Get The Hell Out of Your Life
Hear the life-changing moments that transformed individuals. Be inspired by powerful testimonies that promise to inspire and encourage.
Get The Hell Out of Your Life
From Strip Club to Sanctuary: One Woman's Path to Redemption
That disturbing moment when Sharon looked up from the strip club stage to see her own father sitting there—the same man who had sexually abused her for 12 years—became the catalyst for her escape from exploitation. But where do you run when your past keeps catching up with you?
Sharon's raw, powerful testimony reveals how childhood trauma created vulnerabilities that traffickers expertly exploited. "Anyone who's been sexually abused has this neon sign over them," she explains, describing how a seemingly friendly regular customer at her restaurant job gradually groomed and recruited her into dancing and eventual exploitation.
What makes this story extraordinary is the divine intervention that changed everything. Alone in her home while high on drugs, Sharon experienced something unexplainable—an audible voice asking three times, "What do you think you're doing?" That encounter led her to church the very next day, where she found immediate deliverance from substance dependency, though complete healing would take years of intentional work.
Host Ron Myers connects Sharon's journey to his own transformation from promoting bikini contests and wet t-shirt competitions to discovering his true calling. "Until you experience Jesus, until he actually touches your heart, touches your dreams, touches your inspiration—it's just a story," Myers reflects. "But when he begins to write the story in your life, you begin that love relationship with him, and the grace just floods in."
For anyone struggling with exploitation, addiction, or searching for purpose, this episode offers practical wisdom alongside genuine hope. As Sharon puts it, "You keep running until you run into the brick wall that's going to save you—and that can be a person God put in your path."
Ready to discover your own purpose and destiny? Listen now and learn how to "get the hell out of your life" by replacing darkness with divine direction and lasting hope.
- If you would like to be a guest and share your story, click this link: https://thepromoter.org/story/
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It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, ron Myers. The promoter.
Speaker 2:Hello, my friends, it is so good to be with you once again. Welcome to the show that has real stories for you to listen to. Real stories, real struggles and real hope. Because who isn't having struggles in life?
Speaker 2:One thing I have noticed with the guests that I have interviewed over the past 20 years is that a lot of things in their life originated when they were young. The seed of doubt, the seed of abuse, the seed of fear was planted as a child and, you know, it just kind of developed a life of its own over time and then it takes root in the person's life and the behavior. It leads them to one thing, to another thing, to another. It's a vicious cycle. You probably know what I'm talking about. I know it happened to me.
Speaker 2:Well, today's guest, sharon, talks about things as a child and what happened as she grew older and eventually went into a strip club and entertained men for money. But something was pulling at her saying you got to stop this. It's time to get busy with life and start living for what your purpose is. So you're going to hear a struggle and the good news you'll always hear in all my stories is they found hope because they found Jesus. So let's take a listen to Sharon's story and then I'll recap it when we finish it.
Speaker 3:Well, I graduated from school in 79. I was a waitress food waitress here on the Gulf Coast at 17. I was going to be in MIT in a particular restaurant that I was working in and we had a regular person that came in for breakfast every morning At 18,. I was training to be a manager.
Speaker 2:And you had a customer that liked you.
Speaker 3:He did. He was very friendly, he was old enough to be my grandfather and over time he asked all the personal questions. And you know, being young and being on your own, I didn't have any inhibitions as far as telling people who I was or what I wanted to do in life or the struggles that I was having, even irregardless to the fact that I grew up as an introvert. But when you are in a restaurant, you have a different platform of letting your customers know that you're there for them and you know in turn. They sometimes ask how they can help or give you advice as a customer because they're having a conversation with you over their lunch or breakfast. He used to come in every morning. I knew his menu before he could tell me what he wanted because I had memorized it. I have a good memory on stuff like that Give him his coffee. He would ask questions, and this went on for probably a good five, six months before he made the initial invite which now, looking back, you call that recruitment into being a club for his employer.
Speaker 2:What was the invite?
Speaker 3:The invite was to help me make more money If I wanted to be um work in the nightlife, since I was being a waitress during the day. If I wanted to make more money in the evening.
Speaker 2:What's that entail? The nightlife.
Speaker 3:He introduced me to the club where he worked and um asked me if I wanted to dance, bought all my clothes, my clothes for dancing.
Speaker 2:So he wanted you to be a stripper. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you were 18?
Speaker 2:Yep, at 18,. You're young, you're impressionable, you're a little bit naive.
Speaker 3:Behind the scenes. I was already marked as a target because I was sexually abused by my dad for 12 years, so I was already a target. What do you mean by that? A target? Because I was sexually abused by my dad for 12 years, so I was already a target.
Speaker 2:What do you mean by that? A target?
Speaker 3:I mean that anybody who's been sexually abused, physically abused. It's almost like they have this neon sign over them and people know what to look for. That are. They have inhibitions. They have people who don't have understanding of what kind of people are out there. Good judge of character on what their motives are to get you to do something that you do.
Speaker 2:So this guy that came in for breakfast and through conversation got to know that you had some sexual abuse in your life.
Speaker 3:I think that he knew the signs of what kind of girl he was looking for, because traffickers tend to do that they groom a girl. But they know what kind of personalities People who are not extroverts necessarily they're introverts. They have personal issues going on and they want to be the one to let you know that they got your back and that you can trust them. What happened to you then won't happen to you again, but it does, but at a bigger volume.
Speaker 2:And they're going to take care of you. Right, yeah, they're going to take care of you. You're going to be their best bud and you're going to make money. Just do what they want you to do.
Speaker 3:Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:How long did that go on?
Speaker 3:A year and a half to two years.
Speaker 2:And then what?
Speaker 3:My first offender sat at the front table next to the stage. He came into the club and sat at the front table and I stepped out on a stage and saw him and I just freaked out.
Speaker 2:Did he recognize you?
Speaker 3:I think he did, because I went and sat with him after I danced.
Speaker 2:Why would you go sit with him if he was the offender I?
Speaker 3:wanted to know why he would be there.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 3:He was my dad. I wanted to know what the heck he was doing there. Why was he there?
Speaker 2:He was your dad.
Speaker 3:Yes, my biological dad.
Speaker 2:Wow, did you find out anything that night? Did he confess and apologize?
Speaker 3:No, he didn't know that I worked there. Apologize for the. He didn't know that I worked there. I did ask him what he was doing there. He said I didn't know you worked here and he didn't um know what happened later. He did not know that I was being sold that was a traumatic experience.
Speaker 3:I imagine seeing him huh uh, yeah, it was actually pivotal. That's when I ran, because I'm a runner. Most trafficked survivors um sexual abuse survivors, as well as physical abuse survivors Children of all of these things tend to have the what do you call it? The three F's fight, flight, freeze. I froze as a child, I flight during my adolescent and young twenties and then now I'm a fighter.
Speaker 2:So where did you run to?
Speaker 3:To the next county.
Speaker 2:The next county.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I ran to the next county, got to quit my job. I quit the restaurant, went to the next county, got a new job, moved my place of where I lived.
Speaker 2:Now a new job. Is that dancing?
Speaker 3:still no the dancing that I did got me regulars when we were being sold. That told me things that I didn't know, which they turned out to be clients after I left the club.
Speaker 2:So they developed a relationship with you and they would call you up for a little extracurricular activity.
Speaker 3:Correct. Yes, and that happened. I had, I think, four regulars.
Speaker 2:How many years did that go on?
Speaker 3:That went on.
Speaker 2:That only went on for about a year, um, before I ran smack into the first man I married you run into your dad who abused you and now you ran into, and then, a couple years later, you run into the man that you married. Was that good or was that bad?
Speaker 3:well, I thought it was good, but it was after I got married I found out I married a drug dealer. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, you did. You know we're talking about the storms in life, boy. You had some serious storms, didn't you?
Speaker 3:I had a few.
Speaker 2:Was there anything inside of you that said I got to get out of this, I got to leave this? There's something that God has for well. I can't even say if you even knew. Did you even know God?
Speaker 3:I didn't know God. Then I mean, I knew there was a God because I was raised in church, you know. But now that I look back through that volume of books, as I call it is, my parents played church. You go to church because you're supposed to, it's tradition. And then I realized that they went home and did whatever they wanted.
Speaker 3:So I knew about God. I just didn't have a relationship with God. So my running thing was every time you get into unfamiliar waters you're like, okay, what do I do with this? And you run, you just run. Or if you're scared or you don't know what you're supposed to do, you run.
Speaker 2:So you run, you go to somewhere else and it's almost kind of like starting yeah, fresh yes new, nobody knows you until some more stuff happens some more stuff happened. You can never outrun your past. Huh, it somehow catches up with you well it they say that.
Speaker 3:But I think you can outrun your past, because when I ran into the first man I married, who happened to be a drug dealer, my next concern was is the house being raided and them taking my first born child away from me? So that was another issue and that happened.
Speaker 2:No, how are you dealing with all this? Are you doing drugs or alcohol? How do you keep your sanity?
Speaker 3:well, actually in the club I was a drinker. Half a bottle of schnapps just to get on the stage. Then I went to drugs. Um, my drug of choice back then was speed. I was afraid to fall asleep, so I always took speed why were you afraid to fall asleep? Bad things happen when you're sleeping oh yeah, that's true bad.
Speaker 3:People touch you when you don't want to be touched and you don't realize it till you wake up, you know. So I mean, my choice of drug at that time was speed. It wasn't downers, I hated downers. I didn't like marijuana. A few people tried to get me to take other stuff. Didn't like that. That scared me a lot.
Speaker 2:So what was the day night that it finally said I can't do this anymore and you decided to make a change in your life. What happened?
Speaker 3:I think it was when I married my first husband. I mean, things started changing because the woman who was his mom was the one that started um praying for me, knew my stuff before I knew my stuff she, and actually because his mother actually became a pivotal um pillar in my life. I guess it was a few years after I was married she introduced me to a young lady that would be my counselor for the next seven to ten years.
Speaker 2:So what did she do to pull you out of your wild lifestyle?
Speaker 3:When my son my first son was a year and a half, something major happened. We were doing drugs me and his sister, my husband's sister in our house and something really strange took place that weekend and I was high, she was high, she left with her baby and my baby was sleeping and then something happened which was kind of weird. But divine things happen and people don't understand it, and I have been one of these to learn from what's happening around me, to pay attention, but maybe file it for a while. When he was about a year and a half, when she left the house that day, the house shook. I thought she hit the trailer with her car. So I went outside and she wasn't even there. So I come back in and I hear this voice. I mean a deep, strong voice.
Speaker 2:Audible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, audible, yeah, audible. To me it was very audible, like what do you think you're doing? I won't ever forget it. He said it three times.
Speaker 2:So it was a he.
Speaker 3:It was a he.
Speaker 2:Was it God?
Speaker 3:Yes, it was. What do you think you're doing? I found my that was on a Saturday night, friday or Saturday night. It was on the weekend and that Sunday it had to been Friday night because Saturday I called my mother-in-law and I said I'm going to this church. I've never been there before. It's in Slidell, but it's right off the highway. I'm going to go investigate it. She says what's the name of it and I told her and she said I know the pastor. Yes, go there. So I picked up my baby that Sunday morning I went to church. Well, that Sunday morning I got saved. I was back the next Sunday and I got doused with the Holy Spirit, with evidence of speaking in tongues, and was immediately delivered from drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 2:Wow, in your own words, you've had a lot of strange things happen in your life. Yes, strange things, storms, but you know it kind of goes into the theme of today's shows. Strange things, storms, but you know it kind of goes into the theme of today's shows that things happen in our lives, storms, strange things. We don't understand them, but god the whole time is trying to pull us out of the storm that we are in. Did you feel that? Did you feel that? Hey, I'm finally getting some relief. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:This God thing is starting to make me enjoy life. I'm starting to have fun again.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, it was different than what we're used to, which takes some strategic planning Well, maybe not planning, but being mindful of what you're doing and what you no longer want to do. But I actually woke up not only delivered from drugs and alcohol, but there was something I knew was different about me, that I wanted to do right by my son.
Speaker 2:If you play off of a person's insecurity and all you went through. Well, you're a dancer. I know that, the extracurricular activities that come with that, but there had to be something about that applause and all these men just looking at you and just adoring you because you're this beautiful thing on stage. Did that have a effect on you of a trap of hard to get away from that life because you're finally getting some attention, even though it was the wrong attention?
Speaker 3:Well, you're probably right, but I think the underlining thing. When I look back through those books and all those chapters, I believe that I was set up by my dad and he didn't even realize it that this is what men want, Teaching me all the things that men want, and I was impressionable child to believe that men wanted your body and they didn't want anything else. So he taught me that that's all men want. I found out different when I got delivered.
Speaker 2:Boy. What a change in life. I mean and that's where a lot of people listening right now, sharon, are going through is they do not have a lot of self-worth. They do not like themselves. I had one gentleman I interviewed over a year ago before he got delivered. He said he couldn't even look in the mirror because he did not like himself. So with this new relationship you're beginning to have with God, are you starting to see yourself in a different life?
Speaker 3:I don't say I can't say that that happened right off the bat, because my my mother-in-law at the time, um, I have to say she taught me warrior, uh, strategic things that I didn't know about the word of God, cause she was a warrior in the spirit, she prayed a lot, she was a great intercessor, taught me things and she said that to me and it made so much sense that just because I was delivered divinely from alcohol and drugs, that doesn't happen for everybody, but she says also, your deliverance is still happening. Some deliverances is a process.
Speaker 2:It's a process that makes sense.
Speaker 3:It's a process and she taught me that. So she said going to counseling would help me process the past so that I could deal with the now, so that I could live for my future.
Speaker 2:There you go, that's good. And when she?
Speaker 3:taught me that. I never forgot that, Even though in those first 10 years of my children's lives, I have to say there was many times where she would get aggravated with me, that she didn't think I was listening. I was listening, I just didn't know how to process it all because it was so different from my other life. And when she died in 2006, a year, literally one year later after Katrina, it was almost like her mantle had shifted and I remember every conversation. I remember every prayer she prayed over me and it was almost like that first year. She literally was whispering to me. Do you remember when I said do you remember what I said not to do? Do you remember when you need to go to the scriptures for this and when you need help, you need to go call your?
Speaker 2:counselor. So she, this lady, your mother-in-law, had a really profound impact.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she was the mother that I didn't have.
Speaker 2:And chances are everybody out there listening that don't think there's somebody out there that understands them. There probably is. They might just need to look a little bit harder, because God will place people in our path.
Speaker 3:Yes, he will.
Speaker 2:To help us get out of the storms in life.
Speaker 3:Yes, you, I ran right, smack into her, you ran, she was a brick wall.
Speaker 2:Yes. If somebody right now is just divinely tuned in and said oh my God, she's talking about me, what would you tell them to do?
Speaker 3:Well, they can call the human trafficking hotline.
Speaker 2:What's the national number?
Speaker 3:888-3737-888. That's the national hotline yes. Title of the national hotline yes.
Speaker 2:Title of the show is called Get the Hell Out of your Life. How do you get the hell out of your life?
Speaker 3:You keep running until you run into the brick wall that's going to save you and that can be a person God put in your path to help you out of the mess that you were in, to get you to see him.
Speaker 2:You know I run into you off and on, here and there, starbucks, and you're always doing good things. Sharon, I'm so proud of you and what you're doing and God bless you, and I'm so sorry for all the pain that you had to go through in life. But the one thing that I've discovered with God, he'll take our pain and turn it into a purpose.
Speaker 3:Yes, and if no one's read the purpose driven Life book, I am living my purpose.
Speaker 1:When I return, let's talk about hope, purpose and destiny. You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, ron Myers.
Speaker 4:Real stories real struggles and real hope. In a world filled with uncertainty, it's easy to lose sight of our purpose and destiny. But when we anchor our hearts in a relationship with Jesus, everything changes. My name is Mark and this is the Journey. Jesus becomes our true source of hope, our guide towards the purpose in our life and the one who shapes our destiny.
Speaker 4:Hebrews 6, verse 19 says we have this hope, jesus as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. You know the storms of life will come, but Jesus is our unshakable anchor. When we place our trust in Him, we are securely tethered to His love, his wisdom and His perfect plan. Proverbs 16, verse 4, reminds us the Lord works out everything to its proper end. This means your life has true meaning. God has a purpose for you, a reason you are here today, and through a relationship with Jesus that purpose begins to unfold. So when you feel lost or uncertain, echo the words of David in Psalm 39. My hope is in you, o Lord. In Jesus you are not forgotten. You are called, loved and destined for a life that glorifies him.
Speaker 5:Here's a refreshing word for you today from Hebrews 4.16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You're tired of how you're living. We'll change it. You don't like where you're headed, my friends.
Speaker 2:Now let's talk about hope, purpose and destiny. Sharon's story reminded me of what I had to go through to change the direction and the destiny in my life. I was so hung up on greed, making money and using bikini contests and wet t-shirt contests and beer selling to make my income. I had no guilt. I did it for 16 years. But something began stirring in me that, ron, you know you have something inside of you that God wants to release. And I thought, well, wonder what that is. And I had that quiet little thought your destiny, your purpose. And so I began a process. Now, friends, I didn't change overnight. I had a process that I started praying Lord, I want to discover my destiny. I want to discover what you want me to do for you. I know you've given me talent, skills and abilities, but what is it, lord? What is it that I can do for you? And I will be happy I can support my family and friends.
Speaker 2:Over a process of probably two and a half to three years, I started thinking different and what was happening behind the scenes I didn't even know about. God was rearranging things that I would encounter in the coming years that would make me want to change my occupation wanted me to change the direction of my life and one thing led to another and the door of opportunity opened, right when the door of what I thought was my career was closed. Just that quick, but it was wonderful. I tell people I walked into the time of life where I was so poor I couldn't pay attention, but I was happy. I was happy. I didn't know what I was happy for, but I just knew God was writing a new life, a new journey in my life and that is really a lot of the thoughts behind creating this show years ago is to find other people that had a powerful, wonderful, loving, merciful, graceful relationship with Jesus and their destiny changed forever.
Speaker 2:Because what I believe is this, friends, we can read about the historical Jesus all the time you know, anytime you want. Jesus lived here. This is what he did. He walked with these people, he did these miracles. But until you experience Jesus, until he actually touches your heart, touches your dreams, touches your inspiration, your encouragement, it's just a story. But when he begins to write the story in your life for you, you begin that love relationship with him and the grace just floods in your life. And the more you know how much he loves you, the more you fall in love with him and that limitless grace that he has for us. It causes us not to desire to sin or do things that we don't want to do. It causes us to just pursue our purpose with a passion.
Speaker 2:So today I want to encourage you. I don't care what anybody has ever told you, I don't care what preachers have preached to you. The only one that knows your destiny is Jesus. It is time for you to have some sit down, quiet time, coffee with Jesus and begin to pour your heart out. And the longer you spend time with Jesus, my friends, the more that you realize you can trust him, you can depend on him. He will never leave you, he will never forsake you and he will never toss you out of his hands. This is the greatest time to be a believer, because Jesus is walking the streets today through the hands and feet of his followers. How do you get the hell out of your life? Get on your knees and cry out to the Lord, he hears you right where you are.
Speaker 3:How?
Speaker 2:do you get the hell out of your life? Well, you replace it with Jesus. We've got to be born again, born of the Spirit, and that's by trusting Jesus Christ, turning from our sins and trusting Jesus.
Speaker 4:You find out about this man by the name of Jesus who went to the cross and gave his life so that we will have a life more abundantly, and if you can receive that love, he will love that hell out of you.
Speaker 5:You trust in him and you let him love the hell right out of you.
Speaker 2:How do you get the hell out of your life? Oh gosh Jesus.
Speaker 5:Jesus.
Speaker 2:Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Speaker 4:Turn to Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.
Speaker 2:Well, friends, would you like to have some fun this coming week? Then focus, meditate on the words of hope, purpose and destiny. Commit this to your prayer life, your conversations with Jesus. Ask him to help you discover your destiny, discover your purpose and understand the beautiful hope that he has placed in you. Get excited about life again. Understand that, hey, some of the challenges in your life are only there to help you get to where Jesus needs you to be, because your test that you're going through now will soon become your testimony.
Speaker 2:This is your time, my friend. This is the greatest time. I absolutely believe it. This is your time, my friend. This is the greatest time. I absolutely believe it. This is the absolute best time to be a believer, because Jesus is walking this planet right now through the hands and feet of his followers. Share the good news, Share his grace, Share his love, Share his forgiveness, and you will understand that hope, purpose and destiny aren't just words, but they are a way of life. Also, will you help me promote this show? It's called Get the Hell Out of your Life and it's available on all podcast platforms. I'll be back next week with another great episode of somebody sharing their story of what Jesus did for them. Until then, this is Ron Myers reminding you that I love you, Jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, you not only get the hell out of your life, you begin to experience hope, purpose and destiny.
Speaker 1:Today's show is proudly underwritten by the Christmas City Gift Show. Mark your calendars for November 7th through the night and experience the magic inside the Christmas City Gift Show inside the Mississippi Coast Convention Center, located on the beach in Biloxi, mississippi. For more information, visit christmascitygiftshowcom. If you would like to be a guest and share your story of God's amazing grace, visit our website, thepromoterorg, and click the Share your Story tab button. Thanks for listening and if you would like to listen to previous episodes. Thanks for listening and if you would like to listen to previous episodes, click on the podcast tab at the promoter dot o r g. Join us next week for another edition of Get the Hell Out of your Life Real stories, real struggles and real hope.
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