Similar to our director, Carolyn's story of seeing a billboard for a strip club and asking the Lord to send someone to love those girls, and he calls her to be "that person", I have heard of "strip club ministry" and XXX Church. etc and thought, what a cool ministry for "someone" else to do! (surely not me!) Then I was introduced to my new friend Gia (our music guy at Waterline's wife) and shortly after we met, she became involved in Light in Darkness ministries, and again, I thought, what a great ministry for "someone" to be involved with. She asked us to join her prayer team, and I was thrilled to find what I thought would be my way to support this powerful ministry that "someone" should support and be involved with.
Recently, Gia and Carolyn have begun reaching into the church my husband and I planted, to see if there are women and even some men wanting to help bring light into these darkest of dark places in Indy, where Light in Darkness hasn't yet reached. I wanted to be a support, but wasn't planning to be the "someone" to go in and make a tangible "in person" difference!
Needless to say, within a couple of weeks of attending a training and informational meeting, God plopped me in the drivers seat of our mini van and I drove three friends to the east side of Indy to enter a strip club, called Babes with Gia and my friends Taylor and Mary Sue out in the van praying across the street and friends and family across several states praying for our mission and safety! I RARELY feel super intimidated or overly anxious or nervous, and I did great until the turn onto Pendleton Pike. I suddenly realized I'm driving myself to a strip club, going in, and have NO IDEA what is or isn't going to happen! I couldn't hardly breathe, and even offered the idea of joining our director Carolyn and her veteran strip club ministry friend, Ruth at the club they were going to, so we wouldn't have to be alone! Gia didn't seem to pick up on my "offer", so off we went, as Mary Sue so sweetly massaged my shoulders as I was driving giving me a very physical sense of support and strength! I have to say, my faith has often been tested in church planting, but nothing we've ever done in this three year journey, nor in my several trips overseas comes close to as daunting of a task as walking into a strip club, where very sad and sinful acts are taking place, and several known illegal activities are frequent. I'm from a very small farm town, I attended a safe Christian college, and I currently live in one of the lowest crime counties in the nation...walking into a strip club is really pushing me to live on faith! The unknown was so frightening. The feeling of being "under cover" is scary. The lingering thought of our group being asked to leave a back parking lot of a different club two weeks prior was giving me a spirit of fear and timidity.
In our prayer time, we talked about a spirit of power and focusing on the LIGHT, not the DARK...and so that's what I tried to do. I tried to tell myself, this is just a bar in Indy with some unique entertainment on the stage in the middle of the room. I followed Gia's lead through a heavy steel door, no windows, up to the money taker at the door, and on to a table in the middle of the room, where we ordered a diet coke and water. We paid for our drinks, sat quietly, felt uneasy, felt unsure, and it hit me, we cannot do this in our own power. I could go on and on about all of the unrealistic fears that crossed my mind, or on and on about the sad heartbreaking things we saw out of dancers, or the group of construction workers who came in the club and heated things up a bit, but instead, I would like to focus on where I saw God.
God was with this team from the initial forming. God is with those dancers, club owners, bartenders, and customers. God is there, God sees each tear, God sees each heart break, God sees each family at home of both dancers and customers. God sees these women walking in from Light in Darkness, God sees these prayers of support, God sees the teams who support Carolyn and her vision and HE IS GOING TO WORK AND MOVE, we just have to be faithful. I am being faithful to walk into dark and scary places to begin to lay a ground work to love these people, all of them, the believers and the unbelievers, the broken and those made whole, the hurting and the healed.Untrue to my natural self, I couldn't hardly speak to a soul inside the club. I froze up and was full of fear, but I still saw the Lord there, in that place. I saw him sitting at the table with Gia and I, and I felt Him through the prayers, texts, phone calls, and hugs of my prayer team, ministry team and friends. I feel God leading me, the small town girl, sheltered pastors wife, to bring support and love to this ministry, to these beautiful lives inside these doors of very abnormal gathering grounds of "Christian ladies". The brokenness and pain in their lives is huge and is real. We have to go be the light of the Lord and the tangible hands and feet of Christ to these broken people in these dark, dark places.I'm looking forward to seeing another club or two and watching the Lord's plan unfold among these businesses, and hurting souls. As I got home and laid in bed with my husband and son, I felt very strong and empowered for facing a huge fear and taking a big risk for the Lord. On the other side of it, I am grateful for a ministry that seeks to tangibly love, support and pray for these people whom I personally, would likely never meet outside these doors. It wasn't quite as scary as I thought it might be, it was more heartbreaking than I expected, and I'm convinced, this is a great way to spend a few hours, loving the least of these.My God is a STRONG GOD, Mighty, and He is with us, WHEREVER HE TAKES US!!! This song REALLY resonated with me that night! (click to hear).
Thanks to my prayer team, teammates, and friends for your love and support!! I'm glad to see the Lord sending me as a "someone" to reach into these lives and hopefully be a catalyst to expand this effective reach into a lost and very broken culture.
~Danielle
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