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CBF Offering enables ministry of Angel and Jason Pittman
as they share Christ, hope with inner-city Miami youth



MIAMI – Fifteen-year-old T’Kerria comes from a troubled – and crowded – home. Living in a one-bedroom apartment with five family members isn’t easy, nor is living without her dad, who has spent years in jail. Every day after school T’Kerria comes to the bright yellow brick building on 6th Avenue – the ministry center of Touching Miami with Love – for a feeling of home and the love of a family.

“This is like my second home – one big family,” she said.

For T’Kerria and dozens of other children and teenagers, their lives have been changed by Touching Miami with Love (TML), a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship partner ministry that shares the love of Christ in one of the nation’s poorest and most dangerous urban neighborhoods.

Only blocks away from downtown Miami is the community of Overtown, where gunshots and drug dealers are as common as the number of gang members roaming the neighborhood streets. Many of the local children and teenagers live in poverty, go to a failing school and have witnessed gun violence firsthand.


About the Pittmans
Angel and Jason Pittman are both graduates of Baylor University, where Jason also earned a Master of Divinity from CBF partner Truett Theological Seminary and a Master of Social Work. With experience in teaching and urban ministry, the Pittmans were commissioned by the Fellowship in 2002. They served in Detroit before moving in 2005 to Miami, where they live with their two sons, Isaac and Lucas.
“There are a lot of needs in our community, such as a place that is separate from the dangers of violence and crime and negative influences,” said Jason Pittman, one of CBF’s field personnel who leads TML with his wife, Angel. “We share the love of Christ with children and youth by offering hope, opportunity and resources.”

Nearly every weekday TML is buzzing with activity. During the school year, children and teenagers come to the center afterschool for a nutritious meal, recreation and crafts, help with homework, time in the computer lab, and classes about literacy and social skills. During the summer, TML offers an all-day children’s camp that many of the local teenagers help lead.

“The kids need a safe haven to go to, and this is the place for them to be,” said Ultrina Harris, a lifetime Overtown resident who directs the ministry’s programs for children. “TML is their oasis.”

As CBF field personnel, Angel and Jason have led this vibrant, growing ministry since 2005. Because of the support Fellowship Baptists provide through CBF’s Offering for Global Missions, the Pittmans are able to serve at TML full-time – Jason as executive director and Angel as director of development and volunteers.

They live in Overtown with their two sons, Isaac and Lucas, and reach out to the community not only as TML staff but as neighbors and friends.

“God has placed a call on our life,” Angel said. “We know that there's a need in our community, and we know that we have been uniquely equipped to answer that call.”

Though today half the residents live in poverty, Overtown was one a thriving African-American community. Known as “Harlem of the South,” it was rich with music, culture and dozens of businesses that kept the local economy humming. But in the mid-1960’s that all changed. A major elevated highway interchange was constructed through the heart of the community, forcing many people out of their homes. 

“Those that didn’t have the means were left behind and now generations later make up our community today,” Angel said.

Now, Overtown is a neighborhood most people drive over, not recognizing the struggling community in the highway’s shadow or the people who live at the margins of the neighborhood and society. Here, one in three people live in government housing, only a handful of residents own their home and the vacant space under the elevated highways has become a wasteland.

When the Fellowship and CBF of Florida began partnering to do ministry in inner-city Miami in 1994, it didn’t take long to realize the greatest needs were in Overtown. An abandoned building was purchased and transformed into the thriving ministry center it is today.

Since the ministry began, hundreds of Fellowship Baptists have served in Overtown – some for years as CBF field personnel, some for a summer as college students and many for a week as church members on a mission trip. 

Every year high school student Richie Matteson knows where he’ll spend the best week of his summer.  Since middle school he’s been coming to TML with his church, CBF partner Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., to lead a week of day camp for the children in Overtown.

“In only a week, you realize how much you’re needed here and how much of a difference you can make,” he said.

The Pittmans couldn’t agree more. CBF partner churches like Hendricks Avenue help TML in countless ways by praying, serving and giving year-round. And there are always opportunities for more churches to become involved.

“Touching Miami with Love is a place where you can connect God’s mission to your passion,” Angel said.

One of the best ways to become part of God’s mission in Overtown is by giving to the CBF Offering for Global Missions.  For the Pittmans and many other CBF field personnel, the CBF Offering is their ministry’s foundation, enabling them to live in a community like Overtown and share the presence of Christ. But giving to the CBF Offering isn’t just about supporting CBF field personnel; it’s about becoming part of God’s mission in the world. 

“You can give and know that your gift is being used to build the body of Christ and the kingdom here on earth,” Jason said.

By Carla Davis, CBF Communications