This past month our church became the proud owners of a Strip Club. The Dream Club/Red Slipper was a place of drug abuse, prostitution and violence. Two years ago the club was shut down due to building code violations (that's right, nothing to due with illegal drug activity, thank-you bureaucracy!). After making some repairs, the owner of what was now called the Red Slipper, Red, was going to court to get his liquor license back, so he can reopen his club.
Our church, had been keeping an eye on this and so we went out in force. We showed up to every hearing he had to keep this place from coming back into our community. We were successful and by going we developed a relationship with Red. Through that relationship we were able to talk to him about buying the property. Last month, we were finally able to close.
On Saturday, we had a meeting with two other churches and members of our community. We all stood in the parking lot outside the building and we worshiped and prayed. We prayed that God would use this building in our community as a place of hope and healing. It is amazing to think that a place that was a center of violence and corruption in our community will soon be a place of peace. This is a beautiful picture of why we do what we do.
Our hopes for the building are that we would not only meet there as a church, but that it would be a 7 day a week building. We hope to have a center that is built with our community in mind.
"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture...do not fret when evil men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes...for evil me will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land." (Psalm 37)
Here's the link to a news paper article about Saturday:
http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20090308%2FNEWS01%2F903080341
