Chinese New Year Parade Outreach
The largest annual event in San Francisco is the Chinese New Year Parade. Each year, up to 400,000 people come to Chinatown to watch this parade! For the past ten years, we have been witnessing at this event. Last year, Chuck Girard and the New Life worship group led a worship rally at the Powell St. BART station. That night, we gave out thousands of gospel tracts in Chinese and English to people watching the parade. We were able to pray with many people for salvation and other needs.
By the way, we hold our outreaches rain or shine. The Powell St. BART station has a large covered area for the worship group. Although it rained last year, we were able to stay reasonably dry by standing under awnings. Last year, hundreds of thousands of people stood in the rain for hours to watch this parade. Yet Christians often use rain as an excuse for not witnessing.
This outreach also serves as a mid-year reunion for those who participate in SOS-San Francisco. This year, we will begin the outreach with a worship rally led by the New Life worship group at the Powell St. BART station at 3 PM. There are many fast food places downtown where you can get something to eat between 3 and 5 PM. At 5 PM, we will pray, give instructions and break up into teams. We will witness in the parade area until 10:30 PM, gathering together for prayer at Broadway and Columbus. This is an exciting outreach and we strongly encourage you to join us.
Outreach Reports
During the Christmas season, we held four worship rallies at the Powell St. BART station. Two were with the New Life worship group, one with Jerry Brandt Ministries, and one with Reachout Ministries from San Jose. We witnessed to thousands of people–both shoppers and street people. At times, large groups would gather around to sing Christmas carols with us. Jerry Brandt began praying with one man, but he could not say the name Jesus. Jerry rebuked the spirit in him. The man was set free, and then prayed to receive Christ.
At one rally, we met a 19 year old named David who had recently arrived from Dallas. He was touched by the worship, and we took him home and to church. He sat in the front row at church, and asked someone if there would be an altar call. At the altar call, he went forward immediately but started to resist when he was being prayed for. He left after church, but we met him on the streets the next Friday and took him home again. He came to our Saturday rally and was eager to get to church early, but left before the service began. Please pray for David, that he will be set free from demonic bondage and come to know Jesus.
In early December, a team of 14 high school students from Auburn did an outreach with us. They had learned some drama skits, and drew large crowds as they performed them in downtown San Francisco and Berkeley. They also experienced some opposition as hecklers interrupted their skits in Berkeley. Despite the heckling, they continued to minister to people.
King’s Kids Outreach
In late December, we worked with a Youth With a Mission King’s Kids group from Fresno. Twenty-five kids ages 12-16 had learned some choreographed songs. Two months before this outreach, as they met for prayer, God gave these teenagers visions of things they would do and see in San Francisco. Amazingly, every one of these things came to pass. One person received through prayer the words “Christmas is not over,” not knowing this would be the title of a tract we would give out.
It was quite a challenge moving around the city in five vans. Twice during the outreach, one of the vans got lost and then miraculously after prayer we found each other. After the outreaches, they would have times of discussion in which each of the kids shared ways in which God used them and things God taught them during the outreach. They also had a time to ask one another for forgiveness for sins they committed against each other. I have never seen a group of teenagers speak so freely about spiritual things. This was their first evangelism outreach and they had no training in evangelism, but most of them had no trouble going up to people and speaking with them about Jesus.
On Saturday, they did an outreach with Good News Church in the Tenderloin district. This is a brand new church which began as a ministry to Asian children. Most of these children are Chinese from Vietnam whose parents are Buddhists. I met a group of 30 teenagers who have been saved and are being discipled at this church. Some of them are part of a San Francisco King’s Kids group that is being trained to do outreaches. The Fresno King’s Kids ministered at a park in the Tenderloin and fed some street people.
On Sunday, we did outreaches at the cable car turnaround at Powell and Market. We connected our maximouse amplifier to two large speakers and were able to reach a large audience with our portable system. I spoke with a teenage skinhead named “Big Mac.” He was quite receptive to the gospel. Please pray for him. Sunday night, we ministered at Pier 41 on Fisherman’s Wharf. On Monday, we went to the Embarcadero at lunch time. Hundreds of businessmen listened to the King’s Kids. One of the adults offered a tract to a businessman, who refused it. A few minutes later, he saw that same businessman talking with his teenage daughter about the Lord.
Monday afternoon, we went to the children’s playground in Golden Gate Park. Hundreds of children and their parents watched the performance. At least one child prayed to receive Jesus. Many of the parents were atheists or into New Age teachings and their children knew little or nothing about Jesus. The King’s Kids concluded the outreach by witnessing and giving out food and blankets to some homeless people in the park. Many of the homeless were not much older than the King’s Kids.
I was really excited to see teenagers who really know Jesus and are able to minister to people that we adults cannot reach. For these youth, it was their first exposure to life in the inner city and to evangelism. I hope God will give many of them a burden to continue this ministry.
Book Review:
We Cannot But Tell
by Ross Tooley
When John Goodfellow was here last summer, I asked him what he considered the best book on evangelism he had seen. He gave me this book, We Cannot But Tell, by Ross Tooley. Ross has worked with Youth With a Mission since 1967, mostly in the Philippines. He begins the book with a list of six major differences between Westerners and non-Westerners. Then he begins a thorough presentation of what is involved in presenting the gospel to anyone. He has separate chapters on proving God’s existence, the character of God, sin, the atonement, repentance, counting the cost and follow-up. I have read a lot of books on evangelism, and I cannot remember another book that explains these topics in such a clear and thorough manner. If you use this teaching in your personal witnessing, it will lead to a complete gospel presentation and genuine conversions. The book is available from Frontline Communications, Box 55787, Seattle, WA 98155, (206) 771-1153.
A Final Word
In December, former Chief of Police Frank Jordan won election as Mayor of San Francisco, defeating incumbent Art Agnos. Jordan is believed to be pro-Christian, and his election could be an en couraging sign for San Francisco. One of the main campaign issues was Agnos’ soft treatment of the homeless, allowing them to camp out for a year in the Civic Center.
There seems to be a national trend of people getting fed up with the homeless. Most of the homeless are there because of drug and alcohol problems, and little can be done for them until they want to change. But others are there because they can’t find a job or can’t support their family on the minimum wage. We especially need to help these people. As Christians, we cannot let our hearts get hardened toward the needs of the homeless.
Meanwhile, we saw the end of the Soviet Union, being replaced by an independent Commonwealth of Independent States. This commonwealth seems to be extremely fragile, with fighting between the republics over who is in charge of the military, civil war in Yugoslavia and Georgia which could spread to other places, and ethnic rivalries and extreme poverty throughout the area that could result in rioting or a new dictator. Meanwhile, the United States of Europe is being established with a common currency, and the former U.S.S.R. wants to join. These are certainly exciting times, as the world is heading towards the climax of history and the return of our Lord. Now is the time to redouble our efforts to reach this lost world with the gospel.
In Luke 21, after describing the signs of the end times, Jesus gave this warning: “Watch out! Don’t let my sudden coming catch you unawares; don’t let me find you living in careless ease, carousing and drinking, and occupied with the problems of this life, like all the rest of the world. Keep a constant watch. And pray that if possible you may arrive in my presence without having to experience these horrors” (Luke 21:34-35).
Our Tape of the Month is “Bringing ‘Em Back Alive” by Danny Lehmann. Danny is Director of the Honolulu base of Youth With a Mission. He is the author of a book by the same name. In this tape, Danny shares about what is happening in evangelism around the world and also what we can do to reach our nation for Jesus. Danny is one of the best equipping evangelists around and this tape is an excellent demonstration of how we can encourage the church to evangelize without condemning people.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum