We had a wonderful response to the panel discussion that our founder, Sharon was invited to sit on yesterday on the National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. It was an amazing way to get the word out about how to love without expectation and without limitation! Not all sex workers are trafficked, some have made a choice that most people could never understand or ever take the time to understand, all no matter their circumstances deserve to be loved unconditionally!! Jesus' love for sex workers is as great as his love for the "religious"!
Many sex workers, in both the legal adult entertainment industry and illegal sex industry, however, have been victims of trafficking or other heinous crimes and for these victims we must help to provide adequate advocacy, support, encouragement and healing! This panel opened a genuine discussion about how faith and spirituality play a positive role in healing from the trauma of sex crimes.
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Free2BMe has been busy playing elves for Santa! Last weekend we had our first ever Breakfast for Santa for the children of the women we serve! The event was held at the Eastern YMCA and we had our very own visit from Santa Claus! The kids had fun and we were even able to invite Y guests to join in on the fun!
We have also been working on blessing the ladies we serve with Christmas gifts for their children. Several churches and organizations partnered with us this year to make Christmas happen for several families! Thank you to Genesis Christian Fellowship, Madison Church of the Nazarene and Bay Park Community Hospital.
We also want to send a thank you to Nu-Vizion for our new partnership for our Praise & Prayer Gatherings. They have generously opened their building to Free2BMe once a month! We are excited about this ministry partnership!
 Photo Credit: Matt Collins, The Tears In Action Project Our team went out last night to visit dancers! We consider it such an honor to go into clubs and have opportunity to love on the women we encounter!
One of the dancers was very taken back by us. She thought for sure that we were there to condemn her and judge her. Repetitively asking us if we thought we were better than her, assuming that we did.
We are NOT better than any dancer, escort, sex industry worker that we encounter! To be honest and real with you, coming out of the industry, so many years ago, I mistakenly believed that I had somehow hit a higher status in life because I had gotten out. But the reality is that I carried a lot of baggage that I chose to hide, that I chose to keep from others because I didn't want to be associated with that part of my past. AND I WAS WRONG!!!!!
I am NOT better than any dancer, any sex industry worker! This women last night has encountered person after person who has tore her down, who has condemned her, who has judged her, who told her that she is somehow less than everyone else!!! THAT IS WRONG!!!!
The women who serve and love as a part of The Free2BMe Project come from many different backgrounds. Some of us worked the industry, some of us never did, some of us were customers/clients, but ALL OF US realize that we are no different, no better than any woman that works in the industry. We are not perfect and we are not better. We are simply women who believe with all of our hearts that God passionately loves us! That God passionately loves women in the sex industry. God's love is not biased. It does not have limits. It does not say one person is better or more worthy than another. God does not love us because of what we do or don't do. He doesn't love a stripper any less than he loves a pastor! He doesn't love a pastor any more than he loves a stripper.
We go into clubs because we have had this revelation. We are no better than the women we love and serve! And really, we believe that every woman, no matter what she does for a job, is loved by God! It's not about your job, we don't care what you do for a living! We are not against you! We are for you because you are fearfully and wonderfully made by a passionate God! You are worthy of love...UNCONDITIONAL love!
While I understand that I am not responsible for the actions and words of other people, I want to apologize to this dancer for anything that has been said and done to her over the years in the name of Jesus that did not represent his love. I'm truly sorry!
The Free2BMe Project believes that no woman should ever feel alone. No dancer should ever feel that she is unloved and unworthy! That's why we come! We come to let you know that Jesus loves you! He loves you right where you are. You are not beyond his love!
 While I worked in the legal sex industry for three years as an adult, my journey began long before I ever entered the club and said "sign me up!" It's hard, real hard to have to look at my life in honest ways and admit that I was a victim of human sex trafficking. Back then, I didn't even consider the facts of my life, the circumstances as part of something that encouraged me to walk into a club and say "Yes, I want to be an exotic dancer." I just knew by 14 years old that's what I wanted to do. But the reality is...that decision, that path was set long before I turned 18 and entered the legal sex industry.
My story is not the story of every woman in the legal sex industry! My story is just that...my story! I realize that many share in my story. Many women in the legal sex industry were victimized as children--abused, raped, touched, sold...but I know many who do not have those recollections, who would tell you they had great childhoods and that they have simply made an empowered choice or that this was where their adult life has found them. No matter the reason they are there, they are no less loved by God than any other person.
The reality of world today is such that there is legalized sex industry and there is an illegal sex trade...where people (women, men, boys and girls) are being forced, coerced, blackmailed into use their bodies for someone else's profit or gain. This should not be happening.
The Free2BMe Project unconditionally loves women in the sex industry --- no matter how they ended up there! Whether it was their choice or a choice made for them by circumstance or other people. We love dancers, managers, floor walkers, door persons, bartenders, dj's, janitors, house moms, owners...everyone in gentlemen's clubs across Toledo! It is our honor to journey with them! And we believe that they are all passionately loved by a HUGE God, who does not push them aside, like our world often does. He loves them right where they are. I know this to be true because I know that God loved me while I danced, that he was with me and that he was watching over me.
Free2BMe does what we can to bring awareness to the children who are caught up in the illegal sex trade. Sex trafficking is a part of my story, and unfortunately it is a part of our crazy world! I had opportunity last month to share my story at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio for the Southwest Ohio Nazarene Church. One thousand people learned about the horrors of child sex trafficking, but praise God when they hear my story they also hear how God calls His people to not look down on the adults (men and women) working in the legal sex industry, but to instead embrace them with unconditional love, to see them as everyday normal people. When they hear my story, they get to hear about how beautiful and precious women in the sex industry are, how to treat them with respect and love and how to love like God does.
God can use our stories in powerful ways. I'm so excited that I am no longer hiding, but instead that I'm able to live a free life because of Jesus Christ--a life in which I am free to be me!
On Tuesday, I awoke to the news that one of our clubs was burning. We immediately went into action - getting people praying for the safety of all involved, for provision for those who will be out of work, for staff, employees, managers, owners...for everyone involved to just be wrapped in God's love in this horrific moment, when everything that they know came crashing to the ground. Imagine coming to work and realizing that there was no work. There would be no money, no food, no rent, no car payment, nothing. And to top that off...there will also be no unemployment benefits because most who are affected by this circumstance are exactly in that boat. Your world would be crushed and you would panic, especially when you have children.
We began to work on how we could serve this club selflessly in this crazy time. We contacted the managers and the employees that we had contact info for and began to get the ball rolling on loving these women in this time of need. Tonight we had opportunity to love unconditionally in a very special way.
 We are always blown away by the ways God allows us to serve women in the sex industry! It is such an honor and privilege to know these precious women. Tonight we delivered a couple weeks of groceries to a woman who is out of work because of this week's fire at Platinum Showgirls! It was amazing to see the children smile and run to help unload. Neighbors joined in as well. The kids came running out of the house after taking the groceries in, each having claimed their own box of cereal for themselves, yelling "Thank You! Thank You!" And "H" gave many hugs and thank yous. She has kept the cards from our visits to the club in her purse for encouragement. She pulls them out and reads the prayers on them. She is a treasure! And we pray only blessings over her life and the life of her family! It was such a blessing to us to be able to meet her, her family and her neighbors tonight! We can't help but think that even if only for the next couple of days, this family won't have to worry how they are going to put food on the table. The children can go to bed knowing that all is not lost, there is hope...
Closed so tight and pointed to the end. Soft monochrome verdancy, dreaming of what could be. Uncurling, unfurling – tentative vulnerability. Passionate hue; speckled and spotted. Gorgeous even when bruised. Fragrant freedom! Completely opened for anyone to see smell touch hear the sound of silence, knowing beauty is in simply being and becoming what you already were inside… Vibrant. Delicate. Captivating. A dear friend and supporter of The Free2BMe Project wrote this poem, Amanda Moore. She is a gift writer, whose many poems some how transcend boundaries and speak to the heart of not only every woman but I'd say men too! I thought we would share this one with you.
How often are women objectified? We thought we'd turn the tables for a day!!! We asked some of male supporters to come out and raise some money to help fund The Free2BMe Project at the first ever Reverse Bikini Car Wash in Oregon, Ohio. It was a complete success! We raised $334 which will help us provide resources and gifts to women in the sex industry! Thank you to everyone for coming out to support such a great caused!
 I've been meaning to get over to Lifeway for quite some time to ask them to partner with The Free2BMe Project. My vision for this was that they would sell $5 Bibles in the store to customers who would purchase them with the intention of donating them to F2BM. We would use them for our Bible study, for when women ask for a Bible, etc. My plan was to ask them for 100 Bibles. Anyways, I haven't made it. I called Lifeway corporate and they said that for that small amount I would have to work something out with the store. So today, I finally went to inquire about this partnership.
I went in and spoke with one of the employees, a great guy that I know well. He informed me that I was misinformed that it doesn't work like Lifeway corporate told me. The manager wasn't there. He was on break. But the other guy said, "you can check back but I've never seen us do that. It's always a corporate thing."
Well, I wasn't going to come back, but needed to burn some more time, so I went back. I found the manager, told him what that I was wondering if they would consider selling $5 Bibles for Free2BMe, explained it all to him. He said "Sharon, I got them. There sitting here. 100 of them. I haven't been able to find anyone else to take them. I've been calling everywhere and no one wants them. There yours. I'll go get them." As he was loading them into my car he said, "God had these waiting just for you! I'm glad you came to get them!"
The cool thing is that each of them has a special handwritten message on the inside cover telling the recipients how much of a treasure they are! The people who purchased them for special women wrote messages of love on them!
I was in tears! God is so good! Those Bibles had been waiting there for Free2BMe for months! I just had to listen to God and go ask for them!!!
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