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By Teena Myers

“I never danced on Bourbon Street, never worked as a prostitute, and I have never been jailed for illegal activity, but I know what it is to be hopeless,” said Donna. Her path to hopelessness began when she encountered the presence of God and then rejected him.

Donna’s entire family had accepted Christ. Shortly afterward, her father was diagnosed with cancer. One year later, the death of Donna’s father destroyed her faith. She departed for college angry at God for taking her father, and quickly embraced the partying lifestyle prevalent on campus.

Experience taught Donna a truth written by the Apostle Peter: “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end then they were at the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20). For the next ten years, the partying, drugs, and drinking grew increasingly worse until she found herself drowning in despair. 

Donna checked herself into a secular drug rehab facility. The rehab directors had been honest about the dismal success rate of the program but assured Donna she was the ideal patient. Encouraged by their assessment, she entered the thirty-day in-house program. She credits her godly mother’s prayers for her being assigned to Nancy, the only Christian counselor in the program. Donna was sure she had found the solution to her drug problem.

Within days of her release, she was high on drugs again. She returned to her counselor at the rehab for help. Nancy gave her some books with instructions to read them and come back in a week. One of the books, Come Away My Beloved by Frances J Roberts, softened Donna’s hard heart. She had read Robert’s book before she rejected God after the death of her father. She read Robert’s book again and began reading the Bible but continued abusing drugs to cope with life.

She returned to Nancy with grim news, “It didn’t work. If I don’t get help, I am going to die.”

Nancy saw the desperation in Donna’s eyes and made a risky offer. “I could lose my job for this, but do you want to come to church with me tonight?”

Donna wanted to say, “No.” Before she could form the word, she heard “Yes,” come out of her mouth. “I will meet you there,” said Donna, planning to go home instead.

“No, ride with me,” Nancy replied.

Again, Donna planned to say “No,” but heard herself say, “Yes.”

Donna felt the walls around her heart crumbling the moment she stepped into the church. The pastor preached a message tailor-made for Donna titled I Can’t Do It by Myself. At the conclusion of the message, she ran to the altar and into the arms of God. Her renewed relationship with God accomplished what she could not do alone. Her life slowly changed until she became a new person free from the slavery of drug addiction. With her new life came a new purpose for living—sharing the love of God.

Feeling called to a life of service, she visited an evangelistic ministry sponsored by her church. Those who felt called to ministry met to pray, be paired with a ministry partner, and then walk the streets of New Orleans sharing God’s love. A former pimp became her first ministry partner and a foretaste of God’s plan for her life.

Donna used her vacation days to take short-term mission trips. She loved sharing the gospel in foreign lands and often found herself talking to prostitutes. Sometimes her team members were afraid as they walked poverty-ridden streets lined with seedy, filthy motels infested with crime and drugs. The atmosphere energized Donna. Like Jesus, she had food to eat that they knew nothing about.

When news of God’s visitation at a church in a crime-infested neighborhood in Florida reached New Orleans, Donna went to Florida to investigate. She returned to the church twenty-seven times. With each visit the call to full-time ministry intensified until she could no longer resist. Donna quit her job to attend Bible College.

She loved living in the school’s dorm with fiery young adults who believed they would go out and change the world. Night after night Donna saw people in need closer to home as she drove from the dorm to her church located in an impoverished area. Prostitutes stood on most of the street corners. Donna decided to stop driving past them.

She approached the school’s leaders, “Who is ministering to the prostitutes?”

They sent her to a ministry they thought ministered to prostitutes, which sent her to another ministry, which sent her to another ministry. Each ministry gave her the same answer. “We see them, but we don’t minister to them.”

“Nobody is ministering to the prostitutes,” she told the school’s leaders.

They discussed the need, prayed, and summoned Donna. “We believe God has called you for this work, and give you our blessings to start a ministry for prostitutes.”

Sack lunches for the working girls opened the door to build relationships. Night after night they met with prostitutes, eventually winning their trust.

Donna became known as “the drive by evangelist.” The johns drove the streets seeking to satisfy carnal lusts. Donna drove down the streets looking for someone to pray for. When she saw a prostitute, she had a relationship with, she rolled down her car window and called her by name. The prostitutes often complained they did not make money when Donna prayed for them, but Donna insisted. Inevitably some of them would back up to the car, slip a hand in the window and whisper, “Pray.”

God gave Donna great favor. She prayed with hundreds of young women before she set her sights on strip clubs. Again, she approached the school’s leaders. “Who is ministering to the strippers?” Again, she received the same answer. “No one.” The school gave Donna their blessing to expand her ministry.

Donna and her team entered the strip clubs with gifts for the strippers. At one of the clubs, some of the strippers stopped them as they were leaving. They had collected an offering from their earnings for Donna’s ministry. “These are gifts,” Donna exclaimed. “You don’t have to pay for them.” The strippers insisted. Donna perceived she would offend them if she declined, so she accepted the offering.

One of the strip clubs adopted Donna as their pastor. When the club’s disc jockey developed a brain aneurysm, the owner called Donna to meet them at the hospital. She arrived to a room full of the club’s employees and their families.

The owner announced, “This is Pastor Donna. She is part of our family.”

Later the Disc Jockey died. The owner called Donna to minister to her employees in their grief. When Donna arrived, the owner asked the patrons to leave. That afternoon the strip club became a church. Pastor Donna preached the gospel and comforted them.

Upon completing her education, she returned to New Orleans and founded Unashamed Love to continue her ministry. One night, she walked into Temptations Gentlemen’s Club and felt drawn to a young dancer whose arms were covered in tattoos. Donna sat on the bar stool next to her. Her efforts at small talk were ignored. Donna persisted silently praying God would give her something to say the dancer would respond to. Suddenly, she looked Donna in the eyes and said sarcastically, “My name is Riot, but you need to understand something. I need to stay in the mode to do what I do.”

Donna matched her sarcasm, “Riot, I get being in the mode. When I come in here, I am in the mode, and my mission is to get those walls around your heart down, so we can talk heart to heart.”

Donna’s boldness made Riot laugh. Riot said she stripped to support her disabled boyfriend and three-year-old daughter. She allowed Donna to prayer for her after Donna shared her testimony. Donna returned twice to minister to Riot. “If ever you are in a real jam, you remember to call on the name of Jesus,” was the last thing she said to Riot.

One night, Donna scrolled through posts on Facebook and saw a picture of Riot. She clicked on the picture, which brought her to a local news story. Pieces of Riot’s dismembered body had washed ashore on a beach in Mississippi. The tattoos on her arms helped the police identify who the body belong to.

Donna grieved the loss of Riot like a mother grieves the loss of a child. “Sometimes we give a gift and walk on, but I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit’s leading that would not let me leave until Riot talked to me and allowed me to pray for her. These dancers and prostitutes are street savvy. I believe that once she realized the evil intent of the couple that she left the club with, she called on Jesus.”

Donna has had many divine encounters with prostitutes and strippers, but seldom sees the fruit of her labor. Her passion to share the hope we have in God keeps her shoulder to the plow. She sows seeds of the gospel trusting God to send another to water and another to reap.

“Street corners, crack houses, brothels and strip clubs are my favorite places,” said Donna. She is not ashamed to love the unlovely. “We strive to give the girls gifts that are meaningful. In the summer, we give them bottles of cold water. On Mother’s Day we give them roses. One Easter a children’s ministry had a surplus of Easter bunnies and gave them to us. The ladies loved them. Most of them were homeless living in crack houses, brothels, motel rooms or abandoned homes. On cold nights, I have no greater joy than wrapping the ladies in warm coats, putting gloves on their hands and scarves around their necks. I look for any way I can show them love, because I am not ashamed to love them.”