Rick Green [00:00:07] This is the intersection of faith and cultures, The WallBuilders Show. Thanks so much for joining us. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. You can learn more about us at our websites, wallbuilders.com and wallbuilder.show. We're of course taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And we do more of that right there at the websites. Of course wallbuilds.show, if you just want to catch up, maybe you miss some of our Good News Friday programs or Foundations of Freedom Thursday programs or some of the interviews. Throughout the rest of the week. It's all right there on the website and really easy to share, which we're gonna ask you to do. That's being a force multiplier and you're getting this good news out there to more and more people. All right guys, David Jacobs will be with us a little later, gonna talk about the Nazarene Fund and of course, full disclosure, you guys have I think been on that board since the beginning. I think you're right at the beginning, right? Didn't you guys help start it? 

David Barton [00:00:53] Yeah, we upstarted back at the very beginning. It was when there was so much going on in Iraq with ISIS. I mean, literally just recounting some of the things that were happening as ISIS was moving through Iraq. They targeted Christians. They specifically would go house to house. And if they identified Christians on the outside of the house, they would mark the Arabic symbol, Nun on the other side, which indicated that that's Christian. That symbol none stands for Nazarene. The people who live in this house are Nazarene followers. And then as the ISIS army would come through houses marked that way, they would go in and exterminate those people, usually in a very bloody, very graphic way to be deterrent to anyone else who might be Christians. And so it was really, really bad at that point. Glenn Beck saw some of that stuff and said this. We got to do something to help. And so he announced it nationally and started the Nazareen Fund. The, the symbol we use for that, and Tim and I are on the board, Nazarene fund,  help run that and help run that from the beginning. But the symbol used is the Arabic symbol Nun. The same thing that ISIS uses is what we use for our symbol and it re and it's for rescuing Christians. However, it's not just Christians. It's religious minorities, people who are targeted for their faith so that includes folks like you Yazidis and it includes what we've had. We've rescued a number of Muslims who were being sought by ISIS. Well, we would consider moderate or tolerant Muslims, a number of folks that under the American administration of Afghanistan, you had all these women who were elected judges, who were legislators, who just a whole different kind of Islam going. And then they suddenly became targeted when Biden pulled out. Man, every one of those women who was in any kind of position other than a complete subjection was targeted for death. And so we moved those women out as well. All over the world, and it's not just Afghanistan and the Middle East, we've helped shut down organ harvesting farms in Nigeria and Turkey and places all over the world. Organ harvesting farms are because in those areas they will take Christian kids and Christian people and harvest their organs because they're going to kill them anyway, so harvest the organs and sell a heart for $50,000 or a liver for whatever. Each person they kill, they get about $250,000 of funding. Off the organs they sell from that person or that kid. And so we'll go in, been able, the guys on the ground being able to go in and shut down those kind of operations, get the authorities involved, help arrest them. But our guys, it's not done from behind the desk, it's just not done with just paperwork. These guys actually go in and literally over the course of these years, we've lost some of them in gun battles. They're not going in trying to start wars, but they get shot at once they get in there. And so it's dangerous for them, but it's been a very successful, very good operation, the Nazarene Fund. 

Tim Barton [00:03:48] Well, and dad, to that point, when we're saying that we have people that go in and some of our guys have been, uh, in gun battles and some have been killed. These are not necessarily the Nazarene fund operators because what, and not that we don't work with these people very closely, but what we do is we try to find people on the ground for those on the outside listening, right? This is, we're not sending American troops on the ground to go in these foreign nations and do operations because in that complicates a lot of the international regulations, lines, boundaries, war, conflict, kind of stuff. And so we find people on the ground and we help mobilize people inside those nations, inside those states that want to put a stop to this often at times, depending on where, working with law enforcement at times. Working with some of the armed forces, if there are kind of conflicts and civil war kind of stuff going on and Christians are being targeted or persecuted. It's working with the locals that are there, but there are some locals in some of these regions that we have worked with a lot over the years, because they're in a nation that has been known to be a very significant hotspot for a lot of the persecution of Christians and religious minorities. And so, Dad, as you're saying that some of our guys, these are not like American military veterans per se that are going and doing this, although sometimes they're the ones directing the operations. It really is, there's a strategic operation and to not give away you know, more than we probably should to compromise anything in the future. It is something that happens at high cost at times, but it's people that are committed to saving lives. And so it's, the Nazarene Fund has been doing something that virtually no other organization has done. It was the division of leadership of Glenn Beck saying, man, let's do this. And then it really was God opening the doors to help align some of the right people. To work together with some very specific skill sets and I mean we there are some people on this team that for people that have seen the movie Taken like this is like the Liam Neeson Where it's like I've got a very specific set of skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. Yes, those kind of guys are on the team 

Rick Green [00:05:58] I will find you. Sorry, that was my best Liam Mason. That's the best I could do, yes. 

Tim Barton [00:06:02] It was actually pretty good, Rick, it wasn't bad. But yeah, all that to say is, you know, there is some more details, there's nuance in this, but the bottom line, the Nazarene Fund has been on the front edge of helping rescue Christians and persecuted religious minorities around the world. Dad, as you mentioned, not just necessarily in the Middle East, although that's definitely been a hotspot. They've done incredible good over the years since they started. 

David Barton [00:06:28] Tim great clarification point to on the fact that we're not sending our teams and it's not American teams and actually, it's, not even a religious war which it might sound like at times in the sense that many of the guys that that help us on the ground are actually Kurds they're they're muslims but they hate these radicals that want to kill everybody else and one of these curd guys has been shot over a dozen times going in on the snatch and grab operations and he keeps going back because he hates what they're doing. So it is a significant and that's a great clarification again Tim. Thank you because it's not sending American troops in there are people all over the world who want to see the stuff ended and we're working with those and having them on the ground. They have local intelligence. They know those guys They know their habits and all about it It's the best way to go and the other thing is that the scripture says to remember those that are in bonds And that's part of what Nazarene fund does is around the world remembering those that have been persecuted for their faith and Nazarene Fund, I'm gonna do a little commercial here. Glenn started this 10 years ago and the pledge has been made is when you get from the Nazareen Fund, all of it's gonna go down range. Throughout the year, Glenn will help with fundraisers with Glenn to raise money for this so that the administrative, all that kind of stuff on our side can be covered and this money can go downrange. And so that is another unique thing about this. Is unlike so many other charities and many of them do such good work, we try to make sure that this all goes down range on the mission, on the designation to get those Christians and persecuted religious minorities out of there. So David Jacobs is the guy who really helps from the executive standpoint side on the operatives and the guys who are doing this stuff, and he knows more about what's going on across the world. With this type of operations and getting religious persecuted minorities out of there than anybody else. And he's a great guy to update us on this. 

Rick Green [00:08:25] Today we get an update from David Jacobs about the Nazarene Fund and the good work being done around the planet. Stay with us folks. We'll be right back on The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:09:38] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. David Jacobs with us from the Nazarene fund, David. Thanks so much for coming on, man. 

David Jacobs [00:09:44] Pleasure to be with you. Thanks for having us, Rick. Well, you guys do incredible work that most people never hear about. Definitely unsung heroes. Thank you. Thank you for all the behind the scenes work, the rescues, uh, you know, David and Tim Barton, of course, you know, on the board and helping to, to oversee a lot of this stuff that happens, so we get to hear a little bit of a behind the scenes, but for our audience, we  just want them to know. That a lot of this is happening and the numbers are pretty staggering the number of people that you guys have been able to touch and to save and to relocate so we just want to get an update from you. It's been almost a year since we got an update and just kind of what you can tell us catch us up on what's been going on with the Nazarene fund. 

David Jacobs [00:10:20] Yeah, well, first of all, thank you to you for all you do, Rick, and just want to just give a wonderful big thank you to the Bartons. They volunteer so much time and energy and to sit on the Mercury One board and the TNF board. And I tell you, they're a blessing to thousands of people around the world that will never even know their name for their work that they do and all the supporters of the Nazarene Fund. And, but they basically allow us to be boots on the ground in some of the worst places on earth to bless the lives of people who are being persecuted for their faith, for their beliefs, and just for being different, right? So at the Nazarene Fund, you know, Glenn started this in 2015 as a, it's been 10 years now almost, which is unbelievable. As Yazidis in Northern Iraq, Southern Syria were being targeted by ISIS. Yazidis are this little group of people, kind of a mixture of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. They're their own little peaceful people. And ISIS targeted them and just basically started wiping them out. And the international community came in and responded briefly to stop ISIS, but really left the Yazidis out on their own. So Glenn came in, Nazarene Fund was born, a bunch of other other really great groups went out there and helped rescue as many Yazidis as possible. Fast forward 10 years Really, Nazarene Fund is one of the only groups left that is still focusing on trying to find the 2,800 missing women and men, mostly women still, that ISIS kidnapped, murdered, killed. We still are out there looking for the one. There's still, like I said, close to 3,000 women missing, girls. Think about this. You're kidnapped when you're 12 years old, turned into basically a sex slave, I'm sorry to say it, passed around from ISIS fighter to ISIS fighter. You're now 22 years old and the last 10 years of your life has been absolute hell, right? We are actually able to find anywhere between six to 12 of these girls still and pull them out of hell and try to help them rebuild their lives. So that's one thing that we're doing at the Nazarene Fund. 

Rick Green [00:12:25] David, that's important to point out. It's it's rescue, rebuild, restore. You guys don't just rescue them. You find a way for them to be restored as well. 

David Jacobs [00:12:34] Yeah. And that's Rick. That's a great point because the rescue itself, I always, I joke around about this and say, it's really expensive to save people's lives. It's a, it' quite a process. It's one thing though, to rescue. We can, we have amazing teams that get there on the ground and actually rescue. It's is another thing to help rebuild lives. And it's a time consuming and very expensive effort to try to find safe, new homes for these people where they can just rebuild their lives. And sometimes that happens in a local community, sometimes it happens overseas in a Western country. And wherever it is, wherever we can find these homes, our teams are working literally around the clock because we're all over the world trying to find homes for them to rebuild. 

Rick Green [00:13:19] And that's in the thousands. I mean, just, just this year, right. Or just last year. I mean last year and it's like a thousand refugees moved at 7,000 assisted. You're right. You got significant mission, you know, 60, you have dozens, dozens of actual rescue missions that, that took place. And like you said, every single one of those takes dollars. You got to have the fuel in the tank, to have the team to go in, to pay for the supplies, to do all the different things that you're doing, even the Intel, everything. And, and so when people can help with the Nazarenefund.org, you may not ever hear the specific personal stories of the person that you help, most likely won't, but you know that it's being used wisely with, with good oversight and, and making a big difference. It's just, it's just huge and doing all three of those things, not just rescuing, but rebuilding and restoring. Sorry, go ahead, man. 

David Jacobs [00:14:00] No, no, thank you for pointing that out. And you know what, let me personalize some of it. You know, you hit some of the key markers there as far as numbers go, but there are thousands of people that we help every year with humanitarian effort. But we're really a rescue organization. We are trying to do the hard work that very few organizations and groups can do. We try to rescue, we try again to rebuild. But you know, for instance, I got a text this morning from an old Navy sailor, retired guy, who we helped get his interpreter out of Afghanistan. That's been one of the biggest projects that the Nazarene Fund has done. We helped during the fall of Afghanistan about three and a half years ago, on TNF planes alone, we moved over 9,500 people who were being targeted by the Taliban. 9,500 souls saved. And again, the way that I like to look at this is you're talking about generational lives here. 

Rick Green [00:14:47] And the people that saved American lives that help us

David Jacobs [00:14:51] Walked side by side with our troops for 20 years and we just abandoned them. TNF didn't, Beck didn't, the Bartons didn't. We were standing there by their side with again, a bunch of other wonderful groups that helped on the ground as well. But on CNF planes, 9,500 souls, about another 5,000 souls we helped move through ground and other efforts. But here's one of the key things, we've continued our efforts there and we're still working. I spend hours a day still helping people move to different places in the world. And I want thank Brazil. Brazil has been an absolute blessing to us lately. They've been taking many of our refugees. But I just got a text this morning from this Navy sailor. You could tell he was just touched in the heart. He said, hey guys, I won't say his name, but so-and-so just graduated from high school today. His dad was an interpreter with US troops. We got the family out through TNF. They've relocated to the United States. They went through all the proper vetting. They paid their price in Afghanistan. They put their lives online every day for our guys. 

Rick Green [00:15:46] That's right. 

David Jacobs [00:15:47] They went through the proper channels. They've come to America, they've assimilated into our culture and into our society. They get jobs, they contribute to the American dream. And today, one of them just graduated from high school. And he's a star soccer player. And this was thanks to, again, to our donors that made this possible. This guy now has a life, this young man who's the age of my kids, now has a life here where if he were stuck in Afghanistan, his dad would have been killed, chances are he would have killed or said, join the Taliban. There's really no future for them. So again, just one of the personal touches that we that we see almost on a daily basis because we are able to do this work. 

Rick Green [00:16:23] And David, that's that's generational, not only for that family and that kid, which you, and you know, there's way better than I do, but the damage done for our goodwill around the world to try to get people to help us in the future by abandoning them, like the president Biden did, was huge. And so every time you guys at the Nazarene fund are able to do what you did with that, just, just like what you just described, every one of those is helping to rebuild. That future trust, it's the stories that will need to be told 10 years from now, 20 years from, now when some spec ops guy is in some country somewhere trying to build relationships that can help for whatever purpose were there, whatever the reason is for our national national interest,  we have to be able to show them that we will not do what Joe Biden did to you. We will not the abandonment. We're actually, we had people like, you know, David Jacobs and Nazarene fund and others that step in to fill the gap. 

David Jacobs [00:17:14] Yeah, no, you're right. I mean, that's what Green Berets do. That's part of their job. You know, people don't know that Green Beret's go in and that's their job is to establish those diplomatic and political relationships on the ground. And, you know, people I think think about Green Berets and they just think that they're kicking the doors and doing all the great stuff. Well, they know how to do that and they're very good at it, but they go in and they build these relationships. And so we don't have to be kicking the door. So we don't have to shooting and losing men and women on the front line. So that's the really good point that you made Rick is that we are trying to clean up a mess. That a very terrible administration created. And, you know, it's interesting because, yeah, there are some hard feelings out there. We do have refugees who are still stuck there, guys who fought side by side with our guys, who are, again, stuck. And, when President Trump came into office, he rightfully so was concerned about the number of illegal, but also legal refugees that were coming into our country, so. Unfortunately, a lot of our people still got stuck with this new administration and we're working all that we can and all that we can do. We don't. In fact, we applaud the president for wanting to make sure people who are coming here are coming here the right way.  the Nazarene fund, that's what we're doing. We're trying to make sure the state department sees, hey, look, that our people we stand by these guys and their their their history speaks for itself. They were with our guys through the thick and thin. But one thing also kind of slips through the cracks a little bit is. You know, we talk about these guys who were our interpreters and who work for the US government and other agencies. But one thing that I really wanna point out that is really special to me is I don't have any daughters. I only have sons. But one that has just really touched my heart is the ability that we've seen to see so many women rescued out of Afghanistan, women who stood up to the Taliban, a lot of protesters who went out and took off their burkas and just said, we're not gonna live under your tyrannical rule. We're not going to do this. We've known freedom for 20 years. A lot of these women, that's all they knew. They tasted freedom and the Taliban came in there and took it away. And so one of the- 

Rick Green [00:19:10] They had the courage to stand. 

David Jacobs [00:19:11] They stand there and we could, at the Nazarene Fund, we couldn't turn away. And so that's one of our focuses right now is making sure that these women who stood up to the Taliban, who the international community has forgotten, we're moving a lot of these women to safe places where they can go to school, where their daughters can go school, where they leave their homes without being covered up, where they sing, where they get an education, where they could get jobs. All things that are now illegal under the Taliban that could cost your life. And a lot these women have been brutally tortured. And this is a family show, so I'm not gonna go in and tell you some of the tactics that the Taliban used, but we're able to get these women, the Taliban will release them. These women are almost broken in spirit, but they're so strong, and we're able to move them to safe places and find new homes for them. So I wanted to make sure that your listeners understand that it's not just the spec ops guys and the interpreters and the USG, but it's also the women who deserve not to live under such a terrible way of life. 

Rick Green [00:20:09] Amen. Ah, you're doing the Lord's work, brother. Rescue, rebuild, restore the Nazarenefund.org. So many things that you've said. I mean, so many good reasons to support what y'all are doing. And just another thing to add on top of that, the 10 years of goodwill that's being built, the ability to even be a go-between between the American government and some of these places and just building that credibility with the insiders at the Pentagon. I mean there's just so much that's going on that you guys are doing that is good for our country and good for those individuals that you're saving as well. We appreciate you guys. Thanks for all the hard work. David, thanks for, I mean, it's gotta be tough even to deal with the stories you're dealing with. And just pray for God to give you the strength to continue to do what you're doing and look forward to getting another great report from you soon. 

David Jacobs [00:20:52] We'd love to report any time, Rick. Thanks for having us and thanks for the prayers, brother. 

Rick Green [00:20:55] You bet, that's David Jacobs, The Nazarene Fund. TheNazareneFund.org is the website. Go there today, folks. Make a contribution. Just follow on the website so you can pray for some of the stuff that's going on there. It's a great way to support the Lord's work. Stay with us. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. 

Rick Green [00:22:16] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us today. Special thanks to David Jacobs and to all the unsung heroes and, and, and folks who can't, you know, not even going to be able to talk about on the program, all those people on the ground, all over the world that are playing a role in, in rescuing and meeting needs and, and relocating and just all the things that David was talking about and once again, just want to reiterate, hey, we can all be a part of that and simply making a donation helps to allow more of these missions to take place. 

Tim Barton [00:22:42] You know, Rick, along those lines, two real quick thoughts from the follow up of that interview. First of all, as you just mentioned, we can help make a difference. I was reminded the Apostle Paul in Galatians identified that as believers, he said, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. As Christians, at times as American Christians, especially, we can get in a bubble and think very American centric thoughts. And even though there's some good things with that, I support the governmental policies of putting America first. I support that from our government. However, as believers, this is different than the role of government. The role of governments should be protecting their citizens, but as believers, we've been called to help anybody in the household of faith. I'm like, do good to everybody, but especially those from the household of faith is what the apostle Paul said. And so that's my first thought is that we really want to make sure that we are. We are thinking about believers around the world. And the Nazarene Fund is certainly an organization that is at the forefront of trying to help believers around the word with what they're doing. And secondly, guys, you know, we just had Memorial Day this week and the Nazarine Fund was very involved with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden handing that back over to the Middle East. The Nazareen Fund was on the ground helping even rescue some of these Uh, interpreters, Americans, people that were left behind. And I say that because not only is this something as people of faith, we should care about, this is even something that is very connected to some of the military legacy of America, where so many men and women that have given so much over the years, obviously under president Biden, for many of them, they, they felt so betrayed and, and they had to question so much of what they did and why they did it and the impact and what's going on. And, and now there's so many questions about the government lying to You know, what can we trust and what can't we trust? Those questions are there. But this again is where the Nazarene Fund has been so unique and special and different is they have been on the ground helping rescue people that at times America left behind, but at other times are just singled out by groups in their nation or from the nation itself. And they have done such a good job of helping rescue around. 

David Barton [00:24:57] And I would, again, encourage folks, this is a good place to sow into some money to help some people. This is literally, this is helping what Jesus called the least among those. And these are the ones in bonds and persecuted. So much stuff that we take for granted here and we just enjoy on a regular basis, so much so that we don't even often remember all the blessings we have. This is not the way it is in so much of the rest of the world. And these our key blessings for them. And so the stories, and we post a lot on the website for Nazarene Fund, you'll see a lot of stories of people after the rescues and what it's meant, what a blessing it's been to them and their family and their kids and getting to freedom and not having to run for their lives anymore. So if you can give to Nazarene Fund, it's a great place to give. It's not going for anything except downrange type of stuff to rescue lives and get them out of there. And so your gift is gonna go a long way with here. Maybe more so than other places, and other places are great, but this is a good place to give. 

Rick Green [00:25:55] Yes. One of those things where you, you know, it's actually saving lives. And as you said earlier, not just a bunch of overhead and different things or, or marketing. I mean, this is going into missions that are actually going to save lives. TheNazarenefund.org. So the Nazarenes and Nazarens N A Z A R E N E fund. Org rescue, rebuild, restore. Every single one of us can be a part of it. The Nazarene fund. Go make that contribution today. Make sure you're on their email list. Uh, just think of the lives that will be changed and the lives that will saved and go there today. The Nazarene fund.org. Thanks again to David Jacobs. Appreciate the update coming on today. Tim, David, thank you for serving on this board and, and for helping to direct and just keep this thing on track and, uh, just, just a wonderful, wonderful thing to be a part of. Appreciate everybody listening today. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show.