Betty Greene

Betty Greene was born in 1920 in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in a Christian home. She was an adventurous girl who was fascinated by flying from the time she was young. As a teenager she took her first flight and knew that she wanted to be a pilot. She studied at the University of Washington and also took flying lessons. At the same time she was devout and wanted her life to count for God.

When the Second World War began, she joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots, a corps of women who flew military aircraft in the United States to free male pilots for combat. She ferried planes from factories to bases and trained other pilots. She was among the first women to fly the big aircraft of the war. She was a skilled and careful pilot, and she did her work with quiet professionalism.

In those years she began to think about how flying could serve the church. She had read about missionaries who spent weeks traveling by foot or by canoe to reach remote villages and who lost many days to disease and hardship. She saw that an airplane could save time and lives. She wrote to other Christian pilots who had similar ideas, and in 1944 a small group came together. They formed the Christian Airmen's Missionary Fellowship, which became Mission Aviation Fellowship. Betty Greene was one of the three founders, along with Jim Truxton and Grady Parrott.

In 1946 she flew the first official flight for the new organization, carrying supplies and workers for a translation group in Mexico. She flew over rugged mountains and jungle, landing on short airstrips in remote places. Her cargo included Bible translators and their equipment. She later served in Africa, flying in the Sudan and the Congo, and in other parts of the world. She flew through storms and over hostile terrain and made emergency landings in dangerous places. She flew with courage, and her record of safety was excellent.

She was also a person of humility who avoided attention. When she was asked about her work, she said that she had done what any pilot would have done and that the glory belonged to God. She faced the usual loneliness of those who work far from home, and she was often away from family. She was a woman in a field dominated by men, and she had to work to earn respect. She did it with gentleness.

She later worked for the mission in an administrative role and served on the board. She died in 1997. Mission Aviation Fellowship has grown into one of the largest mission agencies in the world, flying thousands of flights every year to remote communities with medical aid, translators and relief supplies. Her life shows how a person can bring the gifts she has, in her case flying, to the service of Christ, and how a small beginning can become a worldwide work.