The Taskforce Method

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. 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. Another treat for you today on Lantern Rescue, I have Jay, and Jay is with Lantern Rescue. He's actually the director of teams and operations, literally training up folks in regions around the world and in our country. So Jay, for our listeners, could you give them kind of a picture of really how that works with Lantern Rescue?

Yeah, absolutely. Typically, our mission is to go out and equip local residents with the abilities to track and prosecute human trafficking criminals. And so with that, we have kind of an in-depth team that mixes ex-military, ex-law enforcement, and prosecution, which is the most important.

So kind of what we do, we will go into an area, we will set up memorandums of understanding and agreement, and we will have a local director that puts that all together. And then we will start training the local law enforcement and military to be able to go out, number one, identify, number two, investigate, number three, arrest the criminals that are conducting the operations. So that's kind of what makes Lantern a little bit different, I think, in my opinion, is that you have all three of those working together because the main goal is to get the oppressors out of the world or away from the people they're oppressing, and then save those victims and bring light into their lives. So the ways we do that with the military and the law enforcement working really well together, they train the investigators, law enforcement specifically, their background bleeds over into training the investigators how to identify and how to gather evidence on these crimes. And then same with military, that feeds in with the tactical side, so we can train the cops and the military how they're going to actually set up a mission to go rescue these victims. And then after that is all said and done, we have the prosecution side, which is kind of the most important because you're just spinning your wheels if you take them off the street and then they get right back out.

So the prosecution comes in and our prosecutorial side will train up what kind of laws they need to have in effect in that area, what laws they can use, and how to put these people away for a longer period of time so that they can't get right back into it. Through that whole process, one of the greatest parts of Lantern is that everybody in our organization is a follower of Christ, and so as we're doing these jobs and training the locals and getting out there with the victims, with the perpetrators, the bad guys, you know, we're spreading the gospel the entire time that we're doing that. And so it's a wonderful thing to see hope come into victims' eyes as they know that they're being rescued and then in that moment to be able to explain to them that they're being rescued because of the grace of God. So that's kind of the biggest part of it, I think, for me, as far as working for Lantern Rescue.

I kind of, I have this, I read a science project at one point, kind of gives you a little bit of insight as to the way I see Lantern. In the 1950s, Harvard did a study. It was Dr. Kurt Richter. He would put mice in a beaker of water, and he'd wait until they ran out of steam and they started to sink and they couldn't swim anymore, so he'd grab them out of there. And that was about 15 minutes on the average.

After they started to sink, he'd grab them 15 minutes, he'd dry them off, give them a real short breather, and then put them right back into the beaker. And it was pretty incredible findings because he was going to do the same thing, but it wasn't 15 minutes that they hung on. It was 60 hours that they hung on because they had the hope of being rescued.

And that's kind of what I equate Lantern to. I just want to get as many messages out to people that there is hope, there are people coming for you, there are people coming to help. You can last longer than 60 hours, and just hang in there, and I think it's really incredible that that's kind of the avenue that we take at Lantern Rescue.

Wow, I've never heard that. Amazing study. So they went from, what was it, did you say 15 hours to over 60? No, 15 minutes. Oh, 15 minutes!

15 minutes, and then they got out, dried off, and that was the only, it was a couple minute rest, and then right back into the tank, and then they lasted for 60 hours after that. With the hope, just the hope of being rescued. That is absolutely just amazing.

You know, I can't get a, that's the one that's going to go down in my heart, Jay. That's absolutely spectacular. So when you say regions, and so can you give our listeners sort of a grasp of what that looks like internationally and nationally for us right now? Yes, so currently we have operations in all over Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and then we have a few things going on here in the States. So Dominican Republic is kind of a very popular one for us because we have such a great team on the ground there that is working with us, and we're helping facilitate better training, and they are coming along with the prosecutions. Everything, full circle, I think Dominican Republic is one of our greatest success stories. When it comes to more quantity, I would say the African countries are the bigger success story there, but so we do have things all over the place.

Those are just a couple of examples here in the States. We do work with local law enforcement, specifically sheriff's departments. We have worked with the Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, and we're doing whatever we can here in the States to again bring awareness. The movie Sound of Freedom did a great job of bringing awareness to what a colossal problem human trafficking is, but it still didn't even come close to showing people exactly how big of a deal it is.

And I know that my eyes were wide opened when I first started into the work. It's such a problem all over the world, and unfortunately, the United States is kind of a big consumer of that product. So we figured that while we are doing all these other operations in other countries, we still need to help those in our own country, and it's been great. We've got a great team of ex law enforcement that are tying in with law enforcement currently, and they're putting together task forces. Specifically in Pennsylvania, there was a great success story.

They have done that. They brought the prosecution together, the law enforcement together, and it's a matter of getting the word out and a matter of helping people identify what these situations are. And I think that's one of the biggest things that we contribute when we have these conferences is just education on what it looks like, who to call, how to, you know, interdict or get somebody to.

And so those are the big areas, overviews without getting into too much detail. And so you can imagine that it's fascinating to me how God has raised up folks like yourself and special forces in law enforcement all these things to be trainers, but he's also raised up all these areas that would accept the training, right? And so if a country's got to agree to all that, but then God's got to provide the people to go do the training. And so, I mean, you've watched this, I know for years now, Jay, you know, can you kind of share with our listeners what a phenomenal miracle it all is? As far as what?

I'm sorry. As far as God raising up both the people to do the training, but then the places to go train. Oh, absolutely. So I'll give you a little bit of personal background. I was trained very well by the U.S. military, and I got to the point in life to where, as far as a physical warrior, I was feeling very confident in myself. I didn't feel like there was a challenge that I couldn't really win. And a couple of years ago, more than a couple, I guess, I started looking at it from a different aspect, and I realized that I wasn't quite the spiritual warrior that I should be. And so, I started praying about that pretty often, and it was definitely God's timing, because after that, I started encountering certain things elsewhere that, I mean, there's no other way to put it, but it's pure evil, and it's a spiritual battle more than it is a physical battle. And so, I was thankful that God had worked that in my life, and then on top of that, he put a couple of other people in my life that were also spiritual warriors, and that was a while ago. I was still a little bit, I'm working for the military, there's a lot of different folks in the military, and it's a different thing, you're defending your country and whatnot, but it was always on my heart that I was on God's mission, not necessarily, you know, the army's mission or whatever.

And then, when I was getting out of that, falling into Lantern Rescue, I've never known an organization quite like Lantern Rescue. When I go out, I know that the brothers and sisters on my left and right are spiritual warriors as well as physical warriors. All of that, I've been looking a lot into God's timing, and like, you know, when I say a prayer, I want this, I want it now. And God's like, yeah, not yet. And so, without asking, he has been working all this stuff. It's just amazing to see it in these other countries, because a while back, you would get pushback.

And, you know, they didn't want the Americans coming in and taking over and, you know, thinking they'd run the place and all this stuff, all these things. But lately, there's been such a crazy tournament for the nonprofits like us, they're welcoming us in and asking us to come. And again, it's through random chance, and I say random chance, what I mean is God's timing, but it's amazing to see how it's just taken off like a prayer fire.

The more good you do, the more people you get knowledgeable about it, the more people are asking you to come and kind of show them what it's all about. So I have never been on a team like the one I'm on right now, as far as a spiritual, God-driven team of capable people. And so, again, that's God's timing, right? I have no, I can't take any credit for anything I've done.

It's God's timing. Kind of a grief, this might not be your view, but I tried to talk to my kids about being humble, and they asked what being humble is. And I said, well, it's knowing who you are and knowing who you are with God, but knowing who you are without God also.

And that was the simplest way I could put it. There's probably better terms out there, but... Oh, I love it. I do.

Well, I hate we got to go to a break. I can imagine, like me, you're excited to hear more from Jay and what's going out there with these, what's going on with these teams and operations. We'll be right back with a whole lot more Landon Rescue.

Stay tuned. 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. Landon Rescue has developed rapidly to combat trafficking. Landon operates through a trained international network in order to rescue women and children from sex and labor slavery and facilitates holistic aftercare services.

They're gearing up for operations right now, and you can go to LandonRescue.org to see how you can support them financially. Welcome back to Landon Rescue. What a treat has been today so far with Jay, and he's the director of teams and operations for Landon Rescue. And if you're like me, you're just, you know, blessed that God allowed us to hear what God is, what he's doing out there with Landon Rescue in so many different ways. But I know if you're also like me, you're probably thinking, so what, you know, currently, you know, Jay, what are some of the areas of operation and things our listeners should be praying for the things that are going on?

Yeah, I think I would definitely suggest people go into the website LandonRescue.org on that website. We've been kind of restructuring lately. And so we want to make sure to get out to everybody for requests. And, you know, the the link for donating is on there also, but you can also donate just a prayer.

That stuff is incredibly important to us. Just recently, we've had some it all goes back to the spiritual realm, right? I will let you know that I my first time I was out kind of I got back at midnight, I had a brand new baby I wanted to go see because I hadn't been around for a couple weeks. And when I got home, I literally sat in my driveway for about 15 minutes at midnight.

And I didn't know what to call it. But I just prayed to God. I was like, God, will you please give me a spiritual shower right now? Because I don't want anything that has been around me or touching me in this other area to affect anything in my home life. And so it was about 15 minutes before I worked up the guts to go inside and hold my new baby.

It was it was everything I hoped and dreamed it would be. So I think prayers are the most important thing that anybody can donate. And we are actually setting up a prayer type tree to where we will inform people of important dates, important missions, important decisions that we're making everything God's got to be a part of everything.

And so we are setting that up. And so if you can sign up on the website for prayer requests, that would be incredibly important. Currently, we do have operations going Dominican Republic would be a great thing for people to pray about. I think we have one of our bigger effects there coming up.

Hopefully, we will see. Another prayer is for wisdom for these governments, because one of the biggest problems that I have noticed is when we get there, they just don't know what they don't know. And it's a culture thing. And they live in a different culture. And so when just a separate thing, one of the countries went to notice that prostitution was legal. And because of COVID hitting, they shut down tourism in that area. And that was the main moneymaker for the entire region. And so now with prostitution legal, you have these house moms, you know, people that were making money in restaurant or something going out and, you know, it was just not a big deal.

It was just what they did. And then, but that easily devil sees that as an opening and that easily transfers into younger and younger women. So it's bringing in the education, praying for their wisdom, praying for their strength to understand what it's doing in the long term to these younger people. Granting us the strength to follow the path that we're supposed to follow, no matter how hard it is, seeing these kids and the situations they're in, and these when.

And that is a newer thing. We will be updating the prayer list and stuff like that. So that's the most important thing. And of course, obviously, like funding or fundraising or whatever. But for us, Atlanta Rescue, we need protection and we need guidance.

And that comes from God. And the more people that are asking him to help us out with that, the better. Yeah, it's amazing to me the economic factor of all of it, that it's a matter of the greed of the people that are wanting to take advantage of the victims. But it's also a matter of the poor countries where the victims are so desperate to feed their families that they do crazy stuff.

Yes, absolutely. That's a really good point. So one of the problems that we saw and what I really appreciate about our biggest donor is that they have bins of organizations. So our organization falls under exactly what we do.

They have others that fall under like, you know, information campaigns and stuff. So while we're out there talking to these people, for example, in Nigeria, we're talking to the law enforcement there. And one of the biggest problems they have is that the human trafficking rings are taking advantage of ignorance. And so they would go to a family that was poor and had no other options. And then say, hey, give us your daughter. We'll take her to Europe. She's going to be a maid and she'll be able to send all this money back to you. And the parents willingly and happily signed a daughter over to this human trafficking ring.

And then they they scooper off and she's lost forever. And so that was the problem identified with law enforcement there that they needed an information campaign. And we were able through bigger organizations to put them in touch with people that are more focused on information campaigns. So that is that everybody working together is one of the biggest key concepts. And, you know, we have our niche and then others have their niches. And so being able to work within those and with other organizations, that's incredibly helpful. Yeah.

Yeah, good. No, I was just going to say it's it's a huge point that we always I guess the good guys have advantage over the bad guys is we don't think we're in this alone, right? It's a team thing. And I've always loved the way you guys have partnered with so many different other nonprofits in any way possible, essentially to gang up on the bad guys. Absolutely. And I like the way you put that getting up on the bad guys because, you know, the Bible is full of stories of forgiveness and stories of not forgiveness and, you know, crushing things.

And it's an interesting walk as a Christian to ride the line in between those. And so and that's what it is. It's hidden them from all fronts.

We have to hit them from all fronts. And we we have that capability because of other organizations. Don't get me wrong.

I know personally of some organizations out there that say they're going to do something and don't do it, which is really another sad aspect of this whole thing. Right. But there has never been any doubt in my mind where I want to refuse headed. And again, it goes back to the Christian aspect of it. That's what is so important to me to be a part of is that they're they're being led by God. Not not me like the director is not being led by me. They're not being led by the president of Lantern or the board or anything.

They're being led by God because God is leading us in everything we do and all the decisions we make. So, yeah. Oh, I was just and I hate to almost interrupt you, but, you know, you made such a vital point when you talked about taking that spiritual shower in the driveway of of what an opportunity we have as listeners, as we have.

You know, it's just God's allies to come alongside of you guys, because I know from talking to all of you that you need a spiritual shower. You have to see horrible. And that movie Sound of Freedom pointed it out. You have to look at horrible stuff. You have to be in touch with horrible people or people that have made horrible choices.

Let's put it that way. And that need, you know, and so there's there's spiritual forces all over that stuff. And so, you know, as we as prayer warriors help pray that off, you guys, that your own families aren't affected. And the people that you love around you is just absolutely critical stuff, right?

Absolutely 100 percent. There's not a single person out there that doesn't have the capability to take the fight to the enemy. Everyone listening to this station, everyone out there has the ability to do their part. And, you know, through training and previous lives and stuff like that, we're kind of in a different place.

We have a technical capability to be on the ground there. But we wouldn't have that if we didn't have everybody else doing their part, which is, you know, prayer and guidance and whatnot. To make another point, there are some countries out there that one in particular. Two hundred years ago, they literally signed a pact, the government did a pact with the devil to get them out of oppression or whatever from the rulers that were all over them. So for 200 years, they were in alignment with the devil.

And they just that just came to an end and they just resigned it for another 200 years. And those are places that you see all the voodoo and all the crazy. I mean, there's no other word spiritual tax like. But just like we have in God, we trust on our dollar bill. That's what they did with the devil. And so that is that is the force that we're going against.

You know, these people are just people that we're going against. But the vacuum they have spiritually is the big thing. And you talked about it, the things you see up close. It takes a different person.

I was told that I was the right kind of messed up to where I can I can handle it and try not to let affect my life as much as possible. But that comes from prayer and that comes from knowing that God is who I'm serving, you know, and that that ties right into with everybody out there just doing their part in those prayers. It's so important.

So that is just wonderful. I hate we're out of time, but I want to remind everybody it's manner and rescue dot o r g. And again, there you're going to see their prayer requests, what, you know, current stuff that they're working on. A tremendous resource, you know, for all of us.

And again, there's no discounting your power to both pray, but also to share. Share this podcast. Tell people about it.

Show people where you got it. You know, let them know, man, you just look what's going on in the world. And the idea is just like Jay had talked about, you know, as we give people hope, they can hold on for 60 hours rather than 15 minutes.

You know, whatever that might look like in their life. You know, we all have the opportunity to spread hope. And man, I'm never going to forget this podcast. Thank you, Jay. That's just absolutely wonderful stuff. I really appreciate your time. I appreciate everybody out there helping us. This is the Truth Network.