On radio this morning, Tim Ballard joined Glenn to discuss the work his organization, Operation Underground Railroad, is doing to combat child sex trafficking around the world. While you may be familiar with Ballard’s work as an author, he explained that, in many respects, he has actually been living a double life. Writing may be his day job, but his real passion is rescuing children.
“I'm glad that I can actually say your name on the air and show your face on the air,” Glenn said. “Can I just start there? How weird was it to live a double life and to lie to people?”
“More than weird. I think it was hard. It's a lonely world. I can't tell people, even my wife. I can't tell her everything that I see and do,” Tim said. “And I flashback to nights when I'm kissing my kids in their beds, and they're sleeping, and almost a pang of guilt because I know there's this other kid I haven't found yet or a group of children. And there are nights where I would sit on my stairs and just cry.”
There are nearly 2 million children trapped in sex slavery worldwide, and Tim said his team has worked to rescue children as young as 3- and 4-years old.
When I was first asked to do this, I said, ‘No,’ I said, ‘I can't do this.’ And it was after a lot of prayer and fasting and confirmation I said, ‘I need to do this.’ So I have been helped in that way,” Tim said. “When I go home, I generally can turn it off, but… these kids we are talking about are 7-, 8-, 9-, 10-years-old, even younger sometimes. These are the kids being abused.”
On the Operation Underground Railroad website, the process used to find and extricate these children is laid out. Tim’s team of former CIA, Navy Seals, and special agents work closely with local law enforcement and government to locate and extricate the trafficked children from their captors.
“This is an important point. We always work with law enforcement. We always come through the front door,” Tim said. “We want to make sure these traffickers and monsters go to jail, so we go into these countries, offer the services, go undercover, offer our software, and we stay till the job is done.”
On tonight’s Glenn Beck Program, Tim and other members of the Operation Underground Railroad team will join Glenn to further explain and demonstrate the work they are doing.
“Tonight at 5:00 on the Glenn Beck Program, I will show you the video that's been made of some of these sting operations, and it's going to tear your heart out in a good way,” Glenn explained. “It is going to show you what is happening to our children, how young these children are, and then the rescue of children. And you are going to meet [these] individual[s] face-to-face.”
Ultimately, Tim expressed his gratitude to Glenn and the entire audience for their support and prayers.
“I want to thank you, Glenn, I want to thank your audience… We have resuced dozens of kids in the last couple of months. We have only been in existence since last year. Thank you, Glenn's audience,” Tim said. “These children who we have saved have no voice. So we have to be their voice, and you have allowed us to do that. You have allowed us to rescue them… Thank you so much.
Learn more about Operation Underground Railroad HERE.
