The School of Greatness - Tim Ballard on Fighting Back Against Child Sex Slavery EP 1469

Episode Date: July 15, 2023

The Summit of Greatness is back! Buy your tickets today – summitofgreatness.com – Support Tim and his mission by catching his new film, Sound of Freedom at your local theater.This episode deals with challenging and disturbing subject matter, and I want to encourage you to use discretion in deciding whether to listen to or share it. However, I believe that hearing this information can make an enormous difference, so I hope you’ll join me for this important conversation with Tim Ballard. Support Tim and his mission by catching his new film, Sound of Freedom at your local theater.Did you know that the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world is not drugs, guns, or any kind of fraud? No, the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world is sex trafficking. According to my friend Tim, there are an estimated 30 million slaves in the world today, and about 10 million of those are children.It’s a serious problem, but there are people out there who want to help. Operation Underground Railroad is a wonderful organization that is undercover in almost every country you can think of working to rescue these children and bring the traffickers to justice. In the six years since Tim founded the organization, they have rescued 3,800 victims and assisted in the arrests of more than 2,100 human traffickers. They’re doing great work, and at the end of the episode, Tim shares how you can get involved.In this episode you will learn,That the U.S. is one of the world’s biggest players in child sex traffickingHow Tim first started busting child sex ringsWhy most Americans are relatively unaware of the issue of child sex traffickingWhat parents can do to protect their kids onlinePlus much moreFor more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1469Another episode with Tim Ballard: https://link.chtbl.com/1368-pod

Calling all conscious achievers who are seeking more community and connection, I've got an invitation for you. Join me at this year's Summit of Greatness this September 7th through 9th in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio to unleash your true greatness. This is the one time a year that I gather the greatness community together in person for a powerful transformative weekend. People come from all over the world and you can expect to hear from inspiring speakers like Inky Johnson, Jaspreet Singh, Vanessa Van Edwards, Jen Sincero and many more. You'll also be able to

dance your heart out to live music, get your body moving with group workouts and connect with others at our evening socials. So if you're ready to learn, heal, and grow alongside other incredible individuals in the greatness community, then you can learn more at lewishouse.com slash summit 2023. Make sure to grab your ticket, invite your friends, and I'll see you there. July 30th is UN's World Day Against Human Trafficking, an issue that is far more widespread than you may realize. I spoke with Tim Ballard of Operation Underground Railroad about his mission to end child sex slavery. Though it was an extremely challenging conversation, it's very important and it hits especially close to home for me. Now I would never compare my experience to what these

kids go through but I was sexually abused as a young kid and it took me several years to start to heal and I feel deeply for any kid who's ever been taken advantage of. Now some of you might find this information disturbing but hearing this can make such a difference. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome to today's special episode. Over the last 1,300 plus episodes, there have been so many impactful interviews that I've been lucky enough to have, and I always like to reflect on some of

the most powerful. And this episode was one that resonated with most of you guys in the past, and I'm excited for the value it's going to bring you today as well. So I hope you enjoy today's episode. I first learned about you, I think about a year ago, someone was telling me about you, but then I really learned about you when Tony Robbins' 60th birthday party, where I watched the videos, got to hear you speak, and got to see the work you do with Operation Underground Railroad. And it's amazing what you have done. It's amazing what your organization have done in really helping end childhood sex trafficking. And I'm curious if you can help educate my audience who maybe has no clue about this. Like I didn't have a clue about this. What is sex trafficking in terms of the U.S.?

Is it actually happening? And what is it in terms of international? What is sex trafficking in terms of the U.S.? Is it actually happening? And what is it in terms of international? What is the problem at hand right now? Yeah, so this is not a peripheral issue. Most people want to believe it is. This is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world. Really? More than drugs?

More than... It's the fastest growing, really. It's rivaling drugs right now. Because you can sell... It's the fastest growing. Fastest growing. But in terms of numbers numbers it's actually getting up to drug trafficking and the reason is you can sell a bag of cocaine one time but you can sell a child oh my gosh you know 10 20 times in a 24-hour period so it's very lucrative uh and it's it's enormous it's a huge

business now there's so it's a renewable product. Exactly. I mean, you can recycle the product. That's right. I don't want to say it like that term, but- But that's how they see it. So yeah. Wow. So you really start with the bigger issue there is modern day slavery. That's what this is. People not controlling their persons, right?

Their own body, their own lives. And there's about 30 million estimated slaves in the world today, and about 10 million of those are children. And then they're sold for different things. About two million children are forced into commercial sex trade the rest are slave labor or even organ harvesting really and so we work that's and so so how many in the category of sex slavery how many they estimate there's that there's two million this is state department un two million children but my experience tells, because we're in 26 countries, we're undercover, we've been everywhere.

And if you're in slave labor, it's just a matter of time before they use you for sex as well. It's interchangeable. I mean, slavery. It's how can we make money from a person. Yeah, once you own someone, you think you own them like a product, an object, you'll do whatever you want with them, right? How is this even, I mean, are people, are there slaves in the U.S. right now

or is it mostly international? So, great question. So when people ask me about the U.S., because most people in the U.S. would rather just say, it's happening far, far away, and I'm going to just go like, you know, I'm not going to listen to this. And the truth is, we are the number one demand. I'll start with that. We buy the products the most.

Yes, we are the number one consumers of child exploitation material. We're just not doing it in the number one demand. I'll start with that. In terms of we buy the products the most. Yes, we are the number one consumers of child exploitation material. We're just not doing it in the US. Well, we are. We are. So I'll get there. Yeah. So we are the number one consumer, which means we are the market. So yeah, we are the sex tourists that my group and law enforcement are targeting and catching

overseas hurting kids. But recently- What would you say? 80% is US.S. consumption? Or is it- Like, it depends. Like, in the markets, like, south of the border, in Latin America, yeah. Wow.

But in Asia, it's- In Asia, it's maybe with, like, half and half us, and then, like, western- The locals. And a lot of locals, they generally make up the most- Wow. They generally make up the most of the market, of the consuming side.

But we just, the United States just became last year, ranked in the top three for destination countries for trafficking, which means- Other people to come here. Right, the traffickers say, look, that's the market I want in. If I can get into the country, and then we're really gonna make a lot of money.

And so they're trying to get their slaves into our country. Because, so then we won't, so then US people won't have to travel. Right. This is crazy. It is crazy. So they'll just import people here. Yes. Kids.

Yes. Teenagers. And then they're slaves to whatever they want. For either labor or sex. And it's not as- Where is this, is this in LA? Is this in- Yeah, that's a good question. Because I can go to like a developing country where the infrastructure isn't as great and law enforcement struggles, and you can see children being sold on the street corners of this beach. You just got to know where to go. You're not going to see that here. Here, local law enforcement, these guys who have the tools to go in

and basically infiltrate criminal organizations that are using those platforms to find kids. But I've for 17 years, I've worked as an undercover operator in some capacity, and I have bought and sold a child on every single social media platform that's out there. Social media? Oh yeah, it starts there often. It will start there and then leads to private phone calls and then all of a sudden you're

negotiating the deal for a child. Yeah. No way. How many, so you've been doing this for 17 years now? How did you originally get into this? I've heard this story, but I want my audience to hear how you even knew this was a thing and decided to go all in on this. So I started in the CIA and I had prepared my entire life to fight terrorism even before

9-11. I was, I was studying, that's what I was studying. In fact, I graduated from grad school with a degree, a very unique degree in terrorism. Really? In 2001. Wow. So the floodgates opened for us to go work wherever we wanted. I chose the CIA and I was working at the terrorism desk there. And going into terrorism before 9 11. yes already no it's going to be

right it was like oh my gosh here we go and then one of the terrorists people remember this name muhammad who came across the border um he was staging in mexico and he crossed the border and went up and and launched those those attacks on the twin towersowers. And that just, I was at CIA during 9-11. And I was like, I want to be on that border. I speak Spanish, I wanna be on that border to fight terrorism and protect the country from there, from that position. So in the wake of 9-11, the creation of Homeland Security.

So I was one of the first to jump ship and I jumped over into Homeland Security. I became a special agent, undercover operator, thinking I was gonna be doing terrorism. Where were you stationed then? I was at the Clexico, California port of entry. So near Tijuana or near? It's near, it's about 100 miles east of Tijuana.

Yeah, yeah, got you. From San Diego, right on that border. A lot of people come in because it's probably less of a big city. Yes, exactly. There's three ports of entries there. It's very busy. Wow.

Lots of criminal activity crossing that border. Drugs. Yeah. People. Yeah. Yeah. So we were finding tunnels and it was, I mean, my office was right on the border at the port of entry. I was loving life. But for six months I'm doing this and they call me in and they said, Hey,

we feel it's time to start a child trafficking unit. Child. I said, what is that? I mean, like the rest of the world, like child trafficking. You could Google trafficking, child trafficking in 2001 and nothing would come up. Like no one was talking about it. So even I was like, I don't even know what that is.

I don't think I want to do that. Like that is, I went home and told my wife, she's like, no way. We had, we were just starting a family, had a couple of kids. She's like, you can't bring that darkness into our, i don't want to know what people are doing to kids you know yeah and how old are you at this time i was probably like 25 26 yeah and um and so i had to go tell my boss no i'm not going to do it i was really scared to do it because this guy was intimidating

to me uh big he's six foot four big white hook mustache wore boots to work you know one of those guys his whole life on the border and i was not i just i didn't want to tell him no and but i'm practicing my speech literally in the mirror right like okay how am i going to say this and my wife walks in to the bathroom and she's crying and she does not get very emotional usually i said what's wrong she's like i didn't sleep at all last night she said for the same reason i thought we had to say no to this because we have children, that is the reason we need to say yes. Because we understand what a childhood is supposed to be.

And if it's true, and we weren't even convinced yet, but if it's true that millions are being trafficked this way, how can we allow it to happen and do nothing, right? So then I said yes and I entered it and it was about you're already practicing your speech yeah then you decided okay I'm gonna commit to and the speech became one word yes yes I'm in do it he's probably he put me to work right away and it was like a thousand times worse than I could have imagined like right away it was like a thousand times worse than I could have imagined. Like right away, it was just like, boom.

When was the moment where you saw something that just said, this is my I'm taking this on as a life mission, not just as a part of my job, but. It was the it was the first time I saw a child that was from the videos when I was like, this is it. I had to make a decision at that point. So what had happened was we got intel, an American man was kidnapping children in Mexico,

smuggling them into the United States, and in San Bernardino, you can look this case up, his name's Earl Buchanan, you can look it up, you can Google it and learn all about the case. He had a compound up in San Bernardino where he was taking the kids and he was filming his sex acts with these kids. He was having sex them yes filming and filming it and then what selling it online or keeping it for himself sharing with people and so this guy's coming across the border

and and um we're on the scene and we get the kid out this five-year-old boy and I it was the moment that he ran a boy five-year-old boy and i recognized him from the video no way and i was like oh my gosh i've never seen one of the kids from the video and i'm like i didn't know my i had a physiological reaction like i didn't know if i could handle this and then the kid kind of inherently knew we were the good guys right so he runs to us and jumps in our in my arms and he's like hold it he's holding me and he's shaking and i'm just like oh my gosh does he speak english he speaks spanish maybe bull i don't me and he's shaking. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, does he speak English? Does he speak Spanish? Maybe both, I don't know.

And he spoke perfect English, which was haunting to me because the only reason he did was because he had been with this guy as it turned out since he was taken as an infant. Oh my gosh. And he said to me, like no five year old should ever have to say to anyone, he said, I don't belong here.

And the pain was so severe for me because I could immediately multiply that statement by millions of kids. And that was it. And then that led to raiding the compound and we found 11 other kids. No. Yeah.

How old range? About from six to 12. Wow. So that was my point of like like I had to make a decision. I went home after that operation So the first operation there's the first time I did a lot of cases where we did we did the receiving end So we did like the search warrants and arrests of pedophiles who were receiving child rape videos But they didn't have kids there, right? This was the first time I saw one of the kids

from the video and it like changed my life. But the change was either gonna be, I'm quitting forever or I'm all in. Because you can't, it's too much to go one or the other. You can't go middle ground on this, right? And I went home that night, after two or three days, actually I went home to my wife, she didn't really know what was going on.

I walked in the house and then I see my kids, right? And they're playing and having fun. And this kid was literally 12 miles away. I lived 12 miles from the border. This kid, this was happening to this child and the whole dichotomy of the whole, how can we be in the same community and hell here and almost paradise here for these children

who have every, and I just, I lost my mind. Like I just, I couldn't handle handle it I saw my children being hurt I went to like a mental and I literally fell down like my knee my knees collapsed I fell down and my wife thought I was having a heart attack or something she runs over to me she's like what's wrong what's wrong I'm like I'm out I'm out or I'm in like I can't this is so bad and it was was my wife, again, who said, you know, she got me calm. And she said, look, it's hard. I know the pain. You're clearly suffering something.

But how does that compare to what that child suffered? And I was like, no, you're right. That's it. You're not experiencing it. I'm like, I felt guilty. Like, how stupid. I'm up on my knee. I jumped up.

And I'm like, I'm in. I'm in 100%. But the thing that happened happened and call this luck, providence, whatever, to me was special, is the little boy had a necklace, that little boy, the five-year-old. And his sister had given him the necklace when they were separated by Buchanan.

And it was a little dog tag. And he gave it to me. You know, he knew I had to go find his sister now. Oh no. Yeah, and we did. We got her. We got her out. Oh my gosh.

But he gave me the necklace and I tried to give it back. He's like, no, it's yours. It's yours. This is when he was hugging me. And I'm like, okay. I put it in my pocket. Didn't think much of it.

But later one of my children found it and said, would you get this? I'm like, how do I tell this story to my kid? And I tell my kid what I can. And he says, isn't it cool that little kid put your name in the necklace, dad? I said, what are you talking about? My name's not on the necklace.

Like, yeah, yeah, your name's right here. And sure enough, I flip it around, and that little necklace had a scripture from the Bible on it from the book of 1 Timothy. So that was like, to me, I was already feeling like, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna quit? Am I gonna go full in? That necklace, it was like to me. I was already feeling like what am I gonna do? Am I gonna quit am I gonna go full in that necklace? It was like I just like it was like that little boy whether he knew it or not

Just gave me a commission and and that necklace I wore that for every operation I did from that point on and it was kind of like my symbol like I'm in now So Wow, and and so you started here locally in the US Yes, and then you started going to different countries. Right. And you started going to South America originally, right? Right, because what happened in 2006, the US passed a law called the Adam Walsh Child Protect Act

and what it did was it changed my life. People didn't realize, for us agents, how it did that, but it changed the statutory requirements for sex. We had these sex traveler statutes that said you can't travel to have sex with a child. But you had to prove that the perpetrator had the intent in his heart and in his mind while standing on U.S. soil before he left, which meant before 2006, we had zero prosecutions. So the Adam Walsh Protect Act said no more. You don't have to prove he was thinking about it on U.S. soil. All you have to prove now is that he left and he committed the act.

Really? And now we will hold him accountable as if he committed it on our soil. Really? So it's a revolutionary law. So now if you go to another country and pay to have sex with a child or don't pay and you have sex with a child, you can still go to jail here. Here. And there's no double jeopardy, by the way.

You can serve 10 years in Mexico and then 20 more years in the u.s wow yeah what is the law i guess around sex having sex with a minor or or paying for sex are they are they different laws or how does that work every state there's like there's different state laws and then there's a federal there's federal law so it depends what jurisdiction and sure it's it's all over the board, really. And then internationally, same thing. It's kind of all over, which is great to have the safety net in case, like, the guy only gets two years in some foreign country. We're like, well, we got you when you get back. Right.

And we'll treat you differently. So how much is this happening now in the U.S.? Oh, it's constant. Really? It's constant, yeah. We can't keep up with the demand. Half our operations are domestically. People don't realize that.

They think we're only foreign, but we support operations here. We provide canine units that sniff out digital media. You saw some of that at Tony's party, maybe the video. How do they sniff out digital media? They're trained just like a drug dog, but they're trained to sniff out little thumb drives because what happens is perpetrators, pedophiles, they hide it. And this is the evidence. sniff out digital media. They're trained just like a drug dog, but they're trained to sniff out like little thumb drives.

Because what happens is perpetrators, pedophiles, they hide it. And this is the evidence. I mean, we'll find a child in here that can lead us to where that child actually is. But these guys are hiding it because they know the cops could come any day. So they hide it in the carpets,

they hide it in the floorboards or whatever. And the human being will never find it. Well, we have dogs that run to it because they're just trained to sniff out the metallic whatever it is. Yeah, and we nailed these guys. So we've deployed a couple dozen of these dogs, right? And I love it because there's these beautiful animals

and we chart their rescues. Like, Cinnamon Bark is one of our dogs. And he, doTERRA is a essential oil company, actually paid for it. And they say, you can name it, we're gonna name it Cinnamon Bark, that's one of their products, you know. So Cinnamon Bark's one.

We have Spike, and they literally have like, Spike says has saved 10 kids. Cinnamon Bark has saved, it's a cool, and you look at these dogs, you're like, I just love you. It's just amazing, you know. So. Wow, so when did you, how much longer were you with as a special agent before you left

to go start your own foundation? So what happened was after that law passed, they put together a group and they basically said, okay, guys, let's enforce this. Go out and find Americans. Who are doing this. Yeah, and they put me on the team and sent me to undercover school

and said, now go pretend to be a pedophile or trafficker. What's undercover school? Undercover school. What is that like? It was insane because they sent me to undercover school to teach me how to be a pedophile or trafficker. Wait, what's cover school? Undercover school. What is that like? Dude, it was insane because they send me to a cover school to teach me how to be a pedophile.

No way. How to think like one, how to, you know, that's what I... How to talk like it, how to... Right, how to get in. And I get there

and they bring me into a room. It's like a studio, kind of like this, right? There's a two-way mirror and they're going to assess me. Because in the end, it's interesting, they said to us,

we can't train any of you guys to be undercover operators, you're just here to, so we can determine if you are one. Because it's very unique, it's like an acting, and you gotta be able to, you know, it's tough, you know? So it's an assessment, right? And they have this undercover operator, who's like the instructor, but he's like one of the top guys in the US government,

he's a general, he's playing the role of a general smuggler. And so we get, people are coming in, you know, candidates like me are coming in one by one to be tested and, and they give everybody a different legend. Like, okay, you're a drug smuggler, you're a terrorist, you're, and you've got to get this guy to commit. To believe in you. Yeah. And so I get my turn and he doesn't know what's coming. Right. And I sit down with him like this and I start i mean i'm just i'm just tripping all over myself there's there's cameras everywhere i'm like i suck at this like it's horrible and i've got to bring up kids now like so i eventually bring it up and the guy's just like hey he says the words out of roll which means a cut and he looks at the guys in the two-way and he's like what are you doing are you punking me like i've got a i have a daughter who's

a year old. I'm not gonna play, and he left. I'm like, what's going on? So the inspector comes in, he's like, Tim, bottom line, like, look, we're in new waters right now, man. Like, we gotta chart this course. So I felt very much alone.

So actually what I did was, because there was no real, there was no curriculum yet. You were creating it. I, we were creating it. and I actually started reading every book on the last time that I could read we knew that slavery existed so I'm reading about that that's how Harriet Tubman became my hero I mean I'm reading her book that her story Frederick Douglass Harry Beatrice all the abolitionists really and that it wasn't a casual decision to call our foundation

eventually when I got there, Operation Underground Railroad, because we used the tactics that they used. They were undercover operators. They were how they used the media, how they used politicians. It was like these were masterminds. They figured it out, and it's like they're now our inspiration. So that's, you know, we built the curriculum off of, largely off of that, off those stories.

So at first they were like, no, you're really bad. But then they're like, okay, you got to figure it out because we don't have a curriculum. Yeah, I eventually figured it out. And then they sent me overseas. Where did you go? I speak Spanish, so they sent me mostly into Latin America. I worked in Guatemala and Mexico and Costa Rica

and the Caribbean, Colombia. And the problem, Colombia. And the problem, there was an unintended consequence to all this, because if I couldn't find the American in the time allowed by the budget that was given, like I had to come home. So there would be intel, they would say, we need you to go to Costa Rica, we've got intel that there's these three guys that live there

or that are coming there right now. They're with girls boys they're buying them whatever it may be so you had the intel you had to go there find them figure out where they lived exactly what city they're in exactly and then build rapport with them that's right so it wasn't like we're gonna go break down the house and come in we're gonna become friends with them oh yeah no it's it's it's it's what was this like your first time man oh my stomach churning meeting this this i'm sitting toe-to-toe with these guys right and they'll pull out a cell phone and they'll be like here's who we got now we got kids we got 10 year olds we got and i'm looking at the pictures i'm like and i've got to pretend you have to act like you want like dude she is dude, she is. It's horrible. Like, I'm doing it.

Like, up here, I'm smiling, and my stomach is just, like, churning. I want to reach across the desk and just destroy this guy. But if I do that, we'll never find the kids. So it's a mental game that, like, will crush you if you're not, like, constantly preparing and constantly. Wow. How do you manage energy and body language when you know that in your gut you're against this, but you have to in your mind trick this person? How do they not get fooled? How do you master persuading them when you're against it?

It's just practice and practice. First, they send you as a secondary operator. You kind of watch. And you're kind of just playing the role of someone who's kind of watching. And then eventually you get to primary, which I got to eventually. And then it's, you know, so it's just practice. And it's interesting. I can't really answer that because even the instructors, like I said,

they would say, we can't teach you how to do this. Either you, we're just here to tell you if you have it or not. Wow. And so that's what happened. Do you ever feel like because you have to get in that mindset of a pedophile and of you know someone who's selling or buying kids that that it might ever trick your mind into actually becoming that has that ever crossed your mind we're like like how do you keep your mind powerful and strong against this yeah the answer no because because once you see it, a decent, I couldn't even, I wouldn't even burden you

with what it is. Yeah. Because you see what this is, the kind of exploitation and the videos that are made of children. It's so horrible. You would never be able

in your mind, and so it's a punch to your stomach and it gets worse every time. No way. It gets worse every time. If anything, it makes you less

interested in any kind of sex. Yeah, yeah. I mean interested in any kind of sex. I mean, I'm kind of opening up here, but in the middle of a case, I come home, I'm like, I- You need to be alone for a- Yeah, I can't even, my poor wife, it's like, don't you not love me?

Or I'm like, no, hon, I'm just, I can't even- You're emotionally broken. Yes, you're just broken. I mean, it breaks you. You have to detox. I mean, it's horrifying. So what was this detox. I mean, it's horrifying, you know? So what was this like in Costa Rica with this first time then for you?

I think you said it was Costa Rica, right? Or maybe I was making that up. But what was that first time for you? Yeah, so one of the, probably the most interesting case that I worked where it kind of, this was the unintended consequence the US government didn't expect

or I didn't expect is, so I make myself the bait, right? And I'm in deep with these guys i'm their friend they trust me we could be weeks or maybe a month or so away from getting the kids and getting to that point but if i don't find the nexus the legal nexus the connection back to the u.s government it's come home but it's like but if come home, this whole thing goes belly up. And so that was the thing I would fight until it pushed me too far to the point I was like, then I quit.

And it was a case in Columbia and a case in Haiti, both, I was doing it at the same time. And I went too far. I went further than I was supposed to go anyway, but I got really deep. And they said, we're the Americans, Tim.

Like, we can't sustain this. Washington's gonna shut this down anyway. Like, it was no one's fault. It's just there's no jurisdiction. Unless there's Americans doing it. Right. You can't go to someone in Columbia. If they're doing it, you can't do anything.

Right. Right. Because it's only a U.S. The only jurisdiction I have is a U.S. court. So I've got to find a U.S. person. Who's buying kids. A child or a perpetrator. Either one.

Who's United States. Got it. And so on that Columbia case, case i we had hit like a gold mine of trap like i can't call that but it's we we had hit like the mother load okay of of bad guys and how many kids they have it was over 100 kids wow it was going to be over 100 kids and and i don't blame my boss at all he did what he had to do he's like you gotta come home because there were no americans involved you can't you there's nothing i can do for he did what he had to do. He's like, you gotta come home. Because there were no Americans involved. You can't, there's nothing I can do.

He did everything he could to keep it and push it and make it happen. But there came a point where you just couldn't, you couldn't do it. And that's when I had to make a decision. And I called my wife

and I said, what do I do? And she's like, my wife, she's like just very stable and very like, very inspired I'll say. And she just said,

well, it's obvious what you do. Do you think can save kids I said I'm very confident we'll save over a hundred kids she's like then you quit your job that's it we'll worry about you do the right thing first and you wait you know always do the right how can how can you live with yourself and then she said how can I live with myself I mean there came a point in my life where I was like struggling to stay and do this job. And she said, she ended the debate with these words. And these are verbatim because I'll never forget it because it like penetrated my soul. Pierced you. Pierced me. Yeah. She said, I will not let you jeopardize my salvation by not doing this. Wow. I said, okay. And so if anyone needs to end a debate with your loved one, that line works.

It's a powerful line. So that was it. And I was like, okay, if that's how you feel, then I'm in. And we quit and started- Because you're not making millions of dollars. You're making a government salary job. You're- I have no savings.

I have six kids at the time. How old are you? I'm probably now late thirties. And I have no savings. Yeah, you're spending thousands of dollars on food for kids i'm like i'm like catherine i'm just going to tell you like this was like uh fall like june i said by or december i said by june we're out of food like i don't know how we're going to feed the kids she's like that doesn't matter it's like how can you live with yourself i said's a hundred. I said, okay, no, you're right. You're right. You're just way braver than me. You're like, I got to protect you. I got to protect the family. I got to be safe.

Oh, it was, it was a hard, several, it was a hard month. It was December of 2013. Oh man. And I was just a mess. I was a mess. So this is seven years ago. Yes. So what happens next? Do you go, was that the first thing you so what happens next do you go was that the first thing you quit the job and then you go back to Columbia you assemble like the Marvel cast of Crusaders to come with you like I have I have just

enough money to do those two up and there's one you're funding yourself yes yeah so I'm like calling a lawyer like buy guns you gotta buy whatever materials you gotta we gotta buy everything we need to, so I'm like calling a lawyer like buy guns you gotta buy whatever materials you gotta we gotta buy everything we need To get yeah, and I'm calling a lawyer. I'm like how to make a non-profit like I guess that's the best way to do this I had no idea what I was doing right like well. We'll set you up, and I got some people to donate and We we just went in and we had the two cases the one in Haiti Which is the other powerful story and Columbia they're both kind of? The two cases, the one in Haiti, which is the other powerful story, and Colombia.

They're both kind of the reasons I left. And so I didn't have enough money to go home. So I would just jump. I would bounce back between Haiti and Colombia until we had success. And we did in both. Both of them were crazy cases. And we ended up risking over $120,000. No way.

Yeah. So what happens after you guys go in, you get the bad guys, you know, you break up the operation and then there's a hundred kids. What happens to those hundred kids next for the next 10 years? Right, so that's the most important part. That's the most important question. And then that's the question we've asked first.

Before we'll engage with law enforcement partners. First of all, we always work with law enforcement. We're not rogue. The local government law enforcement, we say, here's our services. In this case, it was easy because as an agent, I was already working with them. I had to leave.

And then I said, I'm back. I lost my badge and my life maybe, but I'm back. But I brought the resources and a coalition of the willing, you know, former law enforcement folks who were willing to just jump on in this operation.

And then we, but we said, we can't do anything until we know what happens to the kids. And so what we do is we have an aftercare department, which is our most important department, which partners with the local non-government organizations that are aftercare centers. And they exist in every country. And so we partner with them and we say, look,

we could rescue up to this many kids. How many could you take? And take means raise. Because you don't know. Fund, house, feed, educate. Until they go to university. Because so many times, more than half the time, I'd say, there's not a family waiting for them with open arms. There is no family, which is how they got taken in the first place.

Or the family's part of the problem. Because they're getting paid. They're getting the money. Yeah. And so we set up with those partnerships so that when the kids are rescued, we know exactly, in fact, the aftercare partners are with us when the raid happens and they write to the kids,

you're safe, you're not bad guys. Because the kids think, am I getting arrested or what's going on? So we set it up to where the aftercare team is immediately on the ground and the healing process begins. And they'll either get potentially adopted by another family or they'll be in a facility, a home or some kind of facility. Yes, exactly right. Now, what about, you mentioned that it sounds like half the time the parents are involved in selling their kids, especially.

I've heard about this in Asia. Like a lot of their, it's like a form of love to like say how much money can you bring back to me type of thing. I don't know if I'm off there, but how do parents, what's the psychology behind that for parents where they feel like it's not a bad thing? I've heard of this sometime, some cases.

It's like part of the culture, I guess. Now, how do you, as a parent, how could you do that? How do you get to that point? So you're exactly right, how you're describing it. That is how it is. And it's something I cannot comprehend. It's almost like they're so desperate for means, for money, they're so poor.

And they're just like, well, I think they just have to compartmentalize and just kind of normalize sexual activity, even if it's your 12 year old daughter. Like you just gotta, this is what we have to do, you know? Oftentimes it's cyclical, it's generational. So it's like, that's what I had to do, so that's what you have to do.

And we've got to break it. And that's been part of the problem, because when it's culturally accepted, sometimes the laws reflect that as well. And so there's a lot of countries where we've gone in and helped them establish their laws where they didn't exist before. And oftentimes, I'd say the majority of the first cases we do, the first investigations we do in a given country is their first investigation into this as well.

So we provide the tools. We build digital forensic laboratories, for example. We built one in Southeast Asia that services four or five countries there and give them the tools they've never had before to go into the dark net, to go and find where, you know, track IPs, where child pornography is being distributed. Yeah, it's a nutty thing. So is US the biggest consumers of sex trafficking then? We're the biggest consumers of child exploitation material.

So pornography. Yeah, child pornography. Child sex pornography. Yeah, we're the biggest consumers in the world and one of the biggest producers as well of it really yeah so that we are the demand oh my gosh this is why we have success why are we so messed up i think it has to do with first of all it's it's the internet it's access to the internet it's it's it's the technology that's readily accessible here that we can use the peer-to-peer networks darknet kind of

stuff where we can learn how to use that quick, it's software, and then all of a sudden you're in. And so it takes a degree of technology, and then we have a large population with lots of technology. I don't think per capita it's a whole lot worse here. It's just that we have the numbers and the technology,

and that together creates. It's easier access. It's easier access, yeah. So people become sex addicts easier in this country in mass than in other countries. So there's sex addicts all over the world. We just have easier access to exploiting that thing. And we have 300 million people that all have that access. So that creates a lot of demand in this country.

How easy is it to watch? I've never seen child pornography. I don't even know how easy that would be. How easy? If I wanted to go on the internet right now. Way too easy. How long would it take for me? Is it 30 minutes? Is it five minutes?

If you have some skill, like it's not. Can you just type in child pornography? No, you're not gonna Google it, no. And no one tried that by the way. I guess the cops will track you. No, it's not that easy. Like it's just like a Google search, but there's ways if you understand the dark net

and how different networks work. I don't even know what the dark net is, but that's crazy. So if you can get into that, then you can find it quickly. Oh. Are they updating new stuff all the time? Oh, yeah. In the last three or four years, there's been a 5,000% increase in new child content. It's growing like mad.

I mean, are they doing it because they're making money? Are people having to pay for it? Is it free? Like how do they? Oh, they make money. By selling it. They sell it. Yeah.

You purchase access to certain places. Like a membership. Yeah. And then you end up traveling, you know, you can, then you get into that world, you get into the networks and now you're traveling to engage in, become a contact offender, as we call it, contact offender, where you get into that world, you get into the networks, and now you're traveling to engage in, become a contact offender, as we call it, contact offender, where you're now-

Having sex. Having sex, yeah. A contact offender. Contact offender. Contact offender. Yeah. So, man, this is a whole other world. I'm sorry, I know,

I'm bringing darkness to this beautiful show. No, I think it's important to educate people on how to live a better life and how to, how to, you know, constantly be educating ourselves on all these different challenges. We have to, because the problem is considering the fact that we are the number one demand and we are number three for destination countries. That means that the pedophiles are here and our kids are here. They're mixed and mingled amongst this group. So parents need to wake up and understand the apps that their kids are using. We had a guy just 30 minutes from my home just a few weeks ago who was gaming with two 6-year-old girls from Indiana.

Six years old. This guy's 42 years old. Like on Twitch or something or like on some platform? Well, it started on Facebook. These kids were on Facebook. And then it went. like some plot well it started on facebook these kids were on facebook and then it went most games today have the ability to you know you can play with other people on other social media from across the earth and it's fun it's cool but parents who didn't grow up with this

mentality and this technology they think their kids are playing the computer because when i was a kid it was atari yeah and you're playing the computer yeah you're not playing other people right so parents don't even think like, she's playing that cute little game. She's fine. She's been playing for six months with a pedophile from Salt Lake City. And the guy got the kids, the six-year-old girls, two of them,

to undress and take naked pictures. How? I'm not kidding. He just said, just desensitize them. They can read, or he can talk to them, and just like, take your clothes off. Put the camera down. No way.

Yes. And the AG's office picked the guy up and arrested him. But this is happening in mass, especially right now. We've never seen it like we have right now because the kids are out of school. Kids are out of school and people are in their homes all day. And pedophiles are out of work. And we can track their chatter on the dark net and the communicating, and they keep saying, it's harvest time, these kids are sitting dust.

No, they're not. They're not sitting dust. They are. How many? Six million, up to six million additional reports from the National Center keep saying it's harvest time, these kids are sitting dust. No, they're not. They're not sitting dust. They are. How many? Six million, up to six million additional reports from the National Center for Mission Exploited Children than the same time last year.

And we won't even know the ramifications. It'll take years before some of these victims come up because these guys are, the lines are out in the water right now. Oh my gosh. We take for granted the infrastructure of schools and after school programs and sports programs. We take for granted the infrastructure of schools and after school programs and sports programs. We take for granted how safe that makes our kids

from these online predators, because that's where they are, they're online. So it's easier to fish now, is what you're saying. Oh yeah, because mom and dad are worried about their jobs, they're scavenging for food. The kids, hey, they're told, take the smartphone, take the laptop, stay here, play games, do your schoolwork.

We gotta go figure out- It's almost less safe to be on a tablet than it is to be at an afterschool program. 100% less safe to be home. You hear stories about, is it Larry Nassar, I think the- Yeah, the gymnastics, yeah. The doctor, yeah, it's like, okay, you felt like your kids were safe at a US sanctioned

training program, but this happened to hundreds of girls, but it's less safe online. It's a great point. Some people will say, well, I get worried about after school programs. And this is a credible doctor who's like creating educational videos. And that happens as well.

But this, in terms of the sheer numbers, is way more threatening. Because there's millions of pedophiles. It's easier to do it. There's millions of kids. They know the parents aren't paying attention because they're worried about their livelihood. And they just access the kids, they know the parents aren't paying attention because they're worried about their livelihood and they just access the kids and they start gaming with them,

they friend them on Facebook or whatever and all of a sudden it's on and it's horrible. What are two or three things that parents can do now that they have this information to protect their kids against any type of sex offenders? So the most important thing is understand the apps your kids are on. Understand the social media platforms your kids are on.

Know if people can access them pretty readily, pretty quickly. And that's the problem is parents just, if you're my age or older, we missed it. We missed the internet. So we didn't grow up understanding with raging hormones and undeveloped brains. We didn't have to deal with internet too.

Our kids do. And so parents just don't know there's education. What are the most challenging apps they should be aware of? Or is it all social media? It's all social media. Anyone where you can connect with bad guys. Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram. It doesn't matter.

The parents of those six-year-old girls I told you about, they said, we had no idea. We thought the kids were just playing the computer. Wow. No, no. They were playing a pedophile and the little kid game, whatever it was. And so parents, that's the number one thing. Know what your kids are doing.

Understand the applications. If you need help, you can go to your internet service provider and say, hey, can you send me a record of every, you own that phone that you give your kid, right? Right, right. They can give you a record of every site that's hit, every game that's played. Conversations, yeah, yeah. Right? Every conversation. What's the conversation that a parent should have with their kids, whether they're

five or 15, to at least educate them a little bit without scaring them? But what can a parent say, whether they know something's happening or not, to prepare them for this? So it's a great question. And for me, having nine kids, you have to really meditate and pray and focus on each individual kid and customize that answer. Wow.

Because if you come in too early, you could hurt them. It's a tough subject. But if you miss, if you come in too late, you could also hurt them. So when they start asking questions and when you kind of feel your intuition, luckily I have my wife who I can say,

when is it time for this one? It's now. Okay, let's have the talk. And then what you say also is customized, you know, to what you think they're ready for, but you have to be in front of it. Whatever that answer is, that's the key is being, have a close relationship with your kid, be their friend and their parent and connect with their soul so that you can get that inspiration. Okay, now's the time and here's what I'm going to tell you. Too often we say nothing because we don't want to talk about sex and it opens that whole door,

birds and the bees, and parents just ignore it. That's the worst thing you can do because then someone else is going to teach them and they're going to get hurt. So it's just tuning into that kid. Wow. That's the responsibility you have as a parent

to be a leader and to have hard conversations. I'm not a parent yet, so I don't look forward to it, but I also know that I'm going to rise to the occasion and be able to have the courage to be able to have those hard conversations. How do you categorize a pedophile and how many of them are there in the USA? What's the definition? Someone who actively seeks sexual interaction with a child in person contact or not yeah no there's still a pedophile it could be you could not have become a conduct offender quite yet but they all want to become it's

like someone who looks at porn right an adult who's looking at more I don't think anyone looks at porn with with that being the end right they want to take action eventually and that's that's how child pornographers are as well they're eventually looking to take action and take become a contact offender that's crazy yeah so how many are there so there's we know i couldn't give you the exact number but we do know this there's the fact that there's two million children in sex slavery consider what kind of number justifies that demand it's probably 50x right exactly if it's like any other market like percentage is going to take action. If they need two million kids,

that means you're going to have a market of 50X. Two million US or two million worldwide? That's worldwide. Yeah. But the US number keeps rising. There's a couple hundred thousand, we estimate, children. But that number,

there's about 18,000 women and children a year who are smuggled in to the United States for the purposes of being exploited as slaves. And is this a financial transaction, 300,000 kids, or is this sexual abuse? Again, it's like from adults to a kid. Yeah, there's a mix. There's a mix of both of those. I mean, for me, I was sexually abused when I was five by a man that I didn't know.

You're kidding me. I didn't know this. Yeah, and the babysitter's son, he was probably 16 or 17. I was five. It's one of my probably first three or four memories I've ever had. Oh, my gosh. For 25 years, I didn't tell anyone, and it deeply shaped my life. It only happened once.

I can't even imagine something happening over and over again and not feeling comfortable or safe. And it deeply impacted the way I think, the way I took action, how I was defensive. And I felt like everyone was out to get me. It was like, everyone's trying to abuse me, everyone's trying to take advantage of me. And it showed up in every area of my life,

from sports to teachers, to relationships, to business partners, until six and a half, seven years ago, I finally opened up and started to heal and started talking about it for the first time. For 25 years, no one knew about this. Wow. And it was one of the hardest things I ever did was talking about it. And then I knew that this had power over me because I was so afraid of what would happen if people knew this about

me. The more I talked about it with family, then friends, then I finally opened up publicly about it on my show. And the moment when it was no longer scary to talk about it was when I realized, okay, now my healing is starting. And it's been an amazing six and a half year journey of healing the past, letting go, forgiving. Obviously not forgetting. It's always going to be with me, the memory.

But the ability to have peace in my heart and move on and see what can I do moving forward to make sure that other people aren't sexually abused. No, yeah. What you're doing is so important because this is the problem. As people heal, they've got to start talking about it. You have to talk about it. Yeah. is people to heal they've got to come they've got to start talking you have to talk about it yeah it's the only way you can really heal is to start sharing with someone whether it's a spiritual pastor a therapist a parent that you trust a friend you trust but when you hold on to this secret and you don't tell anyone you're going to suffer right now imagine this has happened once

right yeah one time that's happening every day every week yeah imagine so i was with a neurologist once because i had to understand that what's going on with these kids. And he says, Tim, let me show you something. He showed me two brains, scans of brains, two children's brains. And he says, do you see the scarring in the air? What's going on? He said, one of these brains was a traumatic car accident. This other one was a child who for five years was sexually abused.

And I was like, wait, what? Very similar. So that's what, I mean, it creates actual physiological scarring in your brain. Absolutely. And this is the problem. So the rehab part. The chronic stress, the chronic fear, all these different things. Yes, it actually creates physical brain damage that requires physical healing of that brain.

Emotional healing, physical, spiritual healing. It is. And when I saw that, I can't tell you how motivated I was to get back out and just start nailing these guys. Because this is, I mean, there's nothing worse in my mind and earth or hell than this. Most of these kids would rather that they were killed than go through this. You know, our sentencing so far, I don't think really reflects the real damage that's being done. And it's because people don't want to talk about it, right? The more we talk about it,

the better our justice system will be, the better our aftercare services will be. But this is a very real, very, very real threat to all our kids. And how's the process work for you, if you can break it down for me? How do you decide who you're going to go after is it okay we're assessing the dark web information first we have researchers on your team that are finding this person's got 50 kids this has got 20 you know how do you guys assess like where you're to go make the hit so when i first left the government i had un i had basically pending cases right that i couldn't work because they were outside my jurisdiction so those those first ones, like the one in Columbia and Haiti, those were easy. But then after that. It was like, now where do we find the next one?

So it's funny. It's funny. Great question. Because I start, I'm like knocking on doors like, can I work? Can I help you guys? Because those two hits were successful. So we got more donation dollars. So I'm like, and I had to actually convince people, like, you have a problem.

We can help. We were turned down. Seven years later. Turned down by what? Governments, countries? Governments, by law enforcement. Like, we don't need your help. We're fine here. We don't think there's a problem we can help we were turned down seven years later down by what governments by governments by law enforcement like we don't need your help we're fine here we don't think there's a problem you know today seven years later we are saying no we can't keep we can't keep up everybody's asking us hey so-and-so told us you did x y and z in their country can you help us with this piece can you help us with that and so now now what we have to do is we have to find the law

enforcement units around the world. We're in 26 countries, the ones that can sustain our tools. So if we give them something and give them training, it's a scalable solution to have, you know, so it's not just us doing the work and then leaving. So that's how we kind of judge it right now. We wish we could be everywhere, but we have to go to where they're most prepared to make the biggest difference, the biggest impact. Of course. And what are the top

three countries right now that have the most cases and the biggest problem? I think Southeast Asia. Really? Is that whole region is just so sad and so terrible.

But the law enforcement is doing amazing work and we're working really closely with them. That's where we put our first digital forensic lab. And so now they're going in and routing out the... enforcement is doing amazing work and we're working really closely with them. That's where we put our first digital forensic lab. And so now they're going in and routing out

the bad guys in there. And it's 50% locals and it's 50% kind of U.S. based who's coming in and committing the crimes. Yeah, lots of sex tourists. The locals are... How big of an industry

is the sex tourist industry? How much money? Okay, well, so human trafficking altogether is $150 billion a year. No way. the sex tourist industry? How much money? Okay, so human trafficking altogether is $150 billion a year. No way. $150 billion, and so to put that into perspective.

And how much is the sex tourism in human trafficking? That's about 35 billion, I believe. Wow. Yeah, just the sex alone is 35 billion. The contact, the physical sex, not the digital uh consumption of media right yeah 35 billion dollars in the selling of people for sex 35 billion if you can imagine that number i mean and then you bring in the slave labor and that's what gets it up to

150 human trafficking in general in general and to give some perspective because that number is so big with that with the amount of money made buying and selling people every year, you could buy every Starbucks franchise in the world, you could buy every NBA team, and still have enough money left over to send every US child to college for four years. That's how much money is spent in modern day slavery every year.

That's why I say this isn't a peripheral thing right even though we act like it is because we don't want to address it we don't want to engage it hurts why do we not want to address it it hurts you know it's just it's I know why because I didn't want to address it I ran I tried to I tried to quit many times okay and my wife always turned me around and said you can't sweetie oh my gosh you know um because here's what happens and this is what happened to me, is you see children being hurt, and you can't help it. You superimpose your own children's faces on those children, and then you just can't bear it, right? You just can't handle it. I mean, I had to go to psychotherapy to not do that.

Mandatory, they sent us every year to get checked out. And, you know, I kept, I'd go every year and think, okay, this is my year that I'm gonna, they're gonna boot me out, because I know I'm crazy. And like, oh, you passed Mr. Ballard, and we actually, what? Save me. Because I thought I was crazy. No, you're fine, okay. Wow.

But one of the things, that was the hardest thing for me to kick, is learn how to not see my own child's face so I could deal with it. Later on, about 10, about 15 years later into this, I changed my tune and I allowed myself to see my kids faces and that made all the difference because all of a sudden now I'm I'm pushing the envelope it's more you more

connected to it what happened was I I came across a situation a few years back where we were but we were going into a child trafficking center and there was 28 little children they were being sold little Little meaning under 12? Oh, from one to 12. Gosh. For sex? For sex. And so I'm walking in there. They think I'm a customer and I'm walking in and I see all these kids. Like a storefront? It was an orphanage front. They were claiming to be an orphanage. No way. Yeah. This was in Haiti. They were claiming to be an orphanage, but all the kids were mostly kids they collected after the hurricanes or earthquakes. The parents die and they say, oh, come to our orphanage. Well, it's not an orphanage.

So we were actually tracking a missing child that we knew had been there. And so that's what got us in there. And when I saw the kids outside the gate, I was about to go in, it was almost like a PTSD reaction where I'm like, oh, I'm seeing my kids. Okay, do the training they taught you. But instead I said, you know what? What if I don't do that this time? What if I let it happen? What if I just allow these kids to be my kids?

So I went in there and I was like, oh my gosh, I never should have done that technique. I should have always done this. And this is what I encouraged everyone to do. Because before you were wearing like a mask. Right. So you wouldn't feel it as deeply, but now you're feeling it so deeply.

So deeply. And what wouldn't you do for your own child? now i'm willing to go the distance right and that case got nuts and it's funny i i know this experiment led to this we went after we rescued up we rescued 28 kids we did the whole sting by and i ended up adopting two of the kids that we rescued who are now my kids in haiti yeah it was a preventative strike. Turns out none of it had actually been sold yet. They were all being sold. And so, yeah, so two of my kids now, they came from that operation.

Wow. So they literally, like literally made it. They became your kids. They became my kids, yeah. Wow, how many kids do you have now? I have nine now. Wow, seven from birth of your own. Seven, yeah, biological.

Yeah, and then two adopted from Haiti. And then two adopted, yep. How many more, I mean, how many do you want to have? Oh, man, we were, the prenup said six, okay, when we got married. Really? Yeah, we were done at six. And we were both done. We're like, we got the six.

I came from six. My wife came from six. Yeah. And then this case happened after that. And we saw these kids, and it was just like, here's my wife again. I called her. I said, you won't believe this. What I just saw, these two little kids, it was the two kids I actually bought in the sting operation, I mean, I just, like, grew attached to them, and it was my

wife who just had this experience, and she just said, I want to be their mom, I said, no, you don't, you can't do this, like, we can't do this, you know, I want to be their mom, so that's how, that's how it started, and we ended up bringing them home and then the seventh one came Defying all science somehow How how much does it cost to buy a kid? I mean to buy a kid is it to buy them to own them to buy them to have sex What's the difference between you they do both? Okay, so Generally, if you're gonna take a kid if you're gonna if you're gonna use a kid for for the weekend or something,

you can probably double or triple the price of what the adult sex market would be. So whatever a prostitute, you know, a sex worker or whatever you wanna call it. You can double or triple it for a kid. Double or triple for a child. For a night or for a weekend. For purchasing, it depends what the country,

but those kids they sold me that became mine were 15,000 each. But the work we do- 15,000 for a person's life. Yeah, unbelievable. Just say here, it's yours. In the Middle East, we're dealing with ISIS and we're working in,

and this is where we're getting organ harvesting. And a pediatric heart is up to a quarter million dollars. So that's a- A kid's heart. A kid's heart. That's how much it sells in the black market. How often is this happening with organ harvesting? In the Middle East, quite a bit.

So ISIS rolls in in 2015 and they make sex slaves out of the Yazidi people, these beautiful people that are just peaceful, they're living in Northern Iraq and a little bit in Syria as well. And ISIS came in and just said, you are less than human. And they just took them

and made sex slave markets out of them. Also, a lot of the Christian communities were devastated in a similar way. Eventually, ISIS gets pushed off its sovereign territory and was making its money by taking over cities and like taxing people. So they lost their oil revenues

when they got pushed off the land, but they kept the kids. And so like, well, I gotta make money. So they start selling these kids to sex slavery or to organ harvesting oh my gosh we've taken down two organ harvesting rings and already so far so we this is they keep the kids alive after they take out some of their organs or is it you're dead obviously it depends yeah and not if it's an if it's a kidney or something they just take it out and then okay see you later yeah you can there's people are finally something. They just take it out and then, okay, see you later? Yeah. People are finally reporting on it.

I think CBS or ABC News recently did a story on it. But we're in the middle of it. This is the Nazarene Fund. I'm the CEO of also the Nazarene Fund, which is a sister organization with OUR. Mercury One, Glenn Beck started that. Oh, wow. And then I took it over three years ago.

Glenn Beck's still the founder. Yeah, no, he was the godfather of OUR as well. He gave us all our first money. Glenn did? The money I needed to rescue those kids in Columbia, in Haiti, that was Glenn. Really? He was the only one that took the chance. He's like, I'll front it.

Go for it. I'm like, are you serious? He's like, yeah. He got me the money. It was pretty intense. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, it risked his whole media company. Wow.

Really. His lawyer said don't do it if they fail or somebody gets hurt you're screwed he's like he's like

I don't care he's like I'm not gonna go to my maker and tell him I said no it was an amazing story so yeah

so he he asked me to run the Nazarene Fund three years ago so that's our work in the Middle East which is just the stuff with

and we're extracting these kids I mean we're going in and taking the kids out so have you found kids who've had you know I guess organs taken out or oh yeah no there's and they're the ones that are surviving stuff really yeah so you find them and they got they're sewn up or whatever yeah and there's that's there's there's been like i said there's some mainstream

media have gotten into it thank goodness in the last several months and you can see people can go on google and you can see it. They're stitched up, they're... But if you're a small child, they're gonna make their most money off of pediatric heart. They're very high in demand, yeah. Man, this is crazy, man. Servicing markets, generally outside the United States, right, like these are markets in countries

that there's no regulations and there's just black market stuff. The work you're doing is really amazing. And you've got a movie coming out which i got to see a trailer of it a couple months ago yeah and when's the date it's coming out do we know where we don't know later in the year covid shifted everything so we don't really know but the film is locked it's done stars jim caviezel miry servino bill camp it's gonna be amazing it's it's these guys were these guys are artists they're geniuses it's they did a very good job. And what's the movie called

what's it what's it telling the story of? It's called The Sound of Freedom and it basically tells the story I just a lot of that I just told you. Yeah. Like for example with the little boy in the van they actually filmed that scene exactly where it happened with the necklace and all that and it gets into Columbia the Columbia raid where he rescued 120 kids. Our first big operation that rescued 121, yeah. And what's your mission moving forward

with the movie, with just everything you're up to? Is it to end sex slavery? Is it to rescue a certain amount of kids a year? It is to end it.

Yeah. So we did an experiment and it was very telling. In 2014, we put almost all of our resources into the northern region of Columbia. One region. One region. And we just pounded, pounded, pounded.

Like every month, two or three operations. And empowered law enforcement. And then to the point where they stopped. And the would-be traffickers said, yeah, I had to give it up. I'm into drugs and I'm doing something. This is crazy. And so we did it it we knew what happened it's logical like now there's a consequence there wasn't before but we did it to show like if everybody would would would focus focus focus on child crimes if we all did it together we could we could end it but it's not

going to be governments alone it's going to be people getting loud which is we have an opportunity right now because people are getting loud about it the first time in a long time or maybe ever on July 30th which is yeah there's anti-human trafficking you know world anti awareness yeah yeah so how can how can my listeners get involved with a small where they want to get involved in a bigger way, what can they do? Can they go to your website? Can they email you? Can they spread the message? People can go to our website, OURescue.org.

OURescue.org is the website. Look at our videos. And there's something on there that says join the fight. We have all sorts of ideas people can do to get involved. So if people want to go out and get that commission and a little symbol that reminds them of the fight, you can go to freedomdogtag.com. It's an opportunity for people not only to kind of get their symbolic commission,

but for every 30 necklaces sold, we literally, with that money, we can rescue a child. People can also text HELP THEM to 51555, and we're giving specific instructions on how you can get involved in your city on July 30th. 60 cities have already committed to get loud in some way. They'll go to a park, you know, obey the laws and the social distancing, but that's a generally go to a park and local leaders will show up and commit that we're going to do more for kids and make sure the kids in your community are protected. Wow. Yeah. It's exciting. And if you want to be a part of helping spread the message, make sure to share this video out or share this audio out.

And make sure to follow Tim. What are you on social media? Tim Ballard 89. Tim Ballard 89. Make sure to follow Tim. Make sure to tag him when you're sharing this out so he can follow up with you as well and stay connected. I know you do a lot of other stuff behind the scenes that I want to get into hopefully soon in utah and be a part of learning about how you guys we're bringing you up man we're going to put you into one of our training programs lock me in um uh so the movie be

aware so if you go to the website if you sign up you follow you you'll be able to watch the movie when it comes out absolutely we'll keep you up to date on everything yeah so you've got a bunch of books to talk about this as well if you want to dive in down the rabbit hole read. Yeah. I got lots of content for you if you want to learn more. Exactly. But this is an amazing mission that you're on for me, who's been, you know, I wasn't sold, but I dealt with sexual abuse and I know the trauma that it has in the years of unwiring that it takes to feel normal, to feel like the world isn't out to get you, to feel like your stress levels go down, to feel like I couldn't go to sleep at night. It'd take me hours to go to sleep every night

until I was about 30. And then when I started to heal, I could finally sleep. So I know what it does to the wiring of a human being with sexual abuse. I can't even imagine what it would do to someone who's being sold by their parent, not by their parent, over and over and over again for years. I couldn't even imagine how you would start to heal.

So what you're doing is an amazing gift and a service to humanity. And I really acknowledge you for that, Tim, for being an incredible leader in this space, being a hero in this space. And using your wisdom, your skills, your tools, your resources, your relationships to make the biggest impact in this space. And I want to be a support for as long as I can on this. This is a

big part of me that I want to help out as well. I want to ask you a final, a final few questions. This is called the three truths. So I want to imagine it's your last day on earth. Okay. And so I'm gonna imagine it's your last day on earth okay and you go somewhere else after your body dies right okay yeah but you've accomplished every dream you could think of in your whole life for your personal life with your family your kids for your businesses for your foundation anything you can imagine it's come true but for whatever reason all of your work has to go with you your videos movies content it's got to go with you. Your videos, movies, content, it's gotta go with you to the next place.

But you get to leave behind three lessons you know to be true. You get to write it down on a piece of paper, and this is all we would have to remember you by, are these three lessons, or what I like to call, three truths. What would you share with the world that are your three truths?

I think the first truth, the most important truth, and this comes from years of trying to find light in my darkness. Because to work in this world is so dark and it will destroy you, it'll destroy you. I needed to find light. And so my advice to people would be, or what I would share is,

because we all have darkness i don't care who you are you don't even be fighting trafficking right darkness is everywhere yeah so i would my mind would be based on how to get light in your darkness and the number one thing is serving other people service turns the lights on tony robbins taught me this i mean i i knew it just functionally but until he put words to it in the research. When you serve people, something happens to your brain. Like there's a physiological, in my mind, it's God. I'm a faith guy. And when you serve people, your brain literally releases serotonin and endorphins and oxytocin.

And what it does is people that have an excess of those beautiful you feel better you feel better you're healthier you have more courage you have more optimism you know this is science yeah right no in my mind what that is is it's also I believe it's God preparing your body to commune and with the God your your creator, whatever it is, I don't care, but a higher source that will then give you that you need to be a better version of yourself. Yeah. And so service has all these benefits apart from just doing the good of

helping somebody. This is amazing thing that turns the lights on in so many ways. So service number one to other people. Number two is kind of related to it, but it's, it's that communion part. It's it's, it's prayer, prayer meditation whatever you want to call it um but connecting to that greater being whatever that is and and and getting that that positive energy because it just makes if you're a better version of yourself you are a blessing to other people right so it's not a selfish thing it's it's actually a selfless. Get yourself good because then you're good for others, you know? And so number two, I'd say that

is that meditation, that communion. And then the number three is find at least one person that you really love and that really loves you back. There's a lot of relationships, you know, where you don't have time or there's the ability to connect that way. But for me, it's my wife. To find that person, because I mean, I've told you many stories and the coolest stories I told you was actually me running away and my wife turning me back around.

Thank goodness, none of this would happen. I wouldn't be sitting here with you if she hadn't turned me around when I ran for cover throughout my life, throughout my career. And I credit that relationship. Wow. What's the thing you love about Catherine the most, your wife? She does the right thing no matter what. And it doesn't matter the consequences. I mean, she literally said to me, if we end up on a beach in a tent and that's where we're living because

we did this, I don don't care we have to do the right thing by these children and by god and the right thing is to quit and leave everything i mean i calculated it was millions of dollars in pension and i had a whole i had a whole charted out my life was charted out all right i'm like captain we're watching it doesn't matter these are real children and there's and there's consequences for yeah and if you say one it's worth this in her mind how one it's worth it in her mind how is it not worth it and just how quick she gets to that like this is wrong this is right we're gonna do the right thing okay like that she just she has that kind of it's it's a it's

intuition it's inspiration a conscience i don't know what you call it but she she has it and and i know i can go to her and say i don't know what to do what do i do and she's gonna be right you know and if she doesn't know she'll tell me I don't I don't know let's figure this out yeah so I think that's that's the thing I I love most about her that's beautiful yeah okay um we can find you online timbauer89 we'll we'll connect you and link up everything in the show notes I've got is there anything that you want to share that you haven't shared before my final question anything you wish people asked you about this this or you feel like people need to know about? You know, one thing I'll say is I'm worried about the world right now. I'm worried about kids right now a lot because I feel like we pursue good things and they make sense.

But too often we don't consider the children who are being hurt. And it's unintended, no one's intent to do this. But we talked about, for example, we're in the middle of a debate right now, and I'm not, this is not partisan for me, it's not political, even though everything seems to go that way these days, right?

But the idea of opening schools and what that does, all I'm saying, I'm not gonna give the answer to the question, I'm not smart enough to give an answer to that question. But I not smart enough to give an answer to that question. But I will say this, that we're not even, I don't see the kids as part of the debate. For example, the spike,

6 million additional reports of children being abused originating online. This is from the National Center for Missing and Disabled Children. And that's a lot of pain. And it happened because we, as a society, we decided to shut everything down because of COVID. Okay, do we know the trade-offs? That's all lot of pain. Yeah. And it happened because we, as a society, we decided to shut everything down because of COVID.

Okay. Do we know the trade-offs? That's all I'm asking. Are we considering the trade-offs? And the concern I have is, you know, the CDC and others have come out. I'm not a scientist, but I can read data. And if you're 60 years or younger, you have a 99.9% chance of surviving. If you're older, it's very, very, very dangerous.

And you should definitely take mass precautions and we should do everything we can to support that but teachers who create the infrastructure that keep kids from being sexually assaulted they like 89 are under 60 years old and so the real question we should be asking is what's what is what's scarier to you? A virus? Once we've taken care of the most vulnerable, what's scarier? A virus with a 99.9% survivability? Or the tradeoff, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of children being sexually assaulted? We're not even having the discussion.

That's my concern. I'm not smart enough to come up with the actual solution. But at least have the discussion. And it boils down to this. Kids can't get loud. They can't organize. I'm not smart enough to come up with the actual solution. But at least have the solution. And it boils down to this. Kids can't get loud. They can't organize. They can't protest.

They can't march. And so we don't hear from them. It's on us adults to stand up and be their voices. And say, we will sit at the table for you. We will make sure you are represented. So that's my... Something to think about, for sure. Something to think about. We need to figure out a solution.

Right. It's hard. These are complex things't i don't have the answers but i know kids are being hurt and i know more can be done to make sure they're not sure absolutely well there's always more we can do that's for sure you're doing amazing things man i appreciate you i got one final question that's what's your definition of greatness i think um for me greatness is is how much positive impact you can be on others. In fact, I try to make this a rule. I'm not great at this. I'm a believer in it.

Okay, I'm not a master of it. But when given a fork in the road, right, a crossroads, you've got to make a decision. And we do it every day. Do I do this or do that? I don't know what to do. Which one will help more people and if you always take that road i think that's the definition of greatness yeah i'm proud of my man thanks bro thanks bro appreciate you man thank you man i hope today's

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