SOS-SAN FRANCISCO OUTREACH REPORT
For the past 11 years, we have been sending out an “SOS” to Christians all over the United States to witness for Jesus Christ to the people of San Francisco. Each year, God is faithful to bring dedicated Christians to labor in this harvest field. Over 200 Christians registered to participate in this year’s outreach, with an average of 80 workers per day throughout the week and extras at night and on weekends. Believers flew in from Pennsylvania and Minnesota, and a team from Jesus Inn Ministries drove here from Tulsa, Oklahoma. A team from Teen Challenge in Watsonville and a youth group from Christian Heights Assembly of God in Sonora also joined us for the week.
The outreach began with a Saturday afternoon rally at the Powell St. BART station. One young man, a drug addict with AIDS, had been embittered by the church. After some Christians ministered to him, he rededicated his life to Christ and was taken to the Richmond Rescue Mission. Since then, he went back to Southern California to be with his parents and at last report was doing well spiritually.
On Monday, we had a worship rally at the Embarcadero Plaza, in the financial district. We gave out 200 New Testaments to the businessmen in the area. It was exciting to see hundreds of people listening attentively to the worship and preaching. Several people received prayer for salvation and other needs that day.
On Wednesday and Friday afternoons we witnessed on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Wednesday we met Eric, a young man who had just been released from jail that day. While in prison, God had been working in his life, and we were able to help him get established in the Lord. He joined us for the rest of the outreach and then went to Teen Challenge in Watsonville. His excitement about his new-found faith was an encouragement to us all.
Also that day, our worship leader Tim Charles was cited for “disturbing the peace” for singing worship songs (with a permit) as the Berkeley police continue to violate our constitutional rights. On Friday, a police officer came to check our permit. One of our workers recognized the officer as a former friend and was able to witness to him of her changed life! That day, an Ethiopian man who was studying Mormonism made a profession of faith.
We had three worship rallies at Union Square–on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. On Thursday, we began to see the first opposition from the homosexual community. About ten people protested our rally, including one person with a sign accusing us of “homophobia.” On Saturday, the Revelation drama players from Sacramento performed some excellent skits at Union Square. That afternoon we met James, a backslidden Christian who was deeply involved in satanism. His “friends” tried so hard to keep him from hearing the gospel that he had to escape from them and hide behind some bushes. A brother took him to his ranch near Lakeport and we saw him there the next week and baptized him. Also that afternoon, a man who said he had been in a wheelchair for 15 years got out of the chair and marched with us six blocks to Civic Center, where he gave his testimony!
That afternoon, we marched through downtown San Francisco to City Hall for a worship rally with Jerry Brandt. When we arrived, there were about 100 homosexuals there to disrupt our rally, with signs and whistles. Some were dressed as priests and nuns or wearing obscene costumes. They blew whistles in our ears and destroyed several of our signs. The police riot squad was called in to protect us. This was the first organized opposition we had seen since 1981, when 2000 people had come against us in Union Square. As we did that year, we joined together in worshipping God. When we sang “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord” we all kneeled on the ground, publicly confessing our sins. At that point, we saw a real spiritual breakthrough. Before long, most of the homosexuals had dispersed and we were singing, dancing and rejoicing before the Lord.
I want to thank everyone who participated in making the outreach a great success for Jesus–the Russian Gospel Temple for again giving us a place to meet and stay, Shanna Atkinson (food), George Nakayama (clean-up), Tim Burgess (security) and Tina Hammond (registration), our team leaders Mike Luke, Mike Salmon, Mike Long, Randy Schillaci and Joseph Stone, all the SOS speakers, and especially the Forever Grateful worship group who led in worship the entire week and blessed us immensely.
Last winter, as we were praying about God’s direction for this year’s SOS outreach, God gave us the theme “end times evangelism.” On August 4, Iraq invaded Kuwait and the attention of the world was focused on the mideast. Not long before, changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had led many to hope that the world was heading for a lasting peace. But this new event reminded people that the sinful nature of mankind makes this impossible. These events were very much on people’s minds throughout SOS and we incorporated them into our preaching.
We had excellent teachings throughout the week about evangelism and the end times. I have enclosed an order form for those of you who wish to order tapes from the outreach. I also put together a 16 minute video tape with highlights of the outreach which we would be happy to show to Bay Area churches. Please let me know if you would like us to show the video at your church and share about our ministry.
Other Ministry News
On Labor Day weekend, over 30 of us went to Lakeport to do a three day outreach at the City Park. Forever Grateful played at the bandshell each day and we were able to witness to many people. We also witnessed at the County Fair which was taking place that weekend. Much thanks to Lakeport Christian Fellowship, which fed and housed all of us for the weekend and was a great blessing to us.
From September 9-19, Mario Murillo is conducting a crusade with tent meetings twice daily at 4th and King St. in downtown San Francisco. He will also be conducting a street outreach with Scott Hinkle from September 15-19. We hope to participate as much as possible in this outreach and crusade.
On August 31, 250 pastors joined Evangelist Larry Lea to plan a “Prayer Breakthrough” to bring thousands of intercessors to San Francisco from October 31 to November 2 (beginning Halloween Night). We are encouraged by the renewed interest of Christians in reaching San Francisco through intercession and evangelism.
September is a busy month for us. Besides the Lakeport outreach and Mario’s crusade, we have a worship rally on September 15 with Forever Grateful, the Northern California Worship Celebration in Sacramento September 22-23, and I will be going to Dallas from September 26-29 to attend the National Street Ministries Conference and meet with hundreds of other street ministers from around the country. In addition, we are busy following up on new believers and interested persons contacted during SOS-San Francisco.
We are continuing our Friday night witnessing in San Francisco and our Saturday afternoon outreach to San Francisco and Berkeley. We would like to continue the Wednesday afternoon outreach in Berkeley if we can find about five Christians who will commit themselves to participate on a regular basis. We also will continue our Saturday worship rallies at the Powell St. BART station.
We have one new member of our Oakland ministry house, Verna Peterson. Verna is from Oregon and has attended SOS-San Francisco for the past four years. It is a blessing having her join our house. We still have one opening for a man and one for a woman. Several people from the outreach said they would pray about moving in. Please pray that God will provide the people He wants in this house.
Finally, I want to thank all of you who have been supporting this ministry financially. Because of your support, we were able to feed quite a few workers who came to SOS without any money. Also, we were able to pay all our bills for the outreach and are able to continue to bring the gospel to many people during this next year. Please continue to pray for us that God will guide us, grant us wisdom and bring us many workers for His final harvest.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
