Four:10 Ministries now has a home at 419 E. Wayne St. in Fort Wayne. Until recently the ministry had been operating without an office, but this month the two staff members moved into their new space which was previously occupied by Women’s Care Center.

The faith-based ministry serves women who are currently experiencing sexual exploitation and those who have been exploited in the past. Four:10 refers to the Bible verse John 4:10 in which Jesus speaks with the woman at the well. The encounter is remarkable because Jesus disregarded religious rules by speaking with a Samaritan woman who had been married five times and was outcast from her community.

Tammy Crane founded the ministry after seeing a television interview with a former Las Vegas club dancer. The woman shared how her past sexual abuse led her to believe that she wasn’t good for anything else. After several years of dancing, she heard about Jesus. She placed her faith in him, and he completely changed her life.

“It literally broke my heart. I just started sobbing and weeping and asking God to forgive me for my ignorance and my judgmental attitude,” says Crane.

That’s when Crane gathered women from her church and began praying. They could find no other way to reach out to women who may have been exploited than to go into local strip clubs, sit down, order some food, and talk with the women working there. The women continue to reach out not only to those working in the clubs, but to others who are living in area homeless shelters or are referred by other nonprofits.

A recent grant from the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation is helping Four:10 offer trauma-informed therapies, Bible studies, trauma-informed yoga and mentoring to women who have experienced exploitation. Eventually, Crane would like to open a residential home modeled after Thistle Farms in Nashville, TN, where women survivors of trafficking and prostitution are offered two years of free housing, healthcare, counseling and job training.

Crane says there is an urgent need for such a residential program in Fort Wayne. “When I talk with other nonprofit leaders at local shelters or the Indiana Trafficking Victim Assistance Program, they tell me they could fill a residential home right now and have a long waiting list. So there definitely is a need for women who are recovering because they have such a complicated path and so much past abuse and trauma.”

To find out more about Four:10 Ministries and their new location called The Well, visit four10ministries.org.