First of all, thank you again for your response to the initial Prostitute Prayer Request emailing that my wife Yvonne sent out a while back. Hundreds of responses with many people praying for the women listed in the four legal brothels in Nevada. Legal? Hmmmm. The Bible has a different viewpoint.
Keep praying. Don’t stop. If you did start but kinda slacked off, hey, I understand. Prayer discipline is one of the biggest challenges we Christians have in staying focused. Just start up again, and if you stop, just start up again. Don’t quit. These women need your faithful prayers. If you misplaced your list notify us and we’ll resend.
If you are someone who became a more recent sign up to our newsletter and aren’t familiar with what I’m saying and would like to receive Yvonne’s original Prostitute Prayer Request email, just respond to this and request it.
For the rest you’ll recall the mainland-runaway-to-Hawaii teen hooker that I rescued in the 70’s while ministering as The Chaplain of Waikiki Beach in that decade in Hawaii. You’ll recall what she (Yvonne and I refer to her as Jane Doe to protect her identity) said in her email to me. She promised a follow up report. Here it is —
“Thank you Yvonne for the mailing you sent out asking for prayer for the women listed. Here is my report since then. Eleven women have left the brothels with eight of them guaranteeing they will no longer be prostitutes. Five of them returned to either their homes or hometown, while it was best the rest did not because of previous abusive situations. Four of them have become Christians. Actually one was and rededicated her life. We are in regular contact with 10 of the 11 of them. One of them is living with me and my family. When she was 10 she was raped almost daily for two years by her step-father and two of his buddies. Sometimes on a combined Saturday and Sunday that could amount to up to 20 times. She won’t talk about her mother so I have no idea where she was in this horrible mix. She is a totally distraught 24 year old hurting woman. She needs our loving care and prayers to heal her emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually. It’s okay to give her name. Nikki. Thank you for keeping the identity of me and my three helpers confidential. If the brothel owners ever discovered us we could be in big trouble, or worse, killed. Yes that has happened to others like us trying to reach out to the prostitutes in Nevada. We four are now contacting many “escorts” (same thing, prostitutes) in a few of our major west coast cities.
“Bob, I have a surprise for you. One of the girls you rescued in 1973 recently got in contact with me. Her name is (name withheld) and she lives in (town withheld) in Northern California. I told her we were in contact after these many years and she sent me a message to pass along to you. It follows. I want you two to know that I’ll give you future updates to share with those praying. God bless both of you.” Signed, Name.
“””Hello Bob or should I say Aloha Bob. I am thrilled that you and ***** have reconnected and that I have too with her. I hope you remember me, (name withheld). I had the street name of Bam-Bam. Do you remember? If you do not I won’t be offended as this was so long ago. I want to take just a moment to again thank you for rescuing me from ***** (her pimp) and convincing me that returning to California was a better choice than where I was and doing what I was doing. If you will recall from this foul-mouthed, fiery 16-year-old redhead, who has a lot of gray hair now, at first I gave you a really bad time. Thank you for your patience with me and your steady, gentle convincing. It finally took a hold of my heart. I was made aware after I left that in order to convince ***** that he should let me go after I told him I wanted to leave him and the islands that you beat him up pretty badly so that he would see it your way. I hope you did not get in trouble for that. (Bob’s Note: No, I did not, but Yes, what I did was not proper procedure. I plead guilty. That was the only pimp I pounded. Since I am ADD challenged it is obvious that my “impulse” got the best of me in that situation.)
***Thank you for showing me that it was not good to return to my sexually abusive home (step-father and older brother) but to go to my grandparents house. I did and got good counseling help from a city social agency plus a church counselor. My life did straighten out and I completed high school plus a two year college. I have had a successful career as a beautician and am married to my second husband. My first husband died in an auto accident. I have three children and one grandchild. (Bob’s Note: Now THAT is hard to visualize. A grandmother. When I last saw her she was a slender 16-year-old girl. Yipes!)
***Satan is having a field day right here in my town. Several older teenage girls have persuaded younger girls as early as the sixth grade to make boys pay for the sex they want. They tell them in so many words, “If the boys want it that bad don’t give it away, make them pay for it and cash up front.” You read that right, SIXTH GRADE, and on up. Some 6th, 7th and 8th grade girls, let alone some high school girls, are getting from $10 to $20 each time for whatever action is involved. One high school girl proudly announced, “Why should I work for three months in a fast food place when I can collect that same amount of money in just one weekend and having fun at the same time!” This in your face statement is so very sad. These girls have no idea what this is doing to their reputations, their characters, as well as their minds and souls. Plus the potential danger of getting an STD, which means for some possibly never having children of their own. And this isn’t limited to my community. It is spreading nationwide. Pray for me as I try to talk to them based on my own experiences and pray they will listen to a graying grandmother and not laugh me off. Now that I’ve reconnected with ‘Jane Doe’ I will try to assist her, especially reaching out to the really young girls prostituting, like I once did.
***Again Bob I will be eternally grateful for what you did for me and the other girls you rescued. It was 32 years ago that you drove me to the Honolulu Airport and made sure I got on the plane heading to San Francisco. Right now I have tears in my eyes as I recall you praying with me before my departure. I had never prayed before and nobody had ever prayed for me. Ever. As I walked on that plane I had such a peace and calmness. It was for the first time in my life. Thank you thank you thank you. I know you are married so tell your wife that from an old “friend” that I think she has a terrific husband. Signed, Name.“””
Talk about tears in the eyes, you can imagine how moist my eyes were while reading what she sent plus doing a memory flashback to her and some of the others I put on airplanes to return to the mainland. What a joy. What a blessing. But also sadness. There were some I just couldn’t get through to. They either shined me on, flipped me off or cussed me out. I still wonder to this day whatever happened to them?
Child Abuse Information
As with so many of the prostitutes there has been an abusive childhood background, sexual and otherwise. With the eleven women who have now left their brothels every one of them had some form of abuse, and most of them with a family member. I want you to know of an agency where child abuse can be reported, confidentially. It is the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline at 800.422.4453. Their website is – www.childhelpusa.org. If you suspect ANYONE is involved with child abuse please do not hesitate to call. A child’s future, maybe their life, could be at stake. More than likely many prostitutes wouldn’t be prostitutes today if someone knew that she was in an abusive situation and made a call like that.
My Own Physical Abuse
I wish there was an agency like that in my day when I received abuse in a few of the 14 foster homes I was in. In my case not sexual abuse, but physical abuse. Such as the age of four when I was “punished” for whatever I evidently did wrong by being held up by my throat and jaw in a shower with alternating cold and scalding hot water pouring into my face. And in another home being “punished” (again for whatever, to them, I must have done wrong) by having a pair of scissors in the foster man’s hand racing towards my face and stopping just short of my eyes with the threat of “If you do that again I’ll poke your eyes out.” It took me forty years to get over that one. There was another incident worse than those two combined, but enough is enough. You get the idea. My point is – SOMEBODY had to know that what was occurring was not acceptable and a call to an agency like Child Abuse Hotline would have been kind and merciful. Even if you don’t think you would ever need to call that Hotline number please become thoroughly familiar with the website and have it as a stand-by resource. Some day you just might need to have it as a referral to someone in need.