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

As we rolled along the streets of Key West as an entry in the parade, the crowd began to be much larger and more volatile than we had expected. There were no police or security guards keeping the insane crowd away from us. People in outrageous costumes and many only wearing body paint yelled obscenities at us and literally tried to throw themselves onto the hearse. A few of them succeeded. Our Blues Brothers bodyguards did such a great job clearing the crowd off of us so we could continue to roll down Duval Street. Mel Rolls, being our parade monitor, walked in front of the hearse, pushing people away so we could continue along the parade route. Among those spitting at us and hurling obscenities, I will never forget one guy who forced his way past our bodyguards, stuck his head in my shotgun seat window and screamed out, “We were having fun ‘til y’all showed up!” That made Denny and me pretty happy. We loved nothing better than showing up to the devil’s party and crashing it for Jesus! It was especially exciting to be the first outreach team crashing this extravaganza for the devil on Halloween. Mardi Gras in New Orleans was an insane gathering where hundreds of Christians had hit the streets for years. Spring Break in Florida always had teams of Christians witnessing and preaching. This was only the second year Fantasy Festival had been promoted in Key West, and they had never been evangelized before.

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