Wings of Refuge

Show open and episode framing: how good news changes the world

After the produced opening, a host does the live show start and frames the episode as part of the recurring series asking how the good news of Jesus changes the world tangibly: it changes hearts and eternity, but also flows into the world as light. Prior installments covered Discover Hope 5:17 in Newton and a healthcare conversation with Matthew Loftus. Tonight's subject is sex trafficking, with guests Joy Fatma of Wings of Refuge and Nate Baird, plus Dear LFTP advice.

Introducing Wings of Refuge: a safe home for survivors

A host interviews guest Joy Fatma, founder of Wings of Refuge, via Skype. She explains the organization is a safe home for female survivors of human trafficking, focused solely on restoration from trauma. Asked about the Iowa location, she notes they cannot give it away; it is in Hardin County, Iowa.

Joy's calling: the documentary, her son, and a movement of prayer

Joy Fatma recounts how she came to this work. Her oldest son saw the documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls on his Texas college campus, which reported 27,000,000 slaves in the world, and brought the burden to her. A survivor of childhood sexual abuse herself, she says the Lord broke her heart to the issue and she started a movement of prayer asking what God wanted them to do about it.

Finding their lane: the aftercare bed shortage and America's orphans

Joy explains the lanes of anti-trafficking work (policy, rescue, restoration, awareness) and how her team found theirs through a stark equation: only 629 beds in the nation were specific to aftercare for sex trafficking survivors, against hundreds of thousands trafficked each year. Many survivors, she says, are America's orphans grown up, trafficked as children; she cites James 1:27, saying the work is looking after orphans and widows in their distress, even grieving the loss of a trafficker who was their provider.

What restoration looks like for a girl entering the home

• What does the experience look like for a girl coming into Wings of Refuge's care?

Asked what the experience is like for a girl coming into care, Joy explains that staff are, in the resident's eyes, potential buyers, so the first miracle is trust. Care begins with medical needs, documentation, and clothing, then becomes fully individualized: education, life skills, and training built around her gifts and God's design. The core hope is that she leaves knowing there is a life of hope and possibility through Jesus.

Learning to live unchurched: 'we're not a rehab, we're a hab'

• What is one thing Joy Fatma has learned since starting Wings of Refuge?

Asked what she has learned, Joy says the residents have been her best teachers, above all how to be 'unchurched' and live like Jesus: the gospel must be shown in tangible daily life, listening to the Holy Spirit. 'We're not a rehab, we're a hab,' she says — many never had a safe life to return to; sex was an everyday transaction, so staff must first teach what safety even means before any talk of purity makes sense.

How the gospel changes the world of sex trafficking: one life at a time

• How does the good news of Jesus Christ change the world when it comes to sex trafficking?

A host asks Joy directly how the good news of Jesus Christ changes the world of sex trafficking. Her answer: the ministry tagline is 'so the exploitation ends for one more girl' — 27,000,000 is a desensitizing number, so they take on the one in front of them, treating her as worth everything. She tells of a girl who escaped a trafficker who was going to kill her, severely beaten; when Joy admitted she knew what it was like to be small and trapped and to live with hope afterward, the girl wept — 'the girls that cry die,' she had been taught — and later came to know Jesus. Joy cites Philippians 3:10: knowing Christ through the fellowship of his suffering is where mutual brokenness meets resurrection.

How to help: pray and give — restoration is expensive

• What are some ways people can help Wings of Refuge?

Asked how people can help, Joy's first answer is prayer and intercession, which birthed Wings of Refuge. Her second is giving: restoration is expensive and messy, requiring nine staff for a home running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. She ties it to a cultural cost: when women are made a commodity and porn becomes a natural part of culture, there is a real financial cost on the lives being used. A host points listeners to wingsofrefuge.net and Facebook and urges prayer and giving.

Hosts react: burden, male perspective, messy obedience

After Joy leaves, the hosts discuss the interview. A host thanks God that people accept the burdens laid on them rather than looking for a book or a video to make it easy. Another reflects from the male perspective: men are 'kind of the problem' here, which makes the stories hard to hear as a man born into the team doing the exploiting. They turn to reintroducing their longtime friend and guest Nate Baird.

Nate Baird's path: Happy Birthday Nate and walking into a board meeting

Guest Nate Baird explains how he got involved with Wings of Refuge. He works in digital media for Open Bible Churches and was interviewing staffer Brandi Sliceman when she told him that rescued victims with no bed to go to get sucked back in — 'it hit me like a ton of bricks.' Months later he walked uninvited into a Wings of Refuge board meeting and offered to launch a campaign for them. A previous birthday campaign, Happy Birthday Nate, had raised money for mosquito nets against malaria. This time, with two new kids and a stalled campaign, he decided to 'hijack Christmas' — fitting, he says, because Christmas is the story of someone coming to earth to rescue those in captivity and restore lives.

The Merry Christmas Nate campaign: a $750,000 goal for a second location

Nate lays out the Merry Christmas Nate campaign goal: $750,000 for a second Wings of Refuge location in or around the Des Moines area. The current small-town home is a safe place to detox from the lifestyle, but as participants move toward independence — school, jobs, a car — they need the amenities of a larger town, like transit and work. He has raised just over $2,000 so far and refuses to aim low: 'if you need 15 yards for a first down, don't throw a three yard pass.'

Changed perspective: daughters, Francis Chan, and God-sized goals

Asked what has changed for him working with Wings of Refuge, Nate says having a daughter made it real, and he wants restoration to exist for the lives he cannot personally protect. He shares the Francis Chan quote that changed his perspective: the church should stop worrying about failure and start worrying about succeeding at things that don't matter. A host adds that a $750,000 goal forces dependence on God rather than being 'doable.'

Comfort's blindness, vigilance, and what survivors never got to learn

The hosts and Nate talk about the blindness of comfortable American Christianity and the need to deliberately force their eyes open to where light needs to go. Nate notes the Iowa Department of Transportation stat he found — nearly 8,000,000 cars on Iowa roads yearly, so even 1 percent traffickers would mean 80,000 cars carrying human slaves — and that the average age of entry is 11 to 14. They discuss how survivors miss formative schooling and basic life skills, which is why a long-term 'hab' matters: Wings of Refuge is not a 30-, 60-, or 90-day program; it stays until exploitation has ended. A comedy-bit aside detours through the movie Funny Farm.

How to give: merrychristmasnate.com and three ways to help

Nate gives the practical details: merrychristmasnate.com has the full story and the $750,000 ask. Three ways to help: donate, network and share the campaign as widely as possible, and learn more about Wings of Refuge. Donations run through Open Bible Churches as the donation platform, or can go directly to Wings of Refuge's nonprofit with 'Merry Christmas Nate' in the memo. A host urges following both Wings of Refuge and Merry Christmas Nate on Facebook.

Spotting trafficking and the long haul of restoration

The hosts and Nate discuss tangible vigilance: resources on the Wings of Refuge site, keeping eyes open at the Iowa State Fair and Super Bowl, asking the Iowa State Patrol about signs to watch for. The key turn is the rescue-versus-restoration equation: rescue is quantifiable and newsworthy, but without a place to go survivors get pulled back in — moving from one white van to another changes nothing. A host alludes to the demons leaving and seven worse coming back: the church is 'eternity minded kingdom folk' doing long-term restoration, not event counting.

Giving Tuesday push, the $15,000 church story, and three Jaguars

With Giving Tuesday arriving, a host urges listeners to share the campaign and donate — small gifts add up. Nate tells how a California church, sitting on $15,000 earmarked for malaria nets with no way to use it, found his Happy Birthday Nate campaign and gave it all: 'the Lord goes before me.' A host jokes the Lord laughs at $5,000 goals. The segment closes with a comedy bit in which a host claims he drove three actual Jaguars into the studio, rode them through town on saddles, and named them Mick Jagger and Son, before thanking Nate.

Dear LFTP: the 25-year-old son, Christmas tickets, and financial boundaries

• A listener's 25-year-old son wants Christmas travel and a fee change while being financially irresponsible — how should the parents respond?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter: a retired couple's 25-year-old son Jay wants to come home for Christmas, then asked to leave two days early — a $150 change fee on top of the $215 ticket they already bought. He earns six figures yet is late on the parent loan the mother co-signed after he blew a $60,000 settlement. The hosts' advice: yes, they are being taken advantage of; stop flying the kids around and fly to see them instead; have him pay the $150 change fee as a line in the sand; give him a chance to respond reasonably, and if not, recognize what they are dealing with and stop funding it. A host invokes Ben's oft-repeated saying that people cannot steal from you what you give them. The 'secular answer' suggests telling the son to grow up, pay on time, or face estate-plan consequences.

Dear LFTP: hearing loss and a husband who won't speak up

• A listener with hearing loss says her husband refuses to speak louder and suspects an ulterior motive — what advice?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a woman with hearing loss who cannot afford hearing aids; her husband refuses to speak louder, threatens to stop talking to her, and either whispers or screams — she feels depressed, isolated, and suspects an ulterior motive. The hosts call it jerky, emotionally abusive behavior and suspect a deeper marriage problem beneath the hearing issue. Their advice: get a pastor or counselor to mediate, look into organizations and cheaper assistive options, and keep community around them. The 'secular answer' agrees the behavior is emotionally abusive and suggests an audiologist visit with the husband along.

Closing: thanks, links, and the church as God's chosen means

A host thanks Joy Fatma and Nate Baird, recaps the calls to action — wingsofrefuge.net, merrychristmasnate.com, following both on Facebook, prayer and giving — and widens the frame: whether sex trafficking, drug recovery, or healthcare, God's got people on it, and the church is his chosen means to carry good news into the world. He signs off with 'be faithful in the means; God will handle the ends.'