I'll (Laurie) try to make this sweet and short (my notes/blogs are sweet maybe, but never short lol).
Jen came over early and helped make up some gift bags. Julia got to our place a bit before 10pm; we loaded the car up and headed for 7-Eleven to get some coffee. :-) Then we prayed... we prayed for divine appointments, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, protection, spiritual gifts, etc. Geared up with the whole armor of God, we jumped on the freeway.
When we got on the track, it wasn't too long before we saw an older prostitute on the east side of the street. Across the street was another, younger girl. Julia parked and she and Daryl headed south, while Jen and I headed north. I made an attempt to talk to the younger prostitute - and she was obviously scared... there was a runner (or pimp in training) who whistled at her, watching from across the street. Daryl and Julia went to go and talk to the runner, while Jen and I went to talk to the older prostitute.
Her name was M******. She must have been in her late 30's or 40's (it's hard to tell sometimes, black people age very well, just like us Asians lol). It was obvious that she had been through some stuff and was a drug addict... it is so sad because I heard this saying and it is so true... "First a girls does drugs to be able to prostitute, later a girl prostitutes so she will be able to do drugs..." This was the case for this woman. When we approached her, I asked her if she was cold (I was, but then I always am) and she said "no" (she had on a spaghetti strap dress/top). She did let us pray for her and although she was pretty distracted, she grabbed her jacket afterward and said that she was going to wear it, thanked us and walked away.
Jen and I met up with Julia and Daryl who was praying for Maurice - a nice looking 23 year old young man. Daryl had a word of knowledge and said that he saw Maurice doing some electrical work - and asked him if he had any interest in that... and Maurice shared laughed and said that he'd actually been to school for it and had even done some work on a building across the street. Daryl encouraged him to keep on striving for that, he felt the Lord really had something for him in that trade. Maurice thanked Daryl and called him "sir" and us women "maam."
We got into the car and drove some more. We saw another girl, who called herself "Lovely" - it was so sad, she said that she was 22, but she looked so young... and she looked so unhealthy... she looked sad too. She said that she was hustling and she also asked if we had any money - I told her that we didn't have any money to give her but that we wanted to give her a gift bag. She was surprised and said that she couldn't pay for it - and we told her that we were just giving it to her. She thanked us... I asked her if she had a pimp and she said no, just a "boyfriend" (that would be her pimp). She looked SO SAD!!! She said that she wanted to get out of the life but that she needed money... I asked if we could pray for her and she said to pray for her later (when she was gone)... she just looked so sad...
We drove around some more and saw a girl and John pulled over by the police. We watched as the cops let the John go and then talked to the girl for a pretty long time. We waited for a while and then decided to drive some more and come back - it's great when we can talk to a girl right after the cops just cut her loose, especially if she's shaken up a bit.
By the time we came back to see if they were still there, the cops and the girl were gone. But then we saw two more girls. Jen and I got out of the car and talked to another girl named K*****, 23 years old. She said that she didn't have a pimp, that she worked alone. When I asked her if we could pray for her, she said that she didn't want to get emotional. I told her that my number was on the matchbook in the bag we gave her and asked for her number, for her to call me if she ever wanted prayer.
Ran into another older woman with a glass eye, named A**** - she admitted that she was working and she thanked us for the gift bag.
Drove around some more, saw another girl who we discovered on closer examination was a young man (he looked pretty good though) and we were able to talk to him a bit and by the time Julia dropped us off at home, he called to find out more about what we do. He had said that his cousin had been murdered by the "Grim Sleeper" (serial killer) a few years back...
The last girl we talked to was talking to a John - who ended up driving away. When she saw Jen and I she was obviously scared - I was able to give her a gift bag and that was about it - a car slowed down and two guys were in it. They said something and then kept driving - then a black car flashed it's headlights at us a couple of times... I think it may have been the girls pimp and he was trying to let her know that he didn't want her to talk to us, so we left. No sooner had we walked away then the cops swooped - not on us (although I wished they had - we could've given them our tracts and told them about the ministry) but they seemed to stop to get the girl (and hopefully, her pimp). She was scared. Her eyes showed fear.
Anyway, we left after that. I could have gone all night if I didn't have to pee and if we weren't all pretty sleepy. All in all, it was a pretty fruitful night! Praise Jesus! :-) It's crazy cause I had never met any of these girls before - there must be SO MANY prostitutes working out there - it is SO RARE that I have met the same girl more than twice - over a five year period. SAD!!!
Please pray for these women, our hearts are broken for them and Jesus' so much more!