On any Tuesday or Thursday afternoon from about 12:30–3pm on Market Street near Fifth, by Hallidie Plaza, you'll probably see a gentleman standing at a small folding table with a sign reading, "Come & receive PRAYER." A small amp is usually blaring gospel music; sometimes he sings along. "He's real, he's real," he belted out one Thursday. "Jesus is real to me."
Earl Gadsden, or "Brother Earl" as he calls himself, is the person who gives prayer, when asked. Unlike representatives of some religious sects on the street, Brother Earl doesn't try to convert anyone; his only goal is to help others. "We don’t take money for prayer," he says. "We don’t play that." If he and his fellow prayer people need to bring snacks or replace their rickety table, he said, they might take a donation. "But we make it clear to them, everything you get from us is free."
Still, Brother Earl doesn't get many takers—maybe one to three each day, he says. Sometimes he's accompanied by Sister Lori Johnson, whom he says was the driving force for the operation. "I am the helper," he said, adding he's been praying with Johnson for about four years now. She can't always be there due to family and work obligations, but Brother Earl is, along with any number of other "helpers" who stop by to pass out "Our Daily Bread," a non-denominational pamphlet of positive affirmations based on the teachings of the Bible.
Each helper, Brother Earl notes, is "grounded under a pastor in a church. None of them is fly-by-night." They go to different churches; they come from different countries; they range in age. Some work full-time, while others are students or are retired. They pitch in to hand out pamphlets and give encouragement.
What are the people like who stop to receive prayer, we wondered? "I think most of the people who ask us for prayer have already been fighting a good fight unsuccessfully," Brother Earl tells us. "Most of the time that’s the case. They decide that I’ll accept prayer and we encourage them that God can and God will."
Brother Earl offered several examples of God working His mysterious ways. One woman asked for prayer for her marriage, he said, telling him, "He tries to do the right thing, but sometimes he comes late at night. He’s hanging with his friends or drinking." Brother Earl said the woman came back to say, "Not only are we getting along fine, he’s not even hanging out any more. My marriage has changed since we prayed."
Another man asked for prayer for his mother, who was suffering from depression. Brother Earl told us, "I said, 'God cares about your mom, and He will never have a mood swing or an attitude toward your mom. But He will care about her 24/7.' And we prayed." In another case, Brother Earl prayed for a man who'd had a stroke, and told us that minutes later, he could see improvement in the side of the man's face that had been paralyzed.
Brother Earl told us he's been a "church boy" his whole life and was called into the gospel ministry at around age 20. He's done some form of gospel ministry on and off ever since. "There were some years I was just wayward, I was doing my own thing, as many of us have, going astray," Brother Earl says. "I’ve been blessed to come back to the Christian life. I think Christian ministry should spout out of Christian living, rather than just a profession or a choice or a hobby."
After moving to San Francisco from Nebraska 20 years ago this June, Brother Earl was homeless. He said an acquaintance in Lincoln told him he'd set him up with a contact here who never materialized. "I came here on a wing and a prayer," Brother Earl says. "The bottom fell out, [but I] kept on praying and I have never—even though I was homeless—been without food or clothes. Not even one day. God has provided. I’ve done everyone from flying a sign to panhandling." Even on a day when he only panhandled one dollar all day, he gave thanks to God.
After living under a freeway overpass and then in a shelter for a while, Brother Earl found a home. He stopped into a Grocery Outlet one day for some Oreos and snacks, he says, and began helping an older woman reach things she couldn't reach. It turns out she was the pastor, and she offered Brother Earl room and board with her and her husband in exchange for playing the organ at the church. "I lived with that older couple from summer of '01 to June 1st, 2007," he said. "Two-and-a-half years later, in December of '09, I preached her funeral in San Jose at the Chapel of Flowers."
In the meantime, he found housing through the Community Housing Partnership and now lives above Show Dogs on Market near Taylor Street. His business card reads, "Brother Earl—Organist, Pianist, Singer & Speaker. Musician for All Occasions." He's played organ at BART stations and has been featured on KGO-TV ABC7. And he's on hand twice a week if you find yourself on Market Street heading into the 'Loin and need a prayer, a song or simply a kind word.
"I get gratification," Brother Earl says. "I think our M.O. is helping the other guy. And that’s self rewarding. That’s when you feel the best is when someone is helped. Because when someone is helped, it's mission accomplished."
