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

As we crept slowly along the Fantasy Festival Parade route, we realized we were approaching the Judges Reviewing Stand. This is a prime spot along Duval Street where bleachers had been erected alongside each side of the street for the crowd to view the floats and presentations. Most of the floats were R-Rated or worse, and many of them had Halloween-themed names. Denny and Mel had entered our parade presentation as From Death to Life. As we got closer to the Judges Reviewing Stand, I could hear a woman’s voice blaring out over a public address system. She was narrating and commentating on each float. Her comments were similar to parade commentary you would hear during the Rose Parade or a Christmas Parade… but much louder, and much raunchier. Key West is only one mile wide and four miles long, so you could literally hear her pretty much all across Key West. She didn’t realize it, but she was about to help us get our message about Jesus out to thousands of people all over Key West by commenting on our presentation. Denny pulled the jet-black Cadillac hearse up to the Judges Reviewing Stand and came to a complete standstill. Even though the thousands of people watching the parade had been loud and boisterous, suddenly there was a hush that fell over the crowd. There is just something about being near a black hearse that has an ill effect on people. The lady announcer on the public address system started us off.

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