Club 1 Report – Journal Entry #79 – April 1st 2010
Scarlet Hope Team Leader: Mandy L.
Tonight was another encouraging night in Club 1. We went in armed with food, roses for each of the girls, and a little Easter bag filled with candy & goodies for some of the dancers’ kids at home. It was a little awkward handing out the roses at first, but the girls were so excited about them! A few even carried it around with them all night, afraid to set it down in the dressing room b/c someone else might steal it!
Shortly into our conversation, M (the bartender) asked me for a favor. She said her uncle, who never asks for anything, had called her up and asked if she had anything for kids from ages 18 months up to 9. One of his close friends just had to take in her 5 grandkids, because her daughter (their mom) was sent to prison. The grandmother has nothing for them, so she’s in need of anything (bottles & diapers for the baby, toys, clothes) for all 5 of them. I know it’s not a direct need in the club, but if anyone has extra things boxed up or in a basement somewhere, it would be great to meet this need within the next week or so. M thought it was an 18-month-old girl, a 3-year-old boy, 4-year-old boy, 7-year-old boy, and a 9-year-old girl.  If anyone has anything for them please email us at  rachelle@scarlethope.org.
Dancer L said that she just went to the hospital Tuesday night for bronchitis. She left the club early just to go directly to the hospital, because she was having back & chest pains so bad. One of the managers told her she’d have to work a double on Saturday to make up for it. She really should be home resting, but she said she needed the money, so she was at work and planned to be the next 2 nights as well. Pray for her to recover well.
SK is still waiting on her court date in a few weeks to find out if she’ll get custody of her little boy (who is adorable, by the way, from the pictures on her cell phone!). Let’s pray that she does…she really loves him and I think will take good care of him. She was exhausted tonight, and I could tell she didn’t feel like being at work.
Another newer dancer, JA, told us she has a 3 year old boy and a 3 month old little girl, and they’re staying with her aunt for right now. She just moved back here from working at another club in Lexington, and she’s staying with a friend. She doesn’t have an apartment or a car, so thankfully she has a family member caring for her kids. She hasn’t seen them in a few weeks, but she will this weekend. I’m going to start looking for inexpensive apartments for her. If anyone knows of any in a safe area, please let us know (email to: rachelle@scarlethope.org)! Also, I’m sure a car would be helpful at some point in time too!
SH, who I hadn’t seen since the night I met her, was sitting at the game machine the entire time Brittani and I talked to her. I told her we had food on the other side, and she immediately told me she’d been throwing up everything she ate recently. I asked if she had the stomach flu, and she said no it wasn’t that. She said she was going next week to get an ultrasound to find out if she’s pregnant. She had taken a pregnancy test at the hospital already but it showed up negative. They can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. We continued to talk about it, and she ordered a drink and pulled her cigarettes out of her pouch to give one to a friend. It broke my heart to think that she might possibly be pregnant and yet was drinking and smoking at the same time. I pray that if she is, the baby isn’t harmed, and if she’s not, that the doctors will find out what’s wrong with her.
Toward the end of the night a guy got robbed in the back alley by this club. He came into the club with his shirt off and bleeding and asked the bouncer S to call the cops. Unfortunately they aren’t allowed to call the cops onto the premises, so someone else must have. I don’t think they caught the guy who fought him, but I’m certainly thankful we have our security teams to watch out for us.
Probably one of the most encouraging things of the night was just a brief conversation with the owner of the club. We took the owners gift cards tonight just as a small token of thanks for letting us come in and talk to the girls. He was really appreciative, and he said “Hey, I think I read an article about you guys…†He couldn’t remember where he’d seen it (he thought it was another Louisville magazine, but it happens to be the Southeast Christian Church Outlook newspaper), but he even remembered the story about a girl named Maria (name changed). He even told me, “Any guidance you guys can give these girls is great. They’re all really young and believe anything, so it’s great to have people like you giving them guidance.â€Â I was pretty shocked! It’s great to hear that even the owner is thankful for what we’re doing! It’s evident that the Holy Spirit has been working in this club!
Praise God for all the things happening in this club! Every little conversation is encouraging to us and to the girls, and most importantly, it’s a step closer to opening up to them about Jesus. Hopefully those doors will open in the near future for us! Pray that they’ll ask questions and want to know why we’re doing what we do and why we love them so much!
– Mandy
