Lantern Rescue - Labor Day

Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome to Lantern Rescue, a ministry program dedicated to bringing 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. Another exciting episode of Lantern Rescue. Today we're going to go right out. The team's going to take us out on a rescue.

How that worked for a number of folks. And Mark, why don't you crank us off? Sure. I think this show is really vital for our listeners to understand all that goes into an operation, particularly in the area of labor slavery. And we really want to inform our listeners too about the problem of labor slavery in the world. We've kind of mentioned it in the past, we've talked about it, but they really want to walk you through the entire operation of a recent one in the past, well in recent time.

And TC's really going to take the lead on that. TC, I think it's really important that we describe for our listeners all the planning and preparation that it takes us to get to that point in that country at the X. And so, TC, I'm going to throw it your way and just kind of talk about the time leading up to the rescue operation.

Okay Mark, thank you. A lot of times when we, I think when folks think of a mission like this, it starts with what happens in the country, but the reality is the preparation for this particular mission happens at least four days of training in a special location in the States where we went over intel and topographical maps and what would be going on in this particular country, things we might have to deal with. The whole team studied the intel type stuff, went over the communication here, and we actually did the physical fitness stuff. We actually practiced the actual raids and rescues as much as possible with state time locations that kind of mimicked where we were headed. So that part of the intelligence work and planning is actually fairly extensive.

And so that's the start. Once that's done, we ended in the capital city and kind of got acclimated there, continued with the intel work, and we're being tracked by folks back home to keep track of this with updates and things of what were happening. Once we left the capital city, we were able to run a van.

It's part of the logistics of getting a van and an interpreter and a driver. We're huge in this particular place. We literally drove, I would say Mark, if I'm right on this, probably half the country. That's where we were headed, would you say that's accurate? Yeah, it was at least half the country. And probably people don't understand the ride is not a smooth ride. I don't know if it can be actually described beyond find the rockiest, driest riverbed you know, and then decide to drive in it for 10 to 12 hours at two miles an hour. Yeah, right. I know that when we come down off of one area into the flash where we were going to be working, I think everybody was hit.

I mean, just because of the kind of driving and the kind of terrain. That's where we're just as, while we're in this environment, you know, the team's working on their job, there's a team waiting to come up to team medic, we actually make sure that we have clothing for the kids, depending on what kind of space they're in. Things like that are all part of what's happening and everybody will have a job once we get on site. So, as Mark said, one of the places we weren't, we were able to get there, the bridge was out, but actually, because there's a mostly dry riverbed, we were in what was left of the river. We traversed some serious terrain and went back into some area that, I don't know, sometimes you wonder if you're coming back from it, but we got back into this area and based on some intel, this particular place we were going was a brickyard. We weren't sure exactly how many kids would be working there, but we were going to see what we could see and anybody who was there, again to their will and probably even illegally, we were going to try to get them out of there.

In this particular case, again Mark, I don't remember, do you know who the team leader was on that? Yeah, I believe the TL was actually me and with that, so we had a great deal of intelligence as Tia said, coming into the country, we knew the exact location. Sometimes what you don't know in these moments and as we move and progress toward the actual rescue, you have a number of packages, you know there's three girls and one boy, you have an approximation of their age.

What we often encounter is that there could potentially be more because a lot of these children are nameless, stateless and unidentifiable and that's why they're slaves, that's why they're being held and they were slavery because there's no one who does care for their physical well-being. So we don't always know the number, you know DC is exactly right that the preparation that people aren't fully aware of is not only our personal individual training and preparation, there's a great deal of people including like Wren, you were part of building that intelligence package for us, putting that information so that we can look at it so that we can get in and get out. Those are not always, they're not conflict areas, the war zone, but they are dangerous areas because you're entering into an area that's controlled by the wealthiest man and he owns those brickyards and he has security and he has people with guns who are walking the borders. And DC, you can kind of describe so people understand what does that look like, like how big are those? So we looked at the topo maps and we're laying out entry and exit, you know, how many acres, that particular one do you believe it was?

All the yards tend to be in the flats for the time that it is. This was probably, I would say at least 20 acres, we didn't see the whole yard. Interestingly enough, one of the extra assets we had on this mission, one of our team mates was a young stud who was our cameraman and ran a drone for us. And so we knew that, as Marcus said, we knew that we were going to be in a bigger area and a lot less area than we could control physically as opposed to some of the other places we went. So our man here actually ran a drone for us out in the lead and we were actually able to have intelligence that we wouldn't normally have of the layout of the brickyard, how big, how many people were there and where we were headed.

That's right. Yeah, you know, and so our listeners understand too that there are often scenarios, whether it's a club or brothel, something like that, we can do a drive-by, you know, either the day's pour or even right before the raid operation, we can put eyes on the place. When you're dealing with a brickyard, a large facility like that, it typically has one way in and one way out and they control that, you know, and so that drone was vital to us because being able to pull over and set up and send that out and see and then observe without revealing who we are. Obviously you're in a country, you're, you know, four or five Americans and, you know, obviously you stand out any local people and people who can call ahead and say, hey, there's something weird, there's Americans here, all of that. But here we're able to put that drone out and gain information as far as where exactly in this brickyard because imagine at least 20 acres and you've got walls and obstruction of view. You honestly don't know and you don't want to spend a great deal of time running around trying to locate the kids and so the drone played a vital role in that. So a point of clarity for me, when you had talked about actually practicing back in the States or setting up and you said you brought the whole team in, did you have people from that country as well in this practice session or was that just your team?

That's a great question. That was our team, the particular area that we were, the neighborhood was actually on board with the work that was being done and actually helped facilitate being role players and things like that. That was just excellent training and prep for the mission. So there were people there that were really going to be, you know, part of the extraction when you got there. Right. We had the team, the operational team, the rescue team, we have our control center, our people who have built the intelligence package, who would be doing providing overwatch and then we actually also have role players, you know, who are set up in a manner that is similar to the intelligence package. Oh, that's awesome. So Ren, you've got some statistics along these lines that would be helpful for our listeners?

Yeah, definitely. So labor trafficking, when we talk about labor trafficking, labor slavery and debt bondage, that's going to be what people think of as the classic slavery like there used to be in the United States of someone being forced to do some type of work, manual labor, and getting either zero or very, very minimal pay. And out of the 40 million slaves there are in the world today, approximately 24 million of them are in some form of labor trafficking forced labor. And a lot of times these forced labor slaves are also being used in sex trafficking and the lines are blurred quite often. But there's a lot of commonalities amongst the different types of labor slavery and that is that they're going to work ridiculously long hours. These people are working 16 to 18 hours a day or more. They're getting absolutely no pay or extremely minimal and they're working in really, really hazardous conditions.

I know we've talked before on the podcast about people that get hurt and they are just, they're not fired, they're just eliminated, they're gotten rid of because they're now a burden. And then a lot of these industries are also using child labor. So that's something I definitely want to bring up is that children are susceptible to labor trafficking but also adults are.

This happens to both men and women. A lot of times entire families can get caught into labor trafficking and they spend generations stuck on these brick yards or in certain industries. And a lot of the industries that are using labor trafficking are industries that you're going to get extremely cheap goods from, from foreign countries. So these industries, there's slavery in a lot of different industries but just to name a couple, the fishing industry, chocolate, coffee, domestic work, like in-home maids, stuff like that. Textiles, fashion is one of the biggest offenders in the world right now. This fast fashion type of world that we live in, they're one of the biggest offenders of labor trafficking. And then just general farming like cotton and like we've heard about these brick yards and stuff like that. Those have vast amounts of labor trafficking overseas. Wow. And so what you guys have talked about, Mark, that when you find somebody that's labor trafficking, they're often in sex trafficking as well.

Yeah, I believe the whole team could comment on that. Every single victim that I've ever personally that I've ever rescued from labor trafficking was clearly also being trafficked sexually. And so you imagine a child who is a nine-year-old girl, 11-year-old girl who is working all day long, 12 hours a day, sometimes much longer in a very extreme harsh environment, very high temperature environment, very dirty environment.

They're hungry most likely most of the day. And then just to come to the end of the day to be hosed off, toenails painted, whatever the culture finds attractive, whether it's a nose ring, a certain ear piercing, things like that, that's placed on the girl. And then she's moved off. If they're near a city, she's moved over to a street corner to be sold or she's available to be picked up there. And then, you know, depending on the economic situation in that country, depending on what she's being sold for, to be very little, it could be a little bit more. And then only to endure that through the night, to be brought back to, in this case, to be back to the yard, to go back to work and to do that again.

Beyond horrible. When we come back, we're going to take you further into this story where we actually get on the ground and the extraction and some spiritual applications to that coming from Alan. So we've got a whole much more coming for you on Lantern Rescue.

Stay tuned. Lantern Rescue is a USA based organization that conducts international rescue operations for people suffering from human trafficking. They offer services free of charge to their host nations. Human trafficking is grown into the second largest criminal activity in the world, reaching an estimated one hundred and fifty billion dollars 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, where today's episode, we are right in the middle of actually a raid on a labor brick camp that got people in slavery. And Ren, you chose this as sort of a connection to Labor Day since this is the weekend. Yeah, so this weekend is Labor Day, and I just wanted to make sure that everyone remembers this weekend and on Monday when they're celebrating.

You take a moment and think about the people in other parts of the world that aren't as blessed as we are here in America. You know, people just celebrate Labor Day as a day to have a barbecue with your friends, and that's great, and I hope everyone enjoys it. And don't forget that Labor Day is a celebration of how far we have come as a country, and it celebrates the legislation that has given us that 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek, and anything beyond that is overtime. It's preventing child labor here in the United States. We actually have laws against that. A lot of other countries don't. We have a minimum wage, we have minimum standards of safety, and if any of those things are violated, you have rights as an American and you can pursue charges against your employer if those things are violated. So a lot of people take that for granted, and we're just so fortunate here in America to have those protections where in a lot of other countries, they don't even get that basic protection for their safety to prevent children from getting jobs and to be exploited by your boss.

So I just wanted to remind everyone how blessed we are and never forget that. Yeah, that's a beautiful point, Wren, and you know, just because they weren't necessarily slaves, they're still a 10-year-old kid working out in a brickyard. You know, in some cases it's really unthinkable, but the whole thing is God is in there rescuing people in so many different ways, and to get to that rescue, TC, take us back to the yard. I wanted to say something that kind of ties together in my mind what Wren and Mark just referenced and what these kids go through because they're in their laws, because there are people taking advantage of them. If you can imagine being in a situation where from the time you're five or six that you're going to be working maybe 16 to 20 hours a day, you have no hope of rescue. You don't know that anybody cares about you. And so when you're hopeless like that, when anybody's hopeless, your heart and soul is not in your effort.

And so because of that, then the only way to motivate these kids is for them to be beaten by their captors and by their tormentors. So as I mentioned earlier, one of the important jobs is team medic, which Mark was also on this mission, as I recall. So it's a foregone conclusion sometimes that because we're talking, these rescues went well.

In this particular case, it did go well. The team, once we had the drone up and we were able to kind of get the lay of the yard, so to speak, we moved in a formation that we believed afforded us the most mobility and tactical safety as we moved. We were able to go right basically to the back side of the yard. And as we got around the corner, we saw like a tractor and trailer trailer parked up against a big stack of bricks. As we got around the front of that thing, there were, Mark and I talked, I think there were approximately nine little ones there.

I would say nobody was over 14 years old and they were loading bricks from the yard onto this truck. Do you recall that, Mark? I do because it was unusual to, first of all, we were expecting four packages.

We've got nine packages. It was also unusual the condition they were in. They were fairly unclosed. Do you remember?

I mean, they had, the clothes they had were such a state that they were just ripped and falling off or the clothes, the shirt had just been removed. And, you know, it was good that we were able to get to them at that point quickly because one of the things that we do on the Intel side before is that we know by looking at the kilns and certain things in that facility, if they're running and operating, that tells us that the owner is most likely there, that there are other security people there. And so we had a situation where everybody was present that day. And so to be able to go in and extract the children quickly was a blessing. And I remember as we came around that 18 Wheeler and located those children, sometimes our asset does tell one or two of the children, look, this is what's going to happen. And what it is is the asset is somebody who's accepted in that area who can wander in and out through those yards and he will send a secret private message to those kids saying, do not be alarmed when this occurs. Some people coming to help you.

Sometimes he doesn't say anything. You know, I've seen both faces. I've seen the face of a child who clearly knew we were coming and was excited for that moment to the ones who are looking at us in shock as well. I remember, TC, you and I were clearly working together that day because I got up on the back of that trailer. Were you up on the back of the trailer too? Yep. Yeah. You and I were the two keeping the perpetrators, the adults at guard and moving the kids to the other team.

TC, you ended up helping me that day. The children were all at the back of the trailer. Right. And, you know, we've laid eyes on the threat. And so our eyes are kept as a threat and we're moving quickly to pass the kids along. All I remember is the first two children I grabbed probably weighed 30 pounds. They were light weights. And I turned and the third one, as I turned, grabbed, I didn't look, but it was actually a boy who was probably about 12.

And picking him up was 100 pounds. And an old injury, an L5 ruptured disc that I have, kicked in right at that moment. Do you remember that, TC?

I do. I remember you literally gripping up and, like, breathing deep. And what we were doing is we were getting the kids probably down off of the bricks.

It was probably a good big six feet, four to six feet. Yeah, we were. Yeah, we were passing them. And so we got them down. And so to get them down to the team to get moving, we have no idea what's coming, what's around the next corner. And again, as Marcia said, whether they are happy to see us or not, you know, they're going.

In their lives, they haven't had a lot of choices. And so in this particular case, really without any problems, we were able to get them back to a van and to get on the road and to get them out of there. Once they're on the van, in this case, Marc was still the medic. And just to go over some of the most obvious things, bumps, abrasions, I don't think there are any breaks for the kids on this one. One of the team members was able to, with the interpreter, talk to them, work with them, hold them, make sure they're clothed.

And all those sorts of initial creature comforts that are vital take place right there in the van as soon as we get back. Well, you know, somebody's listening to the story. The thing that just kind of is the question in my mind is if they have guards and they have guns, I mean, are they not shooting?

No. In this particular case, I guess in this particular country, I wouldn't worry quite as much about that. Not that it's not possible.

It's a little less likely. But in this particular case, we were there. There were no armed guards, and we were able to get going without facing any kind of confrontation like that.

So had they, you know, again, what were you anticipating if they tried to confront you? That's a great question. We have as much as we can legally carry in that country.

And I guess you can, in your mind, do the math on that, as many things as we can do. I suppose if we were being shot, that would change things dramatically as to how far the mission carried on. Once the kids are in hand, though, that rescue is going to continue as planned. There's no sense in turning them back. And we would have to leave, you know, the best way we can.

We weren't faced with that, so I can't say what would have happened. I know that once they're rescued and we're down the road and we're looking to make sure we're not being followed and all those sorts of security measures, eventually then the kids are able to get some food and some water, some initial, again, comforts. And then they get to go to their safe house, and they get more communication is added to them, and eventually they're supported to the point where they can actually go to school.

So if you can, in your mind, see them as hopeless, uncared-for kids, like Mark said, 30 pounds, to within maybe a couple weeks they're fed with a host family in a safe place going to school. It's an unbelievable transformation for them and pretty exciting for the team to see. Yeah, I feel like we could just do a whole show on you guys communicating with these kids to give us a sense of what they actually said. But we really got to move on to the sort of spiritual aspect of this. So Alan, can you, as being part of this, can you kind of put this in perspective from your standpoint on the spiritual sense? Sure.

I think I can speak for most of the team here. The point here is most of us as Christians, we find comfort and security in the Lord. He's sheltering the storm. But the thing that comes to mind is that these children, whether it's the labor camps or the forced sex slavery, they're encaged. So what we're called to do is to act. Like Chris said, the gates of hell should not prevail. In this case, these children are encased by these gates, and if we just seek our shelter in the storm and don't break open those gates, these children will never know the freedom that they can have outside of that. So as Christians, as operators on these raids and interventions, that's the motivating factor. You just can't always be comfortable in the Lord and sheltered by the Lord. He calls us to action against sin and evil.

So that's the point I'd probably like to make. It's more the spiritual application. You've got to be able to be motivated by the Spirit to crush those gates of hell and free those individuals, whether it's from brickyards or brothels or whatever it may be. But if we don't take action, that is something I don't want to praise the Lord and get to heaven and explain why I did, you know. So I guess that would be the spiritual side of it.

Yeah, and as I process that, you know, we can, you know, literally, we were given the authority to speak the kingdom into situations. And all our listeners right now, you know that here in a couple weeks, actually, team's going to be back out again. And we can be praying the kingdom, again, the kind of safety, the favor that they had in this mission that we talked about today, where, you know, they didn't have the confrontation.

There wasn't anyone faced with the loss of life, but yet there were people set free and put in a place to understand, you know, the goodness of God and have a chance at a relationship. So again, the team, TC, Allen, Wren, and Mark, they're going to be out there. And what a chance we all have to partner with them in prayer as they head off.

Like I said, coming very shortly on another mission. Mark, if you got a final word for our listeners? Thank you, guys, for TC kind of inviting our listeners into at least a glimpse of our training, our preparation, the actual operation and those typical labor slavery issues, because all that training pays off in volume and that a child is rescued and they are set free. And like Allen said, I mean, we sing so many songs nowadays about my chains are gone, I've been set free.

And I can't hear a single song like that without thinking of children like those nine that we rescued that day. That's awesome. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Wren. Thank you, Allen, and thank you, TC. We'll be looking forward to next week. Thank you, Robby. This is the Truth Network.