What would you think if a group of women with a scandalous profession blessed your church? What if a group of prostitutes prayed for your Church? Could you imagine these women entering your Church to bring blessing? This doesn’t seem holy, does it? But this was what we saw in our little church, and what gave us a great moment of worship and sanctification.
In November 2009, we started a program in a partnership with Casa Jóven (Youth House, which is our church,) Build a Bridge, and La Estrategia de Transformación (The Strategy of Transformation, the name of CTM in Central America and the Caribbean.) We began a seven week jewelry course for the sex workers from the streets of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. These women gathered at the church every Thursday to explore the possibility of taking this handcraft as an alternative micro-business that would allow them to abandon the culture of sexual commerce and to look for a different way forward toward a more worthy job.
Each Thursday was packed with surprises and a lot of stress. We never knew how many women would show up to the workshops. That’s why every time we saw them crossing the church’s threshold, smiles were drawn on our faces. After the class we had the regular Thursday prayer celebration. At the beginning it didn’t seem to work, but we had no alternative so we decided to do it. How could we have these women in the church right before the prayer celebration? I don’t know how, but we did!
Each week after the jewelry class ended some of the women stayed in the Church to pray with the members attending the prayer celebration. One Thursday – an unforgettable Thursday, eight sex workers were waiting for the prayer service to start. The night started with songs and an atmosphere filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. Loly, my wife, who was leading the worship, paused the service and told those who were there that the microphone was open for whoever wanted to pray for any area or ministry of our church.
