HJMac

Second Visit to Strip Clubs

I work with a ministry that is taking unconditional love to the ladies that work in the Las Vegas Strip Clubs. Here’s the synopsis of how last night went. Amazing!

Last night we made another trip to the strip. Everyone was really excited to go back, and we even had a new gal tagging along!

The first club was a repeat from the time before. Originally we had only been able to the get as far as the house mom who promised to take our gifts to the girls. Hoping to get a little further this time, we each arrived with a case of water (mom at different club told us that clubs don’t always supply girls with water). Although they were a little confused about our motives, the bouncers took us right to the dressing room!! There we were greeted by a super-friendly house mom, “L”, who was delighted to see us! Eventually we met “K”, who was going off shift. She chatted with us for quite a while. “K” seemed bewildered by our presence and kept pressing us about why we were really there. After a great conversation with her about love and acceptance, it was time to go. “L” saw us out and said we were welcome back anytime! She even introduced us to the back door manager and told us not to worry with the bouncers out front anymore! Things couldn’t have got smoother and we had high hopes for club #2!

We had a lengthy list of clubs to hit next, planning to work our way through it until one of them let us in. Rach and I were in the back, each carrying on about places we saw last time, but didn’t know the names, or where they were exactly.  As we passed a dimly lit club with only a few cars in the lot, we both hollered, then realizing we had been talking about the same place! We gathered our Sephora gifts and a case of water and made our way to the door. It was different. You couldn’t hear the music from outside like before and it looked like they might be closed, except for the flashing “Open” sign in the window. When we reached their manager, he introduced himself, shook our hands, and tried to carry  things for us. Guess he didn’t get the memo that he’s supposed to be intimidating and hard to get along with. I think he thought we were trying to sell something, but he let us back anyway.

All five of the girls were lined up at the counter getting dolled-up for work. We told them we had gifts and water, with no strings attached. I could hear one of them murmuring about the Christians that were there to preach to them. Undeterred, we broke the ice with talk of hair and make-up, whatever/whenever you guys need…..etc. Once someone opened the Sephora bag, they spent the rest of our visit digging through it. What girl doesn’t love make-up, right? They all seemed at ease when they realized it wasn’t full of negative propaganda about their job. One of them said she was glad we weren’t Christians coming to condemn them. Phylicia quickly explained that we are Christians, but not there to preach or judge. Just for them. We would have stayed longer, but they had new customers and the manager was anxious for them to get back to work. On our way out, he told us that he still didn’t know what that was all about, but he was cool with it.

The four of us were beside ourselves! Two clubs we KNOW we can return to and begin to serve these girls! The rest of the night we brainstormed about the next step for each, how we can be available to them, and what they might need. God is blessing this ministry and we are blessed to do it! I pray for wisdom of witty ideas and more doors to be opened to us, literally.

• March 25, 2009, 2:19pm

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