Tim & I were at the LA Invasion. We helped oversee the new converts and somehow the Lord gave me the ability to translate teachings into Spanish even though my Spanish wasn't that great. I remember several of the people who got saved during that time; wonder what became of them! Some came to Eureka for awhile.
Anne Nabakowski
As for the LA invasion: I was there. I had been preparing for it for several weeks, praying and praying. Don Smith and I had become prayer warrior partners together. Don is a great guy, by the way. I came downto Van Nuys, and was passing out tracts on the beaches and downtown Hollywood. A most precious sister was paired up with me to travel around and pass out tracts, Connie Kelting.
Anyway, our experience led us to a few different scenes. One of them was that we were passing out tracts on the beach, Long Beach I think it was, and I preached to a man and his wife for a few minutes, gave them the tracts and talked to them for awhile. The guy was Bill Bright, the Campus Crusade guy. And there was the two couples we came up to, and began to share the gospel with them. One of the guys had a broken foot. So I asked him if I could pray for him and he said yes. So, I laid my hand on the cast, and prayed for God to heal him. To my surprise (or apparent wonderment) the power of God shot through my hands into this guy's foot, and he was instantly healed. He came to the meeting in our tent that night and gave his testimony. I have no idea what ever happened with him.
Another incident that happened with me an Connie, was that when we were passing out tracts in Hollywood, we were just handing them out, and we offered a tract to a woman . . . and she just turned on us, hissing and clawing at us . . . . she was demonized, of course. But, we did not do any deliverance, probably because we were not taught in that at that time.
Anyway, there is more that I remember from the LA invasion. It was great. Chuck Robinson got saved during that time. He had been a full blown homesexual, and converted to Jesus, and joined GO. That was amazing. I remember when he walked in the tent, wearing his pink dress and his red lipstick. Wow, that was interesting. He tried to kiss a few of us brothers. But, he pressed in to the word of God. He was changed, he was restored. God is good, God is so very good.
Peace in Jesus,
Bill Crowder
About the passion play...
The swimsuit clad crowd of over 100 were all yelling with zeal! It was amazing to hear them and see how easily a crowd could get into the moment. It was a hot sunny Southern California day at Huntington Beach. There were the usual sights of many families and teens laying on towels, playing in sand and surf or just milling around. But the out of the ordinary thing you could see that day was a group of about 20 mostly young people coming down the beach following a man carrying a cross!
The man was portraying Christ being made to carry his cross to the place where he would be crucified! He was dressed in an old white Tshirt splattered in "blood", a crown of thorns on his head with realistic looking blood running down his face neck and beard. There were also a group of guys dressed as Roman soldiers with cardboad armor and plastic swords and whips pushing him along. Then there were the heckelers yelling insults....
All of this was a result of many hours of fasting and prayer! Prayer brain storming one could say. This group of folks with a passion to preach the good news was descending on the LA area from as far away as Portland with that one purpose in mind. But they needed a way to get people to listen, to do something
creative....the result, the passion play...
The folks on the beach sat up and stopped playing and loitering. Many of them actually got up and started following the stumbling, tortured Christ and His tormenters down the beach. Right at the Pier the soldiers stopped the Christ and whipped him, insulted Him and nailed Him to the cross.
As this was enacted many in the crowd started yelling also, getting into the moment. They yelled with zeal, Crucify HIM! CRUCIFY HIM! Over and over. The Christ was lifted up on the cross and held there while some one preached loudly. Then those who had been acting started sharing with those who had been yelling moments before. Some of them turned with heads hung in shame. Some scoffed, others silently had tears rolling down their chins, while others asked questions and came to a realization that what they had just seen had happened over 2000 years before that, for them! They prayed!
There were some who chose to share with the actors that they needed to join the CHRIST FAMILY and take some steps to cut out passages out of the Bible. Out of that crowd some went on to serve Christ for many years! Joining the local churches or moving to the Light House Ranch. Some of them have sat in thier homes and thought of that day and what they saw....and maybe someday they will come to Christ still from the memory.
...the LA invasion!!! I was there for 2 weeks! It was crazy,
full of preaching on the beaches and streets of LA....one thing
I remember really well was cooking for a group of about 150 people in a garage with portable gas stoves.
We had brought the large kettles from ranch. The menu was mac and cheese from scratch and vegies of some sort......well I did know how to cook fortunately, but the facility was lacking to say the least! I don't remember who was cooking with me but there was only 1 other person and they were tryin to go to take care of a kid at the same time, so it was pretty much me doing the cooking.....things went well until we put in the cheap chunks of cheese to melt into the sauce...it was the sort of cheese that could not really meld but just sorta turns into globs of gunky looking orange....not a pretty picture!
So some how the great idea of straining the sauce came up and we strained the 8 gallons of sauce into another pan....leaving the orange mess behind! YUMMY. we mixed the noodles and sauce together and transported the food to the BIG meeting hall somewhere..and all the folks ate up, that is. after a 20 minute prayer......
