Swift Justice

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you. This is the Truth Network.

Previously on Lantern Rescue. 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. 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 what I think is going to be just an amazing episode of Lantern Rescue.

Like, oh my goodness, do we have updates for you? But why don't you start us off, Mark? I just wanted to start the show particularly in this moment, because today I was sitting with some of our volunteers who take care of our donors and are reaching out to those who support us.

It was such an encouraging list. I mean, I'm looking down through the number of people who faithfully give $25 a month, or $10, or $50 a month, and wanted them to know that they really are doing more than they realize, I think. Not just in the fight against these perpetrators and against those who trafficked children, but really they're also that encouraged where it talks about, I think it's as long as 511, which says to build up one another just as you are doing. Encourage one another, build up one another just as you are doing. When I read that verse or think of those types of verses, I think of all those people who are not nameless to me, but they're faceless. I don't know them, but they give.

They have no idea just how much they build up our team and encourage us to continue to move forward and to continue to fight and to counter traps. Just want to start off the show by thanking the hundreds of people out there who listen to our show, download our podcast, and faithfully give each month. Yeah, and faithfully pray. It's just amazing stuff.

I'm so grateful. So we have some really cool updates. And Wren, there's some neat stuff going on in Africa.

Yeah, so our African team is always really successful. They do a lot of work with investigations and interventions on the border. Last week, they received a tip about a girl that was kidnapped and the suspected trafficker. So they were able to locate her and locate the trafficker. They arrested him last Tuesday.

And by Thursday, he was sentenced to five years in prison and he has more charges pending, but he's already been sentenced for the lead charge on that. So that was really very swift justice, very different to our legal system here where it takes years and years to get charges like that to go through. It's quite a different justice system over there, but it was really wonderful to see the team get that tip, move so quickly on it and have the support of the government to prosecute those charges so rapidly was really awesome. Yeah, and so you guys get a sort of a feed of what's going on there.

Can you kind of describe for our listeners how you would see this in real time? Sure, TC or Mark, did either of you want to talk about that and what you thought from your law enforcement backgrounds on that arrest? Yeah, an arrest like this with the information and things like that, it happens quickly, but I guess I would emphasize a little bit the fact that the team there has been operating and their presence is known for them to get the information and then be able to act on it is a big deal.

The longer the work takes place in any one area, the more effective it becomes. And so in this case, the coordination between the team and the police to make this arrest was significant. And as Ren has alluded to, the justice was swift. And, you know, sometimes in different countries, the standard for evidence and the way it's presented is a little less stringent than here in the States.

So that probably leads to a little bit of the swift justice. Wow. And from what I understand, Mark, that during the arrest, there was it was sort of something to see. Two things I'd like to say.

One, to compliment what Ren and T.T. have already said, we as a team, so when we go overseas and we invest our time and effort and donor dollars into setting up a unit and training them both law enforcement and intelligence side to operate, to counter trafficking, the day that you as a parent of that feel so encouraged, almost like your own children, when they come to you and they tell you about some scenario in life and you're just listening and you observe and you find out that they did the right thing, you know, and you're like, wow, I'm so glad they did the right thing or they acted in the right way or they had the right response. That's that's the feeling we get when we see our team who contacts us and says, hey, we have this situation, we have this intelligence, and here's the act that we're going to take and here's the course of action that we're going to do.

We have a team here in the States. We can we can consult them and we can advise them and we can, you know, encourage them and we can direct them. The cool thing is, is that I know all of it. Alan, CC, myself and Ren, we're all going, wow, praise the Lord. And this is awesome because this is exactly what we want to happen. We want these teams taking ownership of countering trafficking even when we're not present. Now, it's funny how much they share with us step by step. You know, Robbie, they share, you know, here's a video of us going to the door. Here's a video of us breaching the door. Here's of us, you know, making the arrest. Here is us, you know, bringing him to the car. Here is the child and the victim and how we're extracting it.

And that's good that they do that because in this particular situation, we're excited they did the right thing. But from it, we watched some techniques that need improved. OK, Alan's director of training is not on here today, but I know that, you know, as soon as he saw the video, he's proud of him. But he's thinking, OK, there's so much that needs to be taught here. And we'll use that as a teaching lesson.

Now we'll go back over and we're going to be here shortly to do some heavy lifting with them. But part of that is to do some training. And we'll we'll look at that video and we'll say, look, you know, here's the proper method and means to do this in a much easier way than probably they did it. So not that we're against giving an ounce of discipline to somebody, you know, in that situation, but to keep them safe in that environment, they need to be smoother and quicker and know exactly who's doing what and what they're doing.

So, you know, we've got that training laid out. So all of that came from this operation and, you know, including the great sigh of relief that prosecution was made. And like Ren said, that it was swift. Justice was so swift in this situation. And there's a lot of things you say about their world countries and the difficulties of working in them and all the loops you've got to go through. But I think one thing that we often see is that when they get somebody in Africa and the crime is known and the police and everybody makes their arrest, they're swift to bring justice.

And we're happy about that. Wow. Rem, can you kind of take us into that scene a little bit so, you know, our listeners and I can actually picture it a little bit better. How old was this girl and can you give us any details of what that arrest actually looked like? What were the people engaged in at the time?

Sure. So the girl was 13 and she was, we get a lot of pictures from the team over there. When we're not there, they send us pictures of the victims of the suspects of all that stuff.

And this girl's picture, the girls that run our social media have posted it online and we do have to blur her face. However, we see the unblurred image and her face and the rest of the team may be able to speak to this too. She just had that truly like hopeless look in her eyes when she was first recovered. And it's always really sad to see that that changes often very quickly. They realize they're going to have a new life and the spark comes back to their eyes.

But you really see in that first picture that we received of her that she just looks beat down and hopeless. And then you look at the suspect who was not a very large man, probably in his 40s and he had kidnapped this girl and was using her for human trafficking, for sex trafficking. And our, the team over there, the African side of this team, they went in and they did the arrest which was, their emotions were high and they were a little excited during the arrest. And there was quite a bit of commotion, but they just arrested him in a building, it looks like a home or maybe a hotel that they were renting and some type of residence in the bedroom. And they were able to arrest him to bring him in and to separate him and this girl and to rescue her. And that's always awesome to see. And him sitting, we got a picture later that I got a laugh at because he, like I said, he lost his britches at some point during this arrest. And when he was sitting in the jail cell, he had not regained control of his britches yet.

So he's sitting in the jail cell with no pants on and just, his head is down, he's shackled, he looks like he knows that he was doing something wrong and he was caught. So it was kind of nice to see that image where our team was able to take it from point A of finding, getting this tip to recovering the victim, to bringing her to safety and to arrest the, the, and already have him in jail within a couple of hours. So that was, that was really awesome to see.

Yeah, it, it, it really is. And so Mark, how, like you had said, they have a presence there in the community or, and I've heard TC had mentioned, you know, how do they get this kind of intelligence this quickly? So something the donor base has to be super excited about it because we are, is that particularly in West Africa, the countering human trafficking joint task force office has been established. So for that region of the world, which is involving several countries, we have established an actual office.

We have a short stay victim care facility, which allows when we, uh, uh, in our staff to arrest your girl, let's say, you know, it's on a weekend and it's going to be really hard to collaborate with social services or the section of minors that we can, uh, take care of that girl for a short stay, get her fed clothes, get her care immediately. And then, uh, and then we have a safe house there for our team. So all that's been put into place and it's, it's kind of under this jurisdiction of the, uh, minister of defense there. So we're getting so established that now that's, what's happening is not only our border operations are in play every day, but now we have intelligence being fed and given over to that office.

And so, you know, I don't know if that was a vision of any virus, except for God, you know, and, uh, and that he was provided for that. And if that is in place and it's, it's on course, uh, Robbie, it's on course, it's out of that office and out of our work there and our African team and our American team. I think the numbers over 160 have been rescued. And so that's just this year. So that's, you know, that's going to put or the whole year, you know, we're probably, you know, looking at changing the lives of upwards of, you know, 400 to 500 girls and boys, but primarily girls. So that's really exciting.

Oh, it's beyond exciting. I mean, you know, to think, you know, as each one of these perpetrators goes away, you're not only got the people that are rescued, you got all the people that won't need to be rescued because you guys got the perpetrator put away and TC wanted to give you another opportunity to speak to, to something that God's put on your heart through this. Um, for this particular thing, I think what the works are doing is unique.

It's so unique that they're the only ones. And so work like that gives people tremendous hope. People who cannot fend for themselves, um, like are so encouraged.

I think I mentioned before I was in a country once when I heard that we were in the country that one family with two or three little kids walked from a place where they were enslaved for a couple of days to get to us that they could be free. So the hope that is given to the people in that area by people who are doing this good work for no benefit to themselves, other than that God has called them to do it is it's incouchable. You to be hopeless is horrible. And to have hope gives so much energy and, and life. I mean, even the little girl that was rescued, she didn't necessarily know what the rest of her life's going to look like, but she has hope. She knows that somebody cares and that she can, she can have a shot at a life that's worth living. So powerful.

And so we're going to go to a break. When we come back, there's so many more updates coming your way on Lantern Rescue. 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 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.

And welcome back to Lantern Rescue, where today we're getting some really just mind-blowing information on updates on what's going on with the team with Lantern Rescue. We've been talking about Africa, and we're going to get back to that shortly. But next up, TC, you've gotten an opportunity in Ethiopia that really is God's open another door.

Yeah. So a couple months ago, I was presenting, talking about the task force and the work we do. And I met the founder of another nonprofit that's in Ethiopia. And the work that they do is around a huge trash fill outside of Addis. And a lot of what they do is, I would call it, you know, countertrafficking before it happens, maybe. And so they minister to a lot of ladies who have been either abused or don't have much money or have been raped and have kids. And so the first part of the work there was to actually teach some self-defense, which we have done in other countries, but to teach some self-defense, some awareness to these ladies to give them some ability not to continue to have this happen to them, to convince them that they are worth protecting, that they must protect themselves. And so we did that for a couple of days and then went back and actually advised the ministry itself on some security, I would call them, lapses that they're liable for. So we actually advised and did some security assessments for that ministry in the way that they handle their business and in some of their buildings. And then I had the ability to go and talk to a couple of Ethiopian officials about future countertrafficking work. And Mark and Ren have helped me. We have given them some documents for them to look at for potential future countertrafficking work there over the next who knows how long. So it was profitable.

I think I have to make another quick turn and burn there coming up, but that's what's happening so far. Wow. And again, just to take our listeners right kind of into that, because as you describe these four ladies that have been raped and those kinds of things, can you give us some idea of what those training sessions are like TC?

Sure. So we start out with some awareness, although unlike here in the States, a lot of times if I train some folks, I'm trying to convince them that bad things can happen. I clearly don't need to have that part of that discussion there.

So it's a different conversation and Ren has addressed this in the past. You know, once a young lady has been abused and things like that, self-esteem and again, hope kind of go by the wayside. And at times you're even convinced they're convinced that, you know, they deserve it. They had it coming to those that sort of evil. So we tell them, you know, how valuable they are, how beautiful they are before God, and that they are worth protecting.

And then we start, you know, once they realize that they can, if they will, then, you know, we talk about willingness and then we start to show some actual very simple techniques and methods and even principles that would allow them to greatly reduce, you know, the kind of abuse that's out there for them to take in the future. Wow. And is that location sensitive to some extent? Like, you know, this is an area of the ministry, but it's, it's in the capital, it's in Addis Ababa, you know, which is a large, very large place. But even in that place, there's like 800,000 orphans. So the, again, there, the need is ridiculously high. And there are great people out there.

I met some Ethiopian folks who are absolutely just like, just like the folks in our, in our other conversation in Western Africa are absolutely getting after it. They don't have much to work with, but they don't stop. And so, you know, as a task force and as, you know, we, we like to fan those people into flame and give them all the support that we can.

Right. So as I get in the picture, as you're training the ladies, you're actually training trainers at the same time too, right? That was part of the process. I met three people who I think will probably pass muster there, but that's not as easy as, you know, like, here's a couple techniques and now you're trying to train to that.

That takes a little, that takes a little brow sweat and some effort to get those things down. So we continue as a task force to try to, um, you know, figure out a way that we can get them the information that we can control that, that the information that they can access, even when we're not there, coincides what we do when we are there trying to build that whole system out. And so when you look to the future in Ethiopia, um, TC, where, where do you see that headed? Well, when I was there, um, as I was headed actually to talk to, to the officials, one of the guys that I was riding with was telling me that he had read and heard on the Ethiopian news the night before that they, um, had received money or have interest in actually starting their own task force at the federal level, which is a good thing. Um, and he was shocked.

He was actually shocked that that was the case. Um, so I can't, I don't know for sure where we're headed. My next set of meetings would have a lot to do with whether they accept the paperwork and the proposals and we move forward or they say, they could say, we don't have a problem, thanks, but no thanks.

And I would be done. I don't know that yet. Well, clearly those of us listening like, okay, here's a place where we can pray very specifically, like God is providing these resources, like man, um, Lord to help, you know, these people find favor. So the land and rescue team with these officials there in Ethiopia, it sounds real exciting. It doesn't it, Mark?

It really does. We're always excited about new work. Um, there's no limitation to it. There's, there's so many countries that want to have us there and want us operating there. The only limitations really funding and then, uh, finding the right operators, you know, the right people, we recently did a show encouraging people to, uh, that were past law enforcement or special forces or have a background in nationally to, uh, to reach out and sell out. We've got a lot of, a lot of great applicants. I'll tell you right now, we've got, you know, I know you call us a team.

I think we've got several eight teams we could, uh, put together. And I think that's going to come into play soon, but you did say something, right? Do you keep praying for favor for TC, my girlfriend, Alan, as we interact with, you know, foreign governments and partners, we're just trying to help help children to change the future and life of a child who is unprotected and uncared for it. You know, and I know God cares about that. So, uh, I feel like I feel and know that he's always on our side and I think that's why we get so much favor. Yeah, that's, it's, it's, it's, you know, it's really an honor to, you know, be part of this is just to see what God's doing. So Ren, um, you guys are getting ready to take part in, in getting back with these folks in Africa that we talked about at the beginning of the show. You want to share what's going on?

Yeah. So this weekend we are heading back over to Africa. We're all really excited to get together and, and head over there. Um, we're making an addition to the team for this trip. He's been, he's worked with all of us in different capacities in the past, and he's gonna be over there helping us out. So we're going to have a fifth member from the American side.

That'll be fun to incorporate him in with the African team. So we're heading over there and we're going to be some follow-up training on the teams. We're planning on doing some operations alongside them, assessing how they're doing their operations, finding places we can improve, learning from them, then learning from us, and then following them through the process of investigation into arrest and prosecution and, and getting to kind of do that side by side with them while we're there. So it's exciting stuff and we're all really excited to get back over there and to get back to work. Wow.

I, I would imagine, and Mark haven't had an opportunity to watch those videos and in, in this kidnapping, uh, situation that you're just reviewing, that stuff's invaluable for this trip, isn't it? It is. Uh, it really is. It's, uh, time to, um, be grateful and, uh, to encourage them and tell them good job and to tell them to not give up. The survival says, you know, that we, uh, move us, we give ourselves fully to the work and, uh, we know that our labor is not in vain. Uh, but then it's also time to step it up in, in some areas as we continue to operate in a region of the world, our tactics get revealed and the smugglers and those who are doing the evil. Well, they, they improve their work too, you know, so we have to improve our work. So that's going to be part of the task. Yeah.

And TC, as you're looking forward to this trip, what do you see? I think one of the things we actually said this in another neighboring country, we need for these folks to know that we love their attitude, but a great attitude isn't good enough. When things start getting hot and hairy, you actually have to have some skill. So we are motivated to have their attitude. Awesome. But we, as Mark has just said, they need to know that there is real danger and that real skill matters and that they need to acquire it. So that's what we're headed for. Right. And so you're, you've got training upcoming and then are there further diplomatic things that you guys are doing Mark?

Yeah. I mean, every trip in is a relationship building and particularly we'll have times to do that, but there is a lot that we're trying to accomplish and do in the training and then also in the operation side. So some of this time over is going to be very unique because we're combining the two instead of going to a training facility and running through things there and then performing the operation. We're gonna be doing, we're gonna be performing some operations and use that as the training time. We'll just kind of mesh those two together and so we can accomplish the thing that we need to. Wow. So as we are praying for you guys headed over there, we too can be praying because those operations mean that you guys are actually going after the bad guys.

Yeah. So pray for us when you're, when you go to bed and you lay there at night, that's when we're getting up in the day. And then in your late afternoon, late evening, do pray for us because we'll be middle of the night working there. So as we close out this show, Mark, have you got another thought for our listeners? You know, we've covered a lot I think in the show.

You know, it's out, we really can't, we're dancing around what we're doing in the coming month because we can't really say how those training operations look. But do pray because at the end of the day, the end of it all, we want to, we want a child. You know, we want a child's life changed.

And yes, we want teams who operate and know how to tactically do things right. But the, all of that is a result of a rescued child. And so the better they do their job, the more children are rescued and the safer everybody's kept in their operation. But you know, there is, don't, don't forget this to everybody listening. At this moment, God is not putting five Americans and seven intelligence and a dozen foreign police together, just, you know, have a good time and see each other. He's making that all happen because behind that is a little girl from his rescue. Right, little girls that are crying out in the middle of the night, God help me, you know, and it's so beautiful to know that he's definitely coming and he gives us a chance to partner with him in it. And so thank you all for listening and for caring and for being part of Landon Rescue. This is the Truth Network.