Mission Preparation!

Woodrow Kroll here. When you train one pastor in Ecuador, some donor friends are standing by to train a second pastor. Call 833-443-5467 or go online at trainapaster.com.

Every gift counts and now every gift is doubled. trainapaster.com Sit back, enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network.

Previously on Lantern Rescue. Pornography has always been something that has been on my heart because it's so desensitizing. I'm the person who asks why. So like when I heard about some of the really strange porn that was out there, I was like, why? And just hearing that story of how desensitizing it is and how it was just more and more and more and more just aligned so much with what I had always believed is the problem with porn.

Because it's not just an initial watching something, it's a rabbit hole you go down and it leads to so many dangerous things. 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. So how exciting today on Lantern Rescue.

We are actually just a day before the team heads out to West Africa. And so what a great time to just get a sense of how the team prepares for that. And we got a chance to talk with each. So we got Wren here with us right now. And Wren, share with us what your thoughts are as you prepare, you know, physically and mentally and all for what you got coming.

Sure. Thanks so much, Robbie, for having us today. We're excited to talk to you guys before this next trip gets underway. But yeah, so we're getting ready for a trip.

There's a lot of stuff that goes into it. We get ready in a in a longer sense. Throughout the year, we're always staying in shape. We're keeping up on our tactics. You know, today we did a bunch of run throughs of building, clearing and moving from one target to the next and entries and exits and moving as a team. And that's stuff that we have to train on all year round. But right before mission starts, we really get some good repetitions in on that and work together see, you know what we're going to be doing overseas, maybe we can get the layout of the place that we're going and we're able to get an idea of how we're doing that. So that's something that we all really enjoy doing together and is really beneficial. Another thing that we did recently that is maybe puts us into perspective for some listeners is this morning before we got started in the training, we just all made sure that our wills were updated and made sure that we knew each teammate knew what to do with the other teammates body on the off chance that we don't come home alive.

You know what we would do where what funeral home we want them to be released to and and how we would transition that from where we're at back to the United States. Wow, that's kind of heavy, I'm sure. But something that is part of the preparation. Yeah. Yeah, you have to really cover, you know, it's not just packing a bag and jumping on a plane and going and bring you to shorts and a floral button-down shirt to a vacation. You know, you have to really consider all avenues and the last thing you want your family to have to deal with if something does go awry over there is figuring out how to get you back and what's going on with that and these conversations are better had when nothing's going on than in the heat of the moment, you know, just figuring all that out and and really covering all your bases.

Oh, I know. That's absolutely, and actually at my age I've been doing more and more. How about spiritually?

What is that like for you, Wren? You know, we all take time and just kind of think about, you know, make peace with our maker and to say it lightly, you know, we take time to ourselves and sometimes as a team we're able to come together and just talk about things and why we're being led certain places and I think more of less thinking about what might happen if we do pass, more of thinking why we're there and if we do pass what the reasoning would be and just knowing that there is a plan whether we realize it or not and that we're called to these places for a reason. Yeah, that's something to think about and so do you make extra effort to reach out to a lot of friends before you leave? I have a really bad tendency of no not doing that at all. Most of the time my friends have no idea I've left the country, so I know my friend Tori's been on the podcast before and she's mentioned that. You know, I have a really bad habit of doing that because my friend group, a lot of them don't have the same background as me, so they tend to just worry themselves into a frenzy rather than knowing that I'm over there and being okay with it. I just wait until I get back and let them know that way. For my friend group that's just what's better for them. I know that's different for each person, but for me it's easier to just tell them like, hey, I just got home from this.

It was really cool. Then have them sweating it out for a week or two. So emotionally, you know, as you see this opportunity, do you feel excited? Do you feel anxious?

What does that feel like? The only anxiety I've really had recently with Trist is just getting there with the regulations and COVID and all that. That has really caused some hiccups, to put it nicely, in our travel plans. It's been a lot more challenging than in the past to be able to get into these countries.

Some of them are already restricted acts of countries, so that's really been a challenge. The only anxiety we have is, are we going to even make it there? Is all of our stuff going to be with us? Are we going to be scrambling when we get there to figure out what's going on?

Are we going to get quarantined when we get there? Other than that, we plan pretty well and we know that what we're doing is the right thing. So I don't really have any anxiety when it comes to the missions or the reason that we're going or what we'll be doing there. It's just that, are we even going to get there?

That is really kind of the issue. Which tells us how we can be praying, right? Yeah, definitely that we actually get there and, you know, there's no hold ups or anything weird going on.

Nobody holds Alan back this time. That was an adventure. All right, well, moving along. How about you TC? Well, so I do have a bit of a routine. I don't, I thought it was interesting thinking about this particular topic. So spiritually, it's probably not a lot different for me. I'm usually reading and praying and have a routine already. So that doesn't change a lot.

So that's pretty stable and steady for me. Emotionally. I get, this doesn't sound very spiritual. I get a little angry. I get a little grumpy. Half the house is clearing out around me for about two days prior.

I don't know. I just, it happens every time I try not to do it. I try to talk myself out of it, but I'm not listening to me talk. So the other thing to do, I think it's funny. I call myself doing it again the other day. When I pack, when I physically pack my bag, my gear, I get all the stuff out, throw it on the floor.

And I started circling like a dog getting laid down on the carpet. And I look at it and I walk away and I look at it and I come back and I throw a few things in the bag. It's almost like impossible just to sit there and pack the bag. So packing takes like a day and a half.

It's ridiculous. And then I finally get my Tetris set out together and get it all stuffed in there. And part of that's mission dependent. Depending on what we're doing, we're dependent on gear that's going in. And so, yeah, like that.

So, wow. You know, I think about the trips. Do you have like a checklist or anything that you use?

Yeah. No, I don't have a physical checklist like that. So when we start, it's a country specific and we know the mission, then we start going in the kit or the bag that is going to help facilitate whatever we're doing. And so you just, for me personally, I just mentally look at the operation, even going through the operation and get the kit on my body. So from your standpoint, and still on the emotional side of this, you know, as you get ready to, you know, get on the plane, are you actually excited or would you say you're, you know, what are you feeling as you're doing that? Uh, until, and like Ren said, going through airports and with all the new stuff.

No, I'm not excited. Once we're down in whatever country we're going to, then it's different. It's like a shift in my brain. Here we go. We have a mission to do.

We have something to accomplish. There are people to meet, whatever it is, that's totally different. And I shift gears for the duration of whatever we're doing.

And then getting back on, you're anxious to get home. So I would say each phase of the thing has a different set of feelings, I guess. Yeah, I understand. And so, you know, and you can share what you can share, but from your standpoint on this particular mission, what would make it a success? That's a good question. We just, we want to meet, we want to meet the right people, develop some good relationships and just see if there's, you know, anything we can do to help some folks out.

That's probably as good as I can say that at this time, but meeting the right people, having some work with them, you know, based on those meetings. Yeah. Cause this situation's a little different than some that you face. And so the right people make a huge difference.

They do always. Yeah, I understand. So Mark, what you got for us? Hey Robby. Well, you know what, TC just stole all my thunder.

He said exactly, here's what's funny. We've known each other for years and we went all over the place together. And then literally today in the car, or I don't know, we were in the middle of training or something.

He admitted something that is so true about me and my house. And that is the two days before I tried to not be anxious, angry, or demanding, because we go, the war starts. Then it begins before we get to the country, the fight against evil, man, it just happened. Everything I've said this on other shows, everything will break. Nothing formulates well.

The item that you threw out on the ground and you're looking for, you went through 14, 14 Pelican box, you can't find it. And so you just get grumpy. And I will confess this, I get a little afraid, not for myself, not for my team. I literally looked at my children and I think, oh man, will she remember me if I don't come back?

What would be the memories that she has that she holds on? And then as a spiritual leader for the house, then you're like, man, have I instilled everything I need to in them? It's intense. Anybody listening who's deployed right now is shaking their head up and down, yes, because they know when you leave family and your house has to be taken care of, your cars have to be taken care of, you got to leave all your logins and passwords for your wife, you're the bill payer, and you're the one who handles the finances. You're trying to take care of all the aspects that you can, especially as men who lead our families, we don't want to leave anything missing. But the problem is you're going to, you are leaving everything unfinished, from raising your children to everything. And so this is the conflict, man.

This is real. This is what we don't sleep about and why we struggle. But God's grace is sufficient and we always get there.

Second thing, TC, you're dead on. I throw all my stuff down to, and I get what I call this packer's block, where I've started running too many scenarios through my head because I've had too many scenarios happen overseas, almost every scenario you can imagine, and plus one more. And then I can't pack because I'm thinking of all those scenarios. What you have to come back on is you got to go, God, you have to protect me. And I always think of this first, Robbie, it says, if you're only 31-6, be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. So it's not like we get in on the plane and we go, ah, we forgot our toothbrush.

That would be great if that's all we were concerned about. But what we're thankful for is that God does go before us. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. And that right there, that small phrase has definitely in my life seen me through a lot of places and a lot of environments where I was completely and utterly afraid. But I got there and still was able to do all we needed to do. Well, that's powerful.

I hate we got to go to a break. I'm sure you're like me, you know, just wondering what God is up to here. And so we're going to hear much more on the deployment of the team going out tomorrow to West Africa here on Lantern Rescue.

Stay tuned. Lantern Rescue is a USA-based organization that conducts international rescue operations for people suffering from human trafficking. Lantern 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 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 is 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. So welcome back to Lantern Rescue today. The team is fixing to deploy to West Africa on what sounds like just getting the description from a listener's point of view, something that has some risk involved.

So a lot of preparation certainly goes into that. And T.C., you were talking about at Devotions just this morning, right? You guys were covering some team stuff. We were. So as much fun as it is for me to pack at home, I also have my own lane to travel and as a teammate, Alan's got his thing with training and March making contact with people and Wren's just gluing things together and helping with the same with those contacts. So when I'm packing and when I'm preparing, I have to be good at my job, whether that's, you know, support, whether that's getting the luggage off the plane or whether that's making sure that every, you know, teammates on a plane getting back to where they need to be. Those sorts of things are also happening. So this morning in our Devos, when teams travel, it isn't always sunshine and roses.

You know, there can be friction. We're humans. We're fallen and we're small. So we're just talking this morning in Philippians 2.20 and 2.2 just that, you know, Jesus made himself with no reputation. He did not grasp at significance.

He knew he was his father's son. We're talking about how there's no grumbling or disputing. And those things show us as lights in the world. So those things all matter to the team as well. So, you know, we just we conversed around those verses this morning and just talked about, you know, being humans on a team and being fallen humans on a team. So those sorts of things are, you know, part of what I believe God brings to us very specifically.

I hadn't had plans for Philippians, but there they were and there we were as a team talking about Philippians. Yeah. And I think about as we hear these stories, TC, of, you know, things happen quickly. You're in the airport and all of a sudden this happens or that happens.

The team gets separated and the next thing is, wow, we're two instead of four or whatever that feels like. I, you know, it's hard for me to imagine. But at that point in time, clearly that's part of your preparation now is what does happen when that happens.

Yeah, I mean, this is Mark. A way to be prepared is to, unfortunately, is to think negatively, OK? Yeah. And to think about every aspect of the operation as far as what, you know, could fail. And, you know, we've definitely heard the quote before this is by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Right. So the time that is spent in our pre-planning and this discussion, like even, you know, the spiritual discussion this morning, but they're so vital and they're never enough. We do them and we try to do them well. We try to mirror what we know works in other working agencies or groups. And we've all gleaned from them and how we handle our pre-op and our offsetting things.

But you never can do enough. And that, though, is definitely I feel like we take the right steps and then, God, where we miss our where the loopholes are and where the failures could be, God steps in and fills that gap. But we have learned a lot. Nobody on this team knows everything and we're constantly pointing out aspects of what we could improve on. Actually, this particular pre-op moment that we're having in the last couple of days is actually just the team coming together after the last overseas operation and saying, you know what, we need to do the following. We need to get back to this, this and that, or we need to integrate this into our pre-op planning. So we're always trying to improve, always bringing in people who have expertise, who want to be part of the team or at least want to give us some advice. And we utilize that. So, you know, when did Abraham Lincoln that said, give me six hours to chop down a tree and I'll spend the first four sharpening that? Well, we spend a lot of time sharpening that. Yeah. So, you know, I understand there's some preparation involved on an operation when all of a sudden everything changes.

We thought that this was going to happen. So tell me about that. You know, we've already had, we've already in this particular operation, we've already had that. We're not even there yet. And I can't tell you how many changes have occurred or different things. And the ones that we can talk about, let's talk about one, let's talk about COVID, right?

Wren mentioned that. Well, you know, we find out that in our flight path, in our route there, we're dropping into a country that requires a test, not 96 hours before, not 72 hours before, but 48 hours before, right? You know, the world is confused about what it should do and shouldn't do right now with COVID. But so now we're trying to, how are we going to get a test that's 48 hours before we go halfway around the world, right? Yeah, we can handle the 72 hour and the 96 hour, but now we've got to figure that out. So now we have to make arrangements to be tested elsewhere. And it has to be this kind of test or that kind of test.

So, you know, those things you can't plan for. Larger situation I'm thinking of in this operation, you know, we're still trying to assess from far who the players are and identify the intelligence and the course of action that we're going to be doing there and what's expected. And then as a team setting the goals out, you know, everybody, the goals are not just to rescue kids. The goal is not just to arrest criminals. Believe it or not, the goal is to put in place for that country, that region, that government, an operation, a counter human trafficking operation that actually works when we're not there.

Okay. And that's so important for our listeners to understand that, that our involvement is sometimes we're the catalyst to put these things in place. And sometimes, yeah, there are countries that don't do anything unless we're there. But then there are these great regions of the world that we also work and have done it and they are moving forward even without us, you know, and so that's exciting.

Maybe I got off course there a little bit. No, I think that that's really helpful and it kind of illustrates, compared to other operations that I'm familiar with where you went, it kind of seems that this particular operation, you're on one of the first trips into this area. We're definitely going to be in an area that's extremely conflicted and we've already been close to that area and it was semi-conflicted, but now we're in the area that's majorly conflicted.

And the reason is because we know that there are girls and victims and children that we have intercepted who are being taken to that part of the world or vice versa. And we really have to get into the trenches there and evaluate and see what we can do or not do. So we really do covet everyone's prayers, particularly for the next few weeks. We talk about COVID, but it's just a little bit of a pain. That's nothing really to what we're facing and the decisions we have to make when we step out of a vehicle and the movements we take. So we really covet everybody's prayers.

Yeah. And as I was just thinking, as I'm hearing, it sounds like, wow, we're coming to a new place to some extent, not completely new, but obviously there's a new group and assessing where's the good, where's the evil, where's the in-between, where's something I can trust, where's a peer to hang on to. And so when you're looking out across just a question in general and you come into an area like that, how do you begin to, is that part of how you decide, okay, well, here's somebody that we feel like we can count on or how does that work? You know, much like that, Robbie, you do start somewhere.

You have to start somewhere. You don't, I guess you don't dole out your trust willy nilly or simply, but you have to start somewhere. And then if that trust is rewarded, you know, in small bites, then you add to it with more trust being doled out.

We have had trusts violated in the past. So you don't really forget those things and you take those memories on to the next mission. Right. And I really get a sense of the prayer need right now of, wow, this is spiritual warfare on a level I can't even imagine. So as you wake up in the morning, is there a different kind of spiritual warfare that's going on within your team then, then what we, obviously than what we face, but can you kind of walk us into that?

I don't know if there's, I don't know if I call it different. I do see, you know, Mark mentioned that things start breaking. This goes south. It's uncanny. And it, I absolutely, it actually helps me to mark when it starts happening. I had a conversation with my youngest daughter the other day over some of this stuff and it was, I'm thinking, yep, we're about ready to travel. Here we go. So, you know, that, that stuff is real.

That's not make-believe. That absolutely happens a hundred percent. Yeah, clearly we, we were getting a sense of that. I suppose that, you know, that's to an extent how Satan keeps you kind of with your focus back on yourself rather than on the mission. Is that kind of something that you face?

I don't know. Sometimes to tell the beginning from the end, am I focused on myself? At times I am. But to have my devos, to read God's word, is God talking to me?

He is. But in so doing, as with all of scripture, when my heart is right with him, when I'm attempting to worship him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, then I will love my neighbors as myself, which affects the team and the country we're going to. Does that make sense? Oh yeah, absolutely. Because therein lies, I'm sure, part of what has, you know, given you guys the success you've had is that people see love and, and something that these people are coming here to help and that you're gifted in order to actually have the, the tactics to do that kind of thing. So I guess, Robbie, today's really been about preparing for unprepared moments.

And that's, that's the reality. It doesn't matter how well trained we are and all the advice we get, there are still just unpreparable moments that happen overseas in operations. And I know for listeners and for us, even here in America, there are things that happen we can never be prepared for, right? Oh yeah. And so the, you know, the specific, very effective way to prepare for the seemingly unprepared moment for me is a spiritual decision.

And that's the war that happened prior to leaving. And so I had to remind myself, you know, what does God think about what I'm doing? Okay. Then I have to think about what is God prone to do for me in these types of moments? So what does God think? I think He wants justice. He talks about us defending the oppressed and the fatherless and those who are weak and that we need to do that. Then what is God prone to do?

You know what He's prone to do? Never leave me nor forsake me. And then it comes down to the question, can I trust God, right?

Am I going to trust Him in an environment to go and do this work when others say you're nuts? And then last, the bottom line is this, who is ultimately in charge? And it's not me. It's none of us as team leader. It's not our command.

It's not even. Ultimately, God is in charge, right? And He keeps using even and redeeming even the moments that we weren't prepared for. We get to see those miracles in ways that I'm grateful for.

Yeah. Which just, you know, allows us the honor really of continuing to pray along these lines, because He is the one in charge and He is, He's got a plan. And we're going to pray alongside of you that you guys find a new beachhead there to which to start an operation or continue the operation that the country's already engaged in to stop human trafficking. So I'm sure all the listeners are joining me right now like, man, what an honor to pray for you guys as we know you.

Head out tomorrow. Thank you, TC. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Wren. Thanks, Wren. God bless you, brother.

Thank you. Thank you for listening to Lantern Rescue, lighting the way to freedom. Would you consider a gift of any amount to support this ministry to light the way of freedom for a young person trapped in the clutches of human trafficking? Help us with any gift of any amount at lanternrescue.org. At the website, you can also learn about previous programs. You can listen to this program in its entirety and forward it to a friend. Thank you for listening. Join us next time right here for Lantern Rescue. This is the Truth Network.