Laurie Ishii

Guidelines for Outreach – DO

• DO – Start with prayer and a clean heart. Ask for God’s direction in setting up divine appointments.
• DO – Pray for protection and covering for you, the team, co-workers, family members, ministry and the ministry’s reputation.
• DO – Take spiritual warfare very seriously. 2Cor.10:3-5
• DO – Pray for transformation of the area we chose to go to – bars, stores, managers and owners to establish good businesses which value human dignity, rather than for closing of businesses/streets.
• DO – Be sure you are motivated out of love for God and the broken and not seeking excitement, sensationalism, or public recognition.
• DO – Remember this is teamwork and all your choices and actions will affect the safety and effectiveness of the team and the ministry.
• DO – Stay with the team you are assigned to and follow the instructions of the leader.
• DO – Check with the team leader before offering any help to any sex workers or people you come in contact with who ask for help.
• DO – Be aware of your surroundings at all times.
• DO – Pay attention to the eyes and body language of potential trafficking victims/sex workers. If they are nervous, their pimp or a runner may be close by keeping an eye on them.
• DO – Respect both the sex workers and the pimps. If the pimps like you, they make it possible for you to talk with their girls.
• DO – Keep a friendly face and look comfortable.
• DO – If we do an outreach at a strip club, buy the woman you’d like to speak with a non-alcoholic drink. This keeps the management happy and puts the woman/worker at ease for taking time with you.
• DO – Bring enough money to pay for food or drink at business you are monitoring.
• DO – Respect the fact that the sex worker’s time is money. If she’s talking to a potential client, greet her but don’t steal her from the man or try to chase him away.
• DO – Speak respectfully to johns and/or pimps who engage in conversation unless they are angry, confrontational or intoxicated.
• DO – Listen openly and convey understanding for their choices and situation.
• DO – Write down information after leaving a conversation so you don’t forget their name, age, prayer requests so that the leaders can follow up.
• DO – Tell them that there is an alternative choice for them, after you understand their situation enough to sense if they are ready for a change. God, who created them, cares about their situation and did not plan this life circumstance for them but has a better one planned.
• DO – Ask the prostitutes (and/or pimps, johns) if they would like prayer and if they have any specific needs, family, children, etc. they’d like you to pray for.
• DO – Ask their permission, before taking their hand or putting your hand on their shoulder if you’d like to do so while praying.
• DO – Remember that the After Hours team ministers in the area regularly and you may only be here a very short time. Respect the future ministry of After Hours by staying within the guidelines and goals.
• DO – Leave the area with someone from the team if you feel very uncomfortable and feel like you are under attack. Contact the team leader immediately.
• DO – Be accountable and ask for prayer if you are troubled by something, become fearful, have strange thought patterns, or un-explained illness.
• DO – Be prepared for strange things to happen before outreach, for family quarrels, illnesses, stressful situations, tiredness and lack of motivation.
• DO – Recognize and be aware of the enemy’s schemes, pray for God’s will to be done and stand firm in Jesus’ righteousness.
• DO – Expect miracles. Every time we step onto the streets to share the love of Christ in word or deed it is a miracle. When we move in the Spirit amazing things do happen.
• DO – Know that is OK if you do not feel called or anointed for this ministry. Not everyone is called to do this part of the ministry. These are the front lines of battle on enemy territory. If God has called you, he will equip you.
• DO – Enjoy the time in God’s service. It is rewarding and while you will feel the pain of the evil and brokenness, you will also experience joy in God’s presence.
• DO – Understand that there are many things that you may or may not see or experience on the street/track – such as partly nude women, violence, shooting, gang members confronting you, or if you’re a female -pimps or johns staring at or trying to recruit you, bodily harm to you or those around you, and in the worst case scenario, death.
• DO – Count the cost, take up your cross… Luke 14:25-33

Guidelines for Outreach – DON’T

• DON’T – Participate in outreach with knowledge of un-confessed sin, bitterness and un-forgiveness.
• DON’T – Rush through prayer to get out on the street.
• DON’T – Pray in your own understanding for things to happen without awareness of the consequences spiritually and physically.
• DON’T – Pray for establishments or streets/tracks to be shut down. The victims would just go elsewhere out of our ministry reach. Pray for transformation.
• DON’T – Rely on your own wisdom, knowledge, experience or goals.
• DON’T – Be a lone ranger, act independently, or set unrealistic goals.
• DON’T – Get caught up talking with team members while on outreach. Keep tuned in to the Spirit and be aware of your surroundings. Be in a spirit of prayer.
• DON’T– Try to skirt management if we go to a club or bar. This is disrespectful.
• DON’T– “Chase” after a girl if she doesn’t seem interested in talking to you.
• DON’T – Look paranoid or shocked by what you see. This can make people feel ashamed and not trusting of you.
• DON’T – Act as if you know what a person is going through when you don’t. People on the street can see right through a person who isn’t real.
• DON’T – Get so caught up in the outreach that you lose focus of where you are and what is going on around you.
• DON’T – Get caught up in feelings of anger or judgment. Your energy will be used up and you will not be able to truly love the people we encounter.
• DON’T – Try to offer quick advice or solutions.
• DON’T – Preach at them or tell them what they are doing is wrong. They know.
• DON’T – Go into this without some understanding of the potential factors behind the women’s entrance into the sex industry.
• DON’T – Take photos unless you have spoken with the team leader. This puts the team at risk.
• DON’T – Put the information we collect on any website or printed document.
• DON’T – Publish the full name of team members.
• DON’T – Publish the names of locations where sex workers are contacted.
• DON’T – Compare ministries. God gives different calls and methods to different people.
• DON’T – Go unless you’re motives are pure. You are here to obey God and see His will be done.
• DON’T – Expect that without knowledge of the culture, language, experience, and time spent in building a foundation, that you will “Save” someone or make a significant difference in a short time. The ministry spends a lot of time in building relationships of trust through which God works to bring fruit. God may use you to begin a relationship or be a bridge of contact, but prayer is where you can be most valuable to the team and ministry goals.
• DON’T – Be afraid. You will see and sometimes experience the tangible evil of the spirit world. God is greater and when we are under His covering we are safe.
• DON’T – Disobey the prompting of the Holy Spirit for any reason.
• DON’T – Be a distraction to ministry goals by drawing attention to yourself or interrupting ministry at work.
• DON’T – Clump around one person who is being ministered to. This can scare them off. Stand back and pray for them and the team member who is ministering. Cover them with prayer and be aware of the surroundings.
• DON’T – (EVER) Angrily confront the pimps or johns. Pray for them. They need God too. Unless you can GENUINELY demonstrate Christ’s love to them, don’t even interact with them at all. Leave that up to the team leaders.
• DON’T – Give any of your own contact information to the men involved in the sex industry. You may give a “pimp tract” to the pimps and/or a matchbook or a testimony tract – as well as give testimony tracts or matchbooks to the johns after getting an okay from a team leader.
• DON’T – Talk loudly.
• DON’T – Forget to pray for cleansing to cut off any spirits from following you home.
• DON’T – Forget to pray for the After Hours team as we continue to minister in the area on a regular basis.

MANDATORY before coming out with After Hours – “Reaching Pimps and Prostitutes” class the last Sunday of each month at Reality LA office in Hollywood. For more information contact Laurie at through this website. (Contact)
Note: I was very blessed to have the help from NightLight Ministry to use their DO’s and DON’Ts list to edit and make up our own that would best fit our outreach.