smashed

I was changing a tire on Friday and using the tire iron to take off a lug nut when suddenly it broke free as I had all my weight behind it. It slammed down on the ground and managed to dislocate my thumb. I thought for sure it was broken. I grabbed my thumb and squeezed it really tight and heard (and felt) a popping sound. I finished changing the tire and went inside where I washed my hands, took some Ibuprofen and grabbed the ice pack.


My thumb swelled and bruised terribly and was very sore. The only thing I could think about was "how am I going to move people with a useless and messed up thumb?"  I figured I'd give it my best shot and try to ignore it and do the best I can, knowing I wouldn't be 100%. It's amazing how important something as small as a thumb is. 


As I help people in Miami move from one condo to another, they often ask why we moved here. Of course I take it as a golden opportunity to tell them we're here because God told us to move and it starts the conversation that gets people thinking about God in a non threatening way. The responses vary from "Oh.....I see", as their personal freak-o-meter goes crazy, to "WOW! God is amazing!" All the responses have a common component, "surprise". 


I think what surprises them is that instead of running away from the poor and the homeless, like normal people, we're running to them. The way I see it, is that the people rejected by society are just injured and bruised members of God's body. Sure, we can ignore them and operate without them, but, we won't be 100%. It's amazing how important something as small as a lonely, broken, homeless person is to God.

Hand Out

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

As the week started I was feeling a lot of pressure. We are in a small apartment and have been here for over 2 months. I don't love the apartment, but I like the fact that it has a bed for everyone and that I can cook meals in it and that it was in an affordable range for us. The other really nice factor about where we are is that it is a block from the beach. At any given time I can be on the beach in just a few minutes, which is really nice when the walls of this little apartment are closing in and I need a break from everyone. The problem we were going to have is that our rent was going up by $800 a month. That made our somewhat affordable apartment unaffordable and we were going to have to find a different place to live. So on Wednesday morning, we got all the kids ready and were just about to head out the door to find something new when the apartment manager and his wife knocked on the door. He came to tell us that we could stay and pay the same price for as long as we needed. I told him that we would need to leave in 3 weeks to head back to Missouri for our sons wedding and we would be gone 2 weeks but would be back and he is going to get us back into something when we get back. He told us that we were a good family and that he did not want to lose us, so he talked to his boss and convinced him to let us stay. The manager told me that his wife even talked to their boss and told him that he needed to let us stay. That in and of itself is a big deal because of the culture this couple comes from. So instead of having to move, we have a stable place to live as long as we need until we can get into our own house. We were all so excited and relieved!

Jeff was sitting outside talking to one of our neighbors shortly after this and as they were talking we found out that many of them were going to be here for Thanksgiving with nothing really planned. So, we decided to throw a Thanksgiving dinner. We planned what we would have, prepped much of the dinner the night before, Ruthie even made up some cute invites to give out to everyone that morning and on Thanksgiving day we cooked a 20lb Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls, pies, and of course green stuff. We set up our big table upstairs and brought all the food up. Everyone came up, Jeff said a prayer and we ate. I have been hosting Thanksgiving dinner for my family at my house for years. Honestly, I was feeling a bit depressed about not being able to make dinner for anyone. So as we sat down to eat with all of these strange people, it felt a bit weird to not be with my family and share that day with them. As I looked around at all the faces, and the smiles and even laughter that I seen, my heart was overwhelmed. I felt true joy! I even started to feel a little guilty. I wanted to be a blessing to these people and in that moment I felt so blessed and so much joy it just seemed kind of backwards.

Then I remembered this quote a friend shared on her blog:

"Our happiness comes not in the having, but in the handing over. God extravagantly pays back everything we give away and exactly in the currency that is not of this world but the one we yearn for: joy in Him." - Ann Voskamp

Today I am grateful that God provided everything we needed to make it all happen and that he showed me that day what true joy really comes from. Not in what we have but in what we hand out!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100: 4-5

　

　
　

homeless holiday

Happy Thanksgiving!


Usually on Thanksgiving, Wendy is cooking dinner for 20-30 people. However, living in a small efficiency apartment, a block from the beach, with it being over 70 degrees at 9am, you would think the whole Thanksgiving tradition would be a little diluted, if not lost all together. We had talked about going to Golden Coral for dinner and the kids were excited about the whole chocolate waterfall they're featuring. 


Then, we bumped into Gail outside by the pool yesterday afternoon. She's a lady stricken with MS and has a hard time getting around. She's been living at the Pousada Inn and Suites as long as we have. Within minutes, Wendy and Gail planned a full Thanksgiving dinner that we're going to have for all those living at the motel. We're going to have it on the Hurricane deck at 4pm with all the fixings. Ruthie even made invitations that we went around and delivered to all the guests. The reactions we got from the other guests was priceless and we are looking forward to sharing dinner with all of them (around 20 of us all together).


Right now, we are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, drinking coffee with eggnog and getting ready to devour Wendy's most delicious stuffed french toast, all to the smells of turkey and ham cooking.


so, I guess the tradition continues..... :-)

stong man - weak man

As a kid, we didn't have an awesome video game system. Many beautiful summer days were spent outside from 8am until dinner, then after dinner dishes were cleaned up, back outside until it was time to get ready for bed. We were not forced to use our imagination, it was something we just did. My older sister Lana was a great leader in using our imaginations, she would organize backyard carnivals and talent shows that all the neighborhood kids would get involved in.


One of the talent show skits my brother David and I use to do was "Strong man - Weak man" where David was the big muscular man and would walk over to a large dumb-bell and after lots of grunting and struggling was able to lift it  almost all the way up until his strength got the better of him and the weights would fall to the ground with a big crash. Then I, being the scrawny skinny weakling, would be eating a pb&j sandwich with one hand and walk up to the weights and pick up the dumb-bell with the other hand, without hesitation, and thrust it high over my head while finishing the sandwich all to the Oooos and Ahhhhs of the neighborhood kids.


I think God enjoys the simple unexpected irony of strong man - weak man. The more we rely on our own strengths the more difficult life becomes. We use the knowledge we have gained to try to accomplish great things and end up falling short. Just like when Peter and some of the other apostles were wondering what to do after Jesus was executed and risen from the grave, they did what they knew how to do best, they went fishing. 


After laboring all night long and not catching a single fish, they were gathering the nets and cleaning them and this guy on the shore (Jesus) yelled out to them to cast the nets on the other side of the boat. They hesitantly did so and as soon as they did, the nets were filled to capacity with large fish.


With that in mind, my prayers lately have included "what side of the boat Lord?" Each time I pray that way, something strange and a little bizzar comes to mind during the day. Not that it's weird, it's just a little different than the way I would have done something. Then for some reason, there is great success. I believe it's just another way for God to get me to rely on him every single day. To include him every single day in everything I do. When that happens, things flow easier, smoother and with less stress. 


It's so much easier to accomplish things when God tells us how to accomplish them. However, if we don't ask him, I don't think he'll tell us.

risk

For many years my favorite board game was Risk and in high school my friends and I took it to a different level. We took a full sized map of the world and mounted it on foam core, had navies, air forces and armies. The idea was to build up the forces big enough to conquer neighboring countries and expand our borders. We had all night Risk parties all on the quest for world domination. They were good times for sure.

Little did I know that the idea of risk, to lay it all on the line with the possibility of absolute failure, would be something God would require of me as a way of life. We face judgment and condemnation from society and harassment from the police for just being down on the street with the homeless, the addicts, the alcoholics and the prostitutes. Every day we lay it all on the line, in the hopes of advancing God's kingdom.

　

At one point, Jesus had escaped the clutches of the Pharisees who wanted to stone him for blasphemy. He left Jerusalem and traveled around the countryside healing the sick and teaching. He then started talking about going back to Jerusalem, but, the disciples were resistant, except Thomas, in John 11:16 it says: Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." Now, I don't know if he said it sarcastically or not, regardless, that's what they did, they got up and followed Jesus back to Jerusalem where he was ultimately executed.

It seems a small amount of risk that we take compared to what Jesus did and what's funny is he took that risk for you and me. As Jesus' representatives here on earth today, we should be ready to jump up and go to Jerusalem, into the heart of the city where the scum of the earth cry out for help, risking all to reach them, despite the greater society's rules against such compassion.

Yesterday, as Joel and I were giving pizza to some guys, they were in absolute shock that we even stopped and talked to them. They stated they had never seen any Christians or churches ever do that before, that usually they were ignored by people or harassed by authorities. We were able to pray for one of them (after being ran off from a parking lot we were all standing in). By the time we left, they were all thanking God.

As we continue risking all, please pray that the seeds we sow grow deep roots and that we win the hearts of the community and ultimately turn South Florida up-side-down.

giving up

We have now been in South Florida for two months, enduring all kinds of hardships for the purpose of reaching people that have lost all hope. It's been very exciting, but, at the same time, very very hard. One of the hardest things has been adjusting to the speed of Miami.

What I mean is that we have always lived monthly. Many things in life happen monthly, the full moon, the mortgage, the car payment, the utilities, etc., however, since we have arrived here, we have not been able to rent a house because we could not prove steady income. Could not prove steady income because I didn't have a job. So, I started looking for a job, which has been much harder than I ever though it would be. So, I in order to make money to survive, I moved people in our large van. It was not great money, but, it helped. Then the van broke down, but, I got a temporary job at Bank of America and before I've even received a paycheck (they owe me two partial paychecks now) my position was eliminated.....

The problem with not having a house to live in, is that we get to live in a motel. The seven of us, a cat and a dog all jammed into a 600 sq.ft. efficiency motel room. The biggest problem with living like this is the rent comes due every week. We are now moving into the busy tourist season and prices for motels are doubling. So, we may have only been here for two months, but, it feels like 8 or 9 months. That is the speed of Miami we are having a hard time with and we are stuck at that speed.

We often feel like just giving up, this past couple days has been one of those times. We need stability for our family and it feel hopeless....as hopeless as the people that we're here to serve.

We have a small base of spiritual support and our re-charging times seem to be further and further apart. We need another miracle today to sustain us for another week, and we ultimately need a house to be able to live more efficiently. We need to get un-stuck from this rut we are in. I can now really see how easy it is for so many people to slip into hopelessness.

If you have some time today, please pray for us, we really need it. Also, please pray about helping us stay on mission by supporting us regularly. It's a worthy cause that is changing people for all of eternity.

low lows

- John 7:37-38
"On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.'"

Seems like when I get down, I get really down..... My new job at Bank of America ended abruptly last night, it was a temporary job, but, I didn't expect it to be THAT temporary. I thought I would have it for a few months while looking for something that paid better. I guess that no matter how hard I try, I rely on things that are not God and those things continuously prove to be unworthy. Problem is, there are still bills to pay, kids to feed and homeless people to help. So, please help us out by praying that God will provide and pray that we will always rely on him when we are hungry, thirsty, etc.

Why Care?

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

So today I have been thinking a lot about these "Occupy Protestors." You should know that I don't really know why they are doing what they are doing. I have not really taken the time to dig into their political stance. I guess because it really does not seem to matter. Who are they helping anyway? What is the end goal of their protest? What do they hope to achieve? 

As Jeff and I planned and prepared for this journey we are on (as much as anyone can plan and prepare for something like this), we heard from many church planters and outreach pastors who have said over and over, you have to know what you want to achieve to reach that goal. It may take years to get there but you have to know. You need to write it down so that you can share it with other people.

The one thing that has upset me the most over these protestors is that they have been allowed to inhabit the public parks in our cities the way they have. Now, don't misunderstand, I fully believe that they should have this right, but we all should have this right. In most of these parks if a homeless person came in, pitched a tent and decided to stay in the park for an undetermined amount of time, that person would be ran off, fined and most likely even arrested. I just think it should be fair for everyone!

That being said, I still don't know what they hope to achieve, but it made me think about how if I had a bull horn, like many of these protestors, what I would say and then I remembered this passage in Isaiah 58:

6“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
   Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
      lighten the burden of those who work for you.
   Let the oppressed go free,
      and remove the chains that bind people.
 ⁷ Share your food with the hungry,
      and give shelter to the homeless.
   Give clothes to those who need them,
      and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
 ⁸ “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
      and your wounds will quickly heal.
   Your godliness will lead you forward,
      and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
 ⁹ Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
      ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
   “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
      Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
 ¹⁰ Feed the hungry,
      and help those in trouble.
   Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
      and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
 ¹¹ The Lord will guide you continually,
      giving you water when you are dry
      and restoring your strength.
   You will be like a well-watered garden,
      like an ever-flowing spring.
 ¹² Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
      Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
      and a restorer of homes.

Imagine if that was our focus, truly our focus, and not just using a bull horn so that our voice would be heard, but that we could actually be the ones that were rebuilders of walls and restorers of homes. I guess that is the message I would want people to hear far and wide.

choc full o nuts

As we have been reading through the new testament this year, I've noticed that one characteristic of Jesus, that is not discussed very often, is the "crazy" Jesus. Now, before you label me a heretic and pick up blunt objects to make an impression upon my head, hear me out a little.

One time he was at a wedding and all the wine at the wedding party was gone and we all know that after the booze is gone, the party is over, right? So what's he do? He turned 150 gallons of water into wine. Not grape juice, but, wine - good wine!

Then a few days later, he's in Jerusalem and makes a whip and goes postal on the merchants set up around the temple courts, driving the sellers, the cattle and the sheep from the courtyard, turning over the tables and making a huge mess in a fury of emotions.

Then there is the time he was teaching a huge multitude and told them that if they wanted real life, they had to EAT him!

I am convinced that Jesus' crazy actions are more the norm than we would like to think.

What kind of God would have a family move 1300 miles away from their home and start a church for people that don't like church? Leaving their career of the last 20 years and do outreach to the poor in a strange town and in a strange state? Having them drag their kids away from their family and friends and live in a 1 room apartment so far away from anything they have ever known before?

I don't mean this in a bad way, but, I think Jesus is a little nuts. The funny thing is, I think he causes us to be a little nuts too! It's all to easy to settle into life and just try to get by or prosper or conquer the world all in the name of sanity, but, is that really what Jesus would do?

I think about the Moravians, you know, the ones that went to Africa to minister to those dying in a cholera plague. They built their own coffins to ship their stuff in, knowing they would not come home alive.

They were radical people that served a radical God.

Some of them actually sold themselves into slavery so they could get close enough to the poorest of the poor and minister to the other slaves......

What is it that would cause people to do such radical things? I'll tell you, it's radical love. God loved us so much he let a bunch of religious zealots sacrifice his son. Jesus loved us so much, he willingly allowed them to do it, knowing all along what was going to happen. Thing is, that love doesn't stop there. It's like a river that flows, once you experience it, it flows out of you like a river and affects others around you.

What's really crazy, is we try to suppress it, we hold it back. We try to act normal when compassion is welling up inside us. How many times have you been at a park or a mall and had this sense of compassion for someone, a total stranger, and didn't act on it? I can tell you that it's happened to me many times!

So, let me challenge you.....no.... I double dog dare you...Next time you get a strange feeling of compassion for someone, just walk over and start a conversation. See what happens. I know it sounds crazy, but, what if that person has been crying out to God and just asked for a sign? You could be that sign...crazy huh?

The News!

Don't forget to check out "The Daily News" tab above! (it's only viewable if you actually go to the blog site - for those who only read the email alerts). We aren't exactly daily with the news, but, we are trying to update it very frequently to let everyone know what we're up to, what's working, what's not and what we want to accomplish.

Will Work for Food

So tomorrow, like every Saturday, we are setting up in a local park here in Hollywood to serve breakfast to the homeless. This time we expect it to be a little different. We are moving forward with our Work for Food program. If you have not heard us talk about it or would like more information on it, we would be glad to send you some or talk with you personally. Just e-mail us and let us know how to get in touch with you and when. 

Last week we had our first participant, one guy who helped us clean the park. He was paid $10 in cash after helping with clean-up. We told him to tell his friends that we would be doing this every week. We paid him with cash, but the plan all along is to pay them with gift cards from local restuarants. We told him that we could work with 10 guys next week. We fully anticipate that there will be 10 more people who will show up. 

The idea is that we would encourage them to help build up the community and build healthy relationships with the businesses in the community and therefore turn the tide of opinion of the homeless here. So many need just one person who can and does believe in them. There are many organizations here who take advantage of the homeless and the community who wants to help them.

The Work for Food program that will exist without governmental support and will need community involvement. That is where you come in. We need partners who will be willing to help us to continue to serve the breakfast every week and that will help in purchasing the gift cards. We are currently negotiating with a local business who would be willing to sell us the gift cards at a discount if we purchase in bulk quantities. Would you be willing to help?  There are many ways you can donate. Click on the donate button on this website. You can also contact us for other options. All donations are tax deductible.

If you live in the Miami area and are interested in getting involved in Operation Miami we would love to talk to you too! Help us turn Miami upside down with God's Love and Mercy!

Rock Bottom

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

So once again it has been so long since we blogged.

Our internet here has been so bad. They had some people out yesterday to look at it, so we are hoping we can stay online.

It has been an unbelievable week since we last posted. So much has gone on. You can read about the daily happenings in "The Daily News," so I won't go through all of it here.

Through all of the ups and downs this past week, There was a point where Jeff and I were talking and He asked, "Has it ever been this bad"?

This was on a day where we were feeling pretty low. The big van was sitting

at a mechanic with a big bill required to fix it, I had no work in site and our

rent was due the next day and we had $3 in our pocket. We truly wondered

if we had hit Rock Bottom. There have been many times in the past few years

that we have been in that place of wondering if we have truly hit the low of lows.

Today, I was reading a blog by Matthew Barnett. I find his blog to be a source of

encouragment when I am feeling low. Simply because I know he has gone through

so much to see so many blessed and restored through the Dream Center in L.A.

The quote I read today was "ROCK BOTTOM IS WHERE GOD TAKES US TO RECREATE US."

Most of the time before many of us will even cry out to God, we have to hit that rock bottom point, but how many of us as Believers will admit that it happens to us. For the last year it seems that success has been hard to come by, or at least what our idea of success is. What God has showed me today is that we don't usually have the same idea of success that He does. Success can be dangerous, many of us know that, but what God showed me today is that we can't really ever measure success because we can't measure everything according to our plans. We can succeed in our own strengths and still miss badly in God's plan.  So today I have decided that I am not going to focus on success but on just being a blessing. God can do so much if we live in the simplicity of this revelation. That way, even if we do become successful we won't know it because we are going to be to busy blessing others! Now don't get me wrong, success is a good thing, but I think we get so consummed with what successful looks like that we forget about what happens with the in between. I don't want to get consummed with the end point anymore, just what happens in the dash of the beginning and the end. For me today, instead of focusing on getting out of this apartment into a bigger house, I should focus on how to be a blessing to those around me here. How many times do we say, just as soon as? I know God has taken us to "Rock Bottom" so that we can see His plan for success in what we are doing here, so that He can recreate us! How about you, What are you going to do with the dash in-between the beginning and the end? Who can you bless today?

What The Flip!

When bad stuff happens.....

We have a large 15 passenger Dodge Ram Van that helped get us and some of our essentials down to South Florida from Missouri. The rest of our stuff is sitting in storage in Missouri until we find "permanent housing". This large van has been our storage unit on wheels. It's been a second vehicle for our family. It's been a source of income as a work van, moving people out of their small apartments into new small apartments. It's been the primary vehicle for our weekly food service for the homeless. Long story short, this van has been a life saver for us.

This van is currently sitting at a mechanic's shop broken down and it's going to take $1800 to get it working again and with just $25 in my pocket, I'm a little short. So, what do you do?

I can already hear our critics ~ "Told them not to move down there" ~ "This must have never been God's will" ~ "I wonder what kind of sin they committed to have this happen to them"

It's funny how every time something bad happens, the same things echo in our ears. However, every time something bad happens, God comes through in a big way, and those accusations dissipate like steam from a hot cup of jo.

If you're reading along with the Verve Bible Reading Plan, we read John 9 today and it starts off with Jesus coming across a man who was blind from birth. The disciples asked him "who sinned? Him or his parents to cause him to be blind at birth?" Jesus said he was blind so God could be glorified and healed him. So clearly when bad things happen it's not our fault. It's not because of what we have done to make God mad at us. It's clearly an opportunity for God to show how awesome he is and how much he loves us.

In John 8 it talks about how a woman was caught in adultery and the people were going to throw rocks at her until she died. Brutal! They asked Jesus what he had to say about it, in hopes of tricking him. He told them that the one without any sin should throw the first rock. They quietly left, one by one, until it was only Jesus and the woman. He asked her where all her accusers were and she said there was no one left to condemn her. He told her, "I don't condemn you either, go and stop sinning". So, obviously, Jesus does not let bad things happen because we mess up, he has mercy.

In John 10:10 Jesus states "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

We are having an impact in South Florida, and it's taking a bite out of the enemy's territory. He is feeling the pinch and striking out any way he can. His only purpose is to steal, kill and destroy in an effort to stop the Kingdom of God from advancing. To stop people from truley living life to the fullest.

Please join us in fighting against the thief by praying for protection, provision and progress. We know God is faithful and loves us more than we can imagine. So, when bad things happen, please pray God will be glorified and the thief's lies will be exposed.

(Btw, please pray God will provide the money needed to fix the van)

honky kind of love

One thing we've noticed since arriving in South Florida is everywhere you go, you hear honking. I've seen a person at a red light ready to make a right hand turn and the people behind them just laying on the horn as one by one they swerved around them to make the same right hand turn during the same red light. Obviously the person in front was not comfortable with making the turn.

When sitting at a red light, there is always someone a couple cars back just waiting for the instant the light turns green so they can honk. I don't know if it's some sort of joke or if people are truley that impatient.

I'm not sure if this practice can ever be curbed, but, I was considering honking at randum people and waving. This seemed to always be a sorce of fun when we were kids and might be a little shock to people to see some goofy middle aged guy honking and waving with a smile as opposed to the middle finger shooting in their direction. Friendliness is not somthing people expect and it would be interesting to find out how they react when faced with it.

So, what do you find rude and what are some ways you can counter-act the impatient and selfish actions of others? And, how can we do it in such a way that it points to God?