Why This Conversation Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:07

You find your way to the intersection of faith and culture. Thanks for joining us today on the Wall Boulder Show. We are actually picking up where we left off yesterday. So if you missed yesterday's program, it is available right now at our website, wallboulders.show or in your podcast apps, whichever one you listen to, make sure you go and listen to yesterday's program. Doesn't isn't gonna kill you to just go ahead and tune in today and then listen later to what you might have missed yesterday. But this conversation with Tim Barton and Yaakko Bullions will move you to action. It'll let you know about some evil that's happening out there you may not be aware of and the solution for how we can stop it. Tim Barton interviewing Yaakko Billions. Let's pick up where we left off yesterday and jump into that interview right now.

Trauma, Accusation, And Identity

SPEAKER_02 0:47

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? So few people understand that there's court is being held over every one of us in heaven. Satan comes in as the accuser and presses on the trauma, presses on the sin, presses on the trauma you carry from season to season. Right? And so we carry stuff that God wants to set us free from. So Satan loves building on that. So what my mom was saying at the time in her way is lay down this burden. Don't pick up that yoke that is that is heavy, and that burden that is heavy, that yoke that is uneasy. Let's pick up the burden that is light and the yoke that is easy. Let's walk with the Lord and know surely He can restore, He can build. And so God takes then trauma and from it brings beauty, brings revelation and brings testimony. And the Lord says, by the word of your testimony, you meet Elonka, my sister today. It's impossible to meet that woman and not leave inspired, saying, God can't. If if if what you've gone through, and Tim, when I tell you horrific, I'm talking about 32 years in a fight against human trafficking. We've seen things that I've I've shared footage with new news agencies where literal editors say we'll never show this to the American people. Things our team will see that you can't fathom. Lanka's story is one of the worst ever. And yet she's free. She's a mother, she's a she's a wife. That doesn't happen. Like, how does that happen? It's when you take this gigantic bold step for your viewer to say, You don't understand what I care, you don't understand the hurt and the pain, what people have done to me. And you listen to the Lord saying, Be courageous, be courageous, be courageous, and you take a step and you say, Look, if God is real, if he's healed the lame, the blind, the sick, the deaf, if God raised Jesus out of the tomb, then I'm gonna I'm gonna take a shot and take this trauma and offload it and give it to him and and see what happens.

Rescue Work And Hope After Horror

SPEAKER_02 3:34

And he cannot fail them. And so that message is what kept hope, it's what brought endurance, it's what brought courage. I mean, can you imagine you do the work of rescuing a human being and then they try to take their own life?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

You you like what what happens in the human brain, and then you learn that evil can break a person like you break a horse. There's a reason American student stands on a campus at Columbia University and yell we are Hamas. You can in fact indoctrinate a human being. You can in fact break a person through trauma. Now, if it's trauma by itself, it's powerful. If that trauma in includes sexual exploitation, it is a violent, violent cocktail. It creates what's called a cytostorm in the brain. It shuts down neuropathways, literally, it erases memory, it creates false memory, it rewrites narrative. Think about those who want to rewrite history, right? You show me anybody that we think has lost their mind, does not know where we're coming from, and I'm gonna show you a trauma in their life on how Satan has started to weave and write a new story, a new history. And unless that's redeemed, that is a person that literally is walking blank.

How Trauma Rewrites The Mind

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Well, so Yaako, as you're saying this, um, this is not a perfect analogy, but sometimes my brain just goes places. I I don't know if you've seen the movie Hacksaw Ridge uh with Desmond Doss, um, where everybody's abandoned the ridge, but he's gonna stay up there and he says, God, give me just one more. Give me just one more. So when you said, right, that the one more thought, that's what I thought of. I was like, You're like Desmond Doss, going, God, I'm gonna exhaust myself for your kingdom to try to save just one more. And so you mentioned uh 2001, you move to Nashville, and Yakub Buyan's ministry is birthed. So, what happens when the ministry is birthed? Uh, you start all of the work, and as an immigrant kid in America, and and you are now in the place where literally you have meetings in the White House, like where you went from this immigrant kid South Africa, all the way now to where you are advising the president of the United States, Yaakko, how did you get there? And and what did God do in the midst of this story?

From Immigrant Kid To Calling

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Yeah, only God, only God. I mean, and it's not South, you know, any South African thing. I'm from the East, what's called the East Rand. So think of think of the Bronx, because I'm from Johannesburg. It's a city with 10 million people, right? So it's it's it's the the stock exchange is there, it's gold capital of the world, all platinum capital, diamonds, all that. But I'm from the East Rand, which is what they would call deplorables, which is, I mean, it is rough. Rough upbringing, no father, you know. So you're outcast of outcast. My mother, who is wildly in love with Jesus, you know, that same year, 1994, uh, told me one morning, hey, today's gonna be a tough day. Go to your aunt's house, get your siblings, and I'll see you Monday. And like, what are you talking about? And she goes that door morning and boards up her classroom door, 1994, calls the news agency and says, No white kid will be taught in any of these classrooms until a black kid is admitted to this school. And we had firebombs thrown through our windows. We had 13 home invasions. 13 times people came into our home because we were targeted because my mom said, I'm gonna stand for equality, and I'm a white kid. You know, so we start being called the what would be the equivalent of the N-word, but they're N-lover. And so it's this there's no way, there is no way that kid survives. Okay, with with with the trauma and and and the the the crime, there's no kid that the way that kid makes it to America, there's absolutely no way that kid gets to help write policy for the greatest nation on earth and and advise 50 states, and it is just no way. So the the amount of humility I have, it it is like I have the fear of God on me, Tim. I prayed it this morning in front of our whole staff, and I said, Lord, just don't stop. We need you, we absolutely desperately need you because I know nobody has to remind me that, hey Yaqub, by the way, you're not that cool, and you didn't do this. Oh, trust me, I know, I know, I remind myself all the time that this is the grace of God. But I I think what I would say to that is the Lord speaks of faith, and then the Lord speaks of faith that endures, Tim. And when you just will not give up, and I will not give up, I will not, every living, breathing second of my life, we will go after the lost and the hurting and the broken. I was placed on this planet to be on a search and rescue mission. That is my existence, that is why I'm here. Because I had this radical encounter with God, July 16, 2009, when I challenged God to a fight. I'm just being real. As a saved kid, baptized, I can't even know how many times, seven times. And I said, You need to tell me why you made me. I wanted purpose. And the Lord said, I can't tell you why I created you, you don't fully belong to me. And I'm telling God, what are you talking about? And God says, I want your marriage. And I'm laughing at God, saying, You've got my marriage. Says, No, I don't. You've taken control. I want your relationship with your father that abandoned you. I want, I want all the hurt and pain from your sister. I want and God just started purging me. And I get to a point where I say, God, take it all. And I go from believing in God into relationship with God. I go from being a good kid in church, a young guy fighting human trafficking, it's all noble, it all looks righteous, but no deep connected personal relationship with God into intimate relationship with God. And I fall in love with a king that is a rule of the universe, you're ruler of the universe, but he's also my father.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah. Right? And it's like when when Jesus told the disciples, no longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends. You you weren't just trying to serve God, you were now the friend of God. That's what I'm hearing. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

And so what I find is God never picks the able and never picks the obvious choice. Who who was gonna come on? Look at look at where we are today as this country and who God chose to bring correction in this nation, to get this nation back on track. Not the person people would have u said that's gonna be the president of the United States. God doesn't pick the obvious, He picks a kid out of Blackpan, South Africa, go look at it. It's a blimp on the map. There's no way the the the permitations of things that had to happen for me to end up here, to stand there one day in Dallas, Texas, and hear, welcome, newest member, citizen of the United States of America. I can't explain to you, other than my salvation, my marriage, and the birth of my children, there is and will never be anything that I will treasure more than those words from a judge saying, You are now the newest member, pledge this allegiance, sing this anthem. I mean, it it it it courses through my veins, and I just wish Americans would understand the treasure, but the duty.

America’s Gift And America’s Duty

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yaaku, let me let me throw a thought in real quick, and I'd love to get you to respond to it because one of the things that I so appreciate uh about you, and and I have many friends that are naturalized American citizens. They were born somewhere else, they are now US citizens, and they did it the right way. I think that's very important as well. But they are people that love America more than most natural-born Americans do. Uh, and I love that FIFA has been here uh over the last several months because one of the greatest things that's happened is all of these people from around the world posting on social media about how great America is. And I think it's been a really interesting reminder and then challenge for some people that most Americans aren't taught to think about how special or appreciate the uniqueness of what America is. And I'm saying it because you're talking about how much you love being an American. And I think, and I I know we both navigate with a lot of young people, I trying to encourage and disciple rising generations, and we both try to help them understand it's really special, this nation that you live in here in America, but hearing it from someone that has not only come from another nation, you have traveled all over the world, and you recognize there's something unique about America. And I would love for you to respond to that, number one. But then number two, you pointed out, but there's also responsibility that comes with being an American. And I think a lot of that's been lost. I think there's a lot of pastors like you that I'm so proud to know and work with that are awakened to this reality and they're working to re-engage Americans and Christians specifically to what their duty is. But I would love your response on maybe this new awareness that some Americans are getting because of these social media viral posts, like these FIFA commenters about how great America is, and what does it mean in your mind? What makes America different and special? And then what is the duty and responsibility that Americans and Christians should have in this nation?

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Yeah, how sobering is it when a foreigner has to remind you of what you hold in your hands and what you have been entrusted with by God, for you can't see it for yourself. And and all that says is look, it's biblical, it's scriptural. It is the parable of the talents. It's to whom much is given, much is required. But when you've been given much and you bury it, the master comes back and he takes it from you. And and that's why we have a president that says, This this republic, this nation is so fragile. You can lose it in a generation. And now we have foreigners, and praise God, they come see for themselves, and and and and woke media can't stop them because they're just posting it saying, Never seen hospitality like this, and an opportunity, and food, and kindness, and generosity, and how clean the cities are. And thank you, President Trump, for cleaning up Washington, D.C. By the way. It's phenomenal, it's incredible. But foreigners have to come. And, you know, so I think of the parable of the talents. I think of the Good Samaritan, I think of the people of the land walking by. And we've stopped telling stories. You're a storyteller, your dad's a storyteller, I'm a storyteller, my wife is a screenplay writer, Glenn Beck is a storyteller. Why are we not teaching our kids to tell these American stories? The stories of exceptionalism with all the flaws in it. The failures, talk proudly about it, talk about the overcoming. How great is your story if there's nothing you overcame? Don't just tell the good. Tell it, tell it all. Tell it all. You and I recently had a conversation with Thomas Jefferson, and you educate me. Tell it all. Let's go there. And so now other people are telling our story, and I hope it awakens the American citizens to go, wait a second, this is my country.

Break: Jefferson Declaration Reprint

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Got to interrupt the interview with Jakob Williams as Tim Barton speaking to him. We're gonna take a quick break. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Hey guys, this is Tim Barton from Wall Builders. I'm gonna let you know about a new resource that should be a tool in your toolbox. This is the reprint of Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence. Now, there's lots of reasons it would be cool to own a reprint like this, but one of the things that I want to highlight is not only is this a reprint that is in Thomas Jefferson's own hand in cursive, it shows some of his edits along the way, which is really fun, but it also shows what Thomas Jefferson thought was the most significant grievance in the original draft. It's the longest grievance, it's the last grievance. It was a grievance against the slave trade, arguing actually also against slavery and arguing for the humanity of all that were in slaves. Thomas Jefferson thought that was the most important. Now, it didn't make it the final draft, and we will explain why in the resource packet you get when you order one of these copies. But friends, this is something that you want in your collection. Go to wallboulder.com and look for Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence.

Stewardship, Stories, And Silent Pastors

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Welcome back to the Wallboulder Show. We are in the middle of a three-part series of Tim Barton interviewing Yaqua Bullions for the American Story. And so we're going to jump right back into today's segment of that. If you missed yesterday, it's available on our website at Wobblers.show. And then, of course, you want to tune in tomorrow for the conclusion. But let's get the rest of today's segment, Tim Barton interviewing Yaco Billions.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

You're talking about my city. I know my city better than you. Then talk about it, then treasure it, then polish it, pour into it, serve it, don't just drink from it. Stop being this leech that takes, takes, takes from this country because of convenience. How are we contributing to this country? Not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, right? I mean, we can say these things, but do we do we do it? But it's biblical. We are called by God to steward this. Now, from a pastoral perspective, the pastors have gone quiet. The Lord speaks very clearly that there's a higher call on those who lead the shepherd, who leads the flock. And pastors have gone quiet. Pastors have believed the lie of separation of church and state. Pastors have believed this lie that we're not a nation under God. Praise God for Tim Barton and David Barton that literally will walk you through Washington, D.C. and ask you whose face is the most depicted face in Washington, D.C. And people come up with all nonsense and it's Moses. You know, and saying, hey, how was this declaration drafted? And we got to tell these stories. But it's it's every American's duty, it's every father's duty to tell his son, I charge you with the duty of building the house of God. And you're building it in a nation that's free because I actually believe, Tim, that Americans don't know. You know, there's a weird statistic, and you can check me on this, but I think only something like 57% of Americans have passports. They don't know. They haven't traveled. I've worked. God's helped us rescue children in 56 countries. I've traveled to over 70 nations. I have not just flown over them culturally, ate their food, look at it, studied the people. There is nothing. No nation, not Israel in the best times out of Egypt. They were in a desert. Even when they walked into the land of milk and honey, there was infighting and craziness. There is no nation that has ever in history experienced and had the stewardship, which is most important, of what God's given an American citizen, naturally born, or an immigrant that's done it the legal way, right? It should be paramount and on a frontal lobe conversation every day of what are we doing to build the kingdom of God in this country? What are we doing to build this country? And you build it through the nuclear family, through the through truth, justice, liberty, all the things you guys teach. And I'm not finding it yet. Hopefully, foreigners are coming in here and waking up some Americans saying, Hey, wait a second. It's my country. You go back to Spain, you go back over there. Let me talk about my country. Let me tell you how great this country is. Let me tell you when it's raised in Nebraska and Omaha or in Paducah, Kentucky. You know, go talk to the guys in Angelico in the hills and the Black Mountains and go talk to the Native Americans and talk to those who have been here who cut a path whose mothers have prayed over this land for decades, who have interceded, who have, who have wept, who have tilt the soil, the service men and women. There's nothing I love more. I did it at the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial Saturday morning. We had a prayer walk in DC, and these there's these four uh National Guardsmen, and one is from Kansas City, and one is from Kentucky, and they're from all over. And walking up to them and I said, I said, Men and women, thank you for your service. And they said, Thank you, sir. And I said, Hey, we're going to pray over you. And if you're not a praying man or woman, we're going to pray over you because we're going to bless your family. And and you just see their countenance go, wow. We're seen, we're appreciated. You know, and it doesn't take much. It takes so little to actually build. But it's the flesh to tear down, right? And so we gotta build.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yeah.

Why Plant A Church In DC

SPEAKER_01 21:19

So one of the things as you're commenting, uh, that pastors have been silent in a lot of ways. Uh, Yaaku, you've been in ministry for a long time, but you've actually stepped into a a new chapter in ministry. Not that you've stopped doing the things you're doing, um, but you mentioned you were on a prayer walk in Washington, D.C. The reason you're there is because you are now the senior pastor of a church in Washington, D.C., a church plant, a very young church plant. And it's something that, as you and I have talked, um, this is a a uniquely challenging place to plant a church for lots of reasons. But why have Have you in the midst of maybe the height of Yakub Buyan's ministry when you were literally advising the White House on the proper policy to protect children in America and arguably around the world? Why did you feel called to start a new thing and why Washington, D.C.?

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Yeah, wild, right? Never in my look, I've been coming to the city for 15 years to reform policy. I know DC. Saw DC as like an apocalyptic war zone in COVID on the hands of men, not because of a virus, but poor decisions and stewardship of men and women. I know this city never, never. If I'm going to move somewhere from Dallas, Texas, it's going to be the beach. I'm a beach guy, okay? Not Washington, D.C. My children are young. You know, they're not even teenagers, right? To subject yourself to this, you don't do that. And so Pastor Lannon's shocked. What a man. A brother. Ah, a brother. Pastor Heather Schott launched Mercy Culture Church in Washington, sorry, in Fort Worth, Texas, and our paths intersect. And I go into the boards of the Justice Resident and Mercy Culture, and we start running together. And I go, These are my people. These are my people. These people are going to preach the gospel. They're going to call evil evil, call good good. And Pastor Landon in January of 2025 comes to me and he says, Hey, can you come to my house? I go to his house and he said, and he's nervous. And he said, Man, it's wild. What I'm going to tell you is wild. And he says it like 15 times. And I stop him and I said, Pastor Landon, if you have a rebuke for me, just bring it. I'm a grown man. I can take it. And he goes, Rebuke? No, I'm nervous to tell you what God told me. And I said, Well, you have to tell me what God told you. If God told you to talk to me, and he says, We're asking you to pray. And I told God, Yaqu's going to say no. This is Pastor Landon, but we ask you to pray about being the lead campus pastor and planting Mercy Culture Church in Washington, D.C. And I remember telling myself, don't blink, don't give him a tell, don't give him a sign, don't tell him yes, don't tell him no. And then the Lord started speaking to me, and I end up at the Million Women event with Lou Ingall on the mall in Washington, D.C. And I'm speaking there in front of, I think it was 478,000 people. And my back is to the Capitol. Now, what people didn't know is we were gearing up to potentially run for uh a Senate office, and we were being courted, my wife and I. And I was praying about it. No decision was made. And I, in the middle of my speech, you can see this on YouTube, the Lord says to me in real time, as I'm speaking about human trafficking and talking about women that there's redemption and you can lay your trauma down and Jesus can heal you, right? And Louis Hill is on stage and and and we're there, and there's 478,000 people on the mall. God says, Turn around. And I take the mic from my mouth, I turn around, I stare at the Capitol. And God says to me, What if I want to send you to that building? And I'm thinking to myself, I've been to that building a lot, but I knew that's not what he was saying. So I walk off stage. As I walk off stage, God says to me, You're not running for office. I call my wife and said, Philippa, I'm not running for office. She says, I know. And as Pastor Lannon's shot speaks to me, God starts saying, This is what I was saying.

The Three Yeses And Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 25:21

We go into four months of prayer. Pastor Lannon calls me, gives me a deadline, says, Hey, you gotta know by this date. I walk in and I said, This is what happened. I went back to the Capitol, sat on a bench in front of a coffee company called the Good Company, great coffee and donuts, and I stare at the Capitol. I'm saying, God, is this your will? I cannot move my family to Washington, D.C. if it's not your will. I dare not do something. And you cannot take me away from JBM. And the Lord says, I will never take you away from JBM. This is going to advance the fight against human trafficking, but we have to anchor the church in Washington, D.C. And I see in the sky three yeses. Yes, yes, yes. And the Lord says, This is my will.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

All right, folks, we are out of time for today. That was Tim Barton interviewing Yaakko Bullions. That was segment two. That means we got the conclusion tomorrow. So if you missed any of the programming before this, not just the first part of the Yaku Bullions interview, but any of our other programming as well, including the Good News Friday programs, Foundations of Freedom Thursday, the interviews we do throughout the week, all of that is available at our website, wallbuilders.show. So check that out today. And then of course share it with your friends and family. Be that force multiplier. You be the catalyst for restoring biblical values and constitutional principles. And make sure you tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of the interview of Tim Barton with Yaakob Williams. You've been listening to the Wall Builder Show.