Kelli Cottrell

Mimes help pass the time Crowds camping out along the street the night before the Rose Parade take a few moments from their hours-long vigil to watch AIM4Faith, a mime team from San Diego, present the Gospel.

PASADENA, Calif. (BP)--While many Christians were enjoying New Year’s Eve parties with their churches or with friends and family, a small group of people in Southern California worked to spread the Gospel to hundreds of thousands in a few short hours.
      “By the end of the night we had 15 salvations and passed out over 800 brochures that shared the Gospel,” said Martin Davis, owner of a printing and graphics business in San Diego who has spearheaded a New Year’s Eve Rose Parade ministry for the past nine years. “The morning of the parade we gave out 4,000 of the brochures.”

A new beginning Martin Davis shares the plan of salvation with Chris Coria of Los Angeles. She was one of 15 who asked Jesus to be her Savior on New Year’s Eve waiting to see the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

      Davis produces a brochure each year listing the order of the 50-plus floats in the nationally televised Rose Parade. He includes the plan of salvation in the brochure and numbers to call for more information on becoming a Christian and finding a local church.
      The brochure is given compliments of Southern Baptist churches across America and paid for by the North American Mission Board, with which Davis serves as a Mission Service Corps volunteer. He also is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee.

Marriage defenders in S.F. Spanning a six-mile stretch in San Francisco, more than 7,000 Christians registered their support for marriage in a rally organized by the newly formed San Francisco Bay Area Christians for Traditional Marriage. Photo by Katy Raddatz/The San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (BP)--Spanning a six-mile stretch, from the Golden Gate Bridge to Larson Park, more than 7,000 Christians in San Francisco rallied to show their support for the traditional definition of marriage.
      "It was the largest rally of its kind," said Bible Baptist Church pastor Raymond Kwong, who organized the April 25 event. "God really pulled it off. The Lord is doing wonderful things here."
      Newly elected San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized same-sex “marriages” Feb. 12 but was stopped by the California Supreme Court March 11 after issuing thousands of licenses. Massachusetts became the first state with legalized same-sex “marriage” May 17.
      After San Francisco's action, Kwong rallied together 180 churches representing various denominations and races with the purpose of "sending a message to America that even in San Francisco, there are thousands of us, representing tens of thousands in the Bay Area who still believe strongly in one man and one woman marriage.”

Enlisting divine help Lt. Carey Cash prepared to lead Marines in prayer before they crossed into Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Cash writes of miracles God performed on the battlefield to assure the Marines of His presence.

NORFOLK, VA. (BP)--Sitting on the ramp of a military vehicle on the lawn of Saddam Hussein's presidential palace, Lance Corporal Jeff Guthrie's eyes welled with tears that streamed down his muddy face.
      He had just stormed the gates of the palace in a gruesome fight with his fellow Marines and claimed victory.
      Lt. Carey Cash, a chaplain with his battalion, saw Guthrie's distraught face and walked up to him.

No matter the environment Navy chaplain Lt. Carey Cash delivered a sermon during a Field Expeditionary Service to Marines in 97-degree temperatures at a tactical assembly area near Camp Coyote in northern Kuwait in March 2003 before heading across the Iraqi border for war.

      Cash, in a new book, "A Table in the Presence" released April 7, takes his readers onto the hot, dusty, Iraq battlefield to learn how God worked miracles and answered prayers in individual lives of Marines like Guthrie.
      "Sitting down on the grass in front of him, I asked what was wrong," Cash writes in the book, recalling a few life-changing moments spent with Guthrie.
      "'Sir ... I'm, I'm just so sorry,' he said, tears welling up in his tired eyes.

Rock 'N' Roll Worship Circus

LONGVIEW, Wash. (BP)--"I remember the day when the love of God landed in our town / He took all the silent and broken hearts, fixed them up and gave them a sound / You had almost every different kind of kid from every different kind of social background / Taking all the cool they had and praising God, as He spun them around / When God came to town."
      The lyrics by Gabriel Wilson, lead singer of a Christian band named the “Rock 'N' Roll Worship Circus,” recount a time when the Holy Spirit swept into the lives of teens in his hometown of Longview, Wash.

Los Angeles co-laborers Pastors Jack Hayford (left) and Ken Ulmer, co-chairs of the Greater Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade slated July 29-Aug. 1, talk with longtime Graham associate Cliff Barrows (right) after he read an acceptance letter from Graham to lead the outreach in the Rose Bowl. Photo by Kelli Cottrell

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (BP)--Returning to where he first attracted national attention, evangelist Billy Graham will hold his seventh crusade in the Los Angeles area July 29-Aug. 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
      Nostalgically, Cliff Barrows read a letter of acceptance from Graham during an "Announcement Celebration" Feb. 9 in the Henrietta Mears room of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. Barrows pointed to a photo of Graham and Mears, director of religious education at the church years ago, above a fireplace in the room. Mears had opened her home for prayer, encouragement and personal invitations to many actors during that first crusade in 1949 in Los Angeles.