[ministry spotlight] hpc midnight outreach

by Carole Turner, Healing Place Church, Baton Rouge, LA

 

The first time I walked into a strip club, I knew I was doing the right thing.

Sometimes I get to answer the question “what is midnight outreach?” I love talking about it because I think it is one of the most amazing outreaches I get to be a part of. What’s even cooler is I get to do it once a month.

Midnight outreach is to strip clubs, and the streets of north Baton Rouge. We go into the strip clubs (only ladies go into the clubs, men stay outside and talk to the bouncers and give them Chocolate) and we give every lady in the club a rose. Tied onto the rose with pretty ribbon is a business card from Healing Place Church which reads “We hope this small gift brightens your day. It is a simple way to say God loves you – no strings attached. Let us know if we can help you.” also on the card is the church web site address, map to the church, service times and church phone numbers.

The managers and owners of these strip clubs know what these cards say, they know we are from a church, Aliece (the leader of Midnight outreach) tells them who we are when she talks to them about coming into the clubs. They know we just want to be nice to the ladies, give them a rose and treat them like a daughter of the king, not a piece of meat. The patrons know who we are, we have on bright red shirts that say “HPC” on the front and “SERVE” on the back. We drive up in a big shuttle that has “Healing Place Church” on the side of it. So, for some supernatural reason, they let us come in and give a rose to every dancer, bar maid, and female patron there. We don’t give roses to any men, even if they ask for one to give a lady, we simply tell them we can only give them to the ladies ourselves.

About twice a year the team gets to go into the dancers dressing rooms and decorate them, like at Christmas and Valentines Day. Some of these girls get no gifts on these holidays, they are alone and they love that we give them gifts and treat them with dignity especially around the holidays.

I had wanted to go on Midnight Outreach for awhile before I actually did. Dean was afraid for me to go. Then he agreed to let me go as long as Summer went with me, within a few months Dean started driving the shuttle for every midnight outreach.

The first time I walked into a strip club I knew I was doing the right thing. I knew that first night that we were doing something completely unexpected in the spirit world. I mean, where is one sure fire place the devil knows he is safe from THE love of Jesus? Here are men treating a woman like a piece of meat, getting their kicks off of looking at a mostly naked girl completely torn down in her self worth to the point that she thinks all she can do for a living is take her clothes off for money. Girls so addicted to drugs that they feel they have to strip to get the money they need? When you walk in you can literally feel the darkness separating. The LOVE of Jesus does that. It’s like the Devil is confused by the angels that surround us. The bewilderment on the faces of the male patrons, The dancers who look shocked and puzzled by this free rose handed to her by a smiling, unintimidated face of love. The smile we give, the eye contact and the lack of fear, is all God reaching out to show love to someone living in hell.

After we go to the two local strip clubs we then head down to north Baton Rouge. We go to two different inner city night clubs and the Alamo Hotel to hand out roses and chocolates but here we also give out fliers for the Baton Rouge Dream Center church services. After that we hit the streets. I love the streets cuz’ we get to pray with people, talk to them, give them information about the church, the ladies roses and the guys chocolate.

We have had the privilege of praying with many prostitutes, drug dealers, crack heads, gang bangers, children, homeless people and just normal lost souls out late at night. And some of them have come to church, gotten saved and attend regularly.

After only 2 years of being a part of midnight outreach, we are becoming a constant in their lives, they are seeing that we are committed to showing them the love of Jesus, not condemn them or preach at them but love them and offer a place they can come for real hope.

I can’t think of anything more fulfilling in life than knowing I am walking into hell on earth to spread the love of Jesus.

THAT is midnight outreach.

 

About the author:

Carole Turner
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
41 yr old story teller, singer, artist, Orphan care advocate. Married 14 yrs to Dean. Mother of Evangeline, who has Juvenile Diabetes, miracle of birth. Steele, first adoption miracle and Abel our second adoption miracle from Ethiopia.

Follow my blog: http://www.thewardrobeandthewhitetree.com  
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CaroleTurner

poetry [compassion]: oh how we lie to deny you

by Carole Turner

 

Fire why? Burn inside.
Fly Fly Fly.
Oh How I cry.
How I lie, to deny.

Where’s the pain? The Rain.
It’s all the same.
Say it again.
Again.

Go and don’t look back.
Pack, pack, pack.
And hate what you took.
Leave it there.
Have no fear?
Have no fear.

Forever begs you help.
Today sees you wait.
no eat, no sleep.
Wait.

Where are His feet?
His hands close tight.
A purse.
Close your eyes God
As we let them die.
Oh how we lie to deny you.

Show me your tiny hands.
Empty, holding nothing.
Grasping for my everything.

Fire why burn inside.
Hush while you die.
No more cry.
Fly. Fly. Fly.

 

About the author:

Carole Turner
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
41 yr old story teller, singer, artist, Orphan care advocate. Married 14 yrs to Dean. Mother of Evangeline, who has Juvenile Diabetes, miracle of birth. Steele, first adoption miracle and Abel our second adoption miracle from Ethiopia.

Follow my blog: http://www.thewardrobeandthewhitetree.com  
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CaroleTurner

photo journal [compassion]: helping homeless people

by Carole Turner

My 12 year old daughter has gotten up every Thursday at 4:30am for almost two years to go cook and then feed breakfast to the homeless population of Baton Rouge. The breakfast is served at the Baton Rouge Dream Center’s Roselawn location, which is just off Florida Blvd, right down the road from the Volunteers of America shelter. After breakfast the men (and sometime women) who come get to shop in a free clothing boutique. There is also a bible study that meets after the breakfast and the people are given access to counseling for addictions and help getting a job if they wish. They are all invited to Sunday church services and a ride is provided if they want to come.

Over the last couple years we have seen many of these people start attending our HPC Baton Rouge Dream Center campus, a few are no longer homeless, some now have jobs, many are meeting Jesus.

What my daughter and the No Place Outreach team also do is after serving the breakfast they go out to the Levee, overpasses, crack houses and “camps” to bring food, blankets, sometimes Medical care and always prayer to the homeless that can’t or wont go to the breakfast.

BUT one thing they don’t do is give money. Shocked? Don’t be, one guy confessed that he makes $150.00 a day asking for money with a sign on the highway. Others have told us that the $3.00 most ask for for bus fare, is used to get a hit of crack. And we have watched as others have taken money and bought their current life source, a bottle of cheap wine. Giving money is a band aid at best and at worse it’s a tool of the enemy to keep everyone, including us, right where we are.

What I mean by that is people feel better, like they did something to help, when they give a homeless person money. So the giver gets to keep moving and go on to life in the suburbs and the homeless guy gets to live one more day trapped in his addiction, away from true relationship and even closer to death, without hope. In giving the guy on the corner the $3.00 we are not doing what the good Samaritan did. He cleaned the guy up, took him to a hotel and paid for the guy’s stay there while he recovered. He made a long term commitment to the man. Connections with people that will care how things go with them day in and day out is what homeless people need more then money.

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it.

Most of the time, giving money doesn’t do anything but worsen the man’s physical needs.

I know a young man who sings at a few local clubs. He loves God and knew he would be used there. Only the way God is using him there is not what you would suspect. He has made friends with a few homeless guys that hang outside one club. He brings food to them, talks to them about life, prays with them and brings a couple of them to church. When he found out one of them was sick in an abandoned house with the flu, he went to visit him and brought him medication. He has a relationship with this guy, a friendship has formed and now the guy is no longer homeless.

THAT is meeting the physical need.

But lets say you feel you can only give money. Fine, give money to a homeless shelter so they can house more people. Fund a free breakfast or lunch facility. Support ministries that are feeding and clothing and helping people actually get out of homelessness. Or if you feel you can be a little more hands on, go buy some tents, shoes, jackets, bibles, snack food and take it to the places where the homeless live on the streets. Start small maybe yet more relational by getting the guy a happy meal and bringing it to him, then have a conversation with him about his life.

Or do like my young friend has, befriend ONE homeless person.

Ministry to the homeless is not easy. If your a results driven person, you will be disappointed more then pleased. leave the souls to God, don’t look for results other then doing what we are told to do in James and doing your best to give someone hope. There is no quick fix, it’s a long term problem that takes long term commitment, not a $3.00 hand out.

If you would like to get involved in reaching out to the homeless in your area, here are just a few great organizations that do just that.

St. Vincent DePaul
Shout for Joy
Potters Street Community
No Place Outreach
Volunteers of America
The Baton Rouge Dream Center
 
Grace,
Carole

 

About the author:

Carole Turner
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
41 yr old story teller, singer, artist, Orphan care advocate. Married 14 yrs to Dean. Mother of Evangeline, who has Juvenile Diabetes, miracle of birth. Steele, first adoption miracle and Abel our second adoption miracle from Ethiopia.

Follow my blog: http://www.thewardrobeandthewhitetree.com  
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CaroleTurner

poetry [compassion]: the poor

by Carole Turner

 

I can read of you and I feel something.
I even cry when I see you thin and hungry.
I judge you when you hold a sign, when you smell, or look ugly.
I drive by you walking in the rain.
I see you sleeping on the street again.
When I touch you, I want to weep.
When you are locked away and your babies we keep.
I visit your home where you sell yourself away.
I give you groceries and your child a book.
I don’t know your life or the abuse you took.
But I can’t look away anymore.
I can’t leave even with a wide open door.
So what am I to do? You are now really a “You”.
I see your face when I pray, when I look at my children.
I see your face again, again and again.
I read of you and I feel something.
I look at you and I see you.
I look at you and I see Jesus.

 

 

About the author:

Carole Turner
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
41 yr old story teller, singer, artist, Orphan care advocate. Married 14 yrs to Dean. Mother of Evangeline, who has Juvenile Diabetes, miracle of birth. Steele, first adoption miracle and Abel our second adoption miracle from Ethiopia.

Follow my blog: http://www.thewardrobeandthewhitetree.com  
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CaroleTurner