Undercover Cop

So we got past the brother of satan and Mary. Our youth group was in the middle of performing one of our songs, when a brake dancer wasn't too happy we were there. We were stealing all the attention from the normal sidewalk business. He went over to the corner policeman and the next thing I know, we are being asked about permits, etc. I looked to the local coordinator and he reassured us that we have a permit and quickly produced the paper work. What we didn't know was that we also had to have a permit to amplify sound...not just a permit to be there. We didn't have the socalled spund permit. The policeman politely asked us to leave. "Where do we get this permit", I asked. He told us where to go, but that the process takes 3 weeks and that we needed to have approval. Three of us took off toward the Department of Justice building where this permit would be secured. Need to say the policeman wasn't giving us much of a chance to make that happen in such a short time.
As we approached the Dept of Justice, I noticed a McDonalds next door and decided that it would be wise to go through the drive through because you never know when you're going to get a chance to eat when you do street drama. We finished our big macs and stepped through the security arch. We took no more than 4-5 steps when this man stepped in front of us and said, "You have to go to the fourth floor and ask Sargeant Mannix." We were a bit surprised. (I automatically thought of the TV series, Mannix that aired back in the seventies.) Anyway, we didn't know him and as far as we knew, he didn't know us either. Seeing the perplexed looks on our faces, He repeated, "You need to go to the fourth floor and ask for Sargeant Mannix." I asked him if he knew us. "No, I don't know, but I was down there on the corner when the uniform officer asked you to leave. I'm a plain clothes officer and I just happened to be there when you had to leave. You need to talk to Sargeant Mannix."
Obviously, we stepped onto the elevator with a building faith knowing that there aren't coincidences with God. When he places an "x" on his calendar, you just need to show up on that day. He'll do the rest. As we stepped out of the elevator on the fourth floor, we had no clue which direction to go. A group of policewomen approached us ans asked who we wanted to see. We repeated, "Sargeant Mannix", with a growing faith. They said, "Oh, follow us." Walking down this very long hallway we passed these windows where were standing in line waiting to talk to someone on the other side. We found out later that that was the "three week window", that we were suppose to wait at. The ladies lead us passed the windows and into a door where we would ultimately meet, Sargeant Mannix. We thanked the policewomen for their time and made our request known to the policewoman behind the desk. She telephoned for Sgt. Mannix and a moment later the Sgt. appeared. She was very nice, but infomed us that that kind of permit takes three weeks. Our attention went to the windows out in the hall. We pled our case and told her that we don't have three weeks and that young people from all over US were here to do street drama for the week and could we get something quicker? She left for a moment and a plain clothes officer lead us to a board room where we repeated the story again. He left for about 10 minutes. That was a long ten minutes, but when he returned, he said, "Well, gentlemen, we don't normally do this but, here is the paper work for the week. Just pay 30.00 for each place you want to be and sign right here. We did. Reloaded. Set back up and in 45 minutes secured what would normally take three weeks. The brake dancer wasn't too happy, but that day was a day that changed many people's lives forever. 12 people that week experienced the gift of God's salvation on the street and nearly 200 in a crusade later that Saturday afternoon. You want to know more about street drama? Ask me...I'll tell you. howitiller.comhttp://howitiller.com

The brother of Satan??

So, there we were setting up our sound equipment near Market and Union streets in DT San Francisco for street drama. It's at the bottom of the hill where the cable car turns around. The traditional break dancers and famous human sculptures...you know the ones that paint themselves silver or gold...were out in full color...anyway, if you haven't seen them, it's pretty cool looking. I was working with this group of teens who were from all over the US. Some had never seen anything like DT San Francisco. It was pretty eye opening to say the least. Well, we were just about ready to start doing some really neat dowel rod songs. If you haven't seen that before, you can get an idea from howitiller.com. Anyway, as I was saying...we were just about to do a song interpretation using these dowel rods or sticks when this man came right up into our face and said, "I am the brother of satan." That got all our attention. I knew that San Francisco was the home or was the home to Anton Lavey (Spelling?)...you know...the founder of the satanic church. His mind was probably totally gone from drugs, but he didn't want us there. I remember thinking later, that I'm a child of God and I didn't have to be afraid. I thought that was a little weird that this total stranger knew we were going to do something Christian before we even said or did anything. I was the oldest and had to be strong for the others...or something like that. To be honest, I didn't know what to think and was glad there was a uniform police officer on the corner. A moment later the brother of satan was escorted away to wherever satan's brothers go.
Well, we thought that way was clear and was starting our first song called Arise My Love by the singing group called New Song, when this lady named Mary started yelling at the top of her lungs, "Come to Jesus, You must come to Jesus, these people are of God", and other things like that. She was so loud that she was over the top of our music. So, I sent a native San Franciscan to quiet Mary down a little. What came out of her mouth after that would have made a sailor sound like a boy scout. Again, the officer came to the rescue and I think Mary joined satan's brother wherever that may have been.