Never expected to be in a strip club or prostitution…

By Tenisha Gainey
When I graduated high school and went off to college, I would have never believed I would become a prostitute. But that’s exactly what ended up happening. I was excited to go away to school because it seemed more interesting than staying home and going to community college. While there I enjoyed the college scene: the parties, the freedom, and the opportunity to get a higher education. Going away to
college was one of my greatest accomplishments and graduating was my number one goal.

Ill-prepared for college

But somehow I was ill-prepared for what was about to happen. My first semester I found out I was pregnant. My second semester I started to party wildly all the time. By my third semester I figured I really just wanted three things: to make money, have nice things, and be “happy.” After talking to some guys on campus who worked at a local strip club, I figured becoming an exotic dancer was the easiest way to get all three.

One of the guys’ father owned the strip club. He was driving a nice BMW and had all the latest electronics: flat screen TVs, state of the art computers, everything I could have ever dreamed of. Soon I was at the club checking it out. Once I looked around and thought about all the things I could buy with the money I said, “I'll try it out”. And after a couple of weekends I got the hang of it. But that was only the beginning, because I kept talking to people and got in deeper and deeper into making fast money. Not long after I started, I began “taking dates” which is prostituting.
But about nine months later, my life was about to take an unexpected 180 degree turn when Jesus stepped in.

I never would have expected...

One of my guys put a down payment on a car for me, but I had to get money for the car payment and the down payment for the insurance. I was returning to my car when a pearl colored, late model Lincoln towncar pulled next to me. There was a white guy nearly twice my age in the car. We made small talk and he invited me to have lunch with him. 

I got into his car and we went to a diner around the corner. We talked, laughed, and ate. At the end of the meal he invited me to join him at his church's Wednesday Night Bible Study. I felt like I just got caught selling drugs to an undercover cop, but I agreed to go. That night at church God dealt with me about all that I had been doing. And I always stood on the excuses, “God knows my heart. I'm a good person. I have to eat.” But I knew that enough was enough.

 I went to the altar and gave my life to Jesus Christ. That was July 2003.
I was very excited by the choice I made and I told all my friends and my family. I also told the guys who would call me for dates that I was no longer into that because I was living my life as a Christian. I did my best to figure out how I was going to pay for the car, but I could not afford it so I returned it to the dealer. I cut all ties with working at the strip club so I didn't have a job. On a daily basis I read my Bible, prayed, and believed that God would work it out. And eventually God did.