Laurie Ishii and Daryl Bargy

Wow. What a weekend! It started out with having to meet a film crew at midnight to be interviewed for this documentary LA Loves is filming on Child Sex Trafficking. First of all, I have an alarm on my phone – “Prostitute Outreach” – and it is usually set to go off anywhere from 1am to 4am. Well, this time I set it to go off at 11:15 – and forgot to change the am to pm. Wanting to get a couple of hours of sleep before we went out, we fell asleep around 9:30pm. Daryl woke up and said, “It’s 1:53″ YIKES! I felt so bad – In all the years of doing the prostitute outreach – I haven’t ever over slept – until this time.

I felt so bad, but it worked out okay – we met the crew as soon as we got dressed and out the door. First off, we saw one of Daryl’s old drug buddies working at the place we went to film. His name is Andrew – please pray for him to be saved! We weren’t exactly sure where to go and do outreach where we’d see girls cause Long Beach is kind of far to drive and we wanted to stay local if possible. We prayed, and then some cops rolled by. I ran up to their patrol car and introduced myself and asked where I could find prostitutes – and they told us a couple of places we already knew about. I gave them a brochure and also a pimp tract which the cops always seem to like – they kept it.

Then we were setting up to give me an interview in the car – and another cop car rolls up. Daryl had been outside and he just finished praying with some random guy in the parking lot when the cops got out of the car and started questioning him. The driver was a female officer and she was pretty ‘fiesty’. She asked him if he knew that we were in a known narcotic neighborhood and if he’d been arrested before. She actually thought that she’d arrested him in the past. Asked if he was on parole, asked if he had any warrents. Then had him put his hands behind his back and handcuffed him.

They ran his name as we watched and after they found that he was okay, Daryl came over and got a brochure from me and gave it to them. They said that there’s a sex predator with the same birthdate as Daryl and with the last name Borgy (Daryl’s is Bargy) in Washington!!! Crazy.

After that experience, we decided to check out one of the areas the cops told us about cause we hadn’t been there in a few months. We only saw one girl and when we pulled around the corner to get out of the car so we could talk to her she was gone.

Daryl had on a hidden ‘spy cam’ and I had on a hidden microphone, but so far we hadn’t been able to talk to anyone. So we went back to another area, and this time I saw a few pimps and one of them I’ve known for over a year. His name is Taylor – please pray for him to get saved! We also saw a prostitute – so we got out of the car to go talk to her.

At first she was not very open to converstaion, she said she was busy. I gave her my testimony tract that says, “I used to be a suicidal junkie PROSTITUTE but Jesus set me free” and after she read that she seemed to open up. We walked with her for probably 1/2 a mile down the street, and she shared how she was only prostituting for a little while to suport herself, how her boyfriend was also her pimp, how she actually went to church and read the bible and believed in Jesus… and she let us pray with her before we parted ways. Her street name is Lala.

We went back and talked with taylor – he gave me a huge hug and asked how I’d been and introduced me to the other guys, who at first tried to hit on me until I introduced Daryl my HUSBAND to them. By this time it was about 5:30 and Daryl was meeting his brother at 6am to go fishing so he had to leave. I stayed back with the film grew who were sitting in the car, and I hung out with Taylor and the guys. One of them, a guy named Vovo – said that he wanted my phone number and I gave him a matchbook with my # on it but he wanted me to give it to him right then so he could put it in his phone… I kind of sensed that he wanted to see if I was gonna give him my real number or something cause after I gave him my number he immediately called it to see if my phone rang. Of course it did, and by this time the film guys were ready to go to the next location so I said my goodbyes and left.

Later that morning I text’d Vovo, “Jesus loves you! Have a blessed day – God has a plan and a destiny for you!!!” and he text’d me back “Thanks.” He hasn’t tried calling me since.

When I visited G today in jail he said he’s know Vovo for years. Of course he knows Taylor too. They all know eachother, if they’re ‘really’ in the game. G even knows our friend Sara’s ex boyfriend/pimp and his cousin as well. It’s a pretty close knit group/family, and they all help eachother out, too.

The interview went well, and when I had seen G before doing the interview I asked him if he’d mind if I shared some of his story during the interview – that I wouldn’t use his name. He said that COULD I use his name and share whatever I wanted to if it would help me, and that he’d even think about doing an interview but that his main concern being that his words would be twisted. Wow. What a change…years ago I mentioned to him about my website/blog and asked him if he minded me mentioning my experiences on the street and with the girls and guys and he said that he didn’t want me to write and use his name – he didn’t even know if he wanted me to use a fake name cause people still might figure out that I was talking about him!

Anyway, Daryl’s coming to pick me up and this is lso long anyway! Thanks for ‘longsufering’ with me!!! God is so good, please keep praying for G and these other people in the Game. Thanks!