We hope everyone had a great Easter. The team has returned from Miami from the Exxxotica Convention and we wanted to share some of the stories with you. Below are the reflections of the show team and also check out all the pictures on our flickr account. This was the first show I was not able to attend but the team did an amazing job. I was with 3500 pastors and church leaders at the Hawaiian Island Ministries conference in Honolulu. So, all of us were in the sun and now are back in the snow. Thank you for your support of this kind of outreach.

-Craig

Brandon Piety
More women at the show. More Picketers. And porn vending machines. That was Miami this year. And of course many Jesus Loves Porn Stars bibles in between and through it all. As the bibles go out I am amazed at the reactions every time. There are guys who grab a few for friends and other who ask poignant questions and others who simply smile. Hope is alive on a porn show floor. The conversations that happen and optimistic smiles on the show floor speak that hope is alive in the middle of so much that is broken.

In Miami I spoke to guys who did not even want to come to the show, but their need for porn made them jump in a car and get there. They were alone. At the show alone and in their eyes I could see they wanted more than the glam and the temporal fix. I spoke to dudes on spring break and guys who were at the show for no reason at all.

In every member of the Miami team, with every interaction and in every moment love was shown to people in need. From speaking to the guy in the industry across the way, to a girl who danced all day long and then came and sat in our booth for breaks with our girls. There was one single highlight of the show for me and that was seeing the team move with passion to show every individual they encountered that they are great and are loved and have worth more than they will ever know, that was the Miami porn show 2007.

Molly – 1st Time Porn Show
I’m not sure one can fully describe what happens at an X3 outreach without actually experiencing it for your self. I’ve never felt so anointed and Spirit-filled than I did at the porn show last week. It’s amazing how God just lavishes His love on people who are not even walking with Him. He loves us all the same. As people would walk by our booth I would heavily feel God’s presence and love being passed to them as we interacted. Whether it was a brief interaction or a pause long enough to really get in to things and pray with them- God was moving. He is so good like that. At a freaking porn show His Spirit was alive and clearly at work. My heart is so full and satisfied as I think back to the women God allowed me to connect with. From challenging Sonny Lane if her “void” really was filled through the porn industry; to watching tears form in the eyes of the precious girls from the Bang Bus after telling them that God has serious plans for them and loves them as a beautiful daughters; to praying with Susan and her boyfriend on the floor of the X3 booth; to praying for Adina that God will provide money so she will not have to prostitute her body anymore. God rocked that Miami porn convention. And He totally rocked me. What a precious God who will go to any length to tell His kids that He is CRAZY about them! He is too good. I cannot WAIT for my next porn show.

Jesse and Kim
Again the airport gave Kim and I some drama. This time it was the way TO instead of the way HOME though. At first glance this was just another porn show, but once we’d been there a while there were some major differences. We were right next to Ron Jeremy for one. There were a lot of young couples together and a lot of girls by themselves too. I had a great time talking to all the pornographers and their camera crews about what I am “really about.” People don’t really know how to take me. Apparently rock n’ roll Christian/Jewish guys in porn show passing out Bibles to Pornographers and their fans aren’t the norm in their life. With vulgar audio contests going on, a strip show right at the entry, and people walking around in body paint taking pictures w/ Ron going on all week, it was easy to be the one who sticks out. Keep praying for us and that we talk to the right people, have enough Bibles, get the right booth space, and just generally affect some lives on the positive! I truly believe that God, the one and only, really wants XXXchurch at these shows. The drunken guys, the strippers, the porn fans, and the addicts are now my heart. From Tulsa-rusalem I hail. I’m here to tell you God IS in this and we ARE making a difference!

J.R. Mahon
Miami… One thought, “THE NEW PORN SHOW…”

A sentence from the women leading the PR team for EXXXoctica Miami was the most telling forecast of the future of the porn industry in relation to you, me and our acceptance of pornography.

The sentence… “This is not a porn show, this is an adult entertainment show, and there is a difference.” She went on to say.

Miami was my 5th show. Leaving this show, I am concerned with the new language the industry is using to normalize porn. We have officially found the dumbing down of pornography. We have come to the point where the language used inside the industry is helping level the playing field for everyone to consume porn. “It’s not porn anymore it’s adult entertainment, have at it, everyone else is.” It’s that very sentiment that helps porn squirrel itself away in every part of our lives, from the Target check out lines to the overly sexualized cartoons kids are watching on Nick. Theory… no way!

Miami was for all intensive purposes a clean show. No crazy sex on video monitors in every booth, No naked porn-stars simulating sex at every turn, for the most part porn stars had cloths on and the language was “Happy to see you, relax enjoy, no ones hurting anyone here.” This show was a concreted effort to knock down the scandal of porn and replace it with toothy naked grins of the adult entertainment community. Dangerous to say the least.

I saw more couples, more women and than any other show and had more of the same conversations with industry leaders willing to admit that their careers have an end in sight.

Beyond the 2500 free Bibles, the prayers, the idiot protesters, the X3 team’s willingness to stay on the show floor every second of the day… there is a loving God who laid His life down for the everyone in Miami… even the PR chick or the young men who wander aimlessly through the show, the pornographer who told me his kids worry he’s going to hell, the porn star who said, “You watch my porn I’ll read your Bible.” or the couple who thought it would be fun to see porn stars.
He loves us all and I hope the message translates…

The new porn show is here and it should scare the crap out of us….

J.R.