GLENN: We come to you with good news. Partial good news. I know -- I thought we were going to announce something else. We have a couple of good things. But I thought we were going to announce something else today, an accomplishment. But it's led us down a deeper rabbit hole, that we need to hold our cards close to our vest here for a little while.
But I want to welcome Tim Ballard. He's the CEO of the Nazarene fund. Founder and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad. And Dave Lopez, who is the director of operations for the Nazarene Fund.
Hello, gentlemen, welcome back.
VOICE: Thanks, Glenn.
VOICE: Hi, Glenn, thanks for having us.
GLENN: So let's start with the good news.
TIM: Well, last week, we talked about the movement of 360 Yazidi victims of ISIS who we were moving out.
GLENN: And I think, Dave, didn't that include 20 slaves?
DAVE: Yeah, 25 former slaves of ISIS is in that number.
GLENN: Okay. And how are we?
TIM: We are great. We are over 80 percent done, getting them out. And these stories are amazing, because we're -- we get to interview them. And we have an interview that we're going to show that you'll be actually able to actually air in a couple days.
GLENN: Okay.
TIM: But the people that are out and the ones that are ready to start talking -- I mean, unbelievable stories. There's this case of one girl who was passed around, sold 16 times. Different ISIS fighters, different ISIS commanders, just horrifying things. She actually tried to kill herself at one point. Jumped out of a window. A slave trader who had mercy during one of these exchanges, told her to go to this Christian group, which ended -- they ended upbringing her to the Nazarene Fund. And these --
GLENN: You've got to be kidding me. A slave -- a slave trader?
You wouldn't think that he would have mercy.
VOICE: Something happened. Who knows what happened? But he said, you know what, run that way.
GLENN: Wow.
TIM: And so now we have her. And with these other hundreds that we're bringing over, we're preparing the way for them to go to Australia, as you know. We're so excited to take you out there and see them as they get into their new homes and hear these stories --
GLENN: I've heard -- is it true that I've heard a television show is -- and don't say the name of it. Because I don't know if it can be.
But that there's a television show, a major television show that's going to be going to Australia to welcome them. Unrelated to us and everything else.
Have you heard that?
TIM: No.
GLENN: Okay. Yeah, there's a major TV show that's heard about the Nazarene Fund and said, "I want to know about this. And I want our audience to know about it." It's really cool.
TIM: It going to be great.
GLENN: Yeah.
TIM: These are amazing stories. You remember the story. You told this one about the Christian fighter who was killed and left behind four daughters, his wife. And they put his body -- displayed it behind the church, ISIS did. And the Nazarene Fund went and extracted this family, in the dead of night. Got them into safety. They're safe now. And they're about to make their trip into Australia.
And so they're just all -- it's just amazing. It's just so much light and hope.
GLENN: So we have -- and I know this radio, but you have footage for from we are -- last time you were here. And I don't want to get into all the dark stuff. But we were talking about what ISIS is doing with organ harvesting, which is terrifying. And they're just snatching these kids. It's my understanding that this video -- and you'll describe it on radio. But this video was taken because we were actually -- we were doing reconnaissance on one of these makeshift hospitals, is that right, Dave?
DAVE: That's right. We were in the area looking for -- we were having interviews with witnesses. People -- eyewitness accounts of organ harvesting. We're also looking into a few different areas where it was being done. That's the whole point of what's going on up around Raqaa. And the devastation that you're going to see in this video is immense. Just from the war. And then you can also see what happens after this explosion goes off and how brave our people are.
GLENN: Okay. So these are Nazarene Fund operators.
TIM: Operators.
DAVE: Yes, correct.
GLENN: Describe it here, what we're seeing.
TIM: These are our guys. They're just scanning the area. Having no idea what's about to happen.
GLENN: Holy cow.
TIM: Any child in this area is exposed and vulnerable to being taken for organ harvesting, and they know that. And they see a child. Right there. You see the mom and the child holding -- they're holding hands.
GLENN: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
VOICE: And they're watching this scene like, eh, I hope they get out of here. This is not a safe place for them to be.
Now, what you're going to see, is they walk behind a building, and there's an explosion. An improvised explosive device that was just sitting there.
DAVE: It could have been a leftover unexploded ordnance, probably from the Syrian government. When the show is going on. Yeah. There's the explosion.
TIM: There it goes right there. And the mom is instantly killed. The child who is probably six or seven years old. Is not. Is hurt. And now is extremely vulnerable. This is the exact situation that the organ harvesters are looking for.
GLENN: Don't be afraid. There's nothing serious. Is there anybody inside? Where? That's the child?
DAVE: That's just the child. Yeah, they're just talking to child right there.
GLENN: Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.
TIM: Now, these are our operators who see this. And far from running away, they run right into the danger. Snatch up that child.
GLENN: That's our guy?
TIM: That's our guy right there holding the baby and taking that child out, because this child is now completely alone and vulnerable to the organ harvesters. And we now -- that's our guy getting him out. Getting her to a safe place. And she's safe and she's healing.
DAVE: She just lost her mom.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
TIM: They had obviously no idea that that was going to happen.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
DAVE: It's hard for people to understand just how difficult the situation is and what our people are doing. They're on the ground, and how brave they are. And not just to be able to do what they're doing there, but the logistics, to be able to have the relationships with the Australian government -- to keep -- the vetting process for getting people out.
GLENN: Australians have been remarkable -- they're really remarkable. I mean, people just don't know this. These countries have taken a lot of heat because they're taking in -- the EU especially over in Europe, the EU is just pushing everybody and saying, you have to take refugees. There's no vetting or anything. These are all vetted, the Christians and Yazidis that have been coming under attack.
VOICE: And the reason that it's working is because the Australians trust the Nazarene Fund.
Because the Nazarene Fund, we are in there vetting every single person to make sure they have background checks done. We know who they are, what their background is, what their history is. The last thing we want to do is send a threat into another country.
GLENN: Yeah.
And these guys are not there to change Australia or anything else. Some are going to stay. But the majority that I know of -- and tell me if you find this true, want to go back home. They are literally the Christians of the Bible. They're the first ones that you saw the apostles go and convert.
These were the ancient Jews that became Christian. And they know, we're -- we're that legacy. We can't leave that part of the world.
TIM: And we are encouraging them to go back. Now that ISIS has been pushed out, so many want to go back. We're are facilitating not only moves to Australia, but we're facilitating the transportation of these people back into their Christian communities to rebuild. So we are doing that as well.
DAVE: That may sound confusing to some people that don't understand. This is a geographical situation. So there are certain areas where people still need to be getting out. There are other areas where they're able to start going back. It might be confusing to the listener, to someone that doesn't understand some of these things. But it is a very intricate situation. But these are very -- these people are very prideful in a good way of where they're from. Even though it's been devastation. It's been torture. It's been war. It's their homeland. So I don't think the majority of these people -- you know, in Australia, wherever they've gone, they see this as temporary, and that they want to go back.
GLENN: Where is that little girl now?
TIM: She's in one of our --
GLENN: Shelters or healing centers, so she's getting therapy?
TIM: Everything. We're getting her everything she needs to be able to heal fully from that experience. Yeah.
GLENN: I can't -- to watch them. There's a mom and daughter. In a morning.
TIM: Yeah.
STU: To get a sense of that area too, before anything happens, it's like a flattened city of cement. It's just --
GLENN: There's nothing there.
STU: There's almost nothing standing there before this happened.
GLENN: How much of Iraq and Syria are like that now?
DAVE: Many parts. Many parts -- I mean, Iraq and Syria near the border. There are tons of cities that are just devastated.
GLENN: And we know in Haiti, the biggest problem -- you know, they're picking, I think it's avocados. Right?
You know, you get the avocados and the bananas from the Dominican Republic, a lot of those are picked by Haitian slaves, kids who are labor slaves now. And it's because mom and dad were killed in the earthquake.
STU: Yet another reason to not eat avocados.
GLENN: Yeah. Like I needed another reason.
STU: They're terrible, squishy things.
GLENN: But the same thing is happening here in -- in Syria and Iraq. These kids are so vulnerable.
STU: True.
GLENN: I mean, I don't even know -- as a kid, what would you do? There's nothing there.
TIM: Yeah, and it's -- whenever there is a natural disaster of any kind, earthquake or whatever, war, the kids are the ones who are forgotten. And like you said, they are so vulnerable. Hundreds of thousands of children in Haiti, like you just pointed out, who came from the earthquake. The traffickers rushed in. Harvest day for them. They pick them all up. They're grieving over their parents' dead bodies, as the traffickers are swooping them up. We just arrested one of them. We talked about a couple weeks ago, who was doing that. And we found her victims. But this is the part --
GLENN: Her victims?
TIM: Her victims. This is the kingpin trafficker. They call her Cho.
DAVE: Francion (phonetic).
GLENN: Oh, yeah, in Haiti.
TIM: Back in Haiti, right, right. Yeah.
But this is the thing we always -- all of us. The world needs to be aware of, when these catastrophes happen, whether it's man made wars or earthquakes and a storm, this is when the traffickers come in. And we have to be there to defend those kids right away.
GLENN: Can you give me any -- any -- any good news on the harvesting thing? Is there any?
When will you be able to tell us something?
DAVE: Next time we come on, I believe it will be about two weeks out, and we'll be able to present some more footage. Some more -- there will be footage. There's been another -- there's been another rescue that we're still waiting on releasing. But our teams are busy. There's some -- there's some very high stakes things going on right now. Because the more you prod and poke this bear, the more dangerous it gets.
GLENN: Yeah. Do they know us yet? Do the bad guys there know us yet?
DAVE: We don't -- this is one of --
GLENN: I know we're not wearing T-shirts there.
DAVE: As far as our teams and our people, no, no, not at all. And that's the way we're going to --
GLENN: They know that somebody is coming for them though? It's becoming more and more?
DAVE: We're guessing that they're probably starting to get an idea of it. But that's part of the risk that we --
GLENN: Yeah. Guys, thank you very much.
Now, listen, here's how you can help: If you want to get involved, you can pray. And, you know, thoughts and prayers don't mean anything. Yeah, they do. Yeah, they really do.
We would like both your thoughts and your prayers. And you can pray for the safety. And, in fact, I ask if you would pray every night as a family for not only the people that are involved that we're trying to go and rescue, but also the rescuers themselves. Because these are really brave people.
But also, we would like you to be an abolitionist. Everybody can say, oh, you know, the founders, they -- whatever. Whatever. What are we doing right now? What are we doing right now? Please, get involved. And be a part of this heroic and historic movement. And you can find out all the information at theNazareneFund.org. TheNazareneFund.org. Also, our -- give me your web address real quick.
VOICE: Ourrescue.org.
GLENN: Yeah, ourrescue.org. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.