What an incredible time and crew we had at the Australia Sexpo. We have been invited back and have heard lots of great things. Here are some stories and recaps. The newspapers are loving the Jesus Loves Porn Stars! Check out one of the articles. Check out all the pics on FLICKR.

RECAP

Just an email to let you know that this morning a man I met at Sexpo named David rang me, he rang to thank me and let me know that because of a conversation we had at Sexpo he has returned to his family, church and God, he mentioned that he is determined to work out all his issues with God/Church/Sex/Family.

It is ironic to think that standing at Sexpo handing out “Jesus Loves Porn Stars” bibles would begin the process of putting people’s lives back together, but hey I guess that’s Jesus for you.

Thanks team for you prayers throughout the convention, clearly it begun something.

Lets go

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Amazing start for XXXChurch in Australia.

The event started and instantly showed that XXXChurch is a valued/needed part of any Porn/Sex show. A comment made by Fiona from EROS at the media launch was that it was an encouragement to have XXXChurch there. It was clear that Australia’s Sexpo had made it mainstream as we had “XXXChurch.com” with us. Quickly people began to come around taking photos in front of the “Jesus Loves Porn Stars” wall sized banner. Bibles began to be distributed conversations started, confusion happened, are you real Christians? If there was ever to be anything considered different or weird at a porn show it defiantly was a bible, especially one with a silhouette of a women on it, stating that “Jesus Loves Porn Stars”

The people came the bibles went; distribution had to be slowed at the beginning of the second day due the scare of not having enough bibles. I have never seen people so happy and eager to receive a bible in Australia. Little own the women who used her newly purchased “Female Adult Toy” to point to the book as it was explained. People where excited to talk and they all seemed to understand that “some people” need help dealing with “their” addictions to porn. This to me highlighted the fact that people know that it’s quite a problem and can get in the way everyday functioning. Many came many went, and some asked for help, some called up days later thankful for being there as they have now decided to change the consumerism and focus on what’s important.

XXXChurch team were all great, Sexpo was excited that they had people who came all the way from the USA. Sam and I purchased remote controlled helicopters the only appropriate battery operated toy to purchase whilst in a JLPS t-shirt, and soon began racing helicopters around the Sexpo. Soon people began buying helicopters and stopping at the XXXChurch stall as the stall where side by side. Rachel soon became good friends with Penisaurus, Dinotittie and the Wangman as they roamed around the show. People began to confess they were Christians and the Fiona from EROS told us that the SEXPO was her “Church” as well as Rob the event organiser confessing to be a Christian and had picked up a bible from a LA expo.

It’s started now I think it needs to continue maybe Craig Gross can do a little dance or something on stage next year.

The event was amazing, more bibles needed in future. The couple of days and stories from Sexpo have generated more interest and buy from Church and local media.
Ben

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Being at Sexpo truly was quite an experience. Walking into an atmosphere of such spiritual oppression and brokenness was eye-opening as well as saddening. Despite this, it felt good to be at there with an answer – the positive message of freedom and liberty in Jesus Christ. Being a part of XXX Church meant being a part of creating a counter-culture to the culture that exists in places such as Sexpo.  Our mandate was simple – to resonate the true love of Jesus Christ to all who needed it. Working on behalf of XXX Church was such an honour and a blast. Although things could become quite overwhelming at times, Brian, Deb, Sam and Rachel were so incredibly friendly, supportive and inspiring that the job was fun and easy. It was great to see how responsive most the people were who stopped to chat to us, there were even people who were working at some of the booths who asked us to come and visit them later! All in all, working at Sexpo with XXX Church was a rewarding and worthwhile experience – I am honoured to have worked with people who are making such an incredible difference in this world!

Blessings, Dimity.

 

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the sweet thing about this show was that no one knew what we were all about. here in the states, they know us, not in australia. its cool to be part of something new there.
one thing that stood out was the fact that the organizers were so nice to us. they heard about us and said, “you know you made it when xxxchurch shows up to your convention”.  at first it was a fun cool thing, but after thinking about it i thought….”no, it’s not cool that there is porn convention being organized”.- it was bitter sweet.
they even asked us to go to the sydney and melbourne shows for free!

met a guy who was sick of church because it judged him. he is gay and is into porn. he wanted to debate in the beginning. i told him we werent there to do that, but i was willing to talk about how much god loves him. we ended up chatting for about a good hour.
another guy wants to give god, faith and his family a chance.
we want to see more at these shows, but we know that god is doing something with the little we have to offer.

sam

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so the australia sexpo is a lot different then what we have here.  there are different laws about different things in both places.  it seems as though many of the people we met at the booth have been hurt by the church or christians in some way.  it was actually really sad to hear how many of them grew up in the church and now hate it with a passion.  one story that was quite sad….

he was an older man maybe about 65, carried a sexpo bag full of random junk from the show and alone.  he came right up to me and asked me what we were all about.  i said the basics of who xxxchurch is and he had a lot to say about his life.  he went to a catholic school and was beat with a ruler with metal at the end.  when he would tell his dad he didn’t believe him.  many things that he didn’t want to talk about happend at that school.  that was his view of the church and christians.  he said that he had been married to a woman that had been raped and since then it had played a huge roll in their sex life. she became very adiment about certain things in their married life.  that soon ended.

Since then he has had many problems with his own fantasies and actions.  at some points of the conversation it was a bit erie but i knew that he needed to talk about it and i knew that i needed to be the one to listen.  by the end of the conversation thankfully he was all about xxxchurch.  he thought it was cool that christians were loving people in a place like that and giving out truth as well.  at the end he said “now i know why i came to sexpo”.  kind of an interesting comment but i guess even at the sexpo you can learn a lot about things you never thought you would.

rachel

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I’m quite a prude myself, so walking into Sexpo with my head held high was something no short of a personal challenge. Obviously I’ve never been to an event quite like this and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I strolled through the aisles trying to find the XXX Church stall.

I found the people in Sexpo to be quite open to Jesus loving Porn Stars and we turned into a bit of a novelty ourselves. The sign was a massive hit with plenty of punters looking to pose ala “Japanese Tourist” infront of it. (Let’s face it, even the crew working the stall were caught out with the peace sign across their fingers every now and then when the opportunity arose).

Some people would scoff at us and walk past shaking their heads, but I found most people were really good about it. Every so often a group of people would come squeeling around the bend flailing their arms around in excitement; “Oh my gosh! We heard about you guys in the paper and we’ve been looking EVERYWHERE for you!” Those guys would always stick around for a chat. Then there was Graham, who we made friends with on Friday. He took 5 bibles, one for himself and more for his mates. He spent the whole day there but came in every few hours to say Hi and keep us updated on what else was going on. By the days end, he came to say he was going and how he’d enjoyed hanging out with us, and he wanted to show us the portrait of himself he’d had painted by “Picasso”.

“Picasso” is a gentleman who paints portraits not using a brush or his hands… After seeing Graham’s portrait I couldn’t believe the talent of this guy! If he can paint like THAT using his appendage… imagine what he could do with a paintbrush! Such talent – it’s crazy! But my hat went off to him for novelty!

I loved talking to people about why we were there. The shock on their faces would melt into sincere appreciation and they’d leave telling us what an amazing job we were doing. Some people didn’t really want to talk about the bibles or Jesus, but I’d try make friends with them and just chat to them about whatever. It was good, they’d leave smiling, and wave each time they walked past, and of course, they had their bible in their hands and our stickers all over their clothes. It was great.

The best thing I took away from this experience was the feeling of being re-energised. After my first shift I felt an overwhelming sensation of inspiration and a fire rekindled inside of me. I loved being a part of something like this. It was an amazing opportunity to shine God’s light in a pretty dark world and it just shows His love for those people by the favour we were shown. Even in the muck, a seed can be planted, and that is awesome.
Suz