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Angel Pittman works with children at one of the camps at Touching Miami with Love. TML photo
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ATLANTA – Each Sunday in Miami 75 homeless men and women gather for worship in the chapel at Central Baptist Church. Before the service, attendees shower and change from worn clothes to fresh garments. Jason Pittman, preaches while people continue to groom - brushing tangled hair and drying freshly cleaned faces. After the service more than 200 homeless men and women gather for a meal provided by Central Baptist.
Jason, along with his wife Angel, serve as CBF Global Missions field personnel and directors of Touching Miami with Love (TML) ministry.
"The folks that we work with and have the privilege of being in relationship with are the inner city poor," said Jason. "They are folks that have been forgotten, have been looked over and have struggled for many years."
The ‘church,’ as many of the homeless in the community call the Sunday chapel service, represents a partnership between TML and Central Baptist, which has ministered to homeless community for 40 years.
TML relies heavily on partnerships with churches, as well as the CBF Offering for Global Missions. Partner churches like Central Baptist, The Baptist Church of Beaufort in Beaufort, S.C., and Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., enable TML to be the presence of Christ to addicts, homeless, single mothers and inner-city children and youth in the Overtown community of Miami.
In addition to the Sunday chapel service, TML offers a clothing exchange and movie nights for the homeless. TML also hosts an annual neighborhood festival, social service referrals, parenting classes and day and summer camps for inner city children and youth, among other things.
"We get the opportunity to love on people that usually aren’t considered loveable," said Angel. "In the past many of the homeless we work with have been neglected and pushed out of churches. We offer a place every Sunday morning that folks, in whatever way they come, are welcome to worship."
Addicts like Sam, a musician, are loved and welcomed by the ‘church’ no matter where they are in their journey. When Sam was absent from church for a few weeks, Jason was certain it was due to Sam’s relapse to drugs and alcohol. Jason preached a sermon about acceptance and inspired another homeless man to encourage Sam to come back to church, assuring him that "it didn’t matter what he was doing because we’re all screwing up," said Jason. Sam returned but continued using drugs and alcohol. Eight months later, he approached Jason about entering rehab.
"Probably what I enjoy the most is relationships with homeless guys," said Jason. "I like to be there for them, no matter where they are, what they’re doing, to just be real to them, especially guys that are dealing with addiction. And I am willing to be there when they are ready for change, to walk alongside them, and when they do choose to work on these things to be there for them."
The Baptist Church of Beaufort established an intentional, covenantal relationship with TML four years ago, which involves prayer, financial support and volunteers.
"A lot of our folks have had powerful moments of spiritual transformation as we have worked with TML," said The Baptist Church of Beaufort’s associate pastor, Eric Spivey. "Whether it is through the homeless ministry or working with the children in day camps, as we have partnered together people in our church have grown and moved into missionary lifestyles."
The Baptist Church of Beaufort’s missionary house hosted single moms from Miami. The Miami mothers were offered child care, tours of Beaufort and were pampered with manicures and pedicures.
"The experience created this incredible bond between our folks and these inner city folks in Miami," said Spivey. "It’s no longer just a single mom in Miami, but it’s about relationship and names. Our mission’s partnership became this powerful experience of relationship."
"Working in the inner city is an effort that you don’t tread in lightly," Jason said. "It’s an effort that’s a long term commitment. The entrapment of the poor, and the generational issues, and addiction and mental illness and poverty take time, and we really want folks to come and partner with us in that process that takes more than one trip. What we want to see is developing relationships with churches that want to walk alongside us in this journey."
CBF is a fellowship of