Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Brad Hopp: Expose Evil And Support Survivors Of Sex Trafficking

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Brad Hopp: Expose Evil And Support Survivors Of Sex Trafficking · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:00
  Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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  defending biblical Christianity, no topic off limits.
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  And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
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  Friends and family in Christ, thank you so much for tuning in.
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  You know, there are some topics that as a Bible-believing Christian, we would hope or we would
• 0:29
  wish that we would get more exposure and that the media would, I don't want to say cover,
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  but at least mention every now and then.
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  And there's a problem, a massive problem in our country and that is for a child exploitation
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  and sex trafficking.
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  We're not going to get into a lot of the heaviest of that, but we are going to talk about
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  some stats and ways that you can get involved and support people who are on this podcast.
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  Now, I want to bring in our guest today.
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  His name is Brad Hopp and he's a member of Samaritan Ministries and also the founder of
• 1:04
  TeshuaT Company and that's TeshuaT dot com.
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  We're going to ask him a little bit about that because a lot of us love coffee and tea.
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  We have it every day, we're going to get it from the right places that can fund something
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  that we believe in.
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  So we can't wait to dive into this topic because we don't hear enough about it.
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  Brad, thank you for your time today.
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  Welcome to World View Matters, brother.
• 1:25
  Well, thank you for having me.
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  I appreciate it.
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  Okay.
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  So you've been doing this for about eight years, you said before we got on the podcast,
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  but let's let's go back.
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  I think our audience would be really blessed and intrigued to hear your story.
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  Go back to your accident and what brought you to what you're doing now, please.
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  Yeah.
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  So in 2017, actually, man, almost actually would have been almost two, it was one month
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  to go today, actually, just about.
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  I had a tractor roll over, I live on a small acreage and I had a classic Grand American
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  tractor in 1950s, farm all with the narrow front and I had a loader on it and we were cleaning
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  up the yard and I was driving down the shoulder of the road and was going to go down through
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  the ditch and I hit a little dip on the shoulder of the road and a barrel rolled the tractor
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  sideways down into the ditch and the tractor landed on my pelvis to be real dead.
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  And I reached up and I found the axle blind.
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  I know I had so many angels that day, it was amazing because I reached up, I found the
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  axle blind.
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  I couldn't see it.
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  I'm laying underneath of it.
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  And I pushed and the whole thing just goes hop and I crawled off from under it five or
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  six feet away with a broken pelvis and as soon as I got off from under it, I could hear
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  the battery sparking while I was under it.
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  I mean, you don't process that at the time, but I could hear it.
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  And so the battery started on fire and started the fuel on fire and it was, the fire got
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  within about a foot of me and fortunately somebody was coming down the road towards me
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  and saw the tractor go over and they stopped and called 911.
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  My son came over and kept the fire away from me and I live in a small town or outside
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  of a small town and in our local fire department was already going to go do a control burn.
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  So they were already sitting at the firehouse waiting and ready to go and the EMTs were
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  there.
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  The ambulance crews were there and stuff.
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  So they were out there within the ambulance and EMTs were probably there within seven minutes
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  ish.
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  Wow.
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  And that is truly a miracle.
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  That is really miraculous.
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  Is someone saw it and then the EMTs got there.
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  By the way, the EMTs described your survival as a miracle.
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  So go ahead Brad.
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  Yeah.
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  So one of the EMTs was my actual student.
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  He was my driver's education instructor when I was a kid and you know the 30-something
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  years ago and he actually goes to church with my mom and he said to some people at church
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  he goes, Brad shouldn't be here because he shouldn't be sitting here.
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  He had been on a lot of calls.
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  He's been the EMT for a lot of years and he's seen these farm accidents and they don't
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  usually end very well.
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  So yeah, he was like, he goes, I don't know what they're doing with that church that
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  Brad goes to but he goes, whatever they're doing, we need to check it out because he
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  shouldn't be here.
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  Yeah.
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  So they were praying after you went to the hospital but talk about your injuries and just
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  really what happened.
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  Now just rewind just a little bit, Brad is from Iowa and he was doing some farming.
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  He also delivered fire trucks and you still on the side deliver fire trucks from what
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  I understand.
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  But when we talk about what you're now doing, it's astounding that you're able to still
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  do all this, Brad.
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  So talk about your injuries and then what the heck did you do that must have been an
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  expensive surgery or surgeries.
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  Go ahead and share that development.
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  Yeah.
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  So anyway, my pelvis broke and so it crushed the right side of my pelvis into the sacrum
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  which is the triangular bone at the bottom of your spine and then it pulled the left side
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  away and then it broke it in front too because you're your pelvis of like a pretzel.
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  But it'll never break in one spot.
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  And so they took me into CCD, CCD couldn't do my surgery and they took me down Omaha and
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  I ended up with one of the top two searches in the nation for my type of surgery and he
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  put pins and screws and all that stuff and and I was supposed to be three months of
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  no walking, six months of no working and six weeks after my surgery, I walked out of my
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  follow-up appointment and TBSLegra I was dragging luggage across Chicago air and stuff.
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  So it was amazing.
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  It was about $150,000 in total or it was going to be about $150,000 in total expense.
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  Okay.
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  So now the question, did your insurance cover what did you have for insurance?
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  How did that all work?
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  I know you are now a member of some merit in ministry so tell us about that.
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  So we were part of some merit and at the time in some merit and covered all but $300
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  at the time our share, you know, it's gone up a little bit just because in health cost
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  have gone up.
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  But at the time our share was $300.
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  So out of that, they helped us negotiate it down and we got it down to like $75,000 I
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  think and out of that $75,000 our share was $300 that we had to cover.
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  Wow.
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  So for the average person who pays for expensive health insurance, I don't think they fully
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  understand and I'm not even fully understand how this works.
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  Can you walk us through that because when you hear health insurance sharing, it's hard
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  to understand, right?
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  And there's so many good things about this that I was just reading some notes I was reminded
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  of this, some merit and ministries was founded in 1994 and there's no network restrictions.
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  That's one big thing.
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  Thanks Jeff for putting that up.
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  You can go to the website you guys.
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  It's Samaritan Ministries dot ORG.
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  So tell us how that works Brad.
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  So the way it works is there's a whole group of Christians and we have chosen as a group,
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  you know, to apply our world view to taking care of our brothers and sisters as a Christian
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  we should believe in in taking care of our brothers and sisters and if a if a brother
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  and Christ or sister and Christ needs needs assistance that's where that's really the
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  model is Samaritan has taken and stuff and that's one of the reasons I really like Samaritan
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  is not insurance per se it's a health sharing group of people that we all share each other's
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  medical bills and so every month we get a letter and it tells who we need to send our
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  share that month too.
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  And so then we write our check or do it be electronic or whatever send it to that person
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  and then they use that money to help cover their medical expense and smart to check
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  stuff on it.
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  Make sure that that money is going where it needs to go and stuff.
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  So there's there's accountability and stuff so.
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  So okay, so you said yours is a couple hundred dollars or so is that mean that is that
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  your share that you would send to someone else instead of two Samaritan ministries like
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  that their office or anything no so two separate things so our share that we would send
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  to somebody else is I think right now it's about $750 or $800 a month but we're on the
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  most expensive plan we have you know several kids still at home and stuff and I wanted
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  to have make sure that if if we ever had a catastrophic incident that we were fully
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  covered and stuff so we're on the highest plan but then at the time we had to cover $300
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  out of the medical expenses per incident so yeah so that's where that came in.
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  Okay, so you go through this you said use did you say in six months you were back up
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  and around walking and and six weeks it was supposed to be it was supposed to be six it
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  was supposed to be three months of no walking six months of no working and six weeks after
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  the surgery I walked out of my follow-up appointment six weeks yeah I mean for someone that
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  is you you had a broken pelvis wow I mean yeah that is a
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  astounding actually so there's answered prayer right so do you want to share anything
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  else about the accident or about that process the recovery before we move on because I really
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  want to talk about tissue at T as well yeah it was just it was just amazing to see how
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  many different things all came together and one of the things that are really about
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  some American real quick is is that when you send your payment to somebody you a lot
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  of times we'll write notes to each other and and give them letters of encouragement and
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  stuff and and that was a really big deal too I mean I have a whole boxable stack of cards
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  and letters from people and stuff so that was that was neat that is amazing it really sounds
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  fantastic I know people that are on that too so Brad let's talk about the T company now
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  when was when did this start whose idea was it and what what are the benefits of supporting
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  tissue at T so my friend Andrew is a missionary in Asia and he and the team were rescuing under
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  eight girls out of sex trafficking and he had come to our church several times and and I was
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  really enthralled by what he was doing and how his team was working and stuff and I really
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  saw the the benefit that they were doing and the worth that they were doing and the results
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  that they were getting and so I he shared some pictures one day of some bracelets that
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  the girls have made and and that they had rescued and and I'm like you know I want to get
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  off the road I don't want to keep delivering fire charts all the time and and so I was like
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  I want to be home full time and and so I was like you know I can start Brad's little
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  bracelet shop and and it was the initial thought but then it became you know let's meet
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  this about something more and so then it just developed into to a team coffee company
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  that was like the first five minute thought you know but but then it became to show a team
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  coffee company and and we really our biggest goal is to economically fund the restoration houses
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  around the world that are are trying to do this really important work okay let's talk about
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  that over on your Facebook page at tissue at T company on Facebook on one of the posts from
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  a couple months ago says rescue takes a night recovery takes years one is an event the other
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  is infrastructure and that's what you're trying to do and before you elaborate on that a little
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  bit more Brad I wanted to share a couple of the stats that I got just from your website it says
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  an estimated 1.5 million children are trafficked globally yet fewer than 2000 long term residential
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  recovery beds exist for miners I know I can see part of the problem that you know the media doesn't
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  really cover this unfortunately these stories and it's and it's tragic but go ahead and share
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  whatever you'd like from this point because it is a problem we don't hear enough about it and you're
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  trying to do something about it well one of the major issues is like you said there's about 100
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  beds in the United States and so when Tom Homan secretary of I think he's health and human services
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  if I remember right when he announced that hey we rescued these 145,000 kids from sex trafficking
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  I'm like that's great where you put them and I'm not trying to be cold I'm not trying to be
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  heartless but the fact of the matter is you have 145,000 kids fighting over 100 beds where do you put them
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  and the thing that we sat down and we took a look at was and you and I were talking about this
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  before the show you know I I was getting ready to do a radio interview back in November and in
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  in preparation for that I started looking at you know we have 40 beds in our in our two rescue
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  homes over in Asia and I'm like we must be microscopic I mean we've got to be so tiny then we're
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  just to flip on the on the wall yeah and all of a sudden I realized that the Andrews work was
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  two and a quarter percent of the entire world supply of beds and I went oh my godly this is huge
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  this is a big problem and then then and I've been doing this a long time I mean you know we've
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  been trying to economically empower Andrews group and and homes and and stuff and then I realized
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  how massive the problem really is and and these restoration houses they're oftentimes donor funded
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  but you have to constantly be in donor fundraising mode you're constantly fundraising constantly
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  fundraising constantly fundraising but yeah you're dealing with a problem that is not donor funded
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  i.e. traffickers aren't going out and raising donations to traffic their girls they're using
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  capitalism and I know that sounds gross but really they're using capitalism to generate income
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  and yet we're trying to combat that problem on a donor fundraising model and really what we're
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  expecting the the ladies and the people that run the restoration houses to do is to we want you
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  to take these young young kids or or even adult women and we want you to teach them to drive
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  a car we want you to teach them how to steer we want you to teach them how to buckle their seatbelt
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  run the steering column you know or run the run the gear shifter run the turn signal do all this
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  stuff but we want you to do it with the with the car with no motor in it and we want you to go out
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  and get down and push the car down the road at the same time because that's what they're having to
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  do they're having to raise funds and I would equate that to pushing the car so that it goes in
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  place and then why not take why not take our worldview of business and take it and apply it to
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  raising funds on a stable steady basis for these restoration houses and so that's what we're
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  working to do is we're working to set up a line of tea and coffee shops that their whole goal
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  our whole model is designed around having donors fund the the facilities i.e. the by the coffee
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  and tea shops for us we run them we operate them we manage them we control them we do everything
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  and then a hundred percent of our profits from that go into the restoration facilities
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  and really the economics of that works out like this a small mom-of-pop typical coffee shop is
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  going to run on a two to six percent margin a Dunkin Donuts in a Starbucks is going to run
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  you know in the 18 to 10 to 18 percent margin where if we can have donors fully fund a teen coffee
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  shop that coffee shop now operates at a 25 to 35 percent margin and so 100 percent of that profit
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  can go into the restorations facilities that's after all expenses that's after labor that's after
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  you know electricity everything and so now we can fully fund these restoration houses on a long-term
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  basis wow wow this is this is massive friends i'm so glad we're talking about this and I encourage
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  you guys to share this podcast because this is very important issue i do want to mention some good
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  news i mean i love Tim Tibo and some of the work that he's done i'm just about everything he's got
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  he touches you know he's does it with the heart of the Lord and heart of compassion but um
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  there there's news recently that 145,000 missing children in the us were found and you're helping
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  some of these victims brad hop exploitation of children has been an issue in the us
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  Tim Tibo recently testified before congress i think senator josh holly was bringing him in and
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  they they shared a map it it it showed how severe this matter is Tim Tibo gave gave congress a map
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  of over 338,000 unique IP addresses that have traded or shared images of children being sexually
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  abused in the past six months and the mainstream media pretty much with the exception of a few very
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  few ignore this problem one more thing and i'll let you respond brad reported 323,000 illegal
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  immigrant children went missing under the Biden Harris administration so they came across the
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  border uncompanyed unaccompanied and uh yet they were allowed to be placed with smugglers sex
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  traffickers people who got their got their hands on them it's just tragic but we've got our own
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  problem aside from the immigrant problem immigration problem in the us with all these IP addresses
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  that are feeding this demonic situation so brad go ahead and share a little bit more
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  so you know one of the things is that you have this massive problem and we need more restoration
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  facilities but again it just comes down to funding you know these these facilities um need our
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  long-term care because when when we rescue like okay so Andrew he and the team have rescued um
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  63 girls total so far uh 40 of them are still under our care and the youngest of those
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  girls that we've rescued is 11 so that means we're gonna probably care for for at least seven years
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  that's a lot of money over time and that's the thing that people need to understand is this is not
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  a this is not a one and done type situation where you get these kids rescued a lot of times these
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  these children don't have a place to go back to date or or the home that they came out of was the
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  home that got them trafficked in the first place and there's a movie out uh if people have a
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  chance to sort of watch it i would highly recommend it it's called grid shock and here's one of the
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  biggest parts of the problem is we all think especially here in Iowa we think didn't happen here
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  what people don't realize is the super bowl is the number one trafficking event in the united states
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  yeah the Iowa State Fair is ranked as number two oh my god Iowa State Fair Iowa
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  and here's the problem and this is one of the things that they pointed out in in the movie grid shock
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  um in the movie they talk about it they're like the reason it's it's able to be such an issue
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  here in Iowa and and yet nobody talks about it is because we're conservative we think it doesn't
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  happen here couldn't happen here we're too conservative for that and we're on the cornfields where
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  ice kind of isolated and so it becomes a trafficker's dream come true because nobody's looking
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  over your shoulders and and it was amazing to me as I was watching this movie a couple weeks ago
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  um it was it was really interesting the the varied backgrounds of the three young women that they
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  interviewed one of them became out of a troubled family one of them came out of a really overly
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  strict home and she knew she was gonna get into trouble for being late one night and so she just
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  on a whim out of I don't know where you know just decided hey I'm gonna run away you know no
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  fourth thought no plan and then the third girl was a straight-a student grew up in a good home
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  you know knew what right from wrong went to college and she goes I went to college in in Western Iowa
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  and I met this guy we started dating and he ended up becoming my trafficker and forced me into
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  sex trafficking and she goes I was trafficked into the high the multimillion dollar houses
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  well then after the showing uh the young lady that's the executive director of the local one
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  of the local restoration houses here in C city she says to me she goes you know that's that's
• 21:43
  morning said college is she's talking about right and I'm like what that's a college that I've
• 21:49
  driven past thousands of times it's right here in C city wow it's a private methodist college
• 21:55
  and and and stuff and then she goes yeah and the the million dollar houses she's talking about
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  or Okoboji say that again it's Okoboji Iowa which is if Iowa great lakes it's a if you're from Iowa
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  it's it's like up at the northern border of Iowa and it's this really beautiful pristine lake and
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  and there's all these multimillion dollar houses around it and stuff and and it's become the
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  tourist spot well okay that's where this girl was being trafficked into wow and it's right here
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  wow well let's let's talk about this mentality for a minute we've got five minutes left Brad um
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  wherever there's electricity wherever you can plug in a computer or wherever you can have
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  an iPhone it doesn't have to be Chicago LA San Francisco New York Atlanta these work we're talking
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  about Midwest anywhere so that's why this problem is so pervasive I was reading those stats we
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  showed about the IP addresses they're all around the country but it's here's another stat
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  just to raise awareness to to be reminded this problem is out there friends 40.3 million people
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  are trapped in modern day slavery according to the international labor organization
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  and to help girls and women who have been rescued from trafficking in Asia this is one of the
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  main reasons you started Tessua T company I'm sure you were maybe surprised to learn not too far
• 23:22
  in to your work that it's a major problem right here in America too right right well and one of
• 23:29
  the one of the biggest issues and part of the reason that we focus on tea and coffee is if you
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  were to look at the coffee belt and the tea belt around the world it really goes from the tropical
• 23:37
  capricorn to the tropical cancer and in that belt is a major hub for sex trafficking victims
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  because a lot of times you're dealing with impoverished villages that don't have economic stability
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  where they're in fantastic coffee and tea growing regions where if we can come in and I grew up on
• 24:00
  a dairy farm in Iowa and so I tend to think agriculture I tend to think you know
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  you know salt of the air type thinking and and so we looked at it and we said what if we bring
• 24:16
  economic economic empowerment by teaching these people to have more agriculture have you know
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  um coffee and tea farms and and bring them the coffee and tea plants and and bring
• 24:30
  that the processing knowledge and bring these things to them and then what we can do is we can
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  stem some of the tide we're not going to completely solve the problem and I know that
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  but we can stem some of the tide by bringing economic empowerment to these really
• 24:47
  impoverished villages like one of the missionaries that we work with
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  his per capita or his villages per capita income when he started getting them to grow coffee it
• 24:56
  was $200 a year per capita wow by getting them to grow coffee they were able to triple the
• 25:02
  pounds the annual income and then he just took up another 28,000 coffee plants that just
• 25:07
  started producing here a couple years ago and so you know that's probably quadrupled or more
• 25:11
  more by now and so when you bring that kind of empowerment to a village now all those girls that
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  would normally answer an ad for hey come down to this big city and be a model and and do this
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  and that and the other thing now they don't need to because they have economic empowerment right
• 25:29
  there in their village and so really it's a multifaceted approach and I think that that's really the
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  way we really need to deal with this is is let's bring economic empowerment to these villages then
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  let's turn around and use a business to generate income that we can then turn around and fund
• 25:47
  long-term restoration facilities to help the ones that we didn't get too quick enough and we can
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  help them recover on a long-term basis and we can we can bring that that the hope of Jesus Christ
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  to them we can bring you know work skills and crafts to them we can give them everything that they
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  need that a normal family would give them to stand on their own so that when they leave our
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  care they don't have to ever be a victim again and that's what we're talking about too is one
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  of the bottom lines so they don't go back to any kind of a life it says women and girls who are
• 26:29
  fortunate to stay at Toshua house typically stay from eight to 10 years their taught skills after
• 26:36
  their rescue their taught skills they need to provide for themselves 100% of Toshua T's
• 26:45
  profits after expenses go to saving trafficked women 100% and you've currently says you've got 41
• 26:56
  individuals right now that you're housing at the current location and helping with their
• 27:01
  immediate needs clothes toiletries food medication Brad this is important work this is God's work
• 27:09
  you know we thank you for your heart and what you're doing and what he led you to and then for
• 27:15
  your obedience to say yes God yes I I'm gonna do something about this so praise God friends
• 27:21
  it's Toshua T-E-S-H-U-A-H-T dot com brother thank you so much God bless you and your work and
• 27:30
  may it expand and grow and may you you will just get more help doing this thank you thank you so
• 27:37
  much I appreciate it you're most welcome friends share this podcast please and we thank you
• 27:42
  also for praying for Brad and for those who are trying to make a difference here God bless you
• 27:46
  and as always keep speaking the truth about things that matter