June 19, 2000

Baptist women bare souls in strip club witness
___By Kristi Hodge
___Florida Baptist Convention
___ORLANDO, Fla.--Pamela Tate almost didn't participate in Crossover 2000. Now she realizes missing the experience would have been one of the biggest mistakes of her life.
___Sharing her faith with "ladies of the night" along Orlando's Orange Blossom Trail as part of the evangelistic emphasis energized Tate with a spiritual burden to reach out with the love of Christ to exploited and neglected women.
___Tate, a member of Great Commission Baptist Church in Lakeland, Fla., was one of more

PAMELA TATE (left) of Great Commission Baptist Church in Lakeland, Fla., and Dot Spear of First Baptist Church in Plant City, Fla., exit the Dollhouse Gentleman's Club on Orlando's Orange Blossom Trail, a 24-mile stretch of highway dominated by adult entertainment. They gave club dancers gold Sacagawea dollars as a symbol of hope as well as gift bags of personal items. The ministry on Orange Blossom Trail was one of many ministry and evangelism projects making up Crossover 2000. (BP photo by Bob Carey)

than 25 women who, in the days prior to the June 13-14 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, witnessed to young women on the streets and in the strip clubs that litter Orlando's major north-south highway.
___Tate, who is training to be a Christian counselor, never had been in a strip club before. It was not something she had been anticipating, even for the sake of ministry. In fact, she contemplated returning home shortly after arriving in Orlando for the outreach event.
___But while she didn't relate to the women's circumstances, she knew they needed to hear someone say, "Jesus loves you."
___"I told the Lord, 'You definitely want me here for something.' And he did," Tate said. "He wanted me to show these girls they are someone Jesus loves as much as he loves me."
___Tate and other Southern Baptists filled their pockets with gold one dollar coins and walked into a strip club. Across the street, another club sign flashed the provocative slogan, "Convention Hotspot."
___Inside, the group sat down and waited for opportunities to talk to waitresses and off-duty dancers and present the gospel using the dollar coins.
___Pointing on the coins to the profile of Sacagawea, who was a guide to explorers Lewis and Clark, and to a rendering of an eagle on the other side, they said: "To God, you are more precious than gold. This coin is a gift to you so you'll remember the strength you have as a woman and your ability to soar like an eagle."
___After an initial hesitation, many of the dancers thanked the Southern Baptist women for the coins. After showing the coin to her fellow dancers, one woman returned to say, "I'll put it in my locker."
___The dancers also hugged the women and talked about their desires for the future.
___One is working her way through college to become a veterinarian. Another is a nurse who couldn't afford to take care of her five children without a second job. A 21-year-old high school dropout dreamed of getting a high school equivalency diploma and being "a housewife with a home where someone loves me."
___The women's stories moved Tate to tears. "They are so young. There are so many things they want to do and that they could do. I just wanted to say: 'Come out of here. Come out of here with us.'
___"There is no turning back once your eyes have been opened to the plight of these girls," Tate said. "I have a whole different perspective of them and of me. Sometimes I have categorized sin. But God does not. There is no big sin and no little sin with God. It taught me that I've never done what they do, but I've done something else" that has displeased God.
___Lynn Latham, director of church/community ministries for Greater Orlando Baptist Association, also participated in the outreach. She has teamed with other Christian women in the area to form a "Ladies of the Night" ministry in Orlando.
___"It's the best feeling possible to tell these girls about the love of Christ," said Latham, who also serves as a missionary for the North American Mission Board. "But it breaks your heart too.
___"Up until this point, they may only have heard and known what church people are like. Now they get to see for themselves," Latham said.
___Florida Woman's Missionary Union groups made and filled more than 200 makeup bags with toiletry items, such as tissue, lipstick and lotion, to distribute to the women.
___Donna Beinert, a member of Samsula Baptist Church in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., said giving one of the bags to a tough-looking young woman walking on Orange Blossom Trail made Beinert realize how powerful the words "Jesus loves you" are to people in need.
___As the Baptist women approached her, the street-wise woman was wary.
___"We told her we wanted to give her a gift because 'Jesus loves you, and we love you,'" Beinert recalled.
___The young woman responded, "At least somebody does." Then she gave the women big hugs and stood looking at the items in her bag for a long time.
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