Bourbon Street Outreach

The guy sitting alone at the bar was probably in his mid-forties. A couple of seats down from him were two young ladies who may have been twenty. We walked up to the girls and handed them each a rose and wished them Happy Valentine’s. They looked at us suspiciously but took the roses anyway. The guy asked me what we were doing so I told him we were out reminding people that somebody cares about them. One of the girls turned to me and said, “Do you love strippers?” I smiled at her and said, “Of course we do. That’s why we’re here.”

The girls introduced themselves as Diamond and Wednesday. We chatted briefly but said we had to go as there were lots of other women we wanted to give flowers to. Diamond stood up and hugged my neck. “You really do love strippers” she said. I smiled and nodded. I thought she might cry. As I turned around the guy at the bar said, “You guys are the nicest people I have ever met in my life.” I thanked him and wished him a Happy Valentine’s as well. We walked out of the smoky bar and stepped back onto Bourbon Street.

We do Midnight Outreach every month, but this is the first time we’ve done it in New Orleans. We partnered with a great church whose heart is to reach out to the lost and hurting in their city. By joining with Church of the King we had the opportunity to impact hundreds of people who are tangled up in darkness and destruction that comes with involvement in the sex industry. We got to seek that which is lost.

A few blocks down the street a woman stopped us. “Hey, y’all really do love strippers.” She had a rather large tattoo and a rather small shirt. I’m not sure if she had two or three piercings in her face, but it’s her eyes that I remember. She stood in front of our team and said, “I’ve been into every club along this strip and they all say you’ve been in there giving roses to the girls.” She was very intense so we just listened. “I’ve danced in every club on Bourbon Street. You guys are the first people to ever do something for us. You guys care about us. Nobody cares about us. They hate us. You can tell by the way they look at us. They hate us.” Her words were coming out fast enough to tell me she was high and she was moving the entire time she stood there. She told us that she doesn’t strip anymore since she got engaged. Now she just rides the mechanical bull at the Bourbon Cowboy. She told us that if we wanted to ride the bull she could get us in for free. We thanked her for the offer but told her we had other clubs we needed to go to. She thanked us again, lit a cigarette and disappeared into the throng.

This is why we do Midnight, so that women like Diamond, Wednesday and Rose can be reminded that they’re more than what they do. They are precious, important, wounded people. They are not just strippers and prostitutes; they are somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister. They are the ones Jesus went to the cross for…just like you and me.

I am so grateful that HPC allows us to go beyond the box of ‘what is acceptable’. I am so grateful that we are, like Pastor Mike says, a second mile church. How cool is it that we are now known, on Bourbon Street, as a church who loves strippers? What an awesome privilege. All glory to God.