I point out one nearly fitting the description. Cigarette in her mouth, dark mascara, less-then-friendly countenance, cleavage jail-breaking out of her bra? "Working girls don't usually have their friends with them," Lobert says.
Once or twice weekly, usually on Friday or Saturday nights, Lobert chats up prostitutes in posh casinos about her missionary work. Saved four years ago and celibate since 2005, she buoyantly preaches about her salvation through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection and ends the conversation by handing out a business card for Hookers for Jesus, her months-old nondenominational, faith-based organization. The group, which reaches out to women and men associated with or working as prostitutes, porn stars and strippers, is an outgrowth of her ostracism within the church ("mostly by women") and the need, she says, for former sex workers to know they have a place in the church and in God's kingdom.
"Pastors don't know how to deal with the issue," she says. "Who better to cater to these people than me?"
Neither drug and sex addiction nor repeated rapes swayed Lobert from prostitution—which she got into at the behest of a boyfriend—but overdosing did. She got saved while watching televangelist Joyce Meyer. From then on, she says God began erasing self doubt. "Because I was a prostitute," she says, "Satan told me I wasn't beautiful, wasn't feminine, wasn't desirable. He was lying."
There's a blonde seated next to us. Long-haired. Older. Leggy. Not overly conversational. A stripper, Lobert guesses. Close. She's an escort from Texas, who's been in the biz for 25 years and is here with her trick. Lobert befriends her, talks with her for nearly 10 minutes, then offers her card.
It's 10 p.m., still early. Prostitutes usually come out en masse from midnight to 3 a.m. But Lobert is happy. She's a made a connection: another possible soul for Christ. Her voice drips with conviction as she recites uplifting Bible verses, talks about how Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life empowered her and name-checks her favorite preachers (Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long). She's happy to be doing God's work.
Before I leave, she grabs my hand. And in the middle of a bar, where drunkenness is passed out in shot glasses and an escort passes time with her trick, Lobert closes her eyes and prays for everyone, including me.