Sometimes it’s hard for me to love people. Then I listen to this song. If you haven’t heard it yet, check it out on iTunes.

Jesus Friend of Sinners
by Casting Crowns

Jesus Friend of sinners we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to
swing
Jesus friend of sinners the truth’s become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they’re tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I’m so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided

Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours

Jesus friend of sinners the one who’s writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of thieves
Let the memory of Your mercy bring your people to their knees

Nobody knows what we’re for only what we’re against when we
judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and love like
You did
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours

You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they’re the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me a grateful leper at Your feet.

Always good to be reminded that Jesus saves prostitutes, strippers, and  Christians too!

I’m reading a new book, and I LOVE it! It’s called, Kisses from Katie, by missionary and author, Katie Davis. The story is an autobiography of sorts and chronicles Katie’s radical decision to leave the comfy life she has always known in order to serve the orphans of Uganda. The choice to follow God has cost her everything I could imagine giving up – family, friends, security, safety just to name a few. Amazingly, Katie’s response to her critics is simply this, “I am much more terrified of living a comfortable life in a self-serving society and failing to follow Jesus than I am of any illness or tragedy.”

Oh, and did I mention, Katie Davis did all of this at the tender age of 18. She is now 22 years old and a mother to 14 orphaned Ugandan children!

Wow.

I had a conversation recently with a close friend who was upset about my decision to work with Bruised Reed. She told me that I was “irresponsible” for  a young mother and wife to place herself in such a “dangerous” environment. I didn’t know quite how to respond to such a statement. I can’t say that strip clubs are the safest places to be on any given night. I also can’t deny that dancers and staff use drugs and alcohol on a regular basis, and that alone increases risk issues. But I honestly cannot imagine letting that get in the way of loving others and following God’s calling to spread the Good News to the poor and broken-hearted.

The last few weeks at Bruised Reed have been busy. We are able to serve in five clubs regularly and it feels like the needs continue to grow. We are also expanding our ministry outreach to some “dangerous” places. The work we do is not safe or predictable. There is no way to eliminate the possibility of risk. (But that is true for anyone- not just people in strip clubs!) Pray that our team members will be as focused on God as precious Katie Davis. Pray that we will be faithful enough to follow God to the darkest places if that is where He has called us to go. Continue to pray for wisdom and discernment for our team and our amazing BR staff. May we be constantly reminded that with God all things are possible. And may our ultimate goal always be to serve the Lord faithfully even if it costs us everything.

I have a confession. I inadvertantly passed along some incorrect (i.e. bad) theology to my 2-year-old this weekend. It was Easter Sunday morning and I was trying to explain to her that she needed to take a bath before church. Since she calls church, “go to see Jesus,” I said to her, “We need to take a bath so that we’re pretty when we go to see Jesus.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth I was sorry. Wow! Way to go, Mom! Give her the impression that you have to be pretty before you go see Jesus! I couldn’t help but think of all the work we do with Bruised Reed. I remembered how I had just spoken with the dancing ladies the week before about coming to church on Easter Sunday. I had told them that they were all welcome – whatever their circumstances may be – no matter how un-pretty (new word) their lives may be. And now look at me! Less than a week later and I’m messing with my 2-year-old’s view of Jesus – on EASTER SUNDAY no less!!

Well the good news is that Jesus makes room for scatter-brained moms who forget their theology in the middle of morning madness the same way that he does for dancing ladies who took a few wrong turns in life. Thank goodness for grace! I guess that’s what’s so great about Easter Sunday…we all get a chance to come as we are!

If you have some time in the next few days, please pray for our beautiful dancing ladies. Pray that they will have the courage to step out of the litteral and spiritual darkness of the clubs and into The Light of salvation through Jesus Christ. We are all welcome to come as we are. We just need the courage to do so.

There are big things happening right now with Bruised Reed! It seems like each week at church I see church ladies who have reached out to dancing ladies and invited them to church. This week at BR we were able to pass out cards that listed the Easter service times at Southland, and we encouraged the girls to attend. Please take a moment to pray for the girls in the clubs (owners, managers, bouncers, DJ’s, too!) and ask God to stir something in each of their hearts this Easter so that they might know how loved they are.

Also, as BR begins to take BIG steps to expand our outreach, continue to pray for wisdom and discernment for our team. I’ve been reading Proverbs recently and I am reminded of how important it is for us to seek God’s wisdom and understanding. This idea has been reinforced each week at BR, and I know that many of our team members feel this way. There are simply things that we cannot do (and would not want to do!) without God’s provision. Please take a moment to pray for the wisdom of our volunteers and leaders.

That’s all for this week! Happy Easter!!

I have a two-year-old daughter, Jane Gray. She’s at this precious age where she talks and laughs and dances- it’s the most adorably exhausting job I’ve ever known! Today I was so excited to see her when she came home from daycare, but J-Bird had several other (very important) things on her mind. She’s totally in love with our dogs (Huck and Miss Maude), and this afternoon she made a beeline to see them. After visiting with her furry friends, she had some pretend cooking to do. There were also baby dolls to be fed and changed and the general running through the house like a wild woman. When I finally got a moment of her attention, I said, “I want a hug. I missed you today.” She gave me that beautiful smile and came running into my arms. It didn’t last long, but I was glad to hold her for a brief moment.

When I sat down to write tonight, I thought about my time with Jane Gray today. As soon as I heard her coming up the front steps this afternoon I wanted to see her. (Honestly, if I could have skipped work today to be with her I would have!) I love her with a love that I don’t even fully understand. Unconditional seems like an incomplete description for it. To explain this to a two-year-old would be pointless- Even grown adults don’t comprehend it! How do you say to a child, “Come and sit with me! Tell me all about your day! Let me tell you how wonderful I think you are! Let me tell you how much you are loved!” ? After all, two-year-olds have a lot of (very important) stuff to do! I had to settle for my stolen moment with my precious girl- And honestly, I was thankful just for that!

I wonder if God sees us that way sometimes? If your like me, it seems easier to imagine that God would be angry with us for staying away so long. But what if it’s closer to a parent wanting to spend time with their child. What if God is saying, “Be still and let me love you!” And like Jane Gray, I wonder if we say, “But God, I have some (very important) things to do!”

And all of this thinking reminded me of the dancing ladies. Just like the rest of us, the dancing ladies sometimes choose to pursue other things before they realize that the most important thing is to sit at the feet of the King so that He can pour out love and praise and validation over their souls. And even though none of us could ever possibly understand how much God loves us (or why he loves us for that matter!) we could just experience it. Maybe understanding isn’t really the thing- maybe the stillness is.

Throughout the next week, please pray for the girls in the clubs, the managers and bouncers, the families, and the children that we meet directly and indirectly in the clubs each week. Pray for our team of volunteers, and for our church leaders who so graciously support Bruised Reed. Pray that whether we’re people dancing for money or believers dancing before the Lord, that each one of us would take time everyday to be still and hear the voice of truth from our holy God.  We continue to pray that our witness will lead others to a relationship with Christ, but without an ability to hear the voice of our Savior, we would all be lost.

I was recently at Starbucks on Nicholasville Road at the New Circle intersection. When I pulled up to the window to pay, I realized that the only cash I had was a $100 bill. (This is not typical.) I reached for my debit card to pay, and the employee told me to take the coffee for free. I told him that I was able to pay for the coffee and a freebie wasn’t necessary, but he insisted. This single act made my day, and I began to keep a mental list of all my favorite things. Here are a few more:

1. Being from Mississippi

2. The way my daughter grabs my face with both hands and says, “Kiss, Mama” before I put her to bed at night

3. Sunflowers in a vase on my kitchen table

4. Stephen and Sue at the Markey Cancer Center Nuclear Medicine Department

5. Steak and Beer Cheese Nachos from Saul Good

6. The drive from Wilmore to Lexington on Harrodsburg Road in the Spring

7. My twin sister

Thankfulness is something that’s easy to miss in our day and age. There seems to be so much bad out there, and because of this we can overlook the good. Sometimes we just need an act of kindness to ignite the hope within us that leads to gratitude.

It seems like each week our team hears stories from dancers, managers, and patrons about their personal experience with church and religion. Just last week someone in the clubs asked me where we were from and why we had come. I told her that we were from Southland Christian Church and that we were in the clubs to let people know how much they are loved by God. Immediately I saw a smile come to her face, and she told me how awesome it is that a church would love others- and not judge them. And at that moment, I added another favorite thing to my mental list.

Southland is one of my favorite things.

I don’t say this to brag on our church or our ministry. But I can’t help but feel overwhelming thankfulness for a body of believers who choose to join forces to spread a revolution of love over the city of Lexington, KY. (Not all places are like that!) God is at work in our church and in the ministry of Bruised Reed. . . And that is my favorite thing.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

Proverbs 13:12

You know that feeling don’t you? The feeling you get in the middle of the night – starring up at the ceiling – asking God to do the impossible in your life or in the lives of those around you. In your rational mind you try to come up with every logical solution to whatever your facing. You rack your brain searching for answers. But you know that whatever the solution is, it cannot happen without God. You have hope that He will make a way where there is none. But when it’s quiet and no one else is around, you start to doubt it. The thought that the God of the Universe would show up in a visible way seems too much to hope for – You literally begin to feel sick inside.

But once God starts to move it happens quickly. It’s like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant! For so long you’ve prayed, and now the God of Creation is answering that prayer. You basically just fasten your seat belt and hang on for dear life. Oh, and what a spectacular ride it is! All the fears from the past are gone once the Living God comes onto the scene, and He breathes the breath of new life into your old bones.

God is doing great things in the city of Lexington right now. As if it’s not enough for God to allow church ladies into strip clubs each week with the expressed intent of sharing the love of Christ, now He’s opening even more doors for us. For quite some time, members of our team have been praying that Bruised Reed would be able to reach even more women caught in the adult entertainment/ sex-for-sale industry, and God is answering those prayers!

It’s easy to become frustrated and disillusioned in this ministry. There are so many women who are hurting and the pressure we can sometimes feel to “save” them can become unbearable at times. But then God does something huge to remind us who’s running this show after all!

Prayer partners, God is moving within the ministry of Bruised Reed in ways that we haven’t seen up to this point. There has never been a more critical time for prayer and discernment. We ask that each one of you continue to walk this road with us, so that we are able to participate in these amazing opportunities with our God.

“When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

John 11:43 – 44

I heard a friend of mine, Nate Johnson, preach last week about the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Like most of you, I’ve heard this story preached dozens of times. But when you consider the events of the passage with the perspective of a ministry like Bruised Reed it opens up a variety of possibilities.

Jesus loved Lazarus. Scripture makes this clear to readers from the beginning of the passage. Mary, describes her brother as the one Jesus loves. As we read through the passage however, we see that Jesus is not reactive to the news of Lazarus’ illness. There isn’t any kind of hysteria or panic in Jesus’ actions. He is aware of the news of his friend, and his concern is evident. But even in the face of life-threatening circumstances Jesus is able to maintain a super-natural peace. He responds to Lazarus’ situation with compassion and thoughtfulness without being consumed by his emotions. In psychological terms, we would describe Jesus’ actions as being mindful. (This is the combination of both rational and emotional thought processes.)

If we’re honest with ourselves here, we’d probably all agree that responding to crisis events is a challenge. One of the reasons that mindfulness skills are often practiced in a clinical setting is because we as humans are pretty bad at it. We tend to pick one line of thinking (emotional or rational) during crisis situations and sort of disconnect from the other in order to survive the event. But Jesus demonstrates both during this particular interaction with Lazarus.

When we enter the clubs each week with Bruised Reed, it is tempting to do one of two things. We can either shut down emotionally and become disconnected from any real interactions with the girls, or we can become emotionally overwhelmed to the point of being ineffective. Obviously, neither of these are great options. What we train our volunteers to do (and what we continue to work toward each week) is to be both sensitive and effective at the same time. By doing this, we let the dancing ladies know that we are approachable and that we care about them. But we also have boundaries in place so that we can continue to function as a healthy team week after week. This mindful approach is not only psychologically healthy, but it’s also biblically based. And I believe this is beautifully depicted in the story of Lazarus.

The second aspect of the passage that I think is particularly fitting for Bruised Reed, is when Jesus actually calls Lazarus out of the grave. In verses 41-44 we get a clear picture of how Jesus orchestrated this event. First, the stone is removed and, Jesus gives thanks to God. Second, Jesus commands Lazarus to come out of the grave. Third, Lazarus walks out of the tomb. And finally, Jesus commands the others to remove Lazarus’ grave clothes.

If we followed the same sort of formula, it may look like this. First we get into the clubs and praise God for allowing such an opportunity for ministry. Second, God commands the dancing ladies to salvation through relationship with the church ladies. Third, the dancing ladies take steps out of the industry (aka the tomb). And finally, the community of believers help the women remove the sin and death that has entangled them for so long.

I believe that God has shown us the healthiest ways to do ministry through his Holy Word. As we continue to navigate the difficult process of loving others, please pray that our team will be open to God’s direction and guidance so that spiritual and psychological health will define our ministry in order for us to be sensitive and effective in the midst of crisis.

Today is one of my favorite days of the year! (Don’t check out on me here.) I seriously love Valentine’s Day. Now I know that this day has become as commercial as a holiday can get – cards, candy, flowers, etc. – it’s almost disgusting. However, there is something exciting about the idea of a day intended to celebrate love. But in a culture that seems to have gotten it wrong, what does love look like?

As I listened to the radio on my way to work this morning, I paid close attention to the lyrics of the songs I heard. Here are a few samples:

“If you ever leave me baby, leave some morphine at my door. ‘Cause it would take a whole lot of medication to realize what we used to have; we don’t have it anymore.”    (Bruno Mars)

“…The scars of your love, they leave me breathless. I can’t help feeling, we could’ve had it all…”                                                                                                                                       (Adelle)

“…I’d tell you I love you, but I don’t know how. I’ve never heard silence quite this loud.”                                                                                                                                             (Taylor Swift)

And these were for VALENTINE’S DAY! If we base our culture’s understanding of love on popular radio, I’m sad to say we’re in trouble! I don’t think words like scars and morphine are exactly what Hallmark had in mind. And while this sick version of love isn’t what most of us would necessarily desire, I’m afraid too many of us can relate.

Outside of Bruised Reed I work with teenagers in a mental health setting. Every week I hear tragic stories from young people who feel abandoned and rejected by the world. They tell me stories of “love” gone wrong. The evidence of their emotional pain is sometimes displayed on their physical bodies in the form of self-inflicted cuts and burns. They tell me that they enjoy the pain – it helps to release the internal agony they feel on a daily basis. They also describe their romantic relationships in a kind of tortured way – like it must not be love if it doesn’t hurt.

Unfortunately it’s not so different in the clubs on any given night – women who believe love is chaotic and risky – like it’s not true love if it doesn’t hurt. One Wednesday night I walked into a club and heard the lyrics to Eminem’s infamous Love The Way You Lie (featuring Rihanna):

“Just gonna stand there and watch me burn. That’s alright ’cause I like the way it hurts. Just gonna stand there and hear me cry. That’s alright because I love the way you lie. I love the way you lie.”

As I watched the room, I saw women parading their bodies in front of men. Dancing around as if to say, “This is what I know about love. Love is supposed to hurt.” Even now, thinking back on that moment makes me sick. We’ve gotten it wrong for sure.

But here’s the thing. We serve a God who loves us with a healthy; pure love. God loves the dancing ladies (and the men they dance for) infinitely more than even the most compassionate church ladies ever could! When I am disgusted by all that we see, I imagine Jesus walking into the club – right up to the stage. I see him taking his beloved into his arms, shielding her from the crowd, and carrying her out of the darkness – into his perfect light. In that moment she will be made whole and the fullness of holy love will be understood.

We are praying for that day – a true Valentine’s Day. What a celebration of  Love that will be!

This week I thought it might be helpful to post some prayer requests on the blog so that everyone reading could know how to pray specifically for our ministry. The categories listed below are some of the major concerns we have each week based on the stories we hear in the clubs and in our delivery teams. Please take a few minutes and pray over each category.

1. Discernment – Pray that our team will be mindful God’s plan for our ministry and the future of Bruised Reed.

2. Wisdom – Pray that we will know what to say to the individuals we come into contact with regularly. We want to be sensitive enough to be approachable and bold enough to share the love of Christ.

3. Safety – Please pray for God’s protection over the men and women we are working with in high risk situations. And also pray for God’s protection over our team and security members.

4. Health – Pray for the physical health of those in the clubs. Several of the dancers and staff have shared health concerns and we pray for God’s healing in their lives.

5. Salvation – Obviously, our ultimate prayer is that the men and women we meet will know the redeeming love of Jesus. Please continue to pray that God will use Bruised Reed to reach the people that He loves so that they will know Him.

Thank each one of you for your continued support! None of this would be possible without prayer!