Balloon Life,
April 2000
If God is our pilot, Bob Schaible is the co-
pilot, Jesus literally is his balloon. In this
case,“Jesus”is an 11-story high, 258,000-
cubic-foot balloon shaped likethe King of
Kings rising out of the clouds. It is one of
the most technologically complex hot-air
balloons ever built.
Schaible and his wife, Karen, use the
Jesus balloon as part of their Tracy,
Calif.-basedMerrittMinistriesto
spread thewordof Christianity at
ballo onin gan dspecialev en ts
aroundthe country.
Their missionstatement:“To
glorify, magnify and exemplify the
love of Christ Jesus through visual
means, hotand cold air inflatables.”
Butth at ’sn o tal l:The
mini stry ’sfleetalsoin clud es
“Arky,”an 85-foot-high custom hot
air balloonofNoah’s Arkand28
animals.
And both balloons have a dif-
ferent effecton people.
“When we do Arky on thetour,
it’s kindofa backdoor interestin
evangelism,”Karensays.“When
youflyanimageof Jesus,you’re
coming inthe frontdoor andsay-
ing, ‘Let us teach you about Him.’“
“It’s‘Inyourface’evange-
lism,”she adds.“There’snomis-
understandingwhatthemessage
is: ‘Jesus is the king of kings, lord
of lords.’“
Last year, theylogged 30,000
miles at 18 balloon events with the
FAA-certifiedaircraftaroundthe
co un tryan dC an ada,d rawin g
crowds of thousands ofpeople.This
year,theyareplanningasimilar
“There are zero negatives.”
GenesisofJesus
The seedforthe Jesusballoonmay
havebeencreatedintheOldCountry.
BobSchaible, acommercialhotair bal-
loon pilot for the past 20 years, and Karen
hadbeen onChristianmissionarytripin
Russia, Romania andHungary.
“When we came back, we were
inspired,”hesaid. “Wehavecer-
taintalents.Godwantsustouse
our talents in our quest for evange-
lism.”
Theirthoughts wereconfirmed
whenthey mentionedthe idea to a
missionaryin Moscow.
“She justlituplike aChrist-
mas tree,” Karen Schaible remem-
bers. “At that point, we were think-
ing, ‘How could we even do a bal-
loon in the likeness of Jesus and do
itjustice? Whoarewe tothinkof
doingthat?’“
A few years ago, Bobcreated
astickfiguredrawingofChrist
coming out of the clouds, borrow-
inga scene from the Bookof Rev-
elation. But the couple did not want
too harsh of an image, so they com-
binedthat withthe conceptof the
secondcoming of Christ.
“We thought, ‘Keep the clouds
andChristcomingintheclouds
and welcoming children around the
resurrectionChrist,’“Karensaid.
“We wanted thattobe conveyed.”
Thentheysenttheirideato
Balloon Works of Statesville, North
Carolina.
“They sent us backa wonder-
Merritt Ministries uses Jesus,Noah’s Ark balloons to
bring inspiration to the Christian faith
Jesus balloon flying over Tracy, California
BalloonLife,April2000
ful first rendering,” Karen said.
Hundredsof hoursofcomputer-aided
design later,final plans for the balloon
were drawn. It was commissioned in fall
1997and thecouplereceiveditinOctober
1998.
The specialnature of theballoonwas
hinted at duringatest flight in North
Carolina, BalloonWorks officialslooked
down below and noticed cars had pulled
over to the side of the road. Some cars
were honkingand some people were even
praying on the side of the road, Bob said.
“As TheBalloon Works started to
work with how to build it in the fabric, it
just kind of grew and 268,000 cubic feet
later, it’s awesome.”
The result was a hot air balloon 110
feet tall, 100 feet wide and 65 feet deep.
Jesus’ hands stretch20 feet, from wristto
fingertipand the balloonenvelope, which
hasa totalvolume of258,000cubic feetof
air, weighs more than 750 pounds.
The envelope attaches to a triangu-
lar-shaped basket that is unique to Bal-
loonWorks withadouble-propaneburner
fuel system.
Twelve children of different nation-
alitieswrap their arms around the base of
Jesus. They are 15 feet tall.
“There’s no paint involved at all,”
Bobsaid. “Everything highlightedis fab-
ric. When you see the fingernails on the
hand, ... that’s fabricyou see, the different
color.Whenyouseethetonesin the
cheek,thetones inthe face,that’sall
fabric.”
There’s2,700separatepatterns of
fabric. Cuttingallof the patterns tookfive
weeks and sewing everything together
took another 13 weeks.
Inaddition tothepilot,theJesus
balloon can carry five or six passengers
with apayloadofbetween3,600and
3,700 pounds.
“We cantake justabouteverybody,”
he said. “It’sreally incredible.Idon’t
know ofanotherspecial shapeballoon
that has ever taken that many passengers.
Eventhe Arky balloon only takes one
(passenger). There’s a lot of appendages,
a lot of dead air.”
Flying underthe arms ofJesus is
quite an experience.
“Awesome,“Bob says.
“It’sawesome tosay youtooka flight
in the Jesus balloon,” Karen says, “ButI
tell people,the ground looks the same
from inside any balloon. The awesome-
ness is to be on the ground watching the
Jesus balloon.
“[The reaction] always is that it’s,
‘Wow, what an awesome sight.’“
Divineintervention
In the beginning, before there was a
Jesus balloon, there was Arky.
But Arky, built in 1994, did not be-
long to the Merritt Ministry.
The 85-foot-tall Arky balloon, that
inspired theJesusballoon,is 100feet
long, 55feet wide and has the air capacity
of 131,000 cubic feetof air. It belonged to
a Christian pastor who wanted to have a
vehicle to draw attention to the plight of
abused children.
“When wefirst had seen Arky,it
gave us the ideato do a Christian bal-
loon,”Karen said. “We keptcoming back
(to it), it’s the best story: ‘Noah’s Ark,
that’s done. What can we do?’
“That’s when we gotthe visionto do
Jesus (as a balloon).”
Butin1997,divineintervention
stepped in, the couple says.
“We actually had contracted to have
the Jesus balloonbuilt,” Bob said. “Then
all of a sudden, ... there was the opportu-
nity to buy the Arky balloon.”
“In ourwildest dreams,wenever
thoughtwe’d have the Arky balloon,”he
added. “It’s kind of like it was presented
unexpectedly. It’s a realblessingfrom the
Lord, just amazing.”
“We really took that for God’s re-
ward for being obedient to the calling of
the Jesus balloon,” Karen said.
Up in the morning
It takes the Jesus balloon 45 minutes
to inflate.Theprocess ofinflating the
balloon and taking it to balloon events,
requires the help of volunteers.
Four commercial hot air balloon pi-
lots volunteer their expertise for the bal-
loon events. A missionary couple drives
to events in trucks and trailers that con-
tains theballoons and other equipment
needed.
Theytrainmembersof localchurches
tocrew on both balloons and the ministry
helps share the gospel with the churches,
Bob said.
“When we go to the different events,
we work with local churches,” Bob said.
“It’s been an awesome experience. A lot
ofourfunding comes fromdonations.
We’re self-supported on the road.”
Karensaidit’sgratifyingtobe able to
balloon-evangelize.
“Toknow thatwe have injustthislast
yearalone,placedover34,000[pam-
phlets],24,000 trading cards, 30,000 bal-
loonflyerswithour informationaboutthe
balloonswithseedsof thegospel, ... we’re
doingratherwell,”shesaid.“We’re
pleasedwiththataccomplishmentbut
knowwe candomore. We lookforwardto
thatandare workingtodevelopnewhand-
outs and fliers.
In the future, they would like to pur-
sue opportunities to take the balloons on
an international tour,suchas to South
America or Europe.
“We’re open towhere anybodymight
have connections, (but wewant to) go
somewhere where we can graciously fly
them without causing a problem politi-
cally as far as presenting the gospel (is
concerned),”she added.
But for now, both are pleased with
the success of their calling.
“Of course, always anytime you’re
involved with what God is doing, you’re
involvedfor anamazingride,”Karensaid.
“Godisourpilottruly... more than we can
say and it’s been an amazing ride.”
Daniel Yee is a reporter for The
Columbian newspaper in Vancouver,
Washington.
