No Rats Lately

Almost five months old, Spilled Perfume has taken off!  I had no idea when I started this blog that it would end up with followers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Kenya, Guatemala, Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Thailand, India, South Korea, and New Zealand!  But God clearly is doing something bigger than I am able to fathom.

About a month ago, I got more serious about the purpose of this blog.  I had been using it to just blog about anything in my life, but its original intent was to be about sex-related topics and the passionate love that Jesus pours out on people who need sexual healing.  So I went through and deleted 63 posts that were not at all related to prostitution, sex, or God’s work of transforming people.  They were interesting posts, but just not relevant to the central message of Spilled Perfume.

You may or may not recall one of my very first blog entries titled “The Holy Spirit and a Rat.”  I would have to say that it is still my favorite post on this blog.  A powerful story of the day God told me to start this blog – to share my story publicly – I was feeling weighed down because of the prostitution that goes on all across the globe and especially in my own city of Sacramento.  Out of nowhere, I felt an overwhelming desire to pray that I would meet someone from the sex industry.

I was on my way to church, taking the light rail, at about 6:30 at night.  It was almost dark.  I could not explain the overwhelming need to pray for such a thing right in that moment, but looking back I have to believe that it was the Holy Spirit.  I asked God to let me meet someone from the sex industry that very night on my way to church.

Not twenty minutes later, I was having a conversation with a meth addicted woman, very beautiful and eager to tell me all kinds of stories with a sense of humor that cracked me up (no pun intended).  She had formerly been a stripper and then a prostitute when the strip club had no more use for her because she had injured a leg and could no longer dance.  The Holy Spirit had used a rat to convince me to talk to her, because I had not initially planned to start a conversation with her.  When we parted ways, she gave me an enormous hug and said, “I love you.”

While I have not seen any rats lately, I have been following the overwhelming distinct voice of the Holy Spirit as I write my book.  My book is essentially everything that my blog is – except better!   God has been telling me to write this book for awhile, but the timing was not right.  Perhaps he wanted me to start the blog first so that I could have five months to practice publicly sharing my deepest, darkest secrets, and letting God use them to display his glory and impact lives around the globe.

I’ve been brought to tears by the precious conversations I’ve had online with other survivors of prostitution.  Who knew there were so many of us out there blogging?  I will likely never meet any of them in person, since they do not live nearby, but I am oh so blessed to know them, to pray for them, and to be prayed for by them.

Today God provided for me a book editor who is the editor of a church magazine and has also edited a book for a pastor which is now going to print.  I also spoke with someone who is friends with an author who writes full time and supports herself with her writing.  So this just gets more and more interesting!

THANK YOU to all my readers who pray for me and encourage me!  I’m not sure that I would have the courage to do what I’m doing without your support, so thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus in partnering with me to see the gospel shared with everyone.  I appreciate you all.