The Sex Trafficking Machine: How Evil Operates in Plain Sight

Overview

The podcast episode centers on Kenny Sack, who describes how he came to fight sex trafficking in the Philippines through an organization he founded, Wipe Every Tear. He frames the issue as an openly operating system that exploits poverty and coercion, and he emphasizes both practical rescue/outreach and his Christian interpretation of spiritual warfare behind it.

---

Presenters / Contributors

• Gabriel (podcast host/interviewer; referenced as “Gabriel”)
• Coach Kenny Sack (guest; founder/leader of Wipe Every Tear)

---

How the Issue First Became Real to Him (Origin Story)

• Sack says he first encountered information about “sex trafficking” via an internet search while he was a history teacher in Boise, Idaho.
• He describes being emotionally overwhelmed after seeing evidence and accounts tying the problem to the Philippines, a place he had visited before.
• He recounts making a personal vow to God: if he could help, he wanted to “get one girl out.”
• After years of research, he began a three-year effort to prepare and plan what started as outreach with high school volleyball players.
• He says he initially had to persuade school leadership (his vice principal) and obtain parental trust. He claims families ultimately agreed after questions and after placing confidence in him.

---

What He Says He Saw in the Philippines (Describing the Sex Industry)

• Sack describes traveling to Angeles City, Pampanga, calling it the most notorious area he knows.
• He claims that in the surrounding region there had been surveys listing hundreds of bars and hundreds/thousands of girls, and he argues the industry is highly visible.
• He describes the nightlife “walking street” environment, stating foreigners are the primary customers.
• He claims the industry operates like a scheduled rotation:
  • girls are hired as “dancers”
  • rotated to customers in shifts
  • newcomers are kept in the back
• He describes alleged “tagging/numbering” practices (such as using tags like cattle ear tags) and marketing tactics where customers are offered specific girls.
• Sack stresses that, despite claims that girls “choose it” or “send money home,” the system is built around exploitation and confinement conditions.

---

How Girls Are Recruited and Trapped (Poverty + Intermediaries)

• Sack argues poverty is a primary driver: girls and families lack alternatives and are targeted by people offering job opportunities.
• He says recruiting often involves non-obvious traffickers, sometimes relatives or local intermediaries, who earn small “finder fees.”
• He gives an example of a girl he calls “Pa,” whom he says was brought to Angeles City after a multi-day journey, only to be told she had to repay the money used to bring her.
• He claims victims are often misled with job promises (e.g., hotel work) and then coerced into sex work, with little or no money to escape.
• He also argues that once inside the system, police involvement is unlikely due to corruption and barriers to seeking help.

---

Whether Families Know and What Victims Can Do

• Sack says victims often send money home, which he claims can make trafficking harder for families to recognize.
• He suggests that families having formal knowledge is “very seldom,” though he describes cases of parents abandoning or dropping off daughters without resources.

---

How Wipe Every Tear Attempts Rescue (Infiltration Reframed as Outreach)

Sack explains that Filipinos can’t easily enter these venues to interact directly, so his organization’s teams use foreigners and structured engagement:

• They organize mission trips, including training and online preparation for participants.
• They describe bringing people into bars in small groups and using safe, non-confrontational conversation.
• They claim they identify girls to invite to outreach via cards and events, including:
  • meals and relationship-building in/around the bars
  • banquets
  • girls getaway trips (multi-day escapes intended to reset and regain autonomy)
• He emphasizes providing food, portraying it as dignity-restoring rather than only “rescue operations.”
• Sack also claims some bar owners allow access—sometimes out of favor, sometimes because they’re feeding workers and managers too.

---

Pushback and the Spiritual Framing

• Sack states there is pushback sometimes from bar operators, but he describes it as limited—more often polite refusal than open hostility.
• He argues the deeper opposition comes from a “spiritual unseen realm,” describing experiences he interprets as demonic manifestations or attacks.
• He provides a detailed personal anecdote involving an allegedly supernatural encounter near his car, which he says escalated specifically with his involvement in fighting the sex trade.
• He uses this to explain why he believes his work requires spiritual perseverance as well as practical outreach.

---

Final Call-to-Action

Sack’s main message to listeners:

• “God loves the poor” and the exploited—and God also loves those who participate in wrongdoing.
• He encourages prayer and visiting wipeeverytear.org / the organization’s social platforms for support.
• He also offers a personal hotline number and frames his invitation as both emotional support and Christian spiritual guidance.