Lantern Rescue

Nakita Kolov, the Russian nightmare.

No, the devil's nightmare here. From it's time to man up. Challenging men to step into their true manhood. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Across the street or around the world, the mission is still the same. To love the Lord our God with all our heart and to love people and to bring them to Christ. I'm quoting a very popular Steve Green song and I'm standing next to one of my heroes, Mark, who's the founder and head of Lantern Rescue. Next to him is John, one of his colleagues, and we're talking about seizing opportunities in the new year to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mark, you do this with your amazing ministry, saving people out of human trafficking and other things. Well, first of all, tell us what Lantern Rescue is, what y'all do, and I want to talk about the intentionality of looking for open doors for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hey, thanks Stu. For anybody who's not heard our podcast, Lantern Rescue on the Truth Network, you know, Lantern unites with nations to rescue three groups of people. The exploited, the persecuted, and the displaced. And so that puts us in play to deal with people who are being trafficked in the human trafficking criminality networks and we've been fighting that for years. And then that puts us in place to help persecuted Christians and it also puts us in place to work with displaced people who have lost their homes in places like Ukraine and war zones. So we work, you know, in present in all of those areas. And going along with your show, I know the other folks you just had were talking about the intent of sharing the gospel no matter what you do. And sometimes people, you know, come to us and they say, oh, you're a human trafficking group. We're like, well, yes, but we have an intent to also share the gospel.

And that is both, starts with the people that we train. You know, so the law enforcement, the agencies, our undercover people, everybody who works for us is going to get a testimony, you know, and they're going to get shared with every day. We give out Bibles to our units, things like that in their language. And then it also, it really, the outcome, the largest outcome of this is that the exploited, the persecuted, and the displaced receive the gospel, right? And that's something that we're uniquely trying to do in places where the gospel is not always welcome, right, in Asia Pacific, in the Middle East, in places like that.

It's not like, you know, there's always a Christian NGO around the corner necessarily. So, so John here is with me and he is our vice president of operations and has the same heart. And I'm just going to let him say a little bit too, because that's the heart of everybody at Lantern is that what we do is to rescue and, and the rescue is maximized by giving the gospel.

Stu, thanks so much for your time. So what I wanted to talk about today was, we do preach the gospel to all people and that there's one forgotten person in this whole thing and that's the traffickers themselves, right? So we, we recognize just like Paul did that, you know, that we're sinners and that we needed rescue above and beyond all else. And, and that Jesus rescued us, just like we are trying to rescue these trafficking victims. And so, you know, we do recognize that the traffickers themselves need to hear the gospel as well. And, you know, I think about generally, you know, most of these organizations, pretty much all the organizations are kind of geared towards the persecuted and, and we are as well.

But we do, we don't want to forget that, that every soul is precious and the Lord is not delighted in the destruction of the wicked. And so we, we also want to reach in like a prison ministries style, right? Where the traffickers go to prison, they hear the gospel and, you know, after sin has consequences, so, you know, after they do their time and, and, and they hopefully then have been restored, their, the Holy Spirit is able and capable of doing anything. And so we hope that they hear the gospel, they submit, and then they can go back to, you know, the village or wherever they came from, and then they can be evangelists for the gospel too and say, I once was lost and now I'm found.

Wow. You know, really, I think about the, the song that William Wilberforce, who you quote pretty, pretty frequently with your ministry of Land and Rescue, Amazing Grace, that I believe it was Isaac Newton, who was the great slave trader, who wrote the song Amazing Grace and popularized that, but he was a slave trader who, like you said, he came to Christ. So these, these very much, these traffickers, they need, imagine them trafficking the gospel. Imagine them coming to Christ, but you're going in some pretty dark places, seizing every moment to show the gospel, working with a lot of pastors overseas who have been, some of your greatest heroes are pastors, because they want to take these young victims who have been enslaved and been, been traded like animals. They want to take them and build them up in Christ and get them into a good home and get them into a good church. Is that right?

It is. And that's a, that, you know, a lot of people think the rescue happens right in the moment of arrest and intervention with a minor, but that's just the start. I mean, the child is going to need so much and that's why it's critical for us to have aftercare partners, because that's not what we do. We'll take on that role at times and in the transition that we always do, but we do work with the social services of that country.

So, you know, for us to move their, the needle toward the NGOs we partner with is always a task, always working at it, always trying to, you know, put that in play, but you're right. That's, you know, that's the, the real rescue is when that child understands and forgives those who did it wrong, you know, and accepts Christ. That's Mark with Landon Rescue and John, and we're here talking about what God's done in this ministry and seizing every moment to share the gospel. And you seized a moment, you were driving across a bridge, and you don't have to get into too many details here, but brother, I'm just glad you're standing here right now, because you ended up finding yourself hanging from a real high... Where are you going? When you, when you, when you saved that young man, you told me about when you saved that young man who was climbing up way in a bridge, who was suicidal, and just the girl, we don't have to talk about any names or where it was, but give a general thing. You, you, you're sitting here thinking, if I don't stop and get up on that thing, who else is going to save that young lady's life? Yeah, when you go into a mission, an operation with the viewpoint of whatever God wants me to do, and ultimately that's to be an ambassador and a voice for Him, sometimes you end up doing different things, you know, and that, you're just referring to an instant, oh sorry, I was just nervous, you're referring to an instance in a country where, you know, someone was endangering their life, they were going to commit suicide, you know, and we, there was nobody else there, so I mean, you're like, well, who's going to climb up there and talk to that person? Well, you know, you're like, well, who's going to climb up there and talk to that person? You know, and you think, well, I don't speak language, I don't do this or that, but, you know, to just be used by God in those environments is really important.

I mean, God doesn't pick an American up, fly him thousands of miles over some place, and drop him in some, you know, feeling of isolated place to not share the gospel, so we have to do that. Friend, you could be a part of doing that right now, just open your eyes and look. Jesus said, look, the harvest is plenty, the laborer's a few.

Will you be a laborer? Listen to God. Well, who do I tell about Jesus? Who do I save? Well, ask him. He's got that plan.

He's got all kinds of people in your life right now. Just look at those little hands and feet in your home, those little ones you need to share the gospel with, your neighbors across the street, around the world. Link up with ministries like the Persecution Project Foundation, ministries like Lantern Rescue. These guys are a non-profit and they're going all over the world saving people, saving lives.

What's the best way? I want everyone to hear your podcast, of course, and your broadcast, Mark. What's the website, how folks can give?

Maybe someone wants to send a check because they know that money's going to go toward saving lives and getting the gospel out. The best website and everything. Sure, lanternrescue.org, so lanternrescue.org, all one word. Lighting the way to freedom, shining the light of freedom. Thanks for all you guys do. John, thank you. What's your challenge to everyone out there, whoever they are, about reaching people around them for the gospel of Christ? Amen, sir. I would say, you know, before anything else, we would just challenge you to spend more time in prayer. You cannot be unmoved if you are open to the gospel and, you know, the Holy Spirit will move in you.

And seizing everything. So you don't have to be super trained. I mean, you've got all these special forces guys, these military geniuses and all that, but you don't have to be super trained. Anyone can go and reach a soul for Christ. Is that right, Mark? Yeah, I mean, we're all, once we accept Christ on the fine print, we're an ambassador, right, man?

I mean, we're supposed to be fulfilling the great commission. I love it. Lanternrescue.org. Check them out. Learn more at truthnetwork.com, truthtalk.com, and please take and share this program with everyone you can, and be a blessing and be generous toward ministries like Lantern Rescue. This is the Truth Network.