I (Laurie) want to write this all out before I forget - not feeling well all day yesterday then remembered outreach at night. (Never feel good the day of outreach) Didn't get to sleep before the outreach except for maybe 1/2 hour - got a text from a woman who had said that she wanted to go on outreach days previous and when I text to tell her when and what time to show up she text me like an hour 1/2 before outreach and said she wasn't coming. In my half asleep/dazed state I thought that the text was from Jen, my ride - so I text her "Kind of glad you canceled, don't feel well" then changed, washed my face and was getting back into the bed when I realized the text was not from Jen. I got back up, changed and got ready to leave just in time. I text the other woman and told her of my mistake and said that with all the crazy stuff happening all day the enemy must not want us to go out so now I was going and excited about it.
Jen picked me up and we went to 7-Eleven to get coffee and something to eat (when I don't sleep I seem to get HUNGRY to compensate) and when I paid for my food the guy at the register gave me $5.00 change back from my debit card... I had noticed that 2 cups of coffee and some sushi (yes, sushi) was over $11.00 and I was wondering why it was so expensive but he said I must have accidentally asked for $5.00? When we walked back to the car and this homeless guy named Gerry was asking for money and I asked Jesus if He had me get that extra five bucks out to give the homeless guy and I felt like He said yes and that we were supposed to go and talk to Gerry. We got out of the car and started talking to Gerry, long story short, ended up giving him the money and praying with him...
As we were praying/talking with Gerry an unmarked car of three police officers pulled up and went into 7-Eleven. We waited for them to come out so we could ask them if they knew where the hookers were since they were scaring them all away... they asked us if we wanted to see a tourist attraction lol and we said no and explained why we were out there. Well it was cool cause they did tell us a couple of new areas and asked for our contact info and told us to be careful. Awesome.
We went back in the car and started to pray that Jesus would show us where to go, where the girls were etc. and saw a pimp SUV, black Escalade with bling bling rims pull into the 7-Eleven parking lot. We had seen a girl earlier walking around and she didn't look "typical" of the girls out there but when the pimps pulled out of the parking lot, we followed them. They were following the girl! We saw them stop and one of them got out of the car - the Escalade drove away... Jen and I parked and got out of the car to follow the girl... the pimp (runner - young guy) was walking toward us and I introduced myself and gave him a pimp tract... he said his name was "Michael"...
Jen and I almost ran to catch up to the girl and when we finally did, we introduced ourselves and just asked straight out how long she'd been out there and she was pretty shaken up - earlier a trick had robbed her with a sawed off shot gun and took all her money - her pimp got in a car accident and couldn't pick her up, then those guys in the SUV were harassing her, trying to break her... long story short we asked her if there was anything we could do to help her or if she needed a ride and she said she did... she was not too far away so we took her to where she wanted to go (we thought we were taking her home but she actually took us to another track, yay!) and we were able to talk to her the entire time... she was pretty receptive because even though she was shaken up she still wasn't willing to give up the lifestyle... but it was great her name is H**** and she was a Jehovah's witness (did not have a relationship with Jesus)... we were able to pray for her and tell her that she could have a personal relationship with Him...
Okay (back track) while we were getting into the car to take H**** to where she wanted to get dropped off - "Michael" comes over and starts saying stuff about how H**** was this and that and that we were taking her away (the whole time he was talking he had this weird fake smile - honestly he looked like he had "visitors on board" if you know what I mean) and when I mentioned the name JESUS his whole smiley demeanor changed and he said, "Jesus is in all of us, even me" and that his real name was N****... he kept trying to stick his face in the car and I just said "God bless you goodbye..." (smile)
Well we arrived (in the ghetto) and as soon as we finished praying with H****, guess who pulled up? The Escalade/SUV. N**** was hanging outside the window and he yelled, "That's the Jehovah's witnesses that took that H****!" I turned around and said, "JEHOVAH's WITNESSES??????? Where did you get that from? We aren't Jehovah's Witnesses!!! We are born again Christians!!!" Then he said that he was a Baptist... I forgot the drivers name but he called us over and started asking us questions - he even asked me if I used to be a ho and I said yes and he was totally respectful (I know that sounds contradictory but seriously, I took no offense when he asked me if I used to be a ho cause he didn't say it in a demeaning tone or anything) and then he asked for one of my tracts and said "God bless, be careful out here" and left.
By this time there were pimps and girls everywhere, girls all over the street, pimps driving in their bling bling cars up and down the track flipping u-turns... Johns everywhere... ugh. Jen an I got out of the car and started handing out gift bags and one of the girl recognized us from another track we go to. One girl on a bike asked me if we were lost because we looked so out of place - another car full of pimps said, "Look at the couple of 'squares'" (people who aren't in the game).The cops came out (but didn't stop any of the girls - pulled over cars) - girls were running around down side streets and a helicopter was flying around - two tricks tried to get me and Jen's attention and I let them know that we weren't working and that we were out there for the girls and Jesus... there were literally cars and vans pulled over on the side streets (one van parked behind us - oh man I did not need the visual - ugh) and it was just a crazy immoral frenzy of perversion out there.
On the way home we ran across a VERY drunk guy in the middle of the street with his bicycle all bent in the street - we pulled over and I asked him if he needed help... he was SO DRUNK and I helped him get his bike out from the middle of the street...
Okay I'm fading fast and need some sleep... all in all the night was amazing, H**** and I exchanged numbers and she said that she was going to call me for sure (they all say that so we'll see) but I have her number too so I'll call her too... I LOVE IT when it's crazy like that on the streets. It's a rush. God is so faithful - He totally answered our prayers for divine appointments and He led us to where there were TONS of girls!!! I wish it was like that every night we go on outreach - these kinds of nights are what I live for... I mean this is what I LOVE!!! It was an amazing, awesome night!!! Praise Jesus!!!