In 1999, Theresa Scher was a 22-year-old woman steeped in the adult entertainment industry. She started out as a stripper in San Diego and thought she was making good moneyuntil she heard what the girls were making in Las Vegas. She went to Vegas and immediately started earning bigger paydays, but the more she made, the more her desire for more money seemed to grow.
Around this time, she heard from a friend about the astounding amounts of money that could be earned per night as an escort. She jumped in with reckless abandon.
Just two years later, Theresa reached unbelievable heights of success and glamour, entertaining rich and powerful men, and all it had the power to do was leave her empty. She wore the finest clothes and jewelry, drove the fastest cars and was earning upwards of $30,000 a month.
But in terms of joy and meaning, she was flat broke.
Feeling helpless and sitting all alone in a hotel room, she received a call from her dad. With sadness in his voice, he asked her just one question, What are you doing to yourself? It shook her to the core. She knew then that the end to this lifestyle had to be near. She felt like perhaps it was a sign from God.
As she was going through the pain of a divorce, she reached out to God and accepted Jesus as her Savior. The following months were nothing short of a war to fend off temptations to return to her former lifestyle and feed her addiction to money. The grip that money had on her life was a force on par with gravity, and those times when she couldnt fight the monster any longer, she fed it. It rewarded her with the sting of guilt and shame. She fought back, and in an act of faith, sold everything she had that reminded her of her former life.
Watching TV one day she saw a story about JCs Girls, an organization of women who enter adult establishments and minister to strippers. Suddenly, Theresa saw her future.
When she phoned the JCs Girls founder and asked if she could start a San Diego chapter, the answer was no. There had to be three women to start a chapter.
Meanwhile, Sheri Brown was a young San Diego social worker who, at 23, was carrying around the pains of family dysfunction that included an emotionally abusive, alcoholic father and a molestation by a family member. Two early pregnancies for Sheri only added to the chaos of her life. She entered adulthood with two babies, an infrastructure in shambles and a soul full of biases and resentments. One of them was, she hated strippers.
Little did she know, thats the one God would use to change her life.
At work, Sheri was assigned to be the case manager for four strippers. In the process, she began to love the girls and understand the pains that lead them into the adult entertainment business.
Having received Jesus as a child, the voice of God, though distant was still present. It prompted her to attend a womens retreat one weekend. There she noticed another young woman jump to the stage to give a testimony which included her desire to reach strippers for Christ. That woman was Theresa and the story jolted Sheri from her seat.
Theresa was barely off the stage when Sheri and another woman approached her. Suddenly, the three women needed to start a San Diego chapter were in place. JCs Girls San Diego had begun.
Today, the group has grown to a team of 25 to 35 JCs Girls who enter strip clubs offering Bibles, the love of Christ, friendship and absolutely no condemnation.
Theresa and Sheri hold bible studies for the young strippers and invite them into a relationship with Jesusand a way out of the lifestyle. The response has been tremendous.
Theyve seen many girls come to Christ and gain a new perspective, realizing that they are not their sexuality, but highly valued children of Godbody, mind and soul.
Congratulations Theresa Scher and Sherri Brown, Rock Heroes for October 2010.
If you would like more information about the JC's Girls Ministry or to help support them, visit www.jcsgirls.org.
