Have you ever chuckled your way through pain or used humor as a shield against life's darker moments? We welcome Dave Ebert to the show because he isn't just making waves with his improv workshops; he is also healing broken spirits.Dave is a missionary with the Assemblies of God, bringing laughter and light into the lives of sex and human trafficking survivors, teaching us that joy has the power to heal even the worst circumstances. With a deep-rooted faith in Christ and a transformative journey of his own, he's been able to harness the restorative power of comedy and vulnerability to empower these individuals.
In this episode, we explore the sensitive topic of human trafficking and the role that trust plays in recovery. Survivors can rebuild their lives away from the shadows of their past through Dave's workshops, which aren't just a place for shared laughter. Dave challenges preconceived notions and equips these resilient women with essential communication skills by fostering a trusting relationship with male figures in a safe environment. We also tackle the importance of hope and identity in Christ. We also tackle the critical need to maintain safety and confidentiality as these women courageously piece themselves back together.
As we close, we confront a sobering reality: human trafficking, pornography, and the call to action for everyone, especially men in the church, to put on the full armor of God. This is an eye-opening discussion that encourages us to stand united against this form of modern slavery. Our collective responsibility is to champion hope and become beacons of laughter and change in a world that yearns for both. This isn't just a story about healing; it's an inspirational battle cry for compassion and action put into action by Dave Ebert and Improv Missionaries.
With 4Freedom, all your communications, internet activity, and app usage are encrypted using multiple layers of robust, military-grade encryption algorithms that surpass the standards used by the NSA.
You can start your secure account today:
https://www.4freedommobile.com?ref=bridgebuilders
Have you ever chuckled your way through pain or used humor as a shield against life's darker moments? We welcome Dave Ebert to the show because he isn't just making waves with his improv workshops; he is also healing broken spirits.Dave is a missionary with the Assemblies of God, bringing laughter and light into the lives of sex and human trafficking survivors, teaching us that joy has the power to heal even the worst circumstances. With a deep-rooted faith in Christ and a transformative journey of his own, he's been able to harness the restorative power of comedy and vulnerability to empower these individuals.
In this episode, we explore the sensitive topic of human trafficking and the role that trust plays in recovery. Survivors can rebuild their lives away from the shadows of their past through Dave's workshops, which aren't just a place for shared laughter. Dave challenges preconceived notions and equips these resilient women with essential communication skills by fostering a trusting relationship with male figures in a safe environment. We also tackle the importance of hope and identity in Christ. We also tackle the critical need to maintain safety and confidentiality as these women courageously piece themselves back together.
As we close, we confront a sobering reality: human trafficking, pornography, and the call to action for everyone, especially men in the church, to put on the full armor of God. This is an eye-opening discussion that encourages us to stand united against this form of modern slavery. Our collective responsibility is to champion hope and become beacons of laughter and change in a world that yearns for both. This isn't just a story about healing; it's an inspirational battle cry for compassion and action put into action by Dave Ebert and Improv Missionaries.
With 4Freedom, all your communications, internet activity, and app usage are encrypted using multiple layers of robust, military-grade encryption algorithms that surpass the standards used by the NSA.
You can start your secure account today:
https://www.4freedommobile.com?ref=bridgebuilders
Well, it's so good to have Dave on the podcast. How you doing today, Dave.
Speaker 2:Hey, I'm doing wonderful. How are you today?
Speaker 1:I'm good. So, as we get chance to know you, tell us a little bit about yourself before we get started.
Speaker 2:Sure, my name is Dave Ebert. My wife and I are newly appointed US missionaries through the Assemblities of God. We minister to survivors of sex and human trafficking, and many people would call a very unique way. We use improv workshops as a way to work with the survivors, help them develop their communication skills or confidence, tap into their creativity and, if nothing else happens, they at least get an hour to laugh freely and not focus on the pain they've been through or the struggles that they have ahead of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's important work that ministry's, yeah, and it's such phenomenal work and I'm not to my horn, but it's a gift from God in what he's done to allow me to use something that's very near and dear to my heart, which is improv and comedy, to minister to people that have been through literal hell on earth and give them a chance to find that hope in Christ through laughter and through comedy and through something that's so important to me.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's important. I'd love to ask my guest this question what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Speaker 2:The best piece of advice I've ever received is the easy one. The obvious one is give it to Christ and to surrender my life to him, because for many years I thought I had to do a sinless prayer and not kill anybody, and that's pretty much all you have to do in heaven. But a relationship with Christ is so much more so when I finally heeded the advice to actually submit and actually pursue a real relationship with Jesus. That's the best advice I could ever receive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that, as being a pastor, one of my greatest joys is to help people realize that it's the Holy Spirit that moves in us and produces faith for us. And you're right, it's about stop putting up the resistance that's already there and letting the Holy Spirit work and reveal God's word to you. It's a really powerful thing that faith is, and I always tell people faith is a miracle that is outside of us, that is given to us as a gift from God. So, yeah, that's a wonderful reminder.
Speaker 2:And it's a relationship. It's not a one and done thing. That's why Jesus refers to himself as the bridegroom or the bride, because it's not just the marriage or it's not just the wedding day. It's the relationship that happens after the wedding day. It's the constant learning of each other and the growth and the development, and it's more than just a, you know, checking a box. It's all about building something together, and that's what marriage is about, and that's what our relationship with Christ is about is building that relationship.
Speaker 1:So you tell me, just because I said I do, I can't just stop now. I just tell my wife I do and I'm done.
Speaker 2:It should be not just I do, it's I do and I will. Right, and there's sometimes where it gets very. You know, every relationship has its trials, even pursuing Christ. You know there are things where you know there are challenges in a regular marriage. To you know, as a husband to a wife, sometimes you start to think well, maybe to death, to us part, that's not just a vow, that's a goal.
Speaker 1:Right. So, Dave, I love to ask my guest this question Think about people in your life who have served to either be an inspiration or a motivation to you. Who are those people you want to kind of give a shout out to us? We just kind of think about that in your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, motivation and inspiration. One thing I, one person is sister Rose from Pogganis Virginia. She was at the local Catholic Church but she didn't care about being in the Catholic Church, she was in the community, she served and she invested in the youth like no other. She got me to go to different retreats and just allowed me to be poured into in all those years where I thought I you know was I had no knowledge, no understanding of a relationship with Christ, but she poured into me to allow me to have all these seeds that they lie dormant for many years until I finally turned my life over to Christ and then also, when those seeds started taking root, started sprouting up.
Speaker 2:So, sister Rose and Pogganis Virginia, shout out to you, if you ever listen to this and see, I had a pastor growing up, tony Perry, who really poured into us, into the youth, because I went to a church that was very much about. You know, kids are to be seen only on the specials. Like you come up for Christmas, in the Easter you do a little special, but the rest of the time you guys just go to the back of the church for Sunday school. There wasn't a emphasis on pouring into or discipling the kids. But my pastor in high school, tony Perry, did a really great job of pouring into us. So those, I think, are two of the biggest as far as like my faith journey, as far as my comedy journey. The late John Candy and the late Chris Farley, you know, I hope that in their final moments they came to know the Lord, if they didn't already.
Speaker 1:But those are my comedy influences and inspirations. I love that. So can you tell us what, why you started GIFs for Glory Ministries?
Speaker 2:Sure, when I finally turned my life over to the Lord in 2013, I was living in a 300 square foot studio apartment in Beckley, west Virginia, and my whole life or most of my entire adult life, excuse me I was battling depression and thoughts of suicide. My value was in whether or not I could make somebody laugh or entertain somebody, and that's what I had done for 16, 17 years. When I finally turned it over to the Lord, he showed me that I was doing what he wanted, which was entertaining people, bringing people together, giving them laughter and, through that laughter, giving them hope. And he just needed to shift the why and the way he explained it is.
Speaker 2:I used to use comedy to hide who I was, and now I use it as a way to reveal who he is.
Speaker 2:And so I finally turned my life over to the Lord and he led me to leave West Virginia and come back to Chicago, where I was born, and use comedy and perform as a way to bring people together, to entertain them and ultimately point them to the foot of the cross. And here we started a comedy ministry team which is kind of under the umbrella of gifts or glory ministries, gifts or glory overseas or comedy ministry, the podcast, which is currently on hiatus, as well as the improv missionaries work, and so gifts or glory is all about using our gifts for his glory, and that's been going strong since 2013 and I hope to see it continue to grow and impact people and, like I said, ultimately draw them to the foot of the cross and encourage them to use the gifts and talents, their passions even allowing God to redeem their experiences offer his glory, so people see that there is a Father in Heaven who truly does care, who is truly involved with his kids, and that's what gifts or glory is all about.
Speaker 1:You mentioned, as we began this conversation, that part of what you do is you bring comedy to those who've been involved in human trafficking. Tell us more about that particular phase of your ministry.
Speaker 2:Sure, it started in 2018. We were doing a fundraiser for a group called Salt and Light Coalition in Chicago and throughout the night of that fundraiser, I felt the Lord impressed on my heart that I needed to share my testimony, which I just shared briefly, is the battle of depression, thoughts of suicide and using comedy as a way to mask it, but also as a justification, like if I could make somebody laugh, I was adding value to the world. Therefore, I could continue to live in the world because there was a need there that was filling, and so I shared this from stage. After the comedy performance, in my mind and heart I was saying well, god has somebody in this audience that he's trying to reach and he wants my testimony to implant a little hope into their lives. And that could well be true, and that may be something that I find when I enter the gates of glory that there's somebody there on the other side because I was willing to share my testimony and I hope that you know, I hope that that's true. But as I came off stage, the founder of Salt and Light came up to me.
Speaker 2:Now, salt and Light is an organization in Chicago that helps women who have escaped sex trafficking helps them get on their feet, find housing, get a job, advocate for themselves so that they can get their records expunged. Because the tragedy of being ensnared in trafficking is you end up getting arrested either for prostitution or for drugs, because you're put on drugs in many ways, many occasions, to keep you under control. And the courts they don't really look into the why. Why are you out on the street? Why are you constantly getting picked up for prostitution? Why are you so addicted to drugs? They don't care about the why. They just see you as just another criminal, just another case number. So these women who are in this prison of trafficking, you know they've got a record and that record now is used against them because their traffickers sell them. Hey, you can't leave me, you've got a record, you've got to stay here and I'll take care of you. So it's part of that coercion and manipulation. And so Salt and Light helps these women advocate for themselves and try to build or rebuild their lives.
Speaker 2:And when I came off stage, dr Olson came up to me and said, dave, I'd love for you to teach improv to our ladies, meaning the survivors. And I was like, absolutely. And we saw and we've seen how, allowing these women to have a safe space to laugh, a safe space to create, because we're all made in the image of our creator. So when we start to tap into that creativity, we start tapping into that identity in him, and when we identify with him and in him, that allows us to realize that there's a bigger purpose, there's a bigger thing than what we see in life, and that helps them find healing, knowing that there is a father that they can identify with.
Speaker 2:So for the last five plus years I've been going once a month using improv as a way to help these women come out of their shell, come out from behind the walls that they've had to build in order to just survive what they've been put through, and the miracle and the blessing of it is here. I am middle-aged, male, one of the typical Johns that would have put them through what they've been through. I'm here now to break that paradigm and break that stereotype and let them know that there are decent men who you can start to trust, and that breaking that paradigm also helps in the healing, because now what they've known is now shattered and now we're able to plant seeds of the gospel, plant the truth of Jesus, plant the truth of who God is and help them find their healing and find their new identity in him.
Speaker 1:That's a unique place to ministry to find yourself in. How did you get into that? Because you just don't walk into that kind of ministry Somehow. You have to be led to that. So how did you break behind the wall of that and get involved in that kind of ministry?
Speaker 2:It was. It was God ordained. There was something about that night at the comedy fundraiser, something about me being willing to be vulnerable and open and just bear my soul to this audience that attracted, made me attractive to Dr Olson, who thought that that's the kind of man she wants to bring into her organization to minister to her ladies. So and we didn't know, I don't think at the time, how impactful it would be. I think at first it was like, okay, here's a safe man that can come in and kind of change the narratives and also give these ladies a chance just to laugh and To feel the healing power of laughter, to get things off their chest, drop the burdens on their shoulders. So it was God ordained, because he impressed on my heart to share my testimony, to be vulnerable in that moment, and that's what I think attracted dr Olson to invite me in.
Speaker 2:And because Whenever there's an organization like salt and light that works with survivors, the location is this kept secret. Who's in the program is kept secret because many of these women who've escaped are still being sought after. Because, frankly, this is slavery and and just like in the in the 1800s and before, whenever a slave left the plantation they were sought after because we can't allow the rest of the slaves to get the bright idea that they can leave too. So now these, these women are being sought after so that they can either be brought back in or they can be somehow made an example of, so that they can remain, keep the control over those that they still have in their, in their control, because they can't afford Financially for everyone to realize whole, I can leave. Well, let me just walk out and I'm gonna go because that's their business. And so we, we record. Yeah, we really appreciate the idea of keeping it very secure.
Speaker 2:So adding a man to that mix, it could be seen as a little bit of a gamble because it's men who do this by and large. Women are just are is guilty. But Protecting their identity, protecting the security of the location is huge and it's just been, it's all God. God ordained it, god arranged it and our God is the ultimate creator. So you know we should. It's hard to say, but we shouldn't be shocked when he comes up with a creative way to minister to people who are hurting. And I'm just blessed to be chosen to see all these years of using comedy To hide my depression. Now God is redeeming all that time, and he's developed a skill set in me that allows me to minister to the hurting in a way that that allows them to shed a lot of the burdens that they've had to pick up.
Speaker 1:So this is one aspect of salt, and what else does salt and light do to help women who are in that, in that lifestyle?
Speaker 2:So this is what they do is they give them job training skills. A Lot of them become certified Yoga instructors, and I know that in the Christian world that there are some questions about yoga and I understand that debate. But Better for them to be teaching yoga as an exercise than to be on the streets Selling their bodies. So that's a debate for a different time. But they give them job skills. Some get certified as yoga coaches, some get business Training, and so they have an option where they don't have to go back to where they came from. Then there's also teaching them how to take care of themselves, because many of these women first got sold into this lifestyle as children.
Speaker 2:One of the first ladies I worked with, she was sold by her mom and her and her mom's boyfriend when she was only nine years old. So she lost her childhood, her adolescence, and all she was taught is how to make sure that you're Cleaned up and ready for the next guy to come in. And as far as taking care of herself, feeding herself, you know just doing the things that we take it, you know, take for granted. You know she is one of those that had to be taught how to do this for yourself and learn how to be a normal, functioning adult. So salt and light comes alongside and helps them with you know, their life skills, nutritional skills, connects them with groups that can help them advocate for themselves to get some of the things expunged off of their record.
Speaker 2:Like I said, you know that the drug use is in many ways forced on them.
Speaker 2:Either they choose it as a coping mechanism, because you know you're trying to find a way to survive, and Many ways it's forced on them as a way to keep them under control.
Speaker 2:So Many states are moving to allow Survivors of trafficking to get much of their, if not all of their record was expunged so that once they're out of that lifestyle they're free, they're not still carrying the baggage of convictions and and a rap sheet because because they were imprisoned.
Speaker 2:So that's what salt and light does and that's what the other organizations that were partnering with Starting this year will do is help these women, the survivors, get a new lease on life, not only the spiritual, where we pour in and introduce them to Jesus, but also the you know, the practical and rebuilding their lives with getting housing, getting their kids out of the system, because when you do that for a living. Occasionally there is going to be a baby involved and these, these women hey, you've been arrested for drugs four or five times. We're gonna take your kid and put them in the quote-unquote, much safer environment of the foster care system. So these women are trying to get their kids back, trying to get good housing, a good job and All these organizations like Salt and Light Coalition, rehabs daughters, naomi's house, refuge for women, say la freedom and rescue her. These are some of the organizations that will be working with.
Speaker 1:They help them advocate and get into that new lease on life where the the old life is no longer a temptation we talked about the fact that you're in the Chicago area and probably in the last three three years, I'm guessing the the amount of people who are coming through the sex trafficking trade has increased. Are you seeing that as the case in your area, because I know other people are talking about that as being that happening as well.
Speaker 2:And the and. The unfortunate thing and this is not a political statement at all, but the unfortunate thing about not having a secure, closed border and a streamlined emigrate immigration process Is that there are a lot of people from poor and destitute countries that are promised a bill of goods when they come across a border that you know there's gonna be money here, you're gonna have housing and you can you work your way to the point that will bring your whole family across, and in some cases that happens. But in a lot of cases these migrants that are coming across are either using human trafficking or labor trafficking. Where they're put on, you know, farms or in Manufacturing plants will have you and they're promised it the Sunman, the stars. When they get there they're held because the second they try to report the abuse, they're afraid that they're gonna get deported or arrested because they're here illegally without paperwork and they feel and they're told that if you try to leave you're gonna get deported, you're gonna get arrested, what have you? And no one's gonna listen to you. So you just kind of stay here and We'll pay you when we feel like paying. You will, we'll bring your family across when we feel like it. That's just one aspect of the trafficking.
Speaker 2:And another aspect is you know the children that are coming across With people who are not their guardians, who are not even family members, but they're coming across with a slip of paper that has a phone number on it and Unfortunately, because of the overwhelming number, many of these kids are just being shipped by our government to Whoever is on the other end of that phone line, with no vetting process, and around 90,000 kids have disappeared Across our border into this country. And let's just say that 90,000, 89,999 of them are actually going to family. But you can't get, you can't tell me that all 90,000 went to family. They're being bought and sold and traded and so and these are the people we've caught and released now there's other people that are being caught and then they're being deposited into larger cities. And there is the problem also because now you're in a larger city so many moving parts, it's hard to keep track. And they're because they're looking for a better life. They're going to take anyone that hasn't gives them the option, because they think, oh, we'll just come to America, it's a land of opportunity. And then they get taken advantage of. And it's so unfortunate, it's such a tragedy that here in the land of the free, and 300 years at about 300 years after we fought a civil war to end slavery we're right back there.
Speaker 2:It's just the slavery is not limited to a certain group of people. It's anybody that can be coerced, that can be manipulated, that can be lied to. And we, as the church, in a way, answer fighting battles where we can. Everyone can be a rescuer and everyone can be in after care. Sometimes your job is just to pray and intercede. Sometimes your job is to put pressure on law enforcement and on politicians to stop dragging their feet and actually prosecute all forms of trafficking, to unseal the records that have been sealed, to try to protect people in power. And it's up to the church to fight this battle because, as much as we think that it's just a bunch of evil people, it is far more spiritual battle. It's the enemy approaching and trying to hurt and destroy innocence in children and in people that are just looking for a better life. So it is by far and away a spiritual battle, but there are real physical ways that we can get involved and fight it as well.
Speaker 1:That's good to know. I think you made some good points. I heard that when you traffic in drugs, that's a product that has kind of a shelf life to it. When you traffic in humans, you can do it over and over again. It's like an unlimited resource. So yeah, it's something for us to kind of remind ourselves of as we hear about the dangers that are out there.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely. Because, like you're alluding to one kilo of cocaine or 500 grams of fentanyl, you can sell that once, but a kid you can sell five, six times a night, and the only thing that you have to do is just a bar of soap and a change of clothes in between. And that's the difference. And it's far easier to bring a kid and say, oh, they're just having a rough day. And people look the other way and just right under our eyes and right under our nose, kids are being bought and sold. And it's not just kids, obviously, it's adults who are trying to provide or trying to find a better life that they get ensnared. So that's where the full armor of God and the discernment comes in, that's where we have to say Lord, is this a situation I need to report? Is this something that's going on?
Speaker 2:Because any city that has an interstate, there's trafficking happening. And here in the Chicago land area, outside of Chicago, just to the north of Wisconsin, just to the south and east, we got Indiana and just slightly west we've got Iowa, and trafficking is so rampant because so many states are so close together that the traffickers can disappear in the noise, because once you cross a state line. Suddenly it's different jurisdiction, it's different laws of different regulations. So it's harder for, like, if Wisconsin knows this guy is doing something, but if he disappears in Illinois it's so much red tape to track him down and figure out what he's doing and who he's doing it with, and there's something else, that different conversations, how to eliminate the red tape and the jurisdictional stuff.
Speaker 1:So, dave, I'm curious, as you think about the ministry you have, what is your favorite part of your ministry, and then what's your least favorite part?
Speaker 2:The least favorite part, that's the easier one. The least favorite part is that there is a ministry to do that. There are, that many people who have been hurt, have been broken, have been mistreated to the point that they need drastic recovery and healing through the power of Christ. The fact that I need to do it, or that there is an opportunity to do it, is the worst part.
Speaker 2:The best part is seeing those moments where somebody comes in carrying the burdens of the world, coming in with so much going against them that they're in this moment where they want to fight. They just want to explode on somebody and vent all their pain, all their frustrations not just from what they've been through, what they're currently going through and they want to fight somebody. They just want to explode. But seeing them go from this person who is tensed up, eyebrows are furrowed and they're just looking for a fight to completely transforming into somebody that's laughing like a little kid again, and seeing those moments where their burdens are going to still be outside in the parking lot when they leave the building. But the fact that they were able to let loose of those burdens, even just for a few moments, and find that there is hope, that the burdens are not what to find them. They're passing up what defines them, but God is who defines them, and having them find that hope that they can carry with them, those are the moments that I live for.
Speaker 1:As you think about what you're doing now and kind of the legacy you want to leave behind. What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
Speaker 2:I want to leave a legacy where more men realize that we have a lot of work to do, that, in its rampant within the church, that pornography feeds into trafficking. It creates the appetite and the desire to pursue different things outside of marriage and the sad fact is there are a lot of actresses in that line of work that are there against their will, they're not being taken well care of. And the trouble for men that ingest those images and those videos. You can't tell who's there making money and you and who's there against their will. You can't tell. So you're feeding into a system that creates a supply and demand issue that feeds into this $150 billion industry. So, men, we've got a lot of work to do to stand up to protect women and children and fellow men from getting ensnared in this. So my legacy would be to raise awareness and sound the alarm in the church to say, hey, men, let's put on the full armor of God and go to work.
Speaker 1:So, as we close this out, dave, is there anything that we haven't covered that you want to talk about?
Speaker 2:The biggest thing is that, as dark as what I'm doing, the darkness that we deal with, regardless of that, there's hope. There's hope in Jesus. He's overcome the world and that's why I think that laughter, as a ministry in this dark world, is such a God thing, because, no matter how dark it is, we still have hope, and when we have hope, we're free to laugh and we're free to realize that there's more to life than what we see. There's more to life than the darkness, because there is a life coming where there is no darkness, where there is no shadows, and that hope allows us to laugh in the face of the darkness, because the darkness has no control over us if we surrender and pursue Christ.
Speaker 1:I love that. So, dave, what can people learn more about you and follow your ministry?
Speaker 2:We find us on Facebook at Improv Missionaries. You also find us on LinkedIn and Instagram at Improv Missionaries, and you can connect with us via email. Improvmissionaries at GiftsForkWarriecom. Improvmissionaries at GiftsTheNumberForkWarriecom. And if you have questions about the ministry, if you'd like us to come speak at your church, or if you know somebody that will be interested in doing what we do, we'd love to connect with you and also want to throw this out there. There's anybody that listens or watches and you're wrestling with depression, like I was, and the thought of suicide. I am somebody that's available 24-7. Shoot me an email message on Facebook and let's connect. It's not that I'm here to pre-chat you or give you a bunch of scripture to just overwhelm you, but it's a valley and you can't survive it on your own, and if I could be of any help and help you walk through and then out of that valley, I want to do that for you.
Speaker 1:Well, dave, thanks so much for being on the show and blessings of what you do. I don't think we understand the gravity of the situation in the human trafficking. You know, I think that movie I saw this summer about human trafficking opened my eyes a little bit, but it's just so prevalent in our society and when I heard that the United States is the number one country for trafficking, it just broke my heart. You talk about being the land that are free, but we are right up there in terms of promoting and letting this disease infect the innocent. So, yeah, we got to wake up to what's happening around us.
Speaker 2:Amen. Thank you so much for having me on and allowing us to raise awareness. Like I said, my prayer is that we, the men of God and the men of the church, would raise up so strong against this that this would no longer be, that we would end it, that we would free the slaves, and that my wife and I would find a different ministry to be a part of.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, blessings on that day. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today.
Speaker 2:Thank you.