I wanted to use my life for something more important than earning a living. She quit her job as an executive for a plane manufacturer in Oklahoma City and headed to the tropics. Today, a quarter-century later, she still is there, flying into the dense South American rain forest for several months at a time. Her twin-engine cargo plane is indispensable to her missionary work, she says. Most tribes in the remote headwaters of the Amazon are unreachable by foot.
Some parts seem as remote as the moon.
Even by plane, it's tricky to reach the area. Landing strips are muddy patches of land hidden among the trees. The patches are no longer than the 350-foot width of the shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center. No lights to show a landing strip or even a river, no navigation aides to guide you, no one to hear your plea for help. Mostly, she brings herself.