Takin' it to the Streets Timeline
2001 - It Begins
In August of 2001, there was a word spoken by my Pastor, Bishop Melvin E. Clark Sr. during our Holy Convocation that culminated the process of Holy Spirit dealing with my heart for over a year, concerning my next assignment. After which The Lord called me to the streets, saying “I want you to go to the streets and tell the people about me” and after my reluctance He said, “I will give you some anointed men and women to help you.” And on Saturday June 1st of 2002 we went to the corner of Davis & Wykes St. in Aliquippa, PA to conduct our first official street service. My mentor Elder Raymond Jones who taught me so much about Evangelizing and conducting street services, went out with us. And during the openings, He would coin the phase “The church is takin’ it to the streets!” That’s where the name of our ministry come from. And a prophetess told me “What you name it, that will it do.” What I did not realize at the time, was that The Spirit of God was ushering in a new movement of evangelism.
During one of our street services, The Lord began speaking to me that He was going to send us to the neighborhoods, to the churches and to the cities and that we would minister to people of other cultures.
2003 - 2009
2003, I began to see and hear of other ministries and churches going out to the streets. Soon we were going to other neighborhoods and cities nearby to evangelize.
In 2006 we went to a church in Struthers, Ohio to encourage and support a brother who felt the call to go out to evangelize there. And during the service The Spirit of God poured out on us in a way that I never experienced, but it was God ushering us to another level in the spirit. Soon afterwards we were going into the churches in different cities to ignite and rekindle the spirit of evangelism, I was unable to define it as such at the time, but that is what we were doing.
2009 ushered us into yet another level and dimension of ministry, we began taking the youth with us to the churches. God began connecting me to more pastors and ministries from the Pittsburgh area that heard about us.
2012 - 2019
2012 The Lord began opening a few doors for us to minister in the Pittsburgh area and conduct street services with a church in Wilmerding, PA and connect with other ministries around the area.
In 2013 came the biggest challenge to me and my team, (and there had been many to this point.) was to go to a dangerous area in Pittsburgh called Homewood, because of a sister from there that I met in Wilmerding, who sensed God was calling her to minister there. I asked The Lord if we were ready to go there, but He did not give me an answer until we went there and see Him move on that area by His spirit in a powerful way. No one had come to that area to evangelize for many years, but afterwards other churches and ministries began coming to that area again. Remember what I said earlier about The Spirit of God ushering in a new movement of evangelism.
2014 through 2020 became a pivotal time for our street ministry, my pastor went into a series on prayer, as one his armour bearers he gave me a copy of a book about Mother Dabney’s prayer life. Which stirred me to attend morning prayer on Wednesday mornings with the church mothers, Prayer became a larger part and foundation of our ministry even to this day. I wanted The Lord to continue to bless my ministry and the people that labored with me. I am not a charismatic personality as such, but I understood early on that it was The Lord who sent people to minister with me as He said, “I will give you some anointed men and women to help you.” And He continues to send them to me even now. My desire is for God to be pleased with my life and to fulfill the assignment He has called me to.
Soon I realized God was raising the level of anointing on our street services and His presence, was more prominent in the services, to where people that we ministered to, were drawn by Holy Spirit to us and experiencing moves of God’s spirit, even sensing His presence even though they could not define it as such.
In 2017 around the Thanksgiving holiday, a stranger came to my workplace and prophesied to me that a great revival is going to break out in the city of Pittsburgh, so much so, that it will be known as Pittsburgh is known for its steel!
2020 - present
A so many things took place in the spirit that profoundly impacted on my life between 2017 and 2020, that I would not have the space to write, but some of the outreach vision was our Prayer Breakfasts, The Summer Blasts Events and One Day Retreats where ministries from all around the Pittsburgh Region came to minister, to pray and shut away with us in the presence of The Lord. And the impact to our evangelistic team by 3 powerful women of God, Servant Flo Demus, Apostle Marilynn Davis, and Elder Michelle Thompson. (It was a divine set up for something that God spoke to me in 2019 and early 2020 “I am going to put the Pittsburgh Region into your hands”)
In November 2020, I retired from my secular job, to give myself more to the work of ministry.
Then 2021 became another pivotal time for me and Takin’ it to the Streets, as God used a woman of God named Evangelist Marla Roebuck, who came to 3 of our street services in 2020, to fulfil the word He had spoken to me in 2019 and early 2020 at our last One Day Retreat, where He said (“I am going to put the Pittsburgh Region into your hands”)
I met and worked with 30 or more pastors, leaders, churches, and ministries who in the beginning, didn’t know me from a can of paint, but because of this woman of God Evangelist Marla Roebuck, who opened the door for me. 2 other street ministries have been birthed out of us, and I am mentoring 4 street ministries as of 2024.
The scope and composition of our ministry and evangelistic team has changed over the years as well, starting out in one local church, and ministering on a street corner in Aliquippa, PA. To a regional assignment to ignite and rekindle the ministry of evangelism mentoring other street ministry leaders.
And we are now a multicultural, multigenerational evangelistic team that by the Spirit of God, is come together from 17 different churches, anointed to advance the Kingdom of God. So we continue to minister everywhere The Lord working with us.