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CBN.com – Cindy Hornemann enjoyed the attention she received as a body builder. But when people started offering her money for her looks—Cindy was hooked as an exotic night club dancer.
"I was a bodybuilder for years. So I thought, 'Wow I'm looking good. I have a great body. Why not use my body to make some money."
The adult entertainment industry not only made Cindy a lot of money, it also let her experience the party life she’d always dreamed of.
She says, "I got to wear beautiful clothes and hang out with prestigious people, rock stars and movie stars. There was lots of cash, beautiful cars, and jewelry ... jet-set, fast-paced, champagne, cocaine, yachts, and for a period of time it was exciting and was a rush."
Keeping up with her fast-paced life style caused Cindy to start consuming alcohol and drugs.
"We drank in the morning. We drank at night at the parties. We drank with the party owners, and then after a while we started doing speed which is Crystal Meth to keep us going."
It wasn’t long before Cindy grew unhappy—more out of control.
"I definitely was in a web. I was going down and down. I was doing more drugs, more alcohol, more drugs, more alcohol and more sex. And it got to be a very, very dark place."
Cindy says she was caught in a cycle that most exotic dancers experience. As she grew older, the drug and alcohol abuse affected the way she looked and performed. Other girls began to take her place.
"In the A clubs everything is a party, and you're beautiful, and you're kind of in the honeymoon phase. There are rock stars and professional athletes that come in. And then after a period of time, the new girls come in, and they're fresh and so the customers are paying attention to the new girls. Then, meanwhile they're taking our money. We have to keep up with our cash flow, so many times we go to the B clubs."
"And then prostitution is always being offered at those places to make extra cash, and the drugs and the alcohol -- it's around; even all the way through. It's always there," she remembers.
Cindy’s move to the “bottom” happened over a period of years. One day she experienced something very dark.
"I was in my apartment, and this is when I had been up four to five days on Crystal Meth. I started seeing things that weren't there. And it was very evil and very dark, and something inside of me knew that I was close to death," she says.
With nowhere to turn, Cindy sought help from a friend of her husband.
"My husband, who used to work in the strip club became a Christian and gave up that lifestyle. And he was out of town when I hit rock bottom, and it was so dark, it was like death. I knew that I needed somebody who knew God. So I called his pastor friend and I said, 'Jeff Reagan I really need your help. You really don't know who I am, but you know my husband. Can you please help me because I think I'm dying?' "
Cindy’s new friend took her to the hospital. At the time, she was both paranoid and delusional.
"I thought everybody was after me because the drugs were still in me. He looked at me and then he said, 'Do you want to change your life?' And at that point, I knew I did. I was so afraid, I knew I was close to death. I said, 'Yes I want to change my life.'
And he [Jeff Reagan] said, 'This is how you do it. Cindy, you ask Jesus to help you. He will help you, and He will help you heal. So on the hospital bed I said, 'Jesus come into my heart, change my life.' And at that moment, I really felt a change. I felt darkness lift. I felt like the Lord came in and that there was a sense of peace in my soul."
The battle for Cindy’s soul didn’t end there.
"I was still struggling because I was entangled with this industry for so many years, and then I went to a reunion, and I saw my aunt. She said, 'Can I pray for you, have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit?' "
I said, "Please pray for me and at that moment, I surrendered all. When she put her hands on me, I felt heavens open up over my life, and it felt like a thousand volts of electricity going through my body. Power, love and compassion -- I was completely delivered and completely set free by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I've never looked back."
Ond of Cindy's greatest desires is for others to be set free from that lifestyle, and she is dedicated to going to the clubs to help bring them out. The ministry she is involved with is called Victoria's Friends, and both Cindy and her husband serve as Outreach Leaders.
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