Religious Skywriting over Epcot
I took this photo this morning:
http://flickr.com/photos/insidethemagic/457850762/
The whole bit of skywriting wouldn’t fit in my camera’s frame. To the left of Jesus was a giant smiley face (probably as large as Spaceship Earth, if not larger). It then read “Jesus Loves You” next to the face.
The skywriting stopped everyone in their tracks throughout Epcot, as everyone pulled out their cameras to snap a photo of a rare religious sight in a Disney park.
Edit: Looks like this may not be “rare” afterall. Evidently various religious messages are written in the skies over Walt Disney World and the surrounding areas on a semi-regular basis. I guess I haven’t been watching the skies enough.
Edit #2:Â It appears that the skywriter also has a web site, www.turntojesus.net. (as noted on Boing Boing)
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I took one like that on March 11th while on my way to Downtown Disney.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/desiamerican/418890172/
Since the airspace over the Disney World resort is restricted airspace, I wonder if we’ll be hearing more about this in the news. If not, perhaps we SHOULD be.
Rare?
You mean like those readings from the Bible and religious choirs they run every night for a month at Epcot?
Rare for this time of year! ;)
I saw the same thing, written by 1 plane, when I was at Disney’s Animal Kingdom last October. Not so rare apparently.
An of course, Disney has “Mormon Days” and I have seen many Catholic School Kid’s Days…..etc.
Of course, I was an annual pass holder, so I guess I was there more than average.
ah, i was there also around march 14th and saw the same thing.
that guy is wasting way too much gas if he’s doing this so often. boo.
Can I pay somebody to write “Satan wants to sodomize you”? Please.
Nah, “Satan wants to sodomize you” is probably something this guy would agree with.
Better: “Sacrifice your babies to Cthulu and they shall be eaten first!”
I’ve seen the religious writing above Disney World quite often in the last few months. Most days it’s so windy that by the time he gets to the last word or letter, the first part has blown away.
Matt, same here. I’ve seen the Jesus Loves You about 5 times the past couple of trips going to Disney World. And yes, it does get blown away, haha.
I rather they keep these out of the park skys, but whatever makes them happy I suppose…
Saw the same thing over Expedition Everest last December :)
As someone who is at Disney daily and lives in Orlando, I can tell you that these messages are not actually written over Disney property. Thus, Disney has no control over what is written or how often. I would imagine that these groups think that they are reaching and “inspiring” the most people by putting it in a place that in sight of a tourist area which is so widely visited every day. I found it annoying at first, now I just laugh.
Laura is right. I live in Orlando (5 minutes from Disney property). This guy is not flying directly over Disney. In fact, you can see the sky writings all over Orlando. It’s a normal thing. He’s mostly out on weekends. And obviously on clear days.
In fact it happens so often we don’t even look up anymore. It has become normal.
Hey, we have been Boing Boing’d. Better have bandwidth.
I submitted it to BoingBoing after I posted it here in hopes of it giving us a good bandwidth test for the new web host. It seems to be holding up well.
We see him above animal kingdom pretty often, whenever it’s nice out he’s usually up there writing in the sky.
You can probably hit Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Blizzard Beach all at once depending on from how far away you can see sky-writing, since you can see the odd firework from IllumiNations from the Animal Kingdom.
yeah i work at epcot it happens ALL the time usually daily on busy days if not a few times in a day. does not truly bother be and never had any one complain to me about it so i guess more power to him
Technically he’s not over WDW. He actually flies around the area just above Celebration Ave & 192. He’s high enough up that it’s visible from most of WDW.
That guy does religious sky writing fairly frequently and Jesus isn’t the only thing he writes. On occasion, he does more than one word.
[...] Distant Creations blog had this story. I thought it was fun! RSS Trackback URL 13. April 2007 (18:18) Filed [...]
[...] at Distant Creations snapped this photo over Epcot Center Friday. Apparently a skywriter named Jerry Stevens writes [...]
faa should be notified……
It would be really fun to hire a plane, and run through his messages as he creates them.
do they make white out that large? ;)
Why are people attacking this guy for spreading a good message? Jesus does love you whether you acknowledge it or not, and there is not a single reason why you should be against his message, its not hurting you. NOTE: I do NOT condone sitting on street corners telling everyone they are going to hell, but I do condone a policy of passive evangelism.
> Why are people attacking this guy for spreading a good message?
That’s assuming it is a good message….which I don’t agree with. Just as I wouldn’t want to see an ad for any other commercial venture, I don’t want to see someone trying to advertise their religion when I’m on vacation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to folks who love their religion and want to do their own fantasy in the sky, but I like to choose which fantasies in the sky I’m looking at. ;)
The Orlando metro area has two Christian-based theme park attractions that I know of…why doesn’t he go to show his support for those of his kind instead of pestering those of us who have no desire to be part of his religion? Then again, we spent nearly a half hour snarking the guy while waiting in line last winter, so maybe it is cheap entertainment.
I’ll make a deal with him…I won’t try and evangelize him about my religion, and he doesn’t evangelize me about his. Sounds fair, I think…
Here’s some information about this from the Orlando Sentinel Theme Park Rangers blog:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2007/04/the_message_fro.html
i am ashamed to say the message that was meant to inspire just scared my family! we figured since no one was suppose to fly over disney it must be a sarcastic terrorist, we left the park pretty bummed, i am a proud Christian but i would never “advertize” my spirituality that way, i thought it was creepy.
My family saw this during Christmas this year. While we were watching this,my mom motioned to two women walking by. One apathetically said “Yea, I’ve seen that before”. A few minutes later, my 5-year old said how it was not very nice that those ladies did not even care about God. How inspiring it was to know that my child did care, but such a reality check that such a young child would already become aware of an unconcerned world towards God. Thank you, Skywriter, that you stand boldy for our Lord.
I can’t believe the tone of the comments on this post. This guy is doing something that is perfectly legal and just sending a message of hope. The thought of “advertising” spirituality and getting a plane to white it out is ridiculous.
Even complaints about how much gas he’s spending. If you’re not paying the bill, it shouldn’t be a concern!
The airspace over Disney is restricted, but he is not in that airspace. Regardless of your religious belief or lack there of, this guy is doing what makes him happy and he’s not hurting anyone or anything doing it.
I cannot believe most of the comments that I read here. People call this annoying and take the time to actually write about it? If you feel that looking “up” to read what he writes is annoying, then don’t look “up”. You obviously don’t spend much time looking “up” anyway. I was personally inspired by the acts of this pilot and I thank him for his time and energy. I am annnoyed at drug abuse. I am annoyed at child abuse. I am annoyed at truancy and the stock market and the state of the economy. I am annoyed at CEO’s who spend millions on vacations and then ask for bail-outs. I am annoyed at liars and thieves and animal abuse. I am annoyed at the housing market and the number of people that MY taxes support. I am not annoyed by a pilot who writes inspiring messages in the sky. I would not be annoyed if he was writing Donny Osmond lyrics or Eagles lyrics in the sky. I WAS blessed by the message and to the people who are complaining, why don’t you do something productive. It’s a good thing our God is full of mercy and grace.
Why has this 1.5 year old post suddenly received 3 comments in the last 10 days?
Probably suddenly went up in page rank or got linked to somewhere.
I saw the sky send a blessing to God’s people today, giving hope in this time of all of our lives here on earth. When hope seems to be slipping away, behold… God Loves you :) We are at the eve of a change that this nation needs, and looking up can give you afformation that change is coming. Are you ready?
My family just got home from Disneyworld this past week and as we were entering the park we saw the sky writers work. We were all so impressed. In a world that has totally forgotten about God and Jesus, I was very touched, and even my teenage boys were. Creeped out? That is hardly is the way we felt. I wish we could thank him personally, but this will have to be the next best thing. Thanks to you for having the courage to take a stand and write what the world needs to see. Our world needs a big wake up call.
We too would like to thank Mr. Skywriter (appently Jerry Stevens)
http://www.kenjameson.com/music-17.html
- that is just awesome.
http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/palm-beach-post/mi_8163/is_20040804/gods-pilot-fills-sky-life/ai_n51847239/
Here’s video coverage on it and how it uplifted a family-NOT freaked them out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RnXBhwMvKQ&feature=related
I took one last wk. while there that said U + God = a smiley face. Well, we knew it was probably not put there by Disney, but were blessed all the same. :0)
I agree with a few of you. Time is short. Look up…your Redemption draweth nigh.
Someone is writing “JESUS LOVES U” outside right now…
Jesus might love me, but God and his followers sure don’t… If the God in the bible is the God we’re talking about, he’d send me to hell because I stopped believing he existed a lonnnnng time ago. I feel much more free and happy now, but quickly felt a bit depressed as I realized a lot of friends suddenly hate me when they find out I’m not religious. I guess those aren’t real friends though eh?
Those of you who offer the advice of “If you don’t like it, then don’t look up”- I doubt you would offer the same advice if it said “Allah Loves you”. If you were not Muslim, then seeing this message would hardly endear you to the message. Instead you would probably be “outraged” that such a message would be allowed to sully your view of the sky.
Try an see it from some ther point of view please.
P.S. (No, David, they weren’t really your friend, but you believing the same thing they do does empower them)
Are you kidding me? I was about to say the same thing in reverse. What planet are you living on, Steve? Here on Earth, we are slammed with tolerance messages in every direction BUT for the Christians. Good grief, we can’t even say God Bless You anymore when someone sneezes without ridicule. And if they put Allah loves you in the sky I may not like it, but believe me, I’d certainly have to tolerate it. How? By looking away & whispering a prayer for those who do not know my Lord. That is …until Jesus splits the sky & comes for His redeemed. You see…many may love me, but only Jesus saved my soul. For that I am ever grateful & I will always look to the heavens for his soon return.
“For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself.
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God.
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, And every tongue shall confess to God.
So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Romans 14:7-12
Life is choices.
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. ” Joshua 24:15
Regardless what he is writing, he is being disrespectful to the people who live in this area. We can hear his plane inside our house and we can’t even enjoy a Saturday afternoon in our backyard without airplane noise.
Personally I would like to enjoy the sky God gave us…and save precious fuel and keep our air a little cleaner. I wish he would go out and actually HELP people instead…he is more than welcome to give me a call and we can go do some charity work together.
This guy is a big time polluter and is destroying the environment. Skywriting is done by injecting engine oil in the exhaust pipe of the engine, the heat burns the oil and that’s what we see. This has to be done in a clear day and at high altitude where the air is calm and coincidentally very clean air, in fact the only clean unpolluted area away from humans, until he shows up. Instead he should take kids for a ride, help the disaster in the south, transport patients, he’s skill and airplane are so valuable for worthy causes without destroying the planet.
Oh Jav, pollution? Really? We are a bit late to worry about the environment since billions of gallons of oil have been dumped into our oceans, they built a neculear plant on a fault line in Japan that the pseunami hit & we now have radiation pouring into our air and not to mention the chem trails that have been infiltrating our skyways for years now. Yes, chem trails. Google that & see what your govt. has been putting into the air. And why? Heaven only knows what is in those. So….if the man in the airplane wants to let you know that your redemption draws nigh….you might want to believe him. If you trust your EPA to tell you that your air is “safe” and there is not “immediate” danger, you have been greatly dooped. They are probably correct. There is no “immediate” danger to low but steady doses of radiation, but let’s just see what the next few years brings, shall we? Hey, but don’t worry….be happy. right?
My son is visiting Disney World today, I pray that he sees the message that Jesus loves him, he needs to know that..Praise God
Let’s pray that he not only sees it, but receives it. :0) I have a son who has heard it his entire life & needs to receive it as well. Let’s just pray that our circle will be unbroken in the sweet by & by, as the old hymn says. Shall we? :0)
[...] today featuring a Spanish message for the first time that we had seen: “Jesus Te Amo”. This is not uncommon, but it’s always interesting to see a skywriter at [...]
Fitting that it’s written in a fantasy land.
Perhaps he is trying to bring a msg of reality to those who live in a fantasy thir whole lives! When in fact their lives are nothing but a vapor and then gone….plunged into eternity. think about it. eternity is a long time.
Hi! What blog is that? :0) Merry Christmas!
At first it said “Love” which I found to be very inspiring, but then it changed to “Love God”, luckily the “God” looked like “Ood” so my family and I could giggle at it. This really shouldn’t be allowed, as I don’t force my religion on others through such means. I doubt his little message will be converting anyone, anyway. If he really wants to help the planet, stop polluting and actually go do something like charity work. This guy seems to have a lot of time on his hands, which I had that kind of time.