Hate vs. Hope

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

I really debated whether or not I would even write a blog on this subject. I have wanted to all week and just kept praying about what the right thing would be to say. I don't know if there is even a right thing to say.

About a month ago, a very handsome young man from South Florida was shot and killed in a community in the Orlando, Fl area. This young man was from a neighborhood not far from where we live. This story is all over the news. Not just here but all over the country. It is a tragedy! There is no doubt about that and in my writing this blog I want to in no way take away from what happened to this young man. His life was taken from him. One day he was walking around with a bag of skittles and a bottle of tea and the next day he was dead and his family was grieving in ways that most of us can't even begin to imagine. As a parent who has lost a child I know there loss is beyond the scope of imagination and then to have it happen in a senseless tragedy like this, well, I can't even begin to know how they feel.

But, honestly what keeps running through my mind these last few days is the hate that almost seems to surround this whole situation. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't in any way condone the actions of the person who pulled the trigger. I know I don't know the story, I am not sure any of us will ever know the whole truth behind what happened that night, but my heart breaks for the divide that it is bringing.

What my heart breaks even more over is that justice is more important to us than love. What good is all the hate that is being directed at the man who pulled the trigger going to do? In my heart of hearts, I know that what he did that night was not right. I would rather die myself than do that to another human being! That being said, the things that keep going through my mind these last few days is how can we, any of us, stand back and cast these stones. Yes, we can all hope that there will be due process for this young man and that the law will do what it promises to do and bring to justice those who commit crimes like this against us and those we love, but if we say we Love God and we say that God sent his son to bear our sins on that cross, then how can we hate?

I ask this question because honestly I am very heart broken over how some people have responded to this tragedy. I truly believe that we can honor the memory of this young man that was lost! How do we do that?
We change the tide! We reverse the curse that seems to have plaqued us for generation after generation and we stop the hate. Yes, it may be quite true that the man who shot Trayvon Martin did so out of hate, but how do we stop that hate from growing, from becoming a bigger monster than it already is. It seems to me that what we have done in the past has not changed it. So how do we do it?

WE LOVE! WE FORGIVE!  Nothing says justice more than Love, right?

I know that I am human. I know that I have made mistakes. I know that I will probably make more mistakes in my life. I know that I have hurt people and that in my humanness, I may still hurt people. Am I trying to compare the wrong things that I have done in my life to those of the man who shot this poor kid. No, in most people's minds in may not compare, but in God's mind, I really don't know. I am sure that I have spoke a hurtful word before that drained life from someone, somewhere. We all have been guilty of something that hurt someone at some point in our life.

As I watch this story unfold day after day, I continue to see how important it is for us to remember that Jesus came to save us all. Every single one of us! Even the man who pulled the trigger that fateful night. What I have learned from watching this story unfold is that there are not many people who will stand up and say I LOVE YOU! Not just to Treyvon Martin but to the man who shot him! If we could do this, if we could stand as people and say, Hate will not live in me today. What if we followed in the footsteps of the man who chose Love that day on that cross and said today I choose LOVE. What would happen if Love was louder than Hate?

Power Play

So tonight we were reading the Bible with the kids and our reading was in Acts chapter 4.  In this passage of the Bible, Peter and John who were followers of Jesus were in Jeruselem doing some pretty cool things and telling people about Jesus and what he had done for them when they were pretty much accosted by some of the religious leaders of the day. They were taken into custody and put into Jail overnight until they could decide what to do with them. So the next day all of these religious leades gathered to dicuss what would be an appropriatte punishment for Peter and John's behavior.(You should read it if you never have, it is a pretty cool story.)

In the early part of the story they give Peter and John time to explain their side of the story and after talking amongst themselves, decide to let Peter and John go. But, before they did, they told them they better not go around speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus anymore. Peter and John of course let them know right away they felt it was better to obey what God told them to do then what these leaders were recommending. The leaders threatened a bit more and then allowed Peter and John to leave.

Now here is what gets me, instead of walking away and lying low for a while, here is what they did:

²³ As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. ²⁴ When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— ²⁵ you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,

‘Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans? ²⁶ The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the LorD and against his Messiah.’^[e]

²⁷ “In fact, this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. ²⁸ But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will. ²⁹ And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. ³⁰ Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

They went back and prayed for more boldness, more power!  Now I don't know about you but I know a lot of times for me when I am feeling threatened, this is not something that I normally do, but I want to. Normally, I want to retreat, hide, maybe even complain a little about how bad this sucks that we have to put up with these people. But really what I want is to have that kind of faith. I want to pray for that kind of boldness! I want to live in that confidence all the time.

As we continue reaching out to those who are hurting, to those who need healing, please pray that God gives us boldness in sharing His Love and teaching His Word and that healing will come and that many will know God's great amazing love for them.

Sincere What?

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

Last night we were doing our Bible Reading with the kids, We started reading in Acts. Jeff and I follow a daily Bible reading plan http://www.vervecatalysts.org/.  This is a great Bible reading plan if you don't have one. We decided last night to take our kids through Acts while we were reading as well.

Acts is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Always has been! History was always my favorite subject in school and there is just something about reading about how we got started as a church and what God did through just a few men in just a short amount of time. Everytime I read Acts, something new jumps off the page at me and I learn something new.

In Acts chapter 2:verse 46 it says,^" Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts."

When I was reading this on Friday, one of the things that really stood out to me was the phrase "and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. So we asked our kids last night what they thought it meant to have a glad and sincere heart. They immediately jumped on defining glad because they know it means happy, but sincere was a little more difficult. As I started to explain what I thought it meant, Hannah jumped in and said that it means genuine.  Exactly, that is what it means, but how does that happen?

When we moved to Miami to start a church for people who don't like church, we knew that a great number of people here did not go to church. One of the top reasons people here give about not liking church is that they are tired of people being fake. 

Life is hard, things go wrong, people sin against us, we sin against other people, we get sick, we struggle with our addictions, we have to work hard for so little, so how in the middle of all of this do we come together with glad and sincere hearts?

I personally think it goes back to the words of Jesus. Mark 12: 30-31. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

I wonder if we focused on learning all we could about God, getting to really know Him and what He thinks about us and how much He loves us, and if we started seeing other people the way we know God sees them and started loving them the way we know God loves them, if the walls would come down and we could finally come together and be happy and genuine with one another?

What do you think? What does being Sincere mean to you and how do you do that.

How do we get there from here.

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

This past week I have been spending a lot of time praying about what our next steps should be. We have been doing our normal Saturday morning breakfast for the homeless and spending time during the week hanging out with them.  Earlier in the week, I had contact with the lady who heads up Far Above Pearls, which is a group of people here in South Florida that reach out to individuals in the sex industry. Mostly going into clubs and hanging out with the girls and sharing God's love with them.

These are things that we want to be doing and we are building great relationships with many people. But there is still so much to be done and so many things that we feel we need to be doing and it can get pretty overwhelming at times, so now we are praying a lot about how we can get there from where we are.

Today we are asking you to pray with us about some specific things God has put on our hearts. Below is a short list of things that we feel God wants us to begin doing, so please pray for us, that God would provide the time and resources we need. We are also looking for people to partner with us in this. If there is one area that you think you would like to help support specifically. Get in touch with us and we can let you know how.

Doughnut Drop Off to local businesses. We are planning to start dropping off donuts to local businesses by April 1st. This is a way we feel we can reach out to some of the local businesses and show God's love in a practical way and meet some of the people in our community.

Outreach to those involved in the sex industry. Right now we are meeting with people locally who are involved in this. This is an area that is very touchy to so many, but something that is very close to my heart. If you are interested in knowing more about this you can e-mail me directly at wkauffman1970@live.com.

Work for Food Program. We have not resumed this as their have not been the resources to do so but we are planning to get the work for food program back up and going again. This is a program where we go out and feed the homeless every Saturday and after breakfast we ask them to help clean up the streets, neighborhoods, and businesses around where we meet. In return they get a $10 gift card for helping. We have seen this give hope and purpose to so many who thought there was not any.

Pizza drop off to neighborhoods. We know how busy families are and we would love an opportunity to meet some of our neighbors so we plan to drop off gift certificates for local pizza places as a way to show God's love and meet a practical need.

Easter Banquet for the Homeless. We would like to throw a nice dinner for the homeless on or around Easter. We are looking for a place to do this and it will take a lot of food and supplies. Please pray God provides.

Neighborhood Block Party. We found out this past week that we don't have to move from the house we are in for a while so we want to get to know our neighbors. One of the ways we planned to meet people in the area was to throw block parties. We plan to do this in May. We have a great local neighborhood park and plan to have a BBQ, some music and fun stuff for the kids to do.

These are some things we have planned. Please pray that God will provide the time and resources and that many people will see God's love for them.

Some 200 Feet Below

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

 I started back to my Health Screenings this week. I love working the health clinics. This week, I got to drive to Boynton Beach, which is almost an hour from where we live. On my way back from the clinic, driving on I-95, I hit a major traffic situation. We sat on the freeway for 30 minutes at a complete standstill when I finally made it to my I-595 interchange, no sooner had I taken the exit, when all of the sudden out of no where this car lands in the middle of the freeway. We had no idea where he came from or how he ended up right in the middle of the road, but his car was totaled and he had knocked some pretty large rocks out of the walls of the intersection. I immediately stopped along with 3 other cars to see what we could do to help. We found the man unconscious, but with a pulse. We knew better than to move him and help came very fast. I honestly thought this young man was gone. From the looks of his car to the damage he did to the road around him, I thought there was no way he would make it out of that alive. The policeman who showed immediately after us, told us to go ahead and move on as we would be in the way of emergency vehicles. So I went to my next job still very concerned and had even mentioned the accident to Jeff over dinner that night saying how I was certain the young man was dead.

During the 11 o'clock news I was amazed to see his face on the screen. Obviously most accidents are not reported on the news in a large area like Miami, but this one was different. This young man had driven his car through a barrier from I-95, dropping over 200 feet to the highway below where I was exiting. All he could say was "It was miracle." He just thought for sure he was gone. He thought as soon as his car went air born it was over. His life flashed before his eyes.

It was a miracle! I seen it with my own eyes. In my mind there was no way that after what I saw this man could be alive.  He was written off in my mind.

Then today, as I was cleaning, God reminded me of something very important. Never write anyone off. NO MATTER what the situation looks like, no matter how bleak, no matter how devastating it may seem to us, there is always hope of survival.

I know we have said it many times since coming to Miami. We know God has brought us here to bring hope to so many who maybe have thought for the last time, there is no hope, that this is the end of the road. God reminded me as I watching that video on the news with my kids, Hope is not lost and that life in all of it's frailty can bring some big surprises. That even though someone may be beat up, or bruised or maybe if there seems to be no life left in them at all, NEVER GIVE UP! You never know, you might be about to witness the miracle of life when and where you least expect it.

weekend with Bernie

“If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” ~ Luke 14:5


Bernie is a 60 something year old guy that's been living on the streets for years. He's seen all, he's done all and yet now, in what he sees as the twilight of his life, he's experiencing something he thought didn't really exist. Bernie is experiencing Love.


You see, Bernie has fallen into a pit and he can't get out. He's struggled and dug and jumped and yelled and screamed and finally, he's given up.


I sat and talked with Bernie (and his fellow campers Jim, Andy and Zeke) on Saturday morning over a hot cup of coffee and some biscuits and gravy. He laughed and he joked for a while, but, as I started drawing his story out of him, his demeanor slowly changed as he tried to recollect what he was and where he'd been over the last few decades. I could see pain in his eyes as he remembered some of the bad things that had happened. Bewilderment when he thought of the days of his corporate success, still wondering how he ended up "here".


When breakfast was over the four of them stayed and helped pack up and as we were saying goodbye, Bernie grabbed my hand and shook it. He simply said, "thank you" to choked up to say anything else, he just nodded his head, tears flowing from his eyes. For the first time in a very long time, somebody has cared enough to just listen.


Bernie experienced love.


I'm going to try to find their camp site today and take them some clothes and a pair of shoes for Jim. They could use some tents and I'm praying God will help me find some.


Is there a Bernie in your life? Someone who has fallen down so hard so often that he's given up? What can you do to give them hope? How can you help them experience love?

Hard Days Night!

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

I have not been sleeping very well lately. Not because of all the stress that most would think. I mean there are normal every day things that are going on. Work, home-schooling the kids, waiting to find out if the girls get to go to a new school, getting the girls ready for another audition if they don't get into the new school, trying to get Ruth to the swim club to try out, getting Ruth over to Pousada to have her lemonade stand for the homeless, making sure the twins get outside for an hour or so every day so they don't karate chop everything in sight(tennis seems to really help them burn some energy off and we have a great court 2 blocks from where we live), making sure we have everything we need for goodie bags to hand out to the homeless(just remembering we need cracker stix and cheese dip), cleaning the house, making sure the kids are taking care of their animals, grocery shopping for the week(seems I am forgetting to eat a lot here lately, but don't worry the kids don't seem to have that problem), making sure the laundry is done. You know all the normal doings of any wife and mom.

No, the reason why I can't sleep, I just want to do more. I can't get my mind off of the all of the things that we could be doing and aren't yet. There are so many things that I know God has brought us here to do. Yes, we are going out a few times a week to be with the homeless, we are meeting people every day who need encouragement and community and we can be that for them, but God is stirring so much in me for the women who are on the street and in the clubs, women who have not yet been told about how much God loves them, how much he adores them and how much He wants to rescue them. Today and everyday for the last few weeks, that has been a huge burden on my heart.

I just finished reading the book "The Life of the Beloved" and now I feel like all I want to do is go tell everyone I meet how much God adores them. How much He cherishes them. How much He wants to rescue them. I had the opportunity to meet 2 ladies last Monday that are what some might call industry ladies. They had been on the street for a long time. They were very professional. They were also very sad, they were very broken and very tired. You could tell they wanted something more than what the life they were leading could offer them, but they just did not know how to go from where they were, to where they wanted to be.

Honestly, most of us at one point and time in our lives, could say the same exact thing. No, not all of us have ever had to go to that place of desperation and do what they are doing to make ends meet, but I think all of us could say at one point and time in our lives that we wanted to be someone different or do something different with our lives. We want to pursue our passions, we want to go after the things that excite us. Most of us don't know how.

One thing I have learned this past week is that we all have the ability in us to give others the push they need to get out of the rut they are in and into a new game. That thing is called LOVE. We are all capable of it. We can all recieve it and we can all give it.

When we moved to Miami to start an outreach to the poor and a church for people who are far from God, we knew the people God would be sending us to, we knew exactly where God was calling us and who He was calling us to. Now, I just want to go after it with everything I am. I realize today that I am not sleeping at night because it burns inside of me and all I want to do is "Just do it." 

Please pray for us as we take new steps into unknown areas that God will guide us and direct us and that each and every person that we come in contact with will know how valuable they are and how much they are loved and How there is a God who is coming to rescue them from the "Hard days night" they are facing too.