She's a hooker for Jesus. Honest.
Ex-Vegas harlot saving souls from street
Meet Annie Lobert -- a former
prostitute with a singular mission: saving Las Vegas hookers.
Lobert, and her faith-based mission
-- which she calls "Hookers for Jesus" -- are the focus of "Hookers:
Saved on the Strip," a three-part series premiering Dec. 8 on
Investigation Discovery.
"When I used to get arrested
and the vice [cops] called me a 'hooker,' it really offended me," Lobert
told The Post. "So one day I was thinking, if I was reaching out to women
and starting to go into casinos and saying, 'I can help you change your life,'
and calling myself Annie, it would be a weird thing -- 'AnnieLobert's Reach
Out.'
SECRET SERVICE: Annie Lobert left the sex trade five years ago. A new series records how she refused to leave others like her behind.
"So I figured Hookers for
Jesus. I believe in God, for one, and I was a hooker and now I go and fish for
people [to save]."
TV cameras follow Lobert as she
tries to teach ex-call girls how to turn their lives around.
In the show's premiere episode,
Regina, who grew up in a middle-class New Jersey family and turned to
prostitution while in the Navy (where she met her pimp), is her first project.
Lobert, 43, is from Minnesota. She
worked as a Las Vegas hooker for over 10 years, finally leaving the life behind
after a near-fatal overdose and repeated physical abuse from violent pimps.
She started Hookers for Jesus in
2006, and eventually began working with The Church of South Las Vegas, whose
pastor, Benny Perez, helped Lobert start Destiny House -- a shelter for
ex-prostitutes that helps prepare them for life in the straight world (finding
jobs, apartments, etc.).
"Other churches hadn't welcomed
the girls like I wanted them to be welcomed, and when I came to this church,
they actually started to change [the girls'] lives," Lobert says.
"Once these women leave their
pimps, they leave with no house, no clothing, no jewelry, no money and no car.
I was bringing them to my little ranch house and putting them up in hotels, and
Benny said, 'Would you like us to have a house for the girls?'
"So we call it Destiny House.
It's a name I came up with because I had a miscarriage and the child's name was
Destiny."
Lobert's story, which includes her
husband, Oz Fox -- the lead guitarist of Christian metal band Stryper -- made
sense immediately as a TV program, says network president Henry Schleiff.
"It certainly fits our emphasis
on the concept that one person can make a difference," he says.
"And we're about compelling
stories, and we see Annie as a woman who's clearly lived a life . . . and is
now trying to save others from a violent, dangerous and growing industry.
"And this goes to our desire to
shine a Klieg light on a serious subject -- and do it in an entertaining way
that stirs debate."
Courtesy: New York Post
Courtesy: New York Post
