Laurie Ishii

More prayer…PLEASE
Current mood: a little sad…

Well, my internet is working today…praise God. But PLEASE PRAY…I
was almost in tears earlier – Daryl found a BED BUG in our closet
today. It was flat, which means that the stupid thing hasn’t has
anyone to eat off of lately – we think that possibly, he may have
‘hitched a ride’ from storage the other day…my heart is so broken
over this – we prayed over our new place and I have finally been able
to sleep without thinking about bugs…but it’s weird cause two nights
ago I dreamt about bed bugs again…

We put the dumb bug in a pyrex and fried him on the stove. I hate the
things so much.

Thank God we put plastic over our new mattress and box spring, and I’m
checking and changing the sheets every day. This is crazy. I’m so
bummed.

Oh well. If we have to pay hundreds of dollars to exterminate our lace
every month to make sure all those things are dead, we will. I can’t
live like this.

Anyway, on a lighter (but not much lighter) note – last night we
picked up the pimp I shared about yesterday…it was so sad – we’re
used to seeing him in his ‘element’ with his flashy clothes and
attitude – and yesterday he had NOTHING except the clothes on his back
- a shirt which he had been wearing for three days and was pretty
dirty.

He was broken, we took him to eat at Denny’s and then to Rite Aid to
buy some deordorant and hair stuff (he called it ‘motor oli’) before
taking him to the men’s home at the Dream Center. (Not Dream Center
discipleship which I wish he would’ve went to, but Hope for Homeless
Youth which is more of a shelter he could stay at for a few days – or
longer if he chose.)

He shared a bit about himself, and when I asked about his family, he
said that his parents were both dead. I asked how and he said both his
mom and dad were shot and killed in a motel, and then he said he
didn’t want to talk about it.

My heart went out to him – we could tell that he is so wounded. I
asked him if he had a personal relationship with Jesus and if he knew
that if he were to die that he would go to heaven. He didn’t. We
explained the gospel to him and asked if he wanted to pray to recieve
Jesus and he said yes. He was too embarrassed and said that he’d be
distracted to pray in Denny’s so we prayed in the car.

It was weird cause when I prayed, Daryl prayed after me, then the guy
repeated after Daryl – and when I said, “I know that I deserve to go
to hell” (to follow with, “but thank You that because of Jesus….etc)
but after Daryl repeated and then the guy (I don’t want to use his
real name) tried repeating Daryl it took FIVE times before he could
say that without it getting twisted or completely wrong – so Daryl
kept repeating it until he finally got it right! Afterwards though, we
prayed over him and even after we dropped him off at the DC we feel
like he really needs to go through some deliverance.

Okay, Daryl’s ready to leave now – we’re going to the Grove – please
pray for this young man. He really needs healing – we sensed that he
may have been through some abuse when he was younger too…I’ll write
more later. PLEASE PRAY!!! Thanks…

Later…I feel so bad for this guy. He’s called a couple of times today just to talk, and to ask if we were coming by the DC – but we were with Daryl’s brother and his wife – they came over to swim and then we went to eat an Indian restaurant. But I could tell he was lonely. I told him that we’d try to go by there tomorrow…I really want to support him and I know he feels so out of place…it’s amazing how a person can appear so ‘confident’ when they’re in their own ‘element’ – and so lost when they’re in an unfamiliar environment. I really praise God that only because of Jesus – I don’t know of any place where I’ve gone, even if I’ve never been there before…I don’t feel weird or different, uncomfortable or anything – new places excite me, I love meeting new people. But like I said, I know that’s because of Jesus, knowing who I am in Him.

Anyway, please continue to pray for this guy. He said he knew about the ‘game’ – pimping – since he was 8 years old – and started at 13. I asked him why, and he said, “Why did you go and get a job?” To make money…he said he was married to money…

My heart really breaks for him. He really needs to go through some deliverance. I pray that the Lord really touches him and heals him in Jesus’ Name…

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September 2, 2007 – Sunday

Internet down and prayer for another pimp…

My internet is down for who knows how long…I’m at the internet cafe today – please be praying, a pimp we met about a year ago called me – long story shortened – he got busted, was told that he has to stop pimping or else his kids are going to the state and he wants them back so he has stopped pimping and is on the street with no money and called and asked for help. I told him about the Dream Center and about Hope for Homeless Youth and gave him Pastor Clayton’s phone number and he’s going to stay at the men’s home for who knows how long.

Hopefully he’ll be there long enough for God to get a hold of him so that he’ll stick around. PLEASE PRAY for him. It’s so sad, cause he said that it was hard for him to ask for help – he’s been pimping since he was 13 years old (he’s 27) and in his words, “Pimpin’ and Hoing is all I know.” He said that he made around 1.3 million in a few months and now he has nothing – this morning he only ate a cookie and orange juice for breakfast. He asked me to call him before we pick him up to go to the Dream Center cause he didn’t feel comfortable going there by himself…it was so sad cause he said, “Call me – it’s nice to have someone call me because no one calls me anymore. You know why? Cause I’m not in the game anymore and I have no money. No one calls me anymore….” I felt so bad for him.

Anyway, I don’t know how long it will be before I can get DSL set up. So I guess I’ll be hanging out at the cafe for a while! I don’t mind! Well Daryl’s sitting here next to me waiting so I’ll have to cut this short…pray that I’ll be back online soon! hehe. Happy Sunday!

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August 31, 2007 – Friday

Prostitute Saved – please pray for her!
Current mood: contemplative

God is so good… I have had a horrible time this whole week but it’s worth it. First my tooth breaking in half on Friday, being in major pain (even still now) until I got it pulled Wednesday…then today I was going to exchange a Dermalogica kit worth over $30 that I bought a couple of weeks ago and found out (after getting sick again) that the face wash contains the same ingredient that made me sick before…well, I had the receipt and everything to return and exchange for some soap and candles – and I left the bag on the bus or on the wall by Hollywood Highschool when I was praying with someone on the phone. Sheesh.

Anyway, this morning, I had one of those mornings where nothing went right and everything went wrong…I was going to my friend Nico’s to get a haircut…anyway, on the way over to his place, I still had my phone on silent from being at church last night. Later, I saw that I had a voicemail – and it was from a young prostitute. She said that she needed help, and that she thought that I should be the one to call. So I called her back twice with no answer and left a message…

When she called me back, she told me that she was ‘done’ and that she wanted to change her life and maybe go to a program. She had heard of the Walter Hoving Home and I gave her the number and also the number for the Dream Center… she said that she usually never talked to God unless she was in prison, but that lately she’s been talking to Him, and that she even went to church last Sunday. I asked her if she had asked Jesus into her heart and she said that she didn’t feel right cause she was still doing what she was doing (prostituting) – but I told her that if she wanted to get out that she needs His strength and that He will come live inside of her, be born again…etc.

She said she’d never prayed in front of anyone before and I told her that all she had to do was repeat after me and mean what she said in her heart. So we prayed and she received Jesus as her Lord and Savior! Praise God!

Well, she said that she was going to call the WH Home and call me back…later when we talked, she said that she had talked to her mom, and her mom said that she wanted her to come home and that her mom would get her an apartment – but this precious young lady said that she and her parents have never gotten along…(she left home when she was like 16 and has been prostituting since and is now in her twenties) then she said she was concerned about all her stuff, and said she really needed to be sure of what she was going to do…I didn’t push her, but told her that going to a program was probably the best thing she could do…she said she may go home (Seattle) for a couple of weeks and come back…

PLEASE PRAY for her!!! She sounds like she really is tired of her lifestyle – and she said that if she decides to do the program she’s going to do the year instead of the six month program…quite honestly, I think that the enemy may be using her parents to distract her from what God wants for her, but this decision needs to be made on her own, without any coercion from me or anyone else. I pray she makes the right one!!!

Yesterday I was stuck on Sunset and Cherokee after getting a huge box in the mail at the Post Office – along with my ‘granny basket’ on wheels with bags of stuff from shopping…all the kids just got out of school and 3 buses didn’t even stop because they were too full – so I called G to see if he had the number for a cab (I thought he would know one for his girls) and he asked where I was…then asked where I was going. Then he said “We’ll be there in 3 minutes.” Literally! He and his friend Bruce pulled up – they had just been driving right down the street – so they gave me a ride home. Jagg said, “I got to be your angel this time!”

Anyway, there’s been so much going on here but this is the most important. Please pray for this girl! I really love her – she said that she doesn’t have anyone here in LA that she can trust – everyone she knows just uses her. Even when she meets someone she said she is afraid they just want something from her. She said that “I know that you really care about people Laurie, I really appreciate you.” I told her that it’s because of God and His love that that He’s shown me that I can’t help but share it with other people.

He is truly, so so so good.

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August 27, 2007 – Monday

Yesterday with G and Sara at class…
Current mood: excited

Wow. Again, God continually blows our minds!!!

Okay, so we pick G up for church – he was really tired from the day before because HBO did a filming at his apartment for 12 hours and he had been out and up all night from the night before the whole crew came to his place.

We asked him if he was planning to come with us to hear our friend Charity speak at Mosaic at 5pm but that we had our class after church – and he said that he thought he should go home and take a nap after church and could we pick him up before we went to see Charity. We said sure, a bit relieved….

G brought up what happened Friday night – he said that he saw us with the young prostitute Laura – he said that just three nights before that, he had seen her at 7-11 and even spoke with her. He said, “I’m not gonna lie and try to pretend that I told her to go to church or anything, but I did ask her what she was doing out there and asked ‘where’s he at?’ (speaking of her pimp)” He said that she looked so young, and (she also wore these really thick glasses) that she shouldn’t be out there with eye problems cause she needs to be able to see well because a trick could have a knife or gun and she might not even see it…

He said that when he saw her get out of our car he was really happy and relieved. He saw me pray with her and then he thought she was gonna leave with us – until the “wife in law” or “Bottom B****” came up and got her – he said that he felt like maybe he should have done something – because if he had walked up to us and the wife in law would have seen him (because he’s a pimp) she would know better and would have walked away. He kept saying that he felt bad, that the girl didn’t belong out there…he should have done something…

He also said that when the other pimps were saying stuff and yelling at us (I didn’t care) he told them that “You guys need to quit, don’t be disrespecting the Lord” and that “Those guys are my friends, I’m going to church with them on Sunday.” !!!!!!! He said they shut up and were just tripping out, “What? Really?”

G is defininitely one of the top guys – he’s got brains and he can talk…they call him the “Mayor of Los Angeles” – I think that many of them are afraid of him. So can you imagine what it’s going to be like once he TOTALLY steps over the line and gives his life to Jesus?

At the church service, I spoke briefly about Friday nights outreach, just about the young girl I prayed with to receive Jesus, and about hanging out with the pimps – I kinda got emotional up when I was talking about how I really love the guys and how I believe that God has such a plan for their lives…

After church G said that he really liked what I said about the outreach and that he got “all choked up”…

We did our Sunday lunch at “Whole Foods” and G came with us – and then Sara (she’s been out of the prostitution ‘Game’ for over a year now) and she met us there. We were kind of in a hurry because the class was at 2pm and it was already close to 1:30 by the time we sat down to eat.

It was the first time Sara and G met, and although we didn’t have much time to talk we did talk about pimping and prostituting because he wanted to know more about the class – one thing he said was that “I never thought that pimping was sleezy until now.” (Praise God!!!) He decided to come to the class…

Well, it went really well – although I did feel a bit like I had to ‘censor’ a little at first when talking about the pimps – having one there. But as we went on – that feeling wore off. It was great because G was very interested in what people had to say – more importantly – he wanted to see what people’s attitudes were toward the pimps.

We also had Sara share her testimony with us – what a blessing! I cry everytime I hear her share her story. There weren’t too many ‘dry eyes’ in the class when she was shaing. I think it was really good for G to hear her story too.

Later, one woman asked how we ‘humanize’ the pimps and prostitutes – when she just sees them as “pimps and prostitutes”…that it was easier to see someone like Sara who’s right in front of her – but what about the girls on the street? I told her to think of Sara everytime she sees the girls on the street because many of their stories aren’t much different than Sara’s…

After the class G said that he really enjoyed it, and that next time he’d be willing to share too. He said that we make a good team – I said, “You’re gonna be a great part of the team too” and Daryl said, “You ARE part of the team!” He smiled. I think that G is staring to see what he can do and how he can help people once he gets out of pimping. He can be very instrumental in helping people get out of the game.

He did see that there were a couple of people in the class who seemed a little more interested in ‘STOPPING sex-trafficking’ and throwing pimps in jail and maybe even being more political about the issue because we aren’t political about it – we aren’t really trying to STOP prostitution and pimping as being our main focus. Of course, if we could stop prostitution that would be awesome, but in reality – no one is ever going to be able to stop it all together.

Our MAIN focus is introducing people to Jesus Christ and as a RESULT of knowing Him – they WILL stop pimping or prostituting. Because eternally speaking, what’s the sense of someone just stopping their pimping and prostituting when they’re still going to go to hell when they die? G he said that he really likes what we’re doing.

After we ate dinner we went to hear Charity speak and she was awesome – afterwards we went to say hi to she and her husband John, and we also saw some other friends that go to Mosaic. One of them was Troy – he came up and we started talking… he asked G how he knew us, and Jagg said, “We go to the same church” I told G that Troy was a DA (District Attorney) – and that made him raise his eyebrows. Troy shared some of the stuff he does and he is such a nice humble guy – he really has a servant’s heart and one can see that he wants to help people… (he helped us with our 501c3) – and he brought up a case about a 19 year old prostitute he worked with…

He said that he wished that there was a program for the girls who don’t have prior offenses and maybe since there’s a drug diversion program maybe there could be one for prostitutes…it was really cool cause G has a pretty harsh opinion of lawyers from the DA’s office. Anyway, after we left Mosaic, G said that “before, if someone said that they were from the DA’s I ‘d be like, ‘WHAT? You’re from the WHAT?’ (with an ugly look on his face) I usually hate those guys – but this guy was really cool, he wanted to help the girls instead of just putting them away…”

Anyway, this is another LONG one so I’ll end it here before it gets any longer. But before we dropped G off, he said, “Thank you so much for letting me hang out with you guys man – I had a blast. I love it, I can be myself.”

PRAISE GOD… he’s just gotta ‘step over the line…’ – next Sunday at church we’re having a guest speaker give his tesimony – he was a Muslim!!! Woohoo – can’t miss that! Pray that God speaks to G through this man’s testimony!!!

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