Join Dr. James Dobson as he welcomes Victor and Eileen Marks for a powerful conversation about faith, courage, and redemption. Victor’s story is one of transformation, evolving from a traumatic childhood into a life devoted to rescuing and restoring others. Through their ministry, All Things Possible, the Marks have become beacons of hope in some of the world’s most dangerous regions, demonstrating what it truly means to walk in faith.
00:19:22 Victor and Eileen’s Experiences in Israel and Iraq
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It’s a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I’m Dr. James Dobson and I’m thrilled that you’ve joined us.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome to another edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. I’m Roger Marsh, and today we’re bringing you part one of a powerful and deeply moving conversation that Dr. Dobson had with his dear friends, Victor and Eileen Marks of All Things Possible Ministries. This is one of our most requested best of programs of the year. And by the way, it’s featured on the 2025 Best of Broadcast Collection that’s available right now. I will share more details about how you can get your own copy later on in the broadcast. But first, let me introduce our special guests. Victor and Eileen Marks were not only dear friends of Dr. Dobson and his wife Shirley, they’re also making an incredible impact worldwide. Through their ministry, they help restore the lives of trauma and abuse survivors across Iraq, Syria, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. Eileen is an accomplished author and a second-degree black belt who works alongside Victor. And I think you’re going to be amazed with what they have to share with us on today’s program. Now, before we begin, I should note that the program does cover sensitive topics and may not be suitable for younger listeners. And now let’s revisit Dr. Dobson’s classic conversation with Victor and Eileen Marks talking about being a dangerous gentleman for the Lord. It’s a very important conversation right now in today’s edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, greetings, everyone, and welcome to Family Talk. I’m James Dobson, and I want to introduce you to a fascinating man named Victor Marks and his wife, Eileen. Victor is an author. He’s a speaker. He’s a writer. He’s a former Marine. Is that correct?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER 04 :
How old were you when you joined?
SPEAKER 03 :
I went in at 18. And you did that on your own. I sure did. Served under President Reagan, who you know well, during this time. And you were in the Marine Corps for how long? I was in for a short term, but it really prepared me for a lifetime of serving the Lord through what I learned in discipline and leadership, I believe.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Victor and I have known each other for a long time. Yes, sir. It kind of comes and goes, but we – do you remember when we first met?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I do, and it would be – I think it would be when I went on staff with you, gosh, 21, 22, three years ago. I’m not that old. I’m sorry. You got somebody else. I’m having to think about it. But you know what I tell folks is two things about you. I go, he is the man that you hear behind the microphone. No kidding. I go, there’s no pretense. There’s no guile. His commitment to Christ, his – It’s just you’re so sincere, and your work ethic is beyond what most people can imagine. But then I told him, the number one thing I say, he was a boss to me, a mentor, and now he’s a friend. I can’t think of anything better that I would ever want.
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You were abused as a child.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, sir, I was.
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in many ways. How and why?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, well, I would say the main reason, like if we want to get biblical, is just sin, the selfishness of men and people to not follow God. The second thing is the lack of a man, a godly man, a father in the home to protect me. And The abuse was pretty severe, including torture. But I ended up having to have 123 visits to a trauma specialist to kind of unwind my brain. At what age? I was older because you maintain and develop coping mechanisms. But I got to a point as an adult where they all started to fail. And the one gift I tell young men and men, I feel like I’m always an ordinary guy. You know, wasn’t great in sports, wasn’t high academic achiever, but I did have the gift of never giving up. And there’s something to be said about that. Always wanting to get older and saying, I’m never going to give up. And look where it’s brought us. I’m here with you again. Married 35 years to my bride. Friends with Roger. I mean— You have five kids. Five kids, and now we have five granddaughters. And like you, we’re very motivated, knowing—we know the number of our days is numbered. So what can we do to most impact— and advance the kingdom of God. And I think right now, if we don’t pour into men, it’s like I’ve said on many interviews, the biggest threat to America is not terrorism. It’s a lack of fathers. It’s a lack of men to just be men. But here’s the good news. We live in this chaotic time. I’m seeing that a lot of young men who tend to be more effeminate, or passive, you know, it’s this cycle where they haven’t had a dad. All these negative things, they’re hungry for truth. And leadership. And leadership. They’re looking for, as I say, older lions to teach the young lions what they need to do.
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How was it that you were abused? What was going on that made that happen?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, my father and mother didn’t make it. My mother would end up marrying six times. My biological dad left. And what I do know from having them together one time as an adult, I sat down with them. I said, what was the circumstances of that? How, Mom, you got pregnant? And they were both embarrassed, but they told me because there’s been a little bit of redemption. The night he got her pregnant, he shoved rosary beads down her throat and put a pistol to her head. So that was the formation of just absolute chaos. chaotic, evil. And then my mother, she had challenges, obviously, but she married a pedophile, unknown. She didn’t know it at the time, but he was a very twisted, wicked man. And he took advantage of the situation of me being a young child from the ages of three to seven.
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How in the wide world did you get from that beginning to what we see now today?
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The Lord has done a miracle in your life, hasn’t he? Yes, sir. It’s the text and the Holy Scriptures. With man, it’s impossible. But with God, all things are possible. And it’s been a rough journey. I still have challenges. So I don’t sit here behind a mic speaking about perfection, but I speak about the grace of God, a man willing to obey and trust God in the hardest times of his life, a loving wife that says, God’s not giving up on you. I’m not. People say, if Eileen didn’t come in your life, what would you have accomplished? What percentage? And I go, probably 40%, not even half, because the influence that wives have on their husbands is far greater than most women can even consider.
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Eileen, why did you marry this man? He was a wreck at the time that you married him.
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How did you get this one?
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You know, I did not know his story when I said I do. I was a brand new believer, and I had no idea that we were going to be on a journey. But what I will say about Victor is amazing. God has put him in the fire. He has been through the furnace. And Victor has an illustration of a sword that he uses and the strength of the sword. It gets put in the fire and it gets folded and folded and folded and folded until it becomes a weapon that is so strong. And that’s how I see Victor. God has, yes, he’s been through so much, but now he’s a weapon in God’s hand.
SPEAKER 04 :
That is so, it’s beautiful to witness. At what point did you have a man in your life that really brought the man out of you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I would say never in the sense of the aspect of somebody coming in and just pointing to me. So what I had to do in that fatherless state is just look for things that I wanted to be and wanted to pattern my life around.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, Victor, I can only imagine what you’ve experienced and what you’ve been through because I didn’t. I had an absolutely wonderful father. I love it. I mean, he just, I admired him. I wanted to know what he knew that I didn’t know. And he led me to the Lord, prayed for me nearly every day. And it was an incredible thing. So the difference between your experience in your life and what you’ve been through and what I’ve gone through, which is nothing. It’s just amazing to me. that the Lord can do this and what He’s done for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, thank you for that. And I’ve always admired your story and obviously your dad, because he was really an evangelist at heart. And he would go speak and preach to folks in jail. But he invested in you. And that’s the way it’s supposed to look. Had I a dad that would have been like your father to me, think of where I would be with less complication. Because young men often tell me, oh, I don’t really have a testimony. I said, well, I think you have the best testimony of how God kept you from being devoured by this world. And chewed up and spit out. So mine is a redemptive story. Yours is that protective staying. Like this is what it’s supposed to look like. That’s why millions, millions of men have drawn from you. And that’s what I tell my sons. My youngest son, I go, son, I broke the cycle. So you would never have to live this life. So that’s God’s design. But I’m grateful that he is the great redeemer.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, you have an incredible story that we could spend days talking about, and I would love to do that on some occasion. But tell us how you became the person who tried to rescue the brokenhearted, the children, teenagers in jail. You would go after them and try to rescue them. And that’s kind of been your mission in life, hasn’t it?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, sir. I remember. I remember when God called me to it, and it was a process because I want to encourage young men out there. Let God do the process of preparing you before you just jump headlong into something because when you’re truly doing God’s work. His will and His way and His spirit, the enemy will assault you. If you try to do ministry or good things in your flesh, the enemy will let you be because the fruit won’t run. There’s a lot of ministries out there that they just kind of do it in the flesh. But I will say this. The three things our ministry does is set captives free physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And I think it’s because of the grace that God has poured out on my life that I’ve always had a heart to reach those who don’t think they can make it, don’t think they would do good. And I go, I’m living proof that if I can do it, anybody can. So, yes, we started with kids in juvenile centers. Then it expanded to where, I mean, four months ago, we’re in Iraq doing another rescue of a young lady who had been held captive by ISIS for nine years. And, I mean, we’ve been doing that work for over around a decade, the high-risk work. And Eileen was with me on that one, too. This young lady had two children. She was a sex slave of ISIS. She had two children in captivity, and even her family thought she was dead. But we had the proper intelligence, and we planned the mission over six months, and then we executed it in five days, and this was just four months ago. She’s back home.
SPEAKER 04 :
Boy, there’s so much to talk to you about. I want to spend a little time here talking about your new book, The Dangerous Gentleman. Victor Marks, forward by Charlie Kirk, which is quite a statement. Subtitle says, they call for men to be courageous in a culture of fear. Are men afraid today?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, let’s start with the church. I think men are afraid. The church is afraid. A great example is one year we were in Iraq, and I met with a Muslim leader. And I said, sir, why did you want to meet with me? He says, we’ve watched you for two years here in Iraq and Syria, what you’re doing. He goes, you care about our children. I said, wow. I didn’t expect him to say that. No. And then the other thing he said that really took me back, he goes, I’m meeting with you because you’re a man of the book. You actually believe. And the book being the Bible, he took me to a place where persecuted Christians were hiding in Iraq from ISIS. We walk in and he goes, these are your people. These are Christians. I’ll never forget what he said. He goes, where are the men from America? Where are the Christian men? Why aren’t they here helping? And in all honesty, all I could say was, most are afraid they’ll be killed. He just looked at me, Doc, and he goes, but we all die. And again, I’ll focus on Christians, and I know a lot of men in a small percentage that are very courageous. I mean, I just spoke with some SEAL team activities in Coronado Island. We’ve had Delta operators, Rangers. We’ve had SF. Different people work with us that definitely are courageous. But the number one fear— Unless men get adjusted, they’re afraid of the devil. They’re afraid of evil when it all boils down to it. Because that’s ultimately what we’re fighting. In anything we do, we’re fighting against the forces of darkness. The battle’s not physically. But the battle is mentally. And that’s why the Bible says, take every thought captive. And most men don’t know their authority in Christ. Therefore, they don’t know their identity. Therefore, they’re going to be passive, scared, weak. And that’s what’s caused our nation to really be upside down. Because just if the men in church stood up for what was right— I mean, you were the watchman on the walls years ago saying, if the family disintegrates, watch what happens to the culture. Never did we think we’d be accepting, much less celebrating in our culture, children in an attempt to change their gender, cutting off their body parts, taking hormones. It’s horrific, but that’s where we are today. So— This is a great time. It’s devastating what we’re looking at, but it’s also an exciting time if men rise up to be a remnant filled with God’s spirit. And the whole thing about the dangerous gentleman, because people ask me, because I’m on non-Christian programs too. I just go dangerous, meaning being filled with God’s spirit and being dangerous to the kingdom of darkness more than anything.
SPEAKER 04 :
Whatever happened to masculinity? The kind that I described about my father. How did that get lost? And what in the world can we do to reclaim it?
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s a great question and questions. I would say this. Again, I have to go back to the church. I think the church started – You know, it only takes one degree off any type of direction for a slow, off-pattern track. And I think the church went from believing in the inherency of Scripture, the power of God’s Spirit, the basic fundamentals of Christianity, and they started softening everything. Or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, it became cheap grace. And then, therefore, there wasn’t accountability. But what happened in the church changed. It became, in my opinion, behavior modification time instead of a transformation and a sanctification of a man’s soul and life. Therefore, if you’re just modifying a guy’s behavior, man, that’s really an attempt in the flesh to make him a nice person. I got to tell people, I’m not nice. Don’t put me in that category. Ask my wife. A nice person typically is someone who… will do something good for you because they want something in return. And the moment they get it, well, they’re not nice anymore. And if they don’t get it, then they won’t be nice. I prefer to be called a kind man. And a kind man and a kind person, they do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. So this whole behavior modification in the church, instead of men, godly preachers and teachers standing up, challenging, exhorting, not trying to soft-sell sin, and saying, listen, I mean, I’ve studied the revivalists. I’ve studied how things used to be. There’s always been challenges in the culture. But the one thing in the past is the men of God never compromised. And there was heartache, sacrifice, even serious persecution. These days, not so much.
SPEAKER 04 :
While the clock is getting away from us, I would love to know about your recent trip to Israel. Yes, sir. And what you experienced there with Eileen. She’s here, too. Eileen, I appreciate you joining us today. Thank you. You guys have been through quite an episode of your life that very few people would have survived and would never have wanted to be part of. Tell me about what recently happened.
SPEAKER 03 :
To Israel, that was when Hamas attacked. That was several months ago. And then we talked about the recent one in Iraq. But Israel was… As much as we’ve seen, I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when Hamas attacked Israel.
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Tell us which one you want to tell us about.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, start with Israel because it builds into Iraq. But, you know, we were in there days after Hamas had attacked. I had an SF friend call me and say, are you taking your team into Israel by invitation? And if we could access some placement. And within 72 hours, it all had been done. So we prepped up, jacked up, went there. What I saw in the neighborhoods— where all these people were killed, it was so bloody. It was so horrific. I told Eileen, I will never wear these boots again because, quite honestly, the amount of children’s blood that I walked in. And the thing that shocked me, I mean, when Israel got attacked, the last country in the world that anybody, especially Americans, would have thought being caught off guard was Israel because of everything they put into it. So I asked the question of my friends who lived there who were special forces IDF guys. I said, why? Why did this happen? And they said two things. One, we underestimated our enemy. We never thought Hamas would be able to attack us on this scale. From air, ground, thousands coming in, they had only prepared for literally eight to ten Hamas attackers at any given time.
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Even now, most Christians have no idea what really happened there. It was awful. I mean, there are no words to describe it.
SPEAKER 03 :
And again, the Christian culture here is so influenced by propaganda. All you hear is about Gaza. And no one focuses on the tragedy of the most horrific things. They just want to focus on Gaza. So guess what? I tell when people come against me through social media or when I speak to, like, Palestine, I said, I’ve got more Palestinian friends than you. Trust me. I’m the one with my bride. I’ve been into the West Bank. We’ve ministered to kids there. We’ve gone to most dangerous places, bring the light of God. And even on this trip into Israel, days after all this stuff happened, I felt very specific. God told me, go into Gaza and pray. Now, there had been no Americans that have gone into Gaza. It’s war. It’s fighting. But again, through us using our skill sets and, you know, experience, we trained a bunch of SF guys who were doing the fighting.
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And then I just said, how do you survive that?
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, yeah, angels, my guardian angels. Trust me, when I get to heaven, one of them is going to slap me.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, what a powerful testimony of God’s protection over Victor and Eileen Marks throughout their years of courageous ministry. Their dedication to helping those in crisis truly shows us what faith in action looks like. And if you’d like to learn more about the Marks’ remarkable work at All Things Possible Ministries and the lives that they’re touching all around the world, just go to drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. Last year, of course, Dr. Dobson received his eternal reward back in August of 2025. And so this year’s 2025 Best of Broadcast Collection is dedicated to the memory of Dr. James Dobson, featuring the classic conversations that he recorded here in the JDFI studios, going all the way back to the beginning of our ministry in 2010. This year’s special six CD set also includes the first ever edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, which is a treat to listen to, and the final words that Dr. Dobson ever recorded. It also features his final interview that he ever recorded. This is a once-in-a-lifetime gift that you’ll definitely want to have as part of your personal ministry library or to share with a friend or loved one as a treasured gift this Christmas. We would love to send you this inspiring six CD set, and we will do so as a way of thanking you for your gift of any amount in support of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. So go to drjamesdobson.org and request your copy. If you’d prefer to speak with a member of our friendly ministry representatives, you can call us at 877-732-6825. That’s 877-732-6825. 732-6825. And here’s some truly extraordinary news. Through the historic Dr. James Dobson Memorial Matching Grant, your gift today will be matched dollar for dollar and therefore doubled in size and impact. This remarkable initiative honors Dr. Dobson’s nearly five decades of ministry and ensures that his legacy will continue reaching new generations and geographies. Between now and December 31st, Every gift given by members of our faithful listening family will be matched dollar for dollar up to $6 million. That means your $100 donation will become $200. A $10,000 donation becomes $20,000. That’s twice the impact for families all across the nation and around the world who are seeking biblical guidance and encouragement. Now, you can make a secure donation online right now at drjamesdobson.org forward slash broadcasts. If you would prefer, you can send your support through the mail. Send your tax-deductible donation to Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, P.O. Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80949. Well, I’m Roger Marsh, and on behalf of all of us here at Family Talk and the James Dobson Family Institute, thanks so much for listening today. Be sure to join us again next time right here for the conclusion of the classic conversation featuring Dr. James Dobson and his guests, Victor and Eileen Marks. That’s coming up next time on the next edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, the voice you can still trust for the family you love. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
