This is Stu Epperson from the Truth Talk Podcast, connecting current events, pop culture, and theology, and we're so grateful for you that you've chosen the Truth Podcast Network. It's about to start in just a few seconds.
Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is 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. We've got a great show lined up for you today on Lantern Rescue. We've got, starting off, we've got a recap.
And we've got Wren with us, and so can you give us a little bit about what's going on so far this year? Yeah, so since May of last year, in the last 12 months, there's been 599 rescues and 299 arrests for victims of human trafficking and traffickers. Wow. That's a whole bunch.
That's a lot, yeah. It almost seems unbelievable when you think about each of those arrests could end up with, I don't know how many rescues that never have to happen. Yeah, exactly. So getting those traffickers off the streets, and it sends a good message to the victims as well that they'll be believed and that we will not only rescue them but prevent further victimization and that they will get justice through the traffickers being arrested, being prosecuted, and actually being held accountable for what they've done.
You know, I had never really even thought about that. But certainly if you are the victim, you've got to have huge concerns, right? Because if they don't listen to you, you're back in harm's way, right?
Right. And, you know, the traffickers getting off the streets is also kind of a peace of mind for the victims. They're in their recovery, and if their trafficker is off the street and arrested, they don't have to worry that he's around every corner, he or she, you know, it can be either.
He's around every corner, worried that they're going to come back and try to get them. It really takes that away as well as it empowers them knowing that someone has believed them enough that there's actually a court case started for that. Yeah, wow. People who work on the ground every day across the globe, you know, to grow that and to get more people out there, you know, in this fight is really the allows for those numbers to go up. And that's what, you know, starting the last 12 months, you know, had a lot of growth and, you know, still forging into new countries and building new relationships and partnerships and, you know, doing what we can to really push the message out there that we are going to try and find you and we are going to try and help no matter how difficult that is.
That's a phenomenal point, Ryan. And so along those lines, have you got any of those cases where you can actually kind of put a face with one of those statistics? Yeah, I mean, there really is just so many. You know, I personally try to not get focused on the numbers. You know, you can work one case that can take over a year, you know, to affect that rescue and, you know, and to get that arrest and you can work some that happen in 15, 20 minutes. So each one of those people is just as important as each other. The time and effort that goes into it doesn't diminish.
If it's a quick one, it doesn't diminish that person's pain and their suffering was any less or more than someone who takes longer for us to get there. Yeah, because obviously the original trauma is just absolutely more gigantic than I even want to imagine. Yeah, it is. And, you know, unfortunately when we talk, you know, as we have done in previous podcasts, you know, some of this abuse and exploitation, some of it's child labour, some of it's, you know, human sacrifice. And so it is really, we're talking about some of the most heinous acts and crimes that people can do.
So, you know, each one of those numbers is great to see, you know, on an Instagram page or on a monthly report or whatever. But yeah, behind that is a person who is really suffered and has gone on a lifelong journey to sort of recovery. Oh, no doubt. And I know another thing that you guys wanted to talk about today, Wren, is literally on some of the ongoing issues that you've got, some of the prayer requests that you feel like we could share. No, I suppose my one is just to pray for the ones, the victims and pray for the people that we haven't found yet. Pray for the ones that are still out there and, you know, the ones that we are hoping to get to. But, you know, it's a fight.
That's why we call it a fight because it's not easy and it takes constant struggle from all of our people and our teams to just keep trying to find the next one around the corner. So, yeah, all the prayers and all that just helps. Yeah. And that is one of the things that I really, you know, appreciate about our listeners. Obviously, the donations and all those things are amazing. But clearly, you know, God's heart is breaking for each one of these that's going on out there, whether it's overseas or here in our own country. And, you know, as we come along, even pray for, you know, these teachers that you guys have been working with, Wren, and these schools, you know, that are reaching out to the kids that, you know, maybe the information they share would be something that a child that never gets abducted to begin with, right?
Yeah. And, you know, most kids aren't abducted into trafficking. I do want to make sure that that's not out there too much. But, yeah, I did actually talk yesterday, three classes at a junior high about trafficking and kind of explain that to them, too, is that most victims of trafficking are not abducted or kidnapped. That there could be victims of trafficking that are in the classroom at that moment that are in their school, that are part of their sports teams that are going home every day and being either they could be trafficked by their own parents, they could be trafficked by a boyfriend that they say they're going to school, but they're actually going to this boyfriend's house and he's abusing them.
But there could be people right around them. So giving them that vigilance to learn about grooming techniques and stuff to prevent themselves from being victimized, but also to be aware of what's going on with their classmates, their friends, their families, to ensure that they're at least aware of how that can be happening and that they're asking questions and that they're actually having that human connection that's probably the best way to help family members and close people within your circle to prevent their victimization or to help get them out of it if they are. Yeah, and I guess that's more the point is that as they're educated in the kind of websites that are dangerous for them or how easy it is you can be tricked.
Even as a boy, some of the things that really shocked me in previous interviews was these teachers were reaching out and sharing with these boys that you think it was harmless that you clicked on something. But next thing you know, these people are extorting you because you took part in this as well, right? Yeah, there's a level of extortion that can happen online when people are groomed and encouraged to the images that they don't know. Or sometimes even people that they don't know that are just taking advantage of them.
And then those images are used against them as blackmail to try to get money or send out to other pedophiles in a kind of trading scheme, stuff like that. Yeah, absolutely. So the prayer requests really abound when it comes to this whole issue. And I'm so grateful for Lantern and you guys making us aware of so many different angles to this horrible situation. And then there's the whole labor trafficking thing that we don't talk quite so much about, but it's still just as heinous in its own way, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely.
And Ryan, jump in if you have any stories or anything you want to say about that. But labor trafficking is definitely overlooked because sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, CSAM, those crimes are easier for people to identify. They're easier to look at. Well, they're not easy to look at, but it's easy to know about that crime and easily identify it as a crime. Versus with stuff like labor trafficking where it's harder to understand that someone's not being paid, someone's being exploited, someone's forced to be there.
That's a little bit harder when you just see someone working what looks to you to be a job, maybe a really hard job. But from an external perspective, it's a lot harder to see that crime for what it is. But there's a ton of a ton of room for exploitation there. And there's often cases where labor trafficking and sex trafficking are synonymous. They're happening at the same place at the same time to the same person.
So that's definitely possible. People get stuck in these labor trafficking schemes and crimes for generations, for years of individual suffering. So it's really unfortunate and it's a lot harder to get people, I think personally, rallied around the topic of labor trafficking because it is a crime that's a little bit harder for people to identify, if that makes sense.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, but it's, you know, again, slavery, you know, even from a Bible standpoint, you know, it's such a horrible thing to take away somebody's freedom. And I imagine, Ryan, that that's a big part of what you guys face.
Yeah, we do. Especially out here in Africa, labor trafficking is a huge problem. But there's also the cultural aspects of it that, you know, there's different norms in different parts of the world, right?
So, you know, what's acceptable from a cultural perspective, we wouldn't say that that's acceptable, but it's acceptable in some parts. And then it's much closer and it's an easier move to go across into the into the labor trafficking. You know, a partner of ours in a Eastern African country and one of our guys on the ground was only a couple of weeks ago up in the northern part of that country, investigating some labor trafficking in a mine, some illegal mines for the football and kids being forced to go into these mines for four days straight. So they round up the kids in the town, they tell them that they have to do it under coercion and threat, and then they send them down into the mine for four days before they let them out, pay them a small amount of money and send them on their way.
But obviously the conditions are horrendous and no child could be subject to that. So that is an ongoing investigation of just some of the stuff that our teams are looking at in this region. Oh, wow.
Yeah, it's, you know, it's something, you know, it's really hard for our culture to get their heads around. But again, it's good to know, you know, as we're thinking about what we can be praying about this year as we're listening to the recap, you know, what we're talking about from land and rescue today. Of course, we've got to go to a break, you know, but when we come back, we've got a lot more on this update 2024. As you heard the number of arrests as well as rescues, you know, it's mind blowing what God's doing. And it's such a big part of what you're taking part of, both with your prayers or financial support. And when we come back, we're going to talk about this Liberator program, which is really exciting that Landon has started over the last year. And we want to make you more aware of it.
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 is grown into the second largest criminal activity in the world, reaching an estimated one hundred and fifty billion dollars in annual activity. Lantern Rescue 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 and 2024 season update here as we're heading into June. And so there's a couple of stories we wanted to share along the way. And I know one of them was there for you ran on a 14 year old girl. Yeah. So this case is it's really cool about this case, too, because the team that rescued her and were involved in this case, they're a relatively new team.
They were only that team had only been operational for maybe like six weeks when this rescue happened. So essentially what had happened is a girl a couple of years ago at the time that she entered into sex trafficking, she was tricked into sex trafficking. She was 14 years old and she had a son at that time. She had a son and she got lured in, you know, likely through a lover boy type effect. I'll take care of you.
I'll help you. And wanted to provide for her son. She kind of got tricked into sex trafficking. She was in that sex trafficking situation for about three years. She was 17 when she was rescued.
And at that time she had had her second son that had been born into trafficking. So she's out now. She's been rescued as of pretty recently within the last month. And she's been transferred into the safe home. She's with her children.
They're getting the rest and recovery they need. And those children, you know, a concern that you have when there's small children that are the children of sex trafficking victims that are still in sex trafficking is that obviously the traffickers are deviants. And it's not unlikely or probable that these children would then be exploited and be at risk. So her and her two sons are now out.
Those children are out of danger. She's out of danger. And she's doing fantastic in recovery. One of our partners over in that country in Africa have partnered with us to ensure her recovery. And we think it's going to be a really beautiful success story. You know, she does have a lot of trauma to overcome and including some trauma for her children, I'm sure.
But really proud of that team, really proud of how closely they banded together and showed their abilities and they were really focused on getting this girl out. Yeah. You know, and you can't help but think that, you know, even in America, it's very hard to find help for women that will also accept their children. Yeah.
Yeah. And that ages, the age of 17, you know, the crest of 18 starts to be a precarious age group for social services and for aftercare and help like that, because you start to transition in some places have it set up really well where they have, you know, the young adult programs that are 17 to 25, 18 to 25, whatever that looks like for them. But a lot of countries and a lot of places, not out of any malicious intent, but their care will end at 18. So someone that's just gotten out of sex trafficking, she's on the crest of 18 with two children.
That's often really hard to find aftercare places that are willing to not only assist someone that just as an individual is almost 18 and, you know, quote unquote, aging out of the system, but also have two young children. So it's a really unique situation, but the right people tend to show up at the right time. Yeah, it's really a beautiful story. And, you know, stuff like that, that God is working out around the globe all the time.
And Ryan, you've got one as well. Yeah, just as some of the interesting ones, we were chatting in the break and, you know, we saw a case last month where some of these kids that were unfortunately tricked into going with the trafficker on their way home from school, they were actually injected with a substance, a bit of a common theme in that part of the world that knocks the kids out and makes them more docile or easier to get to where they want them to get to. And yeah, it was something that we were all talking about that, you know, although trafficking happens all over the world, it really does take on some interesting, you know, interesting in a bad way, nuances to those crimes. But you just sort of, I still shake my head when I hear some of these details in the cases and, you know, Ren's been doing it for a long time as well. And, you know, I'm amazed that I still hear and see things that I didn't think were possible. Yeah, I think Ren, when she used the word deviate, it's just scary that they will come up with these horrifying things that they would do to small children.
But all the more reason that when it comes out in the light of day that God brings that out through you guys, that it's something that, you know, we can be praying about and we can be made aware of and help with it as well. So what happened in that story? Yeah, those kids were rescued and they were taken to the hospital and there was no lasting effects from the injectable that they were given. So it had a good ending, which is nice.
They don't always have good endings, but in this case it did. And were you able to arrest the gentleman, or whoever, I shouldn't say gentleman, I guess, were you able to arrest the perpetrators? Yeah, they were arrested in that case. Wow, that's, again, it's really amazing to me when you think about when you take these perpetrators off, the traffickers off the streets, then how many kids don't get injected or, you know, that are actually rescued in that way as well. But another thing you guys want to talk about today on today's show is this liberators program. Ren, you want to share with our listeners? You know, that's a really, really neat way to join into the team.
Yeah, right. So the liberator program is, it's our reoccurring monthly donor in a nutshell, but it gives you access to a text community. So when rescues are happening, you find out, you'll be first to find out through the text community. You get a message after a rescue happens before it's ever posted, before it goes on a podcast like this, on the radio, stuff like that.
You get first access to the merchandise, you get a one of a kind, I guess, liberator t-shirt that's not sold anywhere. And, you know, everyone has the opportunity to sign up for the text to pray that phone numbers in the bio on Instagram and stuff like that. But in addition to signing up for the text to pray, you also get these liberator messages.
So those are actually different from the text to pray, both great. But being that reoccurring monthly donor, you get access to the liberator text as well. And I believe it's $35 a month or more qualifies you to become part of the liberator program. So it's easy to sign up on the website. You can go in and instead of clicking into the donate one time or donate monthly option, there's actually a separate option that says become a liberator.
So that's the one you'd want to click on if you want to join that community. There's some Fourth of July shirts that are going to be coming out that are limited edition that will be coming out for the liberators first so they can get their orders in before they sell out. And that'll be super limited edition. So stuff like that, the liberators get a little more access to. And in the future, we're hoping to have a little more specific access to the liberators, potentially some Zoom calls with me or with some of the other operators to answer questions and talk about rescues and stuff like that. So it's a really great program.
It's a great way to stay engaged if this is something that you're really passionate about. And that funding, that money that you're sending every month, that goes directly to rescues, to stories like you heard today, and to reach one more life that's stuck in human trafficking. You know, when they're trying to figure out their budgets, how can we know whether to plan for this event and that event?
It's coming six months away. When they realize they have folks that are regularly giving and they're involved in a program like this, it makes the budgeting so much easier for them. And that's why programs like the Liberator are so, you know, really a wonderful way that God provides the resources so they can see, you know, the funding that's coming down the road. And that's not to mention that you get a really cool liberated bracelet. Like if you could see me right this minute, I'm eyeing and profiling the one I have that's just, you know, it's black.
It says Liberator on it. I mean, it's pretty cool. And I've really enjoyed this bracelet for some time.
I never take it off, actually. So I, you know, it's something to think about because if I could snap my wrist and think, man, I need to pray for these guys, you know, that are out there and risking their very lives in a lot of cases and the victims, you know, that are out there in that all that trauma, you know, what an opportunity we all have, you know, because I love when we originally set up the whole idea of this broadcast, this podcast was like what William Wilbur first said, you know, now that you know something about it, right? It's time to go to action and do something.
Right, Rin? Yeah, absolutely. You know, and it's so great because we see. So one of the things I like to do is I get on and I actually do read through all of the messages that we get when people sign up to be liberators or they sign up and donate, you have the opportunity to send us a message and explain why you're getting involved. And I see some really awesome messages in there.
So people will send out scriptures and stuff like that. So I do individually read those and I'll, if you ever get an email from me, that's actually from me, that's someone else sending it, I email people back and try to engage with them that way and talk to them. So it's really great. It's really great to see people that care so much and are willing to get involved. And I see people posting on their social media and I see people tagging us in their social media.
I just saw someone doing a bike ride and they tagged us wearing the lantern rescue hat. So just that kind of awareness and those conversation starters when you wear the merch or you listen to the podcast or you're talking about it with your friends, posting about online, it really, really does have a profound impact. Yeah, that's so cool. And then we got another announcement is the way that we're going to be organizing this broadcast and podcast coming up, Wren.
Yeah, right. So we are, this is going to be a big year because coming up, end of 2024, end of 2025, you know, if all goes right and God willing, this is going to be a big year for some changes, some expansion, some really trying to get to one more life. It's really the focus is just getting to the next survivor, getting them to safety. So with that, the team is going to be pretty busy. We're going to be mobile. So we're going to transition to seasons. So starting, this will be our last episode, our last fresh episode for a while. I'm sure there will be some kind of repeat episodes that will play from the archive, but this will be our last fresh episode for a little bit. There'll be fresh content on Instagram. And I think we're on Facebook too and TikTok and stuff like that.
So you'll still be able to keep up with us on there, especially if you join the Liberator program and you get those texts or join the prayer community and get those texts. But our next season will be starting July 6th. So we're running several, I think it's six or seven episodes in a row and we'll be specifically focusing on certain topics, certain countries, stuff that we have going on to make that a cohesive season. And we'll be doing those for the rest of the year and see how that goes and see how people like it. So hopefully we'll be bringing you guys some really great content as we're kind of moving and grooving around the world.
Yeah. And I can assure you that the team that's putting this together is really putting some thought into, you know, being very intentional to make sure that each episode includes content that they feel like the listeners have been asking for, wanted to give you the most updates. And again, since, you know, a lot of these archives that God has put together over the years we've been doing this show, we've got vital information that, you know, I can imagine that, you know, you may have heard that same one six years ago, but you've forgotten much of what's happened. So as we bring those back in, you know, it's still going to be wonderful. In my opinion, God's going to continue to use content that we've already created.
But then you can just count on as the season changes that here's going to come all this fresh content. And certainly as you go to landandrescue.org, you can constantly get your updates and you can get, you know, any information that you need to be praying about or along those lines. And certainly if you want to give financially, it's all there at landandrescue.org. Wanted to give you, Ryan, another chance right before we wrap up. Just once again, thank you for the opportunity, Robbie, to sort of tell a bit of a story. And to get the word out and appreciate you and your listeners and every little bit counts as best as we can.
Agreed. Thank you again, Wren, so much. God bless you guys. Keep up the great work. Thank you, Robbie. Thanks, Mike. God bless.
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