It the first and only time I have walked into a strip club; I was 19.
I didn't go for typical reasons, but I do hope that I can go back one day.
Going into my senior year of high school, The Lord put a heavy weight on my heart for the men, women, and children caught in sex trafficking around the world.
As the fire in my heart burned deeper for slave’s rescue and restoration, The Lord continued to open my eyes to the broken sex industry as a whole. I know this is kind of a scary topic to talk about, but it’s something that's consuming our world, and ignoring it is not going to help.
I soon learned how trafficking can be found in the form of strip clubs and exotic dancing. These are sometimes women who feel trapped too, although in different ways.
Being only a teenager, I always asked the Lord why THIS was the topic on my heart. Why couldn’t I want to save the whales or help sick puppies? Why did the Lord make my heart hurt for sex trafficking victims, traffickers, pimps, club owners, AND strippers?
But there I was. You can't choose what you're passionate about; you can only discover it, then stick to it. Once I was in college, I found out about ministries called Strip Church and Jesus Said Love, who are intentional about seeking out women who work in strip clubs to show them the love and worth they deserve with no strings attached. So I thought, hey, maybe I can do that too.
My friends were AMAZING and supportive and told me instantly that if I wanted to go deliver gifts of love to local strippers, they were all in. We prayed about which club to go to and the Lord opened an opportunity for us to visit the first time I called the club owner. So we made 50 full, homemade dinners, bought gift bags, wrote notes, and drove to the strip club at their popular night hours.
If I’m being honest, I was so nervous to go in. We were four college girls who had no experience doing this. It was an environment that I never anticipated going into, but my friends and I prayed that the Holy Spirit would go with us so that the club owner, bouncers, door girls, and dancers could see love within us.
That night, we talked to the club owner about going to the movies and couponing at the grocery store. We talked about how to save money and what local churches we all attended. My friends and I spoke with the club “mom” that shared the need of the workers there. We were able to see the brokenness of young girls and mothers dancing in the club that couldn’t afford things like food or soap. We saw that some of these women wanted to get out, but were too attached, dependent even, to that kind of business. They just needed people to love them, be there for them, and believe in them. We saw that these people (plus and minus a few things) were normal, broken people just like us.
There’s a simple quote by JSL that I love that says, “The kingdom smells like cigarettes and perfume.” That’s what the strip club smelt like that night, but I also think there’s a part of Jesus that wants Heaven to smell like that too.
I think Jesus wants an array of smells, looks, talents, and sins to show up that day in Heaven so He can prove that no matter where we once were, His love got through to each one of us. We have the incredible opportunity to reach out to people like this, to help the marginalized, and let them know that they’re accepted, loved and freed. This is the goal of the gospel.
