Q&A with Ted Greenfield
Founder of Invisible Angels and Author of
“God Is in This Fight: How God Made a Way to Rescue Human Trafficking Survivors”
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Interview on CBS Tampa TV Affiliate (Click to play)
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Q: What do people need to know about human trafficking in the U.S.?
A: To traffickers, each human life — man, woman, boy, girl — is about a $200,000-a-year commodity. Victims are raped between eight and twelve times per day. That’s the price of bondage in the U.S. Up to 70% of trafficking survivors are trafficked by someone that they know, usually a family member. The survivors that we're providing transportation for are not from El Salvador or South America. They are Americans, children and adults, ranging from under 10 years of age to their late 40s. And this is not just happening in big cities. Places like Albany Georgia, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Ocala Florida, Montgomery Alabama, as well as other small and mid-sized cities are hotbeds of human trafficking.
Q: What are some of the challenges of rescuing trafficking victims?
A: As we began partnering with rescue organizations, I quickly realized that transportation was the missing link in their recovery scenarios. When trafficking survivors are recovered, they need to be taken to a safe house far away from where the trafficking took place. For their safety and security, they need to be taken to a completely new environment. Trafficking survivors usually are off the grid at a very early age. They don't have any identification which makes commercial travel impossible, they don't have any family to help them, and they don’t have financial resources. Survivors often have no belongings with them, just the clothes that they are wearing. For every survivor we transport, we create a backpack with new clothes, toiletries and other necessary items, a journal, a Bible, a deck of scripture cards, and a letter written by one of our prayer team members to the survivor. Usually, the backpack is the first thing that survivors can call their own in quite a while.
There is usually no family to support them and there is no home waiting for them. Around 20% of the time, survivors go back to trafficking because the trauma they have endured creates unexplainable reactions and emotions that normal people cannot comprehend. The shock of being in a safe and secure environment may be too unpredictable and too much for them to handle. These are people that have been forgotten by society, bought and sold for sex, and discarded. It is heartbreaking.
Q: How did you acquire your first plane for Invisible Angels?
A: When God decides to start a ministry, He doesn’t start with your strengths, but with your surrender. Everything required to launch, grow, and maintain the ministry will seem just out of reach because that’s the exact place where God shows up. I felt God had told me to buy the domain name InvisibleAngels.org, but at that point all I had was a URL and an idea. There was no website, there was no business entity set up, nothing. During a Bible study one evening, I was telling the group about the vision for Invisible Angels. In the group there was Bob, a retired United Airlines pilot. He chimed in and said “Hey, the perfect aircraft for you is a Cessna P210!” He told me about the aircraft, and while I had heard of the aircraft, I didn't know it very well. After the Bible study, I got on trade-a-plane.com and looked at Cessna P210s and sure enough, they looked like the perfect airplane for our organization. They were priced from $250,000 to $500,000. Not having the money to buy one, I had a feeling that God would provide, I just had no idea how.
About nine months later, I was in Washington DC for work meetings, and I caught a sermon about “When God gives you the green light.” As I listened, I really felt God was sending a blessing our way, except I hadn't really thought about the airplane. Several hours later, I looked on trade-a-plane.com and the first ad that popped up was for a Cessna P210 —the same type of plane that Bob in the Bible study told me about. The ad simply said: “I want to donate this plane to a nonprofit.” After staring at the ad in disbelief, I emailed the guy and described the vision for Invisible Angels and how the plane would be used. I got a call the next day from Bill Strong, a gentleman who lived in Kansas City. I can't even remember what I said during the phone call. It was all a blur, but I remember him interrupting me and saying “Son, son, son,… slow down. I want you to have the airplane.” He donated the airplane to Invisible Angels before we had a website, a business entity set up, or even business cards. And it was exactly the perfect plane for our mission.
Q: Can you share a rescue story that has impacted you the most?
A: There are two that come to mind. One was in 2022 when we received a call from a Homeland Security agent stating that they had a child, under 10, who was a victim of kidnapping and had been placed into child sex trafficking by his own father. The Homeland Security agent stated the father would never see the light of day again, but they needed to get the child back to his mother. We had the child back home by lunchtime the next day.
The other was a story of a young girl who had been sold by her mother to several gangs and dope dealers, and she had been trafficked since she was 14. Her survival story is nothing short of a miracle. We flew halfway across the country to a wonderful safe house. The most impactful aspect of this flight was the young girl’s story. Her rescue began long before any flight or any rescue agencies were involved. She told us that she had prayed: “God if you're not going to save me from this life then please kill me.” Within minutes after that prayer, the police had come in and arrested her on a drugs and weapons charge. While she was in jail, she started cursing out God for getting arrested, but then she realized that this was God's way of rescuing her. The authorities identified her as a human trafficking survivor and placed her in protective custody in the health ward. This story simply illustrates how God is always with us always listening and is always fighting for us, even in the darkest hours.
A: To traffickers, each human life — man, woman, boy, girl — is about a $200,000-a-year commodity. Victims are raped between eight and twelve times per day. That’s the price of bondage in the U.S. Up to 70% of trafficking survivors are trafficked by someone that they know, usually a family member. The survivors that we're providing transportation for are not from El Salvador or South America. They are Americans, children and adults, ranging from under 10 years of age to their late 40s. And this is not just happening in big cities. Places like Albany Georgia, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Ocala Florida, Montgomery Alabama, as well as other small and mid-sized cities are hotbeds of human trafficking.
Q: What are some of the challenges of rescuing trafficking victims?
A: As we began partnering with rescue organizations, I quickly realized that transportation was the missing link in their recovery scenarios. When trafficking survivors are recovered, they need to be taken to a safe house far away from where the trafficking took place. For their safety and security, they need to be taken to a completely new environment. Trafficking survivors usually are off the grid at a very early age. They don't have any identification which makes commercial travel impossible, they don't have any family to help them, and they don’t have financial resources. Survivors often have no belongings with them, just the clothes that they are wearing. For every survivor we transport, we create a backpack with new clothes, toiletries and other necessary items, a journal, a Bible, a deck of scripture cards, and a letter written by one of our prayer team members to the survivor. Usually, the backpack is the first thing that survivors can call their own in quite a while.
There is usually no family to support them and there is no home waiting for them. Around 20% of the time, survivors go back to trafficking because the trauma they have endured creates unexplainable reactions and emotions that normal people cannot comprehend. The shock of being in a safe and secure environment may be too unpredictable and too much for them to handle. These are people that have been forgotten by society, bought and sold for sex, and discarded. It is heartbreaking.
Q: How did you acquire your first plane for Invisible Angels?
A: When God decides to start a ministry, He doesn’t start with your strengths, but with your surrender. Everything required to launch, grow, and maintain the ministry will seem just out of reach because that’s the exact place where God shows up. I felt God had told me to buy the domain name InvisibleAngels.org, but at that point all I had was a URL and an idea. There was no website, there was no business entity set up, nothing. During a Bible study one evening, I was telling the group about the vision for Invisible Angels. In the group there was Bob, a retired United Airlines pilot. He chimed in and said “Hey, the perfect aircraft for you is a Cessna P210!” He told me about the aircraft, and while I had heard of the aircraft, I didn't know it very well. After the Bible study, I got on trade-a-plane.com and looked at Cessna P210s and sure enough, they looked like the perfect airplane for our organization. They were priced from $250,000 to $500,000. Not having the money to buy one, I had a feeling that God would provide, I just had no idea how.
About nine months later, I was in Washington DC for work meetings, and I caught a sermon about “When God gives you the green light.” As I listened, I really felt God was sending a blessing our way, except I hadn't really thought about the airplane. Several hours later, I looked on trade-a-plane.com and the first ad that popped up was for a Cessna P210 —the same type of plane that Bob in the Bible study told me about. The ad simply said: “I want to donate this plane to a nonprofit.” After staring at the ad in disbelief, I emailed the guy and described the vision for Invisible Angels and how the plane would be used. I got a call the next day from Bill Strong, a gentleman who lived in Kansas City. I can't even remember what I said during the phone call. It was all a blur, but I remember him interrupting me and saying “Son, son, son,… slow down. I want you to have the airplane.” He donated the airplane to Invisible Angels before we had a website, a business entity set up, or even business cards. And it was exactly the perfect plane for our mission.
Q: Can you share a rescue story that has impacted you the most?
A: There are two that come to mind. One was in 2022 when we received a call from a Homeland Security agent stating that they had a child, under 10, who was a victim of kidnapping and had been placed into child sex trafficking by his own father. The Homeland Security agent stated the father would never see the light of day again, but they needed to get the child back to his mother. We had the child back home by lunchtime the next day.
The other was a story of a young girl who had been sold by her mother to several gangs and dope dealers, and she had been trafficked since she was 14. Her survival story is nothing short of a miracle. We flew halfway across the country to a wonderful safe house. The most impactful aspect of this flight was the young girl’s story. Her rescue began long before any flight or any rescue agencies were involved. She told us that she had prayed: “God if you're not going to save me from this life then please kill me.” Within minutes after that prayer, the police had come in and arrested her on a drugs and weapons charge. While she was in jail, she started cursing out God for getting arrested, but then she realized that this was God's way of rescuing her. The authorities identified her as a human trafficking survivor and placed her in protective custody in the health ward. This story simply illustrates how God is always with us always listening and is always fighting for us, even in the darkest hours.
Q: You have had a varied career background in Special Education, Video Production, and Aviation. How have you used all those experiences to grow Invisible Angels?
A: Having a very diverse career background has only helped me with Invisible Angels, and it shows you how God has uniquely woven my path together to place me exactly where I needed to be with exactly what I needed to know. My whole life has been Proverbs 16:9: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” I spent about 10 years as a special education teacher dealing with all types of students ages 10-18, most of whom endured some type of serious trauma. When I left teaching in the mid-1990s, I entered the internet space as an instructional designer creating educational and training courseware. I was with an online startup and then later started a multimedia instructional design production company. I have been in the startup space twice, so I didn't have any fear of starting a nonprofit, and although the nonprofit world is completely different, I knew the startup landscape pretty well. In 2015, I joined the FAA as a multimedia producer creating safety training for pilots and controllers and became a pilot as well. It's just awesome to see how God continues to weave everything together. Now with Invisible Angels, I am using every skill I have learned in my past. Only God could weave a career like mine together.
Q: What makes your services unique?
A: The logistics of these rescues are crucial. We need to be in and out within ten minutes without seeming rushed or concerned. Traffickers can — and will — reengage, even in public places like federal airport property. We need to be quick, focused, and invisible. What makes Invisible Angels unique is that we are a Part 135 direct air carrier, meaning that every time Invisible Angels provides transportation, they will have the same pilot, the same safety culture, the same safety standards and the same people in the organization every single time. The FAA has safety oversight over every aspect of our organization. We also have a long relationship with the rescue organizations we work with which helps set expectations with everything from transportation schedules to every safety protocol we use. We have an annual check ride, an annual oral pilot exam I must take every year with our principal operations inspector, and our aircraft is inspected multiple times per year. The FAA is fully behind our operation and very supportive of what we do.
Q: Talk about how your partnership with some brand name retail stores started.
A: In 2022, just after we started, God gave me a unique instruction one day. I simply heard Him say go to the mall and start talking to clothing stores about donating their returned items. I literally got up from my desk at that moment, hopped in my car and drove over to the Tampa outlet mall and started talking to stores. On that very first day, I walked out of the Lucky Brand store with two huge boxes of brand-new donated items and commitments from Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, and Brooks Brothers. Every month since then they have been donating brand new items that we provide to survivors. These clothes are all beautiful, from high end retail stores. I wish the managers of the stores could see where these donations go because it makes such a major difference, and it's so important in the lives of survivors. I am grateful for all the partnerships that we have with our clothing stores, and we hope to partner with more retailers in the future.
Q: Why did you decide to write this book?
A: I had no intention of writing a book at first. The thought didn't even cross my mind until one day I literally woke up with the picture of the finished book in my mind. Simply, God told me to write this book. It took about two years, and I wrote it amid the certification process with the FAA. Every penny of this book will go to fund the mission of Invisible Angels. I also want people to understand how important it is to find God’s will in their lives. John 14:13-14 says: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Some may read this verse as a personal guarantee from God for a genie in the bottle. We do not fully understand the “in my name” part. The last thing Jesus is talking about here is a bottomless credit card for answered prayer. Rather these verses are an invitation to alignment. If you are aligned with God’s will, He will give you whatever you need to accomplish it. I have seen that happen over and over again, and that is why I know God is in this fight against human trafficking.
Q: What does it cost to run Invisible Angels every year and how can people help?
A: Our current annual budget is $362,000 a year. Each rescue costs about $2500 to $5000, depending on the location and the number of days of travel it takes. Our budget comes in $25 donations at a time. People ask all the time how they can help, and our biggest need is for monthly partners to give $10 or $20 a month. We do have plans to expand to five aircraft, and we are interested in branching out overseas, serving South America and Europe as well. The more money we receive, the more trafficking victims we can rescue.
Q: What can people do to raise awareness about human trafficking?
A: The one thing people can do that would make a huge impact is bring awareness of the topic to their communities. Reach out to any human trafficking organization and ask for someone to come and give a presentation at your book club, church, school, or any gathering. People need to be more acutely aware of the reality of these horrible crimes.
A: Having a very diverse career background has only helped me with Invisible Angels, and it shows you how God has uniquely woven my path together to place me exactly where I needed to be with exactly what I needed to know. My whole life has been Proverbs 16:9: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” I spent about 10 years as a special education teacher dealing with all types of students ages 10-18, most of whom endured some type of serious trauma. When I left teaching in the mid-1990s, I entered the internet space as an instructional designer creating educational and training courseware. I was with an online startup and then later started a multimedia instructional design production company. I have been in the startup space twice, so I didn't have any fear of starting a nonprofit, and although the nonprofit world is completely different, I knew the startup landscape pretty well. In 2015, I joined the FAA as a multimedia producer creating safety training for pilots and controllers and became a pilot as well. It's just awesome to see how God continues to weave everything together. Now with Invisible Angels, I am using every skill I have learned in my past. Only God could weave a career like mine together.
Q: What makes your services unique?
A: The logistics of these rescues are crucial. We need to be in and out within ten minutes without seeming rushed or concerned. Traffickers can — and will — reengage, even in public places like federal airport property. We need to be quick, focused, and invisible. What makes Invisible Angels unique is that we are a Part 135 direct air carrier, meaning that every time Invisible Angels provides transportation, they will have the same pilot, the same safety culture, the same safety standards and the same people in the organization every single time. The FAA has safety oversight over every aspect of our organization. We also have a long relationship with the rescue organizations we work with which helps set expectations with everything from transportation schedules to every safety protocol we use. We have an annual check ride, an annual oral pilot exam I must take every year with our principal operations inspector, and our aircraft is inspected multiple times per year. The FAA is fully behind our operation and very supportive of what we do.
Q: Talk about how your partnership with some brand name retail stores started.
A: In 2022, just after we started, God gave me a unique instruction one day. I simply heard Him say go to the mall and start talking to clothing stores about donating their returned items. I literally got up from my desk at that moment, hopped in my car and drove over to the Tampa outlet mall and started talking to stores. On that very first day, I walked out of the Lucky Brand store with two huge boxes of brand-new donated items and commitments from Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, and Brooks Brothers. Every month since then they have been donating brand new items that we provide to survivors. These clothes are all beautiful, from high end retail stores. I wish the managers of the stores could see where these donations go because it makes such a major difference, and it's so important in the lives of survivors. I am grateful for all the partnerships that we have with our clothing stores, and we hope to partner with more retailers in the future.
Q: Why did you decide to write this book?
A: I had no intention of writing a book at first. The thought didn't even cross my mind until one day I literally woke up with the picture of the finished book in my mind. Simply, God told me to write this book. It took about two years, and I wrote it amid the certification process with the FAA. Every penny of this book will go to fund the mission of Invisible Angels. I also want people to understand how important it is to find God’s will in their lives. John 14:13-14 says: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Some may read this verse as a personal guarantee from God for a genie in the bottle. We do not fully understand the “in my name” part. The last thing Jesus is talking about here is a bottomless credit card for answered prayer. Rather these verses are an invitation to alignment. If you are aligned with God’s will, He will give you whatever you need to accomplish it. I have seen that happen over and over again, and that is why I know God is in this fight against human trafficking.
Q: What does it cost to run Invisible Angels every year and how can people help?
A: Our current annual budget is $362,000 a year. Each rescue costs about $2500 to $5000, depending on the location and the number of days of travel it takes. Our budget comes in $25 donations at a time. People ask all the time how they can help, and our biggest need is for monthly partners to give $10 or $20 a month. We do have plans to expand to five aircraft, and we are interested in branching out overseas, serving South America and Europe as well. The more money we receive, the more trafficking victims we can rescue.
Q: What can people do to raise awareness about human trafficking?
A: The one thing people can do that would make a huge impact is bring awareness of the topic to their communities. Reach out to any human trafficking organization and ask for someone to come and give a presentation at your book club, church, school, or any gathering. People need to be more acutely aware of the reality of these horrible crimes.
About Ted Greenfield:
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Ted Greenfield, M.Ed., is the founder and director of Invisible Angels, a nonprofit organization providing air transportation for survivors of human trafficking. A commercially-rated pilot, Ted retired from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the spring of 2025, where he served as a multimedia producer, creating safety messaging and training for air traffic controllers and pilots. Before his time at the FAA, Ted served as a senior instructional systems designer contractor at Lockheed Martin, and internet managing editor for Voice of America's Learning English. For more information visit: https://www.invisibleangels.org/.
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