“If you’re going to San Francisco / be sure to wear some flowers in your hair / if you’re going to San Francisco / you’re going to meet some gentle people there…” (San Francisco, written in 1967 by John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas and sung by Scott McKenzie).

In 1978 I did go to San Francisco. Not with flowers in my hair, but with the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ in my heart. Accepting the Executive Director position at San Francisco Teen Challenge, my wife and I and our two children moved to the Bay area from Bakersfield after serving as Associate Director of Teen Challenge in that valley city 120 miles north of Los Angeles. I remained Executive Director for 3 1/2 years and some great accomplishments in Christ occurred through the ministry of Teen Challenge and a group of very dedicated staff members during that time.

The Gentle People Of San Francisco And The Bay Area

For the next fourteen years we lived and ministered in the Bay area, sharing God’s love to very receptive souls throughout northern California cities and towns. I was always amazed at just how open the people living there were to God’s Good News.  Our ministry prospered, and  thousands became born-again believers, while hundreds of thousands of youth ages 6-18 made the decison to say no to drugs through our drug prevention campaign, NOPE TO DOPE.

Then, for personal reasons and with God’s blessings, in 1992 we moved back to Bakersfield. And, although I knew we would never live in the Bay area again, I certainly believed we would one day come back to San Francisco and share God’s love in Christ Jesus to both the gentle and not so gentle souls living in the City by the Bay. Read the rest of this entry »

After a special and successful cross walk in San Diego the day before, I drove Go-Ye-Mobile-2 (GYM-2) to the huge Outlets At The Border shopping complex in the border town of San Ysidro and parked just a few feet from the long and tall border fence.  After unstrapping the cross from the truck’s bed rack, I hoisted the cross on my shoulder and walked up the pedestrian walkway on my way to the border check-in station.

From the very start, people passing by on the walkway waved or said, “Praise the Lord,” or looked with awe or puzzlement as to what was going on. The atmosphere was filled with the Holy Spirit’s presence, and I couldn’t help but think how great it was to be able to lug the heavy cross up the walkway and across the I-5 overpass and toward the high border wall separating two countries from each other.

It was drizzling, and the light rain felt good as I made my way to the new pedestrian crossing into Mexico. The San Ysidro/Mexico border crossing is our country’s busiest land border crossing. The new crossing opened in August, 2015, and serves over 22,000 southbound crossers a day into the Mexican city of Tijuana. The area around the pedestrian border crossing is very busy and I was excited that hundreds of Americans and Mexicans would see the large cross.

The pedestrian walkway from where I was parked to the border entrance is slightly uphill and I felt the extra downward pull of gravity as I walked up to the Interstate 5’s overpass and toward the pedestrian crossing. But nothing was going to stop this cross walk! I knew God had some great plans for this day.

AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE BECAUSE OF TAKING CARE OF GOD’S BUSINESS!

As I reached this huge conglomeration of  men, women and children heading into or out of Mexico, I hoisted the 10-foot, 60-pound cross right in the middle of the busy rotunda and prayed for all the people passing by. This is a very security-minded area. Border Patrol agents came up to me and asked what I was doing. After sharing that I was praying for both nations, and for their safety as well, and that I was headed toward the entrance of the pedestrian border crossing, a supervisor shared, “We usually don’t allow anyone to take large objects to the border entrance. But you can go on up this time and take care of God’s business.”

I shook their hands and thanked each one for their service to our country, then continued praying for all the people passing by.

Read the rest of this entry »

San Diego! The nation’s eighth largest city and California’s second biggest, with a population of some 1,300,000 souls. A beautiful city that is about 20 miles from the California/Mexico border.

The economy of San Diego is influenced by its deepwater port, which includes the only major submarine and shipbuilding yards on the West Coast. 

San Diego also hosts the largest naval fleet in the world. About 5 percent of all civilian jobs in the county are military-related, and 15,000 businesses in San Diego County rely on Department of Defense contracts.

Military bases in San Diego include US Navy facilities, Marine Corps bases, and Coast Guard stations. The city is home to the majority of the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s surface combatants, all of the Navy’s West Coast amphibious ships and a variety of Coast Guard and Military Sealift Command vessels.

PRAYING FOR GREAT REVIVAL THROUGHOUT SAN DIEGO AND TIJUANA

San Diego is also a strategic city for the Mexican drug cartels to smuggle their narcotics and other mind, body and soul poisons into America. Just a few miles south of San Diego is the busiest border crossing in our country, the San Ysidro/Tijuana border crossing.

Although I would be cross walking at the border the next day, as I parked Go-Ye-Mobile-2 (GYM-2) in a large downtown residential area of San Diego, my thoughts were on these Mexican drug cartels that have found elaborate and elusive ways to smuggle marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin across or even beneath our border with Mexico throughout this border area.

As I unloaded the 10-foot, 60-pound cross, excitement and expectation filled my spirit with great joy and faith. Today I would walk the cross in an area where thousands of residents and tourists would see the cross.

Placing the heavy cross on my right shoulder, I audibly declared to the Lord of the Harvest, “Today, I am Your mule.  As I walk the cross, I ask You to turn it into Your great spiritual plow and break up the hardened, stony and thorny grounds of people’s hearts and expose the good ground so Your Good Seed, the Word of salvation, can be sown, set, germinate and sprout up unto eternal life in the hearts and lives of thousands…for Your glory and honor. Lord, let this take place not only in the lives of the people living in San Diego, but prepare the hearts of those living in Tijuana as well. Let today’s cross walk be for Your glory and honor…and let tomorrow’s cross walk at the border transform the lives of those living in Tijuana as well! In Jesus Name I ask You for all this. Amen!” Read the rest of this entry »

A beautiful city with two major rivers, the American and the Sacramento, flowing through its land.

Sacramento, California. The first of fifty state capitals Street Evangelist Tom Alexander plans to bring the large cross to and pray hard and long for great revival and great godly sorrow to break out among the people of America. Cross Walk America: Pray USA is a five year mission to visit all fifty state capitals and major cities of America. Sacramento is a beautiful city with a population of over 500,000 souls. As California’s state capital, this is where state laws are made, and where revival must begin for the Golden State’s 39,000,000 souls to personally experience salvation in Jesus Christ and to turn back to the living God.

On September 10 I traveled 300 miles north from Bakersfield (my home town) and checked into my motel room in the mid-town area of Sacramento just after noon. After freshening up a bit, I unloaded the 10-foot, 60-pound cross and began cross walking this large residential/mid-town area. As I walked west on N Street,  I audibly put on and took up the complete armor and armaments of God, described in the 6th chapter of Ephesians and then spiritually ate the fruit of the Spirit as described in Galatians 5. Spiritual warfare is very real, and the spiritual panoply and fruit are essential in the battle against the evil one for precious and lost, confused and blinded souls.

GOD’S SPIRITUAL HEARTLIGHT, PORCH LIGHT, TORCHLIGHT, SPOTLIGHT

“Lord, let this fellowship be Your spiritual heartlight, porch light, torchlight and spotlight, attracting and drawing the unsaved to You.”

The response to the large cross was diverse. Walking the cross throughout both residential and business areas, I would stop at street corners, hoist the cross upright and pray for the people living and working in those areas, that they all know who Jesus Christ really is and accept Him as their Savior. People would come up and ask what I was doing. When I shared that I was praying for the people of Sacramento, the majority of these men, women and even children would nod their heads and smile, then thank me.

As is my custom, I also hoist the cross upright at every church I pass and pray that great revival breaks out from inside the fellowship and flows freely and powerfully throughout that neighborhood, and that each fellowship realizes that it is God’s spiritual heartlight, porch light, torchlight and spotlight designed by God to attract and draw people like light attracts flies to a light bulb. And, if the people won’t come to them, then the church must go to them, acting as a torchlight and spotlight in its community. Read the rest of this entry »

This is California’s finest rehabilitation center for all types of physical, mental and neurological disorders and dysfunctions.

This cross walk throughout the city of Downey was a very special Walk The Cross ministry. A dear friend of ours had suffered a severe near-death, two-vehicle collision that had left him in a coma and the other driver paralyzed from the neck down. After more than a month in the Intensive Care and then Direct Observation units at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Dave was still in a coma. Much, much on-going prayer continued throughout this ordeal for Dave, his wife Orpha, daughter Paige and young son, Dave Jr.

Slowly but surely, Dave came out of the coma, which was a miracle in itself.

Dave progressed so well that the decision was made to transfer him to California’s finest rehabilitation hospital located in the city of Downey, Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center.

Some special friends of Dave and Orpha asked me to visit Dave at Rancho Los Amigos and also underwrote the traveling and motel costs. I decided to stay two days and also cross walk the city after visiting Dave and Orpha. Read the rest of this entry »

Ojai Avenue is the city’s main street, where tourists and the people of Ojai congregate and visit its sidewalk cafes, museums and gift shops.

Situated 12 miles inland from our favorite beach town, Ventura,  the city of Ojai is populated by just under 8,000 souls. No matter the size, people in every city and town need Jesus!

The first time we cross walked Ventura a couple of years ago and as I walked the cross upon its long and beautiful pier, a man from Ojai approached me. He had a big grin on his face.

“When are you coming to Ojai?” he asked before I could greet him. “I teach a Bible study there, and believe me, Ojai needs to see that cross.” Read the rest of this entry »

Walking the cross on Buck Owens Boulevard. The city sign is Bakersfield’s most familiar and cherished icon.

Bakersfield, California is my hometown. So…naturally, this is the city I have the opportunity to walk the cross at most often. As of 2014, there are some 360,000 souls living in greater Bakersfield, a city that has seven official wards, or areas, supervised by seven elected council members, 7 official police zones, 60 official neighborhoods and 60 parks. And like all California cities, there are gangs. One of my main purposes in walking the large cross throughout Bakersfield and other California cities is to catch the attention of both saved and unsaved individuals, including gangbangers, drug users and other troubled and troubling individuals. Read the rest of this entry »

I came to Fresno to specifically pray for the city’s gang-threatened police department!

Every city and town has a thin blue line, referring to the courageous police officers who are sworn to serve and protect that community’s residents. This thin blue line of police protection is similar to the thin blue line of the Earth’s atmosphere known as the Ozone Layer, which protects us all from the Sun’s harmful and deadly rays. Without such a thin blue line protecting it’s city from criminals and outlaws, our society wouldn’t remain civilized or normalized for long.

After reading a disturbing article in my city’s daily newspaper, The Bakersfield Californian, I was impressed by the Lord of the harvest to drive the go-ye-mobile to Fresno, a city of about 500,000 souls and walk the cross throughout this large central California metropolitan area.

My main purpose, however, was to hoist the 10-foot, 60-pound cross upright at the huge Fresno Police Headquarters and pray long and hard for the safety of all the brave and dedicated members of this city’s thin blue line. Read the rest of this entry »

Students gather in prayer after classroom shooting at Taft Union High School.

Every parent’s fear is that a distraught student brings a gun to school and exacts real or perceived revenge on a fellow classmate, and thereby putting their child in harm’s way as well. In January 2013 a student attending Taft Union High did just that, walking up to a fellow classmate and seriously wounding him with a shotgun brought to school from home.

One week exactly after the school shooting, I felt compelled by God to bring the 60-pound, 10-foot cross to this small but beautiful city and walk the cross throughout the entire town, including Taft Union High and pray long and hard for the peace and safety of all residents.

As I traveled the 30 miles to Taft, I began to verbally put on and take up the special seven-part armor/armaments of God (Ephesians 6:10-18), which He has given to all believers to wear during spiritual warfare and conflicts. I also asked the Lord of the Harvest to fill me up with the nine fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Since Jesus had mentioned in the 15th chapter of John that there are four degrees of fruit-bearing — no fruit, fruit, more fruit and much fruit — I asked Him to fill me up with much fruit. Read the rest of this entry »

Visalia Is The County Seat For Tulare County And Is A Friendly City Of 125,000 Souls.

Brought the large cross to this central valley city of 125,000 souls. Parking a few blocks from the large county administration compound, I walked the cross to the courthouse complex, hoisted it upright and prayed for all justice personnel, including the judges, law enforcement officials and the jury services system, as well those facing charges for any type of criminal activity.

The people were very friendly, and some would come up to me and share how much they appreciated that I was praying at this facility. When I shared that I would be praying at several different locations in their city, they couldn’t believe it. But it was true! Read the rest of this entry »