Bradley Hopp - Liberty and Deliverance

Bradley Hopp is the co-founder of Teshuah Tea Company. He works to see young women and girls rescued from sex trafficking. On today’s episode you’ll hear stories of people who are truly kicking the darkness until it bleeds daylight.

 

 

Teshuah Tea Company: https://deliverancetea.com

Teshuah Tea Company: https://teshuahtea.com

Teshuah Tea Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teshuahteacompany

Liberty Unveiled Podcast: http://teshuahunveiled.com

 

 

 

 

 

(Transcript is a guide only and may not be 100% correct.)

 

Emily Olsen: 

Wherever there are shadows, there are people ready to kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight. This is Bleeding Daylight with your host Rodney Olsen.

Rodney Olsen:

Today’s episode contains some confronting and disturbing content. It also contains stories of hope and deliverance.

 

My guest works to see young women and girls rescued from sex trafficking.

 

He also produces a video podcast titled Liberty Unveiled. Links to his podcast and the anti-trafficking work are in the show notes of this episode at bleedingdaylight.net

 

Today you’ll hear stories of people who are truly kicking the darkness until it bleeds daylight.

 

On the surface, Teshuah Tea Company is a small business selling quality tea, coffee, and unique gift items, but there's something far more serious behind the scenes. Bradley Hopp is the co-founder of Teshuah Tea Company and he joins me today to talk about the reason behind the business. Brad, thanks for joining me on Bleeding Daylight.

Bradley Hopp:

Oh, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Rodney Olsen:

What is the meaning behind the word Teshuah and how does that fit into what you're doing with a tea company?

Bradley Hopp:

Okay, so that's a great question. Teshuah is the Hebrew word for deliverance. The deliverance is very much what the show is all about because my business partner, Andrew is a missionary and communist Asia behind the bamboo curtain and he and the team rescue underage girls out of sex trafficking over there. So minor, minor girls, and they get the girls out of this horrific situation that they're in and into our rescue and rehab facility, where we meet all of their needs. We take care of their food shelter, clothing. We give them medical care. You know, we give them crisis pregnancy counseling. We teach them to read and write. We teach them to do different work crafts and skills, like making the braclets and the tea and the coasters and so on and so forth. And then what we do is we come alongside and, and that's where I come into play is we actually buy the products from the girls for whatever they're asking on them and then half our profits are going back to the rescue facility. So it's really a double whammy for the, for the rescue house and for the girls, it's really all about deliverance.

Rodney Olsen:

And really what you're doing is your empowering them, because you're not just saying, Hey, I'll give you a handout you're saying, here's an opportunity for you to do something for yourself and it's actually paying off and showing them that there's a very different way.

Bradley Hopp:

And that's, that's the reason, you know, because living here in America, we have such a culture that is so entitled, and I'm a very much a firm believer. I grew up on a dairy farm. I grew up on a small scale farm here in Iowa. So I'm very much of the mindset that you give a man, a fish, you feed him for a day, you teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. So that's really the philosophy behind Teshuah is to economically empower the girls. We, we basically work to give them a work ethic so that they know how to provide for themselves when they leave our rescue facility and they don't have that entitlement mentality. They, they, even though we're, you know, we're providing their needs while they're under our care, they have also learned to contribute to the household. They've learned to contribute to the needs of the household through doing dishes and through doing laundry and, and working in the tea shop and, and so on and so forth. But then they're also making these crafts and these and stuff so that we can buy those from them so that they're seeing that they have skills and abilities that they can take into the marketplace.

Rodney Olsen:

I want to explore a little bit more about what sex trafficking means, because I think it's a phrase that we've heard too often and we become desensitized to it. But before we go there, I would imagine that for many, the idea that this is a sex trafficking, that's happening in a communist Asian country absolutely fits our Western narrative. And we would say, well, certainly that sort of thing doesn't happen here. It doesn't happen in countries like Australia or in the U S but is that the reality?

Bradley Hopp:

No. by, by far, no, the U S is actually the biggest consumer of pornography and U S tourists. And I'm really embarrassed to say this, but U.S. Tourists are some of the biggest consumers of the sex tourism industry throughout the world. And I used to deliver fire trucks, a million dollar, half million dollar fire trucks all over the country here in the U S. And so my world was different than a typical truck driver because I didn't stay in truck parking lots. I would, you know, hotels every night and, and whatever, but still my world crossed enough that you would see truckers against trafficking and you would see different things. And so it's very much a real problem. And I actually, the Asian country in the apartment, my partner works in their technology for running brothels has been imported into the U S through massage parlors, through karaoke clubs through front businesses like that, that provide a cover for, you know, well, it looks like a legitimate business is actually a cover for the brothels.

Rodney Olsen:

So it's actually a lot of the people in Western countries like ours that are actually fueling this kind of industry.

Bradley Hopp:

Right. And partially because of our opulence, as far as our income, you know, we're not a third world country. We have expendable income, you know? And so that makes us purveyors of this kind of, of garbage

Rodney Olsen:

You're talking about young girls and you're talking about minors. What sort of age are we looking at here?

Bradley Hopp:

The youngest girl that my partner and his team have had a hand in rescuing was 11 years old. And she was literally drunk off her behind. Real briefly, the way a rescue mission goes down is they go into the brothel. They have two people inside that are not participating, but acting as patrons. It's a karaoke club. So you can go in and sing and spend the evening singing and stuff and so they go in and spend the evening singing, and then they wait until everybody else gets sauced or drunk. And then they start a ruckus. And then my partner and the team come in and, and cause even more of a ruckus and literally start grabbing, grabbing girls and picking them up and carrying them out of the building. And he picked up this 11 year old and carried her out. Now we always make sure that we at least one of our female staff in the rescue van waiting so that she can explain to the girls what's going on, who we are, why we're there. And then they ask them, do you want to come with us? And a hundred percent of them have said, yes,

Rodney Olsen:

It's a frightening scenario that you're setting out there. How are these girls originally lured into this traffic?

Bradley Hopp:

A lot of times it's either they are one of the girls, her, her parents went on vacation. She was staying with her uncle, her uncle abused, sexually abused during the, he sold their off to his if I remember right, it was his sister and then she pimped her out and then she ended up selling her or she might've sold her directly. I don't remember if she pimped her out and then sold her on or, but anyway, so that was one of the scenarios. A lot of them have aged out of the adoption system or the orphanage system by 14 in this particular country. They, they expect 14 year old people to be able to survive on the streets by themselves at 14 you know, which is being a father of six and having 14 year olds. I that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I mean, quite honestly, a lot of times it's either they were sold by a family member or they were, you know, out on the streets and somebody picked them up and, and offered them something that looked legitimate. And that's the biggest one. A lot of times, they're, they're sold a bill of goods and told, Oh yeah, well, you know, we'll get you into this whatever job. And that's not the case.

Rodney Olsen:

You say, you're providing all that these young girls need to return to society and to help them to heal, how do you help a young girl who's being treated in this way by probably hundreds of men. How do you teach them to trust again?

Bradley Hopp:

And this is where my faith comes into play because we can't on our own. We have we have a book that it was actually written by a I believe the gentleman's from Australia and he's a Christian counselor, but he has written this book and, and that's kind of been the textbook for our house mothers. They get the girls into a safe environment and obviously it takes time, but the girls begin to see the older girls that are there caring for each other and, and helping each other in that stuff. You know, they go through devotions and Bible study and, and eventually we don't force it down their throats, the girls. So I have a choice, you know, I mentioned earlier that we get them crisis pregnancy counseling, and we don't force them to keep their babies, but three out of the four have that came to us, pregnant, have chosen to keep their babies. And so that combination that we have going on, really the girls see what true Christianity is all about. And they, they begin to see that, Hey, these actually care about me in they're endangering their own lives. For me, it opens up that door for conversations and it opens up the door for, for us to be able to, to share the gospel with them, but then also to help them to recover in, in deeper ways. Because for example, let's just give a short story here. One of the girls came to us and she had been pimped out for three years, if I remember, right, she had not slept a solid night's sleep in, in at least three years. Since she came to the rescue house, she had not slept peacefully all night long. She would always wake up a night terrors and, and just horrific dreams, 28 days in, she decided to put her faith in Jesus Christ and she decided to become a Christian and that night she slept peacefully for the first time in over three years. She slept peacefully for nine hours at night, and she's not had any more night terror. She's not had any more nightmares and the awful dreams and stuff and, and it has really helped her to come to the wholeness that she needs, because limited on what we can do. I mean, we're humans, there's spiritual healing that has to happen. And we're, we're only able to give so much healing, but we can offer Christ. And, and that's where the true healing is found.

Rodney Olsen:

You touched on the danger, that's involved for the team that is doing these rescues. What sort of danger have they encountered? And is there an ongoing danger for them day to day?

Bradley Hopp:

Yeah. First off, this particular country is cracking down on, on Christians for one, for two, one of the girls, the girls are free to leave if they want to. And so one of the girls had saved up her money and she thought that her brothel owner was in love with her. So she went back to him because obviously he told her he loved her. I mean, that was always part of the bill of goods. So, she saved her money and she went back to him and she pretty quickly figured out that that was not the case when you beat her up and put her in the hospital for a week. But then when she left the hospital, she went back to one of Andrew's Bible schools, the brothel owner followed her back there. And then he called some of his corrupt police buddies at the police department there in the area and had some of his, his goons come along with him too. And they were going to bust them Well, we don't know who did this, but somebody higher up in the police department knows or must know something and actually called another police department and, and got Andrew arrested for his own protection. And they got him out of there. They took him to the prison in this country is never a good thing, put him in jail for the day. And then that night at midnight, they took him out the back door in a, in an unmarked squad car. And he's thinking, you know, nothing leaves the back door of one of these jails that ends well, especially at midnight. So they took him to a hotel and they put him up for, for 24 hours and and let everything blow over after that. Then they told him, okay, this is what's going on. So it's very real danger.

Rodney Olsen:

And how do you stop something like this, for the team that's on the ground there, and for you who is totally immersed in this world, day-to-day, how do you stop it from breaking you?

Bradley Hopp:

You have to have a sense of humor. So growing up on the dairy farm, you know, my parents always had an expression cause we went through the farm crisis, the early eighties where guys were losing their farms left and right. And my parents always said that you might as welll laugh about it, otherwise you'll cry. That's one of those stupid sayings that really has stuck with me and held true. But more than that, much more than that is, is just simply my faith in Christ and my belief in Christianity and, and what, what God has done for me, it would be very easy to get discouraged when you're, when you're going up against such wicked and such evil, you really have to have that solid foundation. Otherwise it will because you're looking at the dregs of humanity. There's many days that even as a Christian, you'd rather just throat punch somebody and you know, you hear these stories and you're just like, if I could get my hands around their neck and ring it, I would, you know, and I know the Father, God feels that same way too, but I also know the terrific testimonies that happen when brothel owners become Christians, we've had several brothel owners become Christians over the last couple of years and to see the transformation there really at the same time, it gives you hope too, because you see guys that have, that are like in, in, you know, just name some of famous America, mobsters like John Gotti and Al Capone. I mean, some of the most famous mobsters in the world, these guys are Asian tong. And as part of the mafia and part of the tong, they're not guys to be messed with. So as guys that should not be messed with when they come to Christ and they become Christians and they are willing to put their own lives on the line to see these girls rescued and set free. That's where you begin to, to grab a hold of that hope. That really is just such an astounding thing.

Rodney Olsen:

I imagine having some of those former brothel owners on board would give even more insight into ways to rescue the young girls that you're seeking to save and see healing for.

Bradley Hopp:

One of the, the very first guy or the very first brothel under the Andrew led to the Lord was kind of an interesting situation. Andrew had a, an American restaurant in this particular town. He put an ad in the newspaper for, or put an ad out for, for some waitress help for the restaurant and he had a young lady apply on a Wednesday and he said, come back on Saturday and I'll, I'll give you interview at nine o'clock. Nine o'clock came and went and it was noon before she showed up and he was like, I'm not hiring this girl. And he felt like God said, no, I want you to hire her. So he, he did reluctantly, but he did and she brought a friend of hers on and they ended up both becoming Christians and then they both had a heart to see the girls be rescued out of the brothels and to see these brothel owners come to Christ and so they, they started studying and they started taking gifts into the girls and into the brothel owners because in this Asian country relationship is extremely important, Andrew, his wife had actually helped us. The Christian psychologist that I talked about earlier, she had helped him translate his book into this Asian language. So they had a copy of it and they, they gave it to these two girls and they started studying and then they, said to this brothel owner, they said, do you want to meet an American, that speaks your language? And he said, well, heck I've never met an American let alone one, that actually speaks my language. Sure. So Andrew sat down with the guy and they got to talking and, and Andrew shared the gospel and this guy, as I said, he was Tong. I mean, he was mafia. And when he ran into Christ, it was such an encounter that he set all of his girls free, 20 girls free and gave them all severence packages, gave them on bus tickets back to their home villages and then had a fund that he had money, you know, $45,000 or $48,000 that he had made off of the girls set aside in a, in a fund for a matching fund to raise money for the rescue house and stuff. He's actually helped us. Cause he's still knows all the boys in the clubs, so to speak. And so he's actually helped us get the layouts of the buildings, do different things and has, has really been instrumental in also introducing Andrew few other brothel owners and stuff. And for example, in January of this year, we had a rescue of eight more girls. The way that one went down was really interesting because a year earlier, Andrew had sat down with a brothel owner that he had been introduced to and had shared the gospel with the guy. The guy didn't want to hear anything about it. And he was like, you know, I'm making too much money. And I don't really don't care. Fast forward to this year, January 22nd Andrew and some of his Bible students are praying one morning and they feel like, you know, like the Holy spirit says, I want you to go North. And Andrew's like, all right, I don't know anybody North of town. So he's like, alright, I guess we'll go. So the six of them, or seven of them piled into his, his SUV and they headed north of town when they drove 50 miles out into the country on the toll way. As they were driving along, one of the Bible students speaks up and says, hey I think we're supposed to turn on this side road. So they turned on the side road and when they turn there, they went 15 miles on that road, paralleling the tollway. They got up the road 15 miles and one of the other ones speaks up and says hey, I think we're supposed to turn on this turn around and go back to that, that little gravel two track and go down that road. And so they follow that for three miles out into the middle of the country, out in the middle of nowhere. And they pulled up in front of this really ornate gate. This 90 year old gentlemen comes walking out and he looks at him and says, What's your business here? You know, real gruffly. And Andrew is trying to figure out what the heck to tell the guy. Well about that time the guy's son-in-law walks out of the house. He sees Andrew. He stops dead in his tracks, and he's like, how the heck did you find me here? And Andrew, looks at him, he goes, I know I should know you from somewhere, but I don't know how and the guy says, well, you met me in my office a year ago. And Andrew's like, Oh yeah, you're the brothel.... you know it clicked on his head that he's like the brothel owner that I talked to a year ago. That guy became a Christian. His in-laws became Christians. They all received their first Bibles that night. They all got baptized and they all and he set all of his girls free. So we rescued eight more that night, just from him meeting Christ.

Rodney Olsen:

You're talking about releasing young girls from sex trafficking, but you're also releasing some of those brothel owners. I imagine that they would have enormous amount of shame once they come face to face with what it is that they've been doing.

Bradley Hopp:

They do. But at the same time, a friend of mine and I were talking about this the other day, that sin always curious consequences, you know. Look at the story of the woman at the well, or the woman caught in adultery rather, and she was brought, brought before Jesus and all the Jewish leaders are saying stone her and stuff. And Jesus looks at him and he says, he stands up. And he says, whoever is without sin cast the first stone. And then he goes back to writing in the dirt and slowly one by one, they stop and they dropped their stones and then they walk away. And something that's interesting here is legally, under the Jewish Old Testament law, she should have been stoned, but they failed to fulfill the law because they didn't bring two or three witnesses along. And they didn't bring the man along. If they caught her in the act of adultery, they should have brought him along. And so Jesus, knowing this knows that he can't justly have a case because he didn't have two or three witnesses and he doesn't have the man. And so he goes in and throws this out them, and they all walk away. Now, as I said to my friend the other day, if she would've been pregnant, Jesus looked at her and he said, go and sin no more. He didn't say, be free of the consequences of your sin. He said, go, go and sin no more. If she would have been pregnant, she would have been obliged under his, his current command go and sin no more. She would have been obliged to keep that baby. She would not have been free from the consequences necessarily of that sin. Well, you know, oftentimes we can, you know, these brothel owners, they can set the girls free, but they're still gonna have that remorse. They're free from the guilt. They're free from the condemnation. You know, he who says he, he who Christ sets is free indeed. So they would have been free from that guilt and that condemnation, but they're still gonna have that remorse, that sorrow from that. And it's going to be a godly thing. That's going to keep them from doing it again. It's not always an unhealthy thing to have that remorse because it keeps us from doing it again.

Rodney Olsen:

You've mentioned that some of the girls have been stolen away from their families. Some of them, their families have actually been involved, but for those girls who have been stolen from their families, is there opportunity for them to, to reunite. And what's been some of the results of that.

Bradley Hopp:

I don't know any of the stories of the 20 girls that were set free from the first brothel owner. I don't believe that any of the girls have gone back to that situation because a lot of times, if they do go back to that situation, they would end up back in that same situation. You know, they would have ended up back up in the same situation that oftentimes that got them there in the first place. In other words, there was some reason that they ended up getting trafficked and to send them back into either their village or whatever would be just putting them back into the hands of the, of the original sellers. So to speak the kidnappers in the first place. And so oftentimes it's safer for us to keep them, you know, they have the right to go back. If they want to.

Bradley Hopp:

As I said, the one girl, she saved her money from, from selling the products to us. And she used that money to go back to her, her brothel owner, because she thought he was in love with her. So they have the freedom to go back if they want to. And none of them have chosen to. One of the young ladies that actually won't talk about her parents. Won't talk about how she came to be trafficked. Won't talk about any of that stuff she actually learned to read and write. She learned to do her math. She learned, passed all of her high school classes. She got all caught up. She took her insurance classes and passed her insurance boards and is now as of last summer living in her own place. And, and actually is a licensed insurance agent.

Rodney Olsen:

It's an incredible story to hear someone going from being trapped into an opportunity like that, to be running themselves in their own business and to, to be doing so well in life. It must give you great encouragement to keep doing what you're doing,

Bradley Hopp:

It really does, because there's a lot of times where when you're doing stuff like this, especially when you're, when you're rescuing girls from just absolute hell on earth, as much as I talk about Christianity, there are sources on the other side that don't, don't want to see what we're doing done. You know, they do try to discourage you and dissuade you from doing what you're doing. So yeah, it makes it a challenge some days, but, but you look at those stories and you're like, you know what? This actually brings up a really good story that I was reminded of here a couple of weeks ago. And it really kind of summarizes Teshuah And we actually have some bracelets that I, I hadn't made this connection until just a couple of weeks ago, but we have some bracelets that have starfish on them that the girls have made.

Bradley Hopp:

And the story goes that this little boy is standing on the beach and it's low tide and there's all these thousands and thousands of thousands of starfish all down the beach, they're all trapped because it's low tide. And this elderly gentleman comes up and he's standing there on the shore with his little boy and he's watching a little boy throw the starfish back in. He goes, what are you doing, son? And he goes, I'm throwing the starfish back cause otherwise I'll die. And the elderly gentlemen listed and then goes son, you're not going to be able to rescue all of them. You know, you might as well just quit. You're not gonna be able to rescue all of them and you're not going to make a difference. And the little boy stands there and thinks about it for a second. And he reaches down and picks up a starfish and checks it back into the ocean. And he goes, I made a difference for that one. And that's the thing, you know, there's I was, I was looking at some trafficking numbers tonight before we came on the air and nearly more, nearly 4 million adults and 1 million children are victims of sex trafficking and seven out of 10 of them are exploited in Asia and the Pacific region. It's a 97 or $99 billion a year industry. It's a huge industry. And while we may not be able to get to all of them, we can make the difference in one or two or five or 20 or 40 or 80, we can make the difference in their lives. So it really means a lot to me to be able to make that difference, even just a few people's lives.

Rodney Olsen:

I was going to ask about the numbers and the scope of the problem, and you've outlined that, and it is shocking, but I do wonder sometimes. And I remember once being in India and in a street where there were hundreds of brothels and they estimated between 12 and 15,000 girls being prostituted in that street. And my mind started to turn to the amount of guys that, that each girl sees each day and therefore continuing to try and do the maths in my head and come to terms with the enormous number of people that are using these terrible, terrible services. It's a huge problem.

Bradley Hopp:

And you know, this is, this brings up something on our podcast, Liberty Unveiled. We were talking about on Monday when we were courting and Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested during the last 30 days. She's Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend and accomplice. And she has supposedly has proof, well she does have proof of a global pedophile and human trafficking ring. In the UK There was a massive global pedophile ring bust, 31 children are rescued and 700 suspects are being investigated. Germany is investigating 30,000 potential suspects in a pedophile ring, 116 trafficker arrests and 1,489 victims were rescued. Florida had a six human traffickers busted, and five women rescued. Pennsylvania had eight men arrested as part of a trafficking ring. Spain had 12 arrests and a thousand victims rescued. Italy had 10 arrested in a trafficking ring. A Baltimore businessman paid $90,000 to sex trafficking operation, The feds charge. A man in California, was arrested for operating a $21 million international sex trafficking website. Bangladesh, 52 were arrested in a trafficking ring, Scotland, dozens of arrests and 18 rescued. Malaysia had 18 police officers and army officials arrested for human trafficking. It's amazing. A French man was arrested for raping 300 plus young girls. India, 67 rescued out of trafficking there. So, I mean, I just skipped over several of them, quite a few of them actually in the trafficking numbers.

Rodney Olsen:

When we start to try and think through these numbers and see the size of this problem. And we can see that most of the time it is fueled by a desire, especially by men who have a desire to, to act in a way that they should not be acting. And that is absolutely evil. There would be some who would see prostitution would see pornography as something that as long as the participants are willing it's okay. What would you say to that?

Bradley Hopp:

A major, major, major misnomer, because oftentimes men are looking at pornography and they think that the girls are willing, but oftentimes they're not. I think they said like 70% or higher are actually trafficking victims. And what you're seeing well, looks like they're willing participants, but they're really not. And oftentimes the reason they look like they're willing participants is because they've either been threatened with death or their family has been threatened, or they're, they're being told if you don't participate and you don't act the way we want you to act your family, it will be killed. There's much in the way they have coercion and blackmail. And, and so, you know, when, when men think that that, that all, this is all just fun and games and it's, and nobody's really being hurt us, not the really the case. That's not really the truth. There is no choice. If, if you are told either do this or you'll be executed or do this, or your family will be hurt and you've already been raped and you've already been, see something that happens.

Bradley Hopp:

And if you look at the method for most, all of the traffickers, when they're grooming somebody, they will first rape them and, and what that does psychologically to the person is it breaks down there. If you talk to trafficking victims, they'll, they'll always say after I was raped, I felt like I was worth nothing and it causes the psychological and spiritual damage to them. And so then when their frame is, are threatened and stuff, they still care for their families. And they're like, I'm not worth anything anyway. So therefore I might as well, you know, I'll to save my family. I'll, I'll do what I'm told.

Rodney Olsen:

It's a very dark world and sometimes we just have to call things for what they are. We're talking about an industry, so to speak, we're talking about sex work, and we use all these phrases, but obviously if women are being coerced in any way to participate, and especially for these young girls, that's not sex work, that's not an industry. That's, as you say, rape, that's, that's pure and simple rape.

Bradley Hopp:

This is where I get really frustrated. And really, yeah, I suppose angry would be the right word with the, I try to be nice. The numbskulls in, in Holland and, and in Northern Europe that are, that are protesting for a sex workers' rights and stuff like that. If you go back to the, really the basis of all of this, even the ones that are older and say, they're there willingly. I will guarantee that if you look back through their past, they were molested when they were a child. And so if they were molested as a child, even though they think they're there willingly, now, they didn't start out there. They were molested, they were raped when they were a child, there has been some kind of childhood traumatic damage done to these children.

Bradley Hopp:

Like my partner, Andrew is rescuing where they're, they're still underage and their minors, or where they say they're willingly in the industry as adults or whatever.

Rodney Olsen:

I don't imagine that that point of view makes you very popular in some circles.

Bradley Hopp:

No, but you know what? I, I'm a farmer came from Iowa and I really don't care. You know, I'm not trying to be crass, but it's, you know what I care more about. I care more about the people that we're rescuing. And I care more about the people that are being damaged than I do about me being popular or anything else. When you damage a child, you're causing things to be set in motion. And Jesus said, well, he took this, this approach to it when you damage one of these children. And he said, when you, when you cause one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for you. If you'd had a millstone tied around your neck and you've been tossed in the ocean, He doesn't take to it kindly. It causes a string of damage in their lives. But then what it does is it also causes them to go on and become abusers later. A lot of times, and it perpetuates, you know, Andrew has an expression and it's really true hurting people, hurt people. That's the reason we take the approach of, of getting them healed in and completely made whole before we set them back out into the, into the world on their own.

Rodney Olsen:

I'm wondering if someone who's listening today and thinking, this is something I need to get behind. This is something I need to act on. How can they contact you and make a difference?

Bradley Hopp:

To make it easy on everybody? I have two URLs for our website. I have to teshuahtea.com, which is T E S H U A H .com. But the easier one is deliverancetea.com. I just decided after two years that it would be probably smart to make it a little bit easier on people. So deliverancetea.com is a easy way to find us on Teshuah or on deliverancetea .com. They can go to the donate page and under the donate page, we have a direct link, a PayPal link to the rescue house. So when somebody makes a donation there, it does not go through me. It does not go through the, the business side of everything. It goes direct to the rescue facility and helps us take care of the, because it costs a lot of money. A typical rescue mission is about $500, but after care or the initial aftercare, getting them new clothes medical care, all the things that they need, all the toiletries, all that stuff because they literally come to us with the clothes on their back and nothing else. And so we get them all new clothes, toiletries, medical care that costs about $2,000. But then on a monthly basis, per girl, that's in our rescue facility, it costs us a $16.67 a day per girl. Well, what I haven't told you about is we had a brothel owner reach out and he's like, my brothel has been shut down because of COVID and I've been housing and caring for the girls for the last six months, and I can't keep doing it. And I heard about you guys and so here's my 13 girls. So we now have 41 girls and two female staff in our, in our rescue house. We're in the process of finding a second one because obviously a 2300 square foot house is too small. So we need to expand and get more staff. So when somebody makes a donation that helps us defray the costs of, of that, cause it costs right now with 41, girls is closer to 21 or $22,000 a month that it costs us to care for everything. But a donation is, is, is a great way to get behind what we're doing.

Rodney Olsen:

And we'll include links to the website in the show notes. So you can check that out at bleeding, daylight.net. You can find all the information there. Brad, it's been wonderful to speak to you speaking about some, some very dark things, but, but the light is starting to shine through in, in so many of those areas. We thank you for the work that you are doing and thank you for your time here today.

Bradley Hopp:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Emily Olsen: 

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