Reaction & Commentary
Kind of work that you do which is rescuing children from sex trafficking That’s Heavy and hard work super heavy I I didn’t intend to I I went to school in grad school with the intention of working in federal law enforcement to fight terrorism and weapons and I
Graduated at grad school in in December 2001 so it was like that’s it terrorism is everywhere and that’s what we’re going to be doing I got to my first uh station as a special agent in California on the border and six months into that they created a child crimes unit and
They asked me to be part of it and the reason I was asked that my according to my boss he says I know you’re a person of faith and you need that to do this and I had no idea what that meant really until I was actually in it because it is
The darkest thing you you a decent mind couldn’t even imagine yeah what this is yeah the things people do to children I’m not talking about even adolescent children that’s bad enough I’m talking about like seven six five and once you see it you can’t unsee it and
Then you’ve got to make a decision right yeah and I my decision was just all in so I’ve been doing that ever since I mean how do you prepare to to go into that kind of work because you you did you mentioned how daunting it is to see
What these younger and younger and younger generations of children are facing how do you deal with that spiritually right because there’s it’s got to take a toll on you psychologically huge huge psychological toll uh it’s super dark I I say you know it burns holes into your brain like you
Know I’ve probably had to watch thousands of hours and this is when I was an agent I don’t do that anymore because I don’t have a badge it’s one of the benefits um but thousands of hours of watching children being raped and then and then rewinding and watching again to describe
It for the court or for the you know for the for the prosecutors it’s you know and then and then seeing the kid and you had now you’re with the kid and you’re like oh my gosh and I hadn’t experienced once with um with a child it’s actually depicted in
The sound of Freedom so it’s a real scene where the child I was seeing this child um who I had already seen the videos of him being raped by the pedophile who’s driving the van and you get stopped at the border and they get him out I and I
I’m one of the first on the scenes and and at one point this is five years old and he’s being kidnapped from Mexico and the guy who’s kidnapping him is has a has a basically child porn studio and in San Bernardino California yeah and um
Anyway so I get this he jumps into my arms in fact that’s the scene you see here at nrb yeah he’s a holy that’s that’s the actual scene from the movie where he jumps out of the van and I’m holding it I’m just like oh my gosh holy
Crap and then he tells me about his sister and um his sister’s being trafficked and he gives me this necklace this is a real story and when you get Santa from there’s he’s you even in the trailer kavis was always holding this necklace the necklace is real it’s I actually
Told the producers to consider not telling the story because people won’t believe it but the little boy gave me a necklace it was a necklace that was like a rosary like a prayer to him and um the necklace had my name on it wow uh it was
Because it had a little scripture First Timothy 6 11. and when I saw my name on it he gave it to me even though I was trying to give it back to him it was like it was like a calling so from the beginning to answer
Your question how do you deal with this like if you don’t feel Jesus we don’t feel God if you don’t feel the spirit you’re not going to do this yeah you’re not going to and if you try you’re not going to last at least I wouldn’t I wouldn’t last
Um you know so everything is Faith to me everything is knowing what Jesus says about hurting kids that it’s better than a millstone be hung around your neck you toss the bottom of the sea so you he he’s clear where he stands on it and when you when you have that gives you
Confidence in the Lord because you know where he stands on it right he’s fiercely I mean it’s mafioso talk yeah like you sink to the bottom of the sea with a millstone around your neck like it’s it’s only right because Jesus is saying it in this case and you know he
Means it so so that’s how I that’s the only way I can say I can even deal with it or heal from it is is through Jesus I think this is what I think is so important about sound of freedom and making this film because it’ll get broad
Exposure hopefully right and people will finally see maybe what actually is happening I’ve heard you talk about the the fact that this kind of child sexual slavery and this trafficking there’s more people now enslaved than ever before in the history of the world that’s right talk about that because I
Think that’s something people don’t realize is actually happening right I mean we look at our history books and we think slavery was eradicated because we read the books about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln and William mover force in Britain and and that’s wonderful but
In some ways it does as a disservice we get a false sense of security that it’s that it’s it’s dead it’s not dead it’s illegal yeah that’s great finally it took it took 350 years for the United for the America even before it was a country right it was it was already
Slavery was already here um why it took that long is is horrific and grotesque but it finally it finally you know um finally eradicated um and I’m not saying that the modern day form of slavery is worse than the transatlantic 19th century uh slavery it’s not
Um it’s all bad right but the the point is and the people you wake up to is you could add up all the people who were enslaved over that 350 years a period of time that we call the transatlantic slave trade and you can add them all up
And there’s more people alive right now in slavery than all of those combined over 350 years yeah it’s close to 30 million people are by most estimates State Department un that are in slavery either slave labor sex slavery or organ harvesting and sometimes if it’s one it’s going to be the other anyway
Eventually right so it’s horrifying it’s horrific um the United States government and most governments aren’t aren’t making it the priority that it should be I think there’s five drug agents to everyone you know anti-title trafficking agent let’s let’s switch that because I’d rather save a child than seize a pound of
Cocaine yeah right yeah um and so we’re trying to get loud and and you know we can do operation all day long and we always will and if if all we ever do is rescue one kid in 10 years it will have been worth it guaranteed luckily we’ve
Been able to rescue over seven thousand um and 5 000 arrests that we’ve assisted on but um but that’s that’s only a drop statistically right it’s a drop in the market and so we need we need people in media we need people doing interviews like like you’re doing here with us uh
We need sound of Freedom we need Jim cavieza we needed Mira cervino they’re the ones in the end and the people who attend these media functions events screenings movies whatever it is that’s what’s going to end this yeah we won’t end it we will just continue rescuing
The one who’s going to end it are the storytellers yeah you know you say 7 000 plus that have been that have been rescued and that is a drop in the bucket but it’s also a huge Testament to the work that you’re doing how have you seen
God orchestrating a lot of the success that you’ve had in in the work you do I mean the the Miracles are insane right like a quick story like just last year I we have five divisions and regional directors who run all our operations I do a lot of different things right as
The founder of the organization but I have my own Ops Team so occasionally one or two a year or maybe I’ll do one and one operation I did was when Russia invaded Ukraine uh in February of last year and my wife comes to me you got to go to Ukraine like ah there’s
Nothing I can do there like you gotta go uh we knew of some orphans that we were trying to help get out and she says go find these kids and and so I did only because I felt it and my wife felt it I was like let’s go yeah well what happens
After that turns into it’s a four-part mini-series it’s coming up Mel Gibson’s in it Tony Robbins is producing it we had no idea what was going to happen only one of the episodes is about Ukraine we get there we find a pedophile ring out of Holland that’s trafficking
War victim children they’re trying to traffic them into Mexico and we end up on this it’s over four months only we we went from Ukraine to Holland to Mexico to Ecuador to Miami uh and and took down a whole pedophile ring five lead five petal leaders of a pedophile group
Political party in Holland that were fugitives it ended in a discovering a child sex Hotel in in a little town a little village in in Ecuador that these pedophiles were were going to advertise they’re they were having sex party with children right so that whole thing’s a miracle
And I mean I can every step of the way God’s in it and but the biggest Miracles after those four months I go back to my wife and I see her and she’s busy we have nine children and she’s doing her thing and I start crying because I was
Thinking back to how this all started it’s a whirlwind in the middle of it but then it’s like I now see what used felt God told you to tell me to go to Ukraine and there was no really rational reason to go there wasn’t any direct like
Objective that I could even get my hands around but she’s just like you’ve got to go because I feel it and she’s crying when she’s telling me this in February of 2022 she’s because she’s knowing that I’m going to a place where bombs are dropping but she knows God’s telling her
To tell me and then I get back four months later and then it hits me because I’m slow I’m a slow thinker apparently and I’m just like oh my gosh what was actually happening here is God saw these children in suffering in kanoa Ecuador this little village and where no one was
Paying attention and those those hundreds of kids were going to turn into thousands of kids yeah and these pedophiles were about to launch a campaign an advertising campaign for this for their sex Hotel and God told my wife to tell me to go to Ukraine because he saw children in
Ecuador that’s how God works right yeah and then once we go and show our faith faith precedes the miracle you go even if you don’t know exactly beforehand what you’re going to do but you get there and once once God sees you’re willing to put your boots on the ground
In a war zone then he says okay now I can work with you and boom doors start opening let me introduce you to the pedophile organization let me introduce you to the guy in Mexico who’s who’s hiding and hurting kids it was crazy and in four months we ripped through six
Countries three continents hundreds maybe thousands in the end rescued that’s just god wow there’s no other way to explain that yeah well it’s a story of obedience right of being willing to obey in a culture that tells us to just do what we want exactly and learning to
To follow the call of God I think is that’s a hard thing how have you learned to sacrifice uh in order to be obedient so I learned that lesson very strongly in when I started our because I didn’t want to you know like to your point Like
Jesus Does not ask you to do easy things yeah ever like if he’s asking you something it’s because it’s going to rip your heart out probably right and that’s what it is to be a disciple of Jesus and I’m not saying I’m a very good one but I’m trying and and I
Learned um that lesson in December of 2013 when Glenn Beck was starting to raise the money and that was like oh crap now the money’s here I’m gonna have to actually quit my job and I don’t want to because it’s safe it feels safer over here but
My wife taught me something so important because I was freaking out and she said okay just sit down I was having a panic attack second week of December 2013. I was like I can’t do this I can’t leave I can’t go there I can’t you know and
She’s like calm down she’s like close your eyes she’s like do you what do you look at the two paths that you’re looking at the government path the safety of the federal government job and versus this new operation Underground Railroad I said well she said what do
You see and I said I see Claire and and bright and happy and the government it’s safe and secure and over here I see cobwebs and creepy and like I don’t want to go there she’s like okay open your eyes she’s like okay close your eyes
Again I don’t I don’t know where she got this God must have been telling her to say because she says okay picture you’re meeting your maker and you’re we’re all yes it’s coming for all of us you can’t you can’t the one thing we we never Escape is death rate like it’s gonna
Happen we’re gonna we’re gonna meet our maker she’s like no what what’s he gonna ask you if he asks you did you did was I clear first of all that you need to do this when and he had been by the way very clear and did you do it
Tim can you what are you gonna answer what are you gonna say she’s like now picture those two roads with that in mind and it was the most amazing visual that God blessed me with my wife it’s switched yes I could still see the path
50 years old I get to retire I get a pinch I see all that but it’s scary yeah it’s like oh what will I miss What will what will uh what blessings might not come to me my family and others if I be if I’m worried if I’m fearful and and
All of a sudden the other path the the the non-profit privatizing the rescue of children which I don’t know how to do I know I’ve never started a business that’s what this is like it was I still couldn’t see in this in my visual of that path but it was warm
And it was light and Jesus was there and I could just see two stones in my mind I saw two stones like just go to the first stone and then go to the next Stone path you know and it was warm and happy and I I woke up and and I was like
Okay yeah and and I try to think of that every day in my life because every decision I make when I get up in the morning no matter what it is big or small if you have that perception if you put everything you every decision you make in the context of a meeting
With your maker that will happen yeah right in 50 to 60 70 whatever for all of us it’s like this then then your decisions become really clear yeah of what you should do yeah and again it’s not going to ever be the easy fun recreational thing people think they’ve
Tricked themselves into thinking that’s why they’re here when I hear a recreate we’re here to serve people we’re here to to build a relationship with God and and and find Salvation and help others yeah that’s it I mean what did Jesus teach us oh he taught serve serve serve serve
Serve I mean the whole new testament that if I could give it one word it’s serve people love people love God love your neighbor right and then in the end it’s with the iron the ironic thing which is also scriptural is you actually find happiness there way more than you
Would recreating yeah you actually find that deep Joy which is you know and it’s hard but there’s a joy in this yeah so for sure sorry I didn’t mean to go all no crazy Pastor on you but that’s just no I appreciate you sharing your heart
Too and the last question I want to ask you you’ve been generous with your time I appreciate it but what is it like to see yourself in a movie with the sound of Freedom coming out it is it is weird you know it’s like my wife talks about
Like she’s like I feel like I’m looking at like this is a weird analogy but she’s like you know when you go to a funeral and you look at the at the body and it’s like that’s not even that person because the spirit is somewhere else it’s that’s not that person she’s
Like that’s what it feels like when she looks at this character is playing our family yeah it’s like that’s not us you know and especially when your favorite actor is playing you because you know I chose Jim when they asked me so how did that come about well
I never thought they were going to make this movie they’ve been talking about it for a couple years but I knew through doing some research that I think like less than five percent of movies and concept make it to the big screen like it’s just pretty rare something this is
Never gonna be made first of all who wants to watch a movie about human trafficking like it’s dark it’s ugly like No One’s Gonna Make this um especially back in 2015 when they were because no one was even talking about it then yeah and they came to me and I hate Hollywood
I’m not gonna lie to you I mean Hollywood is the reason I’m even having to do what I do they create the demand and I know they they’re gonna hate me want to cancel me for saying this but it’s true the sexualization of of the of
The world of the nation is what creates in the end this desire that gets into weird things like child sex yeah you know tourism and whatnot so I’m not a fan of Hollywood you know the only show I watch is the chosen that’s the one
Show I watch on TV and which is so cool that that’s that’s who ends up taking the film is the Angel Studios but um so when they came to me and asked that question okay we’re gonna do the film and and we had turned down other
Offers by the way from like that we just were like uh like you are you are Hollywood right and so I give someone a chance like maybe you’re not Hollywood maybe you’re in the industry but you’re not Hollywood right and the big when they said you know who do you want to
Play you I said there’s only one person who can play me it’s Jim Caviezel like okay great actor they said but we’re looking for some of this more your body type looks like you I mean in the end you’ll see that they did a good job
Making him look like me okay but but I said look this is why it has to be Jim because I hate Hollywood I love Jesus and I know of only one person in the industry that loves Jesus for sure I know that I know that and so that’s why it has to be
Him and it turns out these producers also love Jesus I didn’t know for sure but they have made it very clear we’re very good friends yeah and so that was it and they called him he accepted in like four days and off he went and he
Did a phenomenal job he really did like he he says more if you watch the film he says more of what I’m feeling at least with his eyes in the film than he does with his mouth like he’s he he really is able to like get that message of light
Against Darkness light exposing Darkness um through just he’s he’s well he’s spiritual he calls on God yeah like he says about The Passion of the Christ he’s like I didn’t play Jesus Jesus played me which which he meant he just gave himself over like tell me what to
Do and that’s how he acts you know and I feel like we saw some of that yeah in the sound of Freedom yeah for sure well I’m looking forward to the release of the film Tim Ballard thank you so much thank you man thanks so much
