Gordon Bakke was born in Bellingham, WA and attended Mount Baker schools. He received Jesus as Savior at the Firs Bible Camp as a boy, and committed to serving Him. Gordon attended Moody Bible Institute and King’s Garden, and graduated from Multnomah School of the Bible in 1964.
Gordon earned his Airframe & Powerplant aircraft mechanic license at Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, then took flight training and received his Private Pilot license in Portland. He gained aircraft maintenance experience working on airplanes in Bellingham, WA, and also during that time earned his Commercial Pilot license.
In 1967 Gordon and his wife Elaine, a nurse graduated from the University of Washington, attended candidate school for Africa Evangelical Fellowship (now SIM), and then were posted to Zambia, Africa. They served in Zambia 22 years, Gordon as a pilot/mechanic flying PA-14, C-180, and C-185, and Elaine as a nurse and instructor for Mukinge Mission Hospital Nurses Training School.
Since they returned to the U.S.A. in 1989, Gordon has made short-term trips to Africa in 1995, 1998, and 2002. He started serving with MATA in 1999, about a year after Pastor Mike Crowell founded the organization. For seven consecutive summers Gordon flew his C-182 to Western Alaska to help transport children from remote villages to the Bible Camp at Kako Retreat Center. Last year Gordon sold his C-182, but this summer still served in Alaska, piloting Kako’s C-206.
Current Work Title: Executive Director, MATA.
Ministry Vision: One-sixth of the world lives where airplanes are the best or only practical way to reach people. So the need for missionary pilots is great!
