What follows are distilled quotes from a 2002 conversation in New Orleans with traveling street preacher Keith Sam.

How long have you been preaching on the corner?

I’ve been doing this for 25 years. Almost every day by the grace of God when I’m not sick or I’m not in town. I stay with my mother and grandmother here in the city, but I travel during the summer months hitchhiking. I’ve been traveling that way for 25 years too. God has brought me to many states preaching the Bible on the street corner.

What was it that pushed you to stand out here the very first day?

That was 1978 that I first started preaching. I was 18, turning 19. But it started when I was in Job Corps in 1975, which is a training program for kids 16 to 21 who drop out of school. Of course, at that time a lot of kids were dropping out of school either going to work or going to Job Corps. There wasn’t anything that happened physically. I was just convicted by the word of God. I studied the word of God for years. I studied even when I was in job core. I started applying what I read to my everyday life experiences around me. So, when I got out of Job Corp, I just kind of like looked at the world differently than when I went in. See, when I went into Job Corp I mainly just went in to get a trade to become materially wealthy. So, when I got out in 1976, I began to see the world in America going away from the bible. So, just on my own in the Lord, I was convicted to carry the message forward. The Lord called me to salvation in 1978, and he called me to ministry in 1978. And ever since then I have been preaching on the corner and driving all across the United States.

What tree did you learn in Job Corp?

All trades that deal with carpentry.

Does your family support your choice to be out here?

Oh yeah, oh yeah. They haven’t reproached me for being out here. Of course, they all don’t understand. A lot of people out here, in general, don’t understand. You know a lot of peoples’ ideas of a preacher is somebody that’s supposed to be in a church. Somebody that’s supposed to have a suit on. Somebody who’s supposed to have a secular or religious background that, basically, I don’t have.

Why do you wear the hat?

Well, I mainly wear this hat just to encourage a lot of people who are discouraged to know that there’s hope in God through Jesus Christ. But I just wear the hat because I enjoy wearing the hat. My first one I think I bought when I was in Houston, Texas. A dollar and a quarter. I’ve had so many of them, I can’t even count them.

Does it bother you that people might think that you’re different for standing out here on the corner?

Oh, no, absolutely not because God‘s people are different in the world. Those who are in Christ and know Christ, they are different. Just like yourself, to give you an example. You got some folks that will envy you for what you’re doing, you know, communicating with me and, of course, that doesn’t despair or trouble you.

What do you do if you don’t get a response?

When you’re preaching on the corner, preaching the gospel on the corner, and people don’t receive you, God said, “Dust your feet and go down to the next town, the next city.”