Latest / The Rachelle Starr Podcast / The $10 That Changed Everything | The Rachelle Starr Podcast Episode 2
Transcript
- Rachelle Starr: Hi, I'm Rochelle, the host of the Rochelle Star Podcast, where we equip the church to bring the hope and love of Jesus to women in the adult entertainment industry. We're going to be having honest conversations about what that really looks like. So if you've ever wondered how to engage in this space or how to do it well, you're in the right place. In 2007, God called me to bring the hope and love of Jesus to women in the sex industry. ⁓ it is a calling and a gift that I have been doing ever since that day. But I want to share the story of how it came to be and where God has taken the ministry. So I grew up as a pastor's kid, and I ⁓ always had a dad that would bring homeless people and ⁓ prostitutes to church and we would do this on the regular on Sunday mornings. And oftentimes he would be asked by elders or church leaders to not do that. And my dad would move on to another church and we would continue to do that because that's what he truly believed and taught me the church was for. So when I got into my early twenties, I was asking the Lord ⁓ to give me a people and a purpose and to r really what was I created for? And I would pray for about two years on my way into work. I worked in Louisville, Kentucky, lived in southern Indiana. It was just about five miles away and I would pass a Theater X every single day. Well, I had no idea what this Theater X was. I didn't know what went on there. Human trafficking wasn't talked about outwardly in the world. It wasn't You know, there wasn't a lot of awareness about it. And one particular day in May of 07, I heard the Holy Spirit say, I'm sending you there to share my hope and my love. I knew instantly it wasn't my idea, but that it was the Lord, it was coming from the Lord. And so I called my husband and I said, I think God's answered my prayer. He wants me to go share the gospel with women in the sex industry. And my husband said, That's exactly what Jesus would do. Well, from there I told my friend Sarah and I told her husband and I told many friends and we decided to do a prayer drive around all of the strip clubs in that theater X until God gave us the next step. So for 18 months, my husband and Sarah and her husband would fast and pray every Tuesday, and we would drive all over the city of Louisville. To pray outside of these establishments. We didn't know how to get in there or how were we going to bring the gospel to these people? We didn't know what the plan was, but all we knew was to be obedient in fasting and praying. Every single week we would sit outside of some of the clubs, and I became very burdened by not praying about shutting those places down, but rather getting to the very people inside of there. So fast forward 18 months later, I was reading the book by Francis Chan, Crazy Love. And the first two words in that book are stop praying. And it felt like he had written those words just for me. And I remember saying, it's time to stop praying. Not literally, but stop just prayer driving around. It's time to actually go into the clubs. And so we gathered on a Sunday and we fasted and prayed from Sunday to Tuesday. Now, what I didn't know at the time that I learned later is that Louisville was the fifth largest industry per capita in America. We had 27 strip clubs in our city. We also had some of the largest churches. And one of the things that I did during those 18 months of fasting and praying and prayer driving was call churches and ask them if they were ministering to women in strip clubs or to prostitutes. And Unanimously every church said, Well, there's a sign out our, you know, on our property. If people want to come, they can. But I remember very explicitly that God was like, I'm calling you to go. And so we on Tuesday night gathered together and and unanimously agreed that the Lord was calling us to one particular club in Louisville. We showed up and we went in with myself and three other women. And we were dressed like we, you know, turtlenecks and no makeup and our hair back because we didn't want anybody to think that we were there for a job. We had no idea what to expect or what it was gonna be like. We paid $10 to get in the door. And I will say today that was the best $10 I've ever spent trying to get into a place. But I will tell you that when we walked in those doors, it was the darkest. darkness I have ever experienced. There was pornography all over the walls and there were hallways that I couldn't see what was in front of us. The smells were smoky and musty and there was loud music everywhere. And honestly I just kept praying, God, give us the next step. Show us who to talk to, show us who to to to approach. So one of the bouncers led us over to a part of the bar where all of the drinking was happening. And it was the smaller part of the bar. And we sat sat up at the bar and ordered some sprites and Dr. Peppers. And the the bartender said, What are you guys doing here? And I just prayed in my spirit, Lord, give me the words to say. And all all that could come out of my mouth was Jesus sent us here to do something kind and loving for the people in this place. Could we bring in a home cooked meal? She quickly looked at me and said, We don't need any food. And we don't need that service. And so I just said, okay, you know, what is your name? And she told me her name and I eventually got to know her story. And a little bit later, the Holy Spirit sort of prompted us to go to a different side of the club where there were more people and I had no idea who was who or what management was around or what that even looked looked like. And my friend and I were sitting at a high top table and she was talking to me. We were trying to act somewhat normal. And she was talking to me, and all of a sudden I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to go over to a man I had never met. I did not know who he was. And I held out my hand. I said, My name's Rochelle. I'm here because Jesus sent me here to do something kind and loving for the people in this place. Could I possibly bring in a home-cooked meal? To my surprise, his jaw dropped and He said, What's the catch? I said, There is no catch. I, you know, and I'm also praying to my spirit, Lord, give me the words to say. What what do you want me to say? And all I could really hear from the Holy Spirit was say, I I'm here to introduce them to Jesus. This man ended up being the owner of the club, and he shared his story with me and my friends for an hour and 45 minutes. And I got a window into his life and the abuse and neglect that he had experienced and the trauma that he had experienced as a kid. And he quickly gave us permission to come into the club. So we showed up that Thursday, ⁓ two days later, with a home our first home-cooked meal. And since I'm Italian, I made spaghetti and garlic bread and Caesar salad and all of that delicious food. And my friend Sarah and I went in with Our home cooked meal. To my surprise, most of the women did not trust us. They had had really horrible experiences with Christians. They had had picketing outside of their clubs. Christians had tried to take them to court and ⁓ raise money to shut the clubs down. And their experiences with Christians were pretty negative. I would have women come up to me and say, Did you poison this food? Why are you why are you giving this to us? Are you trying to get us out of here? What are you trying to do? And so little by little, week over week over week, we began to build trust and get to know who they are. One of the things that that just really struck me in the beginning was not only their lack of trust of Christians, but then also how hurting most of these women were. Many of them homeless and many of them. without families and lonely. And so we began to help them one by one with resources and with the different things that God would provide for us to give them. I came to quickly learn that not only is does the gospel show up in the darkness and bring the light of Christ to the darkness, but it also provides a way out. And that has stayed with Scarlet Hope over and over and over the through the years. But our main mission is to introduce them to Jesus and He does all of the transformative work. We just get to be along and to be to be his hands and feet along the journey. So Scarlet Hope continued on and we began serving in that club every single week. And then I met a prostitute on the street who happened to also be a manager of three other clubs she invited us in. And one club grew to three clubs, grew to ten clubs, and eventually the church ladies, as we became as we became known of we're in 27 clubs in Louisville, Kentucky. This quickly spread around and we ended up multiplying to Cincinnati, multiplying ⁓ in other locations because God was at work bringing the light of Christ to the darkness. This was a mission that most Christians would sit me down and say, you need to stop doing this. This isn't the way to do it. But I was witnessing women not only freed in Christ, but freed from exploitation and trafficking. And I was witnessing God provide for our ministry in ways that we could not only image unimaginable ways. And so we did things like start a transitional living home. We started social enterprises. We hired women, ⁓ still to this day. We have survivors on staff, and God has just helped lead us one thing after another. But the mission of Scarlet Hope has never changed through the years. It is to bring the hope and love of Jesus to every woman in the adult entertainment industry that's exploited and trafficked. That is our hope and our prayer across the nation as we seek to help each of the cities and the strip clubs and the brothels come to know Jesus Christ. We know that he can transform lives, and that's what Scarlet Hope is all about. In 2018, ⁓ our ministry and our team started praying for a way to reach women that were exploited and trafficked online. This was the fastest growing way women were working in the industry, but also being exploited and trafficked through the industry was online advertisements. And so ⁓ many of you might remember Backpage or you know, Craigslist ads that people would post. But when the iPhone was invented and and the smartphone was invented, it exponentially allowed for that growth and for those opportunities to expand. And so online exploitation and trafficking is now the fastest growing industry in the world. And we asked God to help us find a way to reach those individuals. I happen to be up in Seattle and there was a group out in Seattle that was forming a technology company that would identify victims of human trafficking and exploitation online and allow advocates and nonprofits like ourselves to reach them. And so I said, sign me up, let's let's be one of your first customers, and we would love to be a part of this. So we brought their technology platform to Louisville, Kentucky, and we began utilizing that in March of 2019. The very first campaign that we sent, a woman responded and she said, I've been being trafficked for the last four to six years. My trafficker actually just dumped me on the side of the road. He said he I was no longer making him any money and I have no way out or any help. And so she was sitting, she sh through text message, we ended up figuring out where she was at. She came to our office and we were able to get her the care that she so desperately needed. That immediately lit a fire under our team and we started reaching as many women as we could. And in 2019, from March to the end of the year, we were able to reach 18,000 women and serve 1800 of those with resources and opportunity. we realized that this was not an ad that that we were not doing addition anymore, but we were doing multiplication and finding as many ⁓ victims of exploitation and trafficking that we could. So we began to expand it from one city to two cities and eventually to nine cities. And then in 2022, the company came and asked Scarlet Hope if we would like to to acquire it. I, of course, jumped, prayed about it, and jumped on the idea, and we became the new owners of what is now Freedom Signal in September of 2022. What I love about this is, and I'm so grateful to Microsoft and to the teams that built this platform. But what I love about this for Scarlet Hope is that we have been able to share the gospel with hundreds of thousands of people offering the gospel. hope and opportunity. It is where Scarlet Hope is headed for our future. We still bring home cooked meals every single week to strip clubs, to brothels, and we can we will continue to do that. But as the industry changes, we also want to make sure that we are going where the people are going. And so this ⁓ this platform, this technology allows us to expand in a way that is ⁓ truly one of the ⁓ the biggest outreaches that I think exists in the world for this effort. And we have an opportunity to reach almost 3.3 million individuals being exploited and trafficked online. We are largely doing this by mobilizing churches and through Scarlet Hopes around the country. And we love that churches are taking up this calling to actually not just raise awareness, but to take action. And we're ⁓ launching our digital outreach programs in churches where they are being trained and equipped to reach out through SMS to victims that are through our platform and communicating with them, praying with them, offering resources and by God's grace, offering them to be a part of their church body. It has been amazing and tens of thousands of women have already been served and reached and baptized and It has been an incredible journey to watch digital outreach at Scarlet Hope grow. And we want to continue to do that and continue to identify victims and reach them and offer hope and opportunity. Thank you for listening to the Rochelle Star podcast. If this conversation encouraged you or challenged you, I'd invite you to take the next step. Whether that's learning more, getting involved, or sharing this episode with someone else, at Scarlet Hope, we believe consistent presence changes lives. and there's a place for you in this work. You can learn more at scarlethope.org.