Run some porn sites; blast the business you used to be in www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=10820, and you too can become a media celebrity like Michele Washam.
Tennessee- A former developer of a pornographic Web site now ministers through the Internet to people who have been hurt through broken relationships. In 1995, Michele Washam lived in Delaware and designed what may have been one of the first “ladies only” adult pornographic websites, Just4Ladies.com, Baptist Press (BP) reported.
The former porn site is now a Christian Web site. Washam, who now serves as the secretary for West End Baptist Church in Newport, Tenn., was not addicted to pornography, but the lucrative money sucked her in.
“It was a huge industry at the time,” she recalled. “My income was incredible – an average of about $24,000 a week.” Being raised by devout Catholic parents, Washam said she felt some guilt, but the money kept her from pulling the plug on her lucrative Web site.
However, a major, life-changing event rocked Washam’s life. Washam, who had three children from a prior marriage, had been engaged for three years to a man she loved very much. Out of the blue, he called her one day and told her he did not love her and was leaving.
One day, while walking alone on a Florida beach and looking out over the ocean, Washam “called out to God and He answered.”
“I said, God if you’re really there, please help. Instantly I felt Him plant seeds of faith in my heart. I knew instantly He was going to help me,” Washam said, BP reported. “I immediately took down my porn site and refunded thousands of dollars.”
Washam’s former porn site is “dedicated to helping men and women cope with, overcome, survive and restore their broken hearts by combining faith in God and knowledge of His word.”
Washam has designed a workshop, which includes her book, “A Course in Heartbreak,” and she recently launched HeartbreakUniversity.org where she shares the course.
Washam once had about 7,000 – 7,500 paid members on her pornographic Web site. About 1,200 of those have since signed onto her free Christian site, which has grown from 12 members to about 57,000.
“I can’t solve their problems and I don’t want them to think I can,” Washam, who got married and her husband serves as youth director at West End. “Little by little I introduce them to God and gently guide them through the gospel.”