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SOS Monthly Newsletter - July 2005"And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"Dear Christian friends, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" When evangelist Luis Palau came to San Francisco in 1980, he gave five reasons for having a mass evangelistic crusade: The gospel goes to many thousands more people than if just one or two churches were involved. The whole city becomes "God-conscious" for the period of the outreach, making Jesus Christ and the Bible common topics of discussion among all groups of people for much longer. The powers of darkness are disrupted as the light of Christ is firmly held up by a united church. As a result of this disruption of Satan's strongholds, evangelism becomes easier. Churches grow and plant new churches in areas of the city where crusade decisions reveal a need. In 1980, we held our first SOS-San Francisco outreach. We held two large worship rallies in Union Square with over 1000 Christians at each, gave out 400,000 tracts, and the whole city truly became conscious of Jesus Christ during that week. The next year, about 3000 people came against us at Union Square, blowing whistles in our ears and tearing up our Bibles. They had been told that we "hated homosexuals" but God showed us we were only to worship Him., The opposition dispersed as we sang "Oh the Blood of Jesus" over and over. Since that time, several new churches have begun and are growing in San Francisco. Several thousand Christians have obtained experience in evangelism through SOS and many are now involved in outreaches in their own communities. Major city-wide outreaches patterned in part after SOS-San Francisco have been established in at least a dozen cities around the U.S. And only in heaven will we know how many people have been saved from eternal Hell because of those of you who took the time to come to SOS-San Francisco. San Francisco is one of the most strategic cities in the world to reach for Jesus Christ. Many destructive trends have begun in San Francisco and quickly spread across the U.S. and around the world. The first of the violent 1960's political protests began in 1960 at San Francisco City Hall. San Francisco was saw the initiation of the topless bar, the drug movement, "acid rock", the "gay" rights movement, the "Church of Satan", the beginnings of numerous cults and new age philosophies, etc Faced with such ungodliness, we need to remember that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds" (2 Corin. 10:4). God has given us powerful spiritual weapons to come against Satan's work: united prayer, worship, and proclamation of the Gospel. SOS-San Francisco is simply a vehicle through which Christians can unite for these purposes. SOS -San FranciscoThe 26th annual SOS-San Francisco outreach is just around the corner. I want to urge you not to miss this important outreach. Not only will San Francisco be changed – YOU WILL BE CHANGED! Oden Fong will be ministering on Sat. July 16. He was the lead singer of the band Mustard Seed Faith in the 1970’s and oversaw 450 Calvary Chapel churches from 1985-1995. Chuck Girard sang on four top-20 songs before he was saved in 1970. He was in the Jesus People band Love Song in the 1970’s and has traveled around the world sharing the gospel through music for over 30 years. He will be with us the whole week. A registration form can be found here. Free housing is available at Temple Baptist Church. Bring a sleeping bag and foam pad. If you prefer, we can send you hotel information. If you live in the Bay Area and must work, you may join us at night and on weekends. Please call or write us if you have any questions. ON THE STREETSOn May 7, we witnessed at the Whole Earth Festival in Davis, CA. Over 10,000 people attend this New Age event each year. There were about 100 Christians witnessing at the event, including members of several campus groups at the University of California, Davis, where the event is held. This is a wonderful place to share the gospel with people, especially high school and college students. Many of them are sitting on the grass doing nothing, and they are willing to talk about Jesus. I witnessed to about 50 people that afternoon. Also, I gave out about 200 gospel tracts to children, and none of the parents objected. Apparently, they want their children to be exposed to all kinds of spiritual things. On Friday May 13 we witnessed on Union Street, in the Marina district of San Francisco. I am not superstitious, but I was concerned about this outreach. We had not witnessed at this location for about a year, and we had had problems in the past with the police. This is a very wealthy neighborhood and several people complained to the police. I spoke with three officers that night, each of which insisted that they had the right to arrest us whenever anyone complained. However, we managed to avoid arrest that night. On May 14, Paul and Noreen Coca ministered at Fisherman’s Wharf. After we set up at our usual location, a store owner who often complained about us told us there was a new location half a block down the street. Construction on a new restaurant was now finished, and there was a much better spot at this location. We moved our equipment and began our outreach. This is a great location and we were able to witness to thousands of people that afternoon. We did have some problems with a restaurant manager, who insisted that we take down our banner. He claimed that the restaurant owned half of the sidewalk. That night, we ministered at the Upper Room Remix, a 15-day 24 hour-a-day gathering to pray for San Francisco. Hundreds of Christians from many Bay Area churches participated in the event. I was very encouraged to see so many Christians uniting in prayer for San Francisco. I believe we will see the fruit of these prayers in a harvest of souls in this city. We prayed for the participants, that God would give them boldness and wisdom to preach the gospel as well as to pray.
Coming EventsNote: Outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 531-5325 or 541-9903 (cell phone) to confirm outreaches or for more information. Friday July 8, August 12 7:30-10 PM Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods. (Call for location). Sat. July 9 11:30-5 PM San Francisco Outreach. Mason and Jefferson St. July 15-23 SOS-San Francisco (See schedule on next page.) Sat. August 13 1-5 PM San Francisco Outreach. Washington Square (Columbus and Union St.) Last Days Harvest Church, Sacramento Ministry News and NeedsAgain, we thank you for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. We still need to print 100,000 tracts for this summer’s SOS outreach. We also need to purchase 500 New Testaments. We need someone to lead worship on the streets on Friday nights. Also, we need a volunteer to help with office work about 4 hours a month. We still have several rooms in our ministry house for mature Christians who want to be involved in evangelism. Our Tape of the Month is Shepherding the Streets by Ray Jablonski, Director of Heart-Fire Ministries. Ray has ministered on the streets of Milwaukee for over 20 years. He also operates a Christian coffee-house. Please remember to pray for SOS-San Francisco. I hope to see many of you at this year’s SOS outreach. Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum |
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