Two former sex workers will attend the largest adult entertainment convention in the country on Wednesday not as showgirls, but as unconventional Christian preachers.
Heather Veitch, the founder of J.C.’s (Jesus Christ’s) Girls, and Annie Lobert, the founder of Hookers for Jesus, will work the floors at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas this week handing out cards and testifying about Jesus Christ to whoever will listen.
The Expo takes place every year in January and expects to draw 40,000 people this year. It also includes the adult movie version of the Oscars, the AVN Awards.
“To me, I am used to the attention because I come from that industry,” explained Veitch, who said she still gets offered by male porn stars to make films at events like the Expo, according to The Los Angeles Times. “But I am the untouchable one there. I look like those girls, but they can’t see me naked.”
She added, “Now I am using my body to advertise for God. So to me it is not bad,” said the tan, platinum-blond Veitch who still much resembles the girls she’s trying to reach for Christ. She said her and Lobert’s looks allows girls in the industry to identify with them.
Both girls had work in the sex industry for many years – Veitch as a stripper and Lobert as a call girl – before finding Jesus.
Veitch’s ministry, J.C.’s Girls, does outreaches every week to local strip clubs where she and other female members of her church would go to a topless bar at night and buy lap dances. Once the women get into the private room, they would talk to the dancers about Jesus, give them a contact card, and invite them to church. Veitch said the bars have allowed the ministry to come and buy time with the dancers.
Many of the strippers have been touched to hear that Jesus loves them despite their lifestyle. Some have asked to be prayed for instantly while others have left the sex industry or abandoned the idea of getting an abortion.
Lobert, meanwhile, reaches out to call girls at casinos similar to her former job. She said she sits at bars and talks to girls about her personal story and invites them to church.
Explaining her ministry, Hookers for Jesus, Lobert said, “I picked that name because it is catchy. Most Christians might think I am selling my body. But I say that because I am trying to hook people on Jesus. I hook them for Jesus.”
Emerging church leader and XXXChurch.com ministry founder Pastor Craig Gross will also attend the AVN Adult Expo this week to evangelize those in the porn industry. He will be joined by Veitch and Lobert this year. XXXChurch.com is an online ministry created to get Christians to talk about their X-rated addictions and help them overcome it. The ministry celebrates its sixth year on Jan. 9.
Veitch is relatively well-known and has appeared on shows ranging from “Geraldo” to “The 700 Club” to testify about her conversion and the ministry. She also has a new documentary called “Pussycat Preacher.” Lobert has a lower media profile but appeared with Veitch in a series of popular YouTube videos called “Saving Sex City.”
Live in the night,
keeps injury and sorrow.
Million people sink in it.
Buried deeper and deepest again
that they are not able to raise themselves.
Powerless and submit
sink in indignity and evil.
Powerless and submit
seeing themselves undermined
by many kind of gambles
decayed by prostitution,
and tortured by drugs.
Powerless and submit
turn into killer machines of their fellow.
Million people are caught in the night
Million people groan in the dark
Million people put hope in us
to raise them from the ocean of the night
which is too grip with fear.
But who are we, God
that we can have power?
God has changed
the night of dirtiness
to the night of holiness
the night of evil
to the night of righteousness
the night of turbulence
to the night of peace
the night of hell
to the night of the eternal life in heaven
through the birth of Jesus Christ,
His son.
He was not born in the stabled
with all of its dirt.
But in our hearts
which are poor and simple
with all of our insult and struggle.
The hearts which are open and welcome
not as the owner of the inns
which were close the door for
the birth of Jesus Christ, our God.
Actually, it has been a long time that
Jesus has born and stayed in our hearts
sound asleep in regretful manger
and man’s repentance
covered with our inner selves and souls
welcome morning with hope.
But we often forget Him,
consider Jesus is still a baby
who can only please our hearts.
Actually,
the Baby has grown up,
tortured for His love for human being
And we crossed Him
in the Golgota of our hearts.
Jesus had died and raised again
And now He is dwell in our heart
to work in us.
Through our hearts and thoughts
Through our feet and hands
Through our mouths, eyes and ears
Through all of our bodies.
Jesus wants to do and to work
to declare His love
to all people.
How about us?
(Happy are those
who make realization
of the birth of Christ by love to another
even though they have to suffer.)
***
By: Syarif Oppusunggu (from: Indonesia)