Faith Culture And Interview Setup

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Welcome to the intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Builder Show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. We're actually going to spend the next three days getting an incredible interview Tim Barton did with our friend Yaakobillions. This is on The American Story, which you can actually go watch the video of as well by going to the Wall Builders YouTube channel or any of our other social media pages. But we thought we'd bring it to you, our Wall Builders live listeners, here on the radio program. By the way, the radio program available at wallbuilders.show, wallbuilders.show for catching up on any of the programs of the last few weeks and months, or go to wallbuilders.com for everything else. The schedule's coming up, the conferences, the pastors' briefings, all the different programs that we're doing for teachers and students and pastors, you name it, all available right there at wallbuilders.com. But then, of course, for the radio program, Wallbuilders.show. This particular program, Tim Barton interviewing Yacob Billions. Yes, let's jump in to the first part of that interview with Yacko.

Tim Introduces Yaku Buyens

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Here's Tim Barton.

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I am super pumped today to introduce you to one of my very good friends. Uh, he is someone that I have gotten to know over the last several years, and I am so challenged uh by this man, by his courage and leadership, his testimony, uh, what God has allowed him to do, but also what he's had to endure and how he's led in the midst of it. He's someone that actually has an organization that fights human trafficking. He's worked with the White House to help do things to secure the children of America, but honestly, children that are being imported from around the world. Um, a lot of what happened during the Biden administration, the open borders, this was a guy leading the fight to stop that, partly because uh he had experiences with his family, with his sister being trafficked. And I don't want to give a story away. We're gonna get there. But he is an amazing man, actually, a pastor of a church up in Washington, D.C. right now. Somebody that is an incredible friend, and I want you to get to know his story. He is my friend and actually one of my favorite African-American friends. His name is Yaku Buyens, pastor and friend from South Africa, now in America. Yaku, thanks for being with me today.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Tim, thank you so much, man. I uh it's a joy to be with you always. My my my heart is happy when I'm with the Barton family. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Well, brother, we we are so grateful for you, for your ministry, um, for the things that you have done. And generally, what we try to do on the American Story Podcast is let uh the listener get to know some of our friends. Uh, we are honored to call you friend, but but I think there's a lot of people who have never heard your story and testimony that that would listen or watch this episode. So I want to start from the beginning. Um, Yaaku, what is your story? Where are you from? How did you get to where God has you now? So, as early as you want to start, let's go back. What is your story?

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Yeah, let's start real early.

Childhood Wounds And Father Hunger

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You know, we so much of our lives as human beings are shaped before our sixth birthday, and that's maybe a conversation for another day. But as a pastor, there's these root lies that set in early. You know, I think so much of it do you and your amazing father fight is against lies. Fighting against the lies of who are we and where did we come from? And if we don't know where we come from, where do we, how do we know where we're going and who fought for us and who went before us? And so, but that's also true in a in an individual level. So for me at age six, and I'll progress quickly, but at age six, I'm standing on a lawn, uh, about eight o'clock at night, my father on one site, my biological father, my mother, my dad tells me I'm leaving your mother, make a choice. You know, in your mind as a six-year-old in that moment, you you don't you're not equipped. What are you talking about? I mean, and I'm thinking to myself, I don't know you. I never see my dad. You know, he wasn't in my life, he was in and out like the wind, but my mom I trust and know. And so, but still, in that moment, you form decisions, you form some root lies. I mean, and and and these are building blocks. And so over time, you Satan plays this game of setting you up for failure, but the Lord takes all evil evil and turns it for good, and he sets you up for success. And so you go through life with these trials, you know, and then let's jump to, you know, through my high school years, I'm an athlete, and I just it came easy. And I really found affirmation in in father figures, because I was looking for the father figure in my life, right? Through sport, through coaches. So it made me an incredible athlete because I just worked, outworked everybody. I was there first, I was I left last. I I wanted the attaboy from the coach. I and it wasn't about the championship or even scoring the most points, which which would happen. It was the look from the coach, the nod, the tap on the shoulder, you know, and and so it became a driving force, which really, as a young Christian raised by a single mom, two kingdoms were rising in my life. It was this pursuit of of a father figure, but in the love of God. But that but there there was a collision about to happen in my life at some point. Jump to 1994.

Living Through Apartheid In South Africa

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What a time. 1994, South Africa is on the brink of civil war. We are in a tumultuous time. It's the fall of apartheid, which I was raised through apartheid, was raised uh born in 1976. So my whole life is in apartheid in South Africa. In 1994, I'm a senior in high school. I'm 18 years old. My closest sibling is 13. My sister, my brother, my sister's 12 years old. That year, early in the year, she wins a national singing contest, kind of like American Idol, but way before American Idol. And it's held by an American record label and looking for talent. And she wins this national singing contest and she wins this recording contract, and they start working on an album, and we're there as a family. I mean, we're tight. We're tight with God, we're tight as a family. But the same year, Nelson Mandela is released from prison. Nelson Mandela is set to blend with what was called the white government and has this reformed new government. And a memo goes out that listen, this 1994 class of senior students, you're gonna go to the military. And there's these talks of South Africa is gonna go to civil war. This is gonna be, you know, patriot against patriot, citizen against citizen, we're going to another war. Not the Boer war against the Brits or the MPs, the Zulus, but now we're gonna go against countrymen because surely this nation is, you know, balancing on a nice edge. And it was. I mean, that the tension was tangible, it was thick. You know, I lived in a time in my early high school years where a siren would go off and black people would have to leave the street at 5 p.m. at night. I didn't read this, Tim. I lived this. Wow. Lived through it. I would I I would I would jump in in vehicles with my friends. This is just, I'm just telling you the truth of that time, 1991, 92, to deter them from driving the streets post 5 p.m. and and beat up black men and women that would be on the street and say, this is unholy, this is ungodly, and then get into fistfights with my own friends of saying, you're you're this lover, you're a that lover, you're a sympathizer. And so I lived it, didn't read the book. So imagine fast forward all the way to 2001 when I immigrate to the United States and in America and how I live this story in 2026, but I but I've lived it in 1992, 93. So that year, when Ylanka won this singing contest, this label delivered on every promise, and then something happened.

A Record Deal Turns Dark

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Something very drastic and radical happened in our family, and it was a cataclysmic shift, but we didn't have language for it. We didn't know. We just knew that a disaster had taken place. And what had taken place, because hindsight's 2020, is Yanka was trafficked at age 12 in South Africa through this record label president. So she's trafficked through a corporate setting. We don't know that it's trafficking, we don't know what's happening. And that was a six-year journey because Ylanka wasn't rescued until 2001. And by God's grace, I was there for the rescue. I'm skipping over a lot of life story, but it's South Africa at the time, and any South African that will watch your show, as many do, will will tell you it was a it was a radical time. You know, I was I was raised with severe corporal punishment because the country was filled with tension and hatred and bitterness, and men needed an outlet, and it was it was primed for war. And of course, Nelson Mandela walks across a line on the ground that no one ever talks about and defies an order that told him to stop at that line, and FW and the white president would meet him, and the nation would come together, and Nelson just sticks his hand in the air and just keeps walking. And I later on met the soldier that was assigned to take the shot if Nelson Mandela disobeyed. And then I learned that there was another soldier in the ANC that was ordered to take a shot if the white president stopped him, and neither of these two took a shot. And we brought them together in 2018, and tears are flowing down their faces, and I'm asking, why did you not shoot? And and this this at this point, white 50-year-old male says, God told me I can't pull the trigger. And and the black man is staring at him, they're just meeting, and my family's home. And he's weeping, he goes, I heard the same voice.

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Wow.

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And and you see this intersection of God saving a nation, which then gets called the Rainbow Nation, and the rest is history. And the victors, the movie is made about it, and here we are today. But this is preamble for me in race reconciliation, coming to America, thinking that surely they've journeyed ahead of us. And then I learned, no, that little country in many ways has walked a journey ahead of the United States. Really? In in many ways, you know, and so in 2001, Elanka

The Night Ilanka Is Rescued

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is rescued. One night we're there, we got Intel, and I was playing professional rugby at the time. And uh I take a teammate of mine and we race over and we do a stakeout. Never done a stakeout in my life. And did a two-day stakeout, and Ilanka walks down the steps, and it's her story to tell, but it's an epic story of redemption, of the power and love of Jesus, what's possible. But she's rescued that night.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Now, Yaaku, can we back up a second? Because I I know there's so many things you've already said, and I'm like, we got to talk about that more. Yeah. I mean, the fact that she wins a competition, and then the leader of that record label, I think I heard is what I heard you say, is the one that ends up trafficking her, which uh like so many thoughts in my head. If she is just won a competition, it seems like that's given her a lot of visibility, and it seems like that's a terrible person to target because now a lot of people have seen her and known her and and not to get in the mind of a trafficker necessarily. It just seems like there's so much to that story, but the part I want to highlight, because I've uh I've heard you say this before, uh, and I think it is so powerful when it happened as you were processing what was going on. You I've heard you say your mom talked about what you were going to actively do in regard to faith, what how you were gonna pray, uh, the way you were thinking about it. Can can you tell part of that story a

A Mother’s Faith And Nashville Plan

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little bit?

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Yeah, and and Tim, I'll go anywhere you want to go today. I so appreciate the opportunity. My mom repeated it would say, God's got her, and and we'll get her back. And I never saw one day in six years, never saw a single day when my mom prayed out of unbelief, cried out of unbelief, cried out of heartache, yeah. Cried out of concern and worry, but never out of unbelief. God's got her and we're gonna get her back to the point where my mom made a plan. She's a college professor. I'm playing professional rugby. My brother at this point, you know, later on, is living in Ireland. He's playing rugby in Ireland, so the family is now stretched. You know, I'm in South Africa, my mom is there, and my mom said, When Ilanka gets back, God wants us to immigrate to Nashville, Tennessee. And I just remember that the first thing that came out of my mouth was yes. I'd never considered moving to Nashville, Tennessee. I'd never even thought of Nashville, Tennessee in my life. Now, I had an American flag on my wall as a six-year-old because I I was a sprinter and I had Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis on my wall, and and I, you know, and I and I loved America and I loved the American anthem. I sang it for as long as I could remember. Little did I know that God was brewing, changing my blood to red, white, and blue as a little African kid in the red clay. But my mom said, We're going to Nashville, Tennessee, because if she was hurt through music, then God's going to heal her through music. We didn't know anybody in Nashville, knew nobody, you know, and so and and and and that was true, you know, within three months after Ilanka was rescued, her and my mom packed two suitcases, left a life behind. Uh and at that point in time, the ANC, which very few people talk about, but Nelson Mandela didn't go to prison because he was a black man. That's not why he went to prison. Nelson Mandela went to prison because he was the youth leader of an organization called the African National Communist Party, which became the African National Congress because of him, because he found faith in prison. And you could say, well, Yoko, how do you know you found faith in prison? Because his cellmate became a very good friend of mine. His cellmate's son is still to this day a very good friend of mine. Nelson Mandela's cellmate was a man named Bob Nguyenya. And Bob Nguena became the first black mayor in South Africa, the mayor of Durban, South Africa, as his cellmate, Nelson Mandela, became the president. And Bob Nguenya's son, Natian Gwenya, is one of my best friends. He's a black brother of mine. And so these are firsthand stories that I would hear of Nelson in prison. And what they and and how it they would war against and then break in front of the Lord and become believers and then God redeem him. So it's a wild upbringing, Tim. I mean, wild. And I look back at it and I go, every single bit of it was preparing me to be the best possible American citizen that I could be. To tell a people, steward what you have inherited, meaning your citizenship to this country, stewarded it really well. And in the night the night God rescued Yolanka, my mom's approach was I knew it. But as I'm I'm getting out of my car and I'm seeing this girl got a ball cap on, and all because her hair is pitch black, but a ball gap on, and she's not really recognizable to me. Because a woman's body changes a lot from 12 to 18. At this point, she's 18 years old. I called her a name, Tim. She turned around and I saw her eyes, and I knew this is Ilanka.

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Quick break, everybody. We'll

Lives Fortunes And Sacred Honor

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be right back. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Okay, we want to let you know about a new product we have here at Wallbuilders called Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor. The Signers of the Declaration. Like most Americans, you might be someone that you recognize some of the names of the Founding Fathers, but do you know their story? We want to help remedy that. My dad and I have written biographies on all 56 signers of the Declaration to help reintroduce people to the men who literally signed their names on the line for the sake of the nation. When they did this, they knew that they were essentially signing their death warrants. They were risking everything for the hope that they might be able to purchase freedom for the rising generation with their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honors. In spite of the hardship that every one of them endured, none of them recant or backed away. Now, if you don't know their story, you can get to know all 56 of them. Go to wallbuilders.com and look for the book Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor, the signers of the Declaration.

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Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. We're jumping right back in with Tim Barton interviewing Yako Bullions.

Not Another One And A Calling

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She turned around and I saw her eyes, and I knew this is Y Lanka. And as I'm walking to her, I'm taking steps to walk across the street. I didn't know that there's a trafficker that's armed. I have no context for what was going on in that environment. I just know there's Y Lanka. I hear God's audible voice. First time in my life. Now I was raised Dutch Reformed. Dutch Reformed folks don't tell you they hear from God, they don't believe in the acts of the Holy Spirit, they don't preach that. It's it's the law and it's judgment. That's it. And I hear this voice that's coming through my bone marrow, and I hear God say, not another one. In a moment, I heard it, and I kind of pocketed it, but I didn't have context for it until we arrived in the United States. And so I arrive in an America that's united. The world's in mourning, but I mean, it is, you remember, it is one nation. George Bush is standing on rubble, President George Bush, uh, a guy who became a friend later in life, Deddy Grashier, a pop singer from Israel, is filling Madison Square Garden to raise money for firefighters and first responders. This is my welcome to America on my journey to Nashville. And so it's a wild journey. Um arrive in Nashville and was hit by a reality that I was not ready for. That the girl that came back is not a girl we knew. Ylanka was not herself, and umka called a family meeting one day, sat us down as a family, my brother came in from Ireland, and she said, I'm a trafficking survivor. I'm like, what is that? And she starts talking about what man had done to her physical body. And she starts talking to us in very explicit detail of what she had seen done to the other hundred, two hundred, twelve-year-olds, thirteen-year-olds, and who the traffickers were and who would pay to abuse her body, her physical body, and how uh she survived. And I can't explain to you the rage and then quickly from rage the self-condemnation. How could I let this happen? How did this happen on my watch? I'm the father figure. And then my rage towards my brother, where were you? And then my rage towards my father that abandoned us. And then and then when rage runs out, you and and and you think thoughts of I'm going back to Africa and I'm taking everybody out, and the Lord's saying, No, you're not. That's not my will. And and you you're left with nothing but the word of God. And this person who's your sister, who you love, who now has exposed to you that there's there's trauma and brokenness at a level that you've never you've never even heard of. And then shortly after she tells us this, and Alka tries to take her own life. And it messes with you in a way where you can't you can't you you you know you tell me this has happened, and and yes it has, and now you're safe. And then yet you try to take your own life. And it started a very long journey in Elonka's life, an 18-year journey that she writes about in her book of true redemption and multiple attempts of taking her own life, and then set us on a course that night when she told us what men had done. I reheard the words not another one, and our ministry was born. And we have fought this fight since 2001, and and we will not stop. And every single morning I look myself in the mirror this morning and said going after one, one at a time, one child at a time. And so um it so interweaves with the American story because it is about liberty and justice. It is about one nation under God, uh individual rights that are that are given to us by our Creator and so masterfully, as you and your father teach, so masterfully um put in these fragile but powerful documents called our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Well, Yaku, one of the things before we move on past it, um I just want to acknowledge as as people are hearing this, um obviously this is a very tough and sensitive topic that you had to walk through, your family walk through. And the thing that is so beautiful to me in the midst of it is a lot of times the temptation in the midst of hurt and pain and brokenness is to get angry at God and walk away. And and you had a mother who said, No, we we know that there's a good God and he's gonna take care of this. He he is gonna bring restoration, what the devil meant for evil, God's gonna use for good. And and there's such a faith perspective in your story that one of the reasons I'm always so encouraged when I'm around you is because you believe in a really, really big God. And and and it's the true God, the real God. But I think a lot of times there's temptation that is overwhelming for some people at times that when when tragedy happens, when hurt and pain happens, that it's easy to be overwhelmed by those emotions and thoughts. So before we move too far forward, and I want to get into the Yakubin's ministry and all that you're doing and where God's leaving you and what you've

How Trauma Works And Heals

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done now. But but for people, maybe they're navigating hurt and pain and brokenness. And I mean, for some people, uh abuse and some of these awful, terrible, tragic things. What would be advice or encouragement to navigate some of this pain and hurt that your family had to go through?

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Tim, I'm so grateful you're asking. You know, it's important to know how things work. You know, like I always say in conversation, context matters. It matters, you know, and no to know how things work, how how what is exploitation, what is trauma, what is abuse and trauma do to the body? And and I wish more people taught this, but what is not widely taught is that the body stores trauma. The physical body. The body is is is it's like a hard drive that stores trauma. And that trauma at some point it boils over, it comes out, it has to have an outlet. And this is why you'll see repeat sin, repeat abuse. Women who have abused will go in court and defend their abuser. You know, what is love and belonging? What is unconditional love? So trauma smashes all this, and it really goes back to the Garden of Eden, to the original sin, where Satan does not come to Eve and say God's not God. He doesn't say there are multiple gods, he just challenges the word of God and he says, Well, surely you won't die. He plants a seed of doubt. He actually establishes a new foundation. I told you two kingdoms rise. God says I build on the rock. Peter, on this house, on this rock I will build my house. The enemy builds on sand, but he builds a new foundation. So when trauma comes into someone's life, abuse, death, loss, major disappointment, divorce. And I always say people don't change, situations change people. You need an encounter. You have either a holy encounter with God or you have a near-death encounter, like a president gets shot in the ear when God turned his chin. You change. You can't be the same. You're in a car wreck and you walk away, and the firefighter says there's no way. A car that was you know eight feet long, ten feet long, is two feet long. I mean, you have these encounters, sickness, healing, you know, loss. You know, you change, but you store trauma. And unless you know what to do with that trauma, Satan builds on it. He uses that trauma. Now, God is so gracious that when we go through deep trauma, and I've had to over the years put myself through what I call four PhDs of human behavioral science, of studying people and understanding how Satan works and how does God work. It's really a battle about the collective promises of God, the covenants of God. What does God say about you? And if you don't know what God says about you, Tim Barton or the viewer, today in heaven, what is said about you in the high court of heaven?

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All right, folks, we're out of time

Tomorrow’s Conversation And Where To Watch

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for today. Be sure and join us again tomorrow and the next day for the conclusion of Tim Barton's interview with Jakob Williams and visit our websites, wallboulders.com and wallboulders.show. Thanks so much for listening to the Wall Boulders Show.