Surviving Human Trafficking: What Happens After the Rescue?

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Welcome to Conversations That Make a Difference.
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With your host, Teresa Vellari.
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We believe that authentic, meaningful, and diverse conversations are the glue that binds us together.
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Our discussions remind us we have the power to uplift, challenge, strategic, and invite dynamic growth.
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Are you like me?
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Feeling like your mind of the taking your hands to life.
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Join us for conversations filled with gratitude, values, abundance, authenticity, and faith.
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Here's the host of our show, Teresa Villardi.
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Hey everyone.
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Welcome to Conversations That Make a Difference.
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Yes, we have a new look.
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We have a new space.
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We got a little fairy running around in the in the uh in the atmosphere, and we have some familiar faces that are here to celebrate the relaunch of Conversations That Make a Difference.
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I am so excited to have these people here.
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You know, we always start with a prayer, so I'm going to still continue to say the serenity prayer.
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If you would join me, God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the can't the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
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And it is indeed by God's grace that we are fabulous, blessed, and highly favored, living in our greatness, using our gifts and talents, making a difference in the lives of others with passion and purpose, and all of God's great universe is conspiring in our favor.
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And together we say Amen.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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Welcome, Andy Berger and Bruce Ladabu.
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I am excited to have you here.
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For those who have not seen you before, I'm going to read your bio so that they know who you are, what you do, and why you're here for this conversation today on uh voices with voices against trafficking and Bruce's organization, child childrenrescue.org.
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Um, and we are gonna talk about what happens after the rescue.
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So Andy is an international speaker and author and survivor of child sex trafficking herself.
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She is an advocate and globally for victims for of exploitation.
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She founded Beulah's Place, rescuing 300 and more teens at risk, and later co-founded Voices Against Trafficking, uniting voices worldwide and defend human to defend human rights.
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Her books and her internationally are internationally distributed, Voices of Courage magazine empowers survivors and honors human rights champions.
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In 2025, Voices of Courage television series was set to debut.
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There's been a little bit of a um a postponement for that, but watch for that to happen in the very near future.
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Andy's been a guest on my show many times, and this time the conversation will center on the victims and what happens after the rescue.
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Andy, welcome.
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Thank you, Teresa.
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I'm so pleased to be here again, and also with uh Bruce because uh this is important work, and we are so grateful to you being such a representative of media out there, getting the word out, and not just you know, the surface type.
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Today we're gonna talk about something that doesn't really get talked about.
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Like, okay, we've rescued them now, what, right?
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Now what?
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Exactly, exactly.
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And Bruce is gonna speak into that a little bit, I guess, because that's what he does, rescues the children.
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Um, Bruce has spent his early years as a professional adventurer, explorer, guide, and instructor.
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While traveling through the newly formed ex-Soviet countries in 1993, he learned about human trafficking.
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Later, he went underground in Eastern Europe to investigate further.
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He what he found was disturbing and beyond his ability to comprehend.
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Finally, in 2009, 2009, Bruce was taken to slave fields in Western Asia, where he witnessed countless people working in hard labor.
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Before the end of the day, he rescued his first child.
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Soon after returning to the U.S., Bruce knew it was his lifelong mission to rescue children and adults from labor slavery and sex trafficking.
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To pursue that mission, he founded Children's Rescue Initiative.
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It's more than um than an awareness campaign, it's a movement actively fighting the human trafficking epidemic.
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Over the last 10 years, his organization, highly skilled rescue team, have relentlessly fought for freedom, having rescued victims from around the world and supported them on the road to freedom and recovery.
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Bruce, thank you for joining us today.
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I'm so grateful to have you here.
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Yeah, thank you so much for having me back on, and I'm so excited to see Andy again.
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Yeah.
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And uh looking forward to our conversation.
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It's always good to have you.
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It's always good to have both of you here.
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You know, um, Andy, you say that when we allow our children to be sold, to be used as a commodity, to be violated, persecuted, neglected, discarded, and preyed upon by criminal influences, we deteriorate as a civilized community.
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There is nothing civilized about the exploitation of the weak, innocent, and the vulnerable for selfish gain.
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That is probably the most true statement that anybody hears today regarding sex trafficking.
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Although we do know that um there are um lots of kids that have been rescued and but there and but it doesn't discount the um the horror that they went through before they got rescued.
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So absolutely.
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Um, you know, the the the rescue part is the pivot from the horror that they've lived through and the potential to create a new normal because even when we rescue, there's no guarantee that that particular victim will be a successful survivor, if that makes sense.
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And it's true, we deteriorate as a society when we say that human life doesn't matter.
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I'm gonna make some money off of that him or her, you know, that we that we would use ourselves, use the vulnerable, the weak who cannot defend themselves.
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You know, when I was young and trafficked by family members for 17 years, there no one heard screams or cries, no one was there to investigate.
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It was a different time.
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We didn't have that term, but imagine, you know, you pull, as I'm sure Bruce has, you know, a young child out of that situation.
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There's a lot more that goes into it.
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And even from the basic things, okay, well, we've rescued them now.
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What?
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Okay, well, you have to have safety and shelter of some kind.
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We used a uh safe house system with volunteers that were vetted, and our our young people would stay between three and five months maximum so we could get them reintegrated, you know, into community.
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They were older teens, you know, 17, 18, 19, 20.
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But this the same principle, you got to get them safe, get them sheltered, and and then, you know, what about their their tangible needs, like medical, you know, and dental and vision.
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And we have a young girl that we are raising money for now because uh the extent of the damage to her optic nerves and her her vision were not fully manifested until about 12 months after her rescue.
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And the special glasses are not covered, of course.
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So they're like$400 each pair.
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And you know, a 20-year-old is gonna need more than one pair.
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I need more than one pair.
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But so those are just you know small things, and I know Bruce will talk more about it, but you have involvement with law enforcement.
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There could be a a chance that maybe that victim's gonna have to testify or or see a perpetrator that actually gets caught.
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We don't know.
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It's always different.
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So there's just a lot more to it, and I'm glad that we're gonna be able to talk more about that today because people need to know it doesn't just stop there.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And one of the things that really um really uh gets me is the number of families who traffic their children.
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Like um just the thought of that is enough to make me sick, you know.
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So, and you suffered for 17 years in that environ in that environment, and you are an example of um success once you were once you were out.
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And not only are you not only are you successful um in terms of um what you do for the organization, and you've suffered greatly.
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I understand that, I know that, and you still have issues, you know, and I can only imagine what life was like before that.
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But um yeah, it's it's just this is one of the reasons why I support your organization because it makes me so mad.
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I have to do something, you know.
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We want more people to be mad like you, Teresa.
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Because here's the thing everybody's all in a TIFF about the abstain files.
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We want to know who.
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Well, it's kind of like you know, celebrities and things, you know, they're always interested in it.
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But why aren't we that upset about the the victim we don't know yet that isn't connected to a celebrity trafficker, okay, or a celebrity exploiter.
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So we need to kind of adjust, as you said, you know, my life is about truth and hope.
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Speak the truth about what happens, you know, because I'm on both sides of the coin, but also bring the hope.
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And, you know, God, God took care of that part in my life, you know, faith, but I also had to do a lot of work.
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I had three years of, you know, weekly counseling.
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I going back and figuring out identities and then figuring out how a family could do this, how the people that are supposed to love and protect you, you know, were the orchestrators of all this evil.
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It's very um confusing to a young child, you know, why why this happens, let alone to the rest of us who are out there saying, how can another human being do this to somebody that little or somebody that vulnerable, whether it's the elderly or children, um, you know, young young people.
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So uh again, it's so important that we have open conversations without terrifying the public.
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Absolutely, absolutely.
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Yeah, and I'm so glad that you come here to have those conversations.
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Bruce, tell me a little bit about your organization and what your experience is like.
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Um, it says you rescued your first child in your bio and in the Soviet Union, I believe, what used to be the Soviet Union.
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So tell me what your experience was then and how you transformed it into an organization to help those who are surviving now.
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Yeah, thank you, Teresa.
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And uh before I go on, Andy, thank you for being a survivor and going on to impacting so many uh people in this world.
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Uh, you're a true hero.
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Amen.
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Yeah, thank you.
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I agree.
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Um I started um traveling the former Soviet Union way back in the 90s and uh saw some pretty horrific things that I didn't know how to deal with.
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Tried to figure it out for a long time.
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How do you go up against organized crime?
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How do you do all those different things?
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And uh I couldn't find anybody to teach me.
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They were just back there, there was just nobody doing this.
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Uh, and then in 2009, I was actually in Pakistan and uh doing a leaders' conference there and some other things, and they introduced me to the slave fields, and I was I was horrified.
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It was I felt like I was in biblical times looking across these fields with hundreds of people in modern slavery.
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And I went we went back to our host home, and uh I we just had an honest conversation.
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I said, How how can I leave here without getting some children free of that?
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And and he told me, he says, Nobody's ever done it here, you're gonna die, we're all gonna die, those kind of things.
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And by the time we had left, we had rescued seven kids.
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Uh, made them stay in our the host home and made him be an unwilling parent at first, then he caught the vision and and ran with it.
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And we spent many, many years there, rescued over 2,000 people out of the slave fields, just in that nation alone.
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And at that time, we uh we uh uh didn't have a survivor care program, so you know, all these people that were rescued were taken to villages and set up uh you know with uh Christian families and churches, and uh and it was fairly successful.
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We didn't have really anybody running back to the slave fields, that's all they'd ever known.
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And uh then I was poisoned over there near the contract of my life, and I was poisoned in 2015.
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Took me a year and a half to recover, and uh uh we decided to start in a new area of the world and went in there and started uh going into brothels and into uh slave you know camps, those kind of things, and started to rescue kids.
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And we decided, well, we've got to have a good formal uh aftercare program, which we eventually called it survivor care.
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And the uh the results have been uh been very interesting.
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We've had a lot of success, but we've had a big learning curve because in a lot of these impoverished nations, there is no counseling centers.
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They're uh you can't take them to you know anywhere.
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You've got to uh figure out how to do it.
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So we would place the victims in really good children's homes where we knew that they're we'd be prayed over, we knew that they would get good biblical teaching.
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And uh like some of my first rescues in that nation, uh, which was in Asia, we rescued three girls out of a brothel, went in, men were lined up, little short wall with a bed behind it.
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Men could stand there and actually watch what was going on in the other room.
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Our team pretty well trained, they separated these men out.
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Um, and we got the three girls.
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My son was actually with me, and we walked these girls up and got them into a really, really good children's home.
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And went back a couple years later, and the young lady who was 13 at that time, uh, she had been in the brothel for two years.
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She's now in college to be an advocate for trafficking victims.
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One of the other girls, an 11-year-old, she is the worship leader in a church.
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Nice.
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Um, went to see her and she was just singing her heart out, you know.
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And so we're uh we're revamping a lot of what we have uh uh done trying to make things better.
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Uh we've made mistakes along the way trying to figure this out.
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But uh yeah, there's there's many, many layers to survivor care.
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In your for in your experience, what I mean, you just said one of these girls was 11, one was 13.
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What is the average age of the children that you're rescuing, or is there no average age?
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It just runs the gamut.
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Uh 10 to 12, 13.
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That's pretty much the the age we're finding in the in the brothels.
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In the slave camps, it's all age.
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We rescued a couple uh little girls.
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The youngest was three out of a sex trafficking situation.
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Oh my lord, I can't even, I can't even imagine.
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I can't even imagine.
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But this is not um, this is not um um practice from any one country.
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This is worldwide, correct?
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Every single country.
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And you know, like um, like we were talking before we went live, there are there are lots of organizations who are doing their best to help.
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And Andy um has one of the best organizations um that I believe is around there.
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She she is a survivor herself, and she she it's something you have you have to take it personally.
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You have to have the heart for the children, for the young women who are um freed from this.
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So, Andy, what makes what makes your organization unique?
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Well, I think uh there are a number of things.
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Thank you for that, and thanks to Bruce for having the guts to go do that, because that is a hard thing to do to walk into a foreign country and decide that you're gonna take children and money away from criminal predators.
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So that and I'm so glad you survived that poisoning because that's how how dedicated the criminals are.
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They will take you out if you mess with their feed chain, right?
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Um, but back to your question.
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So, voices against trafficking, one, is all volunteer driven.
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We have no payroll there.
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Everything that we take in as a 501c3 uh nonprofit entity goes back to what we do to survivors, to victims, to the programs um that we already have.
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But also, as you can see, our book, this is our newest book, the third one that we've put out, our first international best-selling title.
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So we're very grateful that God bless that voices against trafficking because courage is contagious.
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If we just have a little courage and we band together collectively, let me tell you, it will go like wildfire.
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And that's what's going to make a difference.
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That's what's gonna say, hey, I want to support Bruce, I want to support Andy, I want to support, you know, these things, even if I'm not actually the one that goes into that camp and pulls a child out or a young person or a young mother.
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Um, the other things that we do, we are very much about creating greater public awareness.
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Okay, the awareness is the start of prevention because first of all, we have to break the myth.
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We have to get them aware in my neighborhood, your neighborhood, neighborhoods around the world, villages, and then say, okay, give them some tools, give them some education.
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So in our in our six short years after uh COVID closed our shelter, we've produced three books, um, three magazines, Voices of Courage, and also, you know, a music CD called Broken Treasures, because as human beings, we're all broken, but we're treasures in God's eyes.
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And so the artists that donated original songs to help empower, inspire, you know, make uh the message of hope uh real to people, we have that.
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And then, like you said, we got a little delay in our TV program, but we will get there hopefully by the end of the year.
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Um, but again, we we're using every facet that we can find because adult learners have, you know, are either audio, visual, or a combination.
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Yeah.
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So if we can reach somebody with a positive message, that's what we want to do.
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And then I think thirdly, is uh all of the folks that work with us, everyone who partners with us, you know, we want everyone to win.
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So whether we partner with Bruce on something or you know, other organizations, we have no ego about, oh, well, we can't do that because that's somebody else's turf.
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No, it's everybody's turf.
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Every human being at some point will either know someone who's been affected or they will be affected because it is just that big.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Exactly.
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And um, so do uh we want to we have a we have a um uh clip from an interview that uh you want to introduce that clip for me?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Again, we are talking about partnerships, and so we love people that do great work.
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And the Tim Tebow Foundation is doing phenomenal work, and this was on Facebook, Teresa found it.
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I pre thank you for doing that.
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And we feel it's so important that we want to share it on this show because again, we want people to get as much information as possible.
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So let's do it.
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Okay, let's show that clip of Tim Tebow.
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He's being interviewed and giving some information on what this looks like around just our country.
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This fight against trafficking exploitation is one of the worst evils in the world.
00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:14.960
That is a DOJ law enforcement map.
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:16.319
It's called the red dot map.
00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:29.680
And every red dot on that map is at least one unique IP address of individuals downloading, sharing, distributing child abuse and images under the age of 12.
00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:33.519
And there's over 111,000 of them just in the U.S.
00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:36.240
over the last 30 days.
00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:43.440
It does take place in a lot of areas.
00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:48.799
But it's overwhelming when you think how much is done by families.
00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:56.559
People will say, well, that's just over there in those countries, and it's all of those places, and it's not, it's right here in our backyard.
00:21:56.799 --> 00:21:58.720
Some people will say it's okay, we'll start.
00:21:58.799 --> 00:21:59.680
They're just downloading this.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.400
Sharing and distributing it, but they're not.
00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:10.079
55 to 85% are also hands-on offenders, and your average offender has 13 victims in their lifetime.
00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:18.799
So many of these are brutal, brutal abuse of children.
00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:33.359
A friend of ours that fights in this space was telling us a 13-year-old girl that was being while someone would stand there and read the Bible to her.
00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:36.880
And then they would rotate and someone else would come in and read the Bible.
00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:39.200
She would be going through this horrible evil.
00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:46.720
Part of the reason that it was believed that they were doing it is so that the worst moment of her life would be associated with God's word.
00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:54.000
And um that's a lot of evil.
00:22:54.240 --> 00:23:07.519
One story, I hate to even say it, but by one of the top psychologists that he shared with us is one offender went to a playground and he watched all of the boys and girls.
00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:13.519
He he picked a certain one and the psychologist, he said, Why did you pick that one?
00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:15.599
What's the reason why you did it?
00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:18.720
Why did you select that person?
00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:29.359
He said, No, I waited and I watched and I tried to find the happiest kid so that I could steal her soul.
00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:39.920
I hate even sharing that, but it's also why I believe the guys created some of us to put us here so that we could stand in the gap between them so that they would know.
00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:47.200
More importantly, that Heavenly Father loves them enough, that already stood in the gap for them.
00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:58.480
And it's our heart that we would rally an army, and maybe we would even declare a national emergency to fight this evil.
00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:04.160
Our heart is to leverage anything and everything we can so that they can get out of this evil.
00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:08.960
All of these issues, it is growing.
00:24:09.119 --> 00:24:10.400
We aren't winning.
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:18.160
Like we're losing every day until enough people stand on the line to say, together, we're gonna fight this.
00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:20.640
We're gonna call it out, we're gonna stand on the line.
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:21.519
They're worth it.
00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:25.680
They were worth it to King Jesus to die for, they're worth it for us to fight for.
00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:32.000
This fight against trafficking and exploitation.
00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:41.680
That will cause you to pause.
00:24:43.119 --> 00:24:44.400
That will cause you to pause.
00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:45.680
Absolutely.
00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:47.279
And he's absolutely right.
00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:56.720
There are truly families with wealthy and not wealthy who are grooming their own children to be groomers, which generational groomers.
00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:09.519
And back when I was in that situation, the courts didn't recognize uh the victims of familial trafficking, family trafficking, because the predators are covered by the bloodline.
00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:11.440
Oh, it's just a misunderstanding.
00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:12.559
Oh, it's just a problem.
00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:14.799
Everybody needs to go to counseling or whatever.
00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:24.480
And and they just didn't consider that the child or children involved actually had a valid, uh, a valid complaint, you know, a valid situation.
00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:31.920
And so that's why my first suicide attempt, I was five, the second I was eight, the third time I was nine.
00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:36.880
And then God just continued to give me enough to hold on to.
00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:44.079
And then after a while, it's like it's a little too late to take my life now because I've already been through so much pain, right?
00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:55.759
And so, but I knew when I was five, and he met me on that curb before I jumped in front of a car that he when he said he had a plan, I trusted that and he has never failed me.
00:25:55.839 --> 00:26:00.400
And just like Tim was saying, that predator picked the happiest kid.
00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:06.480
That is something sick and evil, where you want to steal the soul and the heart of a happy child.
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:06.960
Yeah.
00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:07.440
Right?
00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:10.720
Because they have joy, because they're still innocent.
00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:13.359
Yeah, absolutely.
00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:42.400
And um, you know, it's it's maddening and it's sad, and it's um uh it's just I have no words when I speak about this, but that video that we just saw really brings um brings the subject to the heart because those children are those children belong to some parents who obviously were some of them were stolen from the parents, some of them were turned over by the parents.
00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:49.039
And whatever the case is, that child is an innocent child and has and and and has the love of God.
00:26:49.119 --> 00:27:07.279
And one of the big things about this show is we always talk about faith and how Andy just said, you know, her faith, even as a five-year-old, knowing that God had a plan, took her through horrific issues, horrific events in her life.
00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:10.240
And I I just Bruce, what do you see?
00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:12.000
What do you see out there?
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:18.000
Can you um relate to a lot of what Tim was talking about just now?
00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:26.079
And by the way, if you want to donate to Voices Against Trafficking, you can go to voices against trafficking.com, hit the donate button.
00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:30.240
If you donate to this organization, it's they're gonna use all that money.
00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:31.839
Like Andy said earlier.
00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:36.000
There is no one taking a salary from this, not even Andy.
00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:38.720
Um, she's doing this to help others.
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:46.880
Um, and and people are just um literally dying to be rescued, literally, dying to be rescued.
00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:51.599
And your dollars, no matter how small or how large, can help save lives.
00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:56.079
So, Bruce, you have been in the trenches, so to speak.
00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:02.000
And they've even tried to take you out, they tried to poison you.
00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:07.839
How has um how do you help those who are rescued?
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:10.160
And are you still in those trenches?
00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:12.160
Are you still rescuing kids?
00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:15.039
Are you providing for them once they are rescued?
00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:18.240
Let's talk a little bit about your organization a little bit more.
00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:29.119
Oh, I don't think there's a day that goes by that I don't want to start a pedophile elimination service and walk people off the face of the earth.
00:28:29.519 --> 00:28:36.480
We've we've had opportunities uh to do that.
00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:42.640
Um overseas, it's so common within in the countries we work in.
00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:48.000
There are just so many, so many people that go after the young kids.
00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:53.119
It's just it's beyond comprehension.
00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:59.279
Um, this little girl, um, I don't know if you can see her, she's very beat up.
00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:01.279
She's got a broken arm.
00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:04.880
Uh they're out getting her out today.
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:10.079
Uh and her things they're orphans, they were beaten severely.
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:17.279
Uh, we get these kind of things on a regular basis: broken bones, uh, people that have been killed.
00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:25.599
Um I actually walked into a place one time where the slave owner had just beaten two little girls to death, and nothing ever happens to them.
00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:33.039
And uh and gone out of rages, so many stories that we documented over the years.
00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:38.160
Uh yeah, and so the answer is yes, we're we're still going out in those places.
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:41.359
I was overseas about six weeks ago.
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:50.480
We found 25 locations where there was trafficking victims in hotels and cafes, and it was a brand new country for us, brand new place.
00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:58.480
So we're working on now uh establishing the connections so we can go get them out, but we've got to have the right connections to do it.
00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:12.160
Um and uh, you know, it's the horror stories uh are beyond there's things that I have seen that I'll never talk about with anybody.
00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:16.559
So beyond anything.
00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:21.599
And uh in fact, I wrote this book that just came up, the David Effect.
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:28.319
Um uh it's all about vision and mission and courage to carry it out and the passion to carry it out.
00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:45.599
And uh it's getting great reviews, but uh, that was one of my reasons is because and then the second book that I uh the uh second book to this is called the Shaman Code, after the character in the Bible called Shaman who stood in the bean field and defended it.
00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:57.039
And it's the entire thing is about courage, and both books have lots of stories about heroes and and uh pretty amazing people around the world and and personal stories and all those.
00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:04.559
But when I when I was in this originally, Teresa, I could not find other people that wanted to do it.
00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:16.240
Now there are thousands of organizations, and it's gonna take tens of thousands, tens of thousands of organizations to even make a dent because I'm sure Andy would feel the same.
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:19.200
I feel like I'm trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.
00:31:19.440 --> 00:31:22.079
Yes, yeah, it's just so many.
00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:25.519
I get we get requests every single day from somewhere in the world.
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:37.200
We're getting ready to start a new organization here called Silent Night Rescues, and it's about supporting the police all around the country, uh, you know, investigations and all that.
00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:46.799
Uh and uh unfortunately you could be going 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and not even make a dent.
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:58.720
You know, we need to work together, everybody needs to just join forces, and there should never be a competitive uh ounce of anything in anybody in this business.
00:31:58.960 --> 00:31:59.200
Right.
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:02.559
I don't know if I answered your question or not, but yes, you did.
00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:05.519
And I'm I I love the title of your book.
00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:31.920
Um, and so so one of the things that I I I was impressed with between the conversation that we're having right now and the video that of um the United States and the number of people who are just in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people are somehow, somehow involved in this and child exploitation.
00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:37.440
And um and just multiply that by how many countries are there in the world?
00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:39.920
Just multiply 195, I think.
00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:47.599
Well, so that's that's that's more than my brain can do math for at this particular moment.
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:54.640
Millions, probably billions of kids and um and people who have been exploited.
00:32:54.960 --> 00:32:59.599
Bruce, thank you for what you have done and what you continue to do.
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:01.440
It takes uh courage.
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:11.200
I don't think courage actually is a strong enough word to um to say what you need in order to be able to do the work that you're doing.
00:33:11.359 --> 00:33:33.519
And the same thing for Andy, you know, you you are you're out there in the trenches doing what what needs to be done in order to be able to bring these children home, home to themselves because they have no, they don't know who they are, they don't know who they are, and that's that's um that's um so so so sad to me.
00:33:33.759 --> 00:33:34.400
So sad.
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:54.400
But um, you know, some of the things that um people who who watch my show most of them know that I also have a publishing company, Authentic Endeavors Publishing, and some of the ways that you can support uh Voice Against Trafficking and Um Bruce's organization, you can buy the books, just buy the books.
00:33:54.559 --> 00:34:04.480
Um we have um the daily gift book series is um part of the sales from daily gift book series or going to Voices Against Trafficking.
00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:08.880
We have gratitude, hope, kindness, friendship.
00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:12.960
Friendship is friendship even something any of these people know about?
00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:14.239
I don't think so.
00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:18.960
I don't think I never had friends when I was growing up because it was all controlled.
00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:20.079
Yeah, exactly.
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:21.679
And a daily gift of peace.
00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:24.880
Andy, Andy Berger wrote the forward for this book.
00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:32.960
So all of these books, whatever, whatever comes in from the sale of these books, a portion of it goes to voices against trafficking.
00:34:33.119 --> 00:34:35.679
And there are ways that you can, like I said, donate.
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:47.199
And Bruce, if you want to give away for people to get involved in your organization, is there a link where they can donate money to the cause that you are so passionate about?
00:34:47.599 --> 00:34:51.360
Yeah, they can go on to the children'srescue.org.
00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:53.599
Uh, we have a donate place on there.
00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:58.639
Uh, all my books are available on Amazon or on our website.
00:34:58.880 --> 00:35:03.360
Um and yeah, so I appreciate you asking.
00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:05.440
I love the title, Bruce.
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:15.199
Sorry, Teresa, the the David effect, because really, but it in life, you only need one stone if it's the right stone and you have the courage behind it to throw it, right?
00:35:15.360 --> 00:35:15.440
Yeah.
00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:18.159
He doesn't need our help.
00:35:18.239 --> 00:35:18.960
But you know what?
00:35:19.039 --> 00:35:20.960
That one stone can make a big difference.
00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:32.639
And collectively, if we're that stone, we can at least turn the tide more in favor of the victims and and survivors instead of the predators who seem to get all the breaks in life.
00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:36.400
And um, you know, we need to we need to do more about that.
00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:43.360
And I know um it seems like that ocean that Bruce is talking about is endless, and and to some extent it is.
00:35:43.440 --> 00:35:45.360
You know, we're not going to take care of all of it.
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:49.119
We're not going to get rid of human depravity because we're all flawed.
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:52.000
You know, we were all came into this life that way.
00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:59.360
But that one starfish that we throw back into the ocean, that whole generation of starfish will be forever changed.
00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:19.440
You know, I look at, gosh, it was only 300 kids in our area alone, you know, but that's 300 generations, you know, 12 of them went to college from homeless and and and you know, desperate to, you know, college graduates who are changing their world and before they have their babies and their, you know, their partnerships and stuff like that.
00:36:19.599 --> 00:36:27.920
So what Bruce does, what we do, what so many of our members do, you know, with voices, collectively we are that that stone.
00:36:28.159 --> 00:36:34.719
And that's what we want to do because we know we have enough faith for it to go as far as God will allow it to go.
00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:36.320
But we need everybody on board.
00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:39.760
And like you said, Teresa, you may have$2 this month.
00:36:39.920 --> 00:36:40.639
It'll help.
00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:41.280
Trust me.
00:36:41.360 --> 00:36:46.079
That's either some food or some gas or something that we need, school supplies.
00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:52.000
Um, I'm sure Bruce can use anything as well, because international countries they don't have the same economy we do.
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:57.119
You know, so maybe$5 from us could be the equivalent of$30 to them.
00:36:57.280 --> 00:37:03.840
Um, you know, we have work in Pakistan as well, and also Uganda and Ivory Coast and Mexico.
00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:10.960
So we are supporting the ones that have are supporting orphans, you know, of human trafficking and war.
00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:14.800
We have adult orphans who are raising orphans.
00:37:15.039 --> 00:37:19.760
And uh, as a friend of mine said, that's poetic humanity, right?
00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:24.800
The ones who have nothing are the ones that are most generous, usually.
00:37:25.119 --> 00:37:29.119
And I'm with Bruce in terms of there are things I wish I didn't know.
00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:34.719
I would never tell anyone because they wouldn't be able to absorb it.
00:37:35.039 --> 00:37:42.559
Um but when you're called, it's not working, you know, it's you're called, you cannot not do it.
00:37:42.639 --> 00:37:46.559
Sorry for the double nugget of English teachers, but yeah, yeah, there you go.
00:37:46.880 --> 00:37:49.199
You know, it is that compelling.
00:37:49.599 --> 00:37:53.280
I'm at that age and stage where I can't do as much as I'd like to.
00:37:53.360 --> 00:37:58.480
I cannot do, you know, a lot in the live rescue anymore, but it's okay.
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:01.119
And there are residual effects.
00:38:01.280 --> 00:38:16.400
Uh, we are working with some folks that that have identified scientifically that even one sexual assault on a child can lead up to one or more of 73 different illnesses, diseases, and cancers.
00:38:16.719 --> 00:38:18.000
It's proven.
00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:22.320
You know, I have a lot of issues, you know, autoimmune, all the stuff, things that I've been through.
00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:24.559
But then there are things that weren't caused by that.
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:29.840
But just think about that child who's five, who's had that experience, just one.
00:38:30.400 --> 00:38:44.719
And maybe she becomes 25, you know, 30-ish, has health issues, but there will never be that correlation unless doctors and and health providers are trained and made aware that some of these things can be caused from that.
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:52.400
Now, you know, you you may not be able to fix that as that physician, but you know, there are ways to recommend, you know, special counseling.
00:38:52.559 --> 00:39:03.760
Um, sexual uh assault is a very intimate act, and so not every counselor can handle that or can advise someone.
00:39:03.920 --> 00:39:11.119
I had to go through two counselors before the there was that one who said, Andy, this is gonna take a while.
00:39:11.280 --> 00:39:16.320
It's complicated, but if you're willing to work, willing to work, I'm willing to be here.
00:39:16.559 --> 00:39:24.000
And if we get to three years and we're not, you know, where we want to be, either I'm not doing my job or you're not doing the work.
00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:24.480
Yeah.
00:39:24.800 --> 00:39:38.800
So we have to give that opportunity so that they can get their mental, spiritual, physical, all the capacity they have as a human being that had the courage to survive to get to where they need to do.
00:39:38.880 --> 00:39:40.800
That little girl you told breaks my heart.
00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:46.079
I'm trying not to cry because I remember what it was like being a kid and being hurt that badly.
00:39:46.400 --> 00:39:49.599
And um, you know, so thank you for saving her.
00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:54.000
Yeah, thank you, Bruce, for the work that you do for saving these children.
00:39:54.159 --> 00:40:14.800
So when um I love that the fact I love the fact that when you rescue them, you put them in homes that are God-centered, faith, faith abounds in these homes so that these children can um to can learn more about who God is and that um that it's not him that's causing the problem.
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:22.880
It's not him that caused it to happen or create or created the thoughts within the people who have abused them.
00:40:23.039 --> 00:40:27.760
Um, what kind of um what kind I know you've you mentioned two of them.
00:40:27.840 --> 00:40:32.000
One is a worship leader and the other one is, tell me again.
00:40:32.400 --> 00:40:34.239
She's in in uh college too.
00:40:35.760 --> 00:40:36.159
Yeah.
00:40:36.719 --> 00:41:01.599
So um do a lot of the children, a lot of the children um know themselves what it means to be loved by another human being and not have to be um assaulted and in the in what these people would call in the name of love because it's what they love to do, and it's just it's just ridiculously um evil.
00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:20.559
So do they actually come away um from the situation and find good relationships, build friendships and and that sort of thing, so that they can go through life in a, I don't want to say normal, because relatively, let's see, relatively a new normal.
00:41:21.119 --> 00:41:21.920
A new normal.
00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:22.800
Let's go there.
00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:23.599
Yeah.
00:41:24.800 --> 00:41:26.480
Well, let me give you an example.
00:41:26.719 --> 00:41:31.360
We were in a specific country doing uh rescues in different locations.
00:41:31.519 --> 00:41:42.639
We found out that on the mountainside there was a truck stop where uh some little girls were where the truckers were stopping, and these girls were nine, ten, eleven years old, not very old.
00:41:42.960 --> 00:41:44.559
And uh, so we went up.
00:41:44.639 --> 00:41:46.400
Uh, it was a dangerous situation.
00:41:46.559 --> 00:41:50.639
There was a lot of you know machetes and probably weapons.
00:41:51.119 --> 00:41:53.519
We went in and got these little girls out.
00:41:53.760 --> 00:42:06.880
Um I won't tell you all the details, but uh we got them down uh into a uh whole new location into a really good home with a pastor and his wife and family.
00:42:07.119 --> 00:42:21.360
And they were when we got them in the van, uh we always have a female there to interpret in their language and talk to them immediately so they don't think they're being trafficked to some strange looking people.
00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:28.159
Um and uh so we got them there and we dropped them off.
00:42:28.400 --> 00:42:34.159
Um there was a lot of details to all that, like getting information uh things.
00:42:34.320 --> 00:42:49.039
But we went back about three months later, and we got up to where the house was, and I saw these little girls in school uniforms, and they were in the yard playing and laughing and and running around.
00:42:49.119 --> 00:42:54.159
And I looked at them and I thought, oh, I wonder who they are, and I didn't recognize them.
00:42:55.119 --> 00:42:57.679
They were the same girls we rescued.
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:03.360
Uh they were playing and they were laughing and they were in school.
00:43:03.760 --> 00:43:13.440
Uh and uh whatever took place in that house, the love that those those parents uh you know gave them, uh there was so much healing.
00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:32.719
And I we we've noticed that the children who are born into slavery have a quicker healing rate than the ones that are kidnapped, traumatized, yeah, and and uh so we've we've tried tried to figure out the specific um you know methods of counsel, you know, for that.
00:43:32.960 --> 00:43:39.360
But uh a lot of the ones we've because we've rescued kids that are second generation, third generation slaves.
00:43:39.679 --> 00:43:46.719
That's all they've ever known, you know, and they get out and all of a sudden they have freedom, and there's just a different type of healing with them.
00:43:47.440 --> 00:43:48.079
Yeah, yeah.
00:43:48.320 --> 00:43:59.760
Yeah, that's very true, even from my perspective with the kids that we rescued, because the ones that remembered being happy and innocent and joyful, and then that that incident or that.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:04.719
That you know, pattern began, they remember what it was like before.
00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:07.039
Someone like me, it was never that way.
00:44:07.360 --> 00:44:10.960
So all I ever knew was what was happening to me.
00:44:11.360 --> 00:44:13.360
And it, you're right, Bruce, very much so.
00:44:13.440 --> 00:44:33.119
That's why counselors really need to know their stuff when they deal with these uh traumatized victims, because it is different when you've never known anything else except the horror, or you remember what it was like when you were happy, and now you have this horrible thing, and now you have to start over again trying to create a new normal, you know.
00:44:33.360 --> 00:44:42.239
So those survivors are the heroes, the ones that that stick it out and say, I want this so bad, I'll do whatever it takes if you can help me.
00:44:43.199 --> 00:44:45.760
Yeah, and it takes a lot of courage to do that.
00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:58.000
It takes a lot of courage for them to do that because when you know something and you you fall victim to the patterns in your life, regardless of whether, what whatever it is, um, it's really hard to get out.
00:44:58.159 --> 00:45:24.159
And in order to be able to process their way through all of this, as you say, they need specific counselors that have been trained to um to treat them literally with kid gloves, you know, and what they where they go in terms of this children's experience and how they can um you know help them to to break free, even in their in their minds, from from some of what they have experienced.
00:45:24.400 --> 00:45:27.280
I love the story that you told about those girls, Bruce.
00:45:27.440 --> 00:45:28.320
I love the story.
00:45:28.480 --> 00:45:29.840
That is just hope.
00:45:30.079 --> 00:45:37.280
Yeah, yeah, hope, exactly, with a capital H definitely brings hope too, and there is hope for this.
00:45:37.440 --> 00:45:51.920
You know, we talk about we talk about this and the um the um insanity of how big this is, but for everyone that is rescued, that's one that is not in the trade anymore, you know.
00:45:52.079 --> 00:46:07.519
So uh and it makes a difference because every single one of us makes a difference to God Almighty, and so do each of those children, each of those people that are enslaved by um by this horrific practice.
00:46:07.679 --> 00:46:10.800
You know, they say that um there is no slavery anymore.
00:46:10.880 --> 00:46:13.119
You'll talk to people who say there is no slavery anymore.
00:46:13.280 --> 00:46:17.280
Like, I might are you going through life with blinders on?
00:46:17.519 --> 00:46:17.840
Right.
00:46:18.079 --> 00:46:27.199
You know, all you have to do is all you have to do is open any any platform and it's right in front of your eyes.
00:46:27.360 --> 00:46:28.559
It's right in front of your eyes.
00:46:28.719 --> 00:46:35.360
So yeah, denial, denial is not gonna make it go away.
00:46:35.599 --> 00:46:40.719
It's not no, and we have more slavery now than we ever had in this country.
00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:42.320
We we just can't see it.
00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:43.920
We don't see the chains, you know.
00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:52.880
We don't see the chains that are still on some of the survivors, you know, that they still have to unlock the shame, all the things that have been bound to them, the stigma.
00:46:52.960 --> 00:46:54.880
Um, I never would have told anyone.
00:46:55.119 --> 00:47:02.239
I rarely let anyone know anything about my personal life, even in business, because I didn't know how to how to present that.
00:47:02.320 --> 00:47:07.599
How do you tell somebody what happened to you when they think you're a good person on the outside, right?
00:47:07.679 --> 00:47:12.400
Because I thought I was I was either too stupid or it was my fault for a really long time.
00:47:13.039 --> 00:47:31.679
And and and unless you had that intercession and intervention, I had a blind faith in God, which is what initially saved me, but the experiential love came in my early 30s, you know, when I changed service, because I had never experienced anyone hugging me safely, especially as a mother figure.
00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:33.199
And that's what the speaker did that day.
00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:36.960
She didn't say a word, she didn't know what was going on, she just rocked me back and forth.
00:47:37.119 --> 00:47:39.360
I was 31 years old, I'd never known that.
00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:43.280
But in that instant, I knew God was loving me.
00:47:43.440 --> 00:47:45.599
Yeah, and so that's a long time.
00:47:45.679 --> 00:47:52.239
And I don't like Bruce, you and everyone else who is in this fight, we don't want kids to have to wait that long to know that.
00:47:53.760 --> 00:48:05.840
No, and then uh I would be remiss if we didn't talk about some of the resources that you each have available to help um people get uh some ways to keep kids safe.
00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:14.239
You know, we talked earlier about grooming, and we know that um voice against trafficking has uh some literature on grooming and other things.
00:48:14.320 --> 00:48:15.119
You want to talk about that?
00:48:15.199 --> 00:48:20.000
And then Bruce, when she's when she's done talk about what resources you have available as well.
00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:33.360
One of the things you can ask for free, electronic copy is our our um prevention packet, and it has a very just four pages, you know, a sheet about grooming, just some basic information so you can understand it, what it is.
00:48:33.519 --> 00:48:35.280
It goes beyond stranger danger.
00:48:35.360 --> 00:48:37.840
We're way past that, you know, in this situation.
00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:48.639
Also, helplines and hotlines and tips for parents on how to keep your kids safe and things that you can do, whether you're a parent or you're the aunt or you're the foster care person or the daycare person.
00:48:48.800 --> 00:48:51.199
So all of that's in those four to five pages.
00:48:51.280 --> 00:49:00.559
And so we encourage you uh go to contact on voicesagainstrafficking.com, ask for the prevention packet, and we'll be happy to send that out to you electronically.
00:49:00.800 --> 00:49:01.360
Perfect.
00:49:01.599 --> 00:49:02.800
Thank you, Bruce.
00:49:02.880 --> 00:49:07.440
You want to talk a little bit about what you might be able to share with the people who are listening?
00:49:07.840 --> 00:49:08.079
Sure.
00:49:08.239 --> 00:49:15.760
I I think I would come at it from the angle of teaching your children to be situationally aware.
00:49:16.159 --> 00:49:26.000
This thing right here is the biggest safety thing that uh, you know, kids walking around, they're they're not looking around.
00:49:26.159 --> 00:49:35.760
Uh as I think we mentioned earlier, the majority of people that I've talked to here in the US in trafficking situations has been through the internet.
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:41.199
Parents need to monitor, put um, there's different programs they can put on.
00:49:41.360 --> 00:49:56.800
I'm not nothing, I don't remember what the exact programs are right now, but um, and I would teach, I would teach my children martial arts and self-defense and uh walk them around and teach them what to look for, you know.
00:49:56.960 --> 00:50:04.239
Uh don't be walking out of Walmart or a store with a phone in your face, walking, you know, to your car.
00:50:04.719 --> 00:50:08.800
Uh so I guess situational awareness is just huge.
00:50:08.960 --> 00:50:25.199
Uh I worked two cases here uh in my area, and one of the girls, beautiful young lady, she ended up uh in um the Middle East, unfortunately, because she had connected to a guy on the internet.
00:50:25.760 --> 00:50:43.039
She was lonely, yeah, and um he knew the things to say, he was a Romeo and convinced them that they were in love, and she snuck away and flew to his nation and married her uh him and uh pretty much has no rights now.
00:50:43.280 --> 00:50:48.400
Um, and uh there's so many cases like that, just many.
00:50:48.559 --> 00:50:58.960
Uh it's unbelievable how many kids are being lured in through uh you know online programs like Roblox, yes, Instagram, Facebook, all those.
00:50:59.280 --> 00:51:17.599
Yeah, you know, kids think that they're playing with other kids, these video games that are out there, and in the meanwhile, they are just um they're being groomed, if you will, um, to be in a situation where they end up missing or whatever.
00:51:17.760 --> 00:51:30.239
You know, they think that they're they're other kids and they they do things to uh lure these children in, and it's just it's just maddening that this goes on.
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:32.159
It's the only thing I can say about it.
00:51:32.320 --> 00:51:39.760
But you know, but at the same time that I'm angry about all of these things that are going on, the world has so much happening today.
00:51:39.920 --> 00:51:48.320
Like there's there's wars and rumors of wars, and we're in Revelation if we want to talk about this in biblical uh conversations.
00:51:48.880 --> 00:51:53.440
Um, you know, there's a lot of things that are going on that are not of God.
00:51:53.840 --> 00:52:14.239
And I am gonna continue to put my faith in him that people like Andy and Bruce and and other members of the team from Voices Against Trafficking and Children's Rescue Organization are out there doing the work that has to be done that maybe we don't have the capacity to do.
00:52:14.480 --> 00:52:16.960
My um my I can use my voice.
00:52:17.119 --> 00:52:21.679
I can talk about this and and you know make people aware of whatever.
00:52:21.760 --> 00:52:46.400
So, whatever your gifting is, if you can um do something, anything, anything, whether it's finances, whether it's sharing this video with somebody, getting information, going to voices against trafficking, getting um the the prevention pack, looking at the resources that are available with Bruce, read the books that are are offered to you, Voice Against Trafficking.
00:52:46.559 --> 00:52:49.599
That's just a that's one of three, I think you have, right, Andy?
00:52:49.679 --> 00:52:50.079
Three books.
00:52:50.320 --> 00:52:50.480
Right.
00:52:50.559 --> 00:52:52.320
That's yeah, that's the newest one.
00:52:52.719 --> 00:52:52.960
Right.
00:52:53.360 --> 00:52:56.079
And the David effect, get those books.
00:52:56.239 --> 00:53:06.400
And then if you want to read some um some stories that will um um help to heal your heart, get uh Daily Gift of Peace.
00:53:06.559 --> 00:53:15.599
Andy wrote the Daily Gift of Peace forward on that, and it is filled with hope and things that are calming to the reader.
00:53:15.679 --> 00:53:27.920
Um, it's just one page a day, 250 words, something to take you through um a situation that may you may not think you have peace in your life, um, and you want some of that.
00:53:28.079 --> 00:53:32.320
And these authors that have contributed to this can offer that to you as well.
00:53:32.480 --> 00:53:36.159
And then if you're looking for courage, read the David Effect.
00:53:37.280 --> 00:53:38.079
Right on.
00:53:38.480 --> 00:53:38.960
Yeah.
00:53:39.599 --> 00:53:41.280
So we'll put that one up again, too.
00:53:41.440 --> 00:53:51.760
Read the David Effect, and you know, like you say, David was a little boy with a slingshot who slew the giant and became king.
00:53:51.920 --> 00:53:55.840
I mean, and did this because he was chosen by God.
00:53:56.000 --> 00:54:14.320
I believe that each one of us is chosen to do what it is that we have been gifted to do, and I am beyond grateful that each of you steps into your power, your your superpower that God has given you in order to be able to speak out for these children.
00:54:14.639 --> 00:54:17.519
Last words before we we got five minutes left.
00:54:17.679 --> 00:54:23.280
So um, Bruce, what what would you like to leave the audience with today?
00:54:23.519 --> 00:54:29.920
Um what what what would you like them to take away from this as we close down this conversation?
00:54:30.480 --> 00:54:36.320
Well, trafficking is a global issue where people are transported uh all around the world.
00:54:36.400 --> 00:54:41.360
You know, they're transported from African nations to the Middle East, all over.
00:54:41.519 --> 00:54:50.320
It's it's uh what what I like to tell people is uh rescuing a child anywhere is rescuing a child everywhere.
00:54:50.800 --> 00:54:51.119
Exactly.
00:54:51.280 --> 00:54:55.199
You know, no matter where we work, it's affecting this whole global thing.
00:54:55.440 --> 00:55:07.440
Um, there's a lot of people trying to do good work out there, and they're going out and buy trying to buy slaves out of you know, slavery, pay uh doing that, but it actually has the opposite effect.
00:55:07.599 --> 00:55:14.960
Um, slave owners will take that money and they'll go out and buy more kids out of the out of the slums.
00:55:15.440 --> 00:55:24.320
So that type of stuff has to change because they're actually becoming a part of that trafficking cycle.
00:55:24.480 --> 00:55:26.559
Uh that's why we're not even realizing it.
00:55:26.880 --> 00:55:28.320
Yeah, we just go and take them.
00:55:28.639 --> 00:55:34.960
I had I learned the hard way because that's how we started out, you know, 17 years ago is when I started this work.
00:55:35.440 --> 00:55:40.320
Um and so, you know, it it's it's global.
00:55:40.480 --> 00:55:48.400
Uh, we we need to think local, act global, uh, and work together to to make a difference.
00:55:48.639 --> 00:55:49.440
Yeah, exactly.
00:55:49.599 --> 00:55:50.159
Absolutely.
00:55:50.320 --> 00:55:50.639
Yeah.
00:55:52.079 --> 00:56:00.880
Well, and I think too, uh, first of all, if you're out there and any of this has happened to you or resonates with you on a personal level, you're not alone.
00:56:01.119 --> 00:56:13.519
Um, you are loved by God, by us, you can reach out and we will help you, you know, find help or use one of the neutral hotlines, you know, that we have um on our website, voicesagainstraffing.com.
00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:24.960
But um one of the other things, like Bruce was saying, we need to be more aware and we need to understand what really works and doesn't work in this fight.
00:56:25.119 --> 00:57:00.000
Um, one of the things that we're hoping to bring out or at least start a pilot project is uh voices against trafficking, the university tour, so that we can get to universities and campuses all over America, because that's the most dangerous place right now, 18 to 24 for women, uh college campuses of any kind, but um, you know, like many of the people that we've seen in the past, being on those campuses in person, teaching them about situation awareness, giving them um ways to protect themselves, a peer-to-peer vetting, you know, peer-to-peer support, things that they can do to be safe.
00:57:00.159 --> 00:57:14.880
That's one of the things I'm really passionate about, you know, for this next year is getting to that age group, which will really make the difference in that generation where this topic is, because we know that college kids are being paid to groom, paid to recruit.
00:57:15.199 --> 00:57:18.639
So we want them to be able to have a stronghold.
00:57:18.880 --> 00:57:23.440
So if you're interested in helping us with that and you have connections, let us know.
00:57:23.679 --> 00:57:29.280
But again, you can be a voice of courage in your own village, your own neighborhood, your own community.
00:57:29.440 --> 00:57:31.039
You see something, say something.
00:57:31.119 --> 00:57:32.320
There's safe ways to do it.
00:57:32.400 --> 00:57:38.320
You don't have to rant anyone out, you know, because people say, Well, we thought something was wrong in your family, but we didn't want to say anything.
00:57:38.400 --> 00:57:43.920
It's like, well, kind of wish you had, but you know, different, different, different place.
00:57:44.159 --> 00:57:52.639
If you want training, you know, most of our members will do that uh for free virtually or you know, small donation to their organization.
00:57:52.800 --> 00:57:59.840
So uh we will train, we will do anything if you're a parent or someone in charge of children and you don't know how to open a conversation.
00:58:00.079 --> 00:58:06.880
Let us help you do an age-appropriate conversation so that your kids know you're not trying to police them, you're trying to protect them.
00:58:06.960 --> 00:58:10.880
And as a family, we're gonna discuss how we can do that together.
00:58:11.119 --> 00:58:11.280
Right.
00:58:11.679 --> 00:58:13.199
You know, I'm starting to cry again.
00:58:13.280 --> 00:58:14.320
So sorry.
00:58:14.880 --> 00:58:15.920
I was really emotional.
00:58:16.079 --> 00:58:17.840
Bruce, you did this to me.
00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:23.039
Well, hey, you know, this is something to get emotional about.
00:58:23.119 --> 00:58:25.920
If you if this doesn't hit your heart, I don't know what does.
00:58:26.159 --> 00:58:26.960
I don't either.
00:58:27.199 --> 00:58:31.920
Yeah, and we will do everything that we can in order to be able to keep getting the word out there.
00:58:32.079 --> 00:58:34.880
Andy's been on, and Bruce has been on the show a couple of times.
00:58:35.039 --> 00:58:36.719
Andy's been on many times.
00:58:36.960 --> 00:58:42.639
And we, for those of you who missed it, we did uh DJs against trafficking last November.
00:58:42.800 --> 00:58:53.199
We had DJs from around the world, we had panels of people coming talking about uh prevention and all different aspects of what we're discussing here today.
00:58:53.280 --> 00:58:56.239
And we are planning on doing that again in September.
00:58:56.800 --> 00:59:17.280
The way you can help us to um get more eyes and ears on this topic and potentially um save uh their own children from being trafficked or um helping um through rescue rescue things that are going on in these organizations by your donations, share this video with other people.
00:59:17.920 --> 00:59:20.960
This is not one that you want to put a blinder on.
00:59:21.119 --> 00:59:24.400
You're you know, the see no evil here, no evil, speak, no evil thing.
00:59:24.480 --> 00:59:26.000
That doesn't work in this show.
00:59:27.119 --> 00:59:28.480
It doesn't work here.
00:59:28.719 --> 00:59:30.880
If you see something, say something.
00:59:31.199 --> 00:59:41.039
And you know, we we will do our best to continue to get the message out there so that um you can either prevent or you can help to um save someone.
00:59:41.199 --> 00:59:55.440
We had a one of the stories in the in the book, uh before we go, one of the stories in the book is from a young lady who actually um stopped something from happening on a plane because the two people did not match up.
00:59:55.599 --> 00:59:56.800
They didn't go together.
00:59:56.960 --> 01:00:20.559
So, you know, uh and just noticing, keeping your eyes opening, open and recognizing when something is off, you know, and and we teach to teach this to your children, you know, and and you got to use it yourself though, too, you know, like you can't put the blinders on, you know, and and put your hands over your ears and pretend that it's not happening because it is, it is alive and well and living all over the world.
01:00:20.719 --> 01:00:32.480
And people, the organizations like this are doing the very best they can to not only rescue, but to help others, help these people who have been victims to get their life back.
01:00:32.719 --> 01:00:36.480
And by the way, God's children are not for sale.
01:00:37.679 --> 01:00:38.559
Not for sale.
01:00:38.800 --> 01:00:39.039
That's right.
01:00:39.440 --> 01:00:41.840
That's Jim Caviesel and Sound of Freedom.
01:00:41.920 --> 01:00:44.000
If you haven't seen that movie, I highly recommend it.
01:00:44.079 --> 01:00:55.920
It will open your eyes to a lot of things, um, and it will help you to really put into a visual what Bruce has been talking about and how the rescues actually happened.
01:00:56.159 --> 01:00:59.599
So that's our show for today.
01:00:59.920 --> 01:01:01.840
This is the first one on the news platform.
01:01:02.480 --> 01:01:02.960
Yep.
01:01:03.280 --> 01:01:05.280
Like, share, comment.
01:01:05.440 --> 01:01:10.559
Make sure that you um put us on your calendar for Tuesdays at 5 p.m.
01:01:10.800 --> 01:01:11.519
Eastern time.
01:01:11.920 --> 01:01:20.159
We have a bunch of incredible guests who are part of part of the show and we'll and a bunch of new people who will become part of the show.
01:01:20.320 --> 01:01:24.000
So thank you for watching, and we'll see you the next time.
01:01:24.159 --> 01:01:25.440
Have a good day, everyone.
01:01:25.760 --> 01:01:26.559
Thank you, Teresa.
01:01:27.039 --> 01:01:34.320
That brings us to the close of another episode of Conversations That Make a Difference with host Teresa Vellardi.
01:01:34.480 --> 01:01:39.039
We want to sincerely thank you for tuning in and sharing your time with us today.
01:01:39.280 --> 01:01:50.480
Our greatest hope is that today's discussion inspired your personal growth, encouraged you to share your unique gift, and gave you the courage to write your own magnificent story.
01:01:50.880 --> 01:01:55.199
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01:01:55.440 --> 01:02:04.079
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01:02:21.519 --> 01:02:26.400
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