“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 »