Dave Firquette

The Door Of Hope in Tel Aviv, Israel is located in the heart of Tel Aviv's red light district which contains about 200 houses of prostitution. Helping around 30 girls a day that are coming in and out to take a shower, change clothes and rest, Dave Firquette and his team give a safe place, a servant heart and love to those who most need it. Paul Calvert found out more.

Paul: What is the Door Of Hope?

Dave: The Door Of Hope is a charity with a vision of helping people on the streets and to fulfil the verse in the Bible that says "So let your light shine before men, that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven". Our vision is for a homeless ministry and helping teenagers on the streets, wherever God leads us. At the present time we have a 300 square metre basement that serves to help women on the streets. Mostly what we deal with are hardcore heroin and drug addicts and the majority of them are into prostitution.

Paul: What's your purpose for the Door Of Hope and how did God call you there to do this ministry?

Dave: Basically our purpose is as James said in the Bible, to show our faith by our works and to be a light in that way. I came out of a hard life of being an addict myself; my Mum was an addict, my Dad and Grandmother, Grandfather and Uncles and Sisters; lots of suicide, lots of bad things in my life, so I understand what that means. I have a heart for people; I know what it's like to be that hurting, broken, lonely person and so God called me to this some years ago to start building a homeless mission, to start building a ministry that does charity.

Paul: So how easy is it to work with prostitutes and people on the street?

Dave: It's intense. You need the grace of God and the strength of God to do it because it's really heart breaking. It's rewarding when you see the people come out and you see the change, but to begin with we are looking at some of the tragedies of life; girls 18, 19, 20 years old and women who are using $600, $700, $800 a day in drugs. They still live on the streets and don't take showers for days. They come in with huge infections, they die, they get killed by their clients; I don't know how to describe it in words, the pain that you feel to sit there and look at these people in their situation. At the same time it's really interesting to watch when a woman comes in our place, she's in a worse state than a wild animal - I explain it in this way - if most people saw a cat in their garden they would offer the cat a piece of chicken or something, but if most people saw a prostitute in their front yard with a needle in her arm, they are going to call the police. Cats aren't being abused sexually 30 times a day, so these women get really hardened up, which is understandable. All they know is to lie, cheat and steal, to sell themselves, whatever it takes to survive. When that woman comes in and she is like that with us, we start to serve her and love her and care for her. The rewarding part is to watch her change and it's neat to see this woman, that if you met her on the street so hard and so cold, to watch her come downstairs to our basement and then she is like someone's little girl, right at home, a totally different person. So that's the best way I can describe it; it's intense, it's very rewarding and challenging and heartbreaking at the same time.

Paul: Why do you think women get involved in this lifestyle?

Dave: Well let me ask you this, if you have a headache what do you do?

Paul: Take an aspirin?

Dave: Why?

Paul: Because it relieves the pain.

Dave: Exactly, so that's not a hard concept. The normal human being doesn't like pain, it's a very sick individual that says beat me, hurt me, I love it. People who have come through a broken life and 90% of all the women that are in prostitution have been sexually abused in their childhood, perhaps someone in their family raped them, this leaves an immense broken heart and down inside they have this pain. They are looking for ways to cover that pain. They start drinking, smoking hash or marijuana and then their good friend starts introducing them into heavier and heavier drugs. Eventually they'll get to a point where they'll take something which will capture them immediately, like heroin or crystal meths or something like that. Once you've used it once or twice you're basically an addict; your body's going to start going through withdrawal symptoms; you've got to pay the bills somehow. That's the women I deal with on a general basis. There's all kinds of levels of prostitution from escort women down, at the bottom rung down you see addicts especially.

Paul: Is this a big problem in Israel, drugs and prostitution?