Street Stories - A Ringside Seat To Over 4 Decades Of Taking Jesus To The Streets Of The World

Chapter 4

Fantasy Festival – Key West

I was sitting at my desk in Los Angeles on a beautiful October afternoon. Dot and I had recently launched out and birthed our frontline street ministry, Streetwise Ministry. When we started Streetwise, God gave us a powerful scripture as our mission statement, Matthew 10:16 - “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” We had spent the past five years serving with a pioneer street ministry in Hollywood called The Holy Ghost Repair Service. This ministry was founded in Denver, Colorado by Charles and Judy McPheeters. The focus of The Holy Ghost Repair Service was reaching out to runaway teenagers, homeless, gang members, teen prostitutes and people who had migrated to Hollywood with stars in their eyes. About one thousand runaways a week would descend on Hollywood, hoping to become a music star or movie star. So many of them ended up living on the streets panhandling or turning to prostitution to survive. Hollywood Boulevard became the Boulevard of Broken Dreams to them. Suddenly, on this quiet October afternoon, my ringing phone broke the silence. I picked it up and said, “Hello.” The response I heard on the other end of the phone was gruff and boisterous. “Hey brother…. How

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