Lana Vasquez is a missionary in Thailand who runs an international organization that rescues and cares for sexually exploited children in Thailand and Brazil. Her organization, Life Impact International, rescues, protects, and provides long-term care for vulnerable children, while also sharing the gospel with them.
Learn more about Lana Vasquez: https://lifeimpactintl.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Lana Vasquez. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Lana Vasquez (00:10):
Thank you for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:12):
Now you and I are friends from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Lana Vasquez (00:14):
Yes, sir.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:15):
And you know my wife Jessica?
Lana Vasquez (00:17):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:17):
And you are living in Thailand?
Lana Vasquez (00:20):
Yes, sir.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:21):
And so tell me about how God took you to Thailand.
Lana Vasquez (00:26):
Yeah, so honestly I had never heard about Thailand before. I got radically saved at 19. I knew for the rest of my life that I was supposed to do two things. I was supposed to protect children internationally, vulnerable at risk, exploited children because what had happened to me in my childhood and that I was supposed to tell as many people about Jesus before the age 19 because nobody ever told me. I was born and raised in Southern California and I never heard the gospel. Nobody ever invited me to church until I was 19. So I knew that I was rescue to rescue. I knew that that would be my life. And God did a quick work and I went to Bible school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I went from California to the first ever of my family to leave California, go to Tulsa, was there.
(01:09):
While I was in Tulsa, I started hearing about children being trafficked in Thailand. I started hearing about eight year olds virginity going for as much as $3,000. I started hearing about children in the Red Light district of Bangkok and that being sold to businessmen and that businessmen would sleep with their children to bring good luck. Or if they had HIV, they believed that if you slept with a child that it could take away HIV or you couldn’t get HIV for a child. But I just heard these things and something in my heart broke and I knew I had to do something. Simultaneously, I heard a missionary from Sa Paulo, Brazil, talk about the street kids in Sao Paulo talk about five-year-olds walking around sniffing glue to kill the hunger pains because glue was cheaper than food and there’s more kids on the streets than food in the dumpsters.
(01:53):
And I just heard about how the store owners would pay off the lease to line ’em up, massacre, and you could smell the rotting bodies of children in the open sewages of South Paulo, Brazil. At that time, my heart just exploded. I knew I needed to do something and I knew that I was supposed to work with exploited children internationally. So while I was there, I was praying and God gave me a hundred Psalms 127 verses three through five as arrows in the hand of a mighty man. So children of the youth, they will not be ashamed, but they’ll subdue and conquer the enemy at the gate. And I knew God was speaking in my heart to do children’s homes in these countries and different countries that I was hearing all these exploitations and abuses with children. And I said, but God, I’m an evangelist.
(02:33):
I want to win hundreds, thousands, millions to you. I don’t want to just have a little daycare for a God daycare, a little children’s home and have 10 kids and float to heaven singing kumbaya. My Lord. When Jesus comes back, I said, I want to have maximum impact for you. And he spoke to me and said, in the Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu nations of the world, there are generations who don’t know me. You’ll raise up a generation to know me and that generation will make me known to their own nation. And I knew what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to go into different nations, close nations and reach that nation through the children that we would reach rescue and raise up a generation to know him. And that generation would make him known to their own nation and stop the evils of trafficking, exploitation, slavery in their own nation.
(03:17):
I knew that I had a picture of that. I was only 23 years old. I had never been on a missions trip. I was radically saved from the clubs of Hollywood. So I didn’t know what ministry was missions, I didn’t know any of these things. I just had this blueprint and this download and I knew what I was supposed to do. I knew I was rescue to rescue. And so in that time I was just praying it out. All of these pieces of the puzzle I say or like I connect the dots. All these dots were being connected in my life. And there came an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Thailand, and this is where I heard that eight year olds there, Virginia had been sold for $3,000 in the red light district to Bangkok. And so I knew I was supposed to go.
(03:54):
So I committed two months and then I was going to go end up in Brazil and be a missionary in Brazil with these three kids in Sao Paulo. I’d already planned I was going to go two months to Thailand and then I’d end up in Brazil. And so I got there, went to Thailand on this missions trip, and a little face came up to me, a 14-year-old girl and she said, I don’t have a mom. You don’t have a daughter from the state forth. I’m your mom and I’m your daughter and you’re my mom. And I couldn’t leave those kids. I became mama to 52 kids at 24 years old and the rest is history. I two months turned to six months, six months turned into a year and a half, a year and a half into it. I had went with other missionaries and they had said, children’s homes are expensive.
(04:33):
We do church planning, bible school planning where we can’t do homes anymore. It’s straining our budget. We’re going to hand these homes over. And I said, you can’t do this to these children. They don’t have anywhere to go. They don’t have any, but I’m their mom, they’re my children. We can’t do it. I said, would you pray about handing the home over to me, handing the homes? It was a boys and girls home over to me. And they said, how are you going to support? I said, I don’t know. And I was there with three other single missionary girls who put all our money together. We lived with the children and we took over the home. So at 24 I became mama to 52 kids, and at 25 and a half I became the responsible for two children’s homes and an international organization. And the rest is history.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:14):
How long have you been there now?
Lana Vasquez (05:15):
24 years. So two months turned into 24 years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:18):
Wow. It’s so valuable what you’re doing. I’ve been back and forth to Thailand several times this year and we did an outreach in Patalia.
(05:27):
And so we were setting up our sound system in one night market, and as we were setting it up, an older woman drove up on a motorcycle. She had a little girl on the back of her motorcycle, probably 10 or 11 years old, and she sent this little girl over to talk to us because we were foreigners. And this little girl had her fingernails done super long full makeup and dressed in scanty clothing, and she was there to offer herself to us. And so we were there with several pastors who loved the women there and try to rescue women in Patalia. And we spent 20 minutes talking to this little girl and it broke my heart so much because she’s the age of my daughter. And for that to happen to a little girl is so horrific. And so what you’re doing is so valuable rescuing them and giving them a hope and a purpose for their life. Yeah. Thank you. So not only are you working in Thailand, but now God has brought you back to Brazil. So your vision for Brazil is coming to pass.
Lana Vasquez (06:45):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:45):
And right now we’re actually in Brazil at a conference where we’re talking about reaching everyone in Brazil for Jesus. And so what are you doing here in Brazil
Lana Vasquez (06:54):
With Brazil? So Thailand, when I was there every year, I’d say, God is a time for Brazilian here. No, not yet. No, not yet. So every year I waited and I just put on the shelf and we got property from the Thai Chinese Burmese Mafia, actually it’s called the Promised Land. It was supposed to be a brothel gambling casino resort. And we got this land, and I remember signing for the land to be under the Thai foundation’s name to protect it from the mafia or trying to come back or anything happening. So I remember I had to make some big legal things. I had to set up a foundation and I had to be the chairman on the foundation to protect it and protect all of it. So remember signing my name, and that meant I had to stay in Thailand permanently. And I just said to the Lord, I guess Brazil was just what you used to get me to work with exploited children internationally.
(07:43):
That’s how you brought the mess of exploited children to my heart and broke my heart with that. So I just lay it down, I put it on the shelf, I just give it back to you. I lay my Isaac on the altar so to say, and I remember signing my name to be the chairman and then to stay in Thailand for the rest of my life and everything like that. And I signed that piece of paper. And not too long after somebody that I went to bible school with a Brazilian pastor, he contacted me. He said, I heard what you’re doing with the children of Thailand. The children of Brazil are calling out to you. The Brazil needs life impact. The children of Brazil needs you here. And I didn’t. Thailand’s number one, it’s known in the world for child exploitation, actually has the largest amount of children forced into prostitution, children being sexually exploited for sex. Slavery is Thailand. That was the number one number. And I didn’t realize that Brazil was right up there with Thailand. Nobody would ever think about that for Brazil. So anyways, he called me and said, wherever you’re at in the world, we’ll fly you here. So we came to Brazil and at that time we went from one side to the other, and Brazil’s a big country. It’s the size of America, minus Alaska
(08:51):
With different states just like America. And we went from the top to bottom looking for the next place or how we were going to help the children of Brazil. And every story that I heard was worse than the other. And we had already rescued, we had rescue homes. My youngest victim was a year and a half boy when we took off his diaper, he had been messed with. My first girl ate, my first rescue girl was an 8-year-old girl, sold for $24. And so we had experienced so much, but when I came to Brazil, the stories and what I heard, the stories were worse than the other. And I just knew we needed to do something. And so in that, when I landed, and I always say it like this, you be faithful with what got put in your hands. He gave me Thailand and he gave me Burma, the wars that were on the Thai Burma border. And we have homes both on the Thai side and the Burmese side and how human trafficking works. Whatever the poor nation is, the children are trafficked and sold into the more wealthier nation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:46):
And right now many refugees are coming from Burma over into Thailand. And so they’re very vulnerable,
Lana Vasquez (09:52):
Very vulnerable. I mean, we have moms selling baby auction off babies even in their belly on the border right now. So we have babies. We’re the only ones that will rescue babies. And so babies are going, they go for as little as 500 Bob, which is $18 you can buy a baby. Twin girls are considered good luck. So they’re a little bit more, there’ll be about 10,000 bought, which is roughly $300, $350 around there. So at that time, I was faithful with what God put in my hands, which was Thailand and Burma, but I still carried Brazil in my heart. So we came here and once we saw all of this, I knew that now was the time for Brazil. So six years later, we’re in three locations, we’re in the Amazon in the interior. We’re the first safe home in the interior of the Amazon.
(10:38):
It’s a place that you have to fly very stealth. And in that area, because of the trafficking, we just rescued a two month old boy that was sold for 300 hays to the drug traffickers. Oh wow. That’s about $5. The mom had 12 kids we’re investigating. We’re trying to look for a boy who was sold at two, he’s now four. They brought us in for investigation. While we were there, we found a baby that she was already in negotiations with the drug traffickers. And then she was also auctioning off the baby in her belly. So we’re there. We just rescued a 12-year-old girl, 11-year-old boy, 7-year-old boy. And then I have another 13-year-old girl there right now, the first safe woman interior of the Amazon. The government has already come to us and they basically said, okay, will you do what you’re doing in now the capitol?
(11:23):
And the only question we’re going to have next, we guarantee you it will be filled in two months. And the only question that we have next is, will you start another home? So we’re working, and it’s a crucial area. People don’t realize this, but the Amazon is known for sex trafficking in the fishing boats, in the fishing industry. So there’s actually companies that go from Florida in Miami to leave out of Miami to the Amazon for this purpose of sex trafficking. What they’ll do is they go to the shores of the poor villages along the water, they send their kids out to these yachts. I was there, I saw a middle aged man come out in Speedos with a drink in his hand, and cat called to the 10, 11-year-old girls that were swimming in the little lagoon right there. So it’s known for this basically.
(12:07):
And what they’ll do is they’ll pull up to the shores, they’ll send their kids out, and these little rickety canoe boats, the kids will go onto that big yacht. They’ll have these big parties and if something goes wrong, they’ll tie something heavy around them and throw them on the other side into the water. They’ll send back that rickety canoe with a pile full of money to buy the parents silence. And then they’ll never know. Nobody will ever hear. I was actually there when that happened to one of the girls we were trying to rescue. And so they call it an epidemic in the Amazon. One out of every two children in some villages are being sexually exploited. And then my Tim took me into one room where all these 10, 11, 12, 13 year olds, they’re sitting with babies on their lap. And I’m used to it in Asia because the older brothers or sisters will take care of their little brother or sister.
(12:51):
And I asked them, is this their brothers and sisters? And they said, no, these are their children. One of the girls that I rescued right now that’s in our home, she’s 12 years old and she’s pregnant from her stepfather while her mom is pregnant by her stepfather as well. So she’s pregnant at the same time as her mom is, and it’s just an epidemic there of proportions. And so we’re there in the Amazon, we have a prevention project right next to the Red light district. We’re in Rio de Janero and we got a crack house and we turned it into a prevention center and one of the most dangerous faves in the world called City of God. There’s documentaries about it. I got to pray for the number three. Basically up in the rankings of the drug traffickers, they came, they saw what we were doing on our opening day.
(13:34):
We had 800 kids there. They came in, their kids come to our project too. And he walked in and he said, can I meet with you? And I went to the side and we start talking and all of a sudden the Lord told me to pray for him. I said, can I pray for you? And he got all serious and said yes. And I said, can I put my hand on your arm and pray for you? Got even more serious, said yes. So I started praying for him and I said, thank you, God, that the blood of your one and only son is more powerful than the blood that’s on our hands. And it can wash away any blood that’s on our hands, anything that we have committed that we have done with our hands. And the guy started to shake. So then I preached the gospel in prayer and I said, and whoever calls on the name of Jesus shall be saved, so Jesus will be call and you save us.
(14:14):
And all of a sudden he opened his eyes and I opened my eyes and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought he was going to kill me or something. And we looked at each other and his eyes were full of water. And he said, I’ve never seen anything like this before. He said, but if you continue doing what you’re doing with these children, I promise you you will never have a problem with us and we will continue to protect us. Two years later, they protect us. The drug traffickers protect us. There’s one way going in and going out. They know who we are. We have our life impact little minivan. And when we stop, a little 16-year-old with an AK 47 looks in and he hits our head and they say, hi auntie. Hi auntie. So they know we’re reaching 350 kids there, 250 in the Amazon.
(14:51):
And then lastly, in the place that we’re at right now, Jo Che, the Northeast, which is the capital for child exploitation in Brazil, it’s known it’s an oversexualization of a generation. And this is an area that is still has starvation, that is still destitute, that is still very much in poverty. And so kids will sell their bodies for rice and beans in Thailand, kids are traffic. But here, kids freely sell their bodies for rice and beans. It is just what they know. The little girls know that they can sell their bodies for a cell phone or cell phone minutes. So it’s this that they know that they can do in this region in the desperation. The poverty is so horrible that they know the only way that they can get these things is through their bodies. So we set up shop here, we got a flip-flop factory, turned it into a prevention center, and we’re seeing another 350 kids weekly in the prevention center here. We feed them two warm meals so they don’t have to sell their bodies for rice and beans. We give them Jesus, most of all. So we’re seeing a thousand children now weekly in Brazil alone.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:49):
Wow, that’s so amazing. Sex trafficking is a huge problem, and especially when it happens to the young girls and young boys, it really tears at your heart. But I’m so thankful that God has provided you to help give an answer to this horrible problem. If someone’s listening and they want to help to support you or hear more about what God is doing through your ministry, what is a good website where they can find out about you?
Lana Vasquez (16:20):
Yeah, so Life impact international.org, international INTL. They can go there. We’re on all the social media, but look us up there. We have a whole thing Prevent Rescue Heal so they can get involved in one of our prevention projects, support one of our prevention projects. They could support the rescuing of a new child, or they can provide long-term support for their healing and their aftercare in Thailand, Burma, and Brazil.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:45):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Thank you.
