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.
Make this your profile picture on Facebook, along with a caption that includes our website: spendyourself.net for a contest entry to win free shirts for a year!
Much like the previous post, we’ve asked a few of our friends who spent time this summer in Kenya to share their thoughts. It’s been great hearing how they have been moved to respond to situations that they have been immersed in. The text below is an excerpt from Natalie’s journal.
I had my first wake up call to poverty today when we walked around one of the largest slums in Africa called Kibera. I’m trying to find the words to describe Kibera; all of my senses were awakened. Kibera houses two million people and the huts were nearly as far as my eyes could see. Wood, mud, animal poop, and jagged sheet metal was the material used for their schools, homes, and businesses. Walking around in the streets was hard physically and emotionally. Breat hing in air was cloudy and thick, and constituted a lot of sneezing.
My throat thickened with smoke and grime as I took each breath. The roads were winding and rocky and the only way to walk without tripping was looking down at the ground with each step. The busyness of the streets is still ringing in my ears, hearing men, women and children shouting in Swahili. Raw meat, crops, food, clothing, hair salons and other businesses surrounded us as we continued on. Everything was so crammed, it was as if everyone were literally piled on top of each other. Afterwards, we continued walking into the slum, only to have my eyes opened deeper to poverty. I stepped off the plane in Africa convinced that I’d full grasped the concept of poverty, but the Lord humbled me at the flick of a finger. Walking around Kibera yielded many sights. Men, women, and even children sleeping in the streets next to garbage and livestock. J ohn shared with us seeing a small child fully awake and lying face down in the dirt…the sheer epitome of hopelessness. Heart-wrenching is an understatement as to the smell and sights of Kibera. Children going to the bathroom in the middle of the street, animals rummaging through trash right next to a raw meat kiosk, body odor and human excrement-all these with the added sight/smell of garbage burning. The sad truth was, the garbage was burnt as means to rid the overflow piling in the streets. Yet despite these circumstances, God is there; the people survive. Smiles and waves followed us as we walked on.
One sound in particular that I will never tire of hearing: “MIZUNGU! HOW ARE YOU!” which was the only English the small children knew; it’s a sound that I’ll take back with me to America. Crowds of children approached us chanting that same phrase over and over with beaming expressions. I took pictures of them and showed them the what they looked like. Having not been used to seeing themselves, they giggled and laughed with joy.
Looking into their eyes, I remembered Megan Sullivan’s advice before leaving home and wanted to make an effort to give each of them a small part of me. I did just that, even to the point of correction from Ben Hardman (lol). Two little girls are etched into my memory especially; I approached them, shook their hands, and told them how beautiful they were. They timidly laughed and came closer towards me. As my group pressed on, I waved goodbye to them and started to walk on, when I felt two little chapped hands slip into my palms. As we walked on , these girls held onto me tightly, as if my hands held their hope or security. We reached a point where the kids could no longer come with us, as their neighborhood ended. I knelt down on the rocky ground, bid them a final goodbye, and wrapped my arms around both of them individually. They clung to my shoulder and everything in me wanted to just stay there; but I let go and the girls stood there, watching me walk off with my group. I was dirty & my knees were scraped from kneeling on the rocks, but I actually dread the day they heal back, because I want to glance at the scars and remember what God showed me in Kibera. I was never able to learn the names of those little girls due to the language barrier, but I’ll never forget them.
-Natalie
We’ve asked a few of our friends who spent time this summer in Kisumu to share their thoughts and reflections on the experience.
I have been asked many times to share my experience and I seem to only be able to say the same few sentences. The world I know is forever a different place. It’s next to impossible to describe my experience in Africa. I’m sorry but my response is the same; you have to go there and see it for yourself to truly understand what is happening. I’m embarrassed to say that it took this long but about two thirds of the way through the trip something inside of me changed. My passion in pursuing myself and earthly things became kind of a joke. To think that I had control of what I could achieve if I just put my mind to it seemed frivolous, yet it is a line I’ve been taught and repeated to myself countless times. If anyone witnesses what we did, returned home and didn’t pick up the cause of local, national and international compassion for those in need and those who cannot provide and defend for themselves they have completely missed the point of why God had them on this trip. I have found that Matthew 25:31-46 still holds true today here in Louisville and around the world.
In the days leading up to this trip, I was thinking this would be an amazing experience where I would share the gospel, make new friends and have a good time. I couldn’t have been more wrong. What I learned from 250 orphans and 50 street children was their amazing joy and simple love for God; A love that I have complicated and made hard to attain. I was recently baptized by my roommate and pastor. I had been putting off this act of obedience to God for selfish reasons. I thought I needed to know everything about baptism before I would do it. It was my roommate who reminded me that the first Christians were baptized as infants in their faith in obedience to God and then grew in their knowledge of Christ. I still remember the water covering my face, it was as if it was happening in slow motion and the whole time I was recalling the sentence that was just said to the crowd that baptism is the emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin.
I have a family back in Kenya and the mission field is not only here in Louisville, but all around us. Don’t be afraid! It’s time to stop thinking “Oh some day I’ll…” and make that some day and some time here and now. I am constantly amazed by how people of my generation have stood up and said “I’m not what the world is making me out to be” and are showing their love for God by giving of themselves in so many ways. Please pray and seek that you’ll do the same. For things we crave of this earth will soon loose their shine and eerily fade away. Pursue which is eternally yours. Pursue God.
In His name,
Jason
Click here to find out one way to become engaged with LIA’s work in Kenya.
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