I realize it has been a while since I have let you know about outreach on the streets - that is because we have taken a break for quite some time now. Someday I hope to fill you in on all that has been happening in these last few months - things have been crazy, but God has been working and He is faithful!
This last week though we went out on the streets of Hollywood again!! It felt so good to be back out there. We met up at 2:30am - the only people who were out at that time were street people, a few druggies and all the club goers on their way home. It was Laurie, a new guy named Andy and myself. We stopped at 7/11 to get coffee (obviously...although they did NOT have my blueberry!) and prayed in the car. Then we drove up and down the track for a while to scope things out and observe to see when the girls would start coming out. Once we saw a few we parked the car to get out and walk the strip.
A little after parking the car, a young lady came walking by. Laurie got out of the car with a gift bag and introduced myself. She asked her if she could give her a gift bag and she said "for what?" Laueir told her "because you are special" and she said, "who's this from?" and Laurie replied, "Jesus." The girl looked more than a little confused. She was also very wary of her surroundings checking over her shoulder looking all over the place so Laurie just told her that we didn't want her to get in trouble and to be careful out there.
In just a matter of minutes after that 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 a quick hello. There were probably at least 10-15 girls out - if not more. The last two girls we spoke with declined prayer but one ("BD") said laughingly, "Please pray that I make a million dollars so I don't have to do this no more..." The other one "C" said we had met before. For the life of me I don't remember - and I think I'd remember those EYES. But I'll remember from now on. So young, so beautiful.
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 one black and white squad car and then an undercover officer talking in a parking lot. We knew that the night was over, at least for us. It is nice to be able to do ministry in Hollywood now rather than driving to Compton. Things are ever changing in this game and in this city...but the need for the commodity never changes. We will continue to build relationships with these girls - they were all unfamiliar "new" faces. Young faces.
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!!!!
Well, I’m back again. Its been a while since I told you about outreach here in the L.A. area. A lot went on in the last couple of months (like trips to Nepal with my dad) that have slowed down my involvement with outreach – but I’m back at it now.
It has been pretty slow lately, the last time I was in Compton (two or three weeks ago) it was really strange. There were not many girls out (but lots of cops) and the girls I did run into were not real talkative. Even D**** who is usually real friendly with me and we tend to have good conversations was pretty standoffish.
So, last night it was Laurie, Daryl and myself. We met at 2am at the office to build bags. We stopped at the 7-11 first to get some of that blueberry coffee though – I am really starting to love that stuff! When we were there we saw a couple of cops and asked them about the activity they’ve seen in Hollywood lately. They said its been pretty dead and directed us to the transvestite area (but told us we’d find girls there…not so). Then we headed to the office and made up some lovely valentines bags.
We headed off and spent some time driving up and down the strip trying to feel out the situation in Hollywood. It was pretty dead so we headed to the Valley. When we first got there we saw S*** right away. When we pulled over to talk with her she was bolting as fast as she could to hide behind a large van. It seemed to us she was trying to get away from this large SUV that had started to pull down the road, but when we talked with her she told us she was running from the cops (we didn’t see any anywhere close to there so I don’t know what she thought she had seen). She wasn’t really interested in talking much but thanked us for the bag and assured us she prayed each night before heading out to the street and she would be careful. We drove around for a while longer but it was pretty dead so we headed back to Hollywood.
We drove around there for a while longer and still didn’t see anyone so we deiced to call it a night. On our way back to the office we passed another girl on a street corner that was all hopped up on something. She was not doing well. She fell off the sidewalk onto the street as we drove past and then just started stumbling down the middle of the street as she tried to flag down different cars. We made the loop a couple of times to try and meet up with her and then talk with her but she was so far gone and stumbling in every direction we knew nothing we said to her would be remembered.
So things have been pretty low-key or dead around here as of late. That doesn’t mean things are getting better, it just means the pimps are moving the girls around. I am sure they’ve been taking lots of them to Vegas. They can also use other means (newspapers, pamphlets, telephone) to get the girls out. Laurie says this is not completely unusual for this time of year. Between November and February each year it tends to slow down because things can get really charged during political elections so the cops tend to really crack down even more.
So, we’ll see. We’ll just keep getting out there.
Last night was another great night out in Compton (Lynwood). It was Daryl, Laurie, Ty, Sarah, Naomie and myself. It was really really cold so I was uncertain of how many girls we were actually going to see. By the end of the night we were able to meet up with 7 different girls, some guys and a couple cops. They were all out pretty early and then everyone disappeared so we got out of there around 5:00a.
Right when we got there, Sarah and I saw several girls across the street so we ran over to chat with them. One beautiful young girl named T said she would love a gift bag and then said, “are you handing our prayers tonight”? OF COURSE! While we were talking to her two other women came up. We gave them bags and asked if they wanted to join us in praying. They didn’t want to share their names but God knows their name. The five of us huddled up and prayed together for protection, peace and provision.
As Sarah and I crossed the street again we came across a 17-year old girl named M. She told us she has only been on the street for ONE WEEK! Of course we were curious what drove her to this and why she was out here, “I ain’t got nobody but myself and the street right now. I just gotta make a way.” It is so difficult when you run into girls time and time again with such a lack of options – or what they feel is a lack of options. It is wonderful to be able to enter in and provide some resources should they choose to take them. We chatted with her a bit more about being out there and her pimp. She talked to us about one pimp L that we have actually met before that is crazy. He will just pull over on the side of the road get out and yell or grab the girls. She was pretty surprised we had talked with him before “was he pimpin’ you?” No, we just had a nice conversation when he was pulled over to the side of the road. We didn’t see him last night – but will keep our eyes open in the next couple of weeks. M didn’t want a bag but said she would like some prayer so the three of us huddled up and prayed for M to find the provision she needs to be able to stop doing this. That God would bring some people into her life that could speak wisdom into her, provide for her and truly love her.
Pretty soon after our conversation with M some cops pulled up next to us, “what’s going on here?” I guess it is pretty strange to see a group just walking around at 3:30 in the morning. Laurie was the one to go over to the car and talk to the two officers about why we were out here. One of them ended up being a Christian as well so started letting us know where the transvestites were as well as some of the pimps and what kind of car they drive. After about a 10 min. conversation they went on their way and we began out walk down the street.
We split up into two groups since there were six of us. Daryl, Sarah and I crossed the street again to see what girls we might run into. Not too far down the street we caught up with T and Tt. T I had seen several weeks ago but had not been out lately. She told us she has been in jail for the last couple of weeks and could really use some prayer. “I guess prayer doesn’t keep you out of jail. But while I was there I decided I needed to go to church so I just went ANYWHERE and after I went I got out the next day.” It was good to catch up with her a bit and be able to pray for her. Tt didn’t want a bag either but chatted with us a bit about why we were out there. “You all rollin’ 6 deep – I bet there are even more of you we don’t see!”
After that we waked around for a little while longer and after seeing no girls decided to hop in the car and drive down the strip. We didn’t see anymore girls out – everyone had disappeared – so we decided to head back to Hollywood.
Although we did not run into too many girls it was still a great night out. I love seeing the same girls week after week and continuing to build that foundation they need to truly trust you and talk to you about where they are at. Just two weeks ago (which I forgot to every write about) I ran into P again. As soon as she saw me she said, “There’s my girl! How you been?” I gave her a big hug and asked how she had been the last week. She then proceeded to tell me her real name rather than her street name and we had a great time of catching up.
God’s moving – sometimes slower than I would like – but I am so thankful he lets me be a small part of it!
I went on outreach with Pimps and Prostitutes again this weekend– and it was great…again. Laurie always does such great write-up’s of our evenings out. I should just copy and paste her summaries…I practically do that anyway…but I do make a few changes, add some of my thoughts – put in some thoughts from my point of view. So, here’s the happenings of this weekend ☺
This weekend it was just myself, Ty, Daryl and Laurie. The evening started out with a stop at the 7-11 for some coffee…and I got BLUEBERRY! That’s right. I didn’t even know they made blueberry coffee but they do. Laurie and I both got it and it was actually goooood!
We went to Compton again - and when we got there, we once again saw several cops patrolling (never a good sign for outreach) so the streets were pretty barren. As we pulled over we saw one highway patrol car pulled over talking to girl on a street corner. Once they had finished talking the girl disappeared down the street.
We parked anyway, grabbed some gift bags and started down the street...right away we saw two girls. Laurie and I walked up to chat with them - their names were 'P' and 'A'. A said she'd been prostituting for about 2 years – she didn’t have a pimp because she has a 10 year old son at home and can’t afford to have any of her money going to a dude. She ran into some 'bad times' a couple years back so she moved out her to LA and started prostituting. A is beautiful!!
P asked us what church we were from – I told her that we weren’t really out here representing any particular church but that I go to Ecclesia. She then proceeded to say, "You go to church and you have a piercing?" pointing at my nose ring. I laughed and proceeded to tell her about my tattoos and the fact that Laurie had even more piercings and tattoos then I have!! P seemed surprised. As Laurie said, I wish we would have had more of an opportunity to share the difference between religion and relationship but the girls were in a hurry to leave after one of them got a phone call. They thanked us for the purses and goodies we gave them.
After walking down the street a bit more Laurie began to turn a corner and I could not figure out why but then we saw another girl…sometimes I was so BAD at spotting people late at night ☺ “D” was hesitant to take anything from us or really talk to us much - and then her pimp drove by us and she said, "Oh no - my daddy just drove by - he's gonna kick my ass." She said that she had to go - and we let her go - and just prayed after she left - that her pimp wouldn't harm her. I am going to be honest that it still really frustrates me and I don’t really get it why pimps won’t let their girls talk to other people on the street. I mean…I guess when I really think about it the whole reason we are out there is to give these girls a way OUT – so I guess the pimps would not really want them talking to us. But that just seems so oppressive and constraining. It really frustrates me.
We got back in the car and decided to drive up and down the strip a bit more trying to see if we could find any more girls. After driving only a little while I spotted Y – the 17-year-old girl I told you about last time! So we pulled over and parked. We went to talk to Y and another girl but hardly got a few words out before a black SUV with nice rims turned the corner, parked and two guys got out. By the looks of it - Laurie assumed that the guys were pimps (I am still so new at this, I had no clue! – I could just tell that Y and her friend were NOT excited to see them!) As they got closer, however, Laurie thought they might be gangbangers…She got excited – she has a real heart for gangbangers. So we went across the street – partly because we wanted to talk to these guys and find out what they were all about, but also because we wanted to intercept (distract) them before they started meeting with Y and her friend who were now trying to dart across traffic in their heels to get away from them.
Laurie and I went over and began talking to them. The rest of our evening pretty much was spent talking to them. It was actually a pretty hilarious scene. “J” as he called himself and Laurie were comparing gunshot scars. J kept insisting that he believed in “God, Jesus Christ and the virgin Mary and prayed to them in the shower, driving, taking a shit, all the time – you don’t even know” J was pretty drunk and kept repeating himself. He also could not figure out why we were out there. He kept “hugging” Daryl which later Daryl said that he thinks that he was just patting them down - to make sure they weren't cops or something. Daryl said that he felt the small of Daryl's back and sides looking for a gun or something…
He kept asking us "Are you for real, homie? Are you for real?" He asked that probably 172893719874328170348 times. He ended up bringing Laurie $20 from his car and saying he wanted to donate that to the ministry for Bibles or whatever they needed it for. "No man - I want to give you guys this - because - are you guys for real, man? Because I mean, you guys are coming out here, to Compton - risking your lives – nobody does that - you're coming out here for nothing - I mean, not for nothing - but man - you guys are real, huh?" Haah! He said that he was being a hypocrite right then cause he was about to go and get even more drunk and he did not live a very Christian lifestyle but he thought was we were doing was great.
He finally let Laurie pray for him after a while. Afterwards he began commenting, "You guys are for real, huh - man - I need someone to check on me - to call me and talk to me..." Laurie gave him her number and after MANY tries, got his number - he was so drunk he couldn't get his number right - finally I grabbed his phone and got the number and then entered Laurie’s into his.
The rest of our time in Compton was pretty much spent with these two guys with the exception of one girl “J” that I got to talk to for just a brief moment. I saw her so I ran across the street with a couple of bags to see if she wanted one. She was hesitant to take one and in the end refused. She said she has only been prostituting for two WEEKS. Didn’t really have a good reason why and was pretty apathetic about the whole thing.
I really love doing this outreach – but it is also very difficult. It is tough having to meet up with the same girls week after week and not be able to take them out of these situations. But God is faithful – and I believe that these women need to know pure unconditional human love before they will be able to experience or truly know the love of the divine.
Often in seminary I struggle with the tension of being “wasted space.” I get frustrated with learning and become anxious to being DOING. That is, after all, the whole reason I am in seminary. So being able to find this organization has been a blessing – being able to participate in the ministry to which God has fueled my heart. It is not easy outreach, but I love it.
Just a couple weeks ago we decided to go out to the Compton area – when we first got there we saw about four cop cars driving down the main strip which we took as a bad sign…we would not find many girls out. Boy were we wrong in our first assumption that they would not be out because of the cop cars!! It turns out there was a drug bust going on at one end of town so all the girls were down at the opposite end. We probably ran into around 20 girls that night.
Right as we got out of the car and began to walk down the street we ran into a girl J. When she saw me she immediately said “Nope, I don’t need no prayer tonight!” It is funny that they know exactly why we are there – have seen us before – and are open to talking with us. I asked her if she just wanted a gift bag…”alright, I could do a little prayer with a gift bag” she responds. Several girls we ran into that night seemed very glad to see us “Just tonight I felt Jesus saying I best stop running away from him and then YOU show up – I need prayer tonight!” What a gift to step into the midst of their life, in the midst of this work to pray for them and love on them. These women are BEAUTIFUL and articulate and funny and intelligent. It is frustrating to see them turning tricks when I know they were made for so much more.
As we were talking to several of the girls a few pimps drove up. They didn’t seem the real friendly type – one was named “silky fresh”….nice…and the girls literally ran across the street in their stiletto heels to get away from him. He was not real open to talking with us…but there was another van full of pimps that Laurie was able to have a conversation with. It is always interesting to get the different pimps perspectives, most believe they are doing the girls a favor by being their pimp – that they are out there protecting them.
What I find interesting is that most of the pimps or prostitutes you speak to will tell you that they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ “this is just something I have to do right now – I ain’t going to be in it for long – just real quick to make some cash then I am out!” But you hear this story over and over again, they all intend to get out but they all get trapped. One particular girl we met named M was 29 years old and had only been doing this for two weeks. She was really deceiving herself...she had convinced herself that as soon as she made enough money for her kids she'd stop. She said she could not get a real job because she was on probation and no one would give her one. We talked with her for a while and even prayed with her but the whole time she seemed very uncomfortable and resistant.
It was a very eventful night. God is moving...but it is difficult because most of these young people have no conviction for what they're doing or have deceived themselves into thinking it is ok.
There was a 17 year old girl we ran into that night named Y who ended up calling Laurie later in the week. Laurie talked with her for a while about her work as a prostitute, about Jesus and about her pimp. She lives with her pimp not her parents, and is aloud to leave the house. Laurie said she got the impression that Y was not with the pimp by choice, but more by force or lack of options…we are not really sure. Laurie asked her if her pimp abuses her and she gave a nervous laugh and a breeze over answer.
Laurie ended up asking her if she wanted to get out of prostitution and she said she was not ready yet but would keep Laurie’s number. Laurie wrote about this in an email she sent out and I think her email beautifully articulates the tension we so often run into with this sort of outreach…
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So... all I can do is pray for her and pray that she'll have the guts to get out and away from her pimp sometime soon. I hope so. I hope that we will see her again when we're out on the street. If we do, I want to ask her if she wants us to take her off the street,
right then and there. She's a minor - her 18th birthday is in April of next year. Maybe Children of the Night could take her... I don't know. All I know is that if she wants to get out of there, I want to be able to get her out.
How does something like this work? I mean - we can't take her to a program like the Dream Center unless we get her parents permission - and we ourselves could get in trouble for keeping a minor... sheesh. I don't want the cops to pick her up either, or have her get taken to a home where things may be just as bad if not worse than where she is now. Or if she ends up back with her pimp if we take her somewhere where they can't help her or where she ends up leaving and she goes back to him - the consequences could be fatal.
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What are the ethics in this situation? How far is too far? Doesn’t someone like Y deserve to be helped…even if she is a minor? Why is social justice, love for the oppressed, and care for others so gray?