bling sting

As we get more and more submersed in the culture of Miami, we are finding a real tension between the classes. The super poor and the super rich are separated only by a couple of blocks. The recent economic down turn has shrank the middle class at an increasing rate. For a town known for it's glitz, Miami seems extremely quiet and reserved.

We spoke to a lady who told us she was a retired real estate agent. She said it's a totally different town then it was just five years ago. People don't go out and get together with their friends like they used to. They don't talk to their neighbors and nobody cares about anyone else. They are afraid to have a good time and seem to hide and sulk in thier current conditions.

In talking with other locals, they all seem very depressed, almost ashamed. We are finding that people hold great stock in their status. As long as they have a nice car and live in the right house and send their kids to the right school, then they are "happy". Otherwise, they isolate themselves from the rest of the community. Not wanting to be compared or judged by their friends and neighbors because they are going through hard times.

A lady that worked at Carnival Cruise Lines for the past 26 years told Wendy yesterday that 2000 employees work in the corporate office. One of those employees was a single mom. She ended up going through a nasty divorce. Falling into hard times, she ended up being foreclosed and evicted from her house. She was not able to rent anywhere because of the forclosure and eviction. She lived on the street with her kids for a week or so and then was able to get into a womans shelter. After sixty days, her alotted time was up and she had to leave the shelter. Still unable to rent a place she ended up back on the street. The whole time all this was happening, she was working full time at Carnival and nobody new her situation.

High class status is the desired lifestyle here, problem is it's a lie. You can dress up your outside but it doesn't change your inside. When the status is stripped away, all that remains is everything you have been trying to hide. Jesus said to clean the inside first, then the outside will be clean (Matt 23:26).

As we get busy reaching out to the poor and starting a church for people who don't necessarily like church, we want to create a culture of love and a community of grace. One where people can be open, honest and authentic without the fear of being judged and condemned. Jesus loves us where we are and will go great lengths to find us. Truth is, there is nothing we can do to make him love us more than he does right now and there is nothing we can do to make him love us less than he does right now. He gave everything so we can be clean on the inside and when that happens, the outside will be clean.

no tomorrow

Today is our twin boy's 11th birthday and the only thing they want, besides the latest nerf gun, is to eat dinner at a restaurant they have only heard about, "The Cheesecake Factory". They have been planning this since early July and the anticipation has been building and building and it seems like the only thing they can talk about. We are even going to sit down today and look at their extensive menu online so they can have more time to think about what they are going to order. They are so excited!

Today I read 1 Thessalonians 5, following along with the Verve reading plan. Paul is talking about the return of Jesus and how it's going to take the whole world by surprise, except those who are followers of Jesus. He explains that not only are we anxiously anticipating it but we should continue to prepare for it and help others to prepare for it to.

So, if today were the day, what would you want to do with the rest of your time?

fall

We all know that Texas is known for how big everything is. However, we are finding that Florida is a big state and they do BIG very well too. From big cockroaches to big flea markets to big traffic problems to big beaches and now that it's offically fall we have to really watch out for the falling leaves because if you're not careful, they can take out an entire family!

smashed

We have a cat that has been an outside cat for nearly all it's life. I'm allergic to cats and have to double up on my allergy medicine to handle the prolonged exposure while living with him in this small apartment. Early this morning, his "evil alley cat" side came out in him as he opened one of the upper cabinets in the kitchen and jumped in looking for something to munch on.

Of course, being a cat, he doesn't care what gets in his way so the beast moved the Pyrex glass pitcher out of it's way. The thing about flooring in Miami is that there is no carpet and there is no vinyl flooring. It's all hard ceramic tile, which is not a good mix with kids and apparently cats, when it comes to glass dishes. The pitcher ended up falling out of cabinet, bounced off of the dish drainer full of clean dishes and smashed onto the floor breaking into a million pieces, waking everyone up.

It reminded me of what Jesus said in Matthew 21:44 ~

          "Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

He was speaking to the religious leaders of the day, talking about how the Kingdom of Heaven would be taken away from them and given to others who would produce fruit. It seems Jesus was pretty hard on those who were entrusted with God's work, feeling like they were not doing their job. They were in their positions for their own benefit, not looking out for the poor, widowed, orphaned and sick.

The good news is that we can learn from the mistakes of the religious leaders of Jesus' day. You see, we are all leaders, Paul said "follow me, as I follow Christ" and even if you didn't realize it, someone is following you. It might be your own kids, or the neighbor kids or a subordinate at work or an under class mate. Someone is following you. As we realize our leadership, we can either become enamored by our own power or we can lead out of brokenness. The brokenness of falling on the Rock (Jesus) is realizing that we cannot do it. That no matter how much or how little experience we have following Jesus, if we try to lead outside of that brokenness, we will fail.

Please pray, as we start this outreach to the poor and as we start a church out of the culture of Miami, that we walk in that brokenness every day so we wont get crushed.

Miracle

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman-

So this is my first attempt at a blog since before we moved. Everything happened so fast I think my head is still spinning some but we are here and as we start to get in a bit of a routine I am constantly reminded of God's faithfulness. I am also so very aware of the miracles He has already done to get us here. When I think of where we were and all the thoughts going through my head a month ago. All the doubts and worries, but God did it, just  as he promised. We knew it was going to take a big leap of faith and quite honestly all the way to the last minute I did not know if I could do it. I would just wake up everyday and say this is your day God and what do you want me to do with it.

After our first day in Miami I was really discouraged! All I wanted to do was cry. It was so hard to look at place after place and find nothing, but just as we needed another place, God provided! This little apartment is much smaller than we are used to, but we know it is what God wants for us right now.

On Saturday the girls and I made our first attempt at trying to do our mountain of laundry. As we were sitting there waiting for our loads to wash I was reading a blog from Matthew Barnett. If you don't know him, you should! He drove into Las Angeles 20 years ago and much like us coming to Miami, he was very afraid of what was ahead but knew what God had put on his heart.

Today he heads up The Dream Center in Las Angeles where he does amazing outreach to the poor, homeless and disheartened people of the city. His twitter quote of the day was

    ~ "While your waiting for a miracle, go ahead and be one".

It really hit me, hard! As we were folding our laundry, I spent time talking to the laundry attendants, I was able to share our story of why we came to Miami and they were just so amazed. I don't think they were amazed that we were here, but more amazed that someone was willing to listen to their story too. As I left there that afternoon, it hit me hard, what Matthew said in his blog. Is there really anyone who is not waiting for a miracle of some kind? Could it be that for that day, for that lady at the laundry mat, her needed miracle was that someone would hear her story? It really made me wonder what kind of effect
we could have on people if we all lived by that statement of Matthews?

We waited for a miracle and God came through, but there is still so much more that is needed to move forward in what God has called us too, but while we are waiting and seeking His will in this, we will do everything we can to go and be a miracle for someone else! So this week, I will go back to the laundry mat and visit with the attendants again. Maybe take some coffee and we can chat more!

Please pray that God shows us where to go, who to see and how we can be their miracle for that day.

solid

I got up early this morning, ready to work, but, before the work starts, I need time to read and pray. So, I went out to the beach and watched the sunrise. As I was walking in the sand my calf muscles started to get a little sore, as they are worked a little harder in uneven and soft ground. I decided to walk up closer to the sea wall and came across a utility cover which butted up against the wall. I sat down on the wall with my feet on the solid cover and rested. It reminded me of the old hymn words

 "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand"

Which fit perfectly with the Verve daily reading in Hebrews 12 as the author described how God is shaking everything to remove that which can be removed so all that is left is that which cannot be shaken.

In other words, the things that SEEM to be important can quickly fade as the things that ARE really important remain.

I ended up finding a bench that faces the sea. The picture above is the view from that bench. It appears to be a postcard perfect picture,  right? However, you'll notice that on the beach between the two palm trees is a homeless couple that spent the night on the beach. I talked to them a little and found out they just rolled into town last night. They were from Pennsylvania and lost their home to the recent flooding. They figured if they were going to be homeless, they might as well be homeless in paradise. The need is real and is more important than the picture perfect scene we try to surround ourselves in.

If you don't currently read and pray daily, I highly recommend it. It will shake you up and leave only those things that cannot be shaken.

On Christ the solid rock I stand....

roaches!

One thing we've noticed in Miami about the houses that we've been looking at is the owner's do not care if they are clean when they show them. I don't know if it's just the neighborhoods we are looking in or if the owners figure we'll leave it trashed so they might as well rent them out trashed? I don't know, but, I can tell you that a couple houses we looked at yesterday had roaches the size of mice. Our cat is gonna love it here!

Regardless of what shape the houses are in, we're finding it hard to get into a place because they want proof of income, which we don't have, of course. So, we found an efficency appartment 2 blocks from the beach which is a huge step up from the motel rooms we've been staying in. The best thing about it is it sleeps 7, so no kids sleeping on the floor (where those giant cock roaches like to crawl).

time after time

Old Faithful

It's been a rough couple of days since we've arrived. It really feels like a battle just finding a place to stay. We've driven over a hundred miles looking for rentals and have been coming up short each time. It's a real continuation of trying our faith, but, I have to consider that it's a miracle that we are even here.

There is one thing that happened before we even left Missouri that continues to feed my faith for some reason. It's doesn't even seem like a big deal, but, when I think about it, I feel God's presence and love. When we were all packed up and ready to load our stuff into storage, we determined that it was probably going to take at least two large storage sheds and maybe even a third at the rate of $75 a month for each unit ($225/mo for storage).  However when we talked to the storage facility owner, he made us an offer out of the blue that we could not refuse. He gave us entire warehouse, one that could store 10 houses worth of stuff, for $100 a month.

Like I said, it doesn't seem like a very big deal, but, for some reason it gives me hope.

God is faithful!

unchained

"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; [The Lord] has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners."  ~ Isaiah 61:1

I love how confident Jesus was in his mission. It seems that as he stepped out in faith, doing what the Father showed him, he had absolute faith that the Father would do exactly what he said. Which is amazing knowing that at any given time, a dozen legions of angels would have rushed in and helped him if he asked. So at any time while he was being beaten and crucified, he could have stopped it, but, willingly layed his life down.

We can hardly understand why he would do such a thing, but, the Father showed him it was the way to bridge the gap between fallen man and God. So often the Father has been portrayed as being very mad with mankind and ready to smoke us all where we stand. Yet even in the old testatment he was preparing a way to reconcile us to him.

Thousands of years after the prophet Isaiah wrote what Jesus would do, the mission remains. We, as the re-presenters of Jesus, can rest assured that the Father will continue to do what he said he will do.

As we arrive in Miami to start a church for people far from God and an outreach for the poor, please pray that we will bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and release the prisoners.

faithful

As of Friday I've been unemployed and as of Saturday we are homeless. All because we believe God told us to leave the life we've made for the past 20 years and move to Miami to start a church from scratch and start an outreach to the poor.


We have known for a long time that this was what God wanted us to do, we just were not "ready". We have been working towards this for many years, but, every time we made any progress it was stolen away from us one way or another. Many would say that it really wasn't God's will because nothing is transpiring. But, to us, it seemed that God has been telling us all along that we can't do this on our own and that no matter how much we worked to do it, it would fail. We can only do it if we have absolute faith in God. Of course, this scares us to death.


In April of this year we felt the call stronger than ever, so, we decided not to wait any longer for things to materialize. That ready or not, we are going to trust God and are just going to move to Miami. Our plan seemed to be going just fine, however, when we were three weeks away from my scheduled quit date, we had only raised $25. I started thinking of contingency plans, just in case we could not leave when we wanted to.


About two weeks ago, after a period of fasting and praying, I had a dream. I dreamt  I was asleep and someone was knocking at the door, I got up and answered it and no one was there. I returned to my bed and thought "huh, it must be God at the door" so I said, "okay God, I'm listening" and God said "JUST GO".  I then woke up for real.


It's been a constant back and forth with our faith and our doubts. This dream seemed to come to mind every time I had doubts since I had it.


So, as we loaded the last box in storage and drove our packed vans to my mothers to spend a couple of days before we leave, the panic set in. We had since received gifts of money from friends, but, when we added it up, it was not enough to even pay for all the gas to get us to Miami.


I was determined that no matter how much we had we would just start driving, I knew that if it is God's will then it is God's bill. On Saturday, after getting to my Mom's I got an email from a friend from Kansas City that said he had moved to Columbia and wanted to get together for lunch. We met at Buffalo Wild Wings on Monday and after explaining what God was doing my life, he said God had put us on their hearts and he was really glad he was able to get a hold of me before we left. He then said that he wanted to help and the least he could do was to give us $1000. So, today when we met at the bank, he said they talked about it and prayed about it and wanted to do a little more than $1000, so they gave us $4000. We're a long way from doing all we want to do, but we now have enough to get to Miami and into a house.


If I've learned anything during all this, I've learned that God is absolutely faithful. I can't wait to see what else God is going to do.

gut check



Guy sleeping outside yesterday - photo by Joel

 Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." ~ Luke 9:58

"Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ "The King will reply, ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.’ ~ Matt 25:37-40

Those who give to the poor will lack nothing ........ ~ Proverbs 28:27


We take many basic things in life for granted, like easy access to a bathroom, a fridge with leftovers in it for that mid afternoon snack, a dresser, our own bed ....

What is it you take for granted? Could you live without it for a day? Two days? A week?　

Nathan Adair, a Baylor University graduate, is living for 30-days-on-$30 to identify with the more than 1 billion people globally who live on $1 a day or less. He said "When you are really hungry, one raisin is like eating an ice cream sundae. Twenty-five-cent canned vegetable soup tastes like it came from a five-star restaurant."

Now, with all this, I'm not saying we all need to convert our homes into shelters for the homeless and go on 30 day fasts. We don't have to become Mother Theresa wana-bees. But, we can start off small, it's all part of loving God and loving people.

So, the next time a pan-handler is on the corner, next to your car, making you feel a little uncomfortable, think of how he feels. I dare you to look him in the eye and smile, maybe even hand him a buck or two (even if he does use it to buy beer). It doesn't have to be a huge gift. We are not going to solve the worlds problems, but, if a bunch of us are affecting one person every once in a while, that's huge.

Jesus also said "The poor you will always have with you"~ Matt 26:11

So you'll have lots of opportunities!