Bonus: God continues to work

One of the unexpected blessings of hosting Amazing Greats has been discovering that many of our guests’ stories don’t end when we stop recording.

In fact, some of the most remarkable chapters happen after the interview is over.

Over the past four years, we’ve had the privilege of sharing the testimonies of athletes, authors, musicians, actors, and business leaders, whose lives have been shaped by God’s grace. While each episode captures a moment in time, God’s work continues long after the microphones are turned off.

That’s why, from time to time, I’d love to bring you back to visit some of these familiar friends and hear what God has been doing since we first met them.

Today we’re revisiting one of the most memorable guests we’ve ever featured—commercial pilot Ted Greenfield, founder of Invisible Angels.

If you remember Episode 77 from September 2025, you probably remember being amazed by Ted’s extraordinary journey. God called him to launch a ministry that provides safe air transportation for survivors of human trafficking, helping move rescued victims to safe houses, medical care, family reunification, and new beginnings. It was a story filled with unexpected turns, impossible circumstances, and one unmistakable theme: God’s faithful provision.

Since that conversation, God has continued writing Ted’s story.

Recently, Ted reached out and said, “Ric, I have to tell you what happened.”

What followed was another reminder that our God is never finished working behind the scenes—and that His timing, provision, and creativity often leave us shaking our heads in amazement. 

Thus...this short bonus update.

And if you never had the opportunity to hear Ted’s original conversation, I encourage you to go back and listen. It remains one of the most inspiring stories we’ve shared on Amazing Greats.

 Here is a direct link to Ted's full story

Direct link to the Apple Podcast 

Direct Link to the YouTube video

One of my hopes for Amazing Greats is that our guests become more than interviews—they become part of a growing family. As God continues to work through their lives, I hope to occasionally bring you these “next chapter” moments. They’re wonderful reminders that God doesn’t stop writing when an episode ends.

Neither does He stop writing our stories.

"Amazing Greats"  is a library of interviews with highly successful people who have amazing career and life stories and who share how God has impacted their journey.  Hosted by broadcaster Ric Hansen & produced by Klem Daniels.   Available on Apple,  Spotify, iHeart, Google and our  YouTube Channel. 
Please help us grow our audience by "liking", "subscribing and "Sharing".   Thanks so much. 

Transcript

Bonus Update And Guest Return

Ric 0:05

Rick Hamilton with a bonus update to a previous amazing great episode with Ted Greenfield and Invisible Angels.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Face the next step, it's on the next page.

Ric 0:46

This is one of our very unique and exciting bonus episodes of Amazing Greats. I'm Rick Hansen, and thank you for joining us on this episode. Our guest today is a returning guest, and that's why it's called a bonus. We're just going to update on what happened, uh, has happened since our last conversation. So, first of all, I'd like to say we had talked, Ted Greenfield's our guest today. We talked back in September of 2025, and that was in episode 77. I'm going to put all that information here in the description as well, so that people can find that. And if you missed that episode or if you forgot about it, uh, you can circle back and check it out because I'll have the information right here for you right now.

What Invisible Angels Actually Does

Ric 1:31

But for the sake of kind of bringing people into the loop here, what is Invisible Angels? Your mission in life? What is it? And what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Ted Greenfield, take it away. Hey, thanks for having me. It's great to see you again. Great to be back on again. Invisible Angels provides air rescue and recovery transportation, private air transportation for traffickers for victims of human trafficking. So we work with state with law enforcement, state, federal, and local, and we work with a network of safe homes all across the country. And we provide safe private emergency on-demand air travel for human trafficking survivors. So when we get a call from law enforcement or safe houses or other rescue organizations, and they say, Oh, we've got a survivor, and they're in Charlotte. They've just been rescued, and we need to get them to a safe house in Houston. Uh, can you help us? And um, we have a private aircraft, we're a 135 air carrier, part 135 air carrier, as well as we do work with uh the major giants, the major carriers, United Delta, Southwest, American. And um we we transport them the best and most convenient way possible. We always travel uh with a survivor advocate, so they're never traveling alone, and we get them there quickly, safely, and as fast as possible. So our tagline is to safety in silence.

Ric 3:01

Oh, wow. That is great. And this was uh as your story is told, is uh it it it's it's just loaded. I mean, the theme of your whole story, as I listened back to it one more time this recently, the theme is God had been in this uh in surprising ways all along. I mean, there's like things that you couldn't expect or wouldn't expect popped up and became a key part of the next step of invisible angels. And so that's the theme of all this. Uh, and then you you give me a call the other day and say, wait a minute, there's one more Godwink I need to tell you

The Surprise Donation That Hit Perfectly

Ric 3:47

about. And so tell us about what has happened here in the past here.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

So early, early on, the first thing that I was you know really concerned with when God started this organization and called me into it, I said, Lord, this is an aviation ministry. We are gonna need lots of money. And God said something to me. He just said, Don't worry about the money. And then the aircraft was donated, which was a $250,000 to $300,000 aircraft, six passenger pressurized aircraft was donated to us. And the money literally just kept on falling from the sky. We didn't do any fundraising, nothing. So um we started operations in 2021. We, you know, um, you know, we're moving along, everything's great. God tells me to write a book. I write a book called God is in this fight, just talking about all God's miracles. And then I come onto your show. And I'm telling everybody, I'm telling you about all the miracles and everything that had happened, and telling everybody about the whole story. And at that time, um, the aircraft was just about to head into our FAA annual maintenance program, and that is mandatory by the Federal Aviation Administration, and that usually is about $60,000 a year. And, you know, it's like, all right, Lord, we're gonna need some money here. And we were about 16, yeah, about $15,000, $16,000 short. But we, you know, we have to go ahead with it. We can't pause it. So um I got on your show and I was just telling everybody and telling you about all the miracles and all the successes and all the rescues that we've done. And we finished up the episode, and then um it was the next day. I just got an email that came in from the website, and uh it says, when you get that, it just says new contact, invisible angels, and it was this long paragraph. So I started reading through it, and it was hello, Mr. Greenfield. I was deeply moved and inspired by your story on how God started Invisible Angels. My uncle died recently, and his instructions and his will were to uh give his airplane to me, and I was supposed to sell the aircraft and donate the money to a Christian aviation organization. I need your bank account number and routing number, please. And here's my phone number. So I'm looking at that. I'm like, so right away I call her, and I think her name was Jennifer, and I said, We had an hour-long talk just about God and and invisible angels and her uncle and the kind of plane and everything. She goes, Well, I did sell the aircraft, and it was uh it was an older antique aircraft, a real collector's item. It's not much, but I'd like to make that donation. And I said, Oh, okay, that's great. And I just gave her the routing numbers and the account numbers so she can donate it, and it was sixteen thousand dollars. Exactly what we needed.

Ric 6:40

Whoa, whoa, now and she and if I remember right, uh, is a part of this story that she was really uh not a an amazing greats listener. No, this is even crazier.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

This is just this proves that there is not a wink of your eye, a breath, uh a sparrow falling to the ground without God witnessing it. Because she said, Ted, I wasn't even I didn't even know about the Amazing Greats podcast. I was on my treadmill and I was working out, and I just wanted to hear Amazing Grace. I wanted to hear the song Amazing Grace, and I just typed in on my phone, but I must have mistyped it, and your podcast came up. She had never heard of you, never heard of the podcast before, and she's like, Oh, and she started listening to it, and there we have it.

Ric 7:29

Thank you, God. Oh, that is just so good. And maybe she's still listening to Amazing Greats

Budget Reality And Flying First Class

Ric 7:35

on top of it all. Yes, maybe, maybe, you know, hopefully.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

I I think, but that really, you know, you we're faced every year with um, you know, we have uh we're coming up on a $760,000 budget now. Um, we we're working with the carriers, so we're flying. Most of our survivors now uh we're flying on the major carriers just because it's easier, it's safer, um, and it's more convenient. We use our aircraft just for the little two-hour flights anywhere in Florida, southern Georgia, or if there's a you know little flight that we just can't get people to, we we use our plane. Um but we also fly all of our survivors first class with an advocate. So that costs as much as um you know, as much as flying them privately in our plane. So there's really no cost difference. Um it's a nicer ride, they're first on and first off the aircraft, the flight attendants can keep an eye on them, the bathrooms right there, and the treats and food is you know is better. Um, so when God told me to fly them first class, he said the word for you for 2026 is extravagance, and um it really makes a difference. And um, but uh you know, also we still have to maintain our aircraft. And um, you know, all the time, you know, we're looking at our general expense just to really maintain the aircraft and keep everything current with the FAA, it's about $120,000 a year. Every hundred hours of use, our aircraft has to go into mandatory FAA inspection as well as every year. So the FAA is really on top of everything as they should be for safety reasons, and um, it's quite expensive. And um God just said early on, don't worry about the money. And we've had so many other miracle stories where um we were flying once up to um up to Atlanta, and the our main DG, our main compass in the aircraft started spinning around during this Bermuda triangle dance, right? And um and I there was no passengers on it, it was just me. And um, you know, the the autopilot is tied into that instrument, so the auto, you know, so the plane started acting wonky, and you know, I shot the autopilot off, and I'm like, oh lord, you know, so I turned around and flew it, you know, turned around, flew home, followed safety protocol, got the airplane to the shop, and um the uh the repair for that really wasn't worth doing it because it was an older instrument. We really had to upgrade to newer, you know, newer instruments. Anyway, long story short, then somebody came around literally the next day and donated $15,000. And then the next day after that, someone donated $10, and the total bill for that uh for that upgrade was $23,000. And God just said, don't worry about the money. And that's a very difficult place for me as a director of an organization or for anybody, because we always want to be proactive. Um, and we don't want to sit around on the couch and wait for money to fall from the sky. So I'm always doing some kind of fundraising or you know, or or something. Um, but I will say this I I ne I never hear don't do the fundraising, and I never hear don't do that, but I I just hear this don't worry about the money money, and everything I do, any initiative that I uh that I set forth to raise money never works. It never works. I mean, hey, this great idea, we're gonna do this. It just falls flat, and then I'm like, okay, and then I turn around and someone donates $30,000. So, you know, and I think that you know, that's why I wrote the book, and that's why God told me to write the book, God is in this fight, because it's they're his children that are being rescued.

Ric 11:14

Yeah. Well, this is a great

TSA Partnerships And Safer Airport Travel

Ric 11:17

update. Great to talk to you again. Keep us informed as to all of the great things that are happening with you. This I didn't really realize that you were using commercial airlines a lot. Um, so but you're kind of the intermediate intermediary to get them from one.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

We do all the logic, we do all the logistics, and also we have, you know, we're still an air carry ourselves, so we have a safe to fly checklist, we make sure everything's fine. We and now we're, you know, we're providing hotels, we're providing meals, and then again, we're flying of survivors with survivor advocates, so they're never traveling alone. Right. And then there's meals. They, you know, they there was one survivor that hadn't eaten in a couple of days, and so you know, we get we get tickets into the business class lounge so they can just get in there and eat, and um, and they're very safe in there. Uh, and then we also provide hotels. We're also now working with Department of Transportation, Homeland Security, the Air Marshals, and TSA um on getting them through airport security with no IDs because that was a huge hurdle. That's why we didn't use them in the beginning. Um, and now um we have a great cooperation with TSA where uh some of the agents and some of the um uh some of the officers are actually bypassing security completely and escorting them on the airplane and on a major carrier. So we're really getting great support from the government from our government partners, and um yeah, we we really uh look for that to continue.

Ric 12:43

Well, God bless what you're doing,

Where To Find The Full Story

Ric 12:45

God bless you for all of the hard work and and and I can tell by the the enthusiasm that it's your passion and uh keep that passion alive and the fire burning. And thank you so much for rejoining us, Ted Greenfield on AmazingGreats.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Thanks for having me. It's great to be here, great to see you again, too.

Ric 13:04

Well, thank you for joining us for this quick Amazing GRETS bonus update. Uh, you can find the original story with Ted Greenfield at www.amazinggreats.net, or click on the links below to go right to that episode, or to listen to it on Apple Podcasts. It's all in the description below. Thank you for joining us.