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This week, host Diana interviews Kenny Sacht, founder of the ministry Wipe Every Tear. Kenny shares his journey of discovering the reality of sex trafficking in the Philippines during trips with his basketball and volleyball teams. Touched by the plight of the trafficked girls, Kenny and his wife founded Wipe Every Tear to provide safe houses, education, and holistic care for women escaping the sex trade. He discusses the challenges, approaches, and the divine protection they’ve experienced in their mission work. The episode also highlights Kenny’s transformation in his view towards the men involved in the sex trade and emphasizes the power of God’s love and presence in their efforts. His joyful enthusiasm, love for Jesus, and care for these girls is contagious! You will love Kenny’s interview!
00:00 Introduction to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast
00:04 The Reality of Sex Trafficking in the Philippines
00:37 Mission Trips and Building Relationships
01:57 Meet Kenny Sacht: A Life-Changing Journey
02:46 The Birth of Wipe Every Tear
04:16 Rescue Operations and Safe Houses
07:49 Challenges and Spiritual Battles
20:04 Loving the Unlovable: A New Perspective
25:29 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
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Rescuing Girls In The Sex Trade: Kenny Sacht: Part One
[00:00:00] Coming up next on the Wounds of the Faithful podcast.[00:00:04] I saw these girls. There are 240 bars and over 12, 000 girls in Angela City, Philippines.[00:00:12] So these are adult women, they’re supposed to be, they can be minors, but they’re supposed to be 18 years of age. Sex trafficking is illegal in the Philippines, and yet It’s everywhere. On this street alone, this area, some bars have hundreds of these girls in them.[00:00:29] So we go into the bars and Filipinos cannot go into the bars in the Philippines. Only foreigners can go in. And and that’s why we do mission trips. We need Americans. We need foreigners. No matter what country you’re from Canada, anywhere in Europe, all over the world.[00:00:47] We get people coming and then we do these mission trips, and then we do teams and we get our Filipino staff with you, and we go into the bars and. And it’s the foreigner it’s they’re the ticket to get in the bars. We go in we build [00:01:00] relationships you know during the week we feed meals. And so we have a very good reputation and God has just covered us.[00:01:07] God has just been so gracious to us.[00:01:09] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer, songwriter, speaker, and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help.[00:01:35] Now, here is Diana.[00:01:43] Hey everyone. If you traveled over to a foreign country and you saw some girls, Being trafficked, sex trafficked, on your vacation maybe. What would you do about it? My guest today did [00:02:00] something about it. Came back from a trip with his basketball team that he coached, and that trip changed his life.[00:02:08] And you are not going to want to miss this interview with my guest, Kenny Sacht. You’ll never hear anything like it. Everybody’s heard of the Jim Caviezel movie about sex trafficking. This is not going to be like that. It’s gonna be completely different. I’m not gonna ruin it for you because I really want you to hear his story and it has been incredible listening to what he’s doing and what God has done with his team.[00:02:42] I’ll read a little bit about his bio. His ministry is called Wipe Every Tear. That is a great title to have for a ministry, isn’t it? Wipe Every Tear started in a high school teacher’s classroom. After years [00:03:00] of leading basketball and volleyball teams to the Philippines, Kenny’s eyes were opened to the nightmare of human sex trafficking.[00:03:08] Having five daughters of his own, his heart broke at the reality that girls were being sold for sex. In 2008, Wipe Every Tear was born in 2012. It all began in 2007, where Kenny led a summer basketball mission team to the Philippines. The following year, in 2008, while leading a girls volleyball team, Kenny’s eyes were opened to the nightmare of sex trafficking, when his heart broke at the reality that the girls were sold for sex.[00:03:46] After the 2008 trip, he and his wife decided to help one impoverished girl he’d met during that time, and they founded Wipe Every Tear. Helping one girl quickly became four, [00:04:00] and then many. He entered into the sex trade. The good side! In 2012, Kenny began with the mindset, if these girls were my daughters, how would I want somebody to treat them and come to their rescue?[00:04:16] Shortly thereafter, he left his teaching and coaching career to dedicate all of his time rescuing and restoring girls and women from the sex trade. Their first safe house, called Hope House, was secured in 2012 in partnership with local Filipinos. Wipe Every Tear worked closely with local Filipino churches.[00:04:43] to help women escape the imprisonment of sexual exploitation, providing a new life in Jesus, along with formal college education, which is a must in the Philippines, to even work in the fast food industry. Kenny [00:05:00] is passionate for revival and seeing the kingdom of heaven.[00:05:05] Invade the poor, hungry, destitute, and lovely women trapped in the sex trade. Believing the presence of God changes everything. Since the inception, many more women have been welcomed into the safe houses where they experience freedom, security, three meals a day, education, and discipleship.[00:05:29] Through the simple act of providing a loving home, women’s lives are continuing to be restored to this day. We have had the privilege to see the transformation of dozens of young girls and women’s lives, bringing hope, freedom, and a great future in the name of Jesus. Kenny travels one third of his time in the Philippines and also speaks at churches, gatherings, and conferences in the Philippines.[00:05:59] [00:06:00] America and other nations. Prior to Wipe Every Tear, Kenny graduated from seminary and pastored two churches. He was a high school teacher, a basketball, and a track and field coach for many years. Kenny and his bride, D. A., have five daughters, one son, and 15 grandchildren and reside in Boise, Idaho, USA.[00:06:25] This is a little different than our normal podcast. Some of you have been sex trafficked. I know this because I know my audience. I help people to heal from sex trafficking. With a program called Princess Lost and Princess Found and we have seen visible results as a result of Them going through that specific Mending the Soul program[00:06:54] and so This is geared also to the churches out there [00:07:00] listening and Christian organizations nonprofits Ways that you can tangibly help somebody heal from sex trafficking, change their life. And yes, we did talk a little bit about the financial side. But if you’ve ever been to the Philippines, an American dollar goes really far.[00:07:21] You are going to love Kenny and his infectious joy. and his big smile. So enjoy my conversation with Kenny Sacht Please welcome to the show, Kenny Sacht! Thank you so much for coming on today. I’m so honored to have you. Hello, Diana. It is a joy to be with you. I’m so looking forward to our time. Not all heroes wear capes, and what you’re doing is definitely one of those things.[00:07:56] rescuing people. So did you always want [00:08:00] to do this line of work? I know you’ve been called into this but tell us your beginnings. What did you do to get up to this point of rescuing children? It was not my longing. It was the furthest thing that I could even imagine.[00:08:15] And I’m not exaggerating. I went to seminary and I pastored and then at the time that I started doing this, I was teaching. It was really my niche in a Christian high school here in Boise, Idaho. And so I was teaching and coaching basketball and we, we took a basketball team to the Philippines in 2007 and I’m a go getter, I tried to get this thing going for a number of years and finally it was like, it’s time, we’re going to do missions trips for our high school kids.[00:08:42] We did. I went back the second year in 2008 with a volleyball team and I encountered the sex trade. The short version is I encountered the sex trade and my heart broke and I really didn’t see it there, Diana. I actually came back in [00:09:00] 2008. It was the winter time and I was on my laptop and I was just doing some stuff on my laptop and back in the pop up days, I had a non Mac.[00:09:07] My Mac doesn’t do that anymore. I don’t know if other computers still do that. But. A pop up came up and it said sex trafficking. And I thought, what is that? And I clicked on it and it took me, describing what sex trafficking was, they’re buying and selling women, girls. I thought, how in the world?[00:09:30] I had no grid for that, and Diana, I began to click, and it went to Asia, it went to Southeast Asia, and I got, it was into the Philippines, I thought, I’ve been to the Philippines twice now, and I didn’t see it, and I began to read, and that night in December of 2008, I was sitting there crying at my laptop.[00:09:51] There were tears on my keyboard, and I just said, God, this is terrible. This is terrible. I’ll do [00:10:00] anything[00:10:00] to save one for free. And that’s how he started. I no desire to do this. It just, my heart was broken when I read about it. I’m I have five lovely daughters and a son. Yeah. And I thought I was just broken, Diana. I, and I’m a very simple guy. I’m very, I just broken and I told God I’ll do something just here I am, God, I’ll do something.[00:10:21] That’s how it started, Diana. Hmm. I know that. You went over there to try and start something. What does that look like? I’ve heard stories of, people going in, going into cities where there’s traffic girls and they pretend that they’re Johns. They pretend that they’re customers and then they get them into a room and tell them what’s going on and then they, them out of there almost kidnapping.[00:10:51] But that’s not what you guys were doing, right? You had a different approach altogether. Yeah. And that’s the Hollywood picture. [00:11:00] And to clarify we don’t necessarily do children. Diana, everything we do is different. We, I saw these girls this is, there are 240 bars and over 12, 000 girls in Angela City, Philippines.[00:11:14] So these are adult women, they’re supposed to be, they can be minors, but they’re supposed to be 18 years of age. Sex trafficking is illegal in the Philippines, and yet It’s everywhere. On this street alone, this area, some bars have hundreds of these girls in them.[00:11:32] So we go into the bars and Filipinos cannot go into the bars in the Philippines. Only foreigners can go in. And and that’s why we do mission trips. In fact, anybody listening, we need Americans we need foreigners. No matter what country you’re from Canada, anywhere in Europe, all over the world.[00:11:52] We get people coming and then we do these mission trips, and then we do teams and we get our Filipino staff with you, and we go into the bars and. [00:12:00] And it’s the foreigner, they’re the ticket to get in the bars. We go in we build relationships you know during the week we feed meals. And so we have a very good reputation and God has just covered us.[00:12:12] God has just been so gracious to us there’s such a covering over us you. One of the questions is, how safe is it? We’ve never been threatened. We’ve never been threatened. God’s just been so good. So we build relationships. We go into the bars and we talk to these girls. We invite them to a banquet which we always hold a banquet when we do these mission trips, these outreaches.[00:12:32] And we’ve had 200 girls come to a banquet and there we share with them, it’s a great meal and, we love them. We just love them dearly. And they get to hear about the hope. The hope that there is a way out and then to hear about Jesus, and we’re very non religious, but we’re full of Jesus.[00:12:54] I don’t know if you’re listeners, you’re, yeah, okay, amen. I’m not a religious guy, but [00:13:00] I’m passionate for the gospel. I’m passionate for Jesus. And his church, and for us being the light of the world, Diana, for those that know Jesus, he lives there. He resides there.[00:13:18] Paul says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. So we walk in these bars and we bring the hope of glory. And in short, that’s how we get these girls out. And we talked a little bit about the spiritual battle behind the scenes, that you are fighting against darkness. Yeah. And you did touch on this a little bit about safety.[00:13:41] You do what you’re doing here in the States where I live in Arizona, you are on some pimp’s turf and trying to take their girls. They’re going to shoot you. So that never happened. You you were protected by the Lord. Is that a [00:14:00] typical thing over there? They don’t care about somebody coming in and taking their girls away? They make money off of these these women.[00:14:09] You’re right. Diana, it makes no sense what I’m going to tell you. And all those who are watching right now, those who are listening. That is one of the most often questions. They’ll say how safe, for people who are want to come or just people who are interested, they hear my story, they go, how safe is it?[00:14:27] And I go number one, I don’t know, define safe, right? The Apostle Paul was shipwrecked, beaten. He was hungry. He was starving. He was stoned. How safe is being a follower of Jesus, but I get the question in the early days, I remember the early days, a Filipino pastor asked, Are they going to come out with guns and knives?[00:14:48] And I didn’t know the answer because we were just beginning. But Diana, we’ve never been threatened. But, but this is the business, yes, if you take [00:15:00] someone’s girls away from them it takes money away from the pimp, or there they call it the mama san and yet we’ve had, we’ve been in a bar, I mean check this out, all I can say is there is a supernatural God and the stories that we experience, the real life stories.[00:15:18] are like what you hear about, the famous missionaries that we read about, or the supernatural stories, you read about. We’re experiencing some of those things. Some of the things that we experience are things you read about in the scriptures, and I’ve been in a bar, and this has happened, Numerous times, the momma san, she’s the manager and she’s in a bar.[00:15:40] She doesn’t manage the whole bar. She manages a group of girls in the bars. And they have numerous mamma sans in the bars and they may have 10, 15, 20 girls. And they’ll just be just, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15 of these mamasans in a bar or more, depends on the size of the bar. So we’ve been in a [00:16:00] bar and I’ve been sitting there at a table.[00:16:02] It’s loud music going on. The women are dressed very scantily. if you can just picture Southeast Asia, all these lovely girls. And loud music and customers from all over the world. And it’s the sex trade. It’s crazy. And I’ve been sitting there talking and I’ve literally, so we’re like maybe three, four, five, six at a table and I’ll have a mama, like I’m talking to these girls.[00:16:29] Sometime the mama san will come sit at the table cause she’s protecting her girls. Oh, you go oh gosh, in the early days, you’re like, oh gosh, what do we do? So I’m sitting there telling the story. There’s a way out of here. You can get out of here. We’ll provide for all of your needs.[00:16:43] We’ll provide for her schooling, her, all of her food, her room and board, everything, every medical, dental, vision. We’re going to take care of this girl. We’re going to give her a daily allowance. We will support her children if she has children. We, it sounds [00:17:00] too good to be true. But we provide for all that.[00:17:02] And I’ve had the mama san. Look to the girl and reach over and say Suzy, listen to coach Kenny. They all call me coach in the Philippines because I went there as a basketball coach and they never by your first name. It’s always sir, Mr. Mrs. And in my case, they called me coach.[00:17:20] I’ve had that many times. Listen to coach Kenny. You want to go to college. Listen to him. We’ve had mama s as I’m talking, I’m just. God is so good. Our last, we do these getaways where we invite these girls to come to an ocean getaway. It’s an ocean beach resort. Not like what you’re picturing in your mind of resort, but a third world resort.[00:17:42] It’s very clean though, but it’s very modest. We recently had a Mamasan manager come and she’s come to these getaways twice and brought different girls. She brings her girls with them and says, girls, this could be a way for you to get out. It’s Only by God. Only Holy [00:18:00] Spirit would do that. And we’re very protected.[00:18:03] We’re very wise, though. We’re watching our backs. We’re always in tune with what God is saying. We’re not being stupid. But that’s what it looks like. And it’s like, how does that happen? It’s only the miracle signs and wonders. We call it signs and wonders in the sex trade. I’m sure that Mama San, she’s probably been trafficked too.[00:18:26] And she worked up and she might be, the kind of person that giving up hope for herself. Maybe her girls under her would have a way to get out. Yes, all the mama’s sons start out when they’re in their younger years. They got trafficked and then they get older and now they’re less desirable.[00:18:47] So they’re still, they’re living in great poverty. So she starts recruiting girls and say, listen, I’ll manage you. I’ll manage you. And this is gonna be a hard one for those watching, your viewers. And those listening, [00:19:00] some of the mama’s sans are so nice. They’re beautiful. They’re lovely.[00:19:06] They’re wonderful souls. And someone’s saying right now you got to be, no one trafficking girls. And I go, Oh, wait a second. Wait a second. You’re talking about, about a woman who has trafficked once, has lived with trauma for many years. And you’re living in a nation where you are hungry.[00:19:26] And, there’s these girls, and you’ll gather these girls, and you’ll let them know from the beginning, listen, there’s a job, you can work here. I’ll protect you, I’ll watch over you, I’ll be a good mama san. And that’s very hard for some people to hear. But let me tell you, we have some friends who we dearly love.[00:19:47] And they’re doing that in the bars. God calls us to love. He calls us to love people.[00:19:54] And so we love everybody. The managers, the traffickers, the [00:20:00] bouncers, the owners. We love them all. We love them dearly. Oh, tell the story about how you love the customers, these men on sex vacations. That blew me away. You did your research, Diana. I did. I do my homework. You did. Wow.[00:20:18] Yeah. Diana, I frequently tell the story of my wife, D. A. She’s just a lovely girl. We’ve been married 42 years. Her first time to go to these bars a number of years ago. This was probably 11 years ago, and she came on a trip. She mostly stays home. She prays, she sends me off.[00:20:39] I live about a third of my life, by the way, in the Philippines. And right now I’m, it’s like about half of my life over the past few months. So we walked onto the street here with my bride and we have some Filipino girls in our care. And we have one or two staff members, Filipino staff members.[00:20:56] imagine anybody who’s ever been to Reno or Las Vegas [00:21:00] and the lights are flashing. Picture that, but in a third world, depressed, Developing world. Is very tiny, but the lights are flashing, the music is blasting, and there’s hundreds and hundreds of girls in the street, and then thousands in these bars.[00:21:16] We walk on the street and my wife sees this guy that weighs, he’s pushing four bills, 400 pounds, he’s pushing 400 pounds or more. And he’s holding hands with a little 85 pound, like four foot eight, lovely, cute Filipina girl. And my wife saw this and she just starts crying and she says, I can’t handle this.[00:21:45] I can’t handle this. I just want to, I just want to like, yeah, Yeah. I want to like, just punch him and then I’ll speak for myself. In those early days, having five daughters, I told [00:22:00] some of these boyfriends before, I said, if you ever touch my daughter in an inappropriate way, I hate this, I said this, there’s going to be, there’s going to be trouble here.[00:22:12] And so it’s you want to, it’s you want to take a baseball bat and break their legs, break their knees, not kill them. We didn’t like these guys. These guys are raping these girls. The stories of going back to the hotels. The stories that I have heard, Diana, are horrendous, just horrendous, and I, this is not rated R here or anything, but just imagine, I’ll keep it clean, but imagine a guy going into a bar and getting this girl, taking her back to the hotel, and she walks into this room and there are five men waiting.[00:22:54] I don’t know.[00:22:55] It’s, so that’s where I come from, [00:23:00] a as the lover of Jesus and a lover of my wife and my daughters, my family, and god’s just given me a heart for the broken and the hungry and the poor. And that’s how it was for a few, two, three years or so maybe four, maybe three to four years.[00:23:15] And I was in my hotel room during the day. One time I was on my knees worshiping and praying in my hotel room, and I had a vision. And I don’t know what’s a vision? For me, it’s just, I just see stuff. I just see stuff in my head, and my eyes are open and I just see it just, and I see like a video being played.[00:23:33] And all of a sudden I’m taken to this bar. My eyes are open. It’s like I’m in two places at one time, I’ve walked with Jesus for a long time. I still am amazed at the supernatural. While I’m sitting there worshiping, I have this vision, and I’m in a bar, and there’s this man on a stool with his back to me, and he’s very overweight.[00:23:55] He’s that 350 category. And yellow [00:24:00] teeth. Smokin a cigarette, drinkin a beer, and I know why he’s there. And I know why I’m there. I’m there to get these girls out, to offer them freedom, to give them hope, most wonderful Jesus to them. And while I’m sittin there, I’m having this feeling towards this guy.[00:24:19] And all of a sudden, he’s on a stool,[00:24:22] in the vision there’s this little two and a half, three year old child. And he’s, it’s a boy and he’s playing in the dirt with trucks and, picture he’s got, he’s got some trucks, I’ll take, I’ll just grab my little wallet here, playing, he’s going, and he’s got, and he’s playing and he’s just playing like I did as a kid.[00:24:41] Every little boy does. And then God says the Isn’t he lovely? Isn’t my boy beautiful? And Diana, my heart, I heard God’s voice, [00:25:00] his heart, for his boy now. It wasn’t he beautiful? Like referring back to 50 years ago, he said, isn’t he lovely? Isn’t he beautiful? Beautiful.[00:25:15] That changed everything. And from that day forward, we started treating these men with honor and dignity and they’re no longer our enemies.[00:25:29] I know that this is an exciting story and you’re on the edge of your seats. We are going to stop here and continue our conversation with Kenny Sacht next time on the Wounds of the Faithful podcast There’s more stories, folks. It’s going to get even more exciting.[00:25:50] You’re just not going to believe it. I’m just not going to spoil it for you. But, so please come back for part two to hear the rest of Kenny’s [00:26:00] story and how you can help. Until next time, God bless you. Bye for now.[00:26:05] Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You can connect with us at DSWMinistries. org, where you’ll find our blog along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week!