Well, it’s well past time for another update, especially for the Cherished Christmas outreach. Which was a week ago. Sorry. I’ve let all our fun Christmas activities keep from writing. J So now to go back to last Wednesday night.
We had an abundance of Christmas gifts to take with us. A couple of ladies in our church made these beautiful gift boxes that each had a votive candle and candle holder, a mug with hot chocolate and coffee packets in it, and a silver jewelry watch. They were beautiful. Then the ladies from another church that have partnered with us brought a scarf/hat/gloves set for each girl. They were all different, so the girls had fun opening them to see what kind they had picked. We also took a bag of baby shower-type gifts for the waitress who recently had a baby. It was so cute, there were several outfits and toys and the waitress was caught completely off-guard and so grateful.
When we went in, it seemed like we might not be there very long. The club was pretty empty, and there were no girls in the dressing room, although 3 of them were sitting at a table talking. So we came in, and gave the dj, doorman and bartender each a Starbucks gift card that we had gotten for them. They seemed pleased to get a gift too. I love these guys, they just crack me up. They play it pretty cool, and act nonchalant, but you can tell they’re interested in what we brought for them (we usually bring them cookies or something like that) and they were surprised and happy to get a present this time. Then we started taking back all the boxes to the dressing room – there were so many! We took 15 gifts, and I think there may have been some extra. Usually when we go to the dressing room with gifts, the girls we know will come back to talk and see what we brought, but the three girls that were there didn’t come, so we decided to take some to them. Two of them I hadn’t met before, and one seemed younger than me, and she was pretty uncomfortable being around us, although she was really sweet and grateful for her gift. I think she might be new. She opened her gift, gave us a hug and disappeared. The third girl that was standing there actually used to work at the club, and remembered me from our very first visit a year ago! This month is actually our one-year anniversary doing Cherished, and this dancer gave me a hug and chatted and even remembered what the gifts we brought a year ago were. She has been working at a few other clubs and just came back to this one. We talked about her kids, and she told me she was going to be alone for Christmas. I invited her to our Christmas Eve service at church and gave her a hug. I hate thinking of these girls alone somewhere at Christmas, and she wasn’t the only one I talked to that was going to be by herself.
About this time, some of the other girls started coming in, and we got to go back to the dressing room to talk for a while. Janice (Mom) went in with me and had a great conversation with one of the waitresses, and got to invite her to church. I chatted with the other girls that were there, and the waitress who just had a baby said she was planning to apply for a job at Cracker Barrel this week, because she can make more money there. Please pray her for to get a job there so she can leave the club. She also asked me about church when she overheard me inviting another girl to the Christmas Eve service. She seemed really interested in coming and wants her kids to go to church. Pray she comes.
All in all it was a really good visit. I can’t wait to go back in January.
