Newsletter October 1999

SOS-San Francisco Outreach Report

Dear Christian friends,

For the past 20 years, we have sent out an “SOS” call for Christians

to  help  us reach the people of San Francisco  for  Jesus.  Each

year,  God has been faithful to bring many Christians to help  us

reach  this city. This year, teams of Christians joined  us  from

Canada,  and  from  Salem, Oregon, and  from  Redding,  Paradise,

Leggett and Riverside, California.

 

We were blessed to meet at Glad Tidings Church this year. We  had

held our SOS outreach in this church from 1981-1986. They have  a

large facility for meetings, sleeping, meals, and even a  parking

lot. Our workers took showers at the YMCA two blocks away. We are

so grateful to Pastor Jeff Green and the rest of the Glad Tidings

congregation for opening up this wonderful facility to us.

 

On Saturday morning, evangelist Mario Murillo spoke to our  group,

giving  a word of encouragement and congratulating us for 20  years

of  outreach  in  this city. Mario is involved in a  major  outreach  in

San Francisco this summer, culminating with a week of meetings at

the Cow Palace in October.

 

That  afternoon we held a five hour worship rally at  United  Nations

Plaza  in downtown San Francisco. This area is filled with  homeless

people, drug addicts and drug dealers. We prayed with many people

that  afternoon,  including  Ray, a security guard  who  had  been  a

crack addict for 13 years.

 

A week before the outreach, a friend told me about Arthur  Blessitt’s

web site. When I looked at it, I noticed that he was planning to be in

San  Francisco during SOS week. I e-mailed him and he  responded

that he would be happy to speak at our outreach.

 

Over  the past 30 years, Arthur Blessitt has carried a cross  for

33,000  miles — in every sovereign nation on earth. He has  wit­

nessed  to  world leaders and thousands of other  people  on  his

journeys.  He also was arrested 24 times and once faced a  firing

squad.  On  Tuesday and Wednesday nights, he shared some  of  the

things  God had taught him through these experiences.  We  joined

him on a cross walk through San Francisco on Monday and Wednesday

afternoon. On Wednesday, he preached at Justin Herman Plaza.  His

involvement in this year’s outreach was a great encouragement  to

 

This  year, San Francisco has restricted our permits. It is  hard

to get a permit over an hour long anywhere in the city on a  week

day. However on Tuesday, we managed to get a four hour permit  at

Haight and Masonic Street. We kept our volume so low that  people

across  the street could barely hear us. Still, a police  officer

ordered us to turn down our volume even further.

 

Fortunately,  this  was the only time the  San  Francisco  police

complained about our sound level all week. The police could  have

arrested us and confiscated our sound system at any time, as they

did last year, but this never happened.

 

Mark  Zulim took two days off work to attend the SOS  outreach  on

Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, he had two long conversations with

Michael  and Peter at Justin Herman Plaza in the  financial  dis­

trict. Michael prayed with him to rededicate his life to  Christ.

Peter  was  a Hindu, but was open to Mark’s  witness.  Amazingly,

Mark saw both Michael and Peter the next day at Haight and Masonic and spoke with them further. This is a totally different  part

of the city, filled with hippies, not businessmen.

 

On Wednesday night, some Christians from Michael Long’s team  met

a family of five from Lake Elsinore who had locked their keys  in

their  van at Fisherman’s Wharf. They witnessed to them, and  the

whole  family said they wanted to receive Christ. They  had  been

waiting  for  a  tow truck for over an hour. At  10:52  PM,  they

prayed  that a tow truck would come before 11 PM. At 10:59  PM  a

tow truck (not the one they called) drove by. The driver  stopped

and unlocked their van for them.

 

Also  that  night,  Paul  and Noreen Coca saw  some  street  kids  on

Haight  Street that they had witnessed to in San Jose.  They  invited

them to get a hamburger at McDonalds. By the time they got  there,

20 street kids had joined them. The restaurant wouldn’t let the kids

inside,  but  Paul  and Noreen bought  them  hamburgers  and  wit­

nessed  to  all the kids. They also prayed with  several  of  the

kids.

 

Castro  Street is the center of militant homosexuality. On  Thursday

night,  some  Christians were praying for a  divine  appointment  on

Castro  Street. A minute later, a man approached them and said  he

wanted  to be saved. They prayed with him. On another night  Greg,

who  came  from  a Christian family in  Atlanta,  prayed  with  some

Christians on Castro Street. He said he wanted to get out of the  gay

lifestyle and came to Glad Tidings the next day.

 

Andre  gave  his  testimony  at our Friday  service.  He  had  been  a

Mormon,  but some Christians had witnessed to him in  the  Haight

and he felt that God was leading him out of the Mormon church. He

joined us for our outreaches on Friday and Saturday.

 

On  Friday  night,  Derek  Scholl  witnessed  to  Christy,  a   psychic

woman  on Haight Street. As he spoke with her, she started  to  cry.

She said, “I know that what you’re saying is the truth.”

 

Please pray for those whom we prayed with that week, and who  re­

ceived  a  gospel witness, including  George,  Marcus,  Laurence,

Yolanda, Dimitri, T.C., Ralph, Craig and Guy (SF), Armando, Lucy,

Jessica,  Jacki, Margaret and Lucy (Lake Elsinore,  CA),  Chandra

(San Luis Obispo, CA), and Emma (Brentwood, CA).

Permit Appeal — Wed. November 3

 

Over  the  past  three  years, the police  department  has  denied  or

restricted our permits at almost every location in the city. Two years

ago,  we  started getting permits at Powell and  Market,  the  busiest

place in the city. At first, we were getting permits for seven hours  at

this spot. However, since we were the only group seeking  permits

here,  the police decided to restrict our permits. Now, they  are

limiting us to one hour, from noon to 1 PM or 5 to 6 PM.

For  the  past  few months, we have ministered  here  for  one  hour.

They  we  tear down our sound system and set it up a  few  blocks

away  at Union Square. This is really difficult for us. Also,  we

cannot  always get permits at Union Square. So we  are  appealing

the police department decision to the Board of Appeals.

We have obtained over 2000 signatures on a petition supporting us.

However, the police ignored this petition. The main reason they gave

for  limiting our permit to one hour is that they once  measured  the

sound  of  a  rock group at Powell and Market at  96  decibels.  They

claim this could harm people’s hearing. This is ridiculous  since

many  events  in the city are over 100  decibels,  including  the

Folsom St. Fair and the Carnival. These events last over 6  hours

and the police have never restricted their permits.

We  need  four out of five votes to win this appeal. The  more  people

who  attend  the  hearing  to speak on our  behalf,  the  greater  our

chances  of  winning. I urge you to come to this hearing,  and  bring

other  Christians  if  possible.  The  hearing  is  scheduled  for  Wed.

November  3 at 5:30 PM at San Francisco City Hall, Grove and  Van

Ness  St. room 416. Any one can speak for 3 minutes.  (Note:  the

city  could change this date, so it’s best to call us by  October

19 to see if they moved the date up.)

Coming Events

Note: All outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 531-5325  the

day before to confirm outreaches or for more information.

Friday  October 1, 8, and 29 7:15 PM. Witnessing in various  S.F.

neighborhoods. (Call us meeting location and directions.)

Sat.  October 2 and 9 . San Francisco Worship Rallies. 12-1  PM

Powell  and Market St. 2:30-4:30 PM Union Square  (Powell  and

Geary  St.) Mario Murillo will be preaching on Sat. October 9  at

Union Square.

October  15  – 17 New Hope Christian Fellowship  Worship

Con­ference, Sacramento. (916) 348-6997.

October  9 – 17 Mario Murillo Ministries San  Francisco  Outreach

(925) 820-5470.

Ministry Needs

A  city like San Francisco cannot be reached in one week.  By  God’s

grace,  we have continued to minister in this city for over  20  years.

We  have a street witnessing team that ministers  in  neighborhoods

throughout  the  city on Friday night three times a month.  We  also

hold  three  “church  on  the street”  worship  rallies  three  times  a

month  on  Saturday  afternoon. Two rallies  are  in  San  Francisco,

usually  at Powell and Market St. and Union Square. One rally is  in

Berkeley  at  Telegraph and Haste St. We schedule  worship  groups

from different churches to minister at these rallies.

During  the  past few months, we have seen a decrease  in  workers.

Sometimes,  we  only have two or three Christians on  Friday  night.

On Saturday, we often only have one or two Christians to witness to

the  people  who  are drawn by the worship  group.  We  really  need

your  help.  We also need one man to live in our  ministry  house  in

Oakland. We are looking for a mature Christian with a calling  in

evangelism.  We  also need help in setting up and  operating  our

sound  system. Eric needed to reduce his outreach activity so  he

could spend more time with his growing family.

Our  Tape of the Month consists of two messages from our  SOS-San

Francisco outreach: Impacting Your City by Mario Murillo and Take

Up  Your  Cross by Arthur Blessitt. We weren’t able to  tape  the

entire messages, but we did record most of the messages, and they

are dynamic. I hope many of you will join us for an outreach this

next month, and at the Board of Appeals hearing on November 3.

Yours in His love,

Larry Rosenbaum