Mission Statements:

Sending Flores exists to show the unconditional love of Christ to the world. We serve locally and globally and have a calling to be HIS hands and feet.
Velvet Hearts exists to show the unconditional love of Christ to women and men who work in the sex industry and to renew and reaffirm hope and a future to them.

Monday, March 9, 2020

The Power of Consistency- Dedicated to T

I remember when Velvet Hearts launched. I was so impressed that someone would step out and go to a place that was so foreign to them. As a child I always wanted to be an oversees missionary so observing from afar as Velvet Hearts was launched really spoke to my heart. Over the years the Lord continually brought Bambi into my life in major ways. In 2017 I had chronic pain and was taking a lot of medication just to manage each day. Bambi spoke about biblical healing at a conference I attended and that very day my back was healed of chronic pain! That story is amazing and the experience with Bambi really put my focus back on Velvet Hearts.

It was clear to me that I was supposed to connect with Bambi and Velvet Hearts. Initially my children and I began to help in simpler ways. We put together the gifts for outreach nights. After a few months of doing this I felt led to join a GO Team. I knew the importance Bambi put on being consistently there for the girls and that meant at least a year commitment from me. Being a single mom, every other Friday would be a sacrifice of time from my children but I really believed it was important, not only to the girls we get to meet but also would be a testimony to my kids of the importance of going out to show the world that Jesus LOVES THEM!

It’s now been 15 months since joining and during this time I’ve realized the importance of SHOWING UP and how just being there is truly a comfort to many of the girls. Let’s be honest, some girls blow us off and are irritated when they see us. They just don’t now know how awesome we are! That’s okay, we get it and our feelings aren’t hurt. In fact, we just hope that over time we may be able to show them that they are loved and worthy. We are often told "it is so important that you’re here. So many of us need you here.” That’s hard to admit even in the best situation. Many of these women have been through hell and back, and to admit that they might like our visits can be a vulnerable thing to say. It’s that reminder that they are women, just women going to a job where for whatever reason they feel is where they have to be right now.

When you only stop by every other week, it’s hard to grow a relationship unless you make sure you show up! Sometimes we get 5 minutes of significant communication with the entertainers, and don’t see them again for weeks or even months and it’s so important to us to make a solid connection and show love. Its also significant to remember them the next time we see them. So many times the Lord brings names to our minds of women we haven’t seen in months and they ask how we remembered? The Holy Spirit, y’all! Definitely not my stellar memory. He loves them and is pursuing them in a ways that is so humbling to witness.

I remember my very first stop on GO Team outreach night. This particular club will always have a special place in my heart. It was a small with hardly any business or employees. Five minutes in-and-out and that was it. No time for connection, and they were happy for us to drop gifts and leave. Truth is they never met anyone like Velvet Hearts. As the weeks went on our 5 minute drop-off turned into a hour+ visit. They had began to have a sense of trust with us, and they slowly saw we were sincere and not there to judge or point fingers. We were honored to be welcomed in, to hear their stories, struggles, fears, and their dreams. They are precious women loved by the Lord! They matter just as much as any one of us and we told them so regularly. We had so many deep conversations with these few women. They had great questions like why Jesus had to be born and why he had to die for us. Why there is sickness and how can we get past hurts so we can be close to God?

One woman from this small club has been on my heart since day one. We will call her “T”. T was older than most women in the industry. On occasion she spoke briefly of the ugly things she had endured while at work. I could sense how this treatment hurt her feelings though she would say “we just have to be patient with people.” I knew she truly felt like she couldn’t make it working anywhere else. T’s husband had a terminal illness and she spoke about how angry she was with the Lord about that. The truth is she was hurting. T grew up going to church, she has a close relative who is a pastor but she doesn’t feel like she can go to their church. It breaks my heart for how much of an outsider she seems to feel. The church should be loving on people, not judging. Jesus doesn’t woo us to him by judging, he does it by loving. We asked why she stopped going to church, and her reason hit deep to my heart. We offered to go to church with her as her cheer team and still pray that might happen. It would be the highlight of my year to be her friend who gets to take her to church. I want nothing more than for her to see herself how the Lord sees her.

Every week we saw T I was so excited to check in with her. I learned about her daughter, her granddaughter, her husband and her childhood. T became comfortable with us and she and the other ladies seemed to be truly happy to see us. On our GO nights we would enter her club and she would excitedly say “Oh good! The Church Ladies are here! I hoped it was a Church Lady night. I’ve been waiting for you.” I kind of felt like adopted family. I’m convinced that the way T felt loved and accepted by us was something only from the Lord. Through consistency- showing up for her, listening, comforting, encouraging, and laughing with her she let her guard down. I’ll tell you something, she spoke more words of wisdom to me than she will ever know. The more I got to know her the more I saw her how God sees her, as His precious daughter and as my sister. As we would leave and hug the girl’s goodbye, I would tell T that I loved her and I am sure she knew it. Not all of the girls believe that we love them, but T did. I’d go every Friday to all of the clubs if there was just one “T” to love on.

~~Kara Chavis

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