Stop Human Sacrifice

This is Robbie Dilmore from The Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. 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. We have one of those shows is kind of difficult to talk about today on Lantern Rescue is we're talking about human sacrifice. And that's just a difficult subject all the way around.

We'd even get our heads around. But even worse, when you think about most often, it's child sacrifice in Africa. And Whitney, I think it'd be helpful for the listeners to understand kind of why that's taken place. Sure, yeah, probably. Um, you know, this is something it's, like you said, go ahead and put the, you know, caution sign up and warning. It is going to be a really sensitive topic that is probably going to open up your eyes to a depth of evil.

Maybe you are not prepared to hear in some cases or ready to hear. So here's your your warning in advance. But I do think, and we all believe here at Lantern that it is something that is vital to address and make people aware of because we're going to invite you into what that's looks like from where he stands at the end of this. And so just to kind of give some framework around it, you know, we have been working throughout Africa for quite some time. And as we've worked throughout Africa, we've obviously been exposed to many different types of trafficking. But I would say the one that has really one of the ones that has really stood out to us is the practice of human sacrifice. And specifically, like you said, child sacrifice as a form of voodoo rituals. So in a lot of the areas that we do operate, voodoo is the number one religion of that area. And so that prompts a lot of traditions that we are clearly unaware of sitting here in the US, right.

And so one of those happened to be child sacrifice. And we have been battling that at very many levels, partnering with other organizations to combat it at a level that takes it, you know, through government, and on the ground as well, when we talked about our operations that are, you know, boots on the ground and some of the border operations that are working to frame it out, you know, we, we usually call to have even a heavier presence of prayer in the months of November and December, because those are months that we are moving into a new year, right. And, you know, it's in the south, we black out these and collared greens for like this idea and tradition of New Year's Eve and bringing in like prosperity, whatever, you know, the traditional grandma and grandpa passed down generational southern things, right, Sean, that's probably blowing your mind.

But we do do that for New Year's Eve. But unfortunately, when we start to look at different cultures and different situations, and such as this in Africa, in the areas we work, that tradition looks so drastically different, and it becomes a religious focus point for those that do practice the extreme pieces of voodoo. And so for the child sacrifice piece, it is it is to gain prosperity and wealth. And they do believe that in order to do that, there must be a blood sacrifice. And that is that is a very based on what specific the sacrifice is for whether it would be for children or, or whether the sacrifice would be children or adults, and also even breaks down into what brings more prosperity. So things like twins and albino children, and those are things that are, again, this is a lot to wrap your head around. But those are things that they are looking for, because they create a higher level of prosperity. And I think that Sean will do a really good job in sharing some of our cases with that kind of follow along those lines and what we have had to learn to look for and approach the situation a little bit differently. But that gives a starting point of, of maybe the why behind it. And I'm sure there'll be more details to unfold as we move forward.

But I don't want to take his thunder away on this one. So Yeah, absolutely. We are so blessed to have Sean with us actually on location, so to speak in Africa.

And so Sean, can you kind of jump in and give us a report on what the new initiatives we're doing? Yeah, no, it really is a just a horrendous form of trafficking. They all are in their own right. But the idea that children are taken and sold or given to witch doctors to sacrifice so that people can, you know, feel like they're going to get some some value of prosperity, and the things that they do to them. You know, I've seen many photographs and many of an actual child, and you just kind of believe the things that they do to them while they're still alive.

And then obviously, once they're deceased, you know, they put them in the footings of buildings, you know, so that they can bring prosperity to that building. You know, politicians are involved in this, you know, that's to get reelected, you know, so it goes right to the top. It sounds almost unbelievable. But yeah, this is the stuff that we do deal with at the coalface. And it was about three weeks ago, we worked a case with our local guys in East Africa, a child, two years old, was actually kidnapped by its father and its uncle from its stepmother while it was sleeping. And they'd sold that child off to a witch doctor, so they could have prosperity for Christmas. Thankfully, our team worked around the clock and actually rescued that child in this halfway house between, you know, before it could be handed off to the witch doctor.

So that child is safe. But yeah, it is a real thing. And, you know, unfortunately, it's something that, as we've said, in some of these countries, Benin is the birthplace of Buddha. So it really does seep through their culture.

And it really does seep through that the region and in the area. Wow. And it's just unbelievable that it was the child's own father? Yeah, so the child's own father staged, basically, to make it look like kidnapping and trick the mother-in-law, sorry, the stepmother. The stepmother was the one that brought it to the police and brought it to our team. And they tried to make it look like she was neglectful, thinking that she'd be pushing the stepmother and not the actual mother that the people would sort of look to her. But thankfully, our guys, with good investigative skills, and good questioning, got to the bottom of it quick enough that we could find the child who was abandoned in a high house by itself for a number of hours while we interviewed the suspects before she would be handed on to the witch doctor who was waiting.

Oh, my goodness. And so, you know, one of the big issues is just visibility, right? As more police departments, as more people are aware of your team there in Africa.

You know, that's one of the big initiatives, right, Whitney? It is on all different areas of Africa, right? We've got West Africa, East Africa, you know, we see in West Africa, a lot of our border operations, those are the things they're looking for.

And, you know, as people are moving across borders during this season, if you'll call if we call it that, right, that November to January season, that is, that is a heavy push, anyone traveling across those border points or border stations with children are stopped to ensure that those are their children, and they're interrogated and ask questions and ask for proof, you know, and, and those are, that's where we hope to catch them, right. But, you know, unfortunately, there have been parts of these stories where, you know, we've not needed in time, right? We've, we've come upon someone who had been sacrificed, and you know, the remains of that. And that's not a fun place to be either, right?

That is, that is the stories we don't, you know, we don't often like to like to discuss because because they hurt to know that we didn't make it there in time, you know, but it is the reality of it. You know, but we are we are making our best efforts and what Sean has going on in East Africa has been a new part of that initiative to ensure that we're not just we're not just studying it in one place, because we see it in such a vast layout of places, we know that there's got to be approaches that occur. And we also know that there's got to be some type of what's called called advocacy, right, something that begins that grassroots effort and movement to, to bring to light that this isn't okay, you know, and so much of that is occurring within the country members themselves to say, Hey, this is not okay and protect our children. And, and so we're seeing those underlying movements rise up. And that's a beautiful thing, because that's the empowerment that has to happen on the ground with the people that are in these countries. For it to to not even have to come across our desk, you know. Yeah, so Sean, how have you have you seen that, you know, firsthand, right?

Yeah, absolutely. You know, our partners all throughout the region, like when he said, you know, in West Africa, see an uptake of that. We see spikes around this time of year, we see spikes around elections is a big one, where the politicians are wanting, you know, they believe they sacrifice a child and they're going to get reelected. So, you know, we, we know those times are coming up, and we and we work extra diligently without our local spies on the ground and with our local partners to build a strong partnerships because one organisation can't build, can't build by itself. This is a global problem. Africa is a huge continent, you know, trafficking and if child sacrifice is only one of the many problems this government has, and, you know, we need really good, strong partnerships for other NGOs and governments and police departments, all working together to try and stop it.

So Sean, can you kind of give us in the, you know, I almost hate to ask this question, but some more details on what this actually looks like, like practically what some of the things that they do? Yeah, so, you know, what we've seen, especially in the last couple of months, when we've really made a concerted effort to sort of go after this in East Africa is just, it's just like snacking these kids off the street, essentially, either to or from school, finding a way to trick these kids, and just taking them and then, you know, the sacrifice part is not quick, you know, it's not, it's not like a killing of a child quickly, it's, you know, some of the mutilation that they do, they cut the testicles. They cut the Achilles heels, they cut the backs of their knees, they removed their jaw, you know, these are just some of the things they do. And they do it while the child is alive. So it really is horrific.

And you can only imagine that poor child in the in the last sort of minutes and hours of its life is really horrendous. We've had some success recently, you know, we've arrested four witch doctors in the last sort of eight weeks prior to them actually being able to receive the victim. So that's a bonus. And our work continues there.

I know Whitney has some less sort of graphical ways and contributions around this as well, so I'm going to have to describe those. Well, we got it. We had to go to a break. But when we come back again, we'll give you some more information, but even, you know, more importantly, I think is how we all can be praying, you know, how we can support Lantern through this.

So 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 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 one hundred and fifty billion dollars 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. Well, welcome back to Lantern Rescue, and, you know, we're talking about the new initiatives that are going on in East Africa specifically, but really all over Africa to combat this human sacrifice and disturbingly a lot of child sacrifice. And and so, Whitney, you've got even more clarity on on what really is going on here. Yeah, you know, there's already and I want to I want to acknowledge again, like this is not an easy conversation to be had, you know, and and even to be able to speak to it, it is required.

I'm sure I can probably speak for Sean in this, too, but it is required a just time right time to be able to to kind of to take it all in because it's a lot and it can be an overwhelming concept. An idea that someone would take such an innocence and treat it with a monetary value or a personal gain, you know, and we see it in a lot of different ways throughout the world that that children are exploited and and obviously vulnerable. But this takes it to just a different place. And man, it almost takes us back to, you know, Old Testament times where you've got the sacrifice of the bail and you've you've got the sacrifice is still being made. And so to hear it in this way, you know, we look at similar we look like at abortion in the U.S. is that same kind of idea. But there is a piece of this that the level of evil I can't fully explain or articulate because it is so entwined and spiritually how I feel about it. But it is just a different level of evil that occurs in this situation. And so the reason we bring that to you guys and to our listeners is because we know that this fight is far beyond the flesh.

Right. And and so I say that because we need our prayer warriors to step up. We need people that are willing to to say, you know what, I there's a lot of places my money can go, but I want to know that this is that this is being changed and impacted by, you know, what I'm doing and what I'm giving. And there's just a lot of things that people can step into the mix in that way. But the greatest truly of all of it is prayer because it's such a spiritual battle.

And you feel that in the presence of that doo doo mix. So, you know, along with kind of what Sean was saying, you know, we see the action of this sacrifice occurring and manifesting in many different ways, but it is all pure evil. You know, it is all ways that are just beyond what I think the normal person can conceptualize, you know, in some of the areas that we've worked in. West Africa, it is these, you know, children being taken and these certain body parts chosen of them to create a hand soap out of hand soap. I mean, that that like that doesn't even that's so hard to comprehend that that is what a living individual, a sweet little child is considered as a commodity.

It's broken down into a hand soap that is then used for that person to purchase. Right. To wash their hand with because they believe that that is giving them prosperity, that they will gain prosperity within their own hands by the sacrifice of a child and washing their hands with that. And there is something just innately demonic about that. Oh, absolutely. That's a good way to put it. And Sean, you were talking about some kind of ornaments that they they do.

Yeah. I mean, what we find is that in these shrines that they have, which is usually where the sacrifice has occurred. And for the viewers out there, I suppose they understand that a shrine is probably what that looks like.

It's probably a small grass roofed little area that's been created underneath a tree out in the field. So it's certainly nothing too crazy. Sometimes they are sort of small building structures, but it's more about the things that they have in there.

They'll have bones and, you know, different parts of previous victims in their shrine. But this is not a random thing and it's not a sort of really far out there thing. It's really part of society. And they use these for exactly like Whitney said, you know, it's for people who want some good favour.

They want to plant their fields and they would like a good crop this year. You know, like I said before, they're pouring the foundation into a hotel or a building and they want that to be prosperous. You know, it's deeply ingrained, even though what they would say is that some of these are Christian sites. The two don't go together, you know, you can't fix them. But they see that this is a way to help them get some sort of leg up from the thing with good luck. And yeah, we all know that that's just an nonsense. And the really scary thing that you mentioned is if the politicians are doing it because they think they're going to get re-elected, those are the people that have power in the country. And oh, my goodness, I mean, that shows you how important prayer is, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's something we definitely have to be prayerful in and that. And, you know, it's not and I don't want it to feel like it's every politician or, you know, it's not. This is by no means an effort to tear down, you know, the beautiful countries that we operate in in Africa, nor is it to say that every politician is a part of this. Right.

But there is that that peace bearing. And it's like you said, it's that acknowledgment that if it happens at the top of the chain, how do you impact it? You know, and really that that has to start at the bottom.

You know, you've got to work your way up when you're in that type of situation to where at some point the people around just say enough is enough. Like these are our children. And we see that we do see those those groups of people. You know, this time of year, there are WhatsApp channels where parents are posting pictures of their children that have gone missing. And in these communities are gathering to to really have like a standing missing persons chat.

Right. So that people are keeping their eyes out and vigilant for these children that are missing. And so we're seeing some movement in that way that people are acknowledging, hey, this is not OK. You know, and the younger generations that are coming up, you know, are starting to see that as well. And so there are efforts. You can see that the Lord is moving, but it's a lot to it's a lot to move through.

It is age old tradition. And that's the hard part is how do we make an impact going forward? And and so much of it is is what we are doing with the hands on piece and partnering with those people that are right there in the mix. That's that is truly the beauty of how we operate as an organization. I feel like is God brings the right people in our paths as we build out in these places and in these countries.

And he has already prompted the heart of those individuals to fight for those that are exploited, who are persecuted and who are displaced. And so that that community effort is what creates a lasting impact. You know, we could not do this on our own terms. I know we couldn't do what we do in West Advocate if it was just, you know, Mark and and Ren going down there to do it. We couldn't do it with just the two of them.

Sean can't do it. Just him where he's at. It requires the buy in of the people around us and these organizations and communities around us. So it is an effort that extends far beyond just lanterns reach.

Right. And that that's what creates the sustainability and change long term. And so that's what people are pouring into when you pour into land and understand that you're pouring into so many pieces of ensuring that these changes are a lifelong legacy change, not just here, not just now, not just the month of November, December and January. But a change that is is forged to ensure that it continues far beyond the stretch of lantern.

Yeah. And so, Sean, I mean, that's beautiful, Whitney. But I was also thinking, you know, Sean, what are some of the things you could tell our listeners you're really praying for or that that they might partner with us in prayer of a government or some place where we really would like to see some impact? Yeah, I mean, look, the I think sometimes people think that, you know, oh, there's a little bit that I give or a little bit that I can give is it much it won't do much. But in a good way and a bad way, the reality is so much can be done in in Africa with a small amount of money. Some of these investigations, our partner, our police partners come to us because they just don't have 50, 60 dollars to fuel up the car to go and rescue a child.

They know where they are, they know what's going on, but they just physically don't have that small amount of money to be able to go and execute the operation or the warrant. So, you know, that's something that we provide to them. That's something that we make sure is used correctly. You know, sometimes people think that it's us on the ground and leading means these things.

Really, it's that the local police really want to do this and they really want to affect this and have this change and make an effort. So a small amount goes such a long way all over the world, but especially in Africa. And we can really do so much good with your donations and your money. And myself and my team and the guys that we work out with are exceptionally thankful for the money and the donations that are given to us, entrusted to us really, to be able to go and make a difference. And we spend that money, we scrutinise it, we spend it wisely and we make sure that we're trying to maximise how far it goes. You know, I was just on a conversation with one of my ops guys today and we were weighing up between a cost. And we said, think how many rescues, you know, how many people can we help with that money if we don't spend it on that and we spend it on operations. So, you know, we weigh that up against, you know, the real life cost of spending that money and make sure it goes to the victim, that it goes to preventing these sorts of things.

Yeah. And I would like to say along with that, you know, I was reading through some of our reports and there are, if we're being totally, you know, transparent, there are operations that are on hold because of financial resources at times, you know. And that's never a fun place to be when we have to hold getting to someone up because financially we just we can't do it yet. You know, it's not to say we won't do it, but we just haven't we can't do it yet. You know, so when it comes to the prayer piece, look, I understand not everyone listening is is is called to give to this. But in prayer, pray that those people will come alongside of us, you know, pray that they will be moved, that maybe this podcast or whatever, whatever prompts their heart will be positioned in front of them so that they can become that person. And then on the spiritual piece of this, you know, I would always, always encourage those that are listening to pray over the ones we haven't gotten to yet, you know, and the ones that we have, because while we initiate that physical rescue, there's a spiritual rescue that still has to occur, the ultimate rescue and that is in Christ. And so we do acknowledge that and we ask that you would come alongside of us and pray that for the ones that are holding out and waiting until we can get there and for the ones that have already been rescued from their situation. That is a powerful place to join us in prayer and protection over our guides. This is no easy task. You know what they're up against day in and day out. You know, they face their own problems in their personal lives, right?

Like you consider somewhere like Africa. We want to invite you guys along in the prayer piece, in the giving piece, and we want we want you guys to experience what that liberation really is, what you are liberating people from. And this is one of the scenarios that your finances and your prayers really push the fight forward. So we just thank you guys so much and thank you for being willing to pray alongside of us and petition for the Lord's move. Yeah, thank you, Whitney, and certainly thank you, Sean, for what God's doing for you and God bless. This is the Truth Network.