The Fruits of This Labor

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trainaposter.com in just seconds. Enjoy it. Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing and how we would transition that from where we're at back to the United States. Well, I think you want your family to have to deal with if something does go awry over there is figuring out how to get you back. And what's going on with that.

And these conversations are better had when nothing's going on than in the heat of the moment, you know. Welcome to Lantern Rescue a ministry program dedicated to bring light into the darkness of human trafficking. It's time to light the way to freedom. This is Lantern Rescue. We tell the stories, we talk about rescues, and we empower you to do something about it.

William Wilberforce once said, let it not be said I was silent when they needed me. This is Lantern Rescue. Well, welcome to Lantern Rescue. I'm Rachel Torres standing in for Robbie.

He's at a boot camp this week, so he's asked me to step in for him. Now, the Lantern Rescue team has just returned from their latest mission in Africa. Today we're kind of going to get into, you know, what happened, what the team has been up to, and how God has really been moving in all, you know, everything that they've been doing. So, I don't know who wants to start us off here, but just kind of give us a general update on what's been going on with you guys.

Rachel, first of all, thanks so much for stepping in for Robbie and doing the show, and we miss him, but glad that he's maybe getting a little bit of a break. Is that right? Yeah, I think so. I don't think this is his boot camp this week.

Someone else is actually, so yeah. Okay, cool. Well, you mentioned that we just got back, and that's the case, and just on a light note, I mean, and the team can all comment, it is, it's nice to come back to the states. It's hard to leave work that you're in the middle of, you know, you accomplish certain tasks, you want to finish other things that require you to be there, and I think what I could say to my team is we're not a team who gets to come back and take two days to recuperate, like we travel so much, it goes so many places, we got so many other responsibilities that we have to come back, and we just have to hit the ground running. So, there's no time for jet lag, there's really no time for, oh, let me decompress for a length of time.

It's come back and keep working on all that you have to do both stateside and the commitments that you made overseas. So, you know, we're just as busy when we come to America as we are over there. You guys agree?

100%. Absolutely. I know we all have our roles, both in our families and in our, even the jobs that we do in America. Maybe not all of us are the first time hearing this, but we are a volunteer organization, so we still have to make ends meet and we have to take care of our families and take care of those that we love here. Sometimes that requires, you know, the work that we, we have to be involved here and each one of us are doing a different thing. But overall, we're glad to be back and we appreciate people's prayers and we'll be part of that day on some of the work that has been successful. Awesome.

Yeah, absolutely. Wren, did you want to give us kind of an update on what's been going on? Yeah, so our team over in West Africa, one of the teams over there, has been extremely successful in their efforts with counter-trafficking at the border.

They're averaging like 5 to 10 rescues a week. So it's been really great and they've been doing a lot of reunification with the parents and with family members. So that's been really awesome to see. You know, we do have a strong aftercare partnership, but it's always better when we can be reunited with a healthy and stable family structure. So that's been great.

Unfortunately, the violence down in the Caribbean is still going on and there was another police officer lost recently. So that is a hurdle that we are, you know, looking to overcome in the future and our other teams are doing great and the mission's moving forward. Wow, that's awesome. That's great to hear.

Yeah, do any of the other guys want to share kind of what's been going on, successes you've seen, what it's been like since you've gotten back, anything along those lines? I was just going to say, we talked about it pre-broadcast, but I continue to be impressed and encouraged and, you know, as a Christian doing the work to see God leading the way, to continue to do things. I know we've talked about it a few times in the past, but to see God continue to bring people forward, relationships forward that enable the work in multiple countries. He has faithfully held true to connecting us to folks who, again, care about their country and the things that are going on there and, you know, trying to see that good things are done for good people and that, you know, they're really shining the light in some of the darkest places. I'm encouraged by that and I think the lessoners should absolutely know that God is in the work. Wonderful.

Alan, did you have something to add to that? Yeah, I was just going to identify, you know, the operations we do, no matter where it's at. A lot of times we go into it with certain expectations, but when we actually get there, you know, those expectations are sometimes nullified and our paths are directed in different directions, but God really knows what he's doing. We may not at the moment, but as we travel down that path, when we step out of faith and saying, here we are, God, this is, you know, where you have us and we're willing to travel that path, he just opens these doors that are just amazing. Some of the organizations we work with in this last operation, they are managed by not necessarily Christians, but the people in charge of their become really open and receptive once they find out the purpose for us being there and the doors just seem to fling open and the path is really made clear.

So, and it goes from, you know, the upper echelons of the government to the lowest ranks of the people we're dealing with, even the population itself. So it's just amazing that if you're open to do the Lord's will, how he guides you through these venues. Wow. Yeah, I love that. So, yeah, Rachel, one thing that has been such an encouragement is when we try to go into a country to work, it's that we want partners in the country. We don't want to just work by ourselves. So part of our mission is to make sure that we're part of our mission and part of who we are is that we're there to improve the country's effort to counter trafficking, whether we're there or whether we're, you know, a way that that work continues. And, you know, we have that occurring in places in the world now, which is super exciting for us. And so when Wren was just mentioning, particularly the work in West Africa, which is multiple countries involved, and that's where we just recently were involved.

But when she talks about that, I want to kind of give an idea to our listeners what that looks like. So after we come back, our team continues to run border operations, continues to do interventions and to rescue children. And those range from domestic slaves to girls who are going into sex slavery from multiple countries going different directions. So it's not just country A going to country B or it's A, B, C and D. And they're all transferring children every different direction. And we have been able to establish an intelligence team with the law enforcement support that is intercepting those children. So what we get as a team every week is our country manager there reports to us the open investigations. They provide us open investigations. They provide us the arrests that were made.

And basically the intercept narrative is what we call it. So with that, we'll get the actual police station, the location, the date, the name of the victim, the age of the victim, the suspect trafficker, the nationality of the child, and then a full short description. And so that is the fruit of our labor. That is the fruit of our supporters that you're not just supporting us and our rescue operations, some of the heavy lifting we do in our countries. You're supporting that team that is working and the teams that we have, the counter human trafficking teams that we have around the world. They're working to do this. And so as a team, we're super excited when we have that established in a country and then we begin to see their weekly reports of breaking down arrests, intercepts, and investigations. And then we advise and counsel sometimes even from here, or we improve those investigations by guiding and directing them even from the state. And these are real people every day.

These are 15 year old girls, 13 year old girls, given the time change, but that's happening all the time. And so that is one of the successes of Land and Rescue that we're excited about. And I like to share that with our listeners.

I'm just looking right now at a recent report, a weekly report, and I'll just kind of share with you one of them. This is a 13 year old girl. And she was rescued on April the 12th. And they intercepted her at the border of Benin.

She is a Benin child. She was being, she was being trafficked into a nearby country. And really, according to the report here, the narration of the report, it was a supposed girlfriend who is 13 years old. And he abducted her and was taking her into that country under the false narrative that she would be an apprentice. Well, on our investigation, intercepts and our team intercepts, and then they pull them into the investigation interrogation process, and they find out that this girl's parents are completely unaware of where she is, who she's with, and where she's going. So this is a complete abduction into that country. And so the suspect who had her, he completely, illicitly withdrew her. He was claiming her to be his girlfriend, that he was taken to an apprenticeship.

This is against a 13 year old girl, right? So that is a fantastic operation in rescue right there, because this girl was completely disconnected from her family, those who love her, those who care for her. And yet that has all been changed now as a result of our team in America training a team there establishing that to them operating.

So the suspect was handed over to authorities, and the girl was reunified with her family. So those are the type of cases that I'm talking about. That's the stuff we get internationally reported to us. And that's the work that we try to establish in country. Yeah, I mean, that really is the fruit.

And I just, I can't imagine what that must be like to be able to see that and kind of at work. Well, we got to go to a break. But when we come back, we're going to hear a lot more about how God has been working through Lantern Rescue and through their operations. And just kind of the fruit of their labor and the fruit of your prayers for all of you guys listening. So stay tuned.

Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back on Lantern Rescue. Lantern Rescue is a USA based organization that conducts international rescue operations for people suffering from human trafficking. Lantern specializes in sending former US Special Operation law enforcement and intelligence personnel to partner with host nations and assist them in creating specialized units to combat ongoing security problems, such as genocide, terrorism, and human trafficking.

As a nonprofit charity, they offer services free of charge to their host nations. Human trafficking has grown into the second largest criminal activity in the world reaching an estimated $150 billion in annual activity. Lantern Rescue has developed rapidly to combat trafficking. Lantern operates through a trained international network in order to rescue women and children from sex and labor slavery and facilitates holistic aftercare services. They're gearing up for operations right now and you can go to lanternrescue.org to see how you can support them financially. Welcome back to Lantern Rescue. So today, the Lantern team has just recently returned from a mission in Africa. So they've been kind of giving us general updates about what's been going on with them, how they've seen God moving through their operations, and just a few stories about what they have experienced encountered in this last mission. So we're going to get into that a little bit more.

TC, if you want to take it away. I do. I guess God's impressed it upon me to encourage lanterns, listeners, and supporters here. So I think of a scripture where all says, don't be discouraged in doing good.

Don't be weary in doing good. And I was talking to a friend yesterday and we were talking about the energy that comes with a new mission, a new thing. There's all the excitement that goes into something new. And I think that's typical.

I know it is for me, but it's difficult for humans to want the new thing. But I think it's hugely important. Ren and Mark have talked about the ongoing work for one of the projects and one of the missions. And I think it's very important to know that the stable, steady process and progress of that organization and on this particular mission that we went on, Alan's going to talk about it, but the establishment, again, of relationships and of the work for long-term success. I just want to keep putting that in front of folks that to hear these stories and the stability of it is a big deal and worthy of their support and prayers. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, Alan, do you want to jump in here?

Sure. Originally there I talked about, you know, how we step out in faith. Sometimes we always think we know what our mission is or our objectives are when we do these. And when we get there, sometimes it's changed. But the fact of the matter is that we're there for a reason and God put us there for a reason. Even though we believe what the objective may be, sometimes it changes.

And in this case it did. I'm sure your listeners out there or our listeners out there are familiar with Organization of America, the Boy Scouts of America, right? Well, in the country we're in, they have a similar organization. And we worked with them, but we didn't know what capacity we were going to work with them in. So we're actually en route to a village, northern edge of the country. And prior to going to that village, the day before, or that, you know, I think is what it was, we found out that we were potentially compromised our travel route. So what really wasn't safe to go all the way out to that part of our village. So we only went about halfway and we stopped in another village.

And at this village, there was basically a train center, or a school. And they brought us into there and we had no idea what we were going to get into. When we arrived at this village, which was about halfway to our original destination, we went in and again, it's a school or a training center for young boys, and there's women there too.

But we were met with a procession of instruments. These boys were taught how to play the drums and musical instruments, and they met us and they welcomed us into their training center. And when we got in there, we tried to find out what the boys were there for. And basically, again, what I've said is, we have the Boy Scouts of America. Well, this is a similar group, except they train these boys, not in Boy Scout tactics, but in almost militaristic surveillance tactics, where they go in and at various areas in the country, religious establishments, they search out and find potential IEDs or improvised explosive devices prior to services or after services and that.

But it struck such a chord with me. It's like, you know, these boys are 12 years old, they're searching out explosive devices to keep others safe. I mean, as a father of six, three of which are boys, you know, I could never imagine. I train my kids, don't get me wrong, I teach them how to do all kinds of stuff. But that is not one of the things I would send my kid 12 years old to go learn about and then to actually go and do that job to protect those there. So it just really opened my eyes up to see the differences we have here in America, we don't know how blessed we are. And those in other countries, they have to do what they need to do and they use the people to do those things. And it's just, it was just remarkable that as a parent, you would send your child to this type of training to help others, you know, knowing that their lives are at risk. So I just want to kind of want to share that and let people know that it's just amazing the heart these people have and the the length to which they're willing to go to protect themselves and their nation and their people. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, that's, it's really unfathomable, like you said, just kind of comparing it to how, how blessed we really are here. And that these people sort of just do what they have to do. There's not really a sense of this is what I want to do. This is what will make me comfortable. There's really no not even thinking about yourself, really, you're just kind of, again, putting yourself out there to help your people.

That's, yeah, that's mind boggling. Did anybody else have anything they wanted to share kind of about specifics of the operation or, you know, how God was really at work here? How much time do we have left? We have about five minutes or so. Okay, I can or TC, either TC, you want to say something else?

Go for it or what? Follow that? I'll take, I'll take one minute.

Okay. So Rachel, another thing to go along with what Alan was saying, and it's already been highlighted. I've also been impressed with God having a key person in the countries we go to that have huge amount of energy and integrity and willpower to do the right thing regardless of what's going on around them. And so, as we talked about before, God has connected us with these folks and I just, it seems like in every country there's a guy or a girl who have taken up the work and without knowing us ahead of time or anything like that, they take up and do the work. They do it regardless of the reward or what's coming back at them and God has blessed, you know, a lot of times one person heading in the right direction for a long period of time. So that's always encouraging for us to find those folks and encourage them and they encourage us.

That's happened repeatedly as well. Yeah, Rachel, one of the things that we always marvel is that network of people that God reveals to us when we're there and meeting into the right men and women who network with us to fight human trafficking or to help defend those who are helpless. And so, man, I appreciate Alan remembering that about those boys because it left a lasting effect on me as well. I think I've shared with some people to meet young children who are carrying such a heavy duty to protect their churches and families and loved ones.

And, you know, even while we were there, even while we were there, there was a tax that occurred and that occurred on villages. And in those attacks, for that region, what ultimately occurs is there's a lot of death. I mean, they attack, they shoot, they kill, and they abduct. So they will abduct children, they will abduct girls and boys and the girls they will take into a forced bride or they will kill her in some way.

They will make her a domestic slave and the boys they will force into some type of soldier training if they can. So, I mean, this is happening every single week, if not every other day in this region of the world. And so we're there to combat human trafficking at our school. We're also there to assess and see how in the world can we help those who are weak here?

How can we stop this? And as it is predominantly in the world, Christians suffer at the hands of other religious fanatics and other extremists, right? And so that's what we encountered there as well. And so our heart just immediately goes out to how can we help them? And so those who are supporting us, we work in that part of the world as we do other parts of the world, not only to combat and counter human trafficking, but we want to defend the weak and the helpless and we want to see them secure, we want to see them in a better place. And those are things that we can't actually talk about completely on radio and we're kind of weaving our way around a conversation that we'd love to have everybody over coffee right now and really explain to you how that's happening. But in all that we're participating in, we're not able to do that on radio completely, but hopefully our listeners understand that we're there to help in every way that we can. And you meet those people who are trying to do the same thing within their countries, we give them hope.

You know, those boys, they saw Alan, Big Alan, right? They thought they could conquer the world. And those who felt so helpless and hopeless now don't feel so helpless and helpless. And we give them hope and we give them other things as well. So those are exciting moments that God Orchestration puts together because we surely could, even with all our expertise and time and understanding and travel, let me tell you, we're barely managing COVID, okay? We're trying to struggle.

Where the heck am I getting a test, you know, within 48 hours so I can jump through a European country. Those are the hard things for us. Thank goodness God doesn't have you listed. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's amazing what God does. He is clearly moving, clearly working through you guys, through the people that you come into contact with and train.

And just through these local people that are doing what they can to help their families, help those in their community. And everyone out there listening can be a part of that through your prayers. We definitely covet your prayers and ask that you continue to pray for the Lantern Rescue Team, Alan, Ren, TC and Mark, and for everyone that they come into contact with during these operations and missions. There's a lot more to talk about, but we'll save it for next time. We'll be back here on Lantern Rescue. Join us again next week.