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About the episode:

We explore how the sex trafficking trade has been an issue throughout the world for many years and the church's role in combatting it. We hear from a special guest who shares her experiences of rescuing a young girl from the sex trafficking trade and how she was inspired to establish an organization that is actively working to combat the issue. We then listen to a special video highlighting the work of Thrive Rescue, an organization that is doing something to help combat the problem of human trafficking.

(0:03:40) - Creating Safe Homes for Trafficked Children (5 Minutes)

We discuss the importance of providing aftercare to victims of sex trafficking and the challenge of finding reliable long-term care. We hear the story of one woman's mission to find and rescue victims and her journey to creating a safe home for these children. We learn about the process of taking in these children, the efforts of her staff, and the impact that this home has had on the lives of these young victims. We explore how Thrive Rescue is like a family, where the children get to experience love, safety, and respect, and learn about Jesus. We also discuss the importance of raising the children as victors and not victims.

(0:08:58) - Starting Thrive Rescue (6 Minutes)

Jeremy Krause is the founder of Thrive Rescue, a ministry responding to the needs of victims of sex trafficking. He was moved to start the ministry after learning about the prevalence of child sex trafficking in Thailand and his journey to move there and create it. We explore the process of finding reliable long-term care and how the church can be involved in combatting the sex trafficking trade.

(0:14:38) - Faith for Provision and Vision Planning (13 Minutes)

Jeremy Krause, the founder of Thrive Rescue, was called by God to start the ministry and move to Thailand. He shares his experience in fundraising for the ministry and how God provided for him and his family. Jeremy emphasizes the need to take steps of faith and trust that God will provide the provision to accomplish the vision He has given us. He also shares a powerful personal story of how his husband made a vow to God and was reminded to fulfill it. God is always faithful and rewards obedience.

(0:27:26) - Rescuing and Rehabilitating Trafficking Victims (6 Minutes)

Jeremy Krause recounts his experience rescuing a young girl from sex trafficking and what a Thrive Rescue home looks like. The girl was mentally handicapped and had been sold by her mother between the ages of eight and ten. The home was filled with bright colors and furniture with spring mattresses. He remembers a time when she took a puppy from the neighbor and wouldn't come back until he went and got her. Jeremy reflects on how the girls he rescues can become victors rather than victims.

(0:33:29) - Raising Children in a Family Environment (6 Minutes)

We hear how Thrive Rescue works to provide a family-like home atmosphere for the children it rescues from sex trafficking. We learn about the importance of having enough staff to ensure each child can receive the proper attention and how the children are taught responsibility by having chores and receiving an allowance. We also discover how the team works to equip the children with the tools they need to confidently move forward in life, such as developing their faith and leadership skills. Finally, Jeremy shares how the children are sharing the Gospel with new children coming into the home.

(0:39:11) - Increase Awareness and Build Support (7 Minutes)

Jeremy Krause, the founder of Thrive Rescue, shares how they use social media, emails, and send out teams to spread the word. We hear how they help victims gain their citizenship, and their plans to open homes in every country. Additionally, we discuss the Justice School, their program where the FBI, psychologists, and Jeremy himself teach about internet safety and human trafficking. Finally, Jeremy shares his long term goals for Thrive Rescue and the steps he is taking to achieve those goals.

(0:46:32) - Trauma and Hope (6 Minutes)

We hear a powerful story of how Thrive Rescue has rescued a young girl from sex trafficking and how they work to provide a family-like home atmosphere for the children they rescue. Jeremy Krause shares how they use social media, emails and send out teams to spread the word about their work. The importance of providing aftercare to victims of sex trafficking and the challenge of finding reliable long-term care are discussed.

(0:52:31) - Addressing Child Sex Trafficking and Advocacy (12 Minutes)

We gain insight into how Thrive Rescue works to help children in need, from recruiting volunteers to partnering with governments to spread awareness. Jeremy Krause shares how individuals, communities, and governments can contribute to the work of Thrive Rescue, such as volunteering, giving, and praying. Shannon Grove is discussed and how she is fighting to keep children safe in California and the importance of testing God in giving. Thrive Rescue's care for children in Pakistan and Peru is highlighted, as well as how they are using social media, emails, and teams to spread the word.

(1:04:55) - Encouragement for Contacting and Connecting (1 Minutes)

Jeremy Krause, the founder of Thrive Rescue, shares how they use social media, emails, and send out teams to raise awareness of the issue of sex trafficking. They help victims understand their rights and how to reach out for help. Thrive Rescue works to provide a family-like home atmosphere for the children it rescues from sex trafficking. Jeremy shares how to contact him and how listeners can help support the mission.

Jaime Luce’ testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!  Learn more.

Related reading:

• How To Heal Through Responsibility and Faith
• How To Use Your Kingdom Authority In Prayer
• Plug Into A Warfare Prayer Source
• Have a Different Spirit
• Be A Good Gardner

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:00 – Jeremy Krause

And so I said okay, God, you know I don’t know what to do about the funding, so you’re going to have to help me out. And the Lord said this to me I’ll never forget this. He said if you’ll share the vision, I’ll take care of the provision, because provision always follows vision. And a lot of times this is kind of veering off the subject of sex trafficking, but I think it’s important because, as Christians, you know, a lot of times we have a vision, but we want to get all the money together before we take the first step, and that’s not how God works. In fact, the Bible says you know, man makes his plans, but the Lord directs his steps.

0:00:54 – Jaime Luce

Welcome to the Jamie Luce Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. Everybody, I have a really special show for us today. We’re veering off of our normal teaching and I’ve got an interview today that I think you’ll find very stirring and prevalent for the times that we’re living in. I’m sure many of you are familiar with what’s going on in the movie industry right now. There’s quite a controversy over a film that has been put out with actor Jim Caviesal, where he portrays a man who is daring to deal with the sex trafficking trade going on and is bringing a great floodlight onto the industries, the organizations and things behind this kind of thing. But it’s also bringing awareness to a problem that has been around for a long time, even if we take the whole ugly sex child part out of it. This slavery issue has been around since the beginning of time, and it’s time that the church steps up and not only faces that this is a real issue, but that we are the ones who carry the answer, and so I want to dig into that today with a very special guest. But before we do that, I’d like to play a special video for you highlighting Thrive Rescue, which is an organization who says we’re doing something about this problem, so take a listen to this.

0:02:29 – Jeremy Krause

We got on this ferry to get to this island. We met this pastor on this island and when we got there, the pastor began to tell us the story of a young girl and we don’t know to this day if it was her mother or grandmother, but they were selling her to big cargo ships. This pastor had just rescued this girl and she was safe now, but he didn’t know what to do with her. We told him, we said that’s why we’re here, gosh, it must have been about 10 years ago. I began to pray and just say God, what, like, what do you want me to do? It felt like the Lord said go to Thailand. So I came out here and spent three months, and the last week I was here was in Pattaya, thailand, and I was speaking at a pastors conference and my heart just connected with the city. I didn’t know anything about human trafficking, didn’t know anything about this city really, and so my heart really was for children that were being trafficked and I would tell these pastors look, I really want to do something here. And they would say this is a Sodom and Gomorrah of Thailand. You know, why would you want to do something here?

0:03:32 – Sonthaya Maenpuen

Human trafficking is a massive source of criminal revenue here. It is second only to the drug trade. Care for victims after rescue is one of the most important parts of fighting this problem, but it is very difficult to find organizations that provide quality long term care.

0:03:55 – Jeremy Krause

If you don’t have aftercare, where are we going to put the kids? How are they going to recover? How are they going to come out of the crisis and become crowned? I began to look for an organization that specifically took in children like under 13 that have been sexually trafficked and abused, and I couldn’t find one. I thought we need to start something. We furnished the home the way we wanted it. I got downstairs I was sitting in the office and I kind of sat down and I said all right, god, we’re ready for the kids. I felt like he just spoke to my heart and said do you think the devil is going to give you these kids? I felt like that was my cue to get up and go find them. You know, it’s not like we just got here and people were lined up to give us kids. There was a lot of meeting with pastors at first, and then meeting with police, and then meeting with government social workers and just let everybody know hey, this is what we’re here to do. Then I got a call from a pastor one day. He said I have a friend who is a pastor on an island and he has rescued this girl. One of her family members was taking her out to a cargo ship, so they get on a boat and they would drop her off and the guys would pay money and then they’d come back and pick her up hours or maybe a day or two later. Like I’d never heard anything like that before. It was just so like gut-wrenching and like just almost like just unbelievable, but it was literally happening in front of us. He said let me come to your home with my wife and with the girl that I’ve rescued so she could see the home and so that we can know that you’re real. She had never stayed in a room with air conditioning before. She had never slipped on a mattress with springs in it before. I remember she went over to a mattress and she pushed on it and she said spring. And we were like yeah, and that’s yours. And she was like just blown away. And so they asked her if she wanted to stay and she was like yes. And so that was our first girl, the detective that we were working with. He said, hey, can we talk to you for a minute? And they said, hey, we’ve been watching you for the last two years.

0:06:00 – Sonthaya Maenpuen

We really looked deeply at Jeremy and into Thrive Rescue and found that they took excellent care of their kids, so we felt great about working with them moving forward.

0:06:11 – Jeremy Krause

They said in fact, you have one of the best homes that we’ve seen in Thailand. From now on, every child that we rescue that meets the criteria to come into your home we’re going to bring to you. Our Thai staff has been amazing. They love God and they love our kids. When I get out of the way and let them kind of take over the care of the children, you see recovery and you see things speed up because they’re speaking their language. They’re the same culture.

0:06:47 – Suky Vallee

I always tell to the team we are not working here, we are serving, and we serve the most high God. You know, sometimes I just very tired, but at the end of the day they come and hug me and say, mom, I love you. It’s, you know. It changed my world. God gave me only one daughter, but now I have 18 more.

0:07:14 – Jeremy Krause

When they first come into our home, we have a big sign on the wall that says Thrive Rescue goals. To keep her safe, you know, to make sure she’s physically, mentally and emotionally well. We give them a tour of the house, we show them their bedroom and we let them know like, this is your space, nobody is ever going to take this from you.

0:07:38 – Suda

I am a teenager and sometimes I just need my space. I get that here. I feel loved and respected at Thrive.

0:07:46 – Jeremy Krause

As they realize that they’re free, as they realize that they’re loved, as they realize that they’re safe. It’s just amazing to see the expression on their face and the way they begin to talk and walk and carry themselves.

0:08:03 – Sangdao

I was very afraid when I first came to Thrive, but after some time, when I saw how they loved me, the fear just left. I learned about Jesus here and my life has totally changed. I am so happy to be in a safe home. I am very thankful to them all and I know I have a bright future ahead.

0:08:23 – Jeremy Krause

When we bring them in, we don’t say, hey, we’re Christian, you have to be Christian. After they get their bearings, like after a week or two, it’s like why are you doing this? And we just tell them because we’re Christian and because we love you and God loves us and he loves us the same, so why shouldn’t we do this for you? Well, god did this for us and they just want to know more about God. So I think what makes Thrive unique is that each home is really like a family. When our kids turn 18, they don’t age out. We’re raising them as victors, not victims. Yes, they were victims, but now they’ve been redeemed. For me, it’s just what we have to do as Christians. I’m not qualified to do any of this, but yet God in His infinite wisdom says I’m going to take your unqualification and I’m going to turn you into a qualified person to do what I’ve called you to do. Whatever they do in life, it’s our job to make sure that they thrive.

0:09:23 – Jaime Luce

I know that that probably touched your hearts, as it has mine, and I want to take this opportunity to welcome into the studio with me today Jeremy Krause. Hey, jeremy, how are you today?

0:09:35 – Jeremy Krause

I’m great. Thank you so much for having me. I’m glad to be here and love your podcast and I’m excited about today.

0:09:43 – Jaime Luce

Jeremy, we’ve known each other actually for quite a few years now and has partnered with your ministry for some time, so I was actually somebody who felt like I knew this has been a problem for a while, but I was actually startled to find that it actually could be something that may be a problem. It could be something that made it into theaters because, even though it got made, the movie exposing this problem to the general public, who may not realize how bad it is or how close to home it is or all of those issues and yet you’ve seen this problem firsthand and it’s been going on for quite some time and I’m finally getting the attention that it’s been missing. And so I just am privileged today to have you and to be able to talk about this and maybe bring some more awareness and also give people a way that they can actually get involved, without necessarily knowing where to go or what to do, can get their hands dirty in this and decide that they want to partner with being someone who is the hands and feet of Jesus and bringing some help to those who are truly the most in need of that help. So maybe you can start by telling us what is Thrive Rescue, and what was your inspiration for starting this wonderful ministry?

0:11:19 – Jeremy Krause

Yeah, thank you. Thank you, that’s a great question. You know, years ago I was invited to speak at a past conference in Thailand and I didn’t know anything about human trafficking, I didn’t know anything about child sex trafficking, I didn’t even know that was a thing. It was before this had gotten this much airtime and was all over the place. And so I just remember going to that conference and I remember God just tugging at my heart and saying you’ve got to do something, you’re supposed to do something here, and I didn’t know why, I didn’t know what. So I got back to America and I Googled the city I was in and I found out that on any given night there were 20,000 to 30,000 prostitutes out. Wow, it was mind blowing itself. But I thought, you know, okay, you know whatever that I just that’s a city by pride, pride should stay away from. But but then I found out was the capital of the world for sex trafficking and for child sex trafficking. And when I found that out, I was just I was floored. I couldn’t, I couldn’t understand how people could buy or and so kids for sex, and, and so I thought, okay, immediately I’m going to find an organization. And so I started to look, I started to Google, I started researching, I started calling people and in that area, in that province or state, and I started to look at the local organizations that specialized in in just taking children, and so, when I couldn’t find one, I sold everything I had started to drive, rescue and moved over there and open our first song.

0:13:10 – Jaime Luce

Wow, and I mean that’s a major thing all on its own to hear the call of God and sell everything, as scripture says. You know you were the, the rich young ruler. I mean I’m not saying that you were rich, no, but but you sold everything that you had and decided to follow the call of God and to go to a place that was strange to you. I mean that’s a huge difference, a huge life change all on its own, let alone having to tackle something with organizations that I mean I don’t know the governments in these places. You know there are stories we hear about how difficult it is because people and things are corrupt all over the world. So to find your way into this and be able to navigate. I mean I was kind of amazed that you were even able to do such a thing. I thank God for those that did find out about what you were doing. But because you felt this need and felt it so strong that you changed your whole life and picked up and moved. Tell me what that process looked like? Was that difficult? How did you manage to do that? Were there key things that took place that helped that process along? How did you get that done?

0:14:34 – Jeremy Krause

Absolutely so. When the Lord spoke to me and told me to start Thrive and move to Thailand, I actually thought in the beginning I thought, okay, I’m going to go there, we’re going to lease a home, we’ll hire some staff, I’ll come right back, maybe a month, two max. I’ll go over a couple of times a year and we’ll visit Through the planning of it. It took about a year and a half to website and nonprofit and stuff that we kind of don’t think about as in the background, but it’s very important. It took about a year and a half. At the end of that I was thinking, okay, we’re ready. I was praying one day and the Lord said I want you to move to Thailand. I thought I don’t, that’s not. I like hamburgers. I like hamburgers. I don’t have those over there. But I knew it was God. So I said, okay, god, I don’t know what to do about the funding, so you’re going to have to help me out. And the Lord said this to me. I’ll never forget this. He said if you’ll share the vision, I’ll take care of the pro-vision, because pro-vision always follows vision, and a lot of times this is kind of veering off the subject of sex trafficking, but I think it’s important because, as Christians, a lot of times we have a vision, but we want to get all the money together before we take the first step, and that’s not how God works. In fact, the Bible says man makes his plans, but the Lord directs his steps. So we have to make plans first, and then we have to have a vision, and then we need to make plans and write them down and begin to take steps towards that. And I believe that once we take those steps of faith towards the plan that we’ve had in our heart, then God begins to send the pro-vision so that we can accomplish what we’ve set out to do. And it never ceases to amaze me that the Bible says without faith it’s impossible to please God. And as frustrating as it gets sometimes, god always keeps us in faith.

0:17:02 – Jaime Luce

Yeah, it’s even better.

0:17:03 – Jeremy Krause

Right when we hit our goal, it’s like God says oh that’s awesome, now it’s going to be greater. Now here’s a bigger vision. And what are you going to do with this? And so that’s kind of how it started. You know, I said OK and I just started sharing the vision. I started sharing with friends and family and pastors that I knew, and then pastors started inviting me to come speak at the churches and share the vision and what we were going to do, and people just started partnering with us. We had the website up, we had everything connected and all the background stuff, and so people just started handing us checks and partnering with us. And so at the end of about a year and a half, like I said, we had raised the monthly budget to go over there and to open home and to take care of six to seven kids. And so we went and I have to say I have to follow up with this that after I got there about six months after I got there, maybe seven months the finances dropped by half.

0:18:18 – Jaime Luce

Wow.

0:18:20 – Jeremy Krause

And I realized that you have to be. I had to go back and forth and I had to be in front of people, we had to use social media and we couldn’t just write letters anymore.

0:18:33 – Jaime Luce

Yeah, you know it’s that way with everything, though it’s the if we. We tend to be a lazy and I know this might prick some people, but we tend to be a lazy group of people when it comes to keeping things in the forefront. We let life kind of come and we just forget about those things that at one moment startled us. We gave it our all, we had a vision for something and you know, the Lord was stirring this on my heart over the weekend and I I was wondering what he was wanting me to do with it. And you bringing this up makes that even more clear why I didn’t know. We were going to kind of touch on this. And you know, in my book you don’t need money, you just need God. My husband talks in one of the stories I tell of him. He’s not talking, but I’m telling of him. I’m telling his story of when God called him to do something, and then you, you forget. You hear him in that moment. You want to do what God tells you to do, you’re excited, you’re full of passion in the moment, but then you get busy and other things kind of crowd that out and you forget. And he learned a huge lesson. The Lord warned him. He was sitting reading his Bible one day and the Lord was like, okay, I did for you what I said. You have not done for me what you said you’d do for me and this will not go well with you if you do not make this right. I mean, it was really a serious moment. And he, he did. He came and woke me up. I was asleep. He woke me up, told me everything. I didn’t know anything about this. He had made a vow to the Lord earlier that year. I knew nothing about this. And then he tells me everything and we’re like, oh my gosh, okay, what do we do? Let’s get up right now. I mean, this was after midnight one night. It’s like, okay, let’s do something about this and and figure it out. And within days we had collected all the finances we could, from every avenue we could, to do what we said we would do for the Lord. And he was so gracious that within we thought we’re going to pay the price for this because of the way we had to go about doing this. We were going to carry this, you know weight of of having to spend that amount of money at one time, and the Lord was so good to us for our obedience that within two months he had given everything back. Wow, and I mean it was just. It blew our minds to understand that God is never. He doesn’t use us. We have the wrong idea about giving our fine. He’s not using you when he asks you to give and be his hands and care about what he cares about. He’s asking us to be a servant, the way he was. But he is our provision. He is the one who makes a way, and it’s not that we and I hope people can hear this. It’s not out of compulsion. The Bible tells us never to give out of compulsion. But if he burdens us and if he tells us to do something, that means he already has a plan to provide the means for us to do it. So it’s our obedience that brings about the great miracle. I mean he told his disciples to go out and not to take extra stuff with them. Don’t take a bunch of money bags, don’t take extra coats, don’t take extra shoes. You’re going to let me be the one who shows you how I provide all along the way. And that’s what you’re really saying is he’s told you. Okay, jeremy, I’m calling to something that’s much bigger than who you are and what you have, but I will provide along the way. However, that’s in the Christian church. So, hey, people listen up. There’s something we can do about this.

0:22:12 – Jeremy Krause

And I think you know, a lot of times it’s not that he’s trying to get something from us, he’s trying to get something to us, but we have to make space for the bigger thing that he’s trying to bring along. And so, you know, planting those seeds, getting the seed out so we can get more bread and more seed in from heaven, more revelation and more finances from heaven, is key. And we’ve blocked that and we’re just going here. So I’m going to go with it. But you know, I think you know I’ve been in a lot of churches where they don’t teach about tithing or giving, or, and they just kind of. You know they might, hey, if you want to give, give in the back. And it’s like man. We do a disservice to the kingdom of God and to the people of God, to the church, when we don’t teach people to give and so, and you know, the Bible says that the just shall live by faith. We’re the just. We Christians are the. We’ve been justified through Christ and and and if and if we live by faith. We like to just have moments of faith, but the problem is, god said the just shall live by faith. He said it four times in the Bible and and if we’re to live by faith, and that means that everything we do should require faith from us, on our part. And so that includes giving. And so people, I’ve heard people say sometimes, well, how do I, do I know what to give or how much to give, and you know, sometimes pastors go to the straight to the 10%, and that’s fine, whatever you know. But but I like to say this because I believe, I believe the Old Testament was 10%, I believe the New Testament. We have the Holy Spirit. It’s so much more in everything we do and so, and so when people say, well, you know how much should we give? Give till it requires faith. Yeah, yeah, because if you give and you’re like, oh, this is going to hurt a little bit, or, oh, man, I perfect, give it, decide to be joyful about it, let your flesh feel a little, you know little struggle there and give because it requires faith and that faith in that giving is going to produce for you, because it’s going to please God, and you know that’s. You know the widows, might you know she gave, she gave by faith that please God. And the Pharisees and Sadducees they gave it and it was like Jesus was like, well, you just kind of gave out of your abundance and so yeah, it’s absolutely true. I agree with you 100%.

0:24:56 – Jaime Luce

You know, I think it kind of here’s, kind of a living principle for people. I think this affects finances and other areas of life too. But when you’re looking for purpose, you know so many are living not knowing what their purpose is. They don’t realize that they can bring purpose to every area of their life. And I look at finances in the natural realm and as a tool for anything that God would have me do in the spiritual realm. So if I want my money to have purpose, I want so if I’m paying, if we’re paying you know, a mortgage, or if we’re paying rent, or if we’re paying a car payment or Well, those have purpose. Right, I’m put there’s purpose. I want shelter, I want protection, I want safety, I want a peaceful home, I want an atmosphere, I want, I’m putting purpose, I’m organizing my purpose and I’m giving it power. And if you want to bring purpose to your giving, to your finances, then you put it where you know you’re going to harvest from that, you’re going to reap what you sow. But we put God’s purpose on them. You put purpose on the things that you. We should be doing this with everything. It’s not just money, but we should be doing this with everything. Put purpose on it, put God’s purpose on it. How do you want to do that? Where do you want to sow and reap? And when I think about the organization Thrive Rescue, your Tell us a story of any one that you want. The particularity stands out to you of how you saw what you sowed. Okay, because where’s the reaping coming from? You were sowing into lives to save lives, to rescue them from the hell that they were dealing with. There is a hell someday for those who have not accepted Christ, but we don’t want our children having to live that hell now that they don’t deserve and didn’t choose. So do you have a story that you would like to share with us?

0:27:16 – Jeremy Krause

I’ll share one of them with you One of our first girls In the back then. This was a very high profile case, but it’s done, it’s gone through the courts, it’s everything safe. So I can kind of share some of the details with you. But one of the first girls that came to us was mentally handicapped. She was sold by her mother in the slums between the ages of, I believe it was, eight and 10. And she never met her dad before. And so the first three times that she was sold, her mom said hey, your dad’s coming to visit you, and of course some guy would come and take her away and have his way with her and then bring her back. And I’m sure it’s hard for me to even imagine like thinking that my dad is coming to pick me up. And then that happened Not once, not twice, but three times. And then after the third time she would just you know, hey, this guy’s here, go with him. And so when she was first rescued, she was brought to a hospital where they took care of patients that had, you know, mental issues, and so she continued to be abused there. She was tied down in a wheelchair and put in a room for hours and hours on a day. At one point she was pushed off a three-story building and actually brought her back and when we got the file we actually saw we had the x-ray in the file. We could see like all the they had to operate on her and they like you could just see all these screws and these things holding her back together and she was able to walk, thank God. And anyways, they brought her to our home and the social worker and she came to our home and we had it. We had the first time we had was just painted bright colors everywhere. And you know furniture and you know spring mattresses and some of you might say spring mattresses, oh, that’s old, you know, give me some fun. Well, over there, that’s a pretty, that’s for our kids. That is a huge deal to have a spring mattress. And so I just remember she was so happy and she just had so much fun playing with the other girls as the other girls started coming in and hanging out. And just to end it on a fun note, I remember one time she would get mad and she would, she would leap, she would like walk off, and and we, you know, we’d keep track of her, we’d follow her and be like, hey, you know, let’s talk. And so one time we had this like little jungle area by our house and one time the dog next door the neighbors had puppies and so she grabbed a puppy and she went in the jungle and she sat in the jungle with the puppy and she was mad, she wasn’t budging, and and so we were looking for her and looking for her and looking for her, and finally I said I saw her in the jungle area and I said she’s over there. And I said, okay, let’s just let her cool down and we know where she’s at. And about 20 minutes later one of the staff came to the home and they said, hey, did you know someone? So down the street, and I said what? And she said yeah, I tried to get her to come back, but she won’t come back and and she’s got this puppy with her and she’s. She was riding a bike and she had the puppy in the basket. And so I said okay, okay, let’s get in the car, I’ll go. And so I’m like I’m praying on the way there, because when she doesn’t want to do something, she doesn’t do it and we don’t force our kids to do anything. We’re very especially with the. The stuff that they’ve gone through we’re very much about let’s be patient, let’s just talk through this, let’s you know how can we serve you, let’s you know, very loving and just, patient and kind. And so I’m like God you got to help us get her back to the house because she can’t be on her own. So we get to where she’s at. She’s on the side of the road with her bike puppies in the basket. I get out and I didn’t know what I was going to say. But I get out and I walked up to her and I said listen, you have to get in that car, get that puppy and bring it back to the mother, because that puppy’s mother is so mad right now that you took the puppy. It’s freaking out. You need to get in the car. And she grabbed the puppy, jumped in the car, went right back to the house and she she forgot about what was going on and she was happy getting eight lunch with us and everything. But you know, walking with our girls through, through some of those challenges is is a I I find it joyful, it brings me joy and and and to see to look on their face when they solve something or go through a challenge and and, instead of becoming a victim in the challenge, they rise to the, to the challenge and become a victor. And so for me, that’s just, that’s the best, that’s goals for me.

0:32:57 – Jaime Luce

So how does it look? What does a, what does a Thrive Rescue home look like? And what maybe does one of the? Is it just girls, or is it girls and boys? How does that? How does their day look?

0:33:13 – Jeremy Krause

Sure. Well, you know, Jamie, I know you guys have been partners with us for a while, so you have to come. No, I’m just saying you don’t have to. If you would like to, we’re always open. So you know, it varies from from country to country. So what we try to do, generally speaking, is we try to have every home, our house, be like a home and like a family. We try not to just stuff it full of kids. We try to only have six to seven children max. There was one point where we had, we found this huge house and we combined like four houses, but it was huge.

0:33:58 – Jaime Luce

Yeah.

0:33:59 – Jeremy Krause

You know, and we always try to make sure that we have enough staff, because we don’t want the kids fighting for attention. We want them to have the proper attention from the adults. We we make sure that that. We want to make sure that they’re fed and they can have snacks. And in one of our houses we actually were actually doing. They would get allowance, so they had chores to do and they get allowance and they would save up their money and they would buy. You know, they could buy different stuff with whatever they wanted. And so we really tried to raise them in a family environment, because the goal is they’ve been through so much trauma that when, when they’re ready to kind of go into the world by themselves, we want them prepared, we want them to to know who they are in Christ and and and we want them to be confident in themselves and in their skills and their leadership. And so we just challenge our kids, we raise them in a family environment as much as we can. And you know, right now, like one of our oldest girls, she’s in university. She’s in her third year and she’s studying linguistics. She speaks Thai, english, korean. She loves K-pop, so she speaks Korean. There’s one other language that she’s studying right now and and so, like you know, she’s been through a lot, but now she’s like I’m not gonna. I often do the analogy where you’re walking through life and you trip over something and then all of a sudden you turn around and you begin to walk backwards through life, looking at that challenge, that that trauma that you went through. It’s the rest of your life. You’re not looking forward, you’re looking backwards and you’re stumbling backwards through life. And so we try to work with our girls as best as possible so that we can get them, they can work through that trauma but turn around and begin to look forward through life instead of looking backward, and become victorious, instead of just instead of staying in that victim mentality. And so we have like four girls that are going to school right now, that are going to college, and more to come.

0:36:29 – Jaime Luce

So yeah, and do they get any kind of biblical training? Just who is Jesus for lead them into salvation? I mean what you know. How do they know who’s behind their rescue?

0:36:45 – Jeremy Krause

So what’s interesting is when I first started like the kids would ask me why are you doing this? You know. Eventually, you know in their own words, they would say why are you doing this? And I would just tell them you know, because we’re Christian and God loves us and God rescued me and Jesus rescued me, and so that’s what I’m supposed to do now. And. But what’s interesting is now, when kids come into the home, they don’t ask the adults normally, they ask the other kids.

0:37:18 – Jaime Luce

Oh, okay.

0:37:19 – Jeremy Krause

And so now it’s such a cool dynamic because now the other kids are starting to tell the newer kids about Jesus and leading to the Lord and and so yeah, so that’s how that works. But then also we have Bible studies in our home regularly. When we have, when I bring teams, we do special Bible studies and worship and we do try to teach, depending on what country we we try to do art, therapy, play therapy, music therapy, therapy, and most of our, most of our kids, they find a lot of breakthrough in that. They find a lot of breakthrough when they worship, when they start renewing their mind, when they start, you know, learning about God and just soaking it all up, you can see a change, a tangible change in their life and on their face.

0:38:10 – Jaime Luce

Hi, my name is Jamie Luce. I wanted to share with you some information about a brand new book entitled you Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God. It’s a playbook for miraculous provision, and I want to share it with you because it solves the problem we are all facing right now. The economy is going crazy, gas prices are soaring, there’s wars and rumors of wars. We’ve got everything hitting us all at once, with interest rates rising. You need to know what to do, and so many times we think we need the money. But you don’t need money. I’m telling you, the answer is you need God, and that’s exactly what we want to teach you through this book. We’ll give you practical ways to know what to do and how to do it, so that you get answers now. You can find my book on Amazon. You can also go to jamieluce.com. You can also find this book at YouDon’tNeedMoney, youjustneedgod.com. This book is available today. In terms of public awareness, which is what we’re trying to do, you know, it’s one of those things where they say strike when the iron’s hot. So we want to make sure and do that very thing right now. But how does Thrive Rescue work to increase understanding and build support for its cause, both locally and globally?

0:39:31 – Jeremy Krause

You know that’s a great question we have. We do social media. We’re on social media A lot of times. I do it, so I don’t post as often as I should, so but we do post social media. We send out emails and just raising awareness with our partners. Sometimes we’ll give out graphics that our partners can post themselves. But then also we take teams a couple of times. We haven’t done it so much since COVID, but we’re starting to plan some trips here and so we take teams over there because I think it’s really important that you know some people can’t go and that’s fine, but if you can go, it’s important to go because you need to see that, you need to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but also you need to see the people that are being touched and the lives that are being changed. And what’s interesting to me is a lot of times when people go not a lot of times every time when people go when I take a team, they get more ministered to. They actually do minister, if that makes sense.

0:40:43 – Jaime Luce

Yes.

0:40:44 – Jeremy Krause

And so they go away. Just they come and they break and God just meets them where they are, especially when our kids start to pray for them. It’s like you’re praying for me and I’m here for you and you know, and I often have to tell our visitors I’m like, listen, don’t cry when you leave, because they’re to our kids. They’ve already been through a lot of emotional stuff. Do a see you later, or hey, it’s been, we’ve had all the time to see you later and and if you can’t do that, then just just wait, you know, and and don’t say goodbye, wait, wait, and and so a lot of times. There’s been several times when people said, ok, I’m just going to wait outside because I can’t do this, yeah, yeah, but we want to make sure that we’re looking out for our kids in every situation. So so that’s another way. And then the other way, I think, and and is just giving financially, because that helps us. You know, fund our staff, fund our homes, rescue more kids. We do prevention, we just we were in. So in Thailand, one of our staff member right now just I think it was last week or the week before helped a trafficking victim actually get her citizenship. Wow, in in this in the country, which is a huge deal, because if you don’t citizenship, you don’t really have a lot of rights unless you’re like an American, maybe, or from a first world country. And this particular person wasn’t from a first world country. And so not only she doing that, but it allows us to fund, to fund that so she can go. The other day she was sitting on a bench and we sent a team over and she was sitting on a bench, they were getting a drink, and and this lady on the bench that was sitting next to her was from another country, and so she just started talking to her and, sure enough, she had been trafficked and she really didn’t understand how she was. You know that she was being trafficked and, and so she was able to just talk to her a little bit and look out, and then, sure enough, her handler came out and said hey, get back to work. And so our person on the ground there was able to kind of identify who the handler was, who the person was, and and just kind of navigate that, and so we’re constantly doing stuff like that. We’ve we’ve reached thousands of kids. We were going before code, we had gone into school, after school. After school, and they would shut down the schools for us and bring all the students out and the teachers and some of the administrative staff and have a team and we would go through and talk about Internet safety and and trafficking and we’d play games with them, but we would. We would kind of fit that in Couldn’t always talk about the Lord there, but we were able to talk about those things and it got a foot. It got us a foot in the door to be able to really just bring awareness to that here in in the in the states. I go to churches and and and and you know, teach the word. But then we also talk about human trafficking and and and what you can do to get involved, and so there’s all kinds of things that we do. We also have a thing called the Justice School that we are in the process of digitizing so that it can just be online and that is a is a course that goes through the five different aspects of human trafficking prevention, rescue, restoration, release and response. And we have we used to have the FBI come in every year and teach classes on that. Psychologists come in and teach classes, I teach, and so that just kind of takes it to the next level, and so there’s all kinds of stuff that we do and and that will continue to do.

0:44:44 – Jaime Luce

That’s awesome as the founder, because you are the founder and I don’t think people realize this that you were at one point a pastor of a church in Orange County, California, so you do have that in your background. It wasn’t just walking down the street and God called you to do something. You know, though he may do that, but for you you were. You were a minister as founder. What are your long term goals for Thrive Rescue and what steps are you taking to achieve those goals right now?

0:45:12 – Jeremy Krause

So we, our goal is is to be have a home, or many homes, in every country. We started in Thailand. We just recently opened a home in Pakistan and we need we need more funding for that, but it’s open and we’re moving and, and, and we’re looking into opening a home in Peru, and so that’s really the goal. I’ve had talks with some people about Malawi and Zambia opening homes there, so the doors are wide open around the world. The, the, and. So I just keep on sharing the vision. That’s what we want to do. That’s our vision is to rescue as many kids as we can, to stop this thing, to raise awareness and to have home, and so that’s what we want to do. We want to have a home and to stop this thing, to raise awareness and to have homes in every country. How we’re going about doing that is right now we’re on a campaign, and it’s a campaign to a thousand. We’re we’re looking for a thousand partners at thirty five dollars a month or more, so that we can open more homes, fund the ones we have even better, and and and even reach more people and more children. I know the youngest child that we ever had was two. Wow, we got a call from the police and the police said we need somebody to come down here twenty four hours a day and sit with her. And so we said, ok, we’ll be there. So we had staff show up and and sit with her and, of course, when, when we showed up, she didn’t want anybody to touch her. She didn’t want the doctors, nurses, nobody to touch her. She had a broken elbow, she had chunks of hair missing out of her head, she had burn marks all over her body. Oh, he had tried to, tried to have their way with her. Wow, and I wish I could show a picture, because this is one of the all the all our kids stories are special to me, but this one stands out and I remember, after being in the hospital, that we brought her home and for the first week she just didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Now, I’m usually the first guy that, or was when I was living there. I was usually the first guy that the girls would, would come in contact with, and so they were always cautious the first few days, but after about a week they would, they would see and they would. I guess they would just feel that I was safe, and so they would say bye to me or they would, you know if I was leaving the office of the house, or they would say hi when I showed up. And so, you know, little kids, you know, grab your leg and hug you, you know. And so, anyway, this particular girl, like a week went by, a few days went by nothing, a week went by nothing and I was like OK, this is, I’m just taking notice, like I’m OK, so we need to work with her, but we’re just going to let her have her time first, you know. So two weeks came around and I showed up to the house and all the kids came up, said hi, and I met with the staff or whatever, and I went to leave and I said bye, and all the kids came up and gave me a hug and said bye and she was off playing. She had a corner of my, she was off playing with this dollhouse and she had a tiara on everything and she was playing with some dolls, and so the kids said bye and they left, and then I proceeded to the door and when I started walking to the door she ran up to me and said Pajarami, pajarami, soty Cops, soty Cop. And I got down on one knee and she gave me a hug. I’ll never forget it because I have a picture on my phone of when she first came to the home and then I have a picture of that day when, when she gave me a hug and she had a little tear on and I was like somebody get a phone take a picture quick, you know, until somebody stopped the shop and you can see a visible difference. And for me I have a two and a half year old now and Can’t, can’t even imagine, Can’t. I can’t go there in my mind because it’s just not.

0:49:45 – Jaime Luce

It’s not breaks you all over again, it does.

0:49:49 – Jeremy Krause

And if it didn’t break me it would. It would make me so angry that I’d want to cope. You know somebody.

0:49:56 – Jaime Luce

Yeah.

0:49:58 – Jeremy Krause

And we can’t go there, and so right, anyways.

0:50:03 – Jaime Luce

You know, that reminds me of at one time we were I guess it was one of the newsletters that I received and you had a photo and you were careful to make sure that we couldn’t see children’s faces, but they were all playing outside on different play things, whether it was a swing or whatever they were doing, and they were running and playing. And, as a mother, I have four children and four grandchildren, so it’s it’s that. That’s all you want. You just want to see them being children, having fun and being kids playing, feeling that freedom of being a child and the knowledge that someone is stripping them of all freedom and goodness. There’s no sense of play, there’s no sense of, there’s no sense of what their life should be, what it could be. They are literally robbed of everything that you would want, as a normal human being, to give them.

0:51:10 – Jeremy Krause

Yeah, and a lot of times, like our kid, when they come in, I just remember, like several, I mean Silver and Over again, I always ask people, as just a point of conversation and wanting to help people move ahead in their life Now, what’s your dream? And in America it’s like, oh, this or that. Once in awhile someone might be like, well, what do you mean? Well, what do you wanna do with your life? And so I remember I always ask the girls that, what do you wanna do? What’s your dream? And I don’t think there’s been one time where I’ve asked that when the girls come in, where she said, oh yeah, this is my dream. That every time, every time the girls have said when they first come in, they’ve said what do you mean? What is that Like dream at nighttime, like I don’t know what I dream at nighttime, and so I’ve had to, we’ve had to. At one point we got all these magazines and we did dream boards and so we have to explain it, we have to teach them how to dream and how to have a life based off of your choice and any kind of freedom at all. Yeah, yeah.

0:52:31 – Jaime Luce

You know they’re probably, sadly. We don’t understand a locked up life. Such a locked up life Doesn’t even understand outside of their four walls. They don’t even know what’s out there. They don’t even know that it’s normal for a child to go run and play and have no care in the world. They don’t even know what that is.

0:52:55 – Jeremy Krause

No, they’ve been sexualized so much that it’s not even a that’s, they’re just super sexualized sometimes and that’s so their mind doesn’t even go to playing until they come to us and they feel safe and we’re like, and they see other kids playing, they’re like, oh, we’re like go, go play. And they’re like, oh, and then they just have a blast. It’s amazing to watch and see.

0:53:24 – Jaime Luce

Yeah, I mean that was why that photo had such an impact on me, because I’m thinking, boy, this is so, this is what you want for them, this is what we really want. It’s why mothers and fathers are screaming across the United States about schools right now.

0:53:38 – Jeremy Krause

Yes.

0:53:39 – Jaime Luce

And the sexualization that’s happening in our nation, to our children, now in front of us, right in front of us, and we need to be doing something about this. We need to not just complain and whine about it. We need to be doing something about it, and to the best that we can, on every level that we can, and-.

0:54:01 – Jeremy Krause

Just one. I want to add one more thing. One of the other things that I’ve been that we’re doing to raise awareness and things is. We work with Shannon Grove. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her before. She is a. I don’t remember her title and I wish I could look it up right now, but she works in Sacramento. Okay, I want to call her Congress. This is so bad. I’m sorry, shannon, if you’re watching this.

0:54:33 – Jaime Luce

Anyways In government.

0:54:37 – Jeremy Krause

Yeah, she is fighting tooth and nail. She is doing everything she can to make sure our kids are safe in school and also to stop sex trafficking in California. And I want to say she’s a Congresswoman. I could be wrong, but I want to say that. Anyways, she is amazing. I’ve met her several times and we have several friends that are friends of friends, and so I just had to throw that out there, because if you get a chance to look her up, she is doing amazing stuff and she’s fighting. She’s a Christian, she loves God. I’ve been in Holy Ghost meetings with her next to me and I’ve seen her worship God and I’ve seen her just pray and I know she’s doing God’s work in the Capitol here in California. So that’s one of the other things that we’re doing and as much as we can work with her, we do and we support her So-.

0:55:38 – Jaime Luce

That’s fantastic. Well, lastly, jeremy, how can individuals, communities or even governments contribute to the work of Thrive Rescue and help eradicate child sex trafficking?

0:55:53 – Jeremy Krause

You can volunteer, you can go, you can give or you can do all three. Yeah, an administrator. So I’m currently looking for a volunteer administrator.

0:56:08 – Jaime Luce

Okay.

0:56:09 – Jeremy Krause

And so anybody that wants to administrate or do social media for us, you can email me. Jeremy at ThriveRescue.org Would love to talk to you, would love to talk more about it. We are planning trips, so I’ll be announcing that through social media and through our emails. If you’re already a partner with us, you’ll get the email first and then. So you’ll have first choice and then we’ll put it on social media for others and then giving, sewing Sewing is a big deal. Whether you’re praying or you’re sewing finances, it’s a big deal. We feel that. I feel that my family feels that Our kids feel that, feel those prayers and when you give, it makes a big difference. Not only does it make a big difference, but I would ask you to test God in that and I don’t want you to take away from giving. If you’re listening and you’re giving to a church, give to a church, you shouldn’t stop giving to a church. But I would ask that you just ask the Lord and say, hey, what would you have us give and partner monthly with us, because that really makes a big difference. We have 10 kids in Pakistan right now and somebody burned a Quran there not in our home, somebody different in like several towns down and now they’re burning. They’re starting to burn every town down, every Christian they can find. They’re doing whatever they can to torture them and hurt them and destroy their homes and so we have a home full of children. And then we have another home with two families in it, or two families. And then we have another home with a guy that and his family that runs it, and they’re all Christian. He’s a pastor, and so he’s sending me video and pictures and he’s going help and I’m saying, okay, I’m getting the word out as much as I can, and so, yeah, partner with us monthly, because it makes a big difference and it allows us to open more homes. You know, I was in Peru last year and my wife is half proving and so I got to meet some of her family. But we were meeting with police and we were meeting with social workers and we were meeting with pastors and the pastors there and the police and the social. We’re all saying, yes, we need a home in this area because there’s only homes in this big city, and we need homes in this area because there’s smaller areas around us and you know they’re not used to going to the big city. They need a home here and so there’s a need. So I know from personal experience, whatever you sow, you’ll reap, and God is so faithful in that. And so, anyways, that would be a blessing.

0:59:22 – Jaime Luce

How can people get ahold of your ministry? What is your website and how do they email you or contact you? What way do you prefer and how do they do that?

0:59:30 – Jeremy Krause

You can go to thriverescue.org P-H-R-I-V-E, rescue-r-e-s-c-u-eorg, and you can contact us through our website. You can give through our website, and or you can go on to our social medias and leave us a message. I check the messages, so be patient with me. Sometimes I’m traveling, but I’ll get back to you and yeah, and so that’s how they can contact us.

1:00:00 – Jaime Luce

Well, Jeremy, I really do appreciate you taking the time today to talk about this. I know this is your heart, of course, and we want to do our part to help get the word out as much as we can. I really do wanna encourage those of you listening today if this is at all prick your heart, at least pray. At least pray about it and see if the Lord would ask you to do something and help bring awareness. Wherever you can, you can be someone who helps spread the word as well. You know, like I said, you strike when the iron’s hot. So if this is an issue that people are willing to hear about right now, it’s great to know that there are places that are doing something about it and there’s a way that you can spread the word about these kinds of ministries that are doing something, that are actually rescuing children and find, at the very least, I want you praying. We need this exposed on every level, at its highest level, and we need to be able to see justice, for not just we want, of course, these, these girls and boys, to be cared for, but we need justice done, and, and so we just need the people of God to rise up and stand up and Be the army that we are Standing for righteousness and standing against what the enemy would do to rob our children. You know, you, it’s bad enough when you see an adult who is Subject to whatever kind of traumas and difficulties, but it’s so much more vile and Disturbing when it’s our children, the innocence of our children, and and we do need to do something about it, and I thank you, Jeremy, that you are, that you answered the call and that thrive, rescue is out there. Doing just that giving children an ability to be rescued and thrive is that’s what we want for them. And and so, folks, if you have an opportunity, at least go to the website and and you know, educate yourself, find out what you can and and do what you can. And if you are somebody who has giftings in social media and is gifted in administration and you are looking for a place to use the gifts and talents that God has given you, reach out to Jeremy today and and give him the help that he needs. That way. That’s another way for us to use our hands and feet. We’re just servants. Jesus said that if you want to be the greatest, you need to be the servant of all, and we all need to find where we should be serving. What place can I put my hands and feet to do what God has called me to do? It doesn’t mean you leave your job. Doesn’t mean you have to do what Jeremy did. Doesn’t mean you have to sell everything and go to Thailand.

1:02:45 – Jeremy Krause

Don’t do it.

1:02:46 – Jaime Luce

It’s something I don’t do, what I did.

1:02:53 – Jeremy Krause

Only if.

1:02:53 – Jaime Luce

God tells you yeah, but there is something we can all do. There is something we can all do, and Even if that is using your voice, using your hands in some way, bringing light to it, praying and giving, they do need folks. You can only imagine it what it takes to run your household when you are constantly being brought new people into your home and you’re having to deal with the finances of Just generous people who are willing to give and and do their part to help sustain what’s going on. It really takes all of us doing that to make sure that these things continue. And, like the scripture tells us, you know, many hands make light work. Well, it’s the same in our finances too. Even if you only give a little bit, if all of us did just a little bit, we’d we’d make a big difference. We’d make a really big difference. So I encourage you all to do that. Thank you again, jeremy, for being with us today. I’ll go ahead and make sure and link for those of you who want to see the video again. We’ll link the video and we will link the web page here for you so that you can be in contact With Jeremy if you need to do that. So we pray. This has been a blessing to you and I opener to you. We hope it has encouraged you to stand up in the strength that God has given you and to make a difference. Thanks so much for joining us today. We’ll see you next time, bye, bye, hey everyone, I do want to thank you for joining me today for today’s episode. I want to encourage you. If this message has touched your heart and you want to help us get the word out, there are Christian organizations who are taking this seriously and doing something about it. I encourage you. Will you hit that little like button, help us with the algorithms, get the message out and share. If you will share this episode, you help us to get this message, the message of Jesus Christ in salvation, but also the message that there are people who are wanting to rescue and save the lives of the innocent, and you can help us Do that by sharing this. You can share it on social media. You can share it with friends. However you want to do that, we encourage you to do that Also. I’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to contact me, you can do so at jaimeluce.com. You can send us an email at mail, at jaimeluce.com. That’s J A, I am L. You see E, and you’ll help us to Find out how this is ministering to you and anything that we can do, whether we are praying for you and also, if you need help contacting Jeremy, we would love to do that. So thank you again for joining us today. Make sure you help us get the word out. Thanks, bye, bye you.