'Changed My Whole Entire Being': Ex-Strip Club Owner Born Again, Now Works to Help Victims of Sex Trafficking

Three sex businesses have closed in north central Ohio over the last two years, according to Frontlines Ohio. 

One woman who owned two of those strip clubs told the outlet after she and her husband gave their lives to the Lord, "our hearts changed."

"My husband Steve and I both needed a church to go to and we stumbled across Fusion Church in Lexington," Donna Holbrook told Frontlines Ohio. "We love the atmosphere and the people. Not only that, but the Holy Spirit is there and that is important to us."

Their decision to start giving their lives to the Lord began in April 2019. That was a big step toward making some major changes.

Back in 2014, the couple actually thought they were helping women out by giving them jobs at their "gentlemen's clubs." But eventually they realized that was against God's plan.

"Prior to going to church, we were reaching out to these girls (dancers) and helping them get back into college; we found them jobs in order to get them out of the clubs," she told Frontlines Ohio.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Holbrook said what started as a vision to help steer women in the right direction turned into mostly darkness masquerading as some light.

She told the CP she found true Christian faith along the way. Holbrook said she had "given her life" to the Lord and was baptized three or four months later at Fusion Church in Lexington. 

"After the baptism, that's what really changed my whole entire being," she said. "I just feel light, and I don't have a heaviness anymore, and it's just, I don't know how to explain it. It's just an amazing feeling."

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Fusion Pastor Terry Garrett told Frontlines Ohio even though the Holbrooks owned the strip clubs at the time they first made a commitment to follow the Lord, his congregation just kept loving Donna and her husband.  

"We recognized God was already working in their lives. We did not need to put our hands on it. We just needed to continue to love the Holbrooks, and to model the Scriptures to them. The Holy Spirit did the work," he continued. 

A big shift took place after a man was arrested for sex trafficking women out of one of the clubs. The couple closed that club in 2020, according to the CP. 

Then after her husband's death from cancer in 2020, Holbrook sold the other building in 2021. 

She told the CP she refused to sell both of the buildings to any businesses that were going to continue to use it as a gentleman's club. One of the buildings is now a Mexican restaurant and the other building is now owned by a towing company. 

Now working in real estate, Holbrook told the outlet she's volunteering with a local ministry to help victims of sex trafficking in the Mansfield area. 

"{I want} to help them become born-again Christians and feel good about themselves and live a good Christian life," she said.