Great story about a former stripper turned married mom who has a ministry to strippers and pays for lap dances in order to tell the strippers about Christ.
"I understand the culture of these girls. They respect that," said Veitch, whose work has received national and international media coverage.
In a posting on the ministry's Web site, Veitch said she was a successful Las Vegas stripper but inwardly feared that her lifestyle was a ticket to hell.
She began attending church, became a Christian, went to beauty school and got married. A year ago, she began reaching out to sex industry workers.
She has an ally in Matt Brown, her pastor at Sandals Church of Riverside. The 1,700-member Southern Baptist congregation is contributing $50,000 to her ministry this year.
I have seen two stories on her on CNN and another channel (Fox?). Pretty cool that she is having an impact on women most christians will never get a chance to meet. 50k?! Wow.
Posted by: Joe Thorn | 02/21/2006 at 04:04 PM
Yeah, Joe, I think I saw something about her on TV a few months back. I thought to myself, "There's an area of society that needs healing." I'm grateful that God is using her to reach people that I would most likely be unable to reach.
Posted by: Jason Sampler | 02/21/2006 at 04:18 PM
I'm sure someone will freak out on her just like they do on the XXX Church guys. Going to people as opposed to asking them to come to us. Now that's a novel idea.
Kudos to this lady.
Posted by: Joe Kennedy | 02/21/2006 at 04:23 PM
My October post has a Current Affair download on JC's Girls. It has a quick snippet of a worship service at Sandals in it. Fellow blogger/worship pastor,Carlos Whittaker attends Sandals. His podcast, Ragamuffin Soulcast, is a fun and helpful resource for worship pastors and those involved in music ministry.
Posted by: James | 02/21/2006 at 07:08 PM
I can't believe you titled this post "See You at the Pole."
Posted by: Denny Burk | 02/21/2006 at 11:43 PM
I heard about this ministry and I don't see a man being able to do this type of ministry. Therefore, I commend this woman's heart to evangelize to those that desperately need the Gospel, especially those that are in this industry.
Posted by: Dan (T&Z) | 02/22/2006 at 12:07 AM
I'm with Denny. Steve's title is either amazing or awful, but nothing in between.
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Posted by: Matthew Westerholm | 02/22/2006 at 09:22 AM
Yeah the title cracked me up, man!
Posted by: Alex | 02/22/2006 at 09:33 AM
As far as the title goes... I'm going with AMAZING. Quite witty.
Posted by: Laura Beth O'Nan | 02/22/2006 at 05:04 PM
The title is totally hilarious.
I'm not sure that I would be in favor of my church giving a woman $50k to get lap dances, whether she's witnessing to them or not.
Posted by: Nathan | 02/22/2006 at 09:56 PM
Man, I've been laughing all day about the title. The story is cool too!
Posted by: Thorny | 02/22/2006 at 10:07 PM
I have to agree with Nathan on this one. I think that maybe their 'heart' is right, but maybe not he 'method'. If I go to the joint and pay X-number of dollars for their services, am I not thereby supporting the joint directly?
Maybe it would be better to not pay the cover charge, purchase the lap dance, whatever....and instead, talk to them in some sort of different venue.
I don't know; it just doesn't 'feel' right; but hopefully God sees their true motive(s) and finds a way to change somebody's life.
Posted by: Marcguyver | 02/24/2006 at 01:40 AM
Macgyver,
What other venue would you suggest? Looking for girls at the mall that look like they may be strippers and approaching them? Standing outside the club at 3am waiting for them to come out? I just can't think of another viable option.
Oh, and last night on Fox News they clarified that they never let the women give the dances, they just pay to get them in a private room for a "lap dance," so they can talk one on one.
Posted by: mark | 03/03/2006 at 01:37 PM