Saving Grace: Ex-Prostitute Starts Organization to Helps Others | News

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- For Jan Miller and Kathleen McDaniel it's nothing out of the ordinary to spend Saturdays driving down Phillips Highway looking for prostitutes to save from that life.

Through Grace Ministries, which they founded, they have helped 10 local women escape a life of prostitution and turn their lives around.

For McDaniel this mission is very personal. She was once a prostitute herself in Jacksonville to make money to pay for her alcohol and crack addiction.

McDaniel said in June 2006, she hit rock bottom. She didn't want to live like that anymore and previous attempts at drug rehab did not work for her.

So, she came up with a plan. She would walk to her drug dealer's house with a gun, steal enough crack cocaine to kill her, or she would point a gun at the police and have them shoot her.

Her plan did not work. The police did come but they did not shoot her. Instead they took her to jail, where Kathleen said she held her breath to try to kill herself that way.

Instead, according to McDaniel, she went into a spiritual realm and there was this kind of warfare for her soul. She said God kept showing her glimpses of Hell and then brought her out of it into the light.

She surrendered herself to God, she said, and said she felt a kind of love and peace she had never felt before.

From that point on McDaniel said her life turned around. She got off drugs, got her family back and now manages a high end consignment store in San Marco.

One day she met Miller and shared her story with her. From there, Grace Ministries was born. They knew they had to go back to those streets and help others escape their lives of prostitution.

Grace Ministries also has a letter writing component. Volunteers send letters to prostitutes in prison offering love and support.

And, now Grace is hoping to renovate an old church.

They need a place to take the girls once they decide to leave the streets and, they need a place to offer life skills, GED training and more. The church needs $30,000 in repairs. It needs a new roof, new plumbing, electric the works.

If you'd like to help Grace Ministries just contact McDaniel at 904-885-5989 or 904-731-4846. Or go to their website www.graceministriesjax.org