The West African Operation

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth 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. Welcome to Lantern Rescue.

It's so good to be back with you today. We've got some new stuff for you, and one of the things just kicking off is we got a special prayer request, right, for a team member, Violet. Am I right, Mark? Yes, and you know, that's not a real name, but because we're going to disclose and talk about the country as well this morning, and we just wanted to share a prayer request and ask folks to pray for her. She is a law enforcement member for working against trafficking in a country that we work in, and you know, it kind of brings up, and maybe Ren can talk about how close we get to those that we train and we work with that we really become, you know, they just become part of our family, and we talk to them, you know, the whole team interacts with several of them all through the weeks, you know, even when we're in the States, and so she was in a really, really bad life-threatening car wreck, and she's doing well, and but she's, you know, she's been out of the office for probably two and a half, three weeks now, and we really just want to lift her up in prayer and ask that she gets healed because, you know, medical care there is very limited.

The hospital situation is limited, you know, their level of care is not what it is we have in the States, so we really want to ask our listeners to pray for Violet. So, Mark, fill us in on the current situation in Haiti. You know, if you check the headlines in the news, you find out that the current president was asked to step down at the beginning of the year, and he made a refusal to do that, which in turn created an environment and culture where your gang leaders, you know, hit the streets, and of course, the regular protesters, so everybody's protesting about different things maybe, but the catalyst is that the president would not step down.

So, you know, you can go to our Instagram and you can see some of the situations. I mean, it's quite violent, and the gangs in Haiti are already so much in control of regions that now this gives them an excuse to just further their efforts to overthrow the government and to create chaos. Wow, and so, you know, that situation is at hand, and how does that affect the people, I suppose, that you've got on the ground there are all, you know, it's pretty hard to work in that environment. Yeah, it is. It's not working now because they have to focus so much on the riots that, you know, the violence is right there in everyone's face, so the victims that they could be out rescuing instead, all their efforts are diverted to dealing with these burning cars and riots and shooting in the streets, and they're not able to go help people that are innocent and need it.

Yeah. So, TC, from your perspective, how could we best pray for that? Well, clearly just the safety of the officers, whether there's a transition of power there, you know, that may or may not need to happen. I know that even within some of that tumult, some of the things that may come out of that later on could be a benefit both to what Lantern's trying to do there and even anti-trafficking efforts in and of themselves. So, sometimes when we look at things on the surface, clearly we as humans don't know all of what God's got going on, but in his sovereignty, you know, good things can come out of what seems like complete chaos. So I just pray we honor God in his sovereignty and that when he does open doors, that we're able to step in there and take advantage of what's been created as an opportunity. Yeah, absolutely.

And, Alan, you know, I love that prayer in the Psalms where, you know, strengthen what you're working on there, God, because like TC said, we know he's working, but how do you see things, Alan? You know, this is just another thing that occurs, you know, we not only have the rescues we do and the people that are being trafficked, but there's real life issues going on outside of that. So in this case, you know, the officers are having to do various other aspects of their job, not just focusing on the traffic thing.

So there's a reason for it. I'm not sure what that is, but, you know, as a parent, it's around our understanding. Yeah, absolutely. So, wow, we got all sorts of things going around the world. Mark, and then, you know, clearly you've got the Africa situation that we talked about, you know, last week. Yeah, actually, before we transition, I'll tell you, I do have a, we're trying to do an operation in that region next, you know, in the next few months, and especially sooner than later. And because they're not able to work, as Fran mentioned, and because what TC and Alan just said, it's, we really, really need a prayer that we can get things solidified, operations solidified, the right command from that country to have buy-in and say, yeah, let's do this, despite what's occurring around. This is essential, and this is important, you know, we need to, you know, address this. So, you know, we could, we really need some prayer that some of those things fall in place sooner than later, because, you know, we have to plan.

And now with COVID, we have to really plan and make arrangements, you know, whether we're getting tested to leave and tested to return, all that has to be, you know, figured out. And so we would ask for prayer for the Caribbean area that this operation details would fall in place. Yeah, Africa, we were able to talk a little bit last time, and I know that really TC and Alan have led a tremendous amount of training in such a quick time there for us. And I really want our listeners kind of to hear from them as far as, you know, how they felt like the training went in West Africa compared to other parts of the world that we've trained in, and what our expectations are there. Okay, well, to update our listeners a bit, last week's show was actually a previous one we'd recorded some time ago, it was the week before that we did the live show.

And if you missed that episode, where we were talking about Africa, by all means, go get the podcast of the show of week before last, it's absolutely spectacular what's going on in Africa. But transitioning to that, TC, you know, can you kind of share that with us? Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to touch on a little bit, really, I was the director of training. So I'd rather have the lion's share of this, but it was great to go there and see. And we talked about this in the past, but the spirit of two different organizations that we trained their, their energy and spirit and their desire, going forward to do the right thing for the right reasons, again, is to me always encouraging for us as an organization to go there and know that, you know, we're not the only ones we're not dragging them into this kicking and screaming.

We just had a I'll relay one event that I'll pass the torch, I'll pass the torch. But we were going from one facility to another with one of the organizations and the and the guys who were training formed up and actually started doing cadence in a route march up from one facility to the next. And part of that cadence, they were actually doing some some Christian songs. And it was just it was really excellent. It was really fun to hear the energy as their attitudes were great. And, you know, for two days in the really hot sun, they really got after it.

So I know, you know, Alan has a lot to add to that. But that was something that stood out to me in our training cycle. So TC mentioned about the training and some of the training we want to give them over there, you know, we go in with an expectation of what, what it is they need to understand and learn. And in this case, in Africa, I mentioned on the previous show, the individuals first came in contact with the train were not the typical operators that we usually deal with.

They were older and some were a little larger than most and some were extremely tall and skinny. Anyways, but their job wasn't necessarily the same job I'm used to training people before. Their job was observation and surveillance and interaction with individuals at the border. So we had to train a little bit to meet the needs of those individuals. We were able to facilitate that once we got a complete understanding of what the mission was. They fell in under our authority is is really exciting. It's not easy to gain that. And so there's there's a culture there that gave us a great respect, which is one of the parameters that we like to work under.

You know, you don't want to work in a third world country and you're there away from your family spending time and you know, they don't show up on time or they are, you know, disrespectful of what's occurring. You know, they're having to do work, which is understand they have to work in the day too, but we really liked their attention. And in this way, I tell you probably because it was from a very, you know, from the inspector general's office, you know, they were truly respectful and excited about what they were learning and excited about the end result that, you know, it's to rescue children and to help minors.

So, you know, from from our perspective, it was a huge success. And I know that there's a more training, you know, our Allen's training and the layout of the the training land. It's probably about six weeks total. Is that right, Alan? You know, if we have six weeks straight, we'd we'd have a very effective group is what we try to do over a year.

Right, Alan? You know, the you know, the normal the normal time frame it takes to train somebody up to speed usually is about six weeks. You have weapons in there and you have tactics and then you actually have scenario based stuff and you kind of get a feel for people. So what we normally do is we never get the opportunity to do a six week straight training with them. It was three days here, four days there. And, you know, that's sporadic throughout, you know, the course of a couple months. But this actual group, the law enforcement group, has the facilities and the capability of doing a more extended training to achieve those goals in the training. So, yeah, it's normally about six weeks, roughly, you know, that's if you could do it straight through, that'd be awesome. But that is rarely the case we get to do.

So we usually do a few days actually get right into operations and do a few months. Hopefully this relationship we have in Africa, we'll be able to facilitate a much quicker training and much more successful operations. Yeah, that's wonderful. And we've got a whole lot more about Africa coming up. And, you know, this amazing door that God has opened up.

So stay tuned. We got so much more Landon Rescue coming at you. Landon Rescue is a USA based organization that conducts international rescue operations for people suffering from human trafficking. Landon specializes in sending former U.S. 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 dollars 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. So welcome back to Landon Rescue and today's exciting episode of all things going all around the world and what God's doing in rescuing people from trafficking. And when we left, Alan, you were discussing this training and there's another aspect that really God does is you guys are doing that training.

I would love our listeners to hear. Yeah, what I was mentioning earlier was, you know, the training is one thing. It's easy to teach tactics and that, but throughout that training you start forming bonds with the individuals you're training and relationships with them.

That's the important factor. Once, you know, the training is complete to be able to do an operation with somebody you actually formed a bond with and you have ownership in and they have ownership in you. And that is really the end goal and sometimes the way we get there is, you know, through incidents that occur during training and that, you know, make them realize that we're real people too. You know, there was an incident in Africa where we actually were showing them some type of weapon skill tools and when we were utilizing what we thought were dummy rounds, they were actually blanks. And a blank is a round that just gives a noise, but it doesn't have a projectile. We didn't know that that noise was going to be there. We assumed it was going to be a dummy round and it was just going to be a tap, like ready drill. So anyway, during the training, you know, we discharged a blank safely, but it kind of caught everybody off guard and surprised. They realized, hey, these guys are real and they do make mistakes sometimes. The bond starts forming then and then throughout the training, you know, you actually have personal relationships.

You make fun of people and they make fun of you and you get to the end of the goal, which is to make everybody better and have that relationship so you're comfortable with those people going into adverse environments. So it's kind of what I was talking about earlier. Yeah. And the neat thing about, as I listen to that, that they're bound to be bonding with each other as well, right? And making a team, as you guys are literally trying to work yourselves out of a job, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, through training, the way we do it and the way we operate, everybody finds out everybody's strengths and everybody finds out everybody's weaknesses. And they feed off that and they actually learn how to implement those strengths where they need to be and how to keep those weaknesses at a minimum and work as a team and as a unit with or without us. And it just makes the organization as a whole much better and more proficient and efficient in operations. And again, it's a relationship thing and you get to make fun of people and laugh and joke after the operation when, you know, something didn't quite go the way it should have.

And, you know, who was the reason why it didn't. And you kind of get on them and it's kind of a comrade type mentality. Sure. And just like any spiritual battle, all the training and work that goes in ahead of time is just critical, right, TC? And you kind of deal with the results of all that, right? Correct.

And just when we say relationship, when Alan talks about relationship, I want to use the word trust. I want people to understand explicitly. You know, when we come to a place for some of these guys, they don't have a choice in the training. Their command staff says, you're going to go to training. They look at us and say, yeah or no, they know what they're doing or not. In the end, then these guys, these folks were extremely thrilled because, you know, all four of us did the work with them. We were out there sweating and running in the dirt, facing the dirt.

And we do know what we're talking about. So at the end of all that training, you know, there was a celebration of the trust because the work was real, the results were real. And then so just to segue to the results a little bit, where we did some of the work and some of the work took place. And I know in future episodes, we're going to talk specifically, but just in general, for the time that we were there, we had 12 interceptions, we'll call them, or interdictions, or 12 kids who averaged under the age of 15, who were rescued or interdicted, either in the process of being trafficked or being pulled out of trafficking, just while we were there for two and a half days in the locations that we worked. And I think probably six to eight traffickers were going to be prosecuted who went to immigration or who went to the police to have the case furthered on.

So those are real results in a very short period of time. And I think, you know, I think that's fantastic. And I know Ren's going to speak to some of the, I don't know, you know, some of the blood, sweat, and tears that actually goes into those results.

Yeah, please, Ren. Yeah, so this trip, traveling with COVID and all that, the difficulties that that's added, has been an adventure. And we do the training and that's hard and the rescues are hard, but there's a lot of stuff that goes into just getting us there, or while we're there, just getting around. Like, for example, this time, you know, we get, we land in the airport and we get shuffled into these tents and our fingers are pricked, we're given COVID tests, and that's all fine. But then, what was really unsettling, if you've ever done international travel, you'll understand that what was really unsettling was they took our passports from us and they held our passports for three days until our test results came back. And they didn't, you know, these countries aren't necessarily the most organized, so we'd even take our passport and throw them in these, like, shoe boxes, basically, and all of us just kind of accepted that we're probably going to see these passports again. We did eventually get them back, but then when we tried to leave the country, half of the team got, ended up getting stuck there for a couple extra days because their COVID tests had expired. And that was just one small fact that, you know, while we're in the country, now that we're traveling with COVID, we're experiencing, what else was that, extended travel or, you know, we don't have our documents on us, which is unsettling in a foreign country. Just from that to the travel within the country, the cars break down constantly, you know, our hotels are hard to find, state houses are hard to find, food is hard to find, so it's a lot that goes into these training events. You kind of have to have, especially when we didn't have our passports in another country, you just have to have this blind faith in that the people around you are going to help and you can trust the locals and you have to start trusting them right off the bat and develop this relationship because you're at their mercy, basically.

We're in a foreign country, very far away from home, without any documentation, we can't get home, we can't even get into the airport without these tests and our passports. So it's a really interesting experience, so we're developing trust in them just as much as they are in us. Yeah, and pretty funny story, I happen to know. And Alan, if you could share with us, you know, what happened when all of a sudden, you know, you got pulled aside, you couldn't come back home, and man, at that moment, you got to have money and it didn't work out just the way you might have thought, right?

Yeah, it was a little concerning. The funny part was, you know, we had one of our teammates leave a few days early because of obligations back in the States, and then another teammate left that very same day, but earlier in the day. And then me and PC wind up going to the airport very late at night, about midnight, I think it was. We get there and I actually got through the security checkpoint, the initial one, and they had checked my paper, but obviously not well enough. And then PC come in behind me and they checked his paper and said, oh, no, it's no good. And I was like, wait a minute. I stepped back to the line and said, this paper is the same as mine. And then all of a sudden they're like, well, you can't go either.

I'm like, really? So we had a moment of tension there. I should say a few moments of tension between us and the airport officials and the FBI agent at the airport as their version of the FBI came in and got involved.

And long story short, they basically said, yeah, we appreciate you guys being here and helping us, but you can't leave because you don't meet the requirements of the COVID testing, which we didn't make aware to you when you landed. But so in saying that, then we had to try and figure out, well, we have about maybe a hundred bucks between the two of us and that might've got us a hotel for the night, but it definitely wasn't going to get us any food or pay for $160 COVID tests. So we started trying our cards at the various ATMs throughout the country, which the ATMs in this country are pretty sketchy.

TC, his cards won't work. Fortunately, mine did. And thank goodness because we were able to withdraw enough money to pay for COVID tests, pay for the flight alteration we had to have, because we didn't leave the night we were supposed to. But the concerning part was, you know, you have to get this other COVID test. Well, if it comes back positive, well now you're on a two week quarantine. So that adds another additional two weeks in the country. So once the test came back and we found out they were negative, then we breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that we have a good chance of getting out of the country now. So yeah, it was quite a, quite a fiasco there at the end.

And TC, right. This just wasn't a little sum of money in order to do with the exchange. That apparently their money isn't worth quite as much. Can you share with our listeners a little bit what was happening at the ATM machine? Well, I definitely can, but I want to say, first of all, unofficially, that I at first suspected that the team's actually trying to leave me behind. Your wife paid us to do that, TC. Sorry, man. I don't want to cast any shade. So yeah, so the funny thing was, Alan actually did save my bacon because my card would not work.

My card would not work at all, no matter what I did. And I actually called my bank and he said, yeah, you're dumb. You're doing this.

And this is what's happening. So, but Alan actually got the money out to get our, to get our keysters back on the plane. But I bet, I bet it was at least a dozen times on the, on the car ride. We were trying to do the math from their currency to ours. It was, it was phenomenal. And we were, we were exhausted and laughing and we finally got it figured out. We got enough money to get back on a plane. And we actually were, I was concerned that we were going to have a 41 hour layover at one of our stops on the return. And Alan was like, I don't care what it is.

We have to get out of here. So we had that conversation as well. So it was good times, absolutely good times. In the end, Alan and I were able to do some math on some things that we thought would help the team in the future. And we also did some spiritual checkup on our reaction to interesting times. So it was good.

And it was profitable. Yeah, I bet. So Mark, what would you want to share with our listeners here in the last couple of minutes? Yeah. You know, the, the perseverance of even, you know, traveling, obviously people are aware of that and we've shared a little bit, uh, uh, you know, I wish, uh, when you hear TC say a 41 hour layover, uh, those are long layovers, you know, right now, because of COVID and I think my flight was a 28 hour straight flight back.

Um, and we're used to those things and those are fine. COVID definitely made it more difficult because a lot of our planning sometimes is down to the last minute. So the price of things is more, um, you know, and it's difficult, but we're not, we're not going to give up. We're not deterred. And, uh, you know, perseverance is just something that we have to keep and, uh, we just can't get up and can't give up.

I mean, the end result is worth it. God bless our listeners and thank you truth network for letting us be on the radio. This is the truth network. One of our generous sponsors here at the truth network has come under fire fire from the enemy fire for standing up for family values.

Actually, one of the biggest supporters of the movie unplanned that talked about the horrors of abortion. Yes, it's Mike Lindell. You've heard me talk about his pillows for a long, long time, and no doubt big business is, uh, is responding to Mike Lindell and all this generosity for causes for the kingdom by trying to shut down his business. You can't buy his pillows at Kohl's anymore. You can't get them on the Amazon or you can't get them at Costco.

They're attempting to close his business because he stood up for kingdom values. What a chance to respond, especially if you need a pillow. Oh, I've had mine now for years and years and years and still fluffs up as wonderful as ever. Queen size pillows are just $29.98. Be sure and use the promo code truth or call 1-800-944-5396. That's 1-800-944-5396. Use the promo code truth for values on any MyPillow product to support truth.