What It Takes

Speaking of hangry, we got something going on at the Truth Network that's going to help the world not be so hangry. Yeah, he's talking about just needing God's Word. He said, please help the Truth Network send Bibles to Africa.

And we know that they need God's Word. We have until the end of the month, just $5 gets a Bible in the hands of a poor, impoverished believer all over the African continent with the help of the Bible League. Just $5.

Just think about that, Robbie. Just $5. So please give. If you can give more than $5, man, we'd love for you to do it. And the number to call is 1-800-YES-WORD. 1-800-YES-WORD. 1-800-YES-WORD. Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

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Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Previously on Lantern Rescue. The first time I found out I was actually in college, and my mom just sent me a text, Hey, your dad's going over to such and such country, and it's going to be dangerous. I came back one summer, and I started learning more of what he actually was doing and had been doing. And I was like, Oh, wow, okay, that's really awesome. I'm really glad I get to be a part of this.

It's also kind of nerve-wracking, especially because as the oldest who was like gone in college when all of this started, I didn't really have a full understanding or get to see the whole process as soon as it started. 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 once again, today we have a treat for you today on Lantern Rescue in that we are live with the team up here in the fields of Virginia.

And to kick off this particular episode, we're with Jamie, which is Mark's spouse, who's obviously had her chance to be around all 24 people this weekend. And really, you saw something from your perspective, obviously, being here last year and being in on the ground floor of a lot of what was going on in Lantern Rescue, from your perspective. So they did recently talk about having the life coach come in to the group and help us all see where we're all fitting on this pie, so to speak. And they sort of realized that the pie was kind of top heavy, like they had a big head. And I don't mean like swollen with pride, but just like we had one part of the body and we're missing a real important part to help the body function well and to function correctly. And so as we, everybody in the room was putting their, having their dots put on the pie so we could see where it all fell. We saw more of a balance happening so that things function well, things function properly.

That the head can move better, otherwise it's stationary without legs and arms. Right. And so, yeah, it's a much more complete team. It needs a heart? Yeah, I think that, yeah. I'm just throwing that one in there, but no, you know, having been around all of you, it's always had plenty of heart because we know it's got the heart of God. Yeah, you had mentioned, well, with all these big personalities in the original four, how do you all get along? And human beings always have some conflict, of course, and even the life coach said that's healthy. But there is a heart that every one of those 24 people had that all is the same, that helps them sacrifice some of their way to make the end goal stay the end goal. So everybody's willing to sacrifice a little, but still, we all are trying to learn to listen to each other so that we don't miss something important. Yeah, I, having been around you guys, I hope you listeners can sense with me, you know, like, I know it sounds kind of gross, but when David talked about, you know, the spit coming down the beard, you know, it's like, man, like how good is it when God sees brothers just being brothers, right?

And really loving each other. You know, TC and Alan, you know, it's just, you know, what a connection, if you could see these two guys together, talking about the new church, and you know that God just, He loves that, especially when it's in righteous causes, you know, but now, you know, another like phase of what God's doing, Mark, has taken over, and so we got work to do. Yeah, we're really excited to really improve our ability to handle both civilian volunteers and then former law enforcement or military fellows who want to participate.

And it's not a promise or guarantee, but we have a way that you don't fall through the cracks, you know. And first of all, I would like to say, so that the team of 24 that Jamie was just speaking to, they're tasked and they're prepared and ready and passionate to handle volunteers who want to do freedom dinners, who want to say, how can I help with awareness, just give me anything, I'm ready to do it. And we've had a lot of that, but the main head has been overseas, you know, and we're not the hand-holding type of people to help those. So we have some wonderful men and women who are going to be doing that, and if you filled out a freedom volunteer questionnaire, expect that you're going to, somebody's going to be in touch with you in the next week, so excited about that. The freedom volunteer would be somebody who specifically is tasked with... So on our own website, landandrescue.org, people can volunteer, not to be an operator, but volunteer to do like a freedom dinner, let's host something at their home or their church, and as well as become maybe an ambassador for us, like how can I share information about you guys, what all can I do to volunteer as a civilian from the States, from home, right? And so that's a short little, you just go to landandrescue.org and click on volunteer, fill that out, somebody's going to be in touch with you.

For all those that filled it out in the past, somebody's going to be in touch with you. What maybe after sharing a lot about that, Alan, I want to kind of focus in on another person, and that's the operator, and he mentioned in the last show Alan did that, you know, rather sooner than, rather than later, we're needing some additional operators. And... And so what's an operator, again, for those of us who don't know, a rescue operator, but go ahead, Alan. So an operator is those boots on the ground would actually do the work, either going into the clubs and the brothels or on the borders or all that in between. So it's basically a person that has tactical knowledge or knowledge they've experienced through their career or their current job, whether it's military or law enforcement corrections, all those things have unique components to them that benefit your abilities as a team to work. Just because you were in the reserves and you might have been a supply sergeant doesn't necessarily make you an operator. However, it doesn't also exclude you from being an operator if you're trainable and have the passion to learn what is needed, but we don't always have the time to teach somebody the basics of whether it's building entry or patrol tactics or whatever it may be. We were looking for those individuals who have those components within them.

So those are the people we're looking for. But I think on one of the podcasts earlier, you know, even I had all those characteristics and abilities within me, the spirit hadn't moved to me yet until it did. And you need to be the person where that spirit moves you and tells you, I gave you all these talents and abilities for more than just you, and it's for my purpose.

We're not about going out there and thumping people and smashing the bad guys and all that. It's really not about that. It is all about God's will and taking care of his children, you know, and you have to have the ability to do all those other things. But your first and foremost needs to be the care of the child and getting him out of that situation. You may have to do all those other things. I'm not saying you won't, and you probably will, but that cannot be your goal moving into this.

It has to be the heart for the children, what God's doing here. Yeah, he's really pointing out the difficulty is there's a lot of folks who have a background of tactical skills and other things. The hard part is finding that right heart and the right maturity and integrity. The selection process is, I would equal it to maybe harder, so those who are listening and want to jump in, I want you to know the selection process might be more difficult than anything in the SOF community. It's such a small, narrow window, not just from us, not from your background, but from the governments we're working with and working at the highest levels of governments we can.

You have to be so diplomatic. I mean, you're representing a lot of different things at one time, so it's a really hard selection process, but we do need those folks, and we have a website we like to send them to. It's kind of lengthy and long, but hopefully rememberable for them, and that is www.counterhumantraffickingjointtaskforce.com.

I'll say it again, it's www.counterhumantraffickingjointtaskforce.com. There's some stages in that registration, so they can begin a registration, and if they pass the first just after they put their passport in and we understand who they are and do some background that we unlock their profile, and they're able to build out who they are. We want your resume, your DD214, your references, your law enforcement background, all of that.

Whatever that is. All of that has to be given. But I was just going to mention for those who, we'll get our producer Rachel to put it in the show notes on the podcast, the link, the Counter Human Trafficking Joint Task Force.

Get that link exactly laid out there so that you can go in and do that, and if you know what a DD214 is, you're probably a lot more qualified than Robbie at that point. The military side, that is a quality we're looking for, but it doesn't have to be a military background. Law enforcement is so critical. Believe it or not, corrections is really good too, because if you're in corrections and you're part of the tactical team within corrections, I know you've got the means to communicate. That's a big factor in this job, is to be able to communicate well with people you may not even like. We're looking for that, not just a big thug that can smash down a door and scoop up five people and run out the other side. That's not really what we're, although that's good quality, but it's not a necessity. We're looking for those skilled people that are not just skilled in talents, but skilled in the heart.

Yeah. That's a big answer too in that profile build, that they have to describe their faith and some other things, which are essential to us, but it's a way they don't fall through the cracks. They can say, man, I feel like God's calling me to do this, and they could go to the website, build out their profile. We know who they are. We'll recognize that. We'll be bringing all of them together at times of the year, whether we ever, and it makes it clear on the site, they may hear from us in a week. They may hear from us in a year. They may never hear from us, but they're in there, and if we need them, we might know their skillset, their language skill, all that, right? And we can deploy them in that way. So it's building now that registration and processes, it's kind of already out there.

This is just the first time that we've actually said it on the radio. Well, as Jamie said at the beginning of the show, that we got a head and we got a heart, now we need some hands and feet, like, wow. And these are uniquely trained that God has. And so for those of us who don't know what a DD214 is, we can pray that God will send workers into the harvest field, because clearly what you said on a number of shows, Mark, is that there's no shortage of opportunities. So at this point in time, hands and feet are needed. A hundred percent.

I would say this, we were talking about tactical side, but there's other aspects. If you feel that push or that you need some sort of confirmation and you're listening to this show and all of a sudden it pops into your head, hey, this is my confirmation. Well, listen to that little voice, because that might be what the cue is for you to step out there and join in whatever aspect, whether it's the tactical side, the administrative side, all those other sides, I mean, if you feel that call from God and you need the confirmation, this may be it. So go with that and reach out there and fill out those applications and touch base with us. We're all connected, so we'll know who it is that we need. Well, as you can see, you know, you've got everything from freedom volunteers that help provide the financial resources to make these trips. You've got the hands and feet, you know, the Lord is moving, and so we got a chance to pray. We got a chance.

What God puts on your heart. You know, go to lanternrescue.com or the link for the other, you know, lanternrescue.org. Lanternrescue.org is for the volunteers who civilian side or the counter human trafficking joint taskforce.com for the other side. Thank God.

We'll be right back. Lantern Rescue is a USA based organization that conducts international rescue operations for people suffering from human trafficking. Lantern 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. 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. Today's episode again, we get a chance to be with the team live on this retreat as God is obviously mounting up an army and so along those lines Mark, it's really cool to have an opportunity to reach out and ask, you know, pray, God who would you have and what does that look like? Yeah, we're excited about this episode because it's been forthcoming and that is that we wanted to take time on the radio show and promote the need for rescue operators and I know we say that we're going to get a lot of people coming to the website that we're posting but it's a pretty narrow window and we are just kind of chatting here about who that person is and really I'll tell you, the comfort I have is that God has that person already in mind and he's not just been training them for the last week, he's been training them their whole life, you know, and like Alice, they might be military, they might be law enforcement, they might be a contractor, they might, who knows, but God has been training them their whole life and they're going to be that right person. The reason I have that comfort is because me, Alan, TC and Ren could have never came together on our own.

If somebody got all our resumes together and sat them down, I'm not sure they'd have put us together. They may have, may not have, who knows, but after we work together, God put us together and he knows exactly who we are, everything from this radio show that we do with you to what we do overseas and, you know, even when we train together, that becomes evident and some of that is a bond that we have because we've already been in violent places and we work, but then when we train in the States, I have a tremendous comfort in the decisions that my teammates make and the way that they even clear houses, you know, when we work together. So when we start talking about that operator and we've been talking about family, you know, Tammy and Jamie talking about family and our kids, all that breeds over into this is not a cold relationship. This is a warm relationship with each other. This is a band of brothers and sisters.

This is a team that is together for eternity here. So no, I mean, you heard from our kids and I look at my youngest one and he actually wants to be an operator and I can see that happening down the road. Not necessarily as a father do I encourage that, but I don't discourage it. We're looking for that individual, you know, yeah, you need to be big and bold in what God has given you and give the glory to God, but you also have to be humble enough to step back and realize that you may not know it all and how to work with one another. So for example, right before our last operation, we all met up at my house and my family sacrificed our house as a training center and we ran drills through there, you know, just to hone our skills because we knew what we're getting into and the next place we stepped off the plane and it wasn't going to be a friendly environment. So we're willing to learn from each other, you know, I don't know it all, TC doesn't know it all, Mark doesn't know it all, but we do know what we know and we know what works and we're willing to be flexible to make it work better and that's kind of the person we need to look at is that person that is good but wants to be better through working with us and the use of the tactics and techniques we use and if you bring something to the table that would benefit the team, we are not opposed to looking at that too to move us forward and that path is set before us. So ego is definitely something that none of us have, but we're very humble and very assertive all at the same time.

I'm going to ask you, Alan, what do you think are, give me at least two characteristics of that person that you think are absolutely critical. The willing to be a sacrifice, you know, you're willing to sacrifice not for your own accolades but because that's the right thing to do. You know, you're willing to step out there and I'm not going to say take a bullet for somebody but you would do that, you know, you would do that to make sure your teammate makes it home. You are not the priority, your teammates are and the more important thing is the kids are. So that's one of the qualities of sacrifice and with the same thing I'd probably say courage, courage in the fact to do the right thing even when, you know, most people look at you and they think you're silly or dumb, I get that a lot from former teammates, they're like, why are you risking your life at the stage of the game? Why are you doing this?

And it's not for anything other than that's what I'm supposed to do. I mean, you know, that's the courage part, not the I'm going to jump in a lion's cage and beat up lions, it's the courage that, you know what, I got to go in that lion's cage to get that kid out. That's the courage I'm talking about. In addition to those, I think the last one I would have called out courage to but I think what I admire the most in my teammates is humility, their humility. They are experts at what they do and what they know, experts at training, others experts at operating in hostile situations and yet they're so humble about it and so when I think of that next operator, whether it's even on our team, it might be a secondary team, you know, we have some different infrastructure things we're looking at. That humility is critical, somebody who's humble and that's not easy to find sometimes. I'll just add another quality because, you know, again, I get to see all you guys and your family, you know, in order to fit with this group, in my opinion, you know, the thing you got to have a boatload of is faith, faith in God, you know, that he is like your daughter said that, you know, I'm in the safest place I can possibly be because I'm where God wants me to be and if that's in front of a bullet, that's still safe, right, if it's where God wants you to be. So, it takes, you know, that whole boatload of faith and it's been my experience that people have tremendous faith in God, also have faith in their teammate and in their brother that they don't go off road because they don't think he knows what he's doing or they don't think that we're in the right place at the right time. In other words, people have tremendous faith in a band of brothers or solid embedded in the team because they have faith in each other, right, I mean, it's all part of the deal. Absolutely, 100% true there, you know, there's, when somebody you don't trust or have faith in or you're not sure they're where God has called them to be and you're working with them in a moment where if they go down a staircase, you're going to go, why is he going down that staircase? If I see Alan go down a staircase, I say, I need to go down that staircase, you know, that's the difference.

It's not a question, it's get up on him as fast as I can or let's all be together, you know what I mean? Like we don't, we know the person and we trust them and we know their heart's in the right place and the right calling and they're trying to do the right thing. So we're going to support it, you know, if a person is not in that place, then we're going to question them.

Yeah, absolutely. Here's another thing, the fact that our families are okay with what we do, that's a big thing in an operator, whether you have a family or not, but those people that support you need to be okay. My children, and I don't want to sound cold here, but they know if daddy doesn't come back from one of these, he didn't come back for a reason. It wasn't for not, you know, they didn't lose their dad for no reason.

So that quality, not only in the operator, but in the support of that operator, you know, that should be there. You know, we do other jobs outside of this and I get paid for a lot of these jobs, quite heavily paid for some of the jobs I do. This job is not, and the fact that my family would rather know that I died doing God's work they're okay with, they would be more upset with me if I got killed doing something I got paid a whole lot of money for. So it's kind of crazy, but, and I don't know if I put it in the right words there, but that support needs to be there, not just with the family, but within the operator's heart too.

You got to be okay with it, you got to be okay with what God has in store. We've definitely had operators or potentials that we've met with who there was a buy-in from family. You could sense it or tell it or knew it was a problem, you know, and maybe that's just growth on their part as a family.

But you know, again, some of them outside looking in, your families don't have just buy-in. Okay. All right. Yeah. No, they're not, they're like leading the charge. Like, you know, this is what we do. Um, you know, this is, there's a lot to that and a lot to it.

They do. They carry, they carry so much more than I think even they realize they carry for us. The support they give us, I could never do if I didn't, if you didn't do what we do with the comfort we have. And then, and then organizationally, even this weekend, that became very evident because, you know, all the volunteers, their collaboration and love and connection really became apparent through the weekend with our kids and our spouses. You know, that was really who they were joining with in that part of the family, you know, that part of that support. And that was a beautiful thing because, um, they need our, those, those volunteers need to see the spiritual walk and faith of our wives who are deep in their faith. And then also, and our wives need that other support that they know they can lean on too for things that are happening here in the States and other places. So it was good.

It is. So again, we got to give out that information so people can go. So if you want to, you know, the civilian volunteer, you want to do a freedom dinner, uh, you want to help us in awareness, those things, or you have a crazy idea, you want some coffee shop and you want to, you know, run some t-shirts for us, something like that, any of that, we're flexible. That is lanternrescue.org. If there is a former operator or just a tactical skilled individual who's also very versed at overseas work, knows how to work in third world countries, that's really important.

Whose heart's in the right place or is searching this out themselves. Please go to www.counterhumantraffickingjointtaskforce.com and, uh, it's a registration process you go through to build a profile so you don't fall through the cracks. It's very explanatory. You understand it when you get there and, um, that kind of starts the process. Right. And so for all of us, you know, we joined the prayer team, which is of course it's helpful to go to lanternrescue.org to be able to do that.

But you know, again, I pray that the Lord would, um, continue to build a fire right in people's hearts because it's that passion, you know, that, that eventually a passion for him. Really. It gets fulfilled in that. Alan, you, you obviously had some. Absolutely.

If you feel as though you're kicking against that thorn bush, there's a reason for that. So if you're one of those operators out there and you just need that confirmation and hopefully this is it for you and the rest of our brain, right. Cause we don't know what a DD, what is it? Two 14. I don't know what that is. Discharge dog. So, all right, well thanks again. This is the truth network.