AMAZING STORY
Prostitute's Life Turned around after Watching The 700 Club
By Audra Smith Haney
The 700 Club
CBN.com -Rose Hackenberg was born in a small German town. She grew up loving God and loving school. “I had a mother who was a very devoted Catholic lady. She made us go every day to mass. And that helped me at this time to hear and to learn a little bit about God. When I went through school, I had good grades. I always had an A and my mom was proud for that A.”
But her happy childhood ended when she was raped by a close family friend. Rose was only 12 years old. “And I was full of guilt and shame and humiliation. I saw myself very ugly, very ugly. And that’s a magnitude that I just lost interest to learn.”
Although Rose had been accepted to a business school, she eventually dropped out. At 19, Rose decided to move to Switzerland to be near her older brother. “That was the escape route, so to speak; to leave all those memories behind me and start in a new town, in a fresh environment.”
Rose started working at a high-end bar as a floor hostess. Her taste for alcohol and the fast life became insatiable. “I was one of the favorites—made lots of money just by selling their champagne, which was very, very expensive.”
In addition to drinking, Rose dove headlong into a relationship with a man named Robert. He seemed to be the man of her dreams. “I was really in love with him. He was very nice looking and he had lots of charisma too. We talked about the future later on.”
Rose eventually shared with Robert her dream to open an upscale clothing boutique, with designs from Paris. “He told me, ‘Listen, there’s something more lucrative to do and we can make more money in a short period of time to get into a business.”
Robert suggested that Rose become a prostitute. “‘Think about business and think about the future. You just do it for a few years and then we just being out of that and our future is secure.’ That’s what Robert said. I just was very shocked at first. It was hard on me. But, you know, I began more drinking and I numbed myself for that. I didn’t want to lose him. So you do things. It was a hard step for me, a very hard step…But I finally, I did it.”
For the next nine years, Rose sold her body as a prostitute and Robert was her pimp. Robert controlled the money, and Rose. “It was very lucrative business at this time. But he took the most of the money. Sometimes I thought, ‘I’m dying inside.’ I felt empty, that’s why I filled it up with alcohol. I was a very heavy smoker, and of course I had pills. My company was constantly fear, fear, fear.”
After nearly a decade of compliance to Robert, Rose found out from a fellow prostitute that Robert had another girlfriend, as well as a wife and two kids back in his hometown. She finally reached her breaking point. “I was so hurt; I couldn’t eat anymore, so I became anorexic for a long time. I became more and more involved in alcohol and even in some drugs just to forget what I heard. So on and off he just came to get money and I shortened him money and he was wondering, but I said, ‘Business is no more good.’ But I stuck and stashed up some money and saved money.”
Over time, Rose saved enough money to leave Robert and move to Frankfurt. I entered in my apartment, went in my bathroom and looked in the mirror, and I saw what I saw. And I just said, ‘God, from the depths of my soul, if there a God in heaven, help me to get out of that lifestyle. Help me to get out.’”
A few months later, Rose received a job offer that allowed her to come to the United States. One day, she had a breakthrough while shopping in Los Angeles. “I stopped in a store. And I heard some music, and I said, ‘That sounds so wonderful.’ I called the lady who was working and I say, ‘Is that Christian music?’ She said, ‘Yes.’”
The store owner talked to her about God and suggested she start watching The 700 Club. “I caught The 700 Club. Pat Robertson was on. I listened and listened. He prayed. ‘Would you receive Jesus? Make peace in your heart? Would you receive that Man who died on the cross for you; Who gave His life for you? Would you receive Him in your heart and pray this prayer with me?’ So I prayed with him the prayer, the sinner’s prayer and repented of my sins. It was just a weight came off of my entire body and off my mind. I felt light. I felt something has illuminated me.”
Rose started calling the prayer line frequently to receive help with her addictions. “For some years, they sent me material; tapes, at this time. And I learned through that. And many things, I made to my own what Pat Robertson was teaching, the secrets of the kingdom. That word cleared out the desire for alcohol and the desire for Jesus grew in me.”
Today, Rose has been completely delivered from her addictions and eating disorders. She is a full time speaker and women’s pastor, and has written her autobiography to share Jesus Christ with others.
“Once I was lost. Now I’m found. Once I was dead. Now I’m alive in Him. Jesus Christ means everything to me. He’s the life giver.”
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