Lantern Q & A

Nikita Koloff here, the devil's worst nightmare with the It's Time to Man Up Podcast, where we talk to real men who have real stories who realize it is time to man up. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network.

Previously on Lantern Rescue. I don't think anybody expects to find themselves chasing imagery or participating in sexually assaulting a child, but it is a place that the human heart goes. And as TC said, there's no age. It doesn't stop at violating a 12-year-old. It doesn't stop at nine. Men and women who participate in human trafficking, whether it's through cyber crimes, sex tourism, or whatever it may be, the heart is deceitfully wicked.

Who can know it? And what we're ultimately fighting is that. 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. What a treat today on Lantern Rescue.

We actually have Mark in the studio with us. And we have asked for questions to come in for the Lantern Rescue team. And several people have some questions that the team wants to get an opportunity to explore some things you may be wondering about.

And always, you can go to lanternrescue.org and email your question. We'd love to handle it on the air for you. But this show, we want to talk about these things. And so the first question, Mark is actually from a very avid listener. He wants to know, how do you know for sure that when a country calls you and says, you know, we need your help, that that's really going to be legitimate?

You know, that is a really, really great question. And it's, it's something our team, you know, constantly evaluates and talks about. And whether it's the country itself or the projects within the country, you know, because nothing is easy. It's all difficult.

And how long do you push? How long do you pursue? And so, you know, we do establish, or we're trying to even now establish more parameters that say, you know, these are the parameters for us to be in this country that they have to abide by and for us to be here because the demand is so great now. I mean, we have requests to be all over the, all over the world. And so in that evaluation process, I know this sounds vague and maybe TC can jump in or Rin, I think would be great to comment on this.

For me, it's a set of parameters to say, can these be met? And, you know, not immediately, but can we grow into these, this area, you know, like making a rest you know, simple things that we may take for granted as Americans. We think that happened in the justice system does not happen there, you know? And so there's, those, those are some of the things I'm setting aside the spiritual implications of God calling you somewhere too, you know? So is there a prayer aspect to that, that you guys take part in? Absolutely. I mean, and it's praying without ceasing, you know, because just because you're in a place for a while doesn't mean you're there. You may have to, you know, stop the operation and move elsewhere, you know?

I know you can't give us all the specifics of those qualifications, but what are, can you give us some sense of? Well, let's tell TC to join that one. I can, I can talk on that a little bit too.

Go ahead, Rin. So I've mentioned it on the show before, the Trafficking in Persons Report, I've called it the TIP Report most likely. That's another thing that we'll look at is the Trafficking in Persons Report gives an estimate of what that country is doing on their own to combat human trafficking and it labels them in a tier based on how well they're combating human trafficking and how much effort they've put in. So that's another thing that we're going to look at before we go into country is what are they doing on their own? Are they committed to this or do they just want Aidan to look like they're doing something?

TC, what are your thoughts? Well, we get like a ton of calls. We actually got a video a couple weeks ago of a guy who had an official in another country who they did border operations in the African continent and they actually had rescued a girl and they've begged us to come and help them with border operations, which is another whole, another whole type of operation. And they prosecute, they arrest, but they need help.

They need training. So for the team, we have to decide, you know, the country's needs versus our abilities. And the number of us that there are, there's, you know, I think Mark can confirm this.

There's more countries asking us to come than there are members of the team actually. So, you know, we have to investigate and as Mark has said, you know, do they arrest? Do they prosecute? Can we establish that? It's hard. A thought that kind of occurs to me that I wonder was a little bit behind the person that asked this question was, do you ever have the feeling you're being set up? So yes, when a unknown contacts you through maybe another unknown, you're not quite sure there is that speculation that they got your number and they're just trying to entice you to come to the country to do harm against you or to understand your operations. And in that particular case, I had to do some serious research background of who that person was.

Did he exist? Whether it's looking through social media or, you know, those are easy things to do. Open source intelligence is all around about everybody. So you can find that out, but sometimes in a third world country, that's not the real option, you know? So what I do is I'm blessed to have enough contacts pretty much in most countries in the world to just make a couple of calls and find out who that person is and if they're legit, you know, and you know, that particular situation, you know, the guy's very legit, you know, as obviously you have the contact of prayer. Sometimes it's like, I don't have a good feeling about this one. This one isn't feeling like, you know, that would be really, I can't imagine in country, especially we're all the time, you know, looking over our shoulders as far as meeting new people, you know, I would bet, but along those same lines, and this was a question actually I asked you one time as you guys are going into clubs or you're going somewhere to get somebody out of a brick yard or you're going somewhere where you've got armed people that do not want you there, how do you control the violence? How do you make sure that it is safe? Or I know it's not safe, but at least it's, you know. Let's roll that one to TC.

TC? I think on our next to the last mission, we were in a country where, and we talked about it, it got, it definitely got hostile. In that particular case, we were organized, you know, like the team we were with, we were clearly moving together, moving well and organized. Sometimes when there's unrest and things like that, it's disorganized.

And so my opinion in that particular case, because we looked organized and there were, you know, we definitely had the look and the intention that that was enough in that particular case. I personally have not been assaulted in any of these things yet. I do fuss about it in some of the countries, some of the countries are in pretty rough shape.

So some of those things are hypothetical, I don't know yet. We really just prop up Alan and push him out the door first. Yeah, I was just gonna say, honestly, this is true. The look of Alan going into a place where people just sit down and no one's gonna do much.

Yeah. You know, when they, so Alan and TC are running the Alpha team and I was on the street team last operations, in which we did 22 raids. And, you know, when they enter the door, the shock and awe of that team and their look, I mean, they look the part is what, you know, TC just mentioned.

And he goes in, I can't tell you how many people come pouring out, you know, they want no part, but what's about to happen, you know, so. So one of the things you told me when I asked that same question is that people in third world countries aren't used to a white guy. Yeah, well, not all, but I mean, in this particular country, they are, or that doesn't seem to deter them, you know, plus most of us are wearing masks and. But in, you said at times you pulled off your mask and just that. Yeah, yeah, that definitely is a shock and awe factor.

You know, if you, especially in like, you know, Asia Pacific or countries further away from the States, you know, they've potentially never seen an American, you know, much less five of them together. And so when a mask comes off and all of a sudden they see this, you know, that they stand down. Um, they do. Yeah, they do sometimes. At some time.

But you know, you don't know the time. Cause it's, that's pretty amazing. And the last one, we did have a very hostile situation because the street got extremely rowdy and we were, I think the team did a fantastic job controlling that and handling it.

Um, you know, I mean, because it was a mob, you know, it became a mob effect on the street and, you know, um, the, the situation of removing the girl became volatile for even for her. And, um, you know, I'm just thankful. I've looked back at the video actually and watched that and, and realized we were in a really, really precarious situation. Some things could have went differently, you know, and just thankful they didn't, you know, praise the Lord.

Yeah, all that prayer. So this next question is kind of along the lines of those other two. And that is, you know, obviously in some countries that are asking you to be there and they're cooperating with you, but I have the sense that in some of the Muslim countries, somebody else asked you to come. It wasn't, you know, the government of Pakistan or somebody like that saying, come help us out.

Um, because you're, you're actually, you know, affecting their culture. So who, who would that be, um, that, that's actually reaching out to you in that case, uh, TC? Well, so in Pakistan, there was actually a fairly prominent Christian leader. Um, he lived in the Christian section of, um, yeah, maybe I won't say the city, but in a fairly large city there. Um, and he had a network of pastors who, um, knew about the slaves in various areas.

And, and I know tying these two questions together at one point in time, um, we were armed, um, probably not so that the government would know, but we were armed and we actually, um, bought slaves. We actually toe to toe with the Taliban in that country. So, um, it was, it was contentious and, and probably just by the grace of God, that it wasn't anything that turned in anything. But after the second time I was there, the guy that we were working with actually got arrested right in the, uh, right in the Baha'u'llah airport. And, uh, uh, right in the Baha'u'llah airport because of working with us. So there's definitely, um, opposition for sure.

Yeah. Muslim countries are definitely different where Islam is present because they have, uh, an initial upbringing, not to care for, you know, Americans and what we represent. They immediately think we're all, you know, um, proselytizing, you know, and, uh, so you have to overcome some of those things to work in those countries. But there are those that you can work with who are honest and good people and are part of the righteous cause of rescuing kids and want to see a difference in their country. Um, but, you know, like any country, just because you're invited by the government or working with the government doesn't mean the other side of the government wants you there, you know, or they're participating in the trafficking. They are part of the problem. You know, when we talk about an African country, I actually reached out to a leader who is now in the States from a particular country to talk to him. And he said, well, you realize the problem there are the wealthy and the government that all trafficking happens there because of them.

And I don't think he just said that, like, you know, as a complainer, maybe he literally has intelligence and information to know that, you know, to say, look, you know, it's corrupt. And so that's the reality, Muslim or non-Muslim, that's the reality in any country. I mean, there are those there that are participating in that activity and they don't want us there, you know, or they want to control what's happening, what's being done.

And that fear factor is, is it just permeates down through the law enforcement. You know, we're constantly trying to help, um, teams we train overcome fear, you know? Okay. Well, we have another segment. We got loads more questions and we probably won't get to all of them today, but as always, when I mentioned, you can, by all means, go to Landon rescue, you know, add your question, your comment, and it gives us a better idea actually what we're talking about today, how we can be praying for the team of Mark and Ram and Alan and TC.

We'll be right back. Landon Rescue is a USA based organization that conducts international rescue operations for people suffering from human trafficking. Landon 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. Landon Rescue has developed rapidly to combat trafficking. Landon 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 LandonRescue.org to see how you can support them financially. Welcome back to Landon Rescue's kind of Q&A show today. Many listeners have reached out with these different questions on the website, different ways they've contacted us. So the team wanted to take a minute and share, kind of give ideas that, you know, that you all have been thinking about as you've been listening. And clearly, you know, what we get constantly is how can we support Landon Rescue both prayer and financially.

And as always, we'd urge you to go to LandonRescue.org to be able to access that support. But the next question we have here, I think it'd be a great one for Alan. So this listener wanted to know, how do you guys work yourself? We've heard you say you want to work yourself out of a job. How do you do that?

We haven't done it yet. The concept is, you know, one of the things we say, and I'm not sure who brought it up, but you can't necessarily rescue out of the situation. And what that means is, you know, we bring children out during these operations and the victims and that, but you've got to almost cut the head of the snake off. If there's somebody out there that is looking for this type of satisfaction and abusing children, it'll never end. You've got to get the person that's seeking this and stop it at that point. So rescuing is absolutely what is needed for the individual, you know, to get them out of that situation and give them a chance at life other than that. But the actual arrest of the perpetrator, the stopping of the individuals that are exploiting these children, that is the part that will end it or work us out of a job is the prosecution side of it.

Yeah, I think Alan covered that super well. And another thing that we can say about that is just stopping the demand. So I know we talk about not engaging in pornography all the time.

And, you know, if you see something, say something kind of stuff, and that's relevant as well as, you know, making sure that the demand stops so that they're not taking victims anymore. Right. And the thing that you guys have really woken me up to on this subject is so much of this demand worldwide comes right out of the good old USA. It does.

It does. I mean, we're the largest consumer of child pornography. And I don't think that's just because we have internet access. You know, we definitely are.

You know, Alan is a person who always talks about this and asks this question. I bring it up as far as what we're doing sustainable. Is there a sustainability in this country?

Because we've all worked in other places or trained people, especially Alan, who's trained in Africa and places and to pour yourself into an environment and then to come back and not be improved. You know, it's what we're doing sustainable. And I'm saying it has to progress like we want it to.

And it won't progress like it does in the state. But, you know, are we creating something that's sustainable? And that's why Lantern Rescue is all about working with the government, working with their law enforcement, training their law enforcement, you know, helping them through every stage and level of this type of work, you know. And, you know, we're I think we're only going to get better at it. You know, I think we're all as individuals. We learn more and more every time we work somewhere. And we're just getting better at it as a team. But I do.

We've not worked ourselves out of a job. But I do like what we're doing, you know. And you see things that would be like, you know, coming.

I know that this question very much on your heart, Wren, actually on everybody's heart. But I know this listener, we've talked about it a few times, and I know it's different per country, Wren, but they want to know what happens to the victims after they're rescued. So a couple of different things are going to happen after a rescue. Immediately in the moment after a rescue, they're brought back to the precinct, and we start assessing the individual situation.

Because, you know, right after we do the raid is not the time to be stopping and asking questions. So we get them back to the precinct. We open up a case file on them so that they are tracked.

Everything is done through the government. We are not in the business of moving individuals around without having records on them, because that's how people get abused and lost in the system. So we start to evaluate the situation, and we figure out, you know, were you kidnapped? Did you go, quote, unquote, willingly?

Did this person coerce you into coming? Did your parents sell you? Do you have parents?

How old are you? Do you have kids? You know, we start evaluating those things, and based on that is where they're going to go. So sometimes they are able to be reunited with families, and that's always amazing. We do, before that reunification happens, we do verify that the family is a good one for them to be going back to, that that environment is safe and healthy. If they're not able to return to their family, then we start pursuing aftercare options, and that's going to be different based on their age, do they have kids, their gender, stuff like that. So for the most part, if they're able to, they go to a live-in aftercare facility, which maybe picture a really nice boarding school would be a good image, and they're on these beautiful compounds. They have staff that is well trained in counseling and are able to provide their needs and meet their needs that way. They're provided for financially, their housing and food is provided for, and they are put into school. So whether they're needing to finish high school or if they're able to go on to college, all of that is taken care of through the aftercare facility.

If they have kids, there's even some aftercare facilities that they can go to with their kids, and they'll start helping them get a job and get them established to live independently on their own when they're ready to in the future. So I know in some countries, there's even a spiritual aspect to that as well, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's important to us as individuals, as a team and as an organization that the aftercare that's provided, the evaluations, everything, that it's faith-based.

Right. We talked about some of the things that happen after the children are taken out of the situation, but there's a transformation that takes place a lot of times. And you see it from the moment you pull them out of that situation to that process. And just describe where they're interviewed, assessed, and you can actually start seeing a change in them. And I think where Mark identified, you see that spark in their eye, that actually you can start seeing that during that process when they're being interviewed, they're actually realizing that they've been brought out of that darkness, per se, or that evil situation. And that transformation actually starts taking place at that point.

So I just kind of want to throw that in there. Oh, that's absolutely beautiful. And I guess there's opportunities that you guys even have to speak into that, because what a way to bring healing is Christ can bind up the brokenhearted. So this next question, actually, of all these questions was my favorite. And I was like, yeah, I want to know that. I don't know if you guys want to answer this, but I really love the question. And the listener asked, have you guys ever been pursued after you came back? Like, these people are coming after you for what it is that you might have been part of. And you knew that that was actually taking place. I personally have not, but we definitely have the conversation.

If I have to, I'll probably get a set of teeth for around the house. But so far, no. But it is a great question. And it is a small world, Robbie.

I know in my old job, I would definitely be talking to people from the countries that I've been in. And I thought, man, that's interesting. I, you know, I'll just keep my mouth shut.

But I personally have not had an issue like that yet. Mark, concerning the matter of the fight against trafficking, I have not had any violence toward me in the US. But, you know, it's, it is a small world. I hate to repeat that, but it is. And we are disrupting, not a $5,000 operation, we're disrupting millions, you know, for us recently to go into an area that a gang member who's been paid in the double digits of millions of dollars, you know, by his own government, you know, they're trying to control him, trust me, he, you know, he's very well connected, even in through the state. And so obviously, you know, this is all the more reason that we need to be praying. Because, you know, I think most of us feel very, very thrilled to be always to be in America. You know, we feel very safe and good.

It's a wonderful place to live. I would also say this, but it's always on our minds. But we've taken actions prior to to try and keep our identities and all that secret or confidential. And even when I'm back in the states, you know, I really don't talk about doing this stuff a lot to anybody, just with that mindset that you just don't know, you just don't know who may be entwined in that web.

So I think we all try to keep a pretty low profile. And it's not a thing that we talk about openly too much. So a little unrelated to being followed, but something to think about when you think about the teammates and when you're praying is that even though they might not physically follow us home, that what we've seen, we can never unsee and what we've heard and done, we can never erase those memories.

And like Alan just said, we don't really talk about it. So that is something that, you know, a lot of struggle with is just kind of trying to process that in secret. So when you're praying, just kind of remember that as well as, you know, hopefully we don't get followed and there's not that physical violence. But there's also that mental aspect where we, those things do follow us home. Yeah, the curses. And, you know, there's a lot of people in Muslim countries are just sitting over there cursing folks that they feel like are, you know, the opposite team, however you want to put that.

So this one I'm going to send to Alan because, you know, they just said that you're the guy in front of the Alpha team that they push out the door first. So how did these guys not want to rip somebody's head off? I mean, like you see them doing these things that are just totally unthinkable to a girl or a young boy or whatever it is that you see, Alan, and there you are obviously physically capable of ripping somebody's head off. How do you control yourself? I am more or less not in control of that.

I would say God is in control of me. And I'm not saying that can't happen, but the situations you face, you know, even in the other jobs that we did, there's always going to be a moment that you're faced that choice to react. And each situation may elicit a different response. So I know I'm being elusive here, but I'm not saying I can always control it.

I more or less let God lead me, and I'm sure the other guys on the team are the same way. So I know I'm skipping around that question a little bit. So I guess in that kind of answers it itself. Yeah, I understand.

Mark? It does. And we as a team, you know, talk each other through things and down things. I mean, we, these are real conversations. So it's funny, we laugh, you know, and it is a question, but literally in the last operation, we're contemplating, you know, vengeance in different, not just different scenarios, but a real individual too, who was present in the country, you know? And so thankfully, collectively, we have wisdom and we do as individuals and I'm in admiration of all of our teammates and everybody who works with us and the way they control themselves. But even collectively, we have much more wisdom in controlling how we act or what we should do or not do.

And a great deal of experience in law enforcement and these other things where, you know, you're in those situations. TC, I'm wondering your take on that question. My take on that question is it's not as simple as it sounds.

And we have gotten information done within the last week or two of what I would call almost unspeakable evil that people have perpetrated against kids for money, you know, to the extent of harvesting organs and, you know, just stuff that it boggles the mind. If you haven't been in the field much, you know, I guess I'm not going to pretend that I wouldn't struggle mightily to have a conversation with somebody somewhere that was a hard conversation, so to speak. But as Mark and Alan both said, you know, there's safety in numbers in the conversation and God's guidance, you know, not wanting to take vengeance. Although honestly, I would, you know, just to be very clear, I would like to take vengeance. I really can't pretend that I wouldn't. I have not. But it's the things that I have heard of and I've seen sometimes press this conversation to the nth degree. I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't.

Well, I hate we're out of time in this particular episode. But as you can tell, this has been really helpful for me to understand more how we need to pray, how we need to support the team, Land and Rescue, ongoing stuff, really cool stuff, stuff that will be happening soon and more conversations that will be happening. But again, you may have questions. We would love to have just go to atlantarescue.org.

Connect with it however it is that God puts it on your heart as you pray for the team. Guys, thank you so much for your help today. Thank you, Robert. Thanks, Robert. This is the Truth Network.