10 minute read
'No one wakes up and chooses this life'
from Embodied Summer 2023
by embodiedmag
by John Stegeman
Scarlet Hudson, or “Mama Scar” as she’s affectionately known by those she serves, tirelessly runs a ministry that defies easy labels.
It isn’t a shelter, though the women in active addiction who act as prostitutes in the area are welcome to rest there during open hours. There are showers and clean clothes available. It isn’t a food pantry, but there is a kitchen from which many are fed. It isn’t a healthcare facility, but it does house Josephine’s Clinic for women who have been trafficked. It isn’t a church, but it spreads the Gospel. It is a base of operations for frequent outreaches into difficult neighborhoods.
Women of Alabaster, founded by Scarlet in 2012 in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, is, at its core, a ministry that recognizes the image of God in the women it serves.
Scarlet, 65, of Dillsboro, Ind., says she didn’t choose to begin her street outreach ministry. Rather, she was called to it by God. In 2010, she was 30 years into a successful career as a corporate trainer. That year she joined with members of her church, Church on Fire in Harrison, Ohio, in serving local homeless. The group did an outreach ministry for prostitutes. One night, Scarlet found herself behind a hotel protecting a woman who had just been pistol whipped by a pimp. That experience changed the course of her life.
“I had been out every week on the street bringing clothes and food,” she said. “Then it got to be that the women just kept calling more and more, saying we need this, we need that. I prayed about it a really long time and my husband finally said, ‘Quit your job.’ So, I did.”
By 2015 Women of Alabaster was a full-time ministry for Scarlet, who is also a pastor. She’s shepherded the small organization through several locations around Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and got it through the pandemic. When the center couldn’t be open due to lock down, she and her team left coolers of food out and worked from their cars to provide care. In 2022, they opened a second center in Hamilton, Ohio.
SCARLET’S STORY
Scarlet has an unwavering compassion for the women she serves. She notes repeatedly that no one wakes up one day and chooses a life of drug addiction and prostitution, but that traumatic experiences are almost always part of the story.
She knows of what she speaks. In her case, Scarlet was molested by a woman for five years in early childhood. Her father, as well as nine aunts and uncles, were alcoholics. As an adolescent and young adult, she was active in church but when it came time to go to college at a Baptist university, she rebelled. She chose a secular college and quickly fell into a life of drugs, alcohol and promiscuity.
downtown Cincinnati. While helping another
woman several miles away, Scarlet took a call about a panicked woman who had run out of gas.
In less than 10 minutes, Scarlet was there to
help pump the gas.
“My life is not much different than the girls, but that they get paid for it and I didn’t,” she said. “Trauma has a lot to do with the way we respond to things.”
At age 30, Scarlet said she accepted Jesus again and her life changed overnight. With God’s grace she stopped most of her addictive habits. Smoking persisted for some years, but she has since quit that as well.
“He took all of my brokenness and used it for the ministry,” she said.
THE MINISTRY
Much of the work done by Women of Alabaster happens at its primary locations. Women come seeking food, hygiene items and the opportunity to feel understood and loved. The other part of the ministry is outreach. Scarlet and her team drive around the neighborhoods others often avoid, approaching women and offering help on multiple levels.
Of course, Scarlet would love to see all the women she encounters take steps toward sobriety but the reality, she said, is that most won’t make it. In one recent year, Scarlet saw nine women she cared for die from drug-related complications.
“One out of every 100 girls will make it off the block,” Scarlet said. “They might have some sobriety for a little while. But to say they’re completely free and living their best life? Very few.” The small numbers don’t faze her.
The driving force behind Women of Alabaster— named for the unnamed “sinful woman” who poured perfume on Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke—is faith. It’s the only thing that makes it possible to continue against long odds.
“Being a pastor, I know that we’re all going to pass,” Scarlet said. “We don’t know when, and some will pass sooner than they should.
“But God is merciful,” she added. “These women are abused every day; they’re raped every day.
“Our goal is to not only to give them basic needs and stuff like that, but really to share the love of Christ with them and show them that there’s a better way and that He is the better way, and He will help them, whether they stay or whether they leave. So, we always offer them salvation.”
she serves on the streets of Cincinnati.
THE CLIENTS
There are some constants, but the story of each person in addiction is unique. They come from wealthy families, and poor. Some began experimenting with pills, others took them first as legitimate prescriptions. The clients Women of Alabaster serves are typically addicted to heroin or crack.
Megan* witnessed her father stabbing her mother to death at age 2. She was adopted by a loving family—a professor and a doctor—but the memories haunt her. She turned to drugs. She visits Women of Alabaster, but she remains in active addiction today.
Nova* almost made it. Through the support of Scarlet and company, she found sobriety for a time. She had a job cleaning houses. When COVID came she lost her job, started using and eventually died from complications of addiction.
Susan* is trying. Women of Alabaster has been working with her for two years. She’s suffered from terrible wounds all over her forearms, even down to the bone, from intravenous drug use. She’s always refused extended hospitalization programs for fear of withdrawal.
Volunteers have dressed her wounds, given her food, and shown her love. Eventually, she said yes to getting help. By late April, she was recovering in a local hospital, her wounds nearly healed. Time will tell if she moves into recovery or back to the streets.
Lisa Mertz, 40, of Clermont County, is the 1 in 100. A registered nurse, she started recreationally with marijuana and alcohol, which led to cocaine. In time she was stealing pills from work. She was arrested, lost her job and went to jail. In time, she was living as a full-time prostitute and heroin addict.
“I was going to kill myself,” she said. “I was waiting until after Christmas because I didn’t want my kids to have their mom kill themselves during the holidays.”
“I was going to kill myself,” she said. “I was waiting until after Christmas because I didn’t want my kids to have their mom kill themselves during the holidays.”
Instead, Lisa went to treatment and, in time, got clean. Now she is the president and CEO of the Addiction Services Council, a non-profit which provides prevention, assessment referral and treatment services. She’s also in law school at Northern Kentucky University.
Lisa met Scarlet after starting her own recovery, but she is now a volunteer partner in the ministry. She wishes there had been someone like Scarlet there for her.
“I do street outreach. On Wednesday nights I go out with [Mama Scar] and a couple volunteers, walking the streets, working with women, praying with them. I offer recovery services with them,” Lisa said. “I was completely homeless [for a time]. If I would have met [Mama Scar] there, I might have found God, found a safe place to go. I didn’t really know what resources were available to me because nobody told me.
While only 1 in 100 might make it out, the main reason the ministry matters is that it treats the 99 with the same dignity and compassion.
“My experience is that women like me who were out there, whether you get off the streets or not, you have this empty feeling that you are nothing, that no one cares about you,” Lisa said. “And no one would care if you were missing or gone. It’s very important to love them no matter where they are. People say just let them die. Well, my life was worth saving.”
Scarlet doesn’t like reducing the complex lives of the women in addiction and prostitution to numbers, but Women of Alabaster does track its work. In March the two locations saw 14 new girls visit the centers, part of 114 visits overall. They also made contact with 51 women on the street during outreach efforts. And each location is open just two days a week.
“Just think what would happen if we were open every single day,” Scarlet said.
THE CHALLENGES
At the top of Women of Alabasters’ challenge list is mental health. Many of their clients suffer from undiagnosed or untreated mental health conditions, but there’s nowhere for them to get consistent care. Megan, the woman in active addiction, suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
“You can’t give medication to people that can’t come in and get it,” Scarlet said.
Second, sometimes women aren’t ready to receive help. They have their routines, and the fear of detox and withdrawal is real. Some don’t know any other way to live.
“We just keep loving them, and we keep asking,” Scarlet said. “I’ll say, ‘Are you ready yet? Is today the day?’ And they know I’m going to continue to ask them because we never know.”
Finally, like any charitable organization, Women of Alabaster needs financial support. Most funding comes from individual donors and churches.
“We need substantial financial backers, and this is not a pretty nonprofit,” Scarlet said. “Women are offended by women who are in this lifestyle, because some of their men are the ones buying. For men, it’s a very uncomfortable topic. It’s just not like saving furry animals.
“People can donate money to it, and we need that, but we also need a lot people to make food,” she said. “We need people to go out on the street. We need people to share the Gospel. We need people to come alongside of us.”
More than 10 years in, though, Mama Scar is still going. She almost quit once, but said the Lord asked her for one more day. One more day turned into one more, and so on.
“I’m glad I said yes,” Scarlet said. “I don’t know what else I would do. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I don’t want to go back to my old career. I don’t want to pastor a church. I don’t think I’ll retire; you don’t really retire out of ministry. It’s not like your call goes away.”
*Names have been changed to protect privacy. Learn more at www.womenofalabaster.org.
- From the Summer 2023 issue of Embodied magazine. Learn more and subscribe here: www.embodiedmag.org.
