I have to tell you, this episode of The Amberly Lago Show is one that I believe every single person needs to hear. I sat down with my incredible friend Becky Rasmussen, the CEO of Call to Freedom, a nationally recognized nonprofit that is on the absolute front lines of the fight against human trafficking. And I walked away from this conversation with goosebumps, a full heart, and a fire to do more.
Becky and I met at an event in Sioux Falls and from the moment I heard what she was doing in the world, I knew we had to collaborate. The Unstoppable Success Summit is proudly partnering with Call to Freedom, and a portion of proceeds from the event will go directly toward supporting survivors. This partnership felt divine from the very beginning and after you hear this episode, I think you will understand exactly why.
Here are three powerful takeaways from our conversation.
One Encounter Can Change Everything
Becky’s story begins with a young girl named Marissa. At a Sturgis Rally in 2015, Becky felt God nudging her to walk up to a girl who seemed out of place. They had a ten minute conversation. The next day Becky was handed a book of 117 missing girls ages 14 to 17, and Marissa’s face was in it. That moment became the foundation of everything. Becky quit her job, worked two jobs as a single mom, and launched Call to Freedom in 2016 with nothing but faith and a calling. Today, Call to Freedom has served nearly 1,900 individuals, operates Marissa’s House, housing 36 mothers and their children, receives referrals from every corner of the country and even internationally, and is certified as a gold standard safe house. When God calls you to something, you answer. And Becky answered with everything she had.
The Signs Are Hiding in Plain Sight
One of the most eye opening parts of our conversation was when Becky walked through what human trafficking actually looks like in real life. It rarely looks like the movies. It looks like a troubled kid. A runaway. A child who seems to have a lot of issues. It looks like grooming that happens over months, sometimes by someone the family already knows and trusts. Becky shared that traffickers are masters at finding vulnerabilities, especially online, and that sextortion targeting boys ages 14 to 17 is one of the most rapidly growing and underreported threats right now. Boys are being blackmailed and because we have not created safe spaces for them to speak up, they are suffering in silence. Becky’s message is clear: trust your gut, know who your kids are talking to online, never let them exchange pictures with strangers, and if you see something, report it. Do not intervene, but do not stay silent either.
We All Have a Role to Play
This is not just a Call to Freedom issue. Call to Freedom trains guidance counselors, teachers, law enforcement, first responders, and community members from kindergarten through 12th grade across entire states. They have over 250 volunteers. They run Keeping Kids Safe Online events, hidden in plain sight awareness programs, and a continuum of care model built directly from the journeys of survivors themselves. Becky reminded me that alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much. Whether you can donate, volunteer, attend an event, or simply start a conversation with your kids tonight, there is a place for you in this fight.
This episode lit something in me and I know it will do the same for you. The work that Becky and the entire Call to Freedom team are doing is changing lives, reuniting families, and giving survivors a real path forward. I am so honored to have her as a partner for the Unstoppable Success Summit and even more honored to call her my friend.
Please listen to this episode. Share it. And then get involved.
About Becky Rasmussen
Becky Rasmussen is the CEO and founder of Call to Freedom, a nationally recognized nonprofit based in South Dakota dedicated to the prevention, intervention, and restoration of individuals impacted by human trafficking. What started as a prayerful calling in 2015 and a single encounter with a young girl named Marissa has grown into a gold standard organization serving survivors across all fifty states and beyond. Call to Freedom operates Marissa’s House, a safe residential program housing mothers and their children, as well as extensive training programs for schools, law enforcement, and communities. Becky is a speaker, advocate, and a woman of deep faith who believes that every life is worth fighting for. Connect with her and her team at calltofreedom.org.
Connect with Becky
Website: calltofreedom.org
Instagram: @calltofreedomsd
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Transcript:
Amberly Lago (00:00)
Where did you get started? How did you start this back in 2016? Was it 2016?
Becky Rasmussen (00:06)
Yeah, so I had in my heart that God was going to call me to do something, but I didn’t know what it looked like. And it was really May of 2015 in prayer that I felt like the Lord said, get involved with anti-human trafficking.
Amberly Lago (00:19)
What
role do schools, parents, and local communities play in preventing exploitation before it starts? What can they do?
Becky Rasmussen (00:27)
We do lot of training, prevention trainings, kindergarten through 12th grade in the school systems, as well as the afterschool juvenile detention centers, as well as residential programs. And what we find is that to get educated and understand what’s happening, a lot of kids will be, look like they’re troubled kids, that they, you know, are runaways, they might be homeless, they look like on the outside that they have a lot of issues. There’s always a reason behind those issues.
Amberly Lago (00:53)
As
young as two and as old as 75?
Becky Rasmussen (00:59)
As we are seeing with the Epstein files that a lot of times victims don’t come out because some of the backlash you’re seeing nationally ⁓ as well as a lot of things that they have to endure in their victimization. And when we talk about those older demographics, we’re talking about people who realized I was trafficked years ago. so familial trafficking is where it’s actually mothers and fathers trafficking their own children to meet needs or they’ve learned that way of life.
Amberly Lago (01:28)
Thank you for tuning into the show today. I have a really good friend of mine, Becky Simmons here. She is the chief executor officer of Call to Freedom, a nationally recognized nonprofit that is on the front lines in the fight against human trafficking. And Becky and I met at an event that I was speaking at in Sioux Falls. And I was like, who is this amazing lady? And someone said,
you’ve got to meet her. And I met her and I was like, we’ve got to do something together. And so we have stayed in communication. The work that she is doing in the world, God is just like moving mountains for this call to freedom and for her to help so many women. And she is actually
I’m a part of the Unstoppable Success Summit. And as you know, you’ve heard me talk about the Unstoppable Success Summit a lot lately. And Call to Freedom is who we decided to partner with and donate proceeds to to help other women who are survivors of the human trafficking. And we were starting to talk and I was like, my gosh, I got to hit record. So Becky, thank you so much.
Becky Rasmussen (02:45)
Thank you for having us on. I looked at the title and the Unstoppable Success Conference is Breaking Chains and Building Dreams. And I think this partnership was divine. When we met in Sioux Falls, I love who you are, Amber Lee, and what you stand for, the resilience that you had and the things that you have overcome. A lot of those that we served who walked through the doors of call to freedom need that story. And they need that resilience because of the awful things they’ve been through.
Amberly Lago (03:14)
Well, we were just talking before we started recording about how it is so needed and women are starting to use their voices more and your help and what you do with Call to Freedom is going to, can see it really, really just expanding and growing because more women are having the courage to come out. But where did you get started? How did you start this back in 2016? Was it 2016?
Becky Rasmussen (03:43)
Yeah, so I had had in my heart that God was going to call me to do something, but I didn’t know what it looked like. And it was really May of 2015 in prayer that I felt like the Lord said, get involved with anti-human trafficking. And so I found the foundation that was laid. found my mentor here in this area who was doing some of this work, but had retired.
ended up in our Sturgis rally, if you’re not familiar with that, in South Dakota. It is the largest biker rally. It’s about a seven-day event that happens here in South Dakota, and over 500,000 people come to that event every year from all over the United States. And we were doing outreach and just starting to talk about if you’re buying an individual, that person may not be consenting to that activity and understanding what human trafficking was.
And I just felt, I met this young girl, I had made eye contact with her. If you looked at her, she dressed like she would be in the life, ⁓ maybe not from the area based on what she was wearing, how she was acting. So it seemed really odd to me, but I felt like the Lord said, go meet her. And so I walked up to her and I do what everybody does. I introduced myself. said, hi, I’m Becky. And she said, hi, my name is Marissa. And we had about a 10 minute conversation.
If you’ve ever learned about human trafficking, lot of victims will not make eye contact. They will have limited words. They may be fearful, dismissive, might have hit all those indicators I just talked about not looking like she’s from the area. And her last words were to me, where you have no idea what kind of day I’ve had. You have no idea. And she left. She ran off. The next day I got connected to Free International that was in the area.
to do what they call search and rescue. And essentially what they would do is they go to PGA, they’ve been to Superbowl. This year they were at the Sturgis Rally in 2015 and they do a search for missing kids. And long story short, they handed me a book of 117 girls, age 14 to 17. And I felt like the Lord said, look for the girl you met the day before. And so I start flipping through the book.
and the girl that I met the day before her picture was in the book. Her name is Marissa. She actually gave me her correct name, which doesn’t typically happen because of trust and a violation of trust to those that have been victimized by human trafficking. And long story short, so this was August of 2015 on their research. She had been found October of 2014, went missing again in May of 2015.
And they told me that she’s highly suspected that she is a victim of trafficking because of re-recruitment that happens, that there weren’t enough services to help those that were coming out of trafficking situations. And so they were highly vulnerable coming out of those situations and re-recruited by organized crime or organized fronts. And they had suspected that that was the case with Marissa. And I knew that, you know, there’s a quote and I’m going to say, I want to read it from Margaret Mead.
that I can sit there and do something, I can know what I know, or I can do something about what I know. And ⁓ I just felt like at that point in time, the Lord said, you know, I’m calling to you to this. And so ⁓ in that car ride home, which was a little ⁓ interesting in the conversation, the part of the vision that you see today with Call to Freedom was downloaded, not the full vision. I think that’s the grace of God in our situations, but
⁓ started nonprofit and formulated as 2016. And January, we got our acceptance, opened our new office in March of 2016 and worked two jobs. And so was a single mom at the time and knew that God had put this on my heart. My daughter was in high school and so she was along for the ride, was starting Call to Freedom. We didn’t have a paycheck and so…
Essentially, I worked two jobs until November of February of 2017 where I stepped out in faith and started Call to Freedom. And fast forward to today, we have a home that’s named after Marissa’s and it’s called Marissa’s Home. And it houses 36 mothers with their children that have been impacted by human trafficking. We got our first referral from the Netherlands from Europe that is living with us now.
And so we impact every state in the United States. We’ve gotten calls from, except for nine. And we’ve gotten international calls where we’re housing mothers with their children. And we started that in 2016 and really saw that this women had a deep desire to be reunified with their children. And that burst our build of the numerous house, which launched in April 1st of 2022. And we’ve been serving.
women and their children and moms together and reunifying families since then. And along with that, we also have ⁓ additional case managers. We just opened a Rapid City office where we’re offering services on the western side of the state, as well as we’re going into Iowa and equipping 19 of their advocates to do better responses. So I have a training team, prevention team. Our curriculum is really set into prevention, intervention, and restoration. And we have bilingual case managers and
Currently we’re serving individuals as young as two and as old as 75 as well as men.
Amberly Lago (09:17)
Wow, so as young as two and as old as 75?
Becky Rasmussen (09:26)
As we are seeing with the Epstein files that a lot of times victims don’t come out because some of the backlash you’re seeing nationally as well as a lot of things that they have to endure in their victimization and a lot of times they’re told by their trafficker they’ll never be believed. So when we talk about those older demographics, we’re talking about people who realize I was trafficked years ago.
or maybe I’m coming out of trafficking at that age because these organized fronts will either use their social security numbers for LLCs, forced labor, it could be sex trafficking. There’s so much in that organized. We’ve had forced marriages that we’ve worked with as cases as well, as young as two. ⁓ Within South Dakota, we have five of the poorest counties in the United States located here in South Dakota with our tribal nations. so familial trafficking.
is where it’s actually mothers and fathers trafficking their own children to meet needs or they’ve learned that way of life. And so our youngest is a familial case ⁓ and it was a parent that had introduced their child to that life.
Amberly Lago (10:36)
my goodness, it’s just heartbreaking. I’ve seen that on TV and to think that that really happens is just heartbreaking. Especially when I think of, know, my youngest daughter is 17. I can’t imagine that, but I think people, and you know, I was sexually abused as a child and I know the shame and the pain and I was told, you know, you
No one’s going to believe you. Or if you tell anyone, I’ll kill your mother. mean, the awful things that were said. And when you’re young, you can’t, start to believe those things. And ⁓ how do people, how does someone find you and get the help that they need?
Becky Rasmussen (11:24)
As I started entering this work, one of the things that I challenged my team is we need to be innovative. We need to get into the circles that you’re talking about. Maybe it been child protection services. It may be some of those law enforcement responders. It might be an emergency department where they’re going in for medical care. We need to train every first responder to better identify those that are impacted by human trafficking because a lot of the times those that are victimized
don’t know that they’re a victim of ⁓ sexual assault or human trafficking because the person they trust the most introduces them to that lifestyle. And so it’s really important for us to be integrated into those systems to be able to better identify and build responses for child protection services. We train them every year. Law enforcement, what is a response to a familial case where it might be a third party case?
We are developing those responses and being very innovative in that and getting into those circles. Nationally, we’re known. Our Marissa’s House is just one component of our programming, but it’s one of 2 % of the nation that’s offering their services. And we’ve been certified through Safe House Project as gold standard. So we get referrals from them from all over the United States because housing is one of the…
first thing that need to be met for safety and basic needs. And so I think people realize if they don’t realize a trafficker controls every aspect of your life. It controls who you, this individual controls what you eat, who you talk to, your personal identification, where you live. And so when somebody controls every aspect of your life, you as a service provider have to be able to provide those services for them to feel like they can safely leave that situation. And so housing is a
big component of that in safe housing. We’ve navigated where we’ve had people identify here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and we’ve moved them nine states away because Sioux Falls is not a safe place for them because of the organized gangs and organized fronts. Whereas that happens as well nationally and in through the states is that a lot of people will refer to us based on safety and whatever state they’re in. So we get referrals from
all first responders, other anti-human trafficking groups. ⁓ FBI, HSI worked a case with the Homeland Security where they were gonna do a raid on a restaurant that was labor trafficking where they identified as potential labor trafficking. And they came to us and they said, need to house 10 to 15 undocumented survivors, mostly men. So if you’ve ever done that, that’s really hard because in order to get a lease and to be able to get into a home,
you actually have to be able to prove that you’re a citizen and legal. And these people were being victimized. They were brought in on false promises, sponsored by their parents, a variety of different networks that they were victims of labor trafficking. so, these are adults. These were the 10 that we ended out of the 15.
We had three women and seven men and they were anywhere from age 20 to age 35.
Amberly Lago (14:42)
Wow, wow.
Becky Rasmussen (14:43)
We get
creative and we get referrals from everywhere.
Amberly Lago (14:46)
Well, what are some of the signs to look for for the everyday person? If you think something doesn’t seem right, like you just happened to look over at Marissa and you were like, something’s not quite right. What are signs that we could look for?
Becky Rasmussen (15:02)
Absolutely. Trust your gut. If you feel like something isn’t right, there probably is something that’s not right. You know, one of the things that we haven’t talked about is online victimization. And I really want to say, here’s some signs that kids are getting approached online. And now we have these tools that can be really great from AI to online, but they’re also used by bad actors to victimize. And so
I would say for your kids and knowing online, never exchange pictures. ⁓ If somebody asks you to do something you’re not comfortable with, do not do it. ⁓ We have worked cases where those pictures have gone out on the black web in videos to pictures that have gone on the black web and you can never get those back. We do have the take it down where we talk about getting those down, but we can never fully get those pictures or those images back and they can use them in AI.
as well. So I would say to parents, get educated, know where your kids are, what they’re involved with, know who their friends are. It’s okay to put boundaries on social media and access to your phone, because if you don’t, there are bad actors out there that will be looking for vulnerabilities with your kids on social media, their Instagrams, and they are masters in knowing how to communicate with those kids. Reel them in, find out what the vulnerability is, and be the answer to that.
If you have somebody that’s face to face and it’s fearful, they will not make eye contact, they may be dressed ⁓ inappropriately, they may look malnutritious, there may be some physical, I’ve seen a lot of this kind of change from ⁓ physical abuse to more coercion and mental abuse and control versus some of the physical, because that’s easier to prove. So traffickers have advanced this business and the way that they facilitate this business.
People are like, it looks like trapped. It looks like some of those movies online taken. And it is very rarely kidnapping. These people will spend time. They will get to know their individuals that they are grooming, and we call it manipulation and grooming. And they will take, I’ve had up to six months where a young girl met the parents and ended up in a trip to Chicago and.
⁓ ended up police intervened on that case and she was trafficked in Chicago. But he had met the family. And so know who your kids are involved with, ⁓ know their background. And if you see something, say something, do not intervene. A lot of times people want to go and rescue. They say rescue. Actually, survivors do not like that term because they feel like that means that they owe that person something in return. And so it’s very interesting.
But if there is a high risk situation, you should have a local law enforcement. can call. There should be a reporting site where you can actually report. ⁓ We have our attorney generals. The National Human Trafficking Hotline is a good way to report. And what you find is sometimes there’s cases that are outstanding. And the more you report, ⁓ don’t intervene. But the more you report, the more they can kind of line up those cases and find that illegal activity happening.
Amberly Lago (18:22)
Wow, that’s so good to know. And I’m surprised that I feel like my youngest daughter probably knows more about all of this than I even do. So you are educating me. And I say that because she is so smart. She’s very street smart and she’s fascinated with stuff like learning about, you know, the Epstein files and grooming. I remember when I didn’t even know what grooming meant.
You know, and she’s the one that brought that to my attention, but I think it’s really good to know. And we’ve definitely had a talk with her about this taking pictures or even taking a picture on Snapchat. We’re like, once you put something out there, it is out there. know, and I was.
Becky Rasmussen (19:12)
the incredibly disturbing part of what we call sextortion. And sextortion is the blackmailing. it’d be financial sextortion or traditional. Financial means they blackmail you for money. Traditional means they ask for more pictures and they hold that against you. Is that they’re targeting young boys. And I wanna talk about that today that we talk a lot about children and women, but in the sextortion,
from age 14 to 17, it has been a highly targeted young boys. And you know why they do that? Because it’s proven that they boys will pay the ransom or the blackmail faster than girls. Yeah. Isn’t that sad? And as a culture, we have not created safe places for boys to disclose. I mean, how many men talk about shame and guilt and they keep it inside? Well, we haven’t created safe.
Amberly Lago (19:51)
Really?
Becky Rasmussen (20:06)
places for these young boys to disclose. And we’ve seen a tremendous increase in suicides following the sex extortion, especially with young boys. So I would say get in, get into a prevention education training. We do a keeping kids safe online here with our HSI agents. Like them or not, they’re really good guys here, ⁓ but they ⁓ really talk about cases and how perpetrators have identified, targeted, and infiltrated.
some of the tactics we’re talking about today. So I would encourage you to get involved in your local community, find out whatever education is happening within that community and get connected to it.
Amberly Lago (20:47)
That’s amazing. And I don’t know if I told you, did you know that my husband was a cop? ⁓ Yeah.
Becky Rasmussen (20:53)
We
love our law enforcement. We wish they’d move faster, you know, we love our law enforcement.
Amberly Lago (21:01)
Yeah, he was, ⁓ yeah, he looked good in the uniform. He was a Lieutenant Commander. When I met him, he was a Sergeant and he rode ⁓ motors. And he always says, yeah, you married me for my insurance. And I’m like, no, I married you because you look good in the uniform.
Becky Rasmussen (21:20)
That’s amazing. And what is he doing today? What is?
Amberly Lago (21:24)
Um, well, I wish he was doing more with call to freedom and helping out with that sort of thing. Well, I’m going to plant a little there, but no, he’s retired. He loves being retired and he says that he officially works for me. And I, this was my first year. He actually got a 10 99 and he’s got a bit credit card. yeah, I told him, so we’re going to New York.
And he’s going on a work trip with me. He doesn’t usually go with me. And he’s like, well, now I need extra leg room. And now I want this, the nicest hotel. I’m like, you are high maintenance, mister. Like when I go somewhere, I don’t care. Just get me on the plane and get me there. Yeah. it’s very funny. So maybe he will, you will see him at the event. He’ll, I’m excited for him to meet you. He’s, you can’t miss him. He’s a character.
Becky Rasmussen (22:20)
sure. I tell you our law enforcement are so important to this and training for our law enforcement so important to be able to recognize what’s happening in a lot of this has cross intersections because you it looks like addiction. looks like mental health. It looks like they’re forced criminality where they might be taking a drug run for their trafficker or they may take a gun run. And there’s usually something more happening with those what we call mules behind the scenes. And so we
So appreciate our law enforcement and we’ve seen since 2016 an increase of identification of victims and more education that we’ve gotten out there for all first responders.
Amberly Lago (23:00)
⁓ well, thank you for all of that, work that you do. ⁓ So you do you have ongoing programs to help with youth and community like education programs ⁓ or are those planned out? they a yearly thing? Because I know you host huge events like your events are thousands. That’s like
Becky Rasmussen (23:23)
God’s been so good to us. I think there’s another quote, alone we can do so little together, we can do much. And I remember when the Lord called me to this, one of the other instructions he gave is unite a community. I couldn’t wrap my head around that because I didn’t know what that looked like. And we just started talking and God started getting ahold of this community. And we have…
over 250 volunteers that take our pull tabs across the state or they’re mentors to our clients or they come and clean apartments when we’re in transition. so we do a lot of different events. We just held one with a chaata dance and they actually travel all over the world and recreate ⁓ survivors of trafficking stories into dance. And so, Eri who is here. Yeah, it was beautiful.
⁓ they were here just two weeks ago and they actually asked me, there a survivor on that you would like to feature? And Mary, who works with us at Caldera Freedom, shared her story of cartel trafficking and how she survived. And now that travels there in Brazil, Peru, her story is going all over the world. I dance. No, it was such a divine, her story needs to be told because.
Amberly Lago (24:40)
goosebumps.
Becky Rasmussen (24:47)
cartel trafficking is more prevalent than people know when we talk about the Epstein cases. ⁓ Those conversations that are starting to finally happen because survivors were brave enough and courage and had the courage to come forward and talk about it and us getting behind them and believing that this isn’t a call to freedom issue. This is a community issue and we need our community come behind it. So we do.
Our big fundraising event, which started out with 210 people in 2016, and we have over 1,200 people that attend that event every year. Two, we’ve had almost 1,900 individuals walk through the doors of Call to Freedom to get services in that short amount of time. Two, where we do Keeping Kids Safe Online, where we bring in parents, and a lot of times they have questions. They know something in their gut is off and their child is doing, or maybe feeling that there’s something not right.
Well, we bring in agents that we talk through and bring resources to them, as well as we’ve done where we’ve done what we call hidden in plain sight, where individuals that have lived experience share their story from men to young ladies, from pornography to individuals that were gang-related, cartel trafficking to familial trafficking, to really allow people to understand what this issue is about and to get behind it. And when you hear a survivor like Mary,
shares her story and is helping others out of something that she shouldn’t have lived out of. There’s nothing like that and that’s why we do what we do.
Amberly Lago (26:21)
⁓ and you know, it’s such a beautiful thing. I am so, it makes me so happy to have so many people that I think want to come to Unstoppable because they’re like, that’s so cool. Call to Freedom is going to be there. What proceeds are going? Yeah. They, people want to get on board and help. ⁓ I really think that they do.
Becky Rasmussen (26:47)
I just don’t
know how.
Amberly Lago (26:48)
⁓ Even I introduced you to Ashley Holt and she has been wanting to help and do something and I connected y’all and she’s I don’t know what exactly is up her sleeve and how she’s going to help but I know that y’all are both beautiful souls and I know something is going to come amazing is going to come out of it. What role do schools, parents and local communities play in preventing exploitation before it starts? What can they do?
Becky Rasmussen (27:17)
Yeah, we do a lot of training, prevention trainings, kindergarten through 12th grade in the school systems, as well as the afterschool juvenile detention centers, as well as residential programs. And what we find is that to get educated and understand what’s happening, a lot of kids will be, look like they’re troubled kids, that they are runaways, they might be homeless, ⁓ they look like on the outside that they have a lot of issues.
There’s always a reason behind those issues and retraining our staff from our guidance counselors to our teachers to be able to identify what those indicators are and help us to respond. And so we have a youth navigator that travels the state as well as a specialized trainer here in town that does that within churches, youth groups, as well as from the afterschool programs. do a lot of rural communities and we first train the staff.
to know the responses and to better identify this. And then we go and do prevention with the kids because it never fails. Every time I do an event, somebody comes forward and somebody’s like, ⁓ that’s me, or I identify with that, or I know somebody and I know it. just, we set it out there every event and we say, if this is something that resonates with you and you need help, we’re here to help you. And the tears.
the families, that’s how referrals have come as well, is all of a sudden, then even in this prevention training, a young kid goes, that’s me. Like, I didn’t know that’s what my mom was doing or my dad was doing to me. And then we begin to do the intervention piece where we intervene on something that’s currently happening within the homes. And then we have to help navigate those first responders on how do we best protect this kiddo in these situations and how do we navigate them out. And I did a
a family where their daughter was 18. So legally and jurisdictionally, there’s a lot of complications there to getting out an individual. And it took us nine months and she’s out and she’s safe and her traffickers are now being ⁓ held accountable ⁓ in federal court.
Amberly Lago (29:30)
Wow, nine months?
Becky Rasmussen (29:34)
It took the hand of God, a lot of prayer, because just it’s such a complicated, it’s just a complicated issue, especially if you’re 18 or older and you’re making in your own eyes, your own choices, but yet people don’t understand manipulation and coercion. And in order to navigate somebody out of that situation, you have to work the family, you have to talk the family through it, you got to give them.
direction and how best to approach every situation because they can trigger each other as well as navigating the law enforcement piece to say, okay, there was just a seizure of drugs at this house. Can we link it to the Iowa case that, you know, they were arrested in a casino in Iowa and there’s just so many intricates to prosecuting these cases, but also to getting somebody out. So for us, prevention is huge. We never want to see
or have a family call us where their daughter is in the midst of it and they didn’t get the prevention or the guidance they needed before that.
Amberly Lago (30:36)
Wow, that is unbelievable. sounds like you really have to have a lot of bravery yourself to do the work that you do, because it sounds like it could be in some situations pretty dangerous. Yeah.
Becky Rasmussen (30:50)
We’ve had one where the law enforcement said, move her out of town because it’s cartel, they’ll kill her. these are highly organized fronts, majority of them. You also have the familial cases and maybe one Z, two Z, ⁓ boyfriend, pimp type of situation, but majority of these are organized crime. so God has us, we know that we’re very safe in what we do. We work very closely with our partners.
⁓ But we’re never gonna not say we’re gonna help somebody walk through the doors and I’ve seen God anytime I don’t have the answer I don’t know how navigate it. He shows up and he does something and that’s the one thing I can promise people. Sorry, is that I know my God and I know that he brought you here for a reason and we’re gonna lift it up and they’ll call me and say guess what just happened or
You know, this was amazing and I just can’t believe like there’s a sting operation. How did this happen? And I’d just seen it over and over again. And I tell my teams, a girl may leave, but she will always come back or a boy may leave, but they will always come back to call their freedom. And they do. And God has been faithful to that call. And I would not do that without him.
Amberly Lago (32:03)
⁓ that is so beautiful. And I think this is just what everybody needs right now is a dose of your hope and love and inspiration. I mean, it’s beautiful. And I can’t wait to see just see this grow and grow and grow. How can people get involved to support, whether it’s ⁓ volunteer or whether it’s donating? What is the best way for them to do that? I mean,
Of they can come to the unstoppable event.
Becky Rasmussen (32:35)
Come to the Unstathable Conference. You can meet me in person. I will be there. so excited. I’ll connect with you again and your women. you can go to calltofreedom.org under our Get Involved page, and you can donate to Call to Freedom, as well as volunteer opportunities. And we have advocates. We have 80 volunteers that take our poll tabs across the state. We will find a place for you. That is one thing I had to.
promise to the Lord, if somebody wants to get involved, how do we figure out to make that happen? And so you can go to Calderfreedom.org. You can donate. We always need more resources. We look to expand our services into not just South Dakota, but the other states. And hopefully this continuum of care model that we have developed through the journey of survivors could be used in other states to help other people. And so we need you in the fight.
If you are not in this area, you can find a local anti-human trafficking group in your area and get involved, plug in, and have conversations.
Amberly Lago (33:38)
that’s beautiful. So Becky, with your continuum of care, is that something they can find right there on your website?
Becky Rasmussen (33:47)
go under our website under our services and our continuum of care model was developed. We have an outreach center, which we just had two benefactors come alongside where we actually do have showers on site. have boutique on site for clothing. We have a food area. have a respite area. That continuum of care model was developed and continues to be developed from every survivor’s journey. And if we didn’t meet a need.
we figure out and we add it to our continuum of care model. And that’s what I think people that have been victimized in this deserve to have a holistic, full approach to having every opportunity to get out of that situation successfully.
Amberly Lago (34:30)
that is amazing. And y’all see why I was like,
want you to come to Unstall. What can I do? And you know what, Becky, I can’t wait for you to meet Renee at the event. She’s the one that’s doing the live art. And what she does is she says, you know what, I just listen, God just gives me, tells me what to paint. And last year she did scripture on the paintings and then painted over it. And I’ll have to show, I’ll have to show you. They’re beautiful. ⁓ But yeah, so it’s just,
I got goosebumps again. think that all the ladies and you and Renee and the MC and I have a gospel singer at the beginning. mean, yeah, I wanted a whole choir.
Becky Rasmussen (35:22)
You have a very special group of people that I’ve just met a few of them. what you have, Amberlee, I’m gonna turn this back to you, what you’ve poured into their lives and many lives other. That’s what we do together, right? Mine is anti-human trafficking. Yours is empowering other people to step in their fullness. And our world needs hope right now. It needs a voice that brings hope. And you do that. So thank you for.
blessing us and allowing us. very humbled to be a part and look forward to divine connections and more time with you.
Amberly Lago (35:58)
I know I can only imagine the connections that are going to be made in that room. And that’s really the thing is so I went to Sioux Falls. I had never been to I was like, where is Sioux Falls? mean, and I really think that Mike took a chance on me. I was their first ever female keynote speaker and I was the first person ever that wasn’t a part of the Catholic Church.
And do you know that after I gave that keynote, we went and had dinner in a separate room. And it’s me and a bunch of guys sitting around the table. They all go around and say, well, what was the highlight of the event for you? What highlight? And they get to this one guy and he looks at me and says, well, I have to say, I really thought that having you as our keynote speaker was going to be a big mistake. He goes,
But when I saw you in mass this morning, I knew we had the right person. And I was like, thank God.
Becky Rasmussen (37:02)
That’s a tough crowd.
I mean, there’s a lot of male driven, you know, no purpose speakers. But you did amazing and you brought an energy and a love and a faith healing. And your story can inspire so many people for so many years to come. it’s not just when you’re here.
Amberly Lago (37:23)
you. I’m just grateful and at that event it’s pretty like straight-laced you know and I show up in a butterfly suit.
Becky Rasmussen (37:34)
You did!
Amberly Lago (37:36)
I did. And then one of them guys was sharing a story about, I brought some flowers from my garden because I was going to talk about butterflies and I walk in and the first person I see is you. And, you know, I wasn’t even going to wear that. I had something I was going to wear that was totally different. And I was like, no, I need to wear the butterfly suit. But I did not realize just it was pretty serious. everybody was red.
Becky Rasmussen (38:02)
I just had dinner with Julie and Mike and I invited them to come. They’re going to Europe. And so they have a trip to Europe two weeks, but I just am so grateful for that connection and they love you dearly. Mike speaks nothing but highly about you and Julie as well. And so you made an impact that’s forever. Don’t be on all the makeshift.
Amberly Lago (38:24)
I mean, just like you never know who you’re going to meet. And I met him in the hallway when I was speaking at another FitBody Bootcamp event. And we stayed in contact for a couple of years. And then he referred me for this, where I got to meet you. And now so many people are going to get to meet you at the Unstoppable event. Sometimes you think you’re going to an event for one thing and you realize you come out of it with…
new friends or a new collaboration or a new opportunity or you meet somebody that you can help or that can help you. So it’s just a beautiful thing. And I’m just so glad that he’s like, I really want you to meet back. I’m so glad he did. So I’m just excited for all the amazing things that we are going to do together. This is just the beginning.
And thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show. Thank you so much for saying yes to being a part of this summit. ⁓ I just want to help as many people as we can through Call to Freedom. So ⁓ you guys go look at all the links for her social media and her website so you can start to get involved. It’s all going to be there in the show notes. And Becky, just so much love for you. Thank you so much.
Becky Rasmussen (39:44)
Thank you so much. And thank you for giving this a voice. One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that doing this for 10 years is that there wasn’t a voice for so many people and they need you and they need all of us to come together. So thank you for inviting us. Thank you for allowing us to be a part.
Amberly Lago (40:01)
Thank you and thank you for giving a voice to so many and helping so many. And thank you all for tuning into the show. I hope to see you in Dallas April 30th. Well, the VIP starts the 29th, April 30th. We’re having a big day and I’m gonna announce a surprise at the event. So we’re gonna have all kinds of surprises, but yeah, your calendars, come see us in Irving, Texas. It’ll be in the show notes.
And thank you again, Becky, and I will see y’all next week.
