What is said here is all true, but not only true for the porn ministry or those in porn, but all ministries. One would like to think we make a difference and we have to believe we do make a difference, to even go on.

The object lesson of it all as I see it is, its all about view points in how we see or perceive things. We think things ought to be a certain way and usually they are not. Two lessons in that, one is that we all have a tendency to judge how things should be, thinking it shouldn't be that way and the second lesson is about being broken from our perceptions, which is very hard. It even gets harder when one is judged in error from someone from the church. That really hurts! Stinks too! When it does happen we then tend to be more guarded about getting close to people, including those from the church or in Christ.

I think of Jesus and Judas. Jesus knew what was going on and knew for some time about Judas. Jesus never excluded Judas from anything, always treating him as an equal. It really is amazing, but that is how God saw Judas and Jesus desired to do God's will and not even His own will. Amazing, but that is what real love is about.

How much do we love? What the heck is love? Ah....... We all may have perceptions of what love is, but then when we compare our love with the love God has, then we may really see that our love is rather conditional. So is the object to continue the way we always have or learn to become more like God?

I recently was dealing with a minister, that I suppose tried to reach out the best he knew how, to those wanting an abortion. He believes as many do that not only is abortion not right, but believes it should not be allowed. It is a common Christian view point, but is that God's view point, because at the end of the day we are either more like Him or going in a different direction. Does God agree with abortion? Of course not, equally important is God gave us all a free will including Judas.

We all at times get caught up in the right and wrong of things, but I would submit that is still the tree of knowledge, to decide what is right and what is wrong, when the bigger picture is about eating from the tree of life and walking with God and being more like God.

Do we see people in general as God see's them? If not, then why not? I would think the object lesson of it all is to become more like God? That to me at least is what salvation is, being more like God? Jesus through His sacrifice gave us all the opportunity to walk with God and be like God, but it is up to each of us to go that path. That path is about love and in love there is freedom and in freedom (or free will) there is accountability and also respect for self and respect for others.

Here is how God sees us (at least what is in scripture):
You may not know me, but I know everything about you. Psalm 139:1
I know when you sit down and when you rise up. Psalm 139:2
I am familiar with all your ways. Psalm 139:3
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. Matthew 10:29-31
For you were made in my image. Genesis 1:27
In me you live and move and have your being. Acts 17:28
For you are my offspring. Acts 17:28
I knew you even before you were conceived. Jeremiah 1:4-5
I chose you when I planned creation. Ephesians 1:11-12
You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book. Psalm 139:15-16
I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live. Acts 17:26
You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14
I knit you together in your mother's womb. Psalm 139:13
And brought you forth on the day you were born. Psalm 71:6
I have been misrepresented by those who don't know me. John 8:41-44
I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love. 1 John 4:16
And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. 1 John 3:1
Simply because you are my child and I am your Father. 1 John 3:1
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. Matthew 7:11
For I am the perfect father. Matthew 5:48
Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. James 1:17
For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. Matthew 6:31-33
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. Jeremiah 29:11
Because I love you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3
My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore. Psalms 139:17-18
And I rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
I will never stop doing good to you. Jeremiah 32:40
For you are my treasured possession. Exodus 19:5
I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul. Jeremiah 32:41
And I want to show you great and marvelous things. Jeremiah 33:3
If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. Deuteronomy 4:29
Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
For it is I who gave you those desires. Philippians 2:13
I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine. Ephesians 3:20
For I am your greatest encourager. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you. Psalm 34:18
As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart. Isaiah 40:11
One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes. Revelation 21:3-4
And I'll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth. Revelation 21:3-4
I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus. John 17:23
For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed. John 17:26
He is the exact representation of my being. Hebrews 1:3
He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you. Romans 8:31
And to tell you that I am not counting your sins. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you. 1 John 4:10
I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love. Romans 8:31-32
If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me. 1 John 2:23
And nothing will ever separate you from my love again. Romans 8:38-39
Come home and I'll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen. Luke 15:7
I have always been Father, and will always be Father. Ephesians 3:14-15
My question is…Will you be my child? John 1:12-13
I am waiting for you. Luke 15:11-32

One other thought that came from Shelly's post about being broken. Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth wrote, "my body is broken for you." If we look carefully it was not the body of Jesus that was ever broken. The body Paul was speaking about was and is the body of Christ as we are to be broken. Broken from our ways of thinking and doing things. I take that scripture to also mean, that if we are not broken or have not been broken, then we probably need to do some self examination to make sure we really are in the body of Christ. It is encouraged that we do some self examination and without real examination it is why many sleep, because many do not discern the body of Christ.

The real body seeks God for direction and everything. To me at least it is all about building relationship with God and with everyone else and then all of us walking together, not only being one with God, Jesus etc, but with each other as well. How we show our love for God is by showing our love one for the other.

Here is the hard part, which is trusting that the Holy Spirit is moving and doing what He does. That happens as we learn to surrender to Him in all things. Trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding? Sounds easy, but we all are in ministry and we all need to encourage each other and exhort one another to continue on.

Sarah

God does have a plan for everyone and everyone is called to be a part of ministry somewhere. All jobs in ministry are important as it is designed by God to be a servant and save lives. God gave us so much, but how much do we give Him in return?

Shelly,

That is amazing how your outlook on this is. AS a Minster myself, I have had my share of heart break.. I was a sex worker myself.. it was only when i hit the bottom and found my life turned upside down did I want to do something.. I rember sitting there with my john.. and the sprit oof the lord said to me get out!!! run .. just to find out a little latter that I was suppose to be murdered by the john.. that is when i knelt down at the alt er and cried out..i praise god in so many ways that he has shown me mercy and loving kindness.. as a child i was severely raped because the adults around me had porn addictions. these Girls not all however some that i have worked with begged for a normal life. the devils strong hold isnt going to last.. There is a group of us Ladies. we fast and we pray for change..

Thanks, Shelley and to all you others who are doing these great things in the lives of these wonderful people who all too often avoided by churches. I used to be in the taxi business where sex workers were often enough my passengers. They appreciated my professional service that included not being hit on and I appreciated their business I would get called back from time to time. I felt for these girls though because I knew that somehow they were paying a price for being in the money like that and that I was living off the avails by soliciting their business. One girl I drove around a lot kind of dropped out after a while and I read in the newspaper later about a former prostitute who was going back to get reconciled with her family. It showed picture of her and although it wasn't a very good one I recognized her and hope she succeeded. I always wished there was a ministry that reached out to these girls who seemed to be so far off the radar. I could sense I'd be over my head in trying to do much for them so didn't try too much on my own.

Another girl I drove around was once an Olympic-caliber swimmer from a seemingly good family but she had a taste for cocaine and I'm sure a host of other problems. She smoked it when I first knew her then a few years later when I saw her again she was into needles. I cared for her though because I knew she'd trained hard as an athlete and was talented and had experienced success and recognition at a young age that most can only dream about and now she was working the street selling her soul to strangers. I tried to help her in some way in spite of hearing the entire book of Proverbs screamed at me but she was too hooked on drugs for me to be able to do anything for her. She'd once been around everyone who was anyone where she lived; politicians, professionals, world-class pro athletes, you name and now she was on the street. I gave up trying to help her and concluded that it would only have wrecked me up without doing a thing for her. I later heard from her mother that she'd had an abortion and was beginning to straighten out so I hope she's found something.

I abused myself, both physically and verbally by my father and once even made up my mind to shoot him just to get him to stop when I heard the Lord speak to me and told me He had something better for me. I can certainly relate to how people get into sex work to survive. I managed to avoid that as a teenage runaway but just barely. My own sister left home at 16 and I know she'd known a few men in her life. I never asked what she did and she's never said but I'm sure she broke a few hearts along the way. The Lord used her to get me saved though. She eventually went to Bible college for two years, got her physiotherapy degree and later a teaching certificate. Now she has two children of her own and teaches at their Christian school. I know these stories can have happy endings, and would like to somehow help bring about a few more.

We CAN do this. it may hurt us BUT it will also make us stronger!

Let Go and Let God. He will direct you and sustain you. He will hold you up and fill you with all that you need to reach out to those who are in the industry.

I always thought....I can't do that. I am not good enough. What will I say?.....BUT God uses the most unlikely people to do His work. Just look at Rehab,Caleb, Abraham and Josiah along with many other untrained,imperfect people....the difference is they were WILLING to follow where God was leading them.

God will stretch your faith. Ask you to go where you least expect to go. Put some bumps in the road BUT....

ONE PERSON ON FIRE FOR THE LORD,HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CHANGE THE WORLD.

RESPOND IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S CALL

AND

KEEP FOCUSED ON GOD'S CALL AND PURPOSE FOR YOUR LIFE you will be amazed at what HE can do through you:)

and ABOVE ALL LOVE AS JESUS LOVES (and we all know that is easier said than done most of the time)

anyway felt I need to share this...luv ya's

take care
peace,hugs,prayers
and blessings
carrie

If you can just get a few people to be willing to pray for one partiuclar strip club, or prayer walk it (when it isn't open) that would be wonderful! It works better if you wage war in the heavenlies first, then take the ground!

!

Thanks to both of you, Carolmarie and Belovedbranch! I really do appreciate your encouragement. I would like to share this ministry with my pastor at the church that I am now attending, and see if he will be interested in sharing this with the church, since porn is a big issue for so many men and some women. And see if I can get some of the women from the church interested in doing outreaches to strip clubs and stuff. I need to just step out and do it in faith...this will be big, not just directly becuz of my hearing impairment, but also indirectly becuz of growing up being discouraged from doing things I wanted to do, and my co-dependence, I guess, on my family to do everything for me. So I just need to do it and not let myself continue to be captive to my fears, right?!

Thanks guys!

The heart that you have for sex workers is God-given. God has given you this burden for a reason, and He will help you to utilize it.
Remember the apostle Paul, and the thorn in his flesh? He asked God 3 times to take it from him, and God relpied "My grace is sufficient for you." Sometimes, God gives us infirmities to humble us, so that we can be used all the more for Him.
God has definitely given you this calling....I can really tell that you have such a heart for these girls, and God will use that mightily.

I think the blog idea is wonderful....You can reach so many people that way. Perhaps you can go into strip clubs, or wherever God might lead you, and let people know about the site, and to check it out.

Either way, God has not given you this burden for nothing. He will use it in an awesome way!!!

Precious

If you want to reach out and that is where God is turning your heart, then He will open the doors...the benefit of not hearing can be that you can concentrate on what is behind the words and the front, a hurting woman who needs God....
I think the blog is a great idea :) and you can always recruit a hearing friend to be your partner when you go out in person...

I can't wait til I get the opportunity to do this, myself, to reach out to those in the sex industry. I feel quite limited by my hearing impairment, now realizing that I am almost completely deaf, with only about 20 decibals of hearing left in both ears, before it is off the charts. I have apparently lost hearing over the years, sigh. Now needing new hearing aids. So I feel like I am not going to be able to communicate effectively because I cannot hear very well at all. Ughh, I wish God would heal me!
But that is why I want to do a blog site...I am not limited by that, right? So I guess for now, that is one way I can reach out to those in the sex industry who do their business online, and for the "customers" seeking the services. I can educate people around the world about the truth about porn and prostitution, and the whole sex industry, including sex trafficking, including children.

[quote="Admingirl"]Lately I have had a real passion to want to equip others to reach out and care for sex workers so bear with me while I get everything out!

I have been working with sex workers and women in rescue missions, prisons and my own ministry for six years and have learned many lessons along the way.

One of the lessons I want to share with you is that girls we help will often break your heart. But we STILL reach out and try anyways!

Often times when we go into ministry we have preconceived ideas about how wonderful and Christian everything is going to be but the truth is, reaching out to sex workers is the MOST PAINFUL thing I have ever done and some of the girls have seriously broke my heart.

GOOD, BROKENNESS IS GOOD FOR ME!

They have lied to me, manipulated me, conned me, hugged me in one breath and stole from me in the next. I have tucked girls into bed with kisses only to walk out so they could quickly run to their computers to chat with Johns (male clients) so they could make a buck.

I have had women cry their EYES OUT and beg me for help swearing they want to change and they are SERIOUS about leaving the sex industry if only they had help to fix their cars then they could get a normal job. I have scraped money together to
hurry and help them only for them to break my heart and drive their car to the nearest strip club to work.

I have listened to women for HOURS upon HOURS tell me every bad thing that ever happened to them while I pull my hair out and beg God to take me home now! Yet, God told me to sit there and listen because they needed someone to talk to. Then after investing major time in them, I never hear from them again.

Sigh.

I have had girls in my home bawling their eyes out while I hold their trembling hands listening to them share how they were raped on a porn set only for them to go back and make more porn movies. Heartbreak. Pain. Sleepless nights.

I have had calls at 1:30 am to pray for girls who are suicidal. I have missed dentist appointments because girls couldn't let me go. I have at times neglected my kids and my husband for these girls. To be honest, my whole world has turned upside down and many a night I have stood outside beneath the moonlight crying out to God, "WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY LIFE? I AM LOSING MY LIFE LORD!!!"

Only for the Lord to answer:

[b]"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. Luke 9:24[/b]

The reason I am sharing this with you is because heartbreak is inevitable. Reaching out to the sex industry isn't Sunday School and it isn't the Worship Team at church. This is a hardcore ministry and it will break your heart. Good, you probably need it!

These girls have shaped my character probably more than anything else in this life. God has used sex workers to teach me patience, discernment, wisdom, humility and most of all LOVE.

I don't care how many girls break my heart, I will never give up reaching out to women trapped in the sex industry. But I didn't know that in the beginning and it was quite a shock.

So, because I LOVE YOU ALL so much and see many of you have a heart to reach out to sex workers, I want to share with you as much wisdom as I can. I don't know it all that is for sure and am still learning SO MUCH but I want to help as many people as I can understand what it really takes to help girls.

Mother Teresa said it best:

[b]I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.[/b]

Love these girls even when it hurts. It WILL pay off. Not only will you help many of these girls become the beautiful women they were meant to be, but you will ALSO become more beautiful like Christ.

Love,
Shelley[/quote]
I can tell you that there were times when I was getting Eli out that I was heartbroken. For quite a while I literally stared Satan in the face and was in the pit of Hell but I came out ON TOP!

A good dose of truth as I set out on this journey. Thank you.

Debbie
Orlando, FL

Thanks Carebear! (Just thought of that for you)

You know, I wouldn't trade it for the world. The richness of my life surpasses all wealth and knowledge the world has to offer.

I live a very meaningful life that one could only hope to live. My main desire is to inspire others to step out into the "zone" with me and risk and experience the most amazing life they could ever live.

There's something really supernaturally amazing about "bearing" one's Cross. I understand why Christ never called on His Father or angels to rescue Him off that Cross. I get it now.

Shelley if it were as sweet as roses, more people would be doing it. Not to many want to go where it is dark. Where they can and will be hurt. A bubble around each of us is the norm....our safety zone. My heart as well is to reach out to these girls....THEY NEED someone to show them that Jesus loves them no matter what they have done...and that HE will take them just as they are. It is just to bad that many don't see the opportunity as it is staring them right in the face. You are in my continued prayers Shelley as well as those who are in the industry.

Be brave my friend...after all the Armour of God and His army is on your side:):)

luv ya girl
c u 2morrow
take care
peace,hugs,prayers
and blessings
carrie

p.s. thank you for sharing what is on your heart and the TRUTH about this ministry not being all smiles,fun and games:) YOU are REAL and for that God smiles upon you.