About Us
Our Founders…My name is Laurie Ishii ( I wanted to keep my Japanese name) and my husband’s name is Daryl Bargy. We are both born-again Spirit Filled believers in Jesus Christ! He is our everything – He is the reason why we do what we do and for who we are today.
We reach out to people who are living a lifestyle similar to the ones we were living before we surrendered our lives to God.
Daryl has done just about everything – addicted to alcohol, pornography, drugs, (mainly methamphetamine) dealt drugs, worked for a pimp, hustled on the street for money and dope, been arrested for prostitution, weapons, went to prison for dealing drugs – these are to name a few. He has also experienced very close calls to death; including being beat, tied up, gagged and had a shotgun to his head.
I was a suicidal heroin junkie, crack whore who sold my body both for drugs and money, addicted to pornography, masturbation, been in homosexual relationships, been to jail numerous times for drug possession, stealing, being drunk in public, been in a gang, shot and almost died attempting to commit suicide numerous times – including jumping off the roof of an 8 story building and survived.
The point in saying all of that is NOT because we are proud of any of it, but to show you how FOOLISH we were! We were both such hard-headed people who didn’t know God or even care to know God – but despite of all of that – He loved us, saved us and gave us new lives. We now have purpose and destiny – and that is to grow in our love and knowledge of God and to bring others to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ! We are SO GRATEFUL to God and love Jesus so much – we want other people to know Him too!
It is our hearts desire to see people who are living a lifestyle of sexual perversion, drug addiction, criminal activity, (of any or all kinds) addiction to money, music, pornography, the homosexual lifestyle, gangs, pimping, prostituting, stealing, death and suicidal thoughts or obsession, masturbation, violence and any other type of sinful lifestyle – to be DELIVERED and SET FREE by the power of Jesus Christ!
We know from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE that WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! “If you abide in My word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31b-32)
Before we got married, I went through two discipleship programs – one called BADD (Born Again Delivered Disciples) and after I graduated from BADD and LA Dream Center Connections, volunteering for two and a half years (a year and a half of that time leading the prostitute outreaches)…then I met Daryl at a tattoo parlor on Hollywood Boulevard while sharing Jesus with the artists and body piercing artists. Long story short – he got radically saved, threw away a lot of his secular music (and all of the porn), got rid of all his tattoo equipment and before we got married moved into the Dream Center across the hall from me!
After we got married we moved off the campus of the Dream Center into a house we rented while we continued serving the Dream Center still leading the prostitute outreach and also ushering at Angelus Temple church services. About a month before our one year anniversary we both felt like God was calling us back to the Dream Center so God worked things out and we threw out, gave away or sold most of our stuff (including a motorcycle, bed, couches, appliances etc.) so that we would be able to fit everything into one small room on the Dream Center campus! By this time Daryl had started going on the prostitute outreach with me.
After our year of volunteering we felt God calling us to start our own ministry and outreaches to focus more on specific areas and people – and especially those in the Hollywood area. Along with the people listed above we would also like to reach out to musicians, actors and people in the entertainment industry.
To hear more of Laurie’s testimony go to the 700 Club Amazing Stories: http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/Laurie_Ishii030607.aspx
The Rest of us…We are a group of people committed to Jesus Christ who desire to see the captives set free by the power of His Spirit. We seek to be His hands and His feet, a demonstration of the gospel, bringing hope to the hopeless. We are thankful for the gift of grace we have in Christ and long to share it with others to see them live a life that glorifies God, as He intended.