Did you know:
The San Francisco earthquake of 1989 was at the same time of day as the Haiti quake, and was of the same magnitude. Over 200,000 Haitians died. EIGHTY NINE San Franciscans died. How could that be?
Simple. Most of Haiti’s buildings wouldn’t meet required inspection codes in the US. The roofs simply fell flat onto the occupants. Is this the fault of the Haitians? Not at all. The infrastructure is of a low grade because of the extreme poverty. The poverty exists in large part, not because the Haitians haven’t made a strong effort to develop their country – it exists because to develop their country, the Haitian government reduced trade and agriculture tariffs to secure International Monetary Fund loans, and to attract foreign investors. The unfortunate result? Foreign privatized agriculture practically wiped out local rice farms, and when the competition was gone, prices were raised up to 141%. Exploitation, plain and simple.
The pressure being placed on rich foreign countries (profiting from Haiti’s poverty) is making a difference though. Just this month the G7 countries unilaterally forgave Haiti’s debt. Haiti still however, owes a staggering amount to the International Monetary Fund. While progress is being made, the poor are still suffering, day by day. You can make a difference.
Friend, this is a nation enslaved in debt, and because of this disaster, it’s not certain they’ll ever recover. You can help. Buying a Haiti shirts directly helps the poor. At a time like this, where their future looks so bleak, you can make a direct difference. The proceeds of this shirt go directly to our partners on the ground, in Haiti and fund relief efforts for the suffering.
If you’ve already bought a shirt, we sincerely thank you! Please share this link with like-minded people who want to make a real difference.
To read more about the work being done in Haiti, please click here.
Our New Club!
Walking into an unfamiliar place. Not knowing what to expect we anxiously awaited to see what the owners would say. God has been preparing the hearts of our team for quite some time to step out and take on another club or two. The only way to be able to start serving in a new club is to GO into the club and ask.
So Sarah, Hannah and myself decided to take Friday evening to visit some clubs. Just simply praying for God to open doors is one thing, but believing God will open doors is a completely different story! Then watching God open the doors is literally the most humbling moment I personally have been able to experience.
We visited one after another and realized very quickly we needed to have male escorts in all of them. We were immediately turned away if we did not have them.
We kept trying different clubs until like I stated before God literally opened that door for us. We walked up to the front door of one particular club and a man walked out right as we walked in. We walked in and up to the bar. The first thing out of the bartenders mouth was “since you ladies don’t have escorts, I’m going to need to ask you to not talk to the customers while you’re in here” enough said, I thought. We ordered some cokes and sat down at a table. It wasn’t terribly busy, a few of the girls came over and talked with us and the first things out of their mouths were “what are you all doing in a place like this?” I guess we had big signs on our heads that clearly stated this wasn’t our typical hang out.
One girl, J came up to us and wanted to know each of our names. She was a really sweet young girl. We told her our names, and she quickly told us that HER mother was the OWNER of this club. My mouth almost dropped to the ground, I thought wow Lord, you couldn’t of been more clear with this one. We told her we would like to talk to her mom. Her mother is not only the owner of this club, but a bartender/dancer. It was heartbreaking to know and see a mother and daughter doing this for a living. So we talked to the owner, J’s mom – PH about coming in and serving in that club.
PH is going to be thinking about it and told us she needed a day or two to think about it, she almost lost her bar last week because of the economy she stated. So PLEASE keep this in your prayers. We are heading back into that club to hear her decision on Sunday night. Prayers are very much appreciated!!
Now you may be wondering, so then what happened with the one you did get?
Let’s just say God has a sense of humor that’s a lot funnier than I am and HE has led us to the largest club in Louisville. It was quite intimidating when we pulled in the parking lot. We didn’t know what to expect, or where to even go.
When we approached the front doors there were legit, microphones and everything, bouncers outside the club. Sarah and I immediately recognized the bouncer. C, the bouncer was the original bouncer at our very first club we ever went to. He got to know us and truly became very respectful to us. C, told us we had to have an escort and once again we did not have that. So i just told C that we wanted to actually just talk to the general manager if we could and ask if we could do the same thing we did at his old club, in this club.
He said ”yeah for sure, come with me!” My mind was racing with just how incredible awesome God is, at this point. The actual owner of this club came and got us and we went to his office, where we told him what we were wanting to do. We noticed that they have food there, so we knew that was probably not an option. He quickly agreed.
So we presented to him that we’d like to come in once a week and have a pampering night for the girls! He thought we were crazy! After some intense back and forth, he agreed to let us come in next Friday! But said he wanted to know what the dancers response was before allowing us to come back after Friday. I could hardly believe my ears!!! You will!!!! Oh my goodness, I wanted to scream, drop to my knees and praise God, right at that moment! But then I knew he would definitly think I was crazy!
So we asked if we could see where we would set up. He took us to the dressing room and told dancer A to show us around. There were probably a dozen girls in the dressing room. We went in, introduced ourselves told them what we were going to do! EVERY SINGLE dancer was beyond EXCITED!!! I would have to say that was also a God moment, because it already let’s us know how they are going to respond! They are very excited to have us.
So many many things to pray for!
We know the Lord will provide all of our needs. Since this not a cooking/serving food club. We are in some quick need of getting some supplies for these women.
Please see what our needs are and if you can help contact me asap:
New Makeup (clean out your closet, drawers, if you have never worn makeup)
Makeup sponges
Makeup brushes
Curling Irons
Brushes
Hairspray
Nail polish
Lotions
Flat Irons
Bobby Pens
We get to have the dancers undivided attention during this time. It will be a much more intimate approach to loving on these women. We are so excited to get to share what God’s beauty is truly like.
God made each of them beautiful and we are thankful for the opportunity to let them know of their beauty both inside and out.
Serving an amazing Father,
Rachelle Starr & The Scarlet Hope Team
The story behind our Espere shirt. Two members of Spendyourself were able to travel with Northside Christian Church and film this video as part of their Advent Conspiracy event in December. We thought it certainly helped tell the story as to why we feel so strongly about this project. To read more about the story behind this shirt, please click here.
I first met Chris when he came to Haiti last summer. He came with Zach, who I already knew from college. Their trip was short and hectic, as we flew and drove all over the Northwest department of Haiti. Luckily, within the few days of the trip we had several moments to sit and discuss some of the things that they saw and experienced.
We ate Dominoes under the awning of the Coconut Hotel in Port au Prince, and discussed everything from inner city ministry to social justice, church politics to t-shirts, and sweatshops to college basketball. The problems of Haiti were a recurring topic.
They asked me my opinion on Haiti’s most pressing needs, specifically in the area in which NWHCM works. My response was the lack of trees/erosion along with access to clean water. In many ways the two topics are interwoven. Trees and water go hand in hand, and I think this idea is portrayed in the shirt that they put together (pictured above). Without trees desertification of arable land becomes an issue. Without trees, erosion will pollute not only drinking water sources, but also the ocean, driving off fish that are an essential part of the Haitian economy and diet. Polluted water sources, or the lack of water sources in general, cause a myriad of diseases and other health issues. In a country where children die from the dehydration caused by diarrhea, clean sources of water are not things to be taken lightly. The lack of drinking water also hits the Haitian home economically. Many people are forced to buy clean water by the jug or bucket, others pay expensive medical bills at government hospitals for illnesses that could have been prevented by access to a clean source of water.
If one dug deep enough would they find that there are other underlying factors that contribute to the lack of clean water and trees in Haiti? Most likely, and so a holistic ministry that teaches responsibility and respect is crucial in this work to help Haiti. We have yet to see the long-term results from the disastrous earthquakes that hit Haiti earlier this month, but one can almost guarantee that they will affect every aspect of Haiti life, including access to clean water as well as food production.
The folks over at Spendyourself have put together a shirt the proceeds of which all go to support NWHCM. They have already raised a large amount of money for the purpose of buying equipment to drill wells for some of the remote areas in the Northwest. Since the earthquake they had to call an audible at the line and are now diverting some of the funds from the shirts towards earthquake relief as well. This has been a long process that started with a trip to Haiti and some great conversations between the people at Spend Yourself and the staff and leadership from NWHCM. Where the story ends is another question.
The word on the shirt “espere” is the Creole verb for “hope.” The implications/interpretations of the word in reference to the shirt seem limitless. As an organization we hope that Haiti can pull through this disaster. We hope for a Haiti in which people have access to clean water. We hope for a Haiti that reflects the natural beauty and fertile mountainsides that it was once known for. We hope for a Haiti in which people are treated fairly and with respect by citizens within the country and the global community. We hope for a Haiti that will continue to see growth in the body of believers, one in which the global body will show solidarity with, not as all-mighty, benevolent Americans or members of the first world, but as the body of Christ being the body of Christ (I think I stole that phrase from someone).
Essentially, we hope for Haiti the same things that we hope for our own lives and those around us. We can no longer ignore the people living from the margins, living in the parts of the world that are only discussed during times of war and natural disaster. The reality is that these people not only live the moments that we periodically see on CNN but they also live in the expanse of years between the disasters that make it on the news, and sometimes those normal days are harder than the ones that garner international attention and aid.
It is a big message for a t-shirt right? Nevertheless it is a message that we cannot afford to forget, not for Haiti or for any other group of people as well.
-Curtis Rogers
(Curtis is currently on staff with NWHCM and serves on the ground in northwest Haiti)
For more information on how you can help those in Haiti, please click here.
Funny things about natural disasters…
The funny thing about natural disasters is their ability to bring light to dark situations. Unless you have been in a cave, you have witnessed in some form or fashion the catastrophe that hit the island of Haiti last week. Thousands upon thousands of people are left dead due to a 7.0 earthquake and numerous aftershocks. Buildings collapsed, homes where shook to the ground, the earth split, mountains crumbled; burying men, women, and children. The country of Haiti and it’s citizens will never be the same…I HOPE.
You see, two days before the earthquake people in Haiti were already dying. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with a government that is barely stable, and a population that has lived in despair for so long they have forgotten the word espère, which means hope in Creole. Two days before the earthquake, Haitians lived with little to no safe drinking water, no food, or housing. Two days before the earthquake Haitians hesitated to name their children and rarely celebrated a birthday until the age of five because, well, many children do not make it to that age…That was Haiti two days before the quake…and it will be Haiti two years after the earthquake unless…
Unless we embrace the light. This earthquake, much like the hurricane that brought awareness to the destitution that littered New Orleans, has awakened the world to suffering of many in Haiti. What happens after the wreckage clears will then, and only then, define Haiti’s next path. Without a reckoning emerging from the wreckage Haiti will fall back into the darkness. So we, Christians, we humans, must respond. We can no longer turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the atrocities that happen less than six hours away. And we cannot wait for another earthquake, tsunami, or whatever disaster to bring light to the darkness. The last time I read the Good Book, I believe it said that that was our job. Join us in bringing espère back to Haiti.
-C Harp
For more information on how you can help those in Haiti, please click here.
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow”
Since it was New Years Eve night and there were only 5 of us delivering in the clubs total, we all decided to visit both clubs. It was an extra special night for us to be able to go to both clubs and see all the girls at both clubs! So we backed our cars with presents, burritos with all the fixins, homemade brownies, and headed out.
Club 1
The girls went crazy over the Mexican food that we brought to the club this past Thursday night. We saw J the manager and said Merry Christmas to him. We haven’t seen him around very much in the past few months. We saw some other dancers that were not working last week when we brought the gifts so we all got to give out some more gifts to the girls and gave more stalkings out to some other male staff that were there.
Just a few updates in this club: S has a mother who in the past few months has been experiencing uncontrollable seizures lately, and catching up with her this week, she said her mom is still having the seizures and the doctors still do not know why. She asked if we could still keep praying for her mom’s health
M the talkative bartender we always share about, is looking for a crib. Her sister just had a baby and they are in great need for a crib so if any of you have a crib or know of anyone with one, please contact us asap.
Club 2
It was fairly busy in the club on this New Years Eve night. All the girls lined up as usual. Also at this club were a few girls who were not there last week when we brought all of the Christmas gifts! So we took a count and brought in more presents out of the car inside. C almost had a heart attack when we gave her a gift for herself and her 2 year old daughter. She said “You know, you ladies are the ONLY people who gave me a gift at ALL this year.” She said it meant even more that we thought of her daughter and got her daughter something because she couldn’t afford much this year. Can you believe that friends? It absolutely breaks my heart to think that these ladies have no one to share Christmas with.
Later Jessica and I went to the middle club and had a great conversation with another newer girl “J”. She told us the same thing that no one got her anything for Christmas and that we were the only people who got her anything. She is an adopted child with her birth family in PA and her adopted parents on the other side of the country. She knows no one in Louisville except her ex husband which is why she moved her (to reconcile their marriage). But He has been unfaithful to her on numerous accounts so she is just “existing ” in Louisville right now. She just sleeps and dances. Pray that our friendship grows with her an we can all hang out with her outside the club,
I had the opportunity to pray with a very broken dancer in one of the VIP rooms right before we left. It was an incredible experience to pray in a room that satan usually rip these women down, not build them up. You could just feel her desperation for God and as we prayed together. I know she felt the Holy Spirit last night. She dug her fingers into my arms and just teared up. With the stench of Alcohol on her breath, she very emotionally spilled her whole story out to me. She’s an ex drug addict. She’s been dancing since she was 18. She’s nearly 40 now. She has 3 kids. 12,8, and 4. She is in a very dysfunctional relationship. Her boyfriend’s ex-wife and children are living with them and she said she is just falling apart. Please cover these women in prayer that Satan will not attack them or control them or destroy them like he has been.
It was wonderful to just catch up with a lot of the usual ladies we see every week and be able to start the New Year together with our hearts in the right spot. It’s not about us, It’s all about Him! Everything we do is for Him and there is nothing better than seeing the work of the spirits hand in these women’s hearts and what he has done in our hearts over the past year. It has drastically changed my life and showed me even more of how my life should look and that I “have” way too much! Thank u for your prayers and for everyone who takes the time to read this. This is a serious battle we are entrusted with! I am so excited to see what God is going to do it 2010 with Scarlet Hope and all who are involved!
This is one of those posts that probably doesn’t require any words. We see and hear about Afghanistan in the news on a daily basis, and wanted to provide you with a different perspective that doesn’t always make the headlines.
Sozo International remains committed to serving and loving the people of Afghanistan and we thought that these pictures tell a small part of that story.
To buy a shirt and support the work being done in Afghanistan, please click here.
A great way to start 2010! Our friend Nevan has organized a night of what promises to be a wide variety of speakers. He was able to line up guys like Denny Crum and Pat Day, as well a couple of my favorites – Bob Russell and Wesley Korir.
We are going to be there and it should be a great time!
-Lee
For more on the event, please visit the Louisville Success site here.
Club 2:
Reporting Jessica L.,
Team: Rachelle, Sarah, Valerie
This week we visited the clubs on Wednesday night, Christmas Eve Eve.
We had some wonderful ladies provide a homemade, delicious Christmas dinner!
Thank you ladies for all your help and support in this ministry! We also packed up our cars with Christmas presents galore for the men and ladies at the clubs plus for their kids This year we were able to provide blankets, baked goods, a bracelet, and a Bible for the ladies.
For the men, we had socks, after shave, Axe deodorant, sunflower seeds, baked goods, and a Bible. For the kids we were blessed for several different items from books, coloring books, crayons, stuffed animals, and so forth. This was a fun and exciting night to be Santa’s elves to these men and ladies. Thanks again to all who helped provide Christmas for this group, it is very much appreciated. After we arrived and got the food organized, Sarah and I walked over to one of the clubs to invite the girls to come over for some food and the bartender was on the phone. We walked back over later to talk to the bartender for a little while. We told her we had all the fixin’s and asked if she wanted a plate. She had already ordered dinner but we asked if she wanted a to go box to take home, she decided that she would rather eat with us and save her order to take home. So we gathered her some food and delivered the presents to the girls. They were all so appreciative of the gifts. After we were done visiting with those girls we went back to help Rachelle and Valerie with the handing out more presents to all the other girls. As we handed the gifts out to the girls, one of them B looked at us and said can I open it now? She was so excited. Later, B walked up to us and asked if we would help her put on her bracelet. We were able to provide the girls with a Psalm 23 bracelet which has a insert explaining the colors and how they apply to the verse. It was so cool to see she was excited to put on the bracelet. I pray the bracelet will bring up more conversations with these girls in the future. Again thank you all for your support in this ministry and providing Christmas to these people, they all were so appreciative and it was wonderful to see so many happy faces. As we walked out, one of the girls I’d never seen before walked up to all of us and gave us all hugs. It’s great to see the response that we did
tonight.
To read more about Scarlet Hope, please see click here.
Here is another update from our partner Scarlet Hope, and what they are doing to reach out to those enslaved by the sex industry.
Mathew 1:21 “She shall bring forth a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is He who shall save his people from their sins”
This was our 2nd Christmas in the clubs and God just keeps bringing forth his Love and Power! The broken and ones deemed unlovely cry out for what God sent to seek and save the lost! For he did not send his son for the righteous but for the broken! We are only a mere small portion of the body that God used to bring celebration of the birth of Jesus to these women and men in the clubs. We can’t thank you each enough for your prayers, donations and support that made it possible to bring gifts of Love and a meal to our friends in the clubs this Christmas Season.
Thank you and Many Blessings, Loving Him, Rachelle Starr
Club 1 Hannah D. Reporting
Team: Amy, Brittani, and Kamille
Thank you Lord for giving us Jesus so we can be in a relationship with you. What an incredible Evening! It was a celebration of Christmas and our love for the girls on Wednesday night. We went to the club with cars FULL to the brim with food and presents for our precious ladies. We dinned on Honey glazed ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrot sulfate, Corn pudding, coffee and dessert! The love and prayers that go into the food that is prepared for these women blows me away. All the girls presents were packed with a bible, a blanket, a Psalms 23 bracelet, and some yummy baked goods! Every girl got a present and every staff member got a stalking. The women who had children got presents for their kids too.
On this night we stayed at the club for over 2 hours! We just had so many awesome conversations one after another with new and old friends that we’ve met over the past year. A lot of the staff kept speaking of how “they could not believe that we’ve been coming faithfully every week for the past year to the club!” They spoke about last Christmas when we came and brought presents too.” They are all so shocked by what we (God) does every week!
Kamille and I had had a very interesting conversation with a patron in the hallway. He refused to tell us his name. These are always interesting conversations. We had offered to make a plate of food for a dancer that was sitting next to this patron on the bar side of the club. Well, when Kamille and I went back to make her a plate, the guy fallowed us! He stopped us in the hallway and the first two things out of his mouth were “You guys Church ladies?” You do know that what you are doing here for these women is very strange right??!” Kamille spoke to him for a bit about why we do what we do and explained a little about our church. This guy was sadly very lost and empty. He first said he came to the club because, as he said,” it’s healthy to have fantasies.” Then he went on to tell us he was engaged, Then he went on to explain to us that he knew God and he use to go to a church, but the church turned their back on him and hes fiancé because he is black and she is white. He was obviously very hurt by the church. He told us that he does not know of one church that would ever do what we were doing! Please pray for the seed that was planted with this guy. That God would just intervene in his life. I am so tired of Satan’s control over these women and these men and how he just want to kill their souls and joy! He is in the world But GOD, has overcome the world!!!
One new dancer came up to me with her bracelet already on and said” Thank you ladies so much for what you do! She went on to say how she was so excited when she saw the Bible in there because she had lost hers awhile ago and really wanted to start reading the word again! Praise God!
I met another new dancer named M who is unfortunately another sad story that I hear all too often. M is 21 and has a 14 month old baby boy at home. She’s a single mom. She dropped out of high school and ran away from home when she was 16. Then she got pregnant and her boyfriend left her right after that. I got to talk for quite some time about what she wants to be doing with her life and she explained how she wants to go to school. I gave M a present and a present for her son and she just started tearing up and hugged me for what felt like 10 minutes! It breaks my heart to see the lives that these women have been through. They are so valuable to God and to us and I am just so humbled for every opportunity we get to serve them! Thank you to everyone who donated their time and love into serving these women! God is tearing down walls and bringing them back to Him!
Brittani C, Report
Wednesday night was incredible. That’s really the only way to describe it. First the girls were so psyched about all the food we brought, it was a feast!!! One girl even ordered pizza and put it in the back for later and came and got two plates! It was not only crazy delicious, but it was such a wide variety. The girls loved it. You could tell they had no idea we had anything else for them and they weren’t expecting anything. When I was asking some of the girls if they had any kids and if they were a boy or girl.. you could see their curiosity peak and them begin to get excited. They were saying “why?! What are you girls doing?!?” When we got the gifts out and gave them to the girls, and to them for their kids, their faces and reactions were priceless. One girl almost cried, and just about all of them thanked us several times. I can honestly say I’m not sure my heart has ever been so filled before on Christmas than it was that night. I truly saw God and the heart that he sees in these girls through His eyes. It was incredible. I actually didn’t even sleep that night because I couldn’t stop thinking about how excited they were and some of the conversations I had!
SK- I met SK last night in the club. I hadn’t seen her before but that’s not saying much because I’ve only been going for a while. When we started talking though, this was only her second night there. She’d come from another club in Louisville where she didn’t get along with the girls so she transferred. She is 18. After talking for a while I discovered she has been in foster care since she was 15. Hearing her say that I thought about how hard being 15 was… let alone having to go into foster care. It killed me. She said she resubmitted herself after she was 18 so they’d pay for her schooling. She goes to school for Social Work. She has a little boy and he is currently in foster care because her son’s father isn’t supposed to be around the baby and she let him watch him one night while she worked, the state took him. SK was really upset about this, but was excited because she got to see him on Christmas. When we gave her his gift she was excited to bring it to him. I talked to her on Christmas Eve and wished her a merry Christmas, and she kept saying “thanks again for the gifts”. She’s a sweetheart.
IV- I had never met IV before either, but she actually isn’t new. She just doesn’t work very often so I’d never encountered her. Plus it was a Wed night we went to the club opposed to a Thurs so we had a diff crew. She was very chatty! She was actually talking with Amy when I walked up, and ended up telling us we should all hang out because she doesn’t have any good friends that are good influences on her. She actually said “when I come in here this is this… but when I leave… I’m a totally different person and I don’t like to hang out with these girls” I didn’t really know what to say to that but Amy and I assured her we would all hang out soon!! I talked to her too on Christmas Eve and she was excited to hear from me, and we said we’d talk again soon to make plans to hang out.
To read more about Scarlet Hope, please see click here.
Buy a shirt to support Earthquake relief in Haiti. Read More
Proceeds from the Resc\You shirt will go directly toward funding a scholarship fund for the children of sex workers. “Trafficking is essentially modern day slavery, and currently there are 27 million people in slavery.” Read more on Resc\You… Read More
Scarlet Hope works with women and men in the sex industry. Read More
Did you know: The San Francisco earthquake of 1989 was at the same time of day as the Haiti quake, and was of the same magnitude. Over 200,000 Haitians died. EIGHTY NINE San Franciscans died. How could that be? Read more on Did You Know?… Read More
Our New Club! Walking into an unfamiliar place. Not knowing what to expect we anxiously awaited to see what the owners would say. God has been preparing the hearts of our team for quite some time to step out and take on another club or two. The only way to be able to start serving in a new club is to GO into the club and ask. Read more on Scarlet Hope Journal Entry 2/27/2010… Read More
The story behind our Espere shirt. Two members of Spendyourself were able to travel with Northside Christian Church and film this video as part of their Advent Conspiracy event in December. We thought it certainly helped tell the story as to why we feel so strongly about this project. To read more about the story behind this shirt, please click here. Read more on Haiti Clean Water Video… Read More