Founder, Justin Ross, was a student at Moody Aviation in 2012. In his own words, this is how Wings of the Way (WOW) began. “When I was at Moody, I had a blog where I shared my experience going through training to be a missionary pilot. Nita Belles, the author of "In Our Backyard," reached out to me and said, "I see you are doing missionary aviation and are in the NW, U.S. Do you fly human trafficking victims?" At the time, I knew very little about HT [human trafficking], but it sparked my interest. She planted the idea in my head to use aviation as a tool to serve this people group. I had always thought aviation was only for overseas, but started seeing how it could be used here in the U.S.”

At the close of 2022, there was a shift in leadership. Justin handed over the leadership baton to Liz Perreault, who had been a volunteer advocate since 2019 and served on the board of directors since 2021. She would now serve the ministry as its executive director. 

Since acquiring non-profit status in 2013, WOW has safely assisted 110 survivors with transportation, with the majority of survivors going to a Christ-centered safehouse program where they not only get their physical needs met, but are also introduced to the life-changing hope of the Gospel.

WOW currently has a network of nearly 100 volunteers in various roles such as pilots, advocates, ground transportation, security, and administration. This number does not include the various aviation ministries who also partner with us, offering multiple planes and pilots to help us accomplish our mission.

Over the last three years, we have seen exponential growth, with a 65% increase in requests received each year. The last two years, we averaged one call for transportation assistance every 5 days. With a strong foundation to build upon, we look forward to increasing our capacity and helping even more people as we grow as a ministry.