Went to a strip club today for the first time in my life. It won't be the last I'm pretty sure. If you know me, you know why I went... to love girls. Shady Lady Strip Club, open till 3am, 7days a week, 365 days a year. No windows, for several reasons, and dark. I was tripping over stools cause I couldn't see in the dim lighting. Avoiding looking over at the pole area, I followed Katie and Lynn to the bar. We introduced ourselves to Joe, I think he was the manager/bar tender. We gave him a bag of cookies and told him we had some gifts for the girls for working so hard. He said yeah, sure. So we handed out some beautiful white roses and small goodie bags to several precious girls. Outfits weren't much different than what you would see at a pool. Fancy underwear basically, that glowed in the black lights.
I did my best to not look around much. It wasn't that busy, 1 girl on the pole, a couple around the area talking to or attending to men. I caught painful glimpses of the acts. We met Heather, Ashley, Gretchen, Caitlyn, Debbie, and several others, but I forget their names. Me and my two other team members sat down to pray and wait for more girls to give gifts to. There was a juke box behind me that the girls put songs on for themselves to dance to. There were lots of little circle tables and empty chairs. Near the pole area there were couches and two older men with ladies. There was a black guy with dreads closest to us watching the girl dancing.
Ashley appeared behind the curtain behind me. I thought it was a wall, not a curtain.. I wonder what is in the other rooms of this place... Food orders were being taken to the back somewhere... Joe gave us free soda in small glasses with two little black straws. Thank you Joe, we said. The girls were happy to receive flowers and gifts, some more receptive to talking with us than others. Everyone knew we were Christians, I'm pretty sure. Several of them said, "we know you are church people" Besides my white glowing shirt, I'm sure we stood out their. Our little lights were shining in the darkness.
I used the tiny restroom under the blue neon light that said "ladies". Walked passed a older middle aged guy, maybe 60ish?? He looked at me and I kept walking. There were a total of 4 guys with a couple women around them, and i saw a girl in an area by herself on my way out of bathroom... Katie used restroom and ended up meeting Heather in there and they prayed. Heather has 2 toddlers. Ashley came out and asked if we'd be there awhile to talk. She was going to get ready and then would come out and sit with us. She was super bubbly and chatty. She said, "you church girls go to strip clubs, you guys are great!" We waited for her to go finish getting ready but decided to leave after 15-20min. We thanked Joe and said goodbye to Heather and made our way out into the daylight.
My eyes caught on a dusty display case with hats, t-shirts and ONESIEs in blue and pink with Shady Lady embroidered on them...
It was heavy in there. At first I thought, oh this isn't that bad.. then I saw a lap dance for a brief second. Yikes. So broken, and empty.
I dropped Lynn and Katie off and came back home to take a nap. I was tired from getting up at 12:45pm. Early for a night girl who normally gets to bed around 7 and up at 3pm. Anyway, I dreamed.
I dreamed we went to car and then got in and prayed, which we did do in real life. Then I went in with Lynn or someone else to give the girls more flowers, cause I found a potted flower in my car and some loose stem gerber daisys. They were wilting and in need of water. When I went in there were way more people and there were guys eating with their girlfriends. I gave one couple some flowers, the guy spoke to me asking for a flower. .. Over at the bar area there were some of the girls we had already met and some other girls. One really young girl with white t-shirt and cut off jean shorts. She was blonde and a white girl about 10 or 12 yrs old....(I grabbed my oatmeal from the fridge that i had made this morning for breakfast but hadn't finished- I think that's why I went back in, to grab the oatmeal I forgot??) Girls crowded around as we laid the flowers on the counter to give them. I told them they needed water. They said "you girls are so sweet..." and different little comments like that. On our real life visit I saw only white girls. In my dream there were black and white girls. On the way out I saw behind the curtain and the mirror area to see plush couches, beds and nice carpet. That's where the food was being ordered and it was one really big open spacious room with the sides lined with a couch area and the other side with comfy beds. Two tall black girls, who might have been trans, said we were so sweet and nice. The one hugged me. In the parking lot and side walk there were girls everywhere, just waking up, coming to get ready for the night etc... one girl passed me and I asked her kindly, "are you sleepy" she said yeah. She said that she was going to check out cars in the parking lot to see if the guys were married or not?? not sure how she would determine that from looking at their cars but??... I woke up to a bark and the car garage door opening. The feeling of seeing all those girls and talking with them, was pretty real. I feel like we really did talk with them. ... Jesus, flood their hearts with light and open their eyes to see the worth, the value and the beauty of Jesus. For them to Love the Lord with all their heart soul mind and strength and to love themselves as He loves them. To know their worth, value and beauty cant' be bought. They are precious in His sight. .. Jesus give them your love tonight.
