Friday, October 20, 2006

The "Jesus-thon"

On April 8-9 of 1972 those of us who were regular attenders at Jerry's decided to have a "Jesus-thon". People were having walk-a-thon's so we thought "Why not?"

I am not sure who first came up with the idea. It caught hold of us though and we began to make plans. Through one of our friends (I believe it was Mike Breese) we were able to rent the United Auto Workers union hall on the old 109 by-pass. We made our own posters, may have had a few advertisements on radio, and planned the meetings. We had the hall for 36 hours. We had bands play, Jerry sang and preached, we shared from an open mike, invited other speakers to participate and just had a good time trying to honor Jesus. People from Solomon's Porch/the Hill stopped in.

Looking back on those days I sometimes wince at our naivete, but at the same time we were young, excited and zealous. Life and faith seemed simpler. Those days will never be repeated but we should remember them, gain insight from them and thank God for all he has taken us through.
Jerry Street seated on the stage at the "Jesus-thon" next to Jerry is Cindy Kachlein, sister of Coreen Kachlein



Jerry on the stage with his Rickenbacker Guitar

Seated with the violin is Karen Renfro


Below is Dave Holmes. He always had a camera with him.
If you have contact info for Dave let us know. We would like to find out if he has any photos from 1971-72



From left to right - Mike Breese, Tom Prough, Beth Robey, Donnie Adams, Steve Heifner

Left-Mike Burnett - Right-Randy Cain


Donnie Adams



Thanks to Kim McBride (the daughter of Jerry Street) for the B&W photos. Thanks to Brenda Walker Williams for the color photos.

If you have memories, photos, stories or correction to this article please let us know.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Praise God for you Bro.Mike...It's Great to see this blog and remember those days and nights at Jerry's and the fellowship we had. I still remember how great the love of God was with all of us in those days.I may have some pictures from Jerry,s or maybe a SMILE GOD LOVES YOU card or two.

I love you Brothers & Sisters,
Bro. Tom Prough
prough.t@lycos.com

Dale Brown said...

The Jesus-a-thon was a few months before my time at Jerry's, but the line, "I wince at our naivete" really caught me. It is the truth, but we were and are on fire for the Lord. As I began to grow and really question some of the teachings I heard I was led away from Jerry's. But the memories of former pot-heads,acid freaks (of which, I had been one), etc.screaming "Praise God" (from the bottom of their heart)still brings joy to me. Dale Brown

Anonymous said...

I SPENT ALT OF MY TEENAGE YEARS AT JERRYS.I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT IM MIKE'S SISTER PATTY, I THINK OF IT ALOT WHEN I SAW THIS ,MY SON FOUND THE PICTURE OF MIKE MY DAUGHTER CRYSTAL FOUND THIS I LOVE IT. ANYONE PLEASE CONTACT ME THAT WENT THEIR. I AM LOOKING FOR SOME OF THE PEOPLE.I LOVE YOU ALL MY E-MAIL faith.hope.karma@comcast.net please e-mail me thank you all for posting.it would be nice to start up another to help like that .i always thought that would be good just might need help.it would hopefully help alot of people like ie did us LOVE& PEACE