*Leah's transformed face as she left the party!
I promised that I would be posting more on the blog and updating you all with stories and testimonies, and so I am going to be rewinding through the year and pulling all of my favorites from the corners of my memory.
I have many stories and testimonies from Tijuana, but I wanted to share about *Leah.
On our last night in Tijuana, we threw a party for all of the prostitutes, pimps, strippers, and their children. We threw it in the most unlikely of places: a gay strip club. I have no idea what strip clubs usually look like, but this one was disgusting. We spent several hours cleaning the club and re-decorating it. One of our team members, Brettley said: "Sometimes love looks like covering a stripper pole with balloons" We placed table cloths and candles on each table and strung balloons across the room and really transformed the place. I remember sometime amidst the preparation feeling this overwhelming heaviness. You could feel the threats of the enemy whispering viciously in your ears. The spiritual darkness and warfare was very obvious, so I did the only thing that came to my heart: sing.
I went to the second floor where the "V.I.P." suites are and where no one could see me but where I knew all of hell could hear me and I sang at the top of my lungs praises to Jesus until I could feel the atmosphere shifting. I imagined all of those spirits plugging their ears as they ran screaming from the building. My friend Emily joined me and started singing loudly and we sang and sang until it lifted and the uneasy, queasy feeling in my stomach evaporated. The taunts of the enemy ceased.
Later, when all of the decorating was done, one of our trip leaders asked if I would lead some worship on the stage. I found it very difficult. It really felt like someone had their hand around my throat and clamping my mouth shut. I sang a little bit but then turned my guitar over to another worship leader on our team, Sam. He had the same problem and turned it over to another musician Austin, but he also had trouble. The musicians set to play didn't come and so it was getting off to a rocky beginning. Our leaders gathered to pray one more time together before people started arriving and again we could feel the tension evaporate.
But.... as we waited...
No one was coming.
I began to think we had thrown a party for ourselves when the first girl showed up: *Leah. We supported the local church in Tijuana and so many of them were also there that night to minister to whoever came. Some of our team went and got food for *Leah and began chatting with her. A little later, Sam came over to me and told me that *Leah was a singer and wanted to sing and asked if I could come over with my guitar. When I came over, she wanted to sing "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. Not being particularly adept to the guitar, I asked Sam to play and so he did and she sang. As she sang, we began to see pictures and words from the Father that he wanted us to share with her. As we did, she smiled and something in her eyes would change. Walls were coming down!
The night before, I had asked Sam (who speaks Spanish fluently) to help me translate one of my songs in Spanish in case the opportunity came to sing over any of the girls. He turned to her in this moment and asked *Leah if she would like to hear a song I wrote. She said yes! So Sam and I sang her a song I wrote in Spanish. The lyrics were:
" I put my trust in you, O Everlasting Father.
I put my trust in you, O Everlasting Father.
You're a rock
You're a high place
You're a fortress, in you I can rest.
I put my hope in you, O Everlasting Father.
I put my hope in you, O Everlasting Father.
You're a rock
You're a high place
You're a fortress!
I run into you when I'm afraid
I run into you and I am saved.
I run into you when I'm afraid.
I run into you and I am safe
Cause' you're a rock!
You're a high place!
You're a fortress!!
You don't have to move, you don't have to move.
The Lord, himself, will fight for you!"
It was amazing as we sang because she started singing along and her eyes started tearing up as the words impacted her! The woman next to her, who was one of the local missionaries, also started to cry!
Earlier, we had bought jewelry and clothing to give and bless the guests to this party, and so one of my teammates came over with three different bracelets and asked if I wanted to give her one. My eyes fell on a pretty delicate silver one with a purple stone. "That one." I said confidently. I knew it was the one. I cupped it secretively and came back over to the table, where another team mate Grant, had just served *Leah a big piece of cake.
"Close your eyes. I have a surprise for you." I told *Leah. She did so with a shy smile.
I placed the delicate bracelet into her open palm and then told her to open her eyes.
Her wide brown eyes stared at the bracelet for several moments before filling with tears. She looked up at me and back down at the bracelet and then said breathlessly,
"No, you don't understand" she said, looking back up at me.
"I had a dream about this bracelet. This exact bracelet. I was walking on the beach and it was buried in the sand and I heard a voice calling me, telling me to pick it up. So I did and I put it on, and the voice said I was royalty." Then she laughed, kind of self-consciously. "I'm sorry I'm crying. It's so funny, because lately I've been listening to the radio too and I feel like I'm going crazy or maybe God is talking to me because every song is talking about how I'm royalty and special."
We then were able to speak to her more about how God sees her and how special she is. This led to her feeling safe and COMPLETELY opening up to us about her story.
It was heartbreaking but also EYE- opening for me to realize I could have been her. This could have happened to me.
She was a pastors kid. Had been adopted as a toddler into an Southern California Home, the daughter of YWAM pastors. She grew up wanting to know more about her birth parents and feeling insecurities and deep depression and was pursued as a teenager by an older man in his 40s. In her own words, she was rebellious and stupid and ran away with this man for a "vacation" to Tijuana. While there, he left her and she began working as a waitress in a bar. One day while listening to her headphones and dancing, she was encouraged by her boss to try "dancing" on stage. So she began to dance and would escape into the music so she wouldn't have to think about what she was doing and the eyes that were always on her. When that stopped working, she started using drugs to keep out the feelings of shame and guilt that she felt.
One night, a man waited for her until her shift was over. She felt "honored" that he had waited all night for her and had roses. She fell in love with him. But once they were together, he started pimping her out. She now calls him her "baby daddy" as she has had several children that he has taken on as his. But it is obvious that he is her pimp...and one of the ways that they traffic women is by performing this same routine. They sweet talk and lure a woman into feeling safe and in-love and then they prostitute them out. Several times while we were talking she grew scared thinking he might show up at the party.
There was much more to her story, but that is the basic gist. We were able to prophesy over her, encouraging her and edifying her and telling her the ways that God saw her... and we were able to pray with and encourage her. Throughout the night, her entire countenance TRANSFORMED!
What I saw was how love transformed her. One of our guys, Grant, really made me proud as he was intentional about treating her like a lady the entire night. She made several comments saying: "When I arrived, he treated me like a lady. He made me feel like this entire party was thrown in my honor...and it really has felt that way."
She left feeling loved, cherished, royal, special, and pursued by the God who made her and loves her. The local pastors and church we ministered with have stayed in contact with her and are pursuing her as well.
Please keep *Leah in your prayers, and the other ladies that live with her. Pray for her "baby daddy" and pimp, that he will also come to know the Father...and that they will all be freed.
*Name has been changed to protect the identity and safety of the individual involved.
Cleaning up the club
A view of some of the private boxes and dancing cages
A view of the bar as we decorated and cleaned
Sam and Austin worshipping on the strip club stage
Worship while decorating and final touches: lighting candles
Flooding that place with worship!
We rented a taco truck to feed ourselves and our guests!
The entrance to the club: Sky Blue
Children of some of the women came
And we fed them too and enjoyed practicing our Spanish to their giggling delight!
