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When only the best is needed, see Dr. Johnny Gayton at eyesightassociates.com. Welcome back to another episode, the Man Up show with yours truly, your host, the Devil's Nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Let me ask you a question.
Do you believe God has a heart for the most vulnerable and that it's our job to do whatever it takes to help rescue them? Well, it's what Tim Tebow thinks if you're familiar with that name, but it's also what Susan Henson thinks. And today with me, author of Breaking Invisible Chains, Susan Henson. Susan, welcome to the Man Up show. Thank you, Nikita.
Thanks for having me. Well, you know, it's always great. I love it when I have women on the show because people are like, wait, it's the Man Up show. And I'm like, it is. But you know, women, women listen to the show because they want to hear what men have to say. But then I love having women on the show because it just creates more, you know, more diversity and bring some amazing stories like yours out there to the world for the world to hear.
And so it's just such an honor to have you here. Of course, we recently met, you and I, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the NRB, the convention there in Nashville, Tennessee. I think you came by the Truth booth, right? We had a conversation there as well, correct? Yes, about 15 minutes there. You were pretty busy. Those conventions, right?
I mean, it's like one after, you know, they scheduled like back to back to back to back. And so, you know, don't get a whole lot of time to talk with each individual, but I'm glad you gave me a copy of your book and we were able to connect then and are able to connect now. And so let's just for our listeners out there, Susan, just we're going to dive into what Breaking Invisible Chains is about.
Of course, obviously I opened up with that quote from Tim Tebow. He's on the front cover. I know he's been instrumental and you guys collaborating together. But give a little backdrop for our listeners where you live, a little bit about your family. And before we really dive into this.
Yeah, sure. We're in Nashville, Tennessee. And really how we got started with this was when we did a church plant way back in 1978. About a year later, God brought refugees to the Nashville area and we heard that they were bringing 3,000 here and that they were coming with just the shirts on their back. And we rose up and just called people to begin to wash their feet and to serve them and to love them and teach them English. And we started the very first church for these refugees.
I won't say exactly where they're from because we're still serving in that area and it's a very highly persecuted area. And so as we begin to serve those persecuted believers that were brought here, they came to know the Lord. And then we heard their cries of, but what about my family that we left back home? And so eventually about 10 years later, we took the gospel back to their village and to their homeland. And it was really in that process that we began to serve the persecuted believers and to begin to see just the trauma that they were under.
And God just really called us during that time to really man up. You might say stand up and just step into their hearts and their lives and begin to serve those believers. And then also we made a commitment to them that if they were ever imprisoned for their faith, that we would take care of their families.
And we actually have 18 what we call martyr's cups sitting on the shelf in my husband's office on the Fox's Book of Martyrs of those who were martyred because of their faith. And so that's really how we began in that region and stepping into the persecuted believers. So that's what opened up our heart for such a passion and compassion for the persecuted believers. So that was how we kind of got started.
How you got your start. Well, let's back up for just a moment because you said when we planted a church, you mentioned your husband, Al, right? So was it you and Al that planted that church back in the 70s? And was that in Nashville? Or where did you plant that church?
Yes, it was in Nashville, Tennessee. And my husband, we started a Christian school along with that and other ministries. But when we heard the stories of the persecution, he would be going back and forth, even as a pastor and just taking others with him over to this region and several times a year during that time. So we have three children and they're all grown and all in full-time ministry alongside of us. We have one son that we've adopted from that group of refugees that were brought here. We consider him, he's not legally ours, but he's a child of our hearts and he's serving over in Thailand right now. So our main areas that we're serving in right now is this undisclosed country and in Thailand and in the Philippines. Well, and I know that's where your son, Steven, right?
Is it Steven? Is serving over in the Philippines. And I actually have some dear missionary friends. I'll have to figure out where exactly they are.
They've been missionaries to the Philippines and the Far East based in the Philippines for, gosh, 15, maybe 20 years. We'll have to figure out how we can perhaps connect you guys together, see if there's some collaboration there with Alan and Cooley. So, okay, so the whole family's involved and what's interesting too is I just was with some of my family over the weekend and my youngest daughters and her husband, Andrew, are in the process of adopting. And I just told him, I go, every time I turn around, I'm having another conversation with somebody that's adopting or adopted and hear you bring it up today. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going to have to tell him that story again. I'm doing this interview and Susan Hansen talks about adoption. So, and there's just, I mean, there's such a need out there, right?
And I know yourselves, of course, I mentioned Tim Tebow. There's a lot of great organizations. In fact, with Truth Radio Network, there's an organization called Lantern Rescue. They have their own show and they go, these are like all special ops guys that go into, I've heard some of their stories. I went to a fundraiser banquet for those guys and Susan, the stories are like hard to wrap my head around. I listen to some of these stories and some of the dire situations that some of these little girls or even little boys or just women or just people in general are in. And man, it's just mind blowing. I'm like, oh my gosh, and such an incredible need out there, right?
Yes, and that's really the second, what you might say, is the second highway that we serve in. Because while we were serving in this dark, dark region of this animistic and communist and just spiritism culture, we were hearing the cries of the suffering and the persecuted. Then we began to hear the cries of the children, Kita, and that's when we started hearing the stories. We started seeing things with our own eyes and it just opened up our hearts and we said we've got to do something. So after 35 years of my husband and I serving at the church that we had planted, it's called Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, and after 35 years, instead of thinking about retiring, God just called us and said hear the cries of my suffering children and those that are being mistreated. And God just said for us to step aside and to establish our 501c3 called Compassionate Hope Foundation. And so we still serve the persecuted and so in 2010, that's when we made the transfer over to Compassionate Hope full-time, but the second avenue of our ministry is to open up homes of hope for children that have been abandoned, abused, trafficked. And so we now have, since 2010, like Lanter Rescue, we have rescued children that have been abandoned, abused, trafficked, child brides, and our son is serving a unique, you might say, another face of trafficking that is so horrible.
It's called OSEC, it's Online Sexually Exploited Children, and so they have homes of hope for them. But we've rescued over a thousand children since 2010. We have 68 homes of hope. We have 12 homes being built right now, and we have Villages of Hope, which also includes a Christian school.
All of them include a church along with it. But one of the promises that we've made, Nikita, is that we will love these children as if they're our own, and we will take them all the way through university, Bible college, or some type of vo-tech in order to give these children a hope and a future that they would have never have had. And so that's what we're doing, and so the incredible workers and houseparents, they're the real heroes in our eyes, because they're with these children 24-7, and some of these children are coming in with such trauma, and they're coming in some with suicide watch, and some, you know, they're just nightmares and bed-wetting and all that that are coming in because of the trauma that they have faced in their lives. So we're here to step in to the suffering of these children. And actually, when we named Compassionate Hope, the root word of compassion is kompati, which actually means to suffer with. So for us, we are to step in to the suffering with these children in order to bring the passion and compassion of Christ into the lives of these children, so that they can have hope for a different future, because that's where transformation takes place, is with the hope of Christ in their lives. Well, that's some incredible work.
I just want to do a quick review of some of the things you shared, because it's pretty amazing. And let me first say, you know, you mentioned the word retire, and immediately what comes to mind, one of the churches that I support, I'm a part of, said they have technically a retirement community, but they said, you can't come here and retire, but you can come here and refire, right? That's what we did. I know, that's why I'm bringing it up, because you made me think of that very thing, like you guys, 35 years at the Lighthouse Church, and it's in Nashville, let me just ask you that, 35 years, it's in Nashville Lighthouse?
Yes. And so you just kind of, you and Al kind of handed that off to someone else? Yes, and another pastor, and they're doing great. We're still there, Al still serves as an elder, he still has a Bible class, and I'm actively involved as well, so we still serve the refugee community, and still do Bible studies with them, so we're still active here, while we're here locally being involved. But our heart and passion is to suffer with the children over there, and to jump into their lives, and we're so thankful for partnerships like the Tim Tebow's, but it takes more than just major donors, it takes people stepping into their lives, being willing to go and risk love, and to step into their lives. People can take teams over, people can adopt homes of hope, and they can actively go and just love on these children. I tell people all the time, go risk love, go risk the love, because it will open your heart to love more than you can even imagine.
That's a great, I'm writing that one down, go risk the love. And so 35 years down, and before I forget, what's the website for the Lighthouse Church? It's Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, and so it's lighthouseministries.org.
I want to make sure and cover that. And then some other things you shared as well, so homes of hope, 68 homes of hope, I'm guessing dispersed around the world in different regions? Yes, we're in Thailand, and the Philippines, and the undisclosed country that we mentioned. And the reason why we don't mention that is because we are there in and out, and so just to protect the people we're with, but also protect the people, our own self, to be able to continue the work that we need to do to encourage these believers as we go in.
Well that's pretty amazing, I mean just to be able to fly under the radar is how I guess I would phrase it, and yet make an impact and a difference. So 68 homes of hope dispersed around the world, 1000 children rescued, 1000 rescued since 2010, and you said you have 12 more homes of hope that are being built right now, correct? Yes, we're opening up a brand new village with the help of the Tebow Foundation just outside of Bangkok, and as you know Bangkok is one of the number one cities around the world for human trafficking. And what makes some of the regions that we are in is in the Pusong area up in northern Thailand, there is a group of people called the Hmong people, and they're a migrant people group that have migrated in, they're people without a country, they're without you might say a citizenship, and so they have very little education, and they're mostly farmers, but a lot of the children that are trafficked, young girls and boys that are trafficked into the red light district of Bangkok are from that region. And so we have a large home of hope in that region with over 250 kids in that village of hope, we have a Christian school of over 500, and so we go up into those villages and are able to bring some of those children into our Christian school to make a difference in them. But if you were to walk the red light district, I don't like going there, but I have on occasion as we've taken a few people through that on a prayer walk, but you will literally, Nikita, see thousands of girls and boys on the sides, just rows and rows of them for about a mile and a half just there. And so, but that's where these children will end up if someone doesn't step into their lives and give them a place of hope.
But one of the things that we've been burdened about is that all of our homes have been more rural areas and in different regions. But with Tim Tebow's help, with their foundation, they've stepped in and we have five homes being built right now an hour outside of Bangkok to be able to specifically rescue children in Thailand that are being, the acronym is TIP, trafficked in person, or either OSEC, online sexually exploited children, and we will be bringing those children into those homes of hope. And so that will be opened up probably within the next two months we'll be ready to receive children.
Incredible. So that will be five more homes right there. But the OSEC, I think we'll get a chance for you to do an interview with our son and he can give you more statistics and everything, but the Philippines is the number one country for online sexually exploited children. And it is literally ravaging thousands and thousands of Filipino children every single day. But Nikita, where we need to man up here in the US is that the US is the number one country that is consuming and demanding this crime. I don't want to say abuse. It is a crime. Right. And so we're 17 times worse than any other country.
This should put us to shame. And that means that there are that many pedophiles out there observing and asking these children who are being put in front of a camera in the Philippines that 70% of them are their own family members. But when we're going to be rescuing these children even into the village of Hope outside of Bangkok, then what this does, these are children are not just being put in front of a camera to do a show. They're made to do horrible acts with whoever is in the home, whether it's a child, an infant or an older person or doesn't matter the gender. And so this is a crime. This is a crime against these children.
And during COVID, these children were literally locked inside their home with their perpetrators 24-7 with no escape. And so we are here to jump into to really rescue some of the most traumatized children on this planet. But what I love, our ministry is a messy ministry. It's messy, but I'm going to tell you the power of redemption, the power of the gospel of grace can set people free. And we hold the keys to the gospel that can transform lives. And it's up to us to be able to step into people's lives to be able to give them the gospel that will transform their heart and break the invisible chains.
And to be able to set them free that will transform them. And the stories that are in the Breaking Invisible Chains, it's all about redemption. And it's about the stories that God has redeemed from the children that have been rescued. And redemption is always set on the backdrop of loss, pain and suffering.
But redeem means to buy back that which was lost or forsaken or that which was caused by our sin or by the sin of others. But when we get to see these children transformed and redeemed, we get lost not in the loss that they experienced, but we get lost in the wonder of who God is and what He's done in their lives. And some of these children now are going on and getting master's degrees and serving in our homes of hope. And they're moving on with such vitality. They're no longer victims in this. They are thriving in the hope that they've been given. And so that's what some of these kids now, they want to rise up and they want to use their voice to tell their stories. And so that's what the stories in the book called Breaking Invisible Chains that they are able to tell their stories of hope and redemption.
Well, I want to make sure before we run out of time that people have the opportunity to know where. So, Breaking Invisible Chains by Dr. Al and Susan Hansen, true stories of persecution, trafficking, and God's transforming hope. You just hopefully heard Susan's heart. I sure did.
It came through loud and clear. And Tim Tebow has got a quote on the cover. I'm guessing, Susan, they can go to Amazon and any other places that can carry the book, right? They can get the book? Yes, but if they go to our website, they will actually be able to see Tim and Demi Tebow actually meeting one of the little girls that was rescued called Ellie.
And they have been able to be a part of her rescue. But it's called CompassionateHope.org. That is our website. You can go there.
There's videos, there's all kinds of things. But if you want the book, you can go to CompassionateHope.org forward slash Breaking Chains. And that'll take them to the book. If you go to Amazon, Compassionate Hope gets maybe two dollars out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Go to the website. It's more supportive. Yeah. And support Compassionate Hope. Which I'm guessing you talked about adopting homes and if others wanted to be able to sow into or help to fund what you're doing, CompassionateHope.org. I know you said you're a 501c3, not that that's the important part of it, but as you put it upon people's hearts, the Lord puts it upon people's hearts. And let me just say this on a last note. I love the title in the sense of Breaking the Invisible Chains, the very first book I wrote was called Breaking the Chains. And so I love Breaking the Invisible Chains.
It just reminded me of that first book. Susan, we hear your heart and we hear your passion for wanting to help these kids. And I wrote down, I was making some notes as you were talking, and the reality is it's of epidemic proportion and it is disgusting that America ranks where they do in all of this. And one other thing I made note of that really has helped bring this to more light. I went and saw the movie Sound of Freedom and you want to talk about eye opening and putting a visible, our discussion over the airwaves, putting something in plain sight right in front of your eyeballs.
If you're not familiar out there with the movie Sound of Freedom, go look it up and go watch it. Because everything Susan's talking about is going to bring all this to more light and spread the word on what Susan is doing. Her and Al and her son Steven through compassionate hope. Go, risk, love. I love that last word. We've got about a minute left.
Last word. Well, first of all, the Sound of Freedom is about the rescue. And we do the rescues. We live what you saw on Sound of Freedom.
We live that. But the real work is the redemption and the restoration of these children. And that's where the real work takes place. And that's where the prayers are needed and to be able to step into these children's lives. Because if you just do the rescue, that's the reason why we say breaking invisible chains, because you can give people the physical things. You can give them a place to live. But if you don't break the invisible chains in their heart, they're still bound in chains. So we want to set them free from the inside out. And that's only going to happen through the power of the gospel of grace.
So pray for us at Compassionate Hope and for our houseparents and our leaders. And we need more partners. And we would love to be able to go and share these stories with other people. And we didn't get into a lot of the stories, but let me tell you, the stories are so compelling and so moving.
And so just challenge people to get the book. And that's where they'll get a lot of the stories, even though we didn't talk about a lot of the stories today. You can get a lot of the true stories of persecution, trafficking, and God's transforming hope.
Breaking Invisible Chains, Dr. Al and Susan Henson. Go to their website and support what they're doing. At very least, commit to praying for Compassionate Hope.
CompassionateHope.org. Susan, thank you for being a part of the Man Up show today. Thank you, Nikita. It's our joy. And thank all of you. Each and every week you're so faithful to tune in and dial in and help spread the word around the world of the Man Up show. God bless you. Go out and live a God-filled, God-blessed day.
