Fort Mtyers Strip Club Outreach Report

"Though your beginning was small, Yet your latter end would increase abundantly." Job 8:7 NKJV

We completed our 4th Annual National Strip Club Outreach & XXX Ministry Training yesterday here in Fort Myers, FL & with great joy & excitement we are pleased to share with you that 3 strippers prayed to receive Christ in the club last nite! The power of God showed up in our adopted club in which we've been doing outreaches in for 6 years. The outreach team had the opportunity to pray with over 1/2 the employees, new & old! It was the best outreach we've ever done and the team was even greeted by the owner who came back into the locker room to hang out with us to eat the yummy meal of fried chicken, Puerto Rican rice & beans, spinach salad, fresh veggies & dip, snowflake rolls & delicious lattice apple pie.

The gift bags were made up of NKJV Bibles, elegant velvet & gemstone purses, bracelets & black ribbon rhinestone watches, books on Anger, Depression & the 7 Steps to Forgiveness, the Father's Love Letter, 'He'll Do it Again' CD, as well as various beauty items. Demonstrating community & ministry partnerships, the above items were donated by the following respectively:

The Pink Cross Foundation
The Alabaster Girls
Pastor Gaspar Anastasi of Word of Life Church
The Father's Love Letter
Stacy Angeloff (Word of Life worship leader)
A national beauty supply store

After we set up tables with red table cloths, confetti sprinkled across them, lit a Yankee Candle & put out a vase of long stem red roses (for the ladies to take with them), we put out the food & the team personally served every employee. Then we pulled out the gifts and they all took them. They were so excited, telling us how thankful they were for all we were doing for them.

Within minutes the team embraced opportunities to pray for the ladies as they started opening up to us. At one point the manager came out of the locker room while 4 of us were holding hands & praying, he simply smiled at me indicating his approval. We heard stories of domestic violence, desperation, hopelessness, pregnancy, intense desires to get out, lesbianism, how they used to serve God and were backslid, drug addictions, supporting their boyfriends, single motherhood, trying to make ends meet, etc. from hurting women that had been working from 1 nite to over 15 years.

At one point two team members went to the bar area to talk with the bartender who had asked for us to come speak to her. Within a couple of minutes of arriving the bar emptied, then the club emptied out giving us greater opportunities to minister to every single employee! The bartender who has worked there for over 6 years even commented that not one employee complained about us being there & how grateful everyone was for us coming in. We were even told by some of the ladies that we were such a blessing to come in that we didn't have to bring the food & gifts, but they would like us to just visit more often!

What is even more incredible was the night before, we stopped by to touch base with the manager & ask him permission to come last nite, after he hugged me & I introduced him to another former dancer who was with me, he told me to show her around the club literally saying, 'It's your club, show her around'. To God be ALL the glory!

To read the manager's quotes from the Fort Myers News Press regarding the 8/31 story on Beauty From Ashes: CLICK HERE

To read the Fort Myers News Press Editorial done on Beauty From Ashes on 9/3: CLICK HERE

To donate & partner with us advancing the Kingdom of God: CLICK HERE

To schedule a Strip Club Outreach: Reach, Rescue & Restore Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking Training or for more information: CLICK HERE

Thank you so much all your prayers! They are vital to the favor, divine appointments and milestones we experience. I especially want to thank my husband, a mighty man of God, that pushed back the forces of darkness from the parking lot last night for almost 4 hours while we were inside. Together we are better & are making a difference!

As the Word says and we declare, the BEST is yet to come!

In Him & His fire,
Julie

Pastor Julie Shematz

Lee Ministry For Sex Workers Shows the Way

Some of us have a tolerant attitude toward at least parts of the sex business—stripping, porn films, maybe even prostitution, if it involves consenting adults. We figure its their choice.

Maybe, but Julie Taylor Shematz has seen the dark side during her seven years as a dancer, including the despair of adult women and the exploitation of the young.

Shematz has put her faith into action to help women who wish to quit the trade and build a new life. We’d do well to listen to her and to support ministries such as hers.

Shematz, 44, has given up stripping; she and her husband, Steve, now run Beauty From Ashes, a nonprofit that counsels erotic dancers, sex workers, porn actors and sex-trafficking victims.

Shematz’s ministry is conducting its annual Beauty From Ashes National Strip Club Outreach & XXX Ministry Training at Word of Life Church in Fort Myers. It’s to coach volunteers on how to offer sex workers a way out.

It’s part of a broader attack on the exploitation of women, including the trafficking of minors for domestic work and sex.

Lee County law enforcement and social workers have staked out an aggressive position against human trafficking, after some gruesome cases here in recent years.

Shematz is seeking to develop Freedom Children’s Home, a home for minors who are victims of domestic sex trafficking. This is a wonderful goal. Nola Theiss, coordinator of the Lee County Human Trafficking Task Force and executive director of Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships, says there are only two other homes in the country that aim to help juvenile sex victims.

“A 12-year-old gets picked up and forced into the sex trade,” Theiss says. “She’s under the radar for three years until she’s rescued. But what do you do then? You don’t put her in the 10th grade and say ‘good luck.’”

Shematz is trying to offer these women more than good wishes.

Source: Fort Myers News Press Editorial by David Plazas

From Vice to Virtue

For seven years and in 13 cities, Julie Taylor Shematz was Diamond. She danced in front of strangers in dark, smoky rooms to make a living.

In the dressing room, it was a different story.

“She would come in and say she’d had it,” Shematz said. “She” was any of her fellow strippers at any given time.

“She’d be bawling, crying and cussing, saying she’s quitting. And everyone knew she’d be back.”

Shematz, 44, has given up the strip-club circuit and now headlines Beauty From Ashes with her husband, Steve. The nonprofit counsels erotic dancers, sex workers, porn actors and sex-trafficking victims.

Starting Tuesday, Shematz’s ministry will hold its annual Beauty From Ashes National Strip Club Outreach & XXX Ministry Training at Word of Life Church in Fort Myers.

Its purpose is to coach volunteers on how to reach out and offer workers in sex trades a way out.

In the sex industry, Shematz said the line between stripping and exploitation can often become blurred.

“I didn’t realize was how all that mental, physical, verbal abuse would affect me over time,” she said.

On the horizon, Shematz is seeking to develop Freedom Children’s Home, a home for minors who are victims of domestic sex trafficking.

Nola Theiss, coordinator of the Lee County Human Trafficking Task Force and executive director of Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships, said there are only two other homes in the nation that reach out to juvenile sex victims.

“A 12-year-old gets picked up and forced into the sex trade,” Theiss said. “She’s under the radar for three years until she’s rescued. But what do you do then? You don’t put her in the 10th grade and say ‘good luck.’"

Detective Mike Zaleski of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office has seen too many trafficking cases with young girls in prostitution rings.

“There are many documented cases where victims have been sexually battered, beaten, tied up, and also tortured,” he said by e-mail. “In every instance there have been emotional traumas that the victim has endured.”

Shematz works up to 60-hour weeks with the “overcomers,” as she refers to the women. Through her Web site and social networking sites such as Facebook, she reaches dozens.

“It takes a long time for these girls to become adjusted to society,” she said. “The temptation to go back is always there crouching at your door.”

Aid could be assistance through education, job placement, relocation if necessary, and short-term housing.

Shematz visits the ministry’s adopted club, Fantasy’s at the Beach in Fort Myers Beach, once or twice a month, bringing food, provisions and sometimes prayer. She also has referred women to her home church, Word of Life Ministries in Fort Myers.

The church’s New Life Center on Collier Avenue is a self-contained haven for people looking to change their lifestyle, and an alternative to jail. The facility houses 113, providing room and board while clients go through a rigorous 18-month program.

“We provide personal counseling and biblical healing. There’s a need in the community for restoration,” said Bishop Gaspar Anastasi, who founded the first center 26 years ago in Freeport, N.Y., and in Fort Myers six years ago.

The program costs $700 per student, which the church’s congregation pays for through donations. The ministry boasts a 98 percent success rate.

Woman and men at the Word of Life Church eat, sleep and pray in separate areas.

Some mothers live at the facility with their children.

Arneteria Benford-Jones, 36, hopes to join the program. The Fort Myers woman met Shematz through church.

“I started at a (strip) club in Tampa,” Jones said. “I was 19 years old. You see all activities, club owners, drug dealers and pimps. It made me grow up fast.”

Jones said she’d been beaten and raped while feeding a cocaine addiction. Now, she considers herself an “overcomer.”

“I look at Julie and I don’t know why she loves me so much,” Jones said. “God sends people into your life for a reason. Though you struggle and go through storms, that’s what makes me special. If God can help me, he can help anyone.”

Reality struck Shematz when she decided to complete her college degree at 28. She was taking classes in Indianapolis while working up to five part-time jobs.

“I just thought to myself, ‘I’ll do it for a short while,’” Shematz said about stripping. A short while turned to years, even while working at what she called “the nicest club in Indianapolis.” Stripping fed her desire for attention, Shematz said, but it also made her hate herself later.

Today, Shematz has trained outreach groups in Indianapolis, Detroit and Daytona Beach — all cities in which she performed.

“All little girls, when they’re young, get up on a coffee table and ask their dad, ‘Am I pretty? Am I pretty?’” she said. “A lot of these girls never had this, and on stage what they’re saying is, ‘Look at me, do you like me? Do you want me?’”

Jeff Isacksen, 41, night manager at Fantasy’s, has watched Shematz come in to speak to his club’s dancers for years.

“The truth is, it’s a tough business that takes a lot of trust,” Isacksen said.

“But it gets old fast,” Isacksen said. “It’s more grief and heartache than anything else.”

Fantasy’s is the only strip club in the area in which Shematz has ministered. She’s waiting for the right time to go to other clubs in town.

Not all performers want to be saved. At Lookers on Fowler Street, Zahara works on her routine making what she said is up to $500 a night at times.

She’s not ashamed, but said she’s used to people such as Shematz telling her to quit.

“Everyone sees strippers as drug addicts and whores, but the thing is, a lot of the girls aren’t,” said Zahara, who declined to give her real name. “I’ve been clean for six months.”

The 21-year-old said she strips to provide for her sister and niece. She said it’s hard to do sober, but she tries.

As a professionally trained dancer, Zahara’s love is the waltz. Instead of gliding across a ballroom, her body takes shape around a pole, spinning and contorting with the rhythm.

To her, “Lookers is like a family.” But Zahara has other dreams. “Sometimes it’s hard to put on that smile,” she said. “But it pays the bills.”

Source: Fort Myers News Press Front Page, Center Column August 31, 2009