SOS-San Francisco Outreach Report
For the sixteenth year, Christians have answered the “SOS” call to bring the love of Jesus Christ to the people of San Francisco. About 400 Christians were involved in this year’s outreach, coming from Minnesota, Texas, Washington, Oregon, and mostly from California. About 50 were here throughout the week. A team of 12 from Gospel Outreach in Eureka were here for the first half of the outreach. A team of 15 youth from the Bay Area Foursquare Church in Coos Bay, Oregon joined us for the second half of the week.
One of my biggest concerns this year was the outdoor outreaches. Robin Woodruff, who has been operating the sound system for the past five years (replacing his brother Ron who ran the system the first 11 years), had a full-time job and was able to help only two days. Bobby Franco, our church’s sound man, had no experience before this week doing outdoor outreaches, but was able to operate the system with much help from Art Yeap on Monday and Pastor Gary Vian of the S F Open Bible Church on Wednesday through Friday. Thank you Bobby, Art, and Gary!
I was also concerned about our permits. The Park Department had threatened to revoke our permits if they received any complaints. Our only problem came Wednesday at Washington Square. Before we started, people had complained and the police had been called. At 3 PM while Chuck Girard was ministering (very quietly), Off. Dan Gallagher, the person who issues our permits, arrived and was very angry. He said he had received many complaints, that we were too loud, and proceeded (without asking permission) to turn the volume on our sound board so that the main speakers were totally off and the monitors were practically off. He said this was as loud as we could be. He threatened to cite us and confiscate our equipment if we turned the volume up.
He had the volume so low that there was no point in having an outreach. I asked him if he had measured the sound with a decibel meter. He said he didn’t need one. I asked to speak to his superior officer. He said he didn’t have one. I asked to go where he stood, so I could hear what he heard. He refused, saying he was too busy.
Finally, he walked away and I turned up the volume to the lowest level at which people in the park could hear us. When Off. Gallagher returned, he knew I had turned up the volume but said we could keep it at this level. Please pray for Off. Gallagher and our permit situation.
We were blessed by excellent evangelism teaching. Ray Comfort spoke Saturday morning and afternoon, and at both Sunday morning services at the Vineyard. He gave us a lot of practical tips on witnessing. He also preached at Union Square on Saturday. Steve Gregg, founder and director of the Great Commission Bible School in Oregon, was here Monday and Tuesday. He did some excellent teaching on apologetics–giving a reason for our faith. He also led worship and preached at the Embarcadero and Union Square.
On Tuesday night, we sent everyone to Aquatic Park to witness at the fireworks display. People couldn’t see many fireworks because of the fog, but they did get to hear the gospel. And we gave out many thousands of tracts. Christians stuck in the traffic jam even passed out tracts through their car window. A Youth With a Mission team from Denver did some skits at the church that night and then ministered on the streets.
On Thursday, Christian Life Church from Novato ministered at Union Square. About 100 people from their church joined them and witnessed that day. One family spoke with Ken, a 19 year old boy who was passing out fliers for a palm reader. They took him to dinner and to our evening meeting. That night he made a profession of faith.
That day at Union Square, several Christians witnessed to Jason, who is 23 years old. He also came to our meeting that night and committed his life to Jesus. We allowed him to stay with our group. After the outreach he entered the discipleship program at Victory Outreach in Hayward. Jim and Dona Gowker attend that church and have stayed in contact with him. He seems to be very serious about following Jesus.
On Friday night, Larry Perez met Dede outside Zim’s Restaurant. He invited her to eat with him and some other Christians. She is a single mother who takes her child to First Baptist Church but didn’t attend church herself. She was considering either Islam or Christianity. After talking with Larry, she made a profession of faith in Jesus.
On Saturday July 8, the 700 Club’s Operation Blessing was sponsoring a major food giveaway in San Francisco and Oakland involving many churches at several locations, giving out bags of groceries to about 10,000 people. At each location, there was preaching, Christian music, and personal witnessing in addition to food distribution. We sent a team to help witness to those receiving food at one location and picked up a van-load of food to give out at 5th St. at Market. Family Worship Center from Pleasant Hill ministered that afternoon through music and drama, drawing a large crowd.
We saw many Christians in conversations with unbelievers. Many people prayed that afternoon for salvation or other needs. Phyllis had recently been released after spending 43 years in prison! That afternoon, she made a profession of faith in Christ.
A homeless man gave me the following letter, written on a paper bag: I am homeless but by the grace of God I appreciate the love, the healing, the thoughtfulness your group brought to this community today. God bless you all for so much love!! It was exhilarating!…I believe I can say on behalf of all the poor and needy in S.F.: Thank you and your whole group.
On Friday night July 7, I called the Ark Ministry to find out the location of the food distribution. I spoke with Ross Reinman, who shared his own testimony with me. In 1979, at the age of 19 with no Christian background, he spent a lot of time in the Castro District in the “gay” lifestyle. He often heard Christians preaching and sometimes spoke with them. Soon, he committed his life to Christ. Six months later, he went to Bethany Bible College, graduated, got married and now has 3 children. Recently, God called him to minister to homosexuals in San Francisco.
Destiny Outreach
On the final day of last year’s SOS outreach, I received a call from Kyle Rasmussen, who was the leader of a 70 person youth choir from Cedar Park Church in Bothel, Washington. They did an outreach with us that day at Dolores Park. We tried to schedule an outreach with them this summer, but it was not possible. However, Kyle told me his brother Phil also had a youth choir. So I called Phil and we scheduled a three day outreach with their 105 person youth choir (Destiny) from Shoreline Community Church in Seattle (an Assembly of God Church with 8500 members).
On July 19-21, we had three outreaches with their group at Union Square, Washington Square, and the Embarcadero. The team ministered through music, testimonies, and preaching. Many people gathered at each park to hear the excellent music. After preaching the gospel, Phil asked those who wanted to receive Christ to raise their hands. Several people responded to his invitation at each location.
On Wednesday afternoon, we had rented a generator at Washington Square but could not get it to work with the sound system. At 12:30 PM, Off. Gallagher arrived. He asked to see my permit (which was strange since he had issued it). He asked me why I did not put on the permit that we had a choir (I wrote that we would have Christian music and preaching). It seemed to me that he had come with the idea of shutting us down, but he couldn’t because we hadn’t started! After he left, the gardener allowed us to use the park’s electricity and we ministered until 4 PM.
We were really blessed having the Destiny group working with us. If any of you know of youth or other groups that want to minister in this city, let me know and we will try to schedule an outreach. Please continue to pray about our permit situation, that we will be able to get the permits we need.
Ministry Needs
I want to thank all of you who participated in this year’s SOS outreach. I also want to thank all of you who were praying with us and who contributed financially. Because of your support, we were able to pay every bill for the outreach and feed many workers who were unable to pay.
Please pray for Ken, Jason, Dede, Phyllis and others who responded to the gospel during SOS week. Here are some of those whose names we were given: Arso, Paul, Ken B., Ramona (lives in foster home), Jose and Armando (work at Hyatt Regency), Gerardo, Rodolfo,, Vicky, Fernando, Clifford (alcohol problem), Gonzalo, Adam (backslidden pentecostal), Tony, Shawn — all from San Francisco. Also Laura, Jennifer, and Tamara–teens from Ohio, and Jose (San Rafael). Please pray for those who wrote us in response to tracts this past month: Jennie (age 14), Mike (age 72), Antonio, Frances, Guillermo (S.F.), Helge (Fairfax, CA), Erica (San Leandro), Will (Navy–USS Carl Vinson), Nissa (Santa Rosa), Christy (Rocklin, CA), Randy (Martinez jail), and Troy (Coalinga jail).
We still have two openings in our evangelism house in Oakland. We are looking for spiritually mature Christians with a desire to evangelize San Francisco. Please call or write me if you are interested.
We continue to witness every Friday night and Saturday afternoon. On Friday night we meet at 7:30 PM at the Vineyard, 1098 Harrison St. in San Francisco. On Saturday afternoon, we witness in various locations in San Francisco and Berkeley. We also have several “Church on the Street” outreaches planned this summer. Call us for more information. God did a great work in San Francisco during SOS, but that work is far from over. We need to continue to reach out to the people of this city throughout the year with the gospel.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
