Awesome outreach last night…
So, last night we (me, Daryl, Fred, Sara and Julia) drove to the Long Beach (actually, it’s more like Lynwood/Compton) and when we got there, we first saw a bunch of cops, like four in a row – drive by us. That’s always a bad sign for us, because the cops scare everyone away.
It was funny, because before we left the house, I had made uo 10 gift bags for the girls – and when we were leaving, Daryl said, “Why don’t you only bring a few bags and leave some home?” Well, the last time he said that I left half of them at home – and we ran out of bags. So we decided to bring all the bags – better to have more than enough than not enough!
Usually, we don’t see but maybe 5-10 girls tops. But not last night! We saw three girls as soon as we got there. So we pulled over and parked down a side street and grabbed a few bags. It was really good, because Sara had gone out with a ministry from her church called “Treasures” – they go to strip clubs and hand out gift bags to the girls. Sara had a bunch of left over bags that she brought with her to hand out if we ran out of ours. (We did, and pretty quickly!)
When we got to the girls, one of them we knew – we’d seen her a few times – her name is J******. (That’s my daughters name!) Anyway, she has such a great smile and she seemed happy to see us. She took a bag and thanked us, and her two friends took bags too. We had also brought little ‘piggie’ (Ziggy, the adorable doggie we’re babysitting) and he was in his cute sweater. The girls thought he was cute – who wouldn’t! I think we looked SO NOT intimidating having piggie with us.
Then we saw a few girls across the street from us so Sara and Fred went back to the car to get more bags. While they were walking to the car – a car full of pimps pulled up to the girls across the street and a couple of them got out of the car and chased the girls across the street, yelling at them. Then when the girls came on our side of the street they drove across the street and one of them got out of the car so I ran up to him and gave him a pimp tract. He went by “Slick – something” – I can’t remember…
Anyway, then when Fred and Sara came back we walked across the street and talked to the other girls and gave them bags. Then another van full of pimps pulled up and the guy in the passenger seat started yelling at the girls the way they do…and I went to the drivers side of the van and introduced myself. His name was De Andre.
He was very nice…I asked him if he knew Jesus and he said, “Oh yes, He’s my Lord and Savior.” I said, “Then what are you doing pimping out here?” He said that he was just ‘protecting’ the girls, because a lot of them don’t even have a place to stay, they’re out there by choice – he’s just out there making sure that nothing happens to them. He said that he isn’t like a lot of the guys out there, he doesn’t hurt the girls, he even makes sure that they all know God. (Ya…)
But he was really a nice guy – and one of the girls came up to the car and gave him her gift bag and asked him to hold it for her, and he took them. Her name was “C****.” There was another girls that Sara was talking to and that girl was pregnant. 
After that we were walking back to the car when we ran into a girl who was standing by herself – and she looked so sad. I went and talked to her – she said she was only 17 and she went by “Y**”. She said that she didn’t want to prostitute much longer but even though she had a place to stay, she needed money to pay rent. My heart really went out to her, and I gave her my number and told her to call if she ever wanted to get out of that lifestyle. She said she would.
Then we ran into a girl that we ran into about six months ago – P****. Sara remembered her name – man – the girls is SO pretty. She’s got the prettiest green eyes. She let us pray for her again.
After we got in the car and were driving toward the freeway – we saw one woman by herself on a street conrner. We pulled over, and I still had one last bag left – I rolled down my window and called over to her and she came over to the car. She was quite a bit older than the other girls – her name was K***. She said that she has diabetes and she didn’t have a place to stay. I asked her if she’d ever heard about the Dream Center and she hadn’t, but I gave her my number and told her to call me if she ever wanted to get off the street. She thanked us.
We drove further, and we saw more girls!!! So we pulled over again and parked. This time there were a few girls and two of them said that they wanted prayer. So Sara, Julia and I prayed for them. One of the girls name was T******. I don’t think the other one gave us her name, or if she did I can’t recall it.
(This whole time, Daryl and Fred just stayed nearby interceding for us.)
The last girl we prayed for was a 29 year old woman named M****. It was a little awkward because M**** had on this low cut dress that was so low one of her breasts was literally completlly hanging out – one of the many reasons why we hesitate bringing too many guys out with us unless we feel that they are called to come out…I’m such a dork but by habit (well, I don’t know if that’s the right word – it’s not like I do this all the time, but I have done it quite a few times) I tried to pull her dress over her boob, to cover her up. Oh well, it didn’t work very well. The dress just wasn’t big enough.
Her story was pretty sad (they all are) but hers was sad because she was really deceiving herself… she said she’d only been prostituting for a few weeks – and that as soon ‘as she made enough money’ for her kids that she’d stop. (Yeah right – how many of us that have been in the sex industry have said the exact same words?!) Sara and I shared with her that we said that when we started and years later – we were still doing it…
We shared with her that the longer she does it, the harder it will be to stop…she said that she knows Jesus but she’d strayed away…we could tell that she was very convicted, and we told her that it was good that she was feeling that way – because she is still hearing God’s voice…but that she needed to listen – because the longer she resists and doesn’t listen – the harder it will be for her to hear Him.
She said that she was on probation and that no one wants to give her a job, and she made some other excuses – but Sara and I have used them all ourselves – and we tried to encourage her that if she really wanted a job and trusted God – that He would make a way for her to get a job. There are places that will hire her.
We asked her if we could pray for her. She was very hesitant, but she finally let us – but afterwards she looked visibly upset. I hope and pray that she will not be able to rest until she makes the decision to get out of that lifestyle.
Well, the night was pretty busy – oh yeah, while we were leaving, a car stopped in front of us and we saw De Andre walking across the street. Sara had these cool Hip Hop (Christian) magazines with some testimony’s in there and asked Daryl to give one to him – so Daryl rolled down his window and yelled, “De Andre!” and it was so funny because the guys eyes got so big as he walked over and Daryl gave him the magazine. De Andre breathed a sigh of relief and said, “GD! I thought you sounded like my parol officer!!!” It was funny.
It was an eventful night. God is moving…but it is as always, very difficult because most of these young people have no conviction for what they’re doing. It’s so sad.
Okay, sorry this is so long! Thank you so much for your prayers. Oh yeah – before I forget, please also pray for this guy named Tony – a pimp from Florida. We met him in Hollywood while we were getting gas. I gave him a pimp tract.
Praise God, He is good – to Him be all the glory!
