Journal Entry #55 – Continued

Scarlet Hope – Journal Entry #55 – Club 2 report only – reporting Kamille Bayless, Team: Valerie Snyder, Hannah Dunn and Ruthie Ross

I Peter 4:8 —  “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Man, we all need our sins covered by Christ’s love!  I know I feel the love of the Lord in the strongest way by other’s that love me despite my sins. May I yield to the Spirit daily, so that He can love supernaturally through me.  For without the Spirit-led life, I cannot love the way God loves.  We love these girls!

It was a joy to welcome Valerie to the team last night!  It’s neat to see God’s timing in all of this – because right now it’s a very transitional time in the clubs, many new girls coming and many of our friends leaving. The necessary time we spent in prayer for the new delivery team started us off for a great night!

From Valerie:  Last night was my first night helping out the ladies who serve in Scarlet Hope.  There were four of us who traveled to a club where there were several dancers working; even though there weren’t that many patrons. Once we got there and set up our food the dancers were so excited to come and get their plates! 🙂  I and one of the other Scarlet Hope ladies sat down and spoke with two of the dancers.  One of the girls, L is 22 years old.  She really didn’t talk much.  She continued to get up, walk around, and then sit back down.  However the other girl, R is 19 yrs old.  She had just gotten out of a 6 night stay in jail.  I don’t know why she was there, except that it had something to do with her current boyfriend – who is also the reason why she is now in Louisville, instead of in Lexington.  R grew up a preachers daughter with one older sister; growing up she felt like everything was a set of rules.  The one thing that really stuck out and has stayed with me from our conversation is how she views her sister.  She kept repeating that her sister had “turned out perfect”, and how she had…not. Her sister is married, with a 4 month old baby, and is a teacher at a Bible college in another state.  She did mention that she does still have a relationship with her family, however she didn’t say to what extent, or how good a relationship it is.  I can’t wait until next week, so I can sit down and get to know her some more!  I really feel drawn to R, and hope that we can build a connection and good friendship.

From Ruthie:  Last night was different because most of my time in the club was talking with a man, not one of the dancers. B, who has been there every time we have gone in, was talking non-stop. He has shared with us in the past that the girls really love that we come there to spend time with them and serve them.

At first I was a little frustrated, because I wasn’t getting any time to talk with the girls, but I quickly checked my emotions. B shared a lot of past hurts and I even got to challenge him a little on why he doesn’t think it’s wrong to be in the club. Our primary focus has been with the girls, but I know the men in there are hurting as well. It reminded me that we are there to share the love of Christ, no matter who it is with.

Another one of the girls shared about being a “pastor’s kid”, and how she felt like the black sheep of the family. She has a Biblical foundation. Pray that we can be a light and remind her of that.

From Hannah:  We had some awesome conversations with 3 girls tonight! God was totally in the club! We had so much time to sit and chat with some girls who we haven’t seen in a few weeks.”S” is just barely 19 and told us a heartbreaking story about how her mom doesn’t like her and won’t let her dad see her. She is dating a guy who is 6 years older than her, who won’t work; he lives off of her money and depends on her to pay for his court fines and living expenses. She says she would like to break up with him but she said no one ever comes over to her house and she doesn’t want to be alone. She, like all the other girls in the club, don’t know what real friendships are. I also talked to “M” for a while. She is the bartender on one side of the club. M said that she’s been there 3 years. I had asked her how come she doesn’t dance and if they ever try to make her dance and she really said some powerful stuff about that topic. She said she danced when she first started there. But she explained that there was no way possible in her sober mind that she could take her clothes off in front of people so she started drinking heavily every night just to muster up the courage to dance because she was so desperate for money. She no longer dances and kind of made a joke about all the dancers presently working, how they are always “jacked up” on either drugs or alcohol because “this work cannot be done sober” She no longer dances, just bar tends. They do ask her to dance sometimes but she refuses. She has two young children. She works two jobs to support her kids and her grandmother. We are trying hard to hang out with all these girls outside of the club!

God provided many opportunities for longer, uninterrupted conversation!  It was very slow, so the girls were able to sit and talk for an hour at a time. They were SO excited when we arrived and told us that were all so hungry. The food was wonderful, and they all loved it.  I have been disappointed at the fact that I haven’t been able to continue to build on relationships with some of the girls that were there in the beginning – but the praise is that they are not working at the club anymore!  Please pray that we will continue to cover each of them with prayer, and that the Lord will bring them to the minds of those of us that felt connected to them when God allowed us to enter their world.  So, when I walked in and didn’t see one girl that I knew real well, I was questioning how this night would go….. Expecting a lot of surface talk.  But oh no!  God orchestrated it beautifully and we were able to reach depths with several girls in one night.  “S” is another sweet girl that is so young and has had it so hard in this world.  Her parents have never wanted much to do with her, and she was raised by her grandmother… her father entered her life a few years ago and she lit up about that!  But then, he got back together with her mom and her mom didn’t allow their relationship.  Considering her circumstances now, which Hannah described, she just doesn’t really have anyone.  She makes her life decisions based on not being alone.  Broke my heart, she is sweet and friendly and would jump at the chance to have a real friend.  Lord, provide opportunities for that! She in one of many cases similar, as you have read.  May I make practical decisions in my daily life that have eternal consequences….. such as making a call to them instead of a comfortable friend, taking them out for dinner instead of watching a t.v. show, praying for them more intensely and regularly praying for my health and wellness.  You know?  The Lord is teaching us!!!  May we love with agape love as a response, until it becomes a feeling…….. may the Spirit of God mark our lives so that what we do is not human!  How else will they know it’s God?  Only when we have nothing to do with it  🙂
Thank you for the food, prayers, financial support, time and faith in God to change lives!  We trust Him to multiply our efforts as only He can.