The Southsider Voice
Visit us at these places!
  • Home
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • Sports
    • Car Nutz
    • Stilley Goes Trackside
    • Southside Deaths
    • Personal Recollections
    • Reminiscing
  • About the Voice
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • Newspaper Archive
  • Classifieds

Evangelists showing up in strip clubs

5/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Stefanie Jeffers and Kim Tabor
Picture
Picture
Stripped Free volunteers at a Christmas outreach event. Christmas gifts are donated to children of the women who work in the clubs.
By Nathan Pace
Southsider Voice correspondent

You may expect church evangelism efforts to be centered around picnics and vacation Bible schools, but members of Mount Pleasant Christian Church in White River Township are assisting in an unconventional route: sending women into strip clubs to share the Gospel.

Mount Pleasant is a volunteer stronghold for the Stripped Free ministry, a facet of Carmel-based Tabor Ministries (TaborMinistries.org). Kim Tabor founded the ministry with her husband, Brian. She and a few other female volunteers are the only ones who enter the clubs.

“We go into four different clubs in Indianapolis, and we go and tell the women that they are loved and they matter,” Tabor said.

Although Stripped Free is only 18 months old, it has grown from one to four clubs where its volunteers operate. Most of the clubs are on the Eastside, where a few volunteers try to build meaningful relationships with the women.

One of the volunteers is Stefanie Jeffers, who previously worked in a strip club a decade ago. During her three years of employment  she lost her house, her car and custody of her daughter. Today, she is reaching out to dancers at the same club.

“I had to get to the place where I had nothing, and I turned to God,” Jeffers said. “We say rescued, redeemed and restored, and that is what he has done. It is very personal for me to walk into a club a decade later and say God loves you where you are because he loved me where I was.”

It was Jeffers who was able to use her connection with a club owner she worked for to get the ministry into its first club. With every first-time visit, Tabor and Jeffers introduce themselves to management and the bartender to get permission to speak to the women.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Tabor said. “In such a way that we have met owners from other clubs who have invited us to come in and do this with their girls. It increases positive energy in the club.”
Tabor says they have not been denied access by a club owner. Volunteers order a soft drink and pay cover charges to be respectful of the business. While in the club the volunteers have their backs to the stage.

“We don’t go in screaming about a new life, and we definitely want the club owners to know that,” Jeffers said. “We have an opportunity to go into their workplace and minster to them.”

Once the volunteers are able to speak to the women, they give them gifts donated by supporting churches. Gifts range from nail polish to gift cards and jewelry.
“We take this free gift in, spend time with them and become their friend,” Jeffers said. “We want them to know that we are part of their community.”

Tabor says the volunteers make it known to the girls that the gift does not carry any attached strings.
“We tell them we are going to come in every two weeks and we are not going to expect anything from you in return,” Tabor said. “That you are loved and there is a God who loves you.”

While the volunteers are evangelizing at clubs, a prayer team is supporting their efforts at Mount Pleasant, where communications director Johnette Cruz helps the dancers get connected when they visit the church. Mount Pleasant has volunteers to sit with the women during service.

“That’s what you do in a friendship,” Cruz said. “Start kind of at surface level and then there is a rapport all of a sudden.”

Tabor says that there are roughly 30 clubs in Indianapolis, but to have volunteers in each of them will require support from more churches. Other needs of the ministry include donations for two annual outreaches for the children of the women in the clubs, a back-to-school event in the summer and free Christmas gifts six months later. 

“Our hope is that since this is a standalone ministry that we can get support from local churches,” Cruz said.  “So that we can expand our volunteers and expand our goal into reaching more clubs.”
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    Arts & Entertainment
    Lead Story
    Sports: 500
    Sports: Basketball
    Sports: Track

    RSS Feed

 DROP OFF: The Toy Drop 6025 Madison Ave., Suite D
Indianapolis, IN  46227  |  317-781-0023
MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 17187, Indianapolis, IN 46217

[email protected] | [email protected]
Website by IndyTeleData, Inc.