Laurie Ishii

Please Pray for our Pimp and Prostitute Ministry! Daryl and I are excited for this year! We are still ministering to both the pimps and prostitutes on the streets of LA, Hollywood and the Valley. Last year we were able to rescue one lady from being hurt or kidnapped by three pimps…

We were with all women, except for Daryl – in a van. We had been ministering to some of the ladies (prostitutes) on the street and we gathered up to leave. As we started down the street, we heard blood curdling SCREAMING, over and over! I had our driver to pull over and see what was happening.

There was a young lady running down the street with a pimp chasing her! I had our driver to turn around and follow where they were going. The pimp chased the girl into a parking lot, and followed behind and stopped the van.

Let me tell you – my first reaction when I see something like this (for example, seeing one of the prostitutes getting picked up and thrown to the ground over and over on the concrete by her pimp) I want to run and scream at him or try to interfere… but that isn’t using wisdom. By interfering, it may only become worse – he may decide to hurt the girl even more – and the person interfering!

So I asked for God’s wisdom, and how to handle the situation. It was too hard to see what was going on and not be able to do something! But that ‘something’ may only be to pray about the situation and for the people involved, making our presence known to alleviate the situation but not actually directly doing anything.

This time, I felt strongly that the Holy Spirit was telling me to get out of the van, and that was about it. So I quickly said, “I’m getting out” and hopped out and slowly started to walk towards the pimp and girl screaming. Two other cars pulled up, and two other pimps got out! I could hear them screaming at the girl that she was “out of pocket” – she wasn’t going by the ‘rules’ of the “Game” (the Prostitution Game) she must have looked at or talked to the first pimp, who wasn’t her pimp, which is a big no-no.

They were yelling at her to get into their cars, and the first pimp was standing over her and she was on the ground still screaming bloody murder. I’ve never heard anyone scream so loud. As I kept walking, I realized that I recognized the first pimp – I’d talked to him and even prayed with him a couple of times. He was my friend’s (who is one of the older pimps) son, only 18 years old…following in his father’s footsteps. I have known his father for almost four years now – it has taken this long to develop the relationship and trust between us and we talk regularly on the phone.

I moved forward, and it was trippy, almost like a movie, in slow motion. It was if none of the pimps even knew that we were there. (By this time Daryl was standing behind me) I softly called out my friend’s son’s name, until he heard me. He turned around, and it was as if the atmosphere changed almost immediately.

“Oh hi, Laurie” he said, with a big smile.

The girl was still screaming, and she was now surrounded. We had all made our way across the parking lot all the way to the street. She was up against a car, one pimp on the left, one on the right, and the other in front of her, with us behind him.

They started talking sugar sweet to her, calling her “baby” and saying, “We just want to take you out for coffee.” (Yeah right) Then one of them said “She’s making too much noise,” and got back into his car. The others followed, and I was able to grab her and hug her for a few minutes while she got her composure back. She was crying and shaking all over. She kept saying that she’d never been so terrified in all her life, and was asked her if she wanted to get in the van. She walked with us and right when she was about to get in, her “boyfriend” called her.

She answered her phone, screaming “Where were you! Where are you? These pimps were trying to kidnap me…” and that some people helped her and they left. She didn’t get off the phone after that, but told us that she had to go meet him at the corner. We were able to give her my number and a tract – but we watched as her “boyfriend” pulled up at the corner and she thanked us and got in his car.

Her boyfriend is the guy who put her out on the street. There are so many ladies that get put on the street by their so-called boyfriends, who usually have a ‘stable’ of other girls too. It’s so sad. We can’t help someone by force or against own free will.

After Daryl and I got home, he made me laugh! He said that when he was in the van with all the women who were with us, he didn’t hear me saying that I was going to get out – and when I did, the women almost kicked him out of the van, saying “aren’t you going to go after your wife?” He said, “I didn’t know that you were gonna get out of the van – the next time you plan on playing ‘Captain Save a Ho’ can you please let me know?”

He was dead serious, which made me laugh even more…

Later, I was sure to call the young pimp’s father (and my friend) and told him everything that happened, because I was sure that his son would tell him about it anyway. He was (or at least said he was) glad that we interfered before it got violent, because “We don’t want any violence out there.” (?)

The reason I wanted to let him know what happened is because we have a relationship. Since the very beginning, I have been completely and totally transparent and honest with the guys out there. If I was out there and someone was talking to me about God and Jesus – they’d better be real with me. These guys are quick to size a person up and I know that this particular pimp can tell a LOT about how a person is within a few minutes of talking to them. I’ve taken many people out with me over the years and later when we talk on the phone he’s been able to tell me a lot about how a certain person we took out with us is. We had only spent a few minutes with him, and he’s amazed me at how observant he is. I think that to survive on the street, we have to become very observant and discerning.

This winter I’ve been talking to some the pimps I have an ongoing friendship with – a couple of them called to wish me a Merry Christmas and we also went out to see them a couple of times. We saw one the other day while we were out driving in Hollywood after we’d just been talking about how God is working in his life! He was on foot, so we gave him a ride down the street a couple blocks.

It is exciting to see God softening these guys‚Äô hearts! When I first met most of them they wouldn‚Äôt even talk to me or shake my hand ‚Äì now when they see Daryl and I they hug us! God is so good! One of them was telling me that they never talked to any of the people that would come out and talk to the prostitutes, but for some reason I was the first and only person they started talking to. That‚Äôs Jesus! Another one said that it was because of the consistency of seeing me every week. (The only reason I say ‘me’ is because he said that – I’m the only person he’s seen consistantly every week for almost four years, Daryl started coming out with me almost a year after we got married in August 2004) I always pray for God‚Äôs favor with these guys, and He definitely has answered that prayer!

This year we are excited to see what the Lord is going to do. We have some people from Reality LA that we’re excited to take out with us on a regular, consistent basis – and a LOT of people praying for this ministry and outreach!

We met a woman who is a hard core intercessor and she has a group of women that meet up every week to pray – she asked if they could pray for us, the ministry and for specific pimps and prostitutes! She asked if I could send her any pictures of the people we wanted her to pray for. Of course I was more than happy to do that – yesterday I sent her a stack!

By God’s leading, we are asking for as many people to please be consistently praying for this ministry, for more relationships to be developed and for the men and women we reach out to…also for finances! We mostly need (for the ministry) money for gas, my cell phone bill, envelopes, stamps, paper and ink for the printer to send out bulletins and prayer requests. We are also moving forward to get our own 501C3.

Thank you for your ongoing prayer support!!! The most important thing for this outreach is lot of PRAYER and the purpose is to give God glory and to see people saved and set free! Hallelujah!