Tim Ballard on Rescuing OUR Children
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Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. On the line with us today, our first guest...

Tim Ballard. Tim is a former special agent for the Department of Homeland Security, where he was assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and was deployed as an undercover operative for the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team. While working for the government, Tim saw how much more needed to be done in the fight against child sex trafficking and exploitation across the world. In 2013, Tim and a team of former government operatives left the security of their careers and

to go about the work of rescuing children as a private foundation and created Operation Underground Railroad. Tim and Vision, a team that could work in any jurisdiction and work with law enforcement to directly rescue children. That team exists today all over the world. Tim, thank you. Tim Ballard, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me on. Appreciate it.

Tim, our researchers came up with a stat that they gave to me, and they said that in the world of human trafficking, one in ten are labor slaves. These are generally males, but nine in ten are sex slaves, which are primarily women. Do you ever feel like starting this that you're fighting a losing battle?

Statistically speaking, if I'm being realistic, it can feel that way because the numbers are just insane. It's an excess of 27 million people altogether who are either slave labor, sex slaves or organ harvesting slaves.

victims. And, you know, at the same time, I don't feel like it's a losing battle because we've been blessed enough to help with the rescue of about, I think, over 6,000 now. I mean, the numbers grow constantly. We have operations going on all around the world. And, you know, we've done operations where we end up just rescuing one. You know, we think there might be more. And

I always ask myself, would it all have been worth it if this is all we ever did, just this one? And of course, you know, that's the value in our mind of every person. So in that way, if you look at it as individuals, that's 6,000 souls. You know, we would do it all for one. So then we feel like, no, we are winning and we'll keep doing it. If only we rescue one more, we'll do it.

Well, so tell us a little bit and don't want you to give away any proprietary secrets or how you do this, but can you give our audience who may be unfamiliar with Operation Underground what exactly you do to place people and get these perpetrators out of society basically?

So we are a private organization, so we don't have authority. And we're not a vigilante group or a rogue group. We work directly with law enforcement in various countries. We've worked in over 30 countries, and we always work hand in glove under the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies.

And we do things that they don't have the resources to do. For example, sometimes it's providing training. Sometimes it's providing equipment. We've built digital forensic labs, stationary labs, mobile labs. We've sent law enforcement around the world to training

So they can learn how to infiltrate, whether in person or online, a child trafficking ring. Oftentimes, these countries will ask us, because we're very experienced undercover operators. We have both federal and state, former law enforcement, former undercover operators, and they'll ask us if we'll go undercover pretending to be Western sex tourists. That's so effective because

The demand really does come from from Western countries. The United States, for example, is generally the largest consumer of child exploitation material in the world. And so if we're in a foreign country and law enforcement agencies,

ask us to go undercover pretending to be an American sex tourist, well, we will infiltrate that organization much quicker than they could without us because we are, unfortunately, we are what the traffickers are looking for. So really, we have a menu of every tool we know of, and if there's one we don't know of, we'll add that as well. Every tool we can think of from...

technology to undercover work, and we provide it to law enforcement partners, and they choose what they want, and then we deploy with them and really empower them to be able to rescue children in their regions, in their countries, long after we're gone. Tim, that's actually got to be a pretty powerful tool.

You know, most countries, their police forces, I don't think a lot of Americans understand, are not nearly as diverse as you see here in the United States. So if you're in Asia somewhere and you show up as a Caucasian business person, there's no question in that trafficking ring's mind you're not a law enforcement officer from that country. They let their guard down, right? Right.

That's exactly right. And, you know, we do things in dressing ways. You know, we'll even rent a presidential suite of a hotel or something if it calls for it to put forward a production, really, that makes the bad guys put their guards down. And they're like, there's no way these guys are cops working in

You know, in Mexico or in Thailand, there's no way. And then that's when they start bringing out their dirty business, right? That's when they start showing us the kids that they have been abusing for years. And really, sometimes it's the only way to be able to infiltrate. And we also target other Westerners, other Americans.

who are putting their guards down big time in these developing countries. And that's good for our country, of course, because if they're hurting kids in Thailand or one of these high-trafficking areas, then, of course, they're threats to our kids back home. But like you pointed out, their guard is down in this developing country, and that's when we're going to get them by so doing, protecting our children at home. Tim?

Tim, are these globe-spanning organizations or do they work with other criminal organizations around the globe, for instance, to traffic people around different parts of the world?

So some of the larger, kind of more organized criminal organizations, like, for example, some in Eastern Europe, we've seen some cartel groups south of the border. We do see that, but for the most part, in my experience, they're kind of cellular in nature and structure because, you know, there's even a code amongst thieves, right? There's a reason that...

Jeffrey Dahmer was killed when he refused to go into solitude, you know, confinement. He wanted to be in the general public in prison. I mean, even bad guys, right, criminals don't like child rapists. And that kind of explains why we sometimes see a cellular structure where they stay kind of small because even the bad guys, right, aren't going to participate necessarily, so they try to stay small. So most of the organizations we have taken down are probably –

like three to five individuals who are hurting, you know, dozens and dozens of kids. Um, but, but we have seen in like some of the bigger cartels, uh, more organized, um,

Now, if we're talking women, adult women, it's different. You're going to see that very much organized, more organized, internationally organized. We have the recruiters in one country, the traffickers in another. And when we're talking about young, young kids, like even prepubescent children, that's when you kind of see more of a cellular kind of more hidden structure. When you started your organization, what tactics or how have you had to change your

your processes, your strategy versus when you first started out, we all start projects and we think we're going to do it this way because we write it down on a yellow pad. What have you had to change? How have you had to adapt to become more effective? Uh,

As you have any organization, you get a lot of scrutiny. Has that surprised you? Tell us a little bit about that. Manage it, trying to do good, but also having a lot of eyes on you, criticisms at times, but also realizing I need to change some strategies so we're more effective and we can save more people.

Sure. So a couple of things come to mind. One, when I was in the government and doing international operations or even domestic ones, our job wasn't the aftercare.

And we always relied on the state that we were working in that they would cover that. So I remember doing international operations and just leaving and just trusting, oh, the girls, the girls, you know, the survivors here will be taken care of. And so I went in with that mentality, thinking that as long as the host government tells us they're taking care of it, that's how I was. Well,

Like you pointed out, we get a lot more scrutiny, especially, you know, we're doing something that has not really been done before on a large scale. And so we're kind of pioneers in this area. And, of course, everyone's looking at it like, how can you privatize rescue a kid? A lot of, you know, people are critical because...

they're just jealous. Right. And they're just looking for something. A lot of their former employees that we had to let go of and they're trying to, you know, doing their, their jealous thing. But yeah, it gets, it puts eyes on us because anytime you do something new, we're kind of, we kind of break in the mold. So on the aftercare side, we didn't, you know, we, we get questions asked of us that I was never asked as a government agent, which is,

Where are the girls? Well, I can't, you know, the state's taking care of them. I learned real quick that's not going to fly. And so, you know, you've got to be humble and realize, hey, I didn't think this through all the way. We need to have a better answer for our donors and for the public, like what happens to these girls. And so we start digging in. Luckily, this all happened in our first year in 2014. So we start digging in and realizing in some cases these state governments

The local government, the host government, will often have a really bad aftercare and process the girls, take a statement, and then let them leave out the back door. And then who's waiting for them out in the parking lot is traffickers. So...

We immediately, you know, course corrected and created an aftercare department, which is one of our largest departments today. And we don't do operations unless we have our aftercare on the ground and unless we have already predetermined where anyone who gets rescued will go and we do.

They will only go to places that we have vetted out, and it's not state-run places generally. It's a co-op with a state-run and a nonprofit, sometimes a local NGO that has specialty in aftercare. So there's an example of something where we had to adjust because I – this is when we had like two employees, right? And I didn't have the aftercare.

understanding and so we had to grow that and and we we have done that um the other thing that i recognize was so important um is is to film everything for for several reasons one um we come back and tell these stories that are real and they sound sensational to people and there's no way that this is happening there's no way that this many kids are being hurt and this and that and so luckily we can come back and say no it is happening and here's the video footage to prove it um also

WE RECOGNIZE ONE LESSON WE LEARNED EARLY ON WAS

that's also at least partially resolved through telling the stories, is that a lot of law enforcement agencies kind of following the lead of their culture, which is in denial that this could be happening. And so once they... I've been to places where law enforcement had no idea how bad the problem was. We helped show them, and then together we made these rescue operations. Well, they want us to...

So let me cut you off here because we've got to go to break in about 30 seconds. But, folks, stay in touch with Operation Underground Railroad. And we wanted to alert you an event they have coming up, an awareness and education event in Scottsdale, December 3rd, Rise Together, an evening of hope. Go to ourrescue.org backslash rise together for tickets and more information. We'll have more on that and more with Tim Ballard when Breaking Battlegrounds comes back in just a moment.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Folks out there, did you know over 44 million Americans owe more than $1.71 trillion? That's $1.71 trillion in student loan debt. That's about $739 billion more than all the credit card debt in America. America's drowning.

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And you mentioned that people are in denial about this. And it's because I think if you're a normal human being, you can't imagine somebody doing this to a child. Right. It's vile. It's evil. It's just plain disgusting. How much of denial is still a factor as you deal with law enforcement agencies and donors even?

Yeah, it is a problem. It has been since I started. And I don't judge people for it. I don't blame them. I was absolutely shocked. I remember the first time back in probably 2001 or 2002 when I –

did the first case, a child exportation case, and I was watching these videos of prepubescent children being raped. My brain couldn't handle it. Like I, I locked down, I fell on my knees and vomited into a wastebasket. Um, so I get it. Like I, I couldn't process it. I couldn't believe it as a human being that this could be happening. And, and in the volume in which it's happening, it's just beyond comprehension. So,

It's easier to deny it, right? It's easier to say, I don't believe it. I don't want to think about it because if I think about it, then I have to, you know, super, you know, we superimpose our own kids faces onto the kids in the story. We, we can't help it. Like our children, our nieces, nephews, whatever. And it hurts so badly that we just want to walk away. And yes, we've seen that affect even law enforcement agencies that say, I don't think it's that big of a deal or that bad. Um,

And then once they see it with us, oftentimes the first case they're doing in their country is us with them, right? And they ask us, can you help us? Can you tell the story? Can you videotape this operation so we can show our bosses and our people and the culture, the taxpayers? This is serious. This is real. And so...

is film everything because we have to we're trying to convert people to the truth of what's happening tim and when i was at the city of phoenix i remember one day i went down to the police department to meet with some folks and i i talked with a detective who was coming out of one of the uh interrogation boxes and you know he was he said hey look i've got this guy in there he's a school counselor he's been abusing children um

And he said, I want to throw up, but I have to go back in there and I have to try to visibly identify. I have to make this guy feel like I'm one of him. When you're on these sting operations, how hard is it for you to do that?

Yeah, it's one of the most difficult parts of the job. I've been doing undercover work in this field for probably too long, 12, 13 years. And it was a struggle to be able to get yourself to smile while these guys are showing you images of kids, sometimes as young as 9, 10 years old, and

saying, hey, this is what I have available. What do you want? Or what does your boss want if I'm pretending to be the role of like a purveyor, you know, of the child sex party or whatever? Oh, my gosh. I mean, your stomach's churning, right? And you want to like reach across and like rip the guy's neck off, you know, but you have to smile and hug the guy and like act like your buddies. And oh, this is beautiful. Oh, that I mean, that nothing but experience can get you there and you learn really quick whether you can do it or not.

That has to be just soul-crushing. Absolutely soul-crushing. And you know that where the pressure comes in, if you mess up or start sweating or start getting pissed, visibly you could lose the case and lose the child. If the bad guy suspects you're not who you say you are, then the kid doesn't get rescued. So it is a pressure cooker for sure when you're sitting in this environment.

Tim, let me ask you a personal question. First time you did this, you went and threw up. It's anguish. I am sure there's many times you want to strangle these vile individuals. How do you go? How do you handle the mental anguish of this job? I mean, how do you go? I'm sure you have a family. How do you handle this mentally? How do you do it to protect your soul and heart?

from just not becoming just so cynical about the world and just throwing your hands up in the air. What do you do? Well, I have an amazing family, amazing wife, and both of us are people of faith. If I didn't have that piece, to me, that's the healing piece, to kind of know that there's a higher power that can heal and that is healing.

with this job that you're doing and you feel supported in that way, even from heaven. So there's something about that that's cleansing and healing for me. I mean, all my operators have a different story. I mean, some of our best ones don't even have a faith. So that's, for me, what we do. We provide aftercare services for all of our operators, therapists and so forth, whatever they need.

And I've also used those resources as well. But everybody finds their own healing journey about how to get through this. And mine changes all the time. I'm always trying to find new ways because it is. There's some things a human being, the human brain is not supposed to take in. It burns a hole in your brain, you know. And so you've got to fight back through healing modalities. And it's a challenge. Wow.

Tim, two things going on in the world right now that are obviously driving a lot of what's going on with human trafficking and human sex trafficking. One is the open border in the U.S., the southern border. And two is the Ukraine crisis and the Ukraine war.

We have just a couple of minutes, but when we come back, I want to kind of address how those two things are affecting you and what you're seeing in your organization. But before we do, tell folks again, if you can, about this Rise Together and Evening of Hope and how they can get tickets and help support what you guys are doing.

Yeah, excellent. Thank you. It's in Scottsdale, Arizona, right together in the evening of hope. This is on December 3rd. I'm excited. I'll be speaking there. We have actress Marisol Nichols is the master of ceremonies. The plain white keys will be the musical guests. And we're going to talk, we're going to talk about what's going on and educate people about human trafficking, both at home and abroad. And yeah, it's happening here. And we can talk later about that as well, how it's happening in our own country and,

And what can be done about it? So we're excited to raise awareness and bring people to a place where they can have answers to how they can fight and keep their kids safe. And can people go on your website there and donate and contribute to you also if they're not able to attend this event?

Absolutely. OURrescue.org. You can donate there. You can buy tickets. Just hashtag Rise Together after OURrescue.org if someone wants to come to the event on December 3rd. Fantastic, Tim. Thank you so much. We're going to bring you back for one more segment coming up here in just a moment when Breaking Battlegrounds comes back. We're going to have more with Tim Ballard, Operation Underground Railroad. Chuck, this is

I can't tell you how much I admire what these guys do because it's absolutely incredible the position they put themselves in, the pain that they have to go through. And we're going to hear more about it when we come back in just a moment.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone. On the line with us right now, Tim Ballard. Tim is the founder of Operation Underground Railroad. They are battling child sex trafficking and sex trafficking all over the world. Tim, when we went to break, we were talking about two things that are affecting what's going on in this horrid time.

universe that you're dealing with. One is our open border here, and two is what's going on in Ukraine. How are those two situations affecting sex trafficking around the globe? Well, both of those are affecting it in a major way. Man, I could talk for an hour about each of those. We've actually been in Ukraine, and we actually have helped with other organizations, and

we've pulled out over 4,000 vulnerable women and children in the war zone parts of Ukraine, and also in that process found trafficking organizations who were in there taking advantage. You know, if this is a $150 billion a year business, you've got to understand that when there's a war or a hurricane or some disaster that makes people vulnerable, that's when the traffickers come in. That's harvest time. And so we've launched into a massive operation that's

We've gone to three continents, six countries, tracking these Ukrainian survivors or victims of human trafficking. In fact, we have a docuseries coming out

soon to tell this story. And we'll be talking a lot about it with video and undercover footage on December 3rd at this event in Scottsdale for those who want to come to that. But yes, it's a huge thing. And then, of course, it's influx of people. You know, I worked on the border. I was on the border for 10 years as an operator. And really, it got political

because of this false criticism about a wall being racist or something. It was insane. It's hurt so many kids. You know, this is never a partisan issue. The Democrats built as much of the wall as Republicans did. And it was always a good thing for us because we know that that saved kids. It's an obvious concept. You drive traffic to the ports of entry where there's trained people to identify people.

drugs, and in our case, more importantly, children who are being brought into this high demand. I mean, this is the highest demand in the world. So people, of course, traffickers, the United States is number three or in the top three for countries of destination for human trafficking. So a wall, just like Disneyland or Magic Mountain can tell you, keeps people safe. The fact that it got politicized in a way that the construction of that thing got hurt. I mean, I...

We helped a girl once who she was being raped in New York City. We guessed 60,000 times as a child. She was brought through. Oh, my gosh. It was traffic through a borderless, you know, part of the she was kidnapped in Mexico. And and

brought through a wall this section of the border it was so easy and i remember talking to her like if there had been a wall if i had one last chance to reach out and yell to an officer in the united states who i know would have helped me in the end she her case was prosecuted well the bad guy got caught but after how much hurt she had to go through she said i know u.s officers are good um this little hispanic girl you know she said if i had a chance i didn't have a chance

because there wasn't a wall for me. It's insanity. And, and, and so I've, I've written a lot about this and, and done op-eds on it. Um, and instead we have the opposite thing going on where, you know, there's, there's this horrible thing called the Flores settlement. It was intended to be a good thing, I guess, but the idea is when an unaccompanied, unaccompanied miners come through the port of entry, they have to be released, um, within 72 hours. So smugglers who can become traffickers real fast, um,

Take advantage of this. We know this is happening where they're taking children from Central America, kidnapping them and coupling them with a client who wants to cross into the United States and just call this kid your child, kid, this is your mom and dad. And to no fault of our officers at the border, they have to let them in.

I had a border patrol officer tell me that when the controversy came up about, I think it was like 30,000 kids that had come into this country, been released and been lost by the system. Their take was those are 30,000 sex trafficking victims.

100%. That's exactly what's happening. They're taking advantage of these horrible policies that you let them write in. If you look at the DHS numbers, it's so frightening. There's like hundreds, sometimes thousands, depending on the month, of unaccompanied minors in the care of the U.S. government who are between the ages of zero and like four years old.

So what is going on? How did an unaccompanied minor become that young? Because when you send that kid across and they go and they're sitting in the waiting and

And they're overwhelmed, right, with the amount of people that are coming across. It's easier to get a kid out of the custody of the U.S. government or the border than it is to adopt a cat from a shelter. Now, imagine if a child was found in New York City, right? And do you know what would be required for someone making a claim on that kid to release that kid? Background checks, DNA tests.

Those kids on the border get nothing. They just, oh, you sign this paper and promise me that you're the guardian. Wow. Well, Tim, Tim, I apologize. I have to cut you off. We have to go to break here. Really appreciate you joining us. We'd love to have you back on again. Folks, go to www.ourrescue.org backslash rise together. Get tickets to their Scottsdale event and keep up with everything Tim Ballard and Operation Underground are doing.

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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. On the line with us now are second guests of the day, Lance and Marcy Foster. Lance, born in Tempe, Arizona, in a family of six children, lived to play sports. Dad insisted on teaching him everything about computers. He was a smart dad.

That skill would eventually launch his own business, AZ Comp Technologies. Quickly grew into a very successful business, over 35 employees. Number one company in its market niche for over 20 years. Marcy, born in Houston, Texas, grew up in Nashville in a family of eight. Also, obviously, has done a ton of work in humanitarian work. And they have now come together to found a company.

organization called Reach Humanity. Reach, revive, educate, awaken, connect humanity. They have always had a passion for this humanitarian work, taking their family to the far corners of the world serving for their dream of starting a nonprofit to provide humanitarian aid to those most in need. And right now they're making that dream come true. They are in Poland assisting Ukrainian refugees. So Lance and Marcy, thank you for joining us. Really appreciate having you on the program today.

Thank you. Happy to be here. So Lance, is this the craziest thing you've done since you burnt your house down at three years old? Yeah, yeah, that would be, that would be. How did you as partners make this decision? Say there's this crisis, there's people who talk about helping, but we're going to be doers.

We're going to sell our house, pick up the kids, leave the warm confines of Arizona, and move to Poland to help these refugees who are distraught. They've lost their homes. They've lost loved ones. They've lost their jobs. Tell us about it.

Yeah, I don't think it ever starts off. You're just going to completely jump off a cliff. I think we all look over the edge first, you know, and part of looking over the edge was simply changing a trip that we were going to go to Costa Rica for spring break and having the feeling that maybe we should go to Poland and help out. That was the first cliff, right? That was the first, hey, let's just sacrifice a spring break trip. So we did that.

We did that. We got here. And, I mean, it was...

I mean, you know, from the news, looking at everything in my family, my brothers think, what are you going to do? How do you know you can help and this and that? And I said, well, I can see on the news there's people wearing yellow vests and they have these badges. I'm going to make up a badge. I'm going to put a yellow vest on. I'm going to pretend like I'm a volunteer and I'm just going to volunteer. They won't know the difference, you know, and that's how it started. And that totally was true. It was just completely rogue as far as everybody.

helping from all over the world. And it was just totally crazy and chaotic. And it was crazy. It was crazy. No doubt about it. I ended up renting two vans and my son drove one of them. I drove one and we ended up just transporting was the biggest thing in the beginning. But you can't believe how things change and continue to change for these people because what started off as just, hey, they needed rides because there wasn't enough of the public system to support them.

Now it's a little bit chaotic in Poland because there's too many refugees in one spot. And Poland can't take care of them. And so they're kind of closing centers and there's just 400 people now without a home. And now we've got to find places for them. How many Ukrainians have fled to Poland? Do you know that number? From what I've seen, there's over a couple million still in Poland.

But there's been many more million than that who've come through Poland, but there are several million still here. And if you look at the other countries, yeah. Well, to put that in perspective, Poland's population is smaller than that of Texas, right? I think there's 39 million. Okay, so it's 50% large in Texas. It's about the size of California. If you think about California having millions of refugees. It's still...

Yeah. Yeah. And it started off bigger numbers and they've kind of passed through, but you know, for, for the most part, there's just it's a huge burden. And it's, it's, it,

you know the humanitarian has kind of worn off a little bit you know some of the the great things we've seen with the you know the polish government and the polish people who've been phenomenal but world's food kitchen was everywhere and you just start seeing them just one by one just sort of disappear disappear disappear now i don't think there's one in our city anymore and so just like their free food in other words it's gone and so and and they're not getting the the the

substantial enough money for the government anymore to be able to take care of themselves. It's certainly not a cause celebre that it was a few months ago. Marcy, tell us about the refugees you came across. It's not. It's totally different.

Tell us a minute here about the refugee. Now, Marcy, we can go with you. Tell us about the refugees. Tell us some of the stories, what you've seen, and how are you and a family handling that when you're just seeing the worst of humanity and you're trying to help people get back on their feet? So in the beginning, it was, like Lance mentioned, it was a total crisis. The need was so dire. And when we first got here, it was a total crisis.

It was, it's really hard to express in words the feelings that you had for the desperation and the pain, honestly, that you would see in these people's eyes. Most of them are women and children. There are some old men as well that will cross because, you know, they're over the 60. But they are...

You know, just deer in the headlights, no idea. They just left their husbands behind, their families behind, their homes. And a lot of times, you know, so many that we've come across, they've been hiding out in basements or bomb shelters for weeks. It took them weeks to get to the border. You know, those were the things that we were dealing with in the beginning. And

The crazy thing is you come across, you know, a lot of people that you would think would be just so angry, right? Like they have lost their home and everything they have. And you would think that they would be angry. They would be, you know, just broken people. And we do find that for sure. But honestly, no.

What I'm most surprised by more than anything is the dignity and the strength that we've encountered in these women and the resolve that they have to take care of their children and to

you know, do their part to help their family and to pave their way in a new land where they don't speak the language and where they don't have any idea sometimes how they're going to pay for, you know, their kids' clothes. It's about to be winter and they don't know how they're going to pay for that. So,

We have a lot of people, you know, that we came across. There was this one woman. We have a contact who helps us. He was a volunteer for the government. And he so he worked closely with a lot of refugees and he would kind of vet for us the people that were in actual true need.

And he brought us this one woman and she had just come across with her daughter and her daughter and her niece and her husband. They lived in a remote town in Ukraine and the Russians came in and, you know, tried to we're just taking over and they're pushing the men out and, you know, trying to occupy the territory. And even for the civilians, they, you know, demanded all the men to leave.

And her husband wouldn't leave, you know, it was his home and he just was, took a stance and he wouldn't leave. And so he was executed and we met them very soon after this had taken place. And for us, you know, it's hard to imagine what that means for somebody like it's so untouchable because we've never experienced anything close to that in our country. So, um, you know, that's somebody I come in contact with and they come across with nothing and, um,

The fact that they have no clothes except the clothes on their back and what little money they had is now worth next to nothing. Those things to them don't even matter because of the trauma that they've just been through. So we take them shopping. We just try to show them love and compassion and that there are still people in the world that care and that they're not forgotten. And that even though they're just one of millions of people coming through, that they matter to somebody.

And that's kind of what we try to do for people is help them understand that there's people that care. And we try to convey to them all the support that we're getting from back home of people donating and people praying for them. And that's kind of what we try to convey to them besides just helping them with things that they need to survive. And you'd be amazed how many will say no after hating.

here's one outfit. Let's get you one more. Oh, no, no, no. Give that to somebody else that needs it. I mean, that is so common. They aren't takers or, you know, they're just take what they need, but help someone else. Are you guys then coordinating with other groups to help them, you know, continue on if they're trying to get to other countries or if they're moving on past Poland? Or, you know, how does that work for these folks? Yeah.

A lot of times they come, well, especially in the beginning, they came, a lot of the beginning people came already with a plan. They had, that's why they left so early. They had a place to go. They had family or friends, you know, some kind of contact in another country. And so we just kind of helped the transition of getting them through to that next destination.

But what we're dealing with a lot now is people not having a destination. And we do have contacts that have contacts in other countries. And so we will, you know, if they want to move to another country, we help facilitate that. But a lot of the times now they don't want to go for them. Poland is close enough to home and Polish is actually the Polish language is sparse.

somewhat similar to Ukrainian. And so they can understand about 30 to 50% of what's being said in Poland. So it's at least familiar and more doable for them.

So even though the living circumstances are not great here, they are, a lot of them are choosing to stay in Poland. But as the war wears on, we're seeing more and more willing to now go. Yeah, we're trying to encourage that because, you know, Germany has, you know, a fraction of what we have here. UK, same thing, like all these other countries, right?

You know, they have a fraction of what Poland has shouldered. So we do try to help them, you know, encourage them to move on. But it's scary for them. That's got to be really tough. And, you know, is the reality setting in for these folks that this war is not going to end anytime soon? That this isn't over this year or maybe next year? Yeah.

Yes, and they are. It's one of two things we've actually experienced like right now, you know, Ukraine just made had some small victories. And so we actually had a, you know, a little surge of people going back into Ukraine because they're exhausted. They're so tired of this life and they're so tired of everything.

living as a refugee and they know what they're going back to isn't necessarily safe and it's not the smartest choice, but they just are done. They can't do it anymore. So we have that group of people. And then we have the other people that have finally resigned themselves. Yeah, this isn't going to end anytime soon. And I need to look for a better option than what I have here. And then they're more open to moving on.

That's got to be rough. How, what percentage of them are coming out that you're seeing who have children in tow? I would say majority. Yeah. I mean, majority for sure. Every now and then you'll see some elderly women, but the most common grouping that you'll see is a grandmother, her daughter, so that, and then a mother, and then so three generations, grandmother, mother, and children. Okay.

And sometimes four. I sent some to Ireland that had four generations, which is pretty amazing. All women, children. How are the children handling? We have only about two minutes left before we've got to go to break. But how are the children handling this psychologically? I mean, what is the impact on them? I would say the young children seem to be, you know,

They're a lot more resilient. They don't fully understand, obviously, the implications of everything that's happening. And so. But it's the teenagers. You can see it. Yes. The teenagers are. It's really hard for them. And the light in their eyes is definitely, definitely dark right now. They've they've seen a lot. They've experienced a lot. And especially for the boys. And well, even the girls, you know, they've left behind dad and they're now having to be more of an adult and help their mom and.

Marcy and Lance, we have one minute left. Can you quickly tell people how they can help financially or send clothing or what can they do to help you as you've gone and made the sacrifice? Probably one of the biggest things, yeah, is on Reach Humanity's website, we have a place where you can donate money and everything else. Anything you do, it goes to anything we do for them. Suitcases to clothing to... Laptops for school right now is a big thing. Yeah, school's been a big thing. Medications, food.

Clothing, all of it. We do medications daily for them. And so all that stuff needs money. And then the last thing of the, if you're interested in sponsoring in America or where are there any other country, let us know. We have plenty of people that we can arrange to help. Thank you.

Thank you. Lance and Marcy Foster, ReachHumanity.com. Folks, you can go on that website right now and help contribute to what they're doing. Fantastic work. Thank you, Lance and Marcy. Breaking Battlegrounds will be back on the air next week, but stay tuned for the podcast segment. I just did this.

Welcome to the podcast-only segment of Breaking Battlegrounds with your hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone. Folks, if you're downloading this, be sure to subscribe so you make sure you don't miss any of our episodes or upcoming guests. And we're going to be talking a little bit more here about Martha's Vineyard, about some money matters. And speaking of money matters...

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Well, it's today the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage hit 6.02%. That's up from 5.89% last week.

And 2.86% a year ago. Now, let's talk about what that means, okay? So if a borrower who buys a $500,000 house with a 20% down payment, which most people don't do, but has a 20% down payment at a rate of 2.86% last year, they were expected to pay about $200,000 interest over a 30-year loan.

for their $400,000 loan because of the 20% down. With 6%, 6.02% now, they will pay $465,000 in interest.

Think about that. Wow. That is double. That is double. I mean, it's I mean, that's money to be put in retirement. It's money to be invested money to go for kids education. This is what Joe Biden's inflation means. And people can say all they want. Yes, there's supply chain issues. Yes, there's a war in Russia. But there's only one person spending like a drunk sailor. There's only one person who has not made his energy independent anymore.

There's just so much going on. And that is what he's done. He has taken two hundred and fifty thousand dollars plus out of working Americans budgets over the next three years, 30 years. That's on top of the now about sixty eight hundred dollars a year that the average family is paying an increased food and fuel costs. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, it's I mean, it is they will not call this and.

And their press allies won't. But this is the largest tax increase probably in history right now. Absolutely. I mean, look, you're talking for an average family over five hundred dollars per month, just in addition to food and fuel costs. That is unbelievable pain for most people. And, you know, that means home sales are going to stall. Realtor.com says home touring activity is down 14 percent since the beginning of the year.

It's not good. And this is this has real financial ramifications for a lot of families. And I don't see Washington giving two hoots about this. Well, they're certainly not slowing their spending at all. I mean, this this ridiculously named Inflation Reduction Act has nothing to do with reducing inflation. It's printing more money, which is going to make the problem worse. I mean, it's the opposite of what they're claiming.

It's just it's horrible. Let's talk about a couple of little interesting tidbits from this week. And then I want to talk a little bit about Martha's Vineyard and we can. I've been having fun. I've been having fun with Martha's Vineyard. I know you have. So for those of you who follow the media, Nielsen streaming came out and Nielsen streaming has come out and people stream more now than they do cable. Thirty four point eight percent stream.

Thirty four point four percent do cable and twenty one point six percent do broadcast. We have reached the point now where more people stream than view cable. And pretty soon I think it will be more streaming than cable and broadcast combined. When you think that's true, Sam. Oh, I think that's within a couple of years. I mean, you're looking at it. It may it may happen quicker, Sam, if it wasn't for inflation. You may have a lot of people say I'm not going to go by X, Y, Z right now.

But my favorite stat of the week, the best one of all, is when Kanye West terminated his partnership with Gap. Gap stock dropped 4%. That's all the power you need to know about Kanye West. 4%. Okay. That's astounding. That is really astounding. Did Kmart drop that much when they sent Martha to jail?

No, no, no. I mean, that just shows you the power of celebrity, right? So while that just blows our mind, let's talk about something that really blows our mind. The liberal hypocrisy on Martha's Vineyard, on Martha, 50 people, 50 people and Martha's Vineyard. And it caused a whole community and a self-righteous group of Americans to

To wail and gnash their teeth at the cruelty of the governors. And how long did those poor 50 people stay in Martha's Vineyard? Not even a day. They already shipped them off to a National Guard camp. I literally this is the most ridiculous thing. And first, for folks who didn't realize Martha's Vineyard, the town of Martha's Vineyard passed the sanctuary law.

Right. A couple of years ago, they went out and passed a sanctuary law. We've seen how much now their sanctuary means. I mean, come on. OK. OK, liberals, you clearly don't want them in your beach houses. But is there anywhere in America with more spare bedrooms per capita than Martha's Vineyard? I don't know. It's just, you know, you and I talked about this. Liberal compassion is really the greatest oxymoron in the world. Well, liberal compassion consists of telling other people at gunpoint to give up their money and help people.

By the way, this is not the first time Martha's Vineyard has been the key hypocrites of America. They've also pushed hard against wood farms. They've stopped them from going there. So this is a city that says we're a sanctuary city. We're climate warming. Green New Dealing immigrants. Green New Dealing. And once it really comes and it's reality for us, we don't want to bother with it.

The hypocrisy of this whole thing. I mean, you're talking about you add up all the people that Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis have bused to New York, to Washington, now to Martha's Vineyard. You add them all up. That still does not equate to one bad day in Del Rio, Texas.

You know, and they're saying that it's a political stunt, and it is. Yeah. I mean, it truly is a political stunt. You and I aren't going to argue otherwise. The problem is they're taking the bait. No, it's an effective one. I mean, they really could have shown these red state governors something.

that they are as awful as they claim them to be. However, they are just showing what hypocrites they are, that the fact that they ship these 50 people off in 24 hours is simply amazing. Well, it's very clear now that Democrats across this country want illegal immigrants to come here and vote Democrat. They just don't want them here the rest of the time. Exactly. Exactly. So

Folks, I loved our guest today. And, you know, when you go and you think the world is falling apart and there's lots of evil happening, there's lots of trusted institutions who are no longer to be trusted. We interviewed a couple who picked up their family from Arizona and moved to Poland because that's the right thing to do. They're making a sacrifice. We talked to Tim Ballard, who I

You know, it's probably not a question for the radio, but I do want to know more how he handles that job mentally and for his soul, because I couldn't do it, Sam. No, I couldn't either, Chuck. And, you know, I went back to and I brought up the story about having having a conversation with a police detective who was just sickened that he was having to go in and interview a suspect, you know, who molested children and having to identify with him.

That guy had to do that one day. You know, I mean, he, he deals with a lot of other crimes too. This guy is out there dealing with this every single day. Two decades. I mean, I really don't know. I really don't know. It takes a very unique and special person to be doing this good fight day in and day out and not let it cripple you or your relationships with those you love. Well, or your view of the world.

I mean, how do you maintain a positive outlook on this world that we live in when that's the life you deal with every day? I don't know. I don't know. It's just depressing that so much of it goes on. I just want to close with one note here on our podcast. As those of you who follow sports know, those of you who don't may not know, Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players ever, announced his retirement this week.

And there was a, I read a biography on Roger and it was quite impressive. And the author of that book did an op-ed in the New York times. And I remember this line stuck out to me in the book. I actually underlined it and he brought it up again in this op-ed. And they said, the reason Roger Federer is so interesting is because he's so interested. They said, when you're with him, he was always interested in that human being. He lived in that moment.

You know, he practiced a stillness to be there. And it's a it's really a good lesson for all of us. And I just that line just stuck with me. The reason Roger is so interesting is because he's so interested. I love that. And and I think of all of us right and left would be a little more interested. We probably have a better world. Absolutely. Without a doubt. I think people are far too caught up in themselves.

Absolutely. Folks, this is Breaking Battlegrounds. Thanks for joining us. If you missed the show live, join us on the podcast. Have a great weekend. The political field is all about reputation, so don't let someone squash yours online. Secure your name and political future with a yourname.vote web address from godaddy.com. Your political career depends on it.