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Showing the Truth
At the Halloween Parade In York, PA

The Murch Family took to the streets of York, Pennsylvania for a city-sponsored Halloween Parade. Full Quiver Mission arrived to join with Pastor Jim Grove of Heritage Baptist Church of Loganville and 20 members of his congregation. Each year for the last five years, Pastor Grove and his church members have jumped out in front of the parade when the streets get blocked off and headed up the parade route with scripture signs and street preaching.

This year, Pastor Grove asked us to come up and bring our bloody photographs of aborted babies that we use at the abortion mills. It would prove to be a Halloween Parade like no other!

We entered the parade without incident. The police ignored us. We walked for ten blocks with Bruce, Pastor Grove and three of his men preaching to the crowds as we marched.

The crowds were upset by the pictures. Bruce told the young people to remember what they had seen this day, and to never take part in doing this evil deed to a baby. There were hecklers as well. Somewhere in the middle of the parade, Beverly Murch began to weep and ask the taunting crowd, "Why aren't you weeping for these babies? You should be weeping and crying that this is happening to babies every day. The sight of a mother holding the hands of her little ones and telling them they should be weeping for the butchered babies, silenced all but the most evil and reprobate among the crowd. It was very powerful.

Suddenly, after walking the parade route for ten blocks, a police officer told us angrily to "Get out of the road!". Pastor Grove and Bruce tried to talk to her, but were threatened with arrest if they did not get all of our people out of the road. Everyone was moved to the sidewalks as Bruce and Pastor Grove spoke with several other officers that quickly arrived on the scene.

Two of the officers, one of them the Sergeant in charge, told Bruce how "pro-life" they were and how they just got done bringing their families to church. But they then went on to say that they were "personally offended" by the pictures of aborted babies. When they were reminded that the church had done this every year for the previous four years, the sergeant replied, "We tolerated this in this past, but these pictures personally offend me." Bruce reminded the officer that if it was not illegal for the last four years, and the law had not changed, that it was not illegal now. He also reminded him that the officer's personal feelings about the content of the posters had nothing to do with his law enforcement responsibilities. The Sergeant then got right in Bruce's face and said that he had "had enough", and that there would be no more discussion.

Bruce and Pastor Grove agreed to walk the folks on the sidewalk for the last three blocks, with the posters held high over our heads. Just as we began to move up the sidewalk, suddenly officers came and forcibly took the signs out of the hands of four Murch children and one of Pastor Grove's men. One officer grabbed 19-year-old Aaron Murch from behind while another snatched the sign from his hands.

The locals, which included some jeering sodomites, began to cheer the police. Bruce and Pastor Grove approached the Sergeant and a couple of the other officers demanding an explanation for why the signs were being seized. They refused to answer. They loaded the signs into the trunk of a police cruiser and took off with them. They wrote no tickets and made no arrests. They simply stole the Murch's signs. They were not taken as evidence since there were no tickets or arrests. They were not told by Police where they could retrieve the signs. They simply used the color of authority to steal them.

After this, the entire church group went back to the middle of the road carrying the gospel signs and continued to march. The Police did nothing. They did not stop us. They did not seize the gospel signs. The crowd began to sing an old 60's song, "Na na na na; Na na na na; Hey Hey, GOOD-BYE! They laughed and scorned us as we completed the march.

Bruce reached down and took off his shoes, and walking backwards, facing the jeering crowd, he began to clap his shoes together over his head. The crowd quieted down as he cried in a loud voice that this act was witness against them before Almighty God; that if a city refuses to hear the Word of the LORD when it is preached, that the preacher should shake the dust off his shoes as a testimony against them; that it will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment than for the city that refused God's Word.

Pastor Grove has both filed a complaint with the York Chief of Police. In addition, a letter from a Christian legal defense team demanding a public apology and the immediate return of the signs is going out . We will of course, sue the city if they do not comply.

Full Quiver Mission heads to Rockford, Illinois for the last tour of the season from Oct. 31-November 4th. It's been a busy fall. The Word of God has gone forth; Public wickedness has been rebuked; The Gospel has been preached; Lives have been saved.

If you are able to help out the Murch Family in this crucial time (maybe help buy some more signs!) or just help with the day-in, day-out expenses of this ministry, please send your gift to:

Beverly Murch
PO Box 68
Red House, VA 23963