October 20, 2021

Aaron Weaver

DECATUR, Ga. — CBF Florida announced today that it is deeding ownership of two buildings to long-time mission partner Touching Miami with Love (TML). Since 1995, TML has been serving the children, youth and families of communities of Miami with holistic ministry programming. This gift will allow TML to continue to impact the communities it serves for many years to come.

TML was created in partnership with CBF Florida and CBF Global in 1995 with the vision for meeting the needs of those in the downtown Miami corridor and nearby Overtown, a historic African-American neighborhood. In 1996, CBF Florida spearheaded a fundraising campaign and purchased a building for TML’s programming. In 2002, when the first building did not suit the ministry’s growing work, CBF Florida sold it to buy a different building for TML for its community-based work at its Overtown site.

During the same period and in response to needs in southern Miami-Dade County after Hurricane Andrew, CBF Florida helped secure land and build a building for Open House Ministries, which later became TML’s West Homestead site. The Representative Assembly of CBF Florida recently voted to donate these two centers to TML.

TML Executive Director Jason Pittman, expressed his appreciation for CBF Florida and its decades-long commitment to TML.

“Touching Miami with Love is thankful for 26 years of partnership with CBF Florida through providing both our ministry facilities to meet the needs of two of the most under-resourced and marginalized neighborhoods in Florida. We are honored to continue our partnership and are humbled by CBF Florida’s generosity in donating these facilities.”

CBF Florida Coordinator Ray Johnson shared his profound gratitude to TML and its key founding supporters.

“When I think about CBF Florida gifting the ministry centers at West Homestead and Overtown in downtown Miami to CBF’s long-time mission partner, Touching Miami with Love, I am filled with so much gratitude,” said Johnson. “I’m so grateful for Pat and Carolyn Anderson, who had the vision for those two buildings. I’m grateful for Florida’s Cooperative Baptists who caught the vision and who gave money, time and talent to build and renovate the centers. I’m so thankful for all the directors and staff who have served at TML, for the churches who sent teams and the Student.Go interns who changed lives and whose lives changed as a result.”

Johnson added that TML remains CBF Florida’s most significant mission partnership and they will continue to encourage and send teams to South Florida and provide financial support for ongoing projects with TML.

CBF Global Missions Coordinator Steven Porter emphasized that the buildings evidenced the Fellowship’s commitment to long-term presence.

“Whether by writing checks or picking up hammers, the Fellowship made real sacrifices to become stakeholders in the communities of Overtown and West Homestead,” said Porter, who previously served as executive director of TML. “For those of us who have served with those ministries, we know that those buildings are not just bricks and mortar, but they evidence a commitment to place—a commitment to long-term presence in places exploited time and again for short-term gain.

“Sometimes in church life, buildings can become idols. But here, they are icons of the presence of Christ. As John put it: ‘The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood’ (Jn 1:14). Global Missions celebrates with CBF Florida and the TML staff and board the next step in the development of this ministry, because presence matters.”

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CBF is a Christian network that helps people put their faith into practice through ministry eff­orts, global missions and a broad community of support. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.