The Real-Life Hero

We watched a movie last weekend that probably many of you have seen by now. If not, put it on your calendar ASAP. It’s Sound of Freedom, with Jim Caviezel playing real-life child rescuer Tim Ballard. The subject matter is tough, but they make sure the movie doesn’t have anything in it that would satisfy a pervert. All that ugliness is implied off scene. 

Sound of Freedom movie poster, image from Angel Studios

The Real-Life Hero

It’s about the rescue operation—a real one, from 2014. It was reported on at the time by CBS News, so don’t let the MSM be telling you it’s made up or exaggerated. It’s very real. It was, by the way, after seeing this news story that movie director Alejandro Monteverde [or it might have been producer Eduardo Verastegui, not sure now who I was listening to], who had been working on a script for a similar fictional story, approached Tim Ballard about telling his real story.

Tim Ballard, CBA news story in 2014
screenshot from here

I’m sure some details were changed for making a movie. Characters get combined. Parts of the operation are left out of the story. But it is very much a real-life story.

I’ve known someone who went on a rescue mission with Tim Ballard. He was background only, not in any unsafe role; he had some security training, though not enough to be an actual agent, but he looked the part of a slightly exotic looking rich guy (which he was not; he was a Latter-day Saint returned missionary college student). Tony Robbins, one of the benefactors of Operation Underground Railroad, also went on one of these missions, which they talk about in an interview together.

Note the years: 2013, 2014, and beyond. Q, whatever that is, didn’t begin until October 2017, a year into the Trump presidency. (Anons are the followers; the term QAnon is a derogatory term invented by those who want anyone who even wonders if it might be true to be painted as conspiracy theorists.) While both Tim Ballard and Jim Caviezel have talked about the term adrenochrome, a substance derived from blood and tissues of children, which has been well documented for some time in its use by African witch doctors, and is thought to have youth-maintaining qualities. It is an issue attached to child trafficking—which includes organ harvesting and other atrocities. But Ballard has been clear that he’s not related to Q. His work certainly isn’t an outgrowth of a Q idea, since Ballard worked against child sex trafficking for a decade and a half before Q came on the scene.

It’s odd how MSM sources are suddenly trying to downplay or disparage Operation Underground Railroad. I think it’s because the administration’s lack of a southern border feeds child sex trafficking. Ballard testified to Congress to that effect in 2019. So did Sheena Rodriguez this year, who spoke at our Tea Party in April, telling us what she’d seen at the border, and then testified to Congress here. Things have gotten worse since the Biden administration changed their policy so that they do not vet those receiving unaccompanied minors after they cross the border; the administration will even fly or bus the children to their would-be traffickers. MSM can’t seem to diverge from this administration’s lies, no matter how unsavory.

I’ve been watching Tim Ballard, often along with Jim Caviezel, and sometimes with director Alejandro Monteverde, in dozens of interviews the past few weeks. As word-of-mouth campaigns go, this one has been stellar. I was surprised when Mr. Spherical Model told me he hadn’t ever seen Tim Ballard. This was in response to my surprise at how well they did at getting Jim Caviezel to kind of look like Tim Ballard. 

I’ve been watching and hearing from Tim Ballard for a good part of a decade. These photos, below, are from a news story about a sting operation related to the Super Bowl in 2017; I wrote about it here.  (The original news story is here.) In that post I reference an interview he did shortly before that with Glenn Beck, here. (The story is still at that link, but the video is no longer available there.)

Tim Ballard from 2017 news story
screenshot from here

from 2017 news story of sting operation
screenshot from here

Tim Ballard is far from the only group fighting against sex trafficking. I wrote about a couple of instances too close to home, here and here.  

Tim Ballard is an excellent storyteller, which is yet another special skill that seems to make him prepared by God to do this work. (I pray that he will always have the Holy Spirit to guide him in all he does—and those he works with; it is a dark and dangerous world.) He praises Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as the storyteller that helped the original Underground Railroad, and facilitated the eventual outlawing of slavery in the US. We can hope that this movie, Sound of Freedom, will be a similar catalyst in our day.

My first time hearing Tim Ballard’s story was at a Time Out for Women conference in Houston, a gathering of Latter-day Saint women. I think it was 2016 or 2017. Ballard told some of the story told in the film, but he also told the story of the adoption of his two children from Haiti (he and his wife had six children at the time and have had one more of their own since, for a total of nine).

There was a hint from Jim Caviezel in an interview that there will be a second movie about Tim Ballard and his work, picking up in Haiti, right after the end of this film. Already there are documentaries, available on the OUR website.  And there will be a documentary of the operation, called Triple Take, of the operation seen in Sound of Freedom, coming out in late summer/early fall.

Tim Ballard often credits his wife, Catherine (I don't know how she spells it) with the spiritual strength that led to his giving up his Homeland Security job and financial security and going off in the private sector with a nonprofit, and with the decision to adopt those two children.

It helps to understand that Tim Ballard is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The reason he is fluent in Spanish is because of his two-year proselyting mission to Chile. I am still in awe and wonder at a member of the Church being able to do the undercover work while maintaining his covenants. For example, he doesn’t drink alcohol.

My dad was in the OSS in WWII; he didn’t drink either. And in the testing phase, weeding people out, they had to maintain a character during a cocktail party. He passed the test, because his mind remained clear and he was able to stay in character. Of those weeded out, it was because the alcohol lowered their inhibitions, and they gave themselves away.

So I’m surmising that being the clear-headed person in a room of drinkers and drug users might be an advantage. But I don’t know how he abstains without their noticing.

Tim has an innocence about him that I think must be challenging to cover up, along with bright blue eyes. There’s nothing dark about him. And yet he can transform into this other, near-demonic being for the purposes of getting those children rescued. [Note: He doesn’t do undercover anymore; his face is too well known.]

The Story of His Children

He has talked about a change that took place near the time that he started Operation Underground Railroad and the adoption of the two children. Before that, he could always identify each child with a child of his own, because of their age range. But he worked to not get attached. He couldn’t sleep afterward if he was still thinking about any given child.

But after the operation in Haiti, he couldn’t stop thinking about this little girl and boy. And he couldn’t sleep. He called his wife, trying to work it out, process it, and get them gone from his mind. He tells the story now saying his wife tells him she wants to be their mother. But in the early telling of this story, he says she said to him, “You want to adopt those children,” realizing it from what he was talking about. And he was shocked. No! That thought hadn’t entered his mind. But after talking through it, he realized that was what he was thinking. She encouraged him to stay and do whatever paperwork it took and get those children.

There was quite a bit more to the story. Although they had been rescued from an orphanage that was intending to traffic them (so it was before they were actually trafficked; the two children had lost their parents in the Haitian earthquake), they got moved before he had them. It took a number of miracles—literal miracles of timing and meeting certain people—to be able to get them tracked down. In total, I think it was two years before they got them to their home in Utah.

Since that time he has found that it is actually useful to him to picture the children he’s rescuing as his own. He has to stay in character, and fulfill the mission, because otherwise he would be failing to save a child like one of his own.

A part of the Haitian story, the beginning of it, was a Latter-day Saint bishop in Haiti, Guesno (I don’t know how to spell it; they speak Haitian Creole on that part of the island, and Spanish over in the Dominican Republic on the other side), Guesno’s son, Gardi, was kidnapped—from the church building. I can hardly imagine the horror of that. This was shortly before the earthquake, which made tracking Gardi down even harder. But Tim Ballard was determined.

After the earthquake, so many children were orphaned that traffickers swooped in. It had been a corrupt country that trafficked children already. People would put up a sign that said “Orphanage,” and young children would be brought there by well-meaning people, thinking the children would now be cared for. It was at one of these orphanages where Tim Ballard and crew set up a sting operation. They posed as buyers—and in fact made the deal to purchase children. Once the deal was made, the officials came in and made arrests, and something like 29 children were rescued that day.

The hope had been that Guesno’s son, Gardi, would be among them, but he was not. Tim went back to Guesno with the news, in tears. They both were mourning, as I can only imagine. But when Guesno heard of all the other children who were rescued, he stopped crying. They would keep looking (I believe they are still looking for Gardi to this day), but Guesno said he understood the need to sacrifice his son for the lives of those children—an Abraham-like sacrifice, which is in similitude of our Father’s sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. Those children wouldn’t have been rescued if Tim Ballard hadn’t been looking for Gardi. Then Guesno said if homes couldn’t be found for any of those children, he and his wife would adopt them. They adopted eight of them.

Tim Ballard tells the stories a little differently to a Latter-day Saint audience, adding the faith and miracles. And there were many.

One thing that has affected me this week, as I face the challenges of my life, which are so mundane by comparison, is that I think, Tim Ballard was brave enough to go into the jungles of Colombia to rescue a girl from the cartel; I can certainly make a scary phonecall, or keep a challenging scheduling commitment.

He is a real life hero.

 

The Wheat and Tares Separation

The separation is happening—as in the wheat from the tares, mentioned in the New Testament, referencing our day: the Last Days. It’s happening. (I wrote about this metaphor here.) In case you need reminding of how that parable turns out, after the wheat is gathered separately from the tares, the tares are burned and disposed of.

Wheat, left, and tares (weeds that look like wheat in their
early stages); image found here

Last year’s Dobbs ruling, ending the legalization of abortion that happened with Roe v. Wade some 60 million abortions ago—you cannot be pro-abortion and be among the wheat. You mark yourself as a tare (weed) when you support the murder of unborn innocents. 

This movie about child sex trafficking is getting more notice than one could rightly expect. They had hoped to see revenue of about $20 million, as an estimate of their reach. As of today they’ve brought in $70 million—and this second weekend of its showing is barely underway. The film is independent and relatively low budget—although with very high-quality cinematography and acting. It was filmed three or four years ago and then sat on a shelf, passed from one distributor’s hands to another (including Disney at some point), but wasn’t scheduled for release. 

Finally, Angel Studios got hold of it. Amazon wouldn’t stream it for them. Netflix wouldn’t stream it. So they did their online marketing thing (think The Chosen) and presold enough tickets to get wide release in theaters.

And, really, it should be seen in theaters. You want to watch it without distractions, with everyone in the theater experiencing it at the same time. Because it is an experience that can change you.

If you can’t afford the tickets, Angel Studios has a pay-it-forward plan, where people can donate to buy tickets so others can see it. You can access those free tickets on their website (angelstudios.com). If you have the money but not the time, consider donating for someone else to see it.

In another month or so, it will be streamed for free, I believe on Twitter. The need is for as many people to see it as possible. Once you’re aware of the problem, you can’t help but take a side. Seeing it sorts you into the wheat or the tares. Actually, I expect most of those who see it to be wheat; those claiming, without seeing it, that it’s an exaggerated problem, or not real, or a conspiracy theory—those are the tares. The self-sorting is going on right in front of us.

These two issues, about harming innocent children of God, are maybe the most obvious. But there are probably a few other separators: anti-family ideas, for one. Among these are erasing the value of women and motherhood. We see that in the trans movement, and in feminism—which means valuing women who behave as bad men rather than as good women. And erasing masculinity—the desire to protect and provide for women and children, calling that toxic; that’s another.

We could add the separators related to the pandemic, the 2020 election (and other elections), what happened on January 6—and in an opposite way, what happened during the Black Lives Matter “mostly peaceful” riots of the summer of 2020. Some of those might not be as clear to everyone yet, because of censorship. In fact, almost anywhere you see censorship or coercion, you’re seeing the tares try to choke out the wheat. But the tares are beginning to fail. Truth is getting out.

We are coming to a time, pretty abruptly, that you can’t ignore great evils among us. You either take a stand on the side of God, or you by default place yourself on the side of Satan. It is a choice. And if you’re “awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you,” [Ether 8:24, Book of Mormon] then you will choose to act so that “evil may be done away” [verse 26].