jason Miller's path to becoming a flying missionary began in the jungles of Venezuela when he was 7 years old.

Miller, now 40, his brother and their parents — both missionaries — were living with an indigenous tribe in a remote area of the South American country.

After walking for two days through the jungle with his family and the tribe to a new home, and then spending three weeks hacking out an airstrip with nothing more than machetes, axes, prybars and shovels, the whole group was running low on food.

When the airstrip was finished, a plane flew in and Miller ate one of the most memorable meals of his life.

"I had chicken noodle soup," he said. "I still remember that to this day —that's how powerful that meal was to me.

"And that's when I realized the incredible value an airplane has in a place like that."

But Miller saw planes as capable of delivering more than just food, water and other physical necessities.

He saw it as a vehicle that would allow him to spread the word of God — which he has done for more than a decade.

"As much as we love flying airplanes, it's simply a tool that God gives us to reach the unreached," he said.

A pilot instructor for New Tribes Mission, which helps churches send missionaries to some of the most remote populations in the world, Miller was one of the featured speakers Saturday at the fourth Smoketown Aviation Fair hosted by Missions Fest Lancaster at Smoketown Airport.

According to its literature, Missions Fest is a "non-denominational organization that seeks to spread a vision for global missions ..."

And nothing is more critical to conducting "global missions" than aviation, according to John Bush, Missions Fest's executive director.

"The simple fact is, much of the missionary work that's going on in the world today absolutely could not happen without airplanes," he said. "We could not get to those places."

So it's only natural Missions Fest hosts an annual air show to showcase some of the aircrafts, and the pilot skills, that are being used across the globe for humanitarian purposes.

A common situation pilots flying into remote areas have to deal with is short runways.

As Mark Wuerffel, a training pilot with Jungle Aviation And Radio Service put it, "If you were a villager trying to keep an airstrip maintained with nothing but a machete, you probably wouldn't make it very long, either," he said.

JAARS pilots wowed the crowd Saturday by taking off from, and landing on, a sliver of the Smoketown Airport's nearly half-mile-long runway that was only about five times the length of the Helio Courier single-propeller airplane they flew.

Wuerffel flew with JAARS for 14 years in Papua New Guinea, ferrying food and supplies and helping native tribes translate the Bible.

"Our main thrust is, has been and will be Bible translation," he said. "Along with that, we will do the other things necessary to make that happen."

One of the planes on display and flown for demonstrations Saturday was Quest Aircraft's Kodiak, which is fast becoming the choice plane for missionaries, bush pilots and other aviators who fly in remote areas.

Capable of flying at speeds approaching 200 mph, the Kodiak can carry heavier loads than any other plane that operates in rough country.

And it's the only such plane that's fed with jet fuel as opposed to aviation gas.

"Aviation gas is becoming increasingly difficult to find around the world," Bush said. "In a place like Cameroon, we can buy aviation gas in North Carolina, put it in brand-new drums and ship it all the way to West Africa cheaper than we can buy it there.

"On the other hand, jet fuel is readily available around the world. It's not cheap, but it's available, so the Kodiak is a whole new concept."

Smoketown Aviation Fair continues today from 12:30-6 p.m. at Smoketown Airport, 311 Airport Drive, off Route 340 in Smoketown.

Admission and parking are both free.

Fees are charged for airplane and helicopter rides and for select children's activities.

preilly@lnpnews.com