Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Brad Staggs and The Nazarene Fund 12/12/15

Episode Date: December 12, 2015

Today on The Jeff Fisher Show, Brad Staggs fills in for Jeffy. Brad talks about his experiences of horror, compassion, and dismay as he and many others of The Nazarene Fund traveled to the Middle East to help rescue Syrian Christians. Forewarning: have tissues handy. To help contribute to The Nazarene Fund, please visit http://www.mercuryone.org/Jeff Fisher is live from 6am to 8am ET, Saturday. Listen for free on The Blaze Radio Network: www.theblaze.com/radio & www.iheart.comFollow Jeffy on Twitter: @JeffyMRA &Like Jeffy's Facebook: www.facebook.com/JeffFisherRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Blaze Radio on demand. Hey, it's Glenn, and I want to remind you peace of mind is tough to come by these days unless you have a Liberty Safe. With a Liberty Safe, you won't worry when you leave the house because you'll know your valuables are protected. And right now you can get free delivery to your home on any Liberty Safe. Go to LibertySafe.com for factory direct pricing. LibertySafe.com made in the USA lifetime warranty and peace of mind. LibertySafe.com. Experiment was a success.

Begin life force reboot program. Now. It's stable. It's alive. Set it loose. This is the Jeff Fisher show on the Blaze Radio Network. And here we go. It is Brad stags in for Jeffie this morning as he continues on the men.

From his surgery a few days ago, he so graciously allowed me to sit in the chair. And to talk with you this morning, I'm going to tell you several stories. Just got back from a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, beginning the evacuation of Christians from the Middle East and to their new home. And what I want to do is talk to you about this extraordinary experience. I would describe this as surreal even. The whole thing began when Glenn decided that we would start the Nazarene Fund to aid the Christians overseas who had been driven from their homes or killed or worse. What could be worse?

I always wondered, my mom would always say that when I was young. It's a fate worse than death, she'd say. What's worse than death? I would always wonder, and as you grew older, I understood, humans can do unspeakable, unspeakable things to each other, in the name of God, in the name of Allah, in the name of whatever name you want to insert there. We will talk more on that later. Once Glenn began talking with you about the Nazarene Fund and you so generously, opened not only your hearts, but your wallets, and you began what would be a $12 million plus influx of cash,

including jars of coins, $37.32, as one man sent in a jar, his life savings essentially. a wedding ring a wedding ring sent by a woman who she had discussed with her husband the fact that they wanted to do whatever they could this wedding ring belonged to her mother and she sent the wedding ring

to Mercury 1 $5,000 I think this ring is worth and will bring will bring to the fun. That is when my Odyssey began. I didn't know at the time I would have the opportunity to witness this incredible series of events firsthand. Never dreamed of. I had no idea I would play any role in this at all. But as so often happens, always. Always. God had a plan for me. It's the reason I'm talking to you now. If you know how I got to the blaze and how I'm even sitting in this chair right now, filling in for Jeffrey. Several weeks ago,

as plans were coming together to begin the evacuation of the Christians from Syria and Iraq, I was asked by American Dream Labs here, Ben McPherson and the rest of the crew, to accompany them on the journey to Iraq, document not only the evacuation, but to also help tell the story of Father Douglas. As the days went by, plans changed, as they so often do, not only here at Mercury Studios, everything is fluid, but those plans changed as it relates to those Christians leaving the Middle East. I was unable to travel with Dream Labs in the end. I was disappointed. I was disappointed, but then again God had a plan

and it's funny how he makes exactly what should happen when it should happen it's even funnier in an ironic sense how we tend to worry about things that in retrospect we had no need to worry about it all

I think of the time we spend worrying about things that never even happen that's something I'm still trying to force myself to learn. It's not an easy lesson, and I'm sure you know. So time goes by, as it turned out, I was asked to travel with Mercury 1 and Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company, it traveled with them. To say a talented group of people is a complete understatement. Their mission and mine is to tell the story. to you and the world so that we could in turn get more of these victims of unspeakable terror to safety,

at least out of harm's way. Ellen, our director of content, who a very unique woman, if you ever have the chance, just Google Ellen Wheeler. She's an incredible, incredibly talented woman who has spent time not only in front of the camera if you've ever watched soap operas. Guiding Light is the one I believe she was on,

played twins. I may be wrong, but I'll ask Beth, telling me up, Beth not as one of the most talented, if not the best producer of stories I've ever had the honor of knowing. We'll actually talk to her at the bottom of the hour. Nick Nick was our

sound guy Nick is a funny guy he's a gifted sound artist who would end up traveling with his dead cat or what seemed to be a dead cat in the in the form of a

of a microphone wonderful sense of humor this Nick Archer Throughout the morning, by the way, I'm going to be playing you some audio from my cell phone. These are things that I have actually recorded on my cell phone. So if the audio level is a little low, please accept my apologies. But I think it's more important that you hear it even if it is not perfect, then not hear it at all.

but with Nick one of the things that a sound guy travels with is this boom microphone you may have seen it in in news stories before it just looks like a furry cat

I'll share a video with you a little bit later on that and Matt Matt was one of our and is one of our videographers and editors Matt is one of the quietest people on planet Earth until you get to know him and then just try shutting him up. I love Matt.

Matt is a wonderful, wonderful human being. These are the people that I shared the initial leg of our journey with. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to be with. The 12-hour plus flight that made up the first leg of our journey. was uneventful. We took off from from Dallas. We arrived in Dohar, Qatar, or Qatar, depending on how you want to say it. That's where we met up with Nick, who had flown in directly from Florida. We had a 12-hour layover there. It was an opportunity for us to get to know each other as a team. Obviously, that's crucial when you're going to be telling a story of this magnitude,

of this sort, if you think traveling with a family member is tough, imagine traveling with a group of people who we've never spent this much time before so closely. Just think about what it takes to get to know these people and to get to understand what it's like to spend entire days, sleep-deprived days, 20, 21, one hour days, which is what they averaged. I think we got somewhere between two and three hours of sleep a night. It was anywhere from eight to, I think, ten hour time difference. So you can imagine just the ability for each of us to mesh together, to be able to do our jobs.

because if there was one week link in the chain, obviously the chain would fall apart. Those 12 hours that we got to spend just in the hotel in the airport was amazing. And by the way, if you take the signs off the stores and the restaurants in Doha, International Airport there in Qatar, you could be just about anywhere in the world. one of the things I have grown to dislike over the years,

the homogenization of the world. Years ago when I worked for the Nashville Network and I did stories on the different states around the country, from Washington State to Louisiana, to Alabama, Texas, even. It was just beginning then. and this was back in 1989, 1990. Yeah, I'm that old.

You would travel to different parts of the country, and different parts of the country seemed different. There were different stores. There were different restaurants. There was different everything. But now, if you closed your eyes, or even if you had them open, the McDonald's on every corner for crying out loud,

the Burger King on every corner. in Slovakia, the H&M in every mall, having Katie Perry stare at you from a mall in Stockholm, Sweden, or Koshitsa, Slovakia, is just surreal. But then I digress. The next leg of our journey, relatively short airplane ride from Qatar to or Beal, Iraq. We landed about three hours later following an uneventful flight. Stepping into that airport and going through security was strange to say the least.

We were inside Iraq, a place I'd heard about for over 20 years. But now I was there. I tried as best I could to look around and take in all the sights and sounds, even a banner that read a future embracing the heritage. As Glenn would say, that can be a dangerous thing. I'll tell you more about our odyssey into the Middle East as we put the Nazarene Fund into action. I am Brad Staggs. I am here in for Jeff Fisher.

On the Jeff Fisher Show, here on the Blaze Radio Network. This is the Jeff Fisher Show. Network. This is the Jeff Fisher Show. And it is Brad Stagg sitting in for Jeffrey this morning as he recovers from his his operation. It's probably top secret. Let's just say his voice will be higher when he gets back.

And you'll have to call him. I was recounting to you our trip to the Middle East for the Nazarene Fund as we put your dollars, the money. that you have donated the $12 million plus that you have so generously put up to relocate these Christian refugees who have been driven out of their homes by ISIS, literally driven from their homes. We, and I say we, the initial group that went on the trip, Nick, our sound guy, who I want to play just a bit of audio that I'll explain here to say.

This is from my cell phone again. Please forgive the quality. When your location sound guide, you're traveling in Slovakia and it's freezing outside. It has a good tip for you. If you're traveling with your dead cat, it's just good for recording and it's just good for cuddling. Right. And let me tell you, the dead cat thing. If you've ever seen a news crew traveling with a boom microphone, it's covered with a furry oblong thing.

It looks like a dead something. It's furry to the point where the children in the camp would come up and try to pet this thing that looked like an animal. The sense of humor there you heard was Nix. The sense of humor was crucial in getting us through some things that it was hard to get through without crying. When you hear these stories, when you hear the stories of these people who were driven, who were given a choice, when ISIS came to their hometowns, when ISIS came to their front doors, when they were told you have three options,

you can leave, you can convert to Islam, or will kill you. And in many cases, even those who decided to turn their back on their faith or who simply said it in hopes that these monsters would go away, they were still killed.

In one instance, we spoke with a woman whose three-year-old daughter had been literally pulled from her arms. And yeah, she saw her again as these monsters would bring her within distance so that she could see her daughter, telling her that they would return her to her as a mother and then leaving again.

And to this day, she does not know where. her daughter and that was like a year and a half ago. We, in this country, we have our own problems. But when you put your problem in that context, when you talk to these people and they tell you their stories, not only do you, it made my head spin. So humor was one way that we dealt with it. because as I often say, if you don't laugh, you cry.

So that is the context of our humor. We took every step so very seriously. As we entered the airport, and I told you about the banner, a future embracing the heritage that was seen in the Erbiel Airport. Many ways, obviously, to interpret that, I talked with Ellen. about it. She, by the way, was busy shooting video and taking pictures in the airport in Iraq. Look, you tried doing that here and see what security does.

Now imagine that security being Iraqi and having absolutely no sense of humor. I'm continually amazed at Ellen's Cajonis. They are large. She's a wonderful woman. I've grown to love her. She is an unashamed storyteller who will walk into a burning building to get the shot. I've known only one other person like her in my life, and his name was Gary Langham. God rest his soul.

He's a funny little man with a big heart and larger than life talent. But then again, I digress. We traveled from the airport to our hotel to unload gear and luggage. and since I've been riding with Ellen in one car, we had two cars. And Beth, our producer and coordinator, she was riding in another. When we got to the hotel, which was beautiful, by the way, when we got there, I was surprised to learn of a very credible threat to the Christian safety and to ours.

and I'm going to play for you the video travel log that we recorded when we got to the hotel on the other side of the break. We'll also talk to Beth live when we return to the Jeff Fisher show. I am Brad Stags filling in for Jeffie on the Blaze Radio Network. The Jeff Fisher Show, the Blaze Radio Network. The Jeff Fisher Show. And it's Brad Staggs in for Jeffie this morning as he recovers from his, I mean surgery. We'll be back next year.

It sounds strange, but it's true. I'll be in here for, let's see, this week and next week, whenever. If you turn the radio on, I'm on, I'm in for Jeffrey. If not, it'll be him. We've been telling you the story of our trip to Erbil Iraq and the story of getting these Christians. out, getting these Christians out of the Middle East

and to safety. And one of the people who was on that trip, I want her to join me now on the program. Her name is Beth Knotch. She is the Are you still the acting director? What is your, she was the acting director of Mercury 1.

Now she's, what is your title now? Now I'm the supervising producer for Gwynbeck content. Gotcha. So she and Ellen, I'm right, on top of things. I'm telling you. Beth and Ellen handle all things content related to Glenn and his television and radio shows. And I want to play just a little bit of a little bit of audio, Beth. The audio that we recorded in the hotel when we got back from the first, from the airport.

And you were telling the story of the credible threat, the very first credible threat that we were aware of that we got Intel on the ground, that ISIS kind of, well, let me play this first, and then I want to get your reaction to it. Again, this is, for you listening, this is off of my cell phone, so please forgive any audio quality issues. But this was so by the seat of your pants reporting, We did everything we could to record every moment that we could.

So here's Beth. We're counting our first, well, let's call it speed bump. Yeah, tell me about the refugee camps, how they've got to hold of their cell phones. So we've gotten intel that ISIS has gotten hold of some of the cell phone numbers of the families that are in the refugee camp. And they have been calling them over the last few days and threatening them that if they, they are too evacuate if they're to leave this country that they will take it out on their

families or them and they have threatened ground attacks and IED and so obviously some of the families are a little bit nervous and it's made everybody just a little bit nervous on getting out of here

that's still on at this moment the evacuation is still on as of right now so we'll just kind of have to see how that goes I'm going to pause. I'm going to pause that right there. I want, Beth, I want you to give me your, when we got that information, what was going through your head? Well, when we first got some information was actually in Qatar. We were trying to get the rest between the 12-hour flight and the next flight,

and then we talked to some security. You gave us some information that there was some credible threats and almost called the whole trip off. Glenn considered calling everything off because he didn't want to put, you know, anybody in danger, but, you know, he asked us to make our own decisions. So everybody came together and said we were still going to move forward. To be honest, I was scared. It was, you know, there were real threats. There were threats not only from ISIS, but also the Russians were threatening the Turkish army.

And we were not very far from that border. They were threatening missile attacks there. So there was both of those things going on at the same time. But then when we found out that there were threats that were directly related to the evacuation, it got very serious, very quick. Now, the vehicles that we were traveling in security personnel that accompanied us, they were, was all a bit intimidating. Yes. When we got to the hotel, there were armed guards at the hotel. as as I can obviously give the perspective from a man's standpoint, but tell me as a woman what it felt like

because this is a country that does not look favorably or does not certainly does not look at everyone equally. And as a woman, how do you feel? Yeah, that's absolutely true. I mean, I have been fortunate to be raised in the United States, you know, and, you know, and, you know, a family that has taught me that, you know, as long as you work hard, it doesn't matter whether you're male or female, you can do whatever you want, you know, and I have worked in industries over the years that are predominantly male, but have done fairly well in them and have never felt like I was discriminated against it all for being a woman.

But you go to that country and you realize that it is a totally different thing, that, you know, you're not even consider a human if you're a woman in that country. And so therefore there are completely different safety risks for men and there are women there. There are safety risks for everyone, but women in particular, you know, they

will kidnap and so into slavery because women are property and not people over there. So it is interesting. You know, our security team was really good and they were very cordial and very nice. But, that they were very warning about, you know, proper behavior.

Now, the area where we were in, in particular, was a little bit more westernized. So it was, you know, not like, I didn't feel the need to wear, you know, scarf on my head and all that stuff. But still, it's totally different than it is here. And, you know, sticking together over there, I don't believe it is all safe for a woman to travel without a man in that area. Well, and the one thing I noticed, and I'd said this to several people on the trip, was that if you looked around and you took the words off of the buildings, you took the signs away from the buildings, you could be in a borough in New York.

It looked. Well, and actually, one of our shooters said that. In a couple of places, it reminded him of areas in Brooklyn, because they're, you know, but the rundown areas of Brooklyn. Right. Our bill was fascinating in the fact that it had been a very wealthy city. Their economy had been booming a couple of years ago. But in that area of the world, unlike the United States,

if the capital city of the country decides it wants the money of another city, it just takes it, which is what happened there. And so this town that had been inventing itself or reinventing itself to be a travel destination, ironically, you wouldn't think of Iraq, as a travel destination, but that's what they were trying to do. All these Americanized hotels were going up, and then Baghdad decided they wanted their money, and so they took it, and so now there are empty buildings everywhere. And ironically, that is one of the reasons our Beal came where a lot of the Christians fled to,

because there were empty buildings for them to seek shelter in until they found a place to go. they would literally come to the city and they would find an empty building and there were plenty to find, obviously. The closest thing that I can relate it to is Las Vegas right now. If you are familiar at all with Las Vegas in the way that there are buildings

half constructed and left that way, they're concrete shells, steel shells. That is what Orville reminded me of and these Christians would in fact simply go. go into these buildings, which they're not so much on the whole safety and the OSHA aspect over there. You don't find the same rules and restrictions. You don't find any rules.

No, and one of the things I noticed it happened to rain and sleet a little bit while we were there. I kind of laughed because, you know, in America, everybody's got the security stuff. You know, there's the texturized on all the steps. There's, you know, that handrails everywhere. Not over there. And everything would slick. It was like, you know, just, just, just you're responsible for your own actions. And if you fall down and go to the hospital, that's your problem.

It's not, you know, it's totally different there. But yet, then again, you see McDonald's. So it's kind of weird. That was the strange thing. It felt that's, I think, what made it so surreal is to see things that were familiar. And as the head of our security team told us, I'm more than one of a case. Asian awareness. Awareness is the key word of the day, he would say.

And the fact is it was very, very easy to let your guard down because some things seem so familiar. Yeah. And he said to me on more than one occasion, you know, do not get a false sense of security. You know, you are where we went, which in itself was kind of ironic. Where we went was the Christian area of town because that's where they are. seeking refuge. And to them, to the Christians in this particular area of town, they were safer. It's only 50 miles away from where they were run out of their homes by ISIS. A lot of them walked

that whole distance to get to this area to safety because, you know, they were driven away without cars and everything else. And you would ask them, you know, do you feel safe? And they would answer that they did feel safe there. But yet they all knew the threat, you know, There was a fence around the church and the camp where they were. There was, you know, barbed wire at the top of it. There were security guards that checked every car that came in and out, not only checking them, you know, just asking who the driver was, but, you know, with the mirrors underneath to make sure there were no bombs

and that sort of thing. So every day that they lived their lives here, they were safer than where they came from, but there was always a threat that somebody would walk in there with an explosive vest or with a car bomb or something to that nature. You don't think about that every day in the United States. You couldn't trust your own eyes. That was the thing.

And it was exhausting, quite honestly. And how these people handled it on a day-to-day basis is beyond me because I just, it was a very emotional, it was an emotional roller coaster. and we're going to take a break here in just a second, but when we come back, we, from the hotel, we traveled to a couple of the camps. They don't want to be called camps. They're centers.

Sister Diana's and also Father Douglas's center. And Beth, when we come back, I want you to tell the story of Rita. She's one of the refugees who was able to leave. And I want to talk about the story of her family and the fact that they lived in a container that was maybe eight feet wide,

maybe 15 feet long, it was tiny. And how many did she say were in her family? I want to say eight, is that right? Yeah, I think so. Eight or nine. It's an incredible story. and we will get into that here in just a second.

Also, at the Blaze Brad, that is my Twitter handle, and I'm tweeting pictures of these people that we are talking about so that you can put a face with a name at the Blaze Brad. So follow me on Twitter and get a visual of what we are talking about here. It is Brad Stakes filling in for Jeff Fisher on the Jeff Fisher radio program here on the Blaze Radio Network. This is The Jeff Fisher Show on the Blaze Radio Network. Fisher Show.

And this is Brad Stikes filling in for Jeffie this morning. He continues to be on the mend from his recent surgery, which I could tell you more about, but I'd have to kill you. We've been telling you the story of our trip. Yeah. I hope that the real Mrs. Jeffie is feeding him lots of cookies and brownies because she's really good at making those. Oh, she's fabulous. She is wonderful. And the voice you hear right now is Beth not.

She's with the supervising producer of Glenn's TV and radio shows. I think I said that right, along with Ellen Wheeler, who is the director of content. We left off talking about Rita, and I just tweeted a picture of Rita with Ellen. We have just a couple of minutes in this segment. And by the way, can you stick around for the next segment as well? Sure. Good. Thank you.

Tell the story of Rita just briefly because she was such a beautiful girl. How, what, 21 years old? I'd say she's about 20. Maybe a little older because she's been going to nursing school. So, but she's, it's kind of funny because you don't, I don't know what you picture in your mind, but I didn't picture all the young people that were there. And there were so many young people with just waiting to start their lives, you know, waiting to get to a country where they can start their lives.

Rita was one of those. She wants to be an actress. So Ellen, having been an actress, we introduced her, and she was very excited about that. But she is going to nursing school currently in Iraq, but will continue some sort of schooling when she gets into her new home in Slovakia. They'll do language training first. But Rita and her whole family were moved. It wasn't Mosul. What was the other area? Oh, I can't remember. It's right outside of Mosul. But they were run out of their homes, and their whole family fled, and they came here. And Father Douglas has created a home for them. However, they are still living in what is equivalent to shipping containers. And they have little steps that go up to them and a door. They do have electricity run to them, but it's just, you know, basic electricity.

There's no heating or air conditioning. So they have a space heater if it's cold. And the power would go out every four or five minutes, it seemed like. That was the amazing thing. It was like, you know, we would be in the middle of an interview and the powers go out. They didn't even seem to notice. Thank goodness for our biolite nanogrid lights that we had there to use on location. We've got to take another quick break.

Beth is going to hang with us to the top of the hour. we have so much more to tell you about how we are dispersing and using the Nazarene Fund and our trip to the Middle East here. Brad Stakes filling in for Jeff Fisher on the Blaze Radio Network back in a second. This is the Jeff Fisher Show. Only on the Blaze Radio Network. This podcast brought to you by My Patriot Supply. Did you miss the chance to get a 72-hour emergency food supply with free shipping for just $10?

What's wrong with you? Don't worry. Call 888-4-1-740. now they have a few left and they're selling out fast. 888 411 74440. What are you waiting for? A disaster? Do it right now. 888 411 7440. The experiment was a success. Begin life force reboot program now. Stable. It's alive. Set it loose. This is the Jeff Fisher Show on the Blaze Radio Network.

And I am Brad Stakes, filling in for Jeffrey this morning. Thank you, first of all, to Mr. Fisher, who has allowed me to sit in his chair behind this microphone. It's an unbelievable honor, as you can probably imagine. And a couple of corrections I wanted to make. First of all, I called Nick Daley. I called him Nick Archer last hour. It's Nick Daly. Nick Archer's a guy I know in Nashville.

But let me just say that the story that we've been telling us, you this morning. I've been relating of our travel to the Middle East to take the funds that you have so generously donated $12 million plus in the Nazarene Fund. The fund used to relocate, not only relocate these displaced Christians, we're not just picking them up and putting them in another country, dropping them off to become a burden to that country to be, to become a burden to themselves, quite frankly. But what this fund does is it trains them. It's a three-year period that it trains them, vocational training, language training.

It adjusts them. The word is not integrate. And I'm going to bring Beth not back into the conversation. Beth is the, she went on the trip. she's the supervising producer for all things Glenn Beck. She was the travel coordinator. She was the project coordinator for this entire mission. And to say she's the love of my life,

which would not adequately describe how we know each other. But there, is that fair enough, Beth? That's fair enough. I like that. Thank you. And yes, the word is actually integrated. According to Slovakia, we had been using the word. assimilate, but apparently with the, when the whole USSR, the split up, that word's not a good word

anymore for Slovakia. So integrate is the word they prefer. No, no assimilation. We have been talking, that's another thing we did. We pick up, being in this business, you end up picking up accents, whether you like it or not in a lot of, so we would, we would pick up different accents to different places we went around the world. And sometimes. I can't. I'm Tennessee. Beth sounds southern whether she wants to or not. Then Vivianza, Slovakia, we talked differently. So it's, and again, and people, the thing I want to get across is this was not a bunch of funny giggles.

This was very, very serious, but the way we handled stress was with humor. And in just a second, I'm going to play another piece of audio. when we literally were running for our lives. But continue with Rita's story, Rita being one of the Christian refugees. She lived along with seven or eight of her family members in an eight by 15 foot storage container on the grounds of Father Douglas Church in her bill. These people showed up. And I started to describe because it's like I had, we had another crew that went over early.

earlier, like about a month or so ago, to do a route special. So they had been there, and they had tried to describe it. But until you actually see it, it's really, really hard to imagine, because what it happened was when these Christians were run out of their areas, they ran to Erbil, but there were no camps at that point because, you know, there was really no need for camps. So this church, this church that Father Douglas ran had some property. It was kind of a church and a park, from what I understand. And so he opened up the property, the park, for these people to have a place to go.

So over time, you know, at first they were actually just sleeping on the ground. And he provided blankets and pillows and whatever he could get. And then over time, different charitable organizations first donated tents. So they moved up from sleeping just out in the open to sleeping in tents, and then they got better tents. And then other charitable organizations, this particular camp, Samaritan's purse, helped out by donating these containers. The containers, and we did go to two camps, so we saw two different types of containers. The containers themselves in the camps where the Christians that we moved are currently located or were located,

did not have a place inside. There was no indoor plumbing or a place inside where they could cook. So outside, they were all lined up in rows, and outside of each row was the cooking facility. So, you know, Rita's family would share a hot plate and, you know, a little sink type thing. It wasn't really a sink, but it was like a little washing basin with, you know, a couple of the neighbors, and they would all get together. And, you know, while we're walking around out there, there was a woman peeling potatoes and, you know, cooking potatoes right there as we walked by. Now, I will say this, for as little as they had, they were so ready to share. You know, if we walked into one of the containers, they were like, oh, had some tea, have some food, whatever they had, they wanted to share.

And it was actually, it would be considered rude to not accept it, number one. And also, it was rude to say thank you, wasn't it? Yeah, they really, their expectation was, as Christians, you share what you have with other people. people and so there was no reason to thank them. They just, that was what they do. And Rita, Rita, I'm looking forward to seeing Rita blossom as she gets into her new home in Spabakia. Actually, she was in some of the pictures that Ellen sent back because, you know, this is a young woman who should be dating and should be, you know, looking to get married the next chapter of her life. But when you talk to them, they were all, you know, on hold. They were, they were surviving.

they were happy to be with their families and surviving, but no one wanted to start a life where they could, you know, who wants to start a life not knowing where you're going to be next? Who wants to date somebody who may not get to go with you when you evacuate? And the thing is it has been so hard for me to explain to people the way that these refugees, the way that their life has taken such a hard turn, it would be like saying to,

to one of us who lives here in Dallas, you're given a choice. You can either get out, you can go to North Dakota, or you can die, we'll kill you. Once you get to North Dakota, okay, now you can either go to Illinois, but you cannot go back to your home in Dallas because that home does not exist anymore.

It's been burned down, it's been looted, it's gone, you can no longer go home. There really, truly is no going home. you can either stay in North Dakota where there may or may not be a home for you or you can go to Illinois. Right. And that's it. And it's mind-boggling. They all would have loved to go home.

I mean, they had homes and neighborhoods and places that they had built a life. But there is no more home. And so, you know, the better alternative rather than staying in a camp indefinitely for a center, Father Douglas likes to call it a center because he wanted people to feel more like it was a family. But rather than staying there indefinitely, you know, the choice is to make a new life somewhere else. They are very, very excited about their new chapter in Slovakia. But if they'd had their choice, they would go home, but there's no go home to go to. Yeah, it's gone. Their home is gone. In a lot of cases, even family members. We talked to one woman who's three-year-old daughter,

was taken and so cruelly dangle, for lack of a better word, dangled in front of her face at least twice, wasn't it? Three times. Three times they brought, they would tell her to come to this certain point and they would bring her daughter back to her, and she would come to that point and see her daughter in the vehicle, and then the driver who would have her daughter would, pretend or act like he was going to start to get her daughter out, and then the ISIS member that was there with him would say, no, take her away, and they'd take her away.

And to this day, she's been gone almost a year and a half, and they're still, you know, begging for people to help them find her, but they have no idea whether she's even alive. They have no idea what happens. And I tried to ask the question, and it's really hard to ask these questions to people that are suffering, so much. I tried to ask the question, you know, what did they normally do with three-year-olds? And the answer is they normally kill them. So the likelihood of her being alive is very slim,

but they still are holding out hope that someone will help them find their three-year-old daughter. This is the reality. He's now four and a half. And this is the reality that that family wakes up to every day. That's, to me, we don't have a damn problem in this country. not compared to what these people are living with. And the way that it happened, you know, they were doing what ISIS told them to do. They were leading, like ISIS told them to leave. And she was trying to gather her family together, and they were getting into vehicles.

And as they were, I mean, an ISIS member just pulled the child away from her. I mean, there was no reason. How did she keep from going insane? I'm not sure she is. I mean, this woman, I'm guessing about her age because I mean, I know the ages of her children. So I'm guessing based on the ages of her children, she couldn't be more than mid-40s. And she looked 65 because of the stress and the grief and the, you know, living daily with this. they have pictures of Christina is the child's name all in their their container and you know they have

basically a shrine to Christina and they pray daily for Christina's return and that's what in the interview that was the interview with the the the blind grandfather wasn't it yes yes and who had the beads who was who was you know clicking the beads the prayer beads the whole time when you hear and when you see the the show that we put together and you see that interview and you will hear the beads in the background as he as he prays out loud and and it's it's it's amazing to me that any of these people have their sanity but the one thing that that they all had in common was joy explain that beth because that's the one thing that i just could not take from them And particularly at Father Douglas's camp because Father Douglas worked really hard to instill the joy.

And he was the first one in the area and continues to be the first one in that area that brought in counseling services for the children to rehabilitate them to be prepared for a new life. In fact, both Rita and Rami were teaching at that facility. So, you know, Rita is about to be gone now. Well, she is gone now. She's in Slovakia. but they had both been trained to teach the children how to get joy back, how to live day-to-day life and be joyous. And I'm going to stop you right there.

Take a quick break. I want to continue that story and tell you the story about how we had to literally run for our lives. Coming up next, it's Brad Stacks filling in for Jeff Fisher. Jeff Fisher radio program here on the Blaze Radio Network. Here we go. This is the Jeff Fisher Show on the Blaze Radio Network. The Jeff Fisher Show. And Brad Stagg sitting in the chair, filling in the shoes.

Just a little bit smug for my feet. Jeff Fisher this morning on his radio program here on the Blaze Radio Network. We've been relating to you the story of our trip to the Middle East and our trip to these Christian refugee centers. I want to play another piece of the video log that we recorded. when we were told that the airspace over Iraq had been basically shut down and we had two hours to get out. Listen closely. The airspace over the country or we are stuck here for two days at the very least. This is the third change that's happened tonight. So it could change in five minutes. But right now we are fast to get our stuff and get out and get ahead of the refugees or hopefully going to be.

out in the next. And that is how it went most of the time there in that part of the country. We, and again, I apologize for the audio. It was on my cell phone. We recorded that as we were driving to the hotel. We were told to grab our belongings if it was not essential, if it was not mission critical, to leave it behind, which we did leave some things in the hotel room. But let me tell you, they were not kidding. Beth, not remains on the line with us as well. She was there, one of the project coordinators and supervising producer for all things, Glenn Beck. And describe that emotion, Beth. Well, it was very disheartening, first of all.

I mean, it was scary and it was real. You know, I looked at Johnny Moore, who has, you know, been helping us with the Nazarene Fund project, and he travels over there all the time. So a lot of the things that I would sometimes say, you know, is this normal? He go, yeah, yeah, this is perfectly normal? don't worry about it. But at that point, in the elevator with Johnny, we said, Johnny is this normal?

And he said, no, this is not normal. And I'm nervous. Get your stuff and move. So that to me made it that much more serious. But at the same time, it was very disheartening because we were supposed to spend the night. We were supposed to see these Christians get on the plane the next morning. We were supposed to have people ride on that plane with the Christians to talk to them as they were going over to their new home.

And we knew at that moment that all of that. was out the window, that we were going to be lucky to get out of the country, and at the very least we were going to have to wait two more days to even try to get the Christians out of the country. And, you know, when you've put all that effort and all that work into it, and you spent this time, two days meeting these people and how joyous they are to get to move, it was just incredibly disheartening and disappointing. And again, to their state of well-being, these, I asked at one point if these people were allowed to leave these centers and was told that their movement was restricted because not so much,

it was restricted for their safety, even though this was a Christian area of the town, it was still dangerous for even them to wander outside the center. And that in itself was frightening, just to think about. Yeah, the fewer movements, the better, because, you know, you don't know, who has stuck something in somebody's bag or you don't know i mean that's just always a threat over there you don't leave things sitting around you just don't do it it's not uh you know it's it's the airport on steroids yeah it was truly a surreal experience and i'll i'll talk about it more coming up here in the next half hour uh about a minute left um with you beth just briefly um and this

is totally changing gears but uh the stuff of us i know you wanted to talk about that just kind to give us an overall look at that and I'll give them details in the next half hour. Talk about that. Glenn used to do a project called Stuff Abus years ago when he was doing just local radio. And so we took that on this year as Mercury 1 and we're asking for unwrapped toys and clothing for children. Children in need in the Dallas area will receive these specifically through Irving Cares. And so the bus will be at Mercury Studios on Thursday and Friday and then at Glenn's Christmas

event at the Verizon Theater and Grand Prairie on Saturday. So we're asking for people to bring things out that we can help 100 kids that are in need this year. And there you have it. I'll give them more information. As I said here in the next half hour, thank you for getting up early. Thank you for helping me fill part of this airtime.

And for telling the story of your experience in the Middle East from your perspective. I know the audience appreciates it. And I will see you very soon. Thank you, Beth. Sounds good. Thank you. Bye-bye.

And let me tell you just a little bit about how when we were interviewing these people, I have felt so, so inadequate. And I've interviewed people for the better part of my career about their businesses, about this and that, about travel, about everything you can imagine. But trying to ask someone how they felt about people trying to kill them, about having to leave their home, I felt like a total fraud. I felt so inadequate.

It was truly a life-changing experience in the Middle East. 888-933-93. That's our phone number. 888-933. If you have any questions or comments, call. Be glad to share my thoughts with you on that. As it's Brad Stakes here for Jeffie, Jeff Fisher Radio Show, Blaze Radio Network.

The Jeff Fisher Show Only on the Blaze Radio Network. The Jeff Fisher Show is on. And it's Brad Staggs filling in for Jeffie this morning and having an absolute blast doing it and being able to tell you the story of our trip to the Middle East and the evacuation of Christians from the centers. One center in particular, Mar Elias,

This is a church there in Urbeil. This is Father Douglas's church. They even have a Facebook page. I highly recommend that you look at their Facebook page. Mar-E-E-L-E-R-M-A-R-E-R-M-A-R and then Elias E-L-I-A-S church. Catholic Church. Research this on your own. I was amazed.

Mar-E-E-L-E-L-E-S was a saint, was a martyr who basically renounced. his his Christian faith the parallels of his story and the story that's happening there now are unbelievable and even though he renounced his faith as a Christian he was he was killed anyway he he renounced it and then he took back or I guess whatever the opposite of renounced would be not smart enough to know that word it reinstated his faith or restated his faith and he was martyred. That part of the country is, I want to say deceptive, and it's deceptively beautiful. To say that it was a surreal experience is not doing it justice. When you are talking to people who have been forced from their homes, again, the equivalent,

I felt so ignorant. I felt so ignorant. I felt so. stupid when I was there because you cannot even, I mean, and God bless you and thank you for sending in all of your donations to the Nazarene Fund. And they, they send their thanks. Down to a person, everyone that I spoke with there is grateful that they are given the opportunity to have a new life. And I know when you send in your donations that you know you're doing a thing, but let me tell you, it is, until you are there and you see it, it is so unreal. It is, again, like someone coming to you and saying, look, you have three options. You can denounce your Christian faith and become Muslim.

You can leave now. And when I say leave now, it doesn't mean pack up your house and leave. it means get out, leave. In some cases, you can get in your car and drive away. You know, if you live in Dallas, let's say, you can drive to North Dakota. Or you can drive even to Houston, for that matter. Or the third option is we'll kill you. Those are your options.

Your home is gone. Once you get to Houston or North Dakota or wherever it is, you decide to leave to, your home is gone. Anything you left behind is gone. In most cases, these people have businesses. They had jobs, they had cars, they had money in the bank, they had possessions, they had homes, they had furniture, they had clothing, they had stuff. Gone. Stolen, burned, gone. Several of the people I talked with professional lawyers, government officials or workers, they had nothing, had absolutely nothing. And yet these people were so full of joy. It was it was weird is what it was. And I thought to myself, what would I, if I were them, could I do what they've done?

They live in small, in both camps that we saw, both centers. I keep calling them camps. They don't like to be called camps. They're centers. They live in these little shipping containers. And when we got to, we traveled from Iraq to Slovakia. And from Slovakia to Stockholm. Stockholm.

Glenn wanted to go to Stockholm because that's another part of the story that we're going to tell you on the Blaze about how they are headed down a very, very dangerous path as well. And when we got there, it just looking at the culture, looking at the very same problems that they are having, looking at the riots, looking at the burned vehicles, it's very intimidating.

It's very intimidating, but very, very enlightening at the same time to see these, to see how this whole plan is coming together. When I say a plan, it is a plan. It is chaos. It is order out of chaos.

The grand plan being that when you create all of these problems, these manufactured problems, that it actually can destroy the fabric of society. that is apparently the goal to destroy the very fabric of society to reestablish it in some other way to reestablish it in some other way to reestablish the order

and to see how joyous these people remain the one thing that they kept repeating was they can't take that away from us they cannot take away our happiness they cannot take away our stuff but they cannot take away who we are what we are.

And these are such strong, strong people. Rami was another man that we talked with. Lillian, our translator, beautiful young woman, mid-20s. Just a sweet, sweet girl. And it's hard to, obviously, they grow up faster than the kids here in this country do because they are faced with such dangerous, such hardship. kids in all of these different centers, they would surround us. The kids at the, at Sister Diana's camp center, excuse me, would surround me. And then they would take, I had a camera,

and I was shooting both video and pictures with, they wanted to take pictures with the camera. And they just, they were, they were so cute. These kids are just so cute. They're so lovable. And then if you go and get on the Mar-Elias Church Facebook page, you'll see some pictures. of these kids and you just want to take them home you cannot believe the conditions that they're living and living in these shipping containers eight feet nine maybe by 15 and the electricity going off every few minutes at night because the they overtacks the generators basically someone will decide to turn on a space heater but shuts the breaker and then everything shuts down. It was cold there. 37 degrees, I think, one day in Fahrenheit. At one point, it reached

zero Celsius, which is 32, I guess, in Fahrenheit. Have we ever changed the metric system? I don't know. But please, the bottom line is that I can tell you from firsthand experience, the money that you have sent is literally changing lives. Johnny Moore, who is the director of the Nazarene Fund. I watched this man work tirelessly. He has such a big heart. And

he's always trying to do the right thing. Sometimes even the and that's the thing. Again, I will go back to the fact that I am an idiot. At one point I broke down, I was talking to Beth, and our producer, and I just,

I turned to her and I had tears in my eyes. I said, I just don't get it. I don't understand. I feel so stupid. And part of it was obviously just exhaustion from the trip at the other part is that just, I used to think I was smart. I used to think that I knew a lot.

But I knew, I used to get to listen to Glenn all the time. And then, and I would, I felt like I kept up with the world in that way. And the really funny part is that, and when I say funny, it's ironic that when you are in this building when you are in some cases, you know, five feet away from Glenn, 10 feet, 30 yards, whatever it is, see him all day, talk to him a lot.

I don't get to listen. I don't get to hear him. I don't get to get that infusion. Consider yourself lucky because you get to continually hear his wisdom, his words, his thoughts, the things he likes to talk about. I get that sporadic. firsts here and there, but not as much as I used to. And I just feel stupid. And especially in talking to these people, I can't even comprehend their problems in some cases. I know they're huge.

And it's, it's, it is so humbling to be around them. But know this. Your donation, your time, your love, your prayers. They're working. It's working. The thing about Mercury 1 and the Nazarene Fund is that all that money goes to exactly what Gladys told you moving these refugees, getting them out of these centers, getting them to a new life, getting them to a place where they can start over.

And these are not... Let me put it this way, these are smart people. These are intelligent people. These are good people. These are people who deserve your support, they deserve your help. They are grateful for your help. They're full of love. And to watch what they are going through,

just breaks your heart. It really does. The message they asked me to give you was thank you. Thank you. They appreciate everything you've done, everything you're doing, everything you continue to do. It's working,

and that is the most important thing to know. because sometimes you give money to a charity, you give money to an organization, and you don't, you know nothing past that point. You know you, you feel good for having given that money. Let me just tell you, I've seen it firsthand, and it's true. You are doing amazing, amazing things around the world. Thank you. One more segment to go. Brad stags in for Jeff Fisher this morning in the Jeff Fisher radio show here on the Blaze. Radio Network. This is the Jeff Fisher Show.

On the Blaze Radio Network. Fisher. No, Brad Stags. Jeffie is out still recovering and will be for the next several weeks. I have the honor of sitting in the chair. Very large chair. Not a metaphor. It's a big chair.

I like that. Thank you. Thank you for being here this morning. Michael Pelka is coming up at the top of the hour. and stay here for him. What an honor it is to be here. Just every day I have to pinch myself because this is just such a dream.

And thank you for being there, obviously without whom all this would be pointless. Beth did ask me to mention once again to you the stuff of us toy drive that Mercury 1 is having. Christmas, can you, grief, Christmas is two weeks from yesterday. if you're keeping track. But who isn't? The stuff-a-bus toy drive is going to benefit Irving Cares.

It's a local North Texas charity. And it's pretty cool. Basically, what it does is, you know, we stuff a bus with toys for underprivileged kids around the area. It'll occur Thursday, December 17th, 9A to 7P. And Friday, December 18th, that's next Thursday and Friday from 9A to 2P at Mercury Studios. on Saturday the 19th, we will have the bus at the Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie from 4 to 8 p.m. And the Verizon Theater is going to be where Glenn Beck presents Christmas cheer, which is going to be very cool because he's going to be reading Christmas stories there.

It's a very simple show, very, very, it's a great opportunity to just be very intimate with Glenn. I think there's only a couple of thousand seats, very small venue. Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas, Saturday, December 19th, seven tickets are six. still available. If you can come, please bring an unwrapped toy and put it on the bus. Mercury 1 Irving Cares will be giving gifts to 100 children in need on Christmas Eve. So please, if you want more information, go to mercury1.org for the stuff of us. And also, you know, go to glenbeck.com to get tickets to Glenbeck Presents Christmas Cheer. Thank you to you for listening this morning. I want to thank John is in New York. I think Sebastian

in New York too. These days with technology, Sebastian could be somewhere in North Dakota, and I wouldn't know it, but thank you both for handling the back end. Thank you to Beth Knot for being a guest in the program today. Thank you so much for everything you do, for your efforts, for your prayers, for your donations to Mercury 1 and the Nazarene Fund. What you do matters. It really does. You are changing the world. Please know that. together we can make a whole lot more change. I'll see you next Saturday here. Jeff Fisher Radio program.

Blaze Radio Network. This is the Jeff Fisher Show. Only on the Blaze Radio Network.