To whoever it may concern,
I am writing this letter to detail how DEMP and this Ministry affected me as an individual. I have seen these women come into the club that I work at since I started working there in late 2011. For the first couple years of our interactions, I made sure that they were minimal. They gave me my space and after some time I felt that they were not going to be overbearing in their attempts to reach me spiritually. I would see them every other week at my job and eventually I began to talk to them and found out more about their mission at the club. They never made me feel ashamed of myself for what I was doing and the casual conversations we had begun to steer towards asking about me and what my goals in life were. Upon hearing that my goals were to finish my degree (I was actively going to school) and find full time employment, they eventually found ways to help me achieve my goals. I had never had a “real” job to put down on a resume, only volunteer work. Once they found my interest in helping the community they brought me out with them and their families (both spiritual and biological families) to deliver meals to homeless people of downtown.
We held prayer over these people and asked them about themselves and if there was anything we could pray for on their behalf. The appreciation of having a hot meal and people who genuinely cared for them could be seen.
I did this with women of his ministry and we built our relationship and I feel that they saw I contained the spark to do more with my life than just be a stripper. I could bore you with the details of my efforts to crawl out of this hell I’ve created for myself, but I will save that for the DEMP women because we all share stories of our struggles to know that we are not alone. Every time the devil has pushed me back down, I can text Taisha and express myself and she reminds me that I am loved, by Jesus and by the women of DEMP. Knowing that God is in my corner means a lot but knowing that other women who have been dragged through the worst of situations, whether by unfortunate circumstances or bad decision making (like myself), also means a lot. To have women who feel like my equals be proud of my successes and nonjudgmental of my follies is important to me, and to any woman like me. It is vital to know that I am not alone. In my opinion, this ministry has touched me the most just by making sure I know I am not alone, however this ministry has helped me in more tangible ways such as giving me an additional reference on my resume directly as well as finding me other employment opportunities to increase my skills and marketability. I currently have a very promising opportunity with a major company working full time. I know that I had it in me to reach this point in my life, but this ministry played a vital role in my ascent from the trenches.
Thank you for listening
Survivor