Proclaim Trust

A Lesson from My Time with a Prostitute

Recently, as I drove through the City of Manchester I was reminded of the night I met a prostitute. It was Christmas 1998. My friend John and I decided that we were going to go onto the streets of Manchester on Christmas Eve to spend time with two specific people groups – tramps and prostitutes.

At 2.00am, after spending some time in Chinatown with several tramps, we headed down to the Sackville Street area, the place where many of the prostitutes worked.

While we were walking along the road I heard a voice behind me, 'Do you want to do business mate?' I stopped and turned round and said to the young woman, 'No, I don’t want to do business,' and I carried on walking. And then she said again a second time, ‘Do you want to do business mate?' I said, 'No, I don’t,' and continued walking. A third time she asked, 'Are you sure you don’t want to do business mate?' At that I stopped turned round and said 'Listen, I don’t want to do business but I will pay for twenty minutes of your time.' 'What do you mean?' she asked. 'Well, I’m a Christian, and I will give £20 for 20 minutes of your time, just so I can show you what I believe.' She said, 'OK.' She led me over to a dimly lit doorway, and then crouched on the floor, as I remained standing. I remember looking down as the light caught her face. Her hair was matted, her lipstick was smeared, and her teeth were brown. She began to tell me all about her situation, and then she showed me her hands that were full of cigarette burns that her boyfriend had inflicted on her. This boyfriend happened to be standing on the other side of the road watching us.

I hardly said a word; I just stood there and listened with great interest. Then after 20 minutes I took out £20 and gave it to her, and then I gave her a small booklet that had the contents of the Christian message in, saying, 'I just want to thank you for your time, please take this money and this booklet and promise me that you will read it when you get home.' She took the money and the booklet and started crying saying, 'No man as ever done that for me… no man as ever given me anything without wanting something in return.'

When I think about this story, I’m reminded of an important lesson: sharing your faith is as much about listening as it is about speaking.

Did she ever read the booklet? I don’t know and I’ll probably never know. However, I do know that, to her, that night, I was a Christian man who paid £20 for 20 minutes of her time without wanting anything in return and I genuinely listened to what she had to say.

What about you? What are you like when you're given an opportunity to show somebody your beliefs? Do you jump in like a bull in a china shop? Do you like to do all the talking? Remember this lesson from my time with a prostitute: sharing your faith is as much about listening as it is about speaking.