Jetlag can be brutal, and Tony Campolo had just arrived in Hawaii; he was hungry and he couldn’t sleep. It was 3:00 a.m., though, and the only place open was a grungy dive in an alley in downtown Waikiki. As Tony sat there at the counter munching on his donut and sipping his coffee, in walked eight or nine prostitutes just finished with their night's work. They all sat down at the counter and Tony found himself uncomfortably surrounded by a whole group of smoking, swearing hookers, recounting their night on the street. He was finishing up his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway, when he heard the woman next to him say to her friend, "You know what? Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm gonna be 39." Her friend replied nastily: "So what do you want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?" The first woman said, "Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I'm just saying it's my birthday. I don't want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?"

Tony suddenly had an idea. Instead of running off, he sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the guy at the counter, "Do they come in here every night?"
"Yeah," he answered.
"The one right next to me," he asked, "she comes in every night?"
"Yeah," he said, "that's Agnes. Yeah, she's here every night. She's been coming here for years. Why do you want to know?"
"Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?"
A smile crept over the man's face. "That's great," he says, "yeah, that's great. I like it."

So they made their plans. Tony said he'd be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name was Harry, said he'd make a cake. At 2:30 the next morning, Tony returned with crepe paper and other decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that said, "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Together, they decorated the diner from one end to the other and it looked great. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. At 3:30 on the dot, the door swung open and in walked Agnes and her friend. Everybody yelled together: "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Agnes was absolutely flabbergasted. Her mouth fell open, her knees started to buckle, she almost fell over. And then the birthday cake with all the candles was carried out, and that's when she totally lost it and began weeping. Harry, who was not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbled, "Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake." So Agnes pulled herself together and blew them out. Everyone cheered and yelled, "Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!"

But Agnes looked down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly said, "Look, Harry, is it all right with you if...I mean, if I don't...I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don't eat it right away?" Harry didn't know what to say so he shrugged and said, "Sure, if that's what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want."

Agnes got off her stool, picked up the cake, and carried it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watched in stunned silence and when the door closed behind her, nobody seemed to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony.
So Tony got up on a chair and said, "What do you say that we pray?"
And there they were in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony Campolo as he prayed for Agnes.

When he finished, Harry leaned over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he said, "Hey, you never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?"
It was one of those moments when just the right words came. Tony replied, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning."
Harry thought for a moment, and in a mocking way said, "No you don't. There's no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. Yep, I'd join a church like that."

Tony then said, “There is a church like that, Harry - started by a man who did just that. Let me tell you about Jesus…”