First Street Outreach with Created

Friday night...time creeped on...9pm, 9:30pm, 9:45pm...I was getting tired and we weren't meeting to go on outreach until 10:30pm. I decided to take a quick nap, woke up and dragged myself out of bed (would have been easy to stay cuddled with my puppy) at 10:15pm, made myself some coffee and left to meet our 5 person team to go out to the streets. Thank God I didn't miss going on outreach.

Our 5 person team included 2 males-one driving, the other in the front passenger seat, and 3 females (myself and 2 others) to get out and talk to the women on the streets. Our driver is new to Gainesville and so he did not know the area very well; we used this as a way of just allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us and take us wherever He wanted us to go...and He definitely did!

We weren't driving around more than 15 minutes or so before we came across a woman, P, walking back and forth along a sidewalk in front of a homeless shelter. Our team leader recognized her right away as we got out of the car and approached her. She was being trafficked by her pimp in that area about a year ago before she disappeared. Per our team leader, the streets have been extremely rough on her: she looks about 10 years older, has no teeth, and has lost most of her hair. She seemed extremely jumpy and kept looking over her shoulder. She was really surprised that our leader remembered her and she said she was going to give away the food that we gave her to the "others" along with the toiletries. We asked what we could pray about for her and she only gave us a one word response, "safety."

The second person we came across was waving at our male drivers so we knew that she was "working" so we pulled over to talk to her. As we approached her and tried to talk to her it was apparent that she was a male dressed as a female prostitute. S/he did not want to talk to us, refused our gift bag, shook her head and walked away. We prayed for her/him.

At this point it is getting close to midnight and we drove down a new, and busier street. We witness a man yelling at and hitting a woman on the street corner. We slow down and turn down the street where she is being attacked. We weren't sure if the man was her pimp, or a john hurting her so we kept our distance at first. The man eventually crosses the street and walks away leaving the woman, T, crumpled on the ground crying as we approach her. It turns out that the man was her husband and her pimp. She was so sad and confused as to why her husband thought it was okay to sell her to other men for money. She said that she is tired and doesn't want to do that anymore and that she doesn't want her husband to "rape" her any more either. She said she knew that just because they were married, if she said no, then it was rape. She also told us that she used to have a job at Subway and was going to school before she met this man. We ended up taking her with us and drove her to a safe place where she could sleep for the night, as she was homeless. In the car, I was able to counsel her a bit about what abuse is and that she needed to stay away from her husband who was also her pimp. We were able to share the love of Christ with her by letting her know that God led us to her and that He wants her to be safe and healthy because He loves her. We pray that T is strong enough and able to stay away from her abuser in order to stay safe. We gave her our contact information and we also pray that she reaches out to us for further help. She was extremely grateful for our help in getting her to safety and the gift bag that she received full of food and toiletries.

We finished out the night by going to the homeless section of town to see if there was any activity going on there. It was pretty quiet.

One thing I realize is that NONE of us are immune from evil. The women we met on the street could be me, you, your sister, mother, daughter, or friend. In the economy we live in, we could all easily be one paycheck from living on the streets and getting trapped by a trafficker/abuser/pimp. I am thankful to God for where I am today and that I have the ability to help and counsel these women who are less fortunate than me.