Open the Sky, The Story of Missionary Pilot Dwayne King

By Mark Winheld

“… Dwayne King's life proves that fulfilling God's purpose is the highest adventure…”

—Stephen Saint, author of End of the Spear



“… The advance of the Gospel in much of Alaska today is due to men like Dwayne King and others who have sacrificed to take the Good News to the ends of the earth…”

—Franklin Graham, CEO of Samaritan's Purse


On September 1, 1991, bush pilot Dwayne King spearheaded one of the first missionary flights into the crumbling Soviet empire. The historic mission climaxed the transformation of a wild child from upstate New York into a selfless servant. The saga continues at Kingdom Air Corps, where he's training the next generation of young missionaries to fly the Word beyond where the road ends and wilderness begins.

Award-winning journalist Mark Winheld, Dwayne's friend and fellow traveler, spotlights the turning point. When Dwayne, a teenage hot-rodder, read Jungle Pilot—the story of missionary Nate Saint, martyred in Ecuador in 1956—his heart turned from drag-racing for fun to flying for God. From that moment on he followed a higher calling, armed only with faith, humor and chutzpah—and the reflexes that had kept him from wrecking cars on the hilly roads of home.

In “Open the Sky,” you'll see, through Dwayne's eyes, the ravages of loneliness and alcohol in the Alaskan bush. You’ll feel the courage of Russian believers surviving in the ruins of a destroyed civilization, given new hope by recent aviation freedoms. You'll sense the forces that hammered a thrill-seeking adolescent into a mature servant who lives out the words he says and believes: “There's only three things that are eternal. Only three. God, God's Word, and people.”