Jesus People Movement

I've been trying to remember the early days..
can't quite remember how I heard
about the Jesus People meetings but somehow
started going to one in Carlsbad, Ca.
It was held at a place called the Royal Palms
which was a luxury hotel undergoing
remodeling...no one was staying there
as it was being renovated and was for sale..
the owner was friends with the pastor who
was running it.
Our meetings were held on Wednesday
evenings in one of the small meeting rooms.
Bob Selby was the main leader......we usually
started out the meetings with prayer,
he would read scripture and teach, then
we'd pass a KFC bucket around for offerings,
lots of singings and guitar playing...then more prayer
...if anyone had a special need,
they were brought into the center circle and
we'd lay hands on them for prayer...
there were healings and such.....testimony
time and then more singing....the last part
of the evening was an altar call for anyone to
accept Jesus..many people came forward
each week and the movement grew.
Another place we had similar meetings on
Fridays nights was at The Kings Hacienda in
San Clemente....the leader there was named
Bob also but neither of us now can remember
his last name.....he knew a lot of groups from the
Costa Mesa Calvary Chapel and they
would come down occasionally to play. I especially
liked Love Song. Calvary Chapel speakers, including
Chuck Smith would occasionally come.

"Theologians would make appointments with Pastor Chuck
asking him what was the secret formula to the success of
Calvary Chapel? Chuck would smile that big contagious smile
and say, "Jesus!"


Arthur Blessit came several times.
The meetings were
generally like the other..lots of singing, worship,
a short message and lots of prayers with
an altar call...the movement grew with new people
coming in weekly......we would do
street witnessing on Saturdays. With the Vietnam
war still raging, there were lots of
new recruits in Oceanside and many became believers.
We also held free concerts at the Oceanside Rec Center
which is still there. These were
about once every few months....there would be several
Calvary Chapel bands come and
there would be lots of witnessing, counseling going on
afterwards and before.
The rec center would be filled with standing room only.
and its a big big rec center that seats about 1,000.
Oceanside has a Fourth of July parade every year
and the Royal Palms group one year
entered a float....it was our biggest project ever....
everyone helped build a giant hand
pointing towards a giant Bible on the back of a big
flatbed truck.....we all walked beside
the truck and gave out tracts to anyone who would
take one. My husband Alan
helped build the float, was at the meetings but we
never met until later. He also says
he has some photos of this time and the float so
perhaps we can get them posted when
he digs them out.
Looking back, I think the main thing about this time
was all the prayer...there were no
special programs, skits, just the plain unvarnished
simple message of Gods love and lots
of prayer.
We had water baptism many times in the ocean...
one night, a special night, there was a huge bonfire
held on the beach.....we all threw in the fire all of the
worldly things that we had given up....drugs, cigarettes,
booze, porn, etc. were thrown in the flames..I threw in
my tarot cards, and occult books..and as these things
were thrown in, the person would give their testimony...
believe me, it was very cool. I will remember it all
my life.
So I was going to both meetings, Wednesday, Friday
and the Methodist church on Sunday, plus the church youth group....going to the community college and working part time at the mall...busy girl...
this was about 1971.