We started at around 2:30am - the only people who were out at that time were street people and club goers on their way home. It was Julia, Andy and myself (Laurie). We stopped at 7/11 to get coffee and prayed in the car. Then we drove up and down the track to see if the girls were out yet. First we saw one, then a couple blocks later - another. We decided to park the car and walk.
A little after parking the car, a young lady came walking by. I got out of the car with a gift bag and introduced myself. I asked her if I could give her a gift bag and she said "for what?" I told her "because you are special" and she said, "who's this from?" and I said, "Jesus." She looked a little confused and she was also very sketchy looking all over the place so I just told her that I didn't want her to get in trouble and to be careful.
Then Julia and Andy got out of the car and the three of us walked down the street and the girls started coming out from the darkness. First we ran into two, then another two - then another five! We were only able to talk to two out of the five but were able to give both of them bags and bag to another girl walking by. All together we gave away 8 bags. There were probably at least 10-15 girls out - if not more. The last two girls we spoke with declined prayer but one said laughingly, "Please pray that I make a million dollars so I don't have to do this no more..."
Then a car pulled up and another girl got out, warning the other girls, "Five O! (Police) Five O down the street!" and the girls all scattered like cockroaches when a light turns on.
When we started walking back to the car we saw a black and white squad car and an undercover officer talking in a parking lot. We knew that the night was over, at least for us. We will continue to build relationships with these girls - they were all unfamiliar "new" faces. Young faces.
Please continue to pray for a woman who got hit and dragged by a car yesterday:
Anyway, we still need things for the girls gift bags!!!
If any of you are interested in donating things for the bags, we ask that you buy a number (like 10 or 20) of the same thing (for example, if you see hair ties at the 99 Cents store) buy 10-20 of the same hair ties in different colors because the girls we meet many times come from the same "family" - so we try to put the same things and the same number of things in each bag so that the girls get the same or similar things. We also try to vary the "theme" of each bag each time we go out. Having 10-20 of the same thing also makes it easier for those of us putting the bags together! :-)
Thanks so much!!!!