Messages spoken at various Camps Farthest Out by Betty Malz.
Betty Malz was an Indiana pastor’s daughter who was pronounced dead for twenty-eight minutes in 1959 and came back with a story she spent the rest of her life telling. Her books included My Glimpse of Eternity and Prayers That Are Answered, which was published in eighteen languages. In 1991 she gave six talks at the Florida Family CFO at Lake Yale.
Betty Perkins was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on November 6, 1929, several weeks early. “Betts, you were born a preemie, November the 6th, 1929.” Her father, the Rev. Glenn Perkins, was a Pentecostal pastor who served nine small churches. Betty grew up with four brothers, partly in New Castle, Indiana, and she was involved in ministry almost from the beginning. “When I was two years old, my father would hand me a microphone and I could quote scripture on the radio.”
She found Jesus at thirteen and received the baptism of the Spirit at sixteen. She wanted to play basketball, but her father needed an organist, so she learned to play the organ instead. All the while, she wanted to write. “Now, I had a dream of being a writer since I was 8.”
She married John Upchurch, who owned a Sunoco service station, and they had a daughter, Brenda, in 1953. The business prospered, and the family gave generously. “We gave 38% of our income to the Lord on the average.”
In 1959, during a family vacation in Florida, Betty’s appendix ruptured. Doctors there did not discover the problem for eleven days. She was eventually flown back to Terre Haute, to the hospital where she had been born. She went into a coma that lasted forty-four days. “I died for 28 minutes.”
During those minutes she saw heaven and a shaft of light rising toward the throne of God. At her bedside, her father could think of only one word to pray. The word was Jesus. Betty sat up under the sheet. “I went home in two days.”
She came back with more than a remarkable story. Her life itself had changed. “My racial prejudice was gone.” And she summed up what she had learned in one sentence: “I had to die to learn how to live.”
John died in 1965, leaving Betty to raise their two daughters. For six years she lived on Social Security, cleaned the church, and played its organ. “I survived for six years with two small daughters on Social Security and bouillon cubes.” She did not despise the small assignment. “I decided I would take that small assignment until I got a bigger one.”
Then Connie Malz introduced her to her father, Carl Malz, a college professor and pastor. When Betty married Carl, she became a pastor’s wife and brought her two daughters into a new family with Carl’s three children.
At forty-one, the dream she had carried since childhood finally began to come true. “I dreamed of being a writer when I was eight and it happened when I was 41.” Someone sent one of Betty’s little writings to Guideposts and to Catherine Marshall. Marshall invited her to write a small book, and the two women became close friends. Catherine helped Betty with Prayers That Are Answered. Betty later told the story of her 1959 experience in My Glimpse of Eternity, published in 1977.
Betty followed Carl through pastorates and Bible colleges in Texas, Missouri, and North Dakota. At Trinity College in Ellendale, North Dakota, she taught Sunday school and spoke in chapel. “I lived in North Dakota for 11 years where we have two seasons. We have July and winter.” Around 1985 they moved to Crystal Beach, Florida, where Carl pastored in Dunedin before later serving as a missionary in Russia and Ukraine.
Betty also faced serious physical problems, including spinal surgery and growths on her voice box. When she feared she might lose her voice, she made herself a promise. “I promised myself that if I could never speak again, I would write ten books to declare the glory of God and His faithfulness to me.” She wrote more than ten.
In 1991 she came to the Florida Family CFO at Lake Yale near Eustis and gave six talks while Carl was in Russia. She enjoyed the unusual name of the camps. “And then I found out it was a far out name. Camp Farthest Out?” “I am glad you have no labels here at Camp Farthest Out.”
Edwin Lively shared the platform with her. “We need to learn to pray, don’t we, Betty?” She was sixty-two years old and still regarded herself as a learner. “I was taught to pray at two. I learned to pray at 42. At 62 I am still adventuring and learning in prayer.” She also made clear that speaking was not what she considered her gift. “I am a writer. I’m not a speaker. I talk better on paper.”
For Betty, prayer was not a religious exercise but a living connection with God. “Prayer is a live ray of energy that comes from your heart and is shafted directly to the heart of God.” “Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but laying hold of his willingness.”
She had practical advice for parents: “Talk to God about your kids instead of talking to your kids about God.” And after everything she had experienced, she decided what was worth investing in. “I have decided to invest in people. It’s the only thing you can take with you when you die to the next world.” She never forgot her father’s advice: “Suffer without complaining and be misunderstood without explaining.”
In her later years Betty served on the staff of Christ Church of Palm Harbor. She died on February 4, 2012. Carl died four months later. Betty had spent her life learning to pray, learning to live, and finally doing what she had dreamed of since she was eight: writing about the faithfulness of God.
*Note:
Many speakers lived before the days of the internet and many had very limited biographical information available. The information in these biographies came mostly from transcripts of their messages, and relies heavily on their own spoken words. Please contact us if you have any corrections.