Edna, 44, is a former schoolteacher and a homeschooling mom in Texas. Recently she told me about her visits to local strip clubs. For the last five years, she's been frequenting different clubs with teams of women who hope to reach the girls there for Jesus.
Edna noticed that many girls who dance in the clubs sport tatoos. As she made small talk with them in the dressing rooms, she realized that the tatoos could open doors to talking about Jesus. Although Edna already had a small cherub tatooed to her upperback, she wanted one with a clear message about how Jesus had changed her life.
After praying about it for a year, Edna was ready for the second tatoo. On her lower back, a flowery script spelled "Forgiven." She couldn't wait to go into a club, approach a girl and tell her, "I like your tatoo. Let me show you mine."
But the next time Edna visited a club, she almost completely forgot about her tatoo. When she finally remembered and showed it to one girl, Edna told me, "she got this really blank look on her face, Like, 'What does that mean?' I thought it was a blank look, but she was blown away.
"That girl called me weeks later and said, 'That tatoo on your back was a sign because I was raised in the church and I know what that means.' That same girl stopped dancing in the strip club."
I've never been in a strip club and I don't have any tatoos, so how could I relate to these girls? I asked Edna, "Would the right outfit help?"
"If God wants you in there, He’s picking you, know matter what," she told me. Once a grandmotherly woman accompanied her team into the clubs, which the girls loved.
"I think a lot of girls like me because I'm the mom who goes in and talks to them when their own mom doesn’t," Edna said. All of the girls she's talked to have suffered from absentee mothers.
Do you pass any strip clubs on your daily commute? Say a prayer for the girls inside, that God sends someone to incarnate Christ's love to them. And whisper a prayer for Edna and her ministry.