Join us for a deeply moving episode of Family Talk, where Dr. James Dobson sits down with Victor and Eileen Marks from All Things Possible Ministries. This couple leads high-risk rescue missions around the globe, bringing help and hope to those trapped by terror. In this conversation, hear how faith guides their dangerous work and how they navigate the risk with their steadfast belief that God is guiding their path.
Hello, everyone. You’re listening to Family Talk, a radio broadcasting ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Dr. James Dobson, and thank you for joining us for this program.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome back to Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. I’m Roger Marsh, and in just a moment, we’re going to hear part two of Dr. Dobson’s classic conversation with Victor and Eileen Marks from All Things Possible Ministries. Together, this husband and wife duo lead high-risk rescue missions as a part of their ministry’s global mission to set captives free physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And what you’re about to hear marks the final time that Dr. Dobson was in studio with Victor and Eileen Marks before Dr. Dobson went home to be with the Lord in in August of 2025. And as a result, we have included this conversation as part of our 2025 Best of Broadcast Collection. It features some classic work from Dr. Dobson dating all the way back to the beginning of the Family Talk ministry. It also includes his final studio interview, as well as the last words Dr. Dobson ever spoke into a microphone here at the JDFI. It’s a highly anticipated resource. It’s available right now as a six CD set. And when you go to drjamesdobson.org, you’ll find out all the particulars you need on how to make a donation in support of our ministry and receive the 2025 Best of Broadcast collection as our thank you for that gift. And now let’s hear part two of Dr. Dobson’s conversation with Victor and Eileen Marks. As Victor is telling the story, he’s just entered Gaza, a highly dangerous and active war zone.
SPEAKER 03 :
When we went in, this is very funny, and we go in, me and one other person, we’re Americans, this SF team takes us. Most of them are backing down this berm because I thought they were going to bring us up north. They brought us right into Gaza City. I mean, the fighting was going on. So we get up on this berm. And I’m like, Lord, the main thing you told me to do is pray, so I’m going to pray. And I have my buddy next to me, and I just lift my hands up. Now, I’m silhouetted. You can see me. And I just start praying over the evil of Hamas, protection of all innocent people. And as I’m praying, I see my idea friends. They’re getting lower and lower. And I’m not really understanding, but I just keep praying. Here’s what happened. Unbeknownst to me, there was a sniper in a building in front of us shooting. I didn’t know. They knew. But they were like, no, I had kit and a helmet on, but still, you don’t want to silhouette yourself with your arms up like, hey, take a shot at me. I keep praying and praying. Then I heard the sounds of a tank track. And it’s actually on video. It’s very like, this tank came out of nowhere, an Israeli tank, turns, aims its turn at the building and goes, and just puts a big round right in that building, and the shooting stopped. But yeah, I think faith in action, good works that God’s prepared for us, everybody in their own lane. Like I would never recommend somebody doing the work we do. You got to be called to it. But just being faithful to that lane that God has called you to do. Man, that will impact people, and we need men to step up and just trust God and obey in every area and stop compromising. That’s the killer of real moral and what I would call moral masculinity, compromise. And then from there you went to RACC? Yes, sir. Our last mission, which was recent, we had been planning— This is the one I want people to hear. Well, my bride and I, our team had been planning a rescue from our intelligence of a young woman who had been held captive for nine years. And— We’d come back from Israel. I’m exhausted. I mean, I’m smoked because we hit Israel twice. And all of a sudden I get a call. Hey, boss, it’s a green light to get this woman, this girl. And I thought, oh, I prayed. And I said, OK. The only thing is we needed a female on our team, the best chance of a good rescue. So because she was.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s get this straight now. There’s a girl there that had been. In captivity for how long? Nine years. Nine years.
SPEAKER 03 :
By ISIS.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you’re going in there with the goal of bringing her out. Yes, sir. Did you expect not to survive that? I mean, you’re going into Satan’s world there.
SPEAKER 03 :
I would say this. We always expect to win every time. We’ve never entered any engagement or rescue without 100% confidence that the Lord is in control. Now, we’ve had the hard conversations that because of the work we do, if one of us end up in heaven, you know, are we okay with that? I remember looking at my bride. Remember, it was to rescue a little boy, bring him out of harm’s way in Mosul. And I remember telling Eileen, babe, this is a bad one. We do risk assessments. I go, this is really bad. And she’s like, well, did the Lord tell you to go?
SPEAKER 02 :
I said, yeah. I mean, I got to interrupt. You didn’t have to do this, and you were putting yourself at risk. You’re the mother of all these five kids. How in the world did you get the guts to do what happened?
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow. Well, you know what? I think it’s just God speaking to us. He gives us a peace, and I don’t question that peace. Yes, I mean, every single time that we’ve been in, there’s always that chance that something bad can happen. But you know what? I’ve looked at our life. It’s like, this is not my life. God saved me. And I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid to die because I know where I’m going. And so many of the people that we are reaching, so many don’t know. So many don’t have that eternal confidence. So that’s what moves me.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. Tell us what happened. You’re going in there to try to rescue this girl. How old was she?
SPEAKER 04 :
Late 20s. So she was kidnapped as a teenager.
SPEAKER 02 :
Did she know you were coming?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, she did not know. So there were so many different pieces that had to make this happen because she was being held in a place that was controlled by ISIS.
SPEAKER 03 :
And some things we can’t share because it’s for security reasons even now.
SPEAKER 04 :
But so we had an incredible team that has Intel that, like Victor said, six months of planning. So now the window is open. So we get over there and… We understand what we’re dealing with and who’s behind all of this. So we just went with actually great expectation. Like Victor said, we had such great expectation. Even though a thousand things could have gone wrong, a thousand things went great. In fact, the last piece of this, this whole rescue, we are in a vehicle. We are heading back to our safe house. There is a… checkpoint that nobody ever gets out of nobody our vehicle with the woman and her two children in the back seat we go right by the checkpoint nobody stops us it’s like an angel was covering the car and it’s like the people at the checkpoint didn’t even see us travel it was so that to me was like this is the final stamp of God saying you’re done you’re through so you and another woman
SPEAKER 02 :
walked into the place where this girl was being kept.
SPEAKER 03 :
So it was only Eileen. Yep. And it’s so complicated even now. There’s some details we can’t even allude to. I don’t want you to put yourself at risk. But I will say this, that Eileen was the only female to make first contact with the mother and the two children. And it was so high risk that our ops, our lead ops guy just said, Eileen— If there’s a man with her, he’s ISIS. And if he tries to grab her or if he even looks at you, you have to draw your weapon and kill him. And we don’t ever want to engage people and have to use violence to do what we do. But we’re certainly prepared for it. And thank God, I mean, Eileen, when she was getting up, and again, folks, listen, civilian clothes, jacket, low-vis, body armor, you’d never know. But she’s carrying a pistol, two mags, a blade. She put a grenade in her pocket. You know, it’s very funny. You look at it and go, man, people have called us the real Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We always chuckled. We didn’t until we watched the movie. Then we’re like, oh, my gosh, maybe kind of we are. But I asked our team, Doc, I said, first of all, what’s the oldest female operator you’ve ever worked with in these type of high-risk missions? They were like mid-30s. And folks, I’m telling you, ladies, my bride turned 60 before we did this. And, I mean, she looks like she’s in her late 30s. Yeah, that’s true. So we’re very disciplined to stay mission ready, and that’s our challenge to both men and women. Be mission ready, physically, emotionally, and spiritually for whatever God has for you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, describe the event. I don’t want a minute to get away from us here.
SPEAKER 03 :
So we were able to execute the mission and thread the needle in a way because it was more than one country. We had to move through multiple countries to safely get her to our home. And all the while, you’re basically kidnapping someone from ISIS. And you’re moving— with an ISIS woman. Even though she’s kidnapped, she’s been held nine years, we weren’t for certain how far she was programmed or brainwashed. And that was the big risk the whole time. But when everything finally worked out, It was the most beautiful reunion we’d ever seen. Her brother got on the phone. He could not believe it. She’s telling him, I’m rescued. I’m rescued. I’m not with Daesh no more. He goes, where are you? She goes, I don’t know, because we did all of our stuff at night. I don’t know. Who rescued you? And all she could say was, they’re just Christians from America. And once we talked with the brother, he goes, what do y’all want? And we said nothing. Jesus sent us here to help. And we were gone. We were out of country within hours. And we’re still, because it’s kind of fresh. When you hurt ISIS’s feelings that bad, they take notice. So we don’t live paranoid, but we live prepared.
SPEAKER 02 :
Sure. And you’ve been doing this for years, haven’t you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, sir. Gosh, 2014 was our first high risk mission. And then before that, working with high risk kids here in the U.S. who’ve been trafficked or abused. So 21 years now total. I tell folks, again, I try to say it doesn’t matter if you’re overseas or in your own neighborhood. We’re fighting evil in the manifestation of it. And a great example is someone tried to kill me here at our home. A guy tried to shoot me. And this was 10 months ago. And, you know, when I talk about being a dangerous gentleman— I’ve had to make decisions that change the course of bad people’s future. And I would say being a dangerous gentleman doesn’t mean you’re violent or toxic or whatever. Actually, what you do is all based out of love. And being capable matters. But meekness, one of the first things I learned, and I know you’ve taught this, is meekness is power and control. And Christ was the best example. So when this guy took a shot at me hiding in a trailer on our property, as far as I couldn’t see him, he pulled a pistol. I didn’t even know he was going to shoot me. Boom, he shoots. And it was 36 inches from the barrel to my head. And the round missed me by two fingers. Because they measured it out. And again, guardian angels, because there’s no way someone should have missed me from that close. And it’s like I sent a video to President Trump. And I just said, you know, I know what it’s like. And don’t let your anger turn into bitterness. Because I had spoken to Mar-a-Lago when he was there. So I just said, you know, we’re not hard to find. We’re just hard to kill. Because God’s angels are watching over us. And he’s not through with us yet. I guess the point about meeting his power and control when this fella tried to kill me, I drew my weapon and put it on him. I could have killed him like that, but I moved off the X where he couldn’t get a shot at me. And I really heard the Holy Spirit say, don’t shoot him. Because I could have killed him right there. It would have been justified. But instead of shooting, it was contain him. Contain him. So had he come out of the trailer as a threat, a hostile intent, then I would have killed him. But I didn’t. Five and a half hour standoff by SWAT here in Colorado. Springs, El Paso County. He gets arrested for second degree attempted murder. And he’s facing that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Eileen, you live in a dangerous world. How do you cope with that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, again, I just go back to, you know what, I know why we’re here. This is not our home. And our motto that we used to say before we got married is that we’re just passing through. And I just have to say that that’s God’s faith. God gives us that measure of faith to really believe that and live that out. I mean, Old Testament, I was saying earlier, people in the Old Testament… I love the people, their heart, because they didn’t count their life so precious to them. And I mean, again, this is not our home, so it’s easy for me. And I do know that that’s a measure of faith.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, there’s a song to that effect. Let me sing it to you. Okay. I’ve never sung a song on the radio yet, and you hear my voice. It’s craggy. But I’ll just tell you what the words say. This world is not my home. I’m just a-passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s other shore. And I won’t be alone in this world anymore. That’s beautiful.
SPEAKER 04 :
I love that. Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s comforting.
SPEAKER 02 :
I grew up with that song.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. That’s beautiful. And that’s truth. Yes. And that’s what men need now more than ever. And I think the young men understand there’s nothing that satisfies. I mean, we have the highest levels of anxiety, depression, and suicide among our young people more than ever. So this is when— Who are you referring to? In the U.S., young people. It’s the one thing—like, well, I was just in Texas this past weekend, and I spoke at a youth prison. There was about 40 kids in there, all violent offenders. And I thought, man, here we go, Lord. And a state representative there, the warden, and they just said, man, if you can get through these kids. And I shared my story. And I told them the truth of the gospel and what God could do. You know, half of them raised their hand to give their life to Christ. Is that right? Again. Again. So we are tasked with the responsibility of presenting the gospel. Right. And I think the dangerous gentleman is a good way to encourage men.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s talk about that. The dangerous gentleman. Explain that as a place to begin.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, people ask me, dangerous gentleman, that sounds like an oxymoron. Is Jesus the dangerous gentleman? I think he’s the best example, Doc, because everything he did was motivated out of love. And he had capability beyond anyone else on this earth. Christ never called us to be passive. That’s a misnomer, and that’s bad propaganda. He called us to have active faith, to occupy until he returns. I mean, how many times are we told in the Bible to not be afraid? And to be courageous. So the book is stories and accounts of what we’ve done that I think will both encourage and challenge men. That’s what we’re hearing. To go, oh my gosh, God is able to do that. It’s like Eileen told me in Iraq on a mission to go get this kid. I said, babe, are you willing to become a widow for the cause of Christ? Because if I leave here and go try to get that little boy, out of Mosul, there’s a chance I could be killed. And I’ll never forget, I’d rather be a widow than married to a man known for being a coward. Oh, my. And women, you need to challenge your husband. Stop nagging. Nagging doesn’t get anything done. One of the most powerful things Eileen has said to me is, When I’m sideways or struggling, she just goes, honey, lead me better than that. And I’m telling you, husband and wives, that’s the best ministry you can have. That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done. It’s stay married, never cheat on my wife, never been cheated on. That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever accomplished because that’s the institution that God ordained. From everything else, it flows. But if we didn’t make it, then we wouldn’t be talking about any of these stories of God’s miraculous power.
SPEAKER 02 :
Victor, what is a man of courage today? I’m sure a lot of people really don’t know because it’s not modeled today. in many places. What does it mean to be a man of courage?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, there’s physical courage, and then there’s what I would say moral courage. I think moral courage or moral masculinity, leading with that as a foundation will give a man physical courage. If you try to reverse them, then there’s a chance you won’t accomplish it. Stand up for what is right. Don’t be quiet in the face of what’s evil. And you’ve done that for all these decades. You’ve stood up against what the culture says is no more right. We’re living in a day and age where the Bible says that they’ll call evil good and good evil. And men need to stop being passive, accept responsibility. Fight for a greater good. There’s a war going on. Again, it’s spiritual, but it takes the courage that you can receive by the power of God’s Spirit in your life. It will be dampened by, I think, impurity. I tell men, if you’re looking at porn and you’re not living a pure life, don’t expect the power of God to flow through you. That will quench everything. Have a clear conscience. And, well, I’ll never forget, I was in a locker room, some men were talking, and this has happened more than one occasion, and these men started talking about cheating on their wife. And they’re laughing. They look over at me, like, and I just looked at them and said, I don’t find that funny. You made a commitment to your wife, and now you think somehow it’s wrong. And I’ve said that on more than one occasion. I’ve said it to politicians in a small room of some well-known people, and one of them was talking about cheating. So, you know, it’s okay for men to stand up.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Victor and Elaine, I always enjoy talking to you all because of your courage, your commitment, the people that you have changed. And this book, I think, will be of great meaning to a lot of people because America has forgotten what it means to be masculine.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER 02 :
And to do what God calls us to do. It’s always a pleasure talking to you guys. I want to end with a story. We’ve known you all these years, as I’ve said. Shirley and I decided to come over to your house and ask if you would teach her to shoot a pistol just for self-protection. I’m gone a lot, and so you agreed to do that. You brought us over. We went out in your backyard, and you gave us each a pistol, and Shirley shot first. And you gave her a few instructions, not much, and then put her about 10, 15 feet away from a target. And she stepped up there and she blew the hole in the center of that target three times, didn’t she?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. I was so proud of her. She hit the target one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Believe me, this has never happened before. And you had said she never used a firearm. And Eileen, it’s one of our highlights. We have some very fun pictures of that where we were both shocked. I’m like, good night. Truly. And then you followed up. You said, I haven’t shot a pistol in so long. And you got up there, and you were hitting the target really well in the chest. And you go, but I want to shoot him in the face. I said, well, adjust this. Boom, boom, boom. You’re shooting the target. I said— These are two warriors, babe.
SPEAKER 02 :
In their 80s, warriors. You’re telling the truth now.
SPEAKER 03 :
This actually happened. We have photos to prove it. We were both proud and excited. And again, that’s leadership. I said, look at them. They’re out here, still training, still hungry. I have a courageous wife.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, you do. Yes, you do.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, we call her the clean warrior.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thanks for being with us today and yesterday. We appreciate you telling the personal stories that you’ve gone through. You take some risk whenever you talk like this, don’t you?
SPEAKER 03 :
We do. And again, we try to be sensitive to God and know our time on earth is limited. So we just want to advance the kingdom as much as we can. And again, being prepared keeps us from being paranoid. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you’ve been listening to a special edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk featuring part two of Dr. Dobson’s conversation with Victor and Eileen Marks. Now, this was the last time that Dr. Dobson was able to sit down in studio with Victor and Eileen before he went home to be with the Lord this past August. If you’d like to learn more about All Things Possible Ministries or the book that they were discussing, Victor has written a book called The Dangerous Gentleman. Just go to drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. And as I mentioned at the start of the broadcast, This conversation with Victor and Eileen Marks is included in our 2025 Best of Broadcast collection. Your prayers and financial support mean the world to us here at the JDFI, and now through the historic Dr. James Dobson Memorial Matching Grant, every gift we receive will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $6 million, until the deadline of New Year’s Eve, December 31st. This remarkable memorial honors Dr. Dobson’s legacy and ensures that the only organization he entrusted to carry forward his work, which is the JDFI, can continue reaching families for generations to come. Go to drjamesdobson.org and get your copy. The six CD set is available there. And it’s our thank you gift for your special year-end contribution of any amount to the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, which will be doubled thanks to the Dr. James Dobson Memorial Matching Grant. Again, you’ll find that information at drjamesdobson.org. You can also call a member of our constituent care team at 877-732-6825. Or if you prefer, you can send your donation through the U.S. Postal Service. Our ministry mailing address is Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, 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 another 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.
