Dec. 9 Goldilocks Church

                I it was broad daylight when I woke up on Sunday morning. It’s already sweltering hot and muggy. Last night I was looking online for a church nearby and I found a Calvary Chapel down in the North Beach area. That’s a bit far for walking, almost twice as far as the Indian Creek golf club, but I found out this week that I can ride the city busses even with my cart. I’d assumed I couldn’t, but Nichole said they would let me, so I tried it and they let me on! It’s two dollars to get on, so I’ll save it for the longer trips, but that should get me down to the church this morning.

                After a quick breakfast I head over to the bus stop. There’s a large, broad-shouldered man waiting with a small nylon backpack, a Hawaiian shirt, and greying day-old stubble.

                “Yo man, you sleepin’ out here too?” He’s got a slight New York flavor in his tone.

                “Yea, I’ve been here a week or so.”

                “Where you from?”

                “Maine, most recently.”

                “Gettin’ away from th’ cold, right? You and me both man! I’m almos outa mony tho…” He continues with the saga of his vacation down here from upstate New York. He swings his arms wildly as he talks and gestures with loud, aggressive hand motions that don’t make any sense, and he shrugs his shoulders repeatedly the whole time. Living on the street like this will make you feel like the last un-retarded person on earth.

                The bus pulls up. He climes on ahead of me and starts feeding his dollar bills into the machine while I wait on the sidewalk.

                “Hey!” The bus driver is leaning around the man and calling out to me. “You can’t get on here with that.” He points to the cart.

                “The other drivers let me on…”

                “Well that’s their problem but it’s against the rules.” He closes the door in my face and drives off. Shoot! Another bus driver might let me on, but it will be another 15 to 20 minutes, so I might as well start walking just in case the bus doesn’t work out. Within minutes my flannel shirt is soaked in sweat and I can barely keep my glasses clear from the sweat dripping from my hair. I’ll definitely have to change my shirt and clean up when I arrive at the church. Fifteen minutes later I’m twenty feet from a bus stop when the bus comes by. I’m hurrying to get to it, but it drives off again without me. Wow, I hope I don’t end up walking the whole way! I started at 8:00 and the first service doesn’t start until 9:30, so that would have been plenty of time on the bus, but if I end up walking the whole way, I’ll definitely miss the first service. There’s three services, so I’ll make it one way or another, but I didn’t refill my water before I left, so my supply is low and with the morning sun beating on my face I’m losing water in buckets. I sure hope this isn’t the morning I’m destined to meet anyone special.

                Two hours later, I’ve passed Indian Creek and given up on trying to get a bus. At least I saved my two dollars, I’ll put it in the offering, but that’s quite a church commute! The first service is already started, but I’ll be a half hour early for the second service. I’m within the northern area of Miami Beach now, and it’s definitely nicer than the Haulover area. There’s a better variety of shops and things are cleaner and better kept. After two and a half hours of walking I find the building. Around the back side, I lock my cart and pack to a steel grate and switch into a try t-shirt. Just inside the front entrance two men greet me with handshakes and a well-designed bulletin. They give me directions down the hall to a café while I wait for the next service to start. Passing down the hall, I can see classrooms filled with children in Sunday School. The café is a large, brightly-lit room with mirrors on the walls and people sitting around talking over pastries and drinks. This is nice! It’s bright, warm, and inviting. Someone knew what they were doing! Two lovely young ladies are behind the counter selling coffee and food. I order a cup of Joe and they give me friendly, helpful directions to the cream and sugar. I sit down at a small table on the wall and sip it while I watch the people engaged in conversations around the room. They’re all happy and friendly, and they’re dressed like normal people. The atmosphere feels natural and genuine, not strained or artificial like many churches.

                Within minutes, a man breaks off and introduces himself to me as Ernie. He’s greying and a little heavy-set, but full of joy and love for others. I overheard him talking earlier about how he used to be addicted to drugs and in prison and how he ministers now to help people get out of that scene. He tells me more about how he came to this church several years ago in pretty rough shape, but now works on church staff counseling and working with ex-cons like himself. When he hears about my job search, he gives me several tips for local resources, and invites me to the Tuesday night Bible study. I’m actually really looking forward to that! Before long, he excuses himself and heads over to someone else who just walked into the room. Within minutes another staff member, the youth pastor I think, sees me and comes across the room to introduce himself. It’s JP, if I remember right. Anyway, it’s two initials. He’s older than me but not by much and full of energy; within minutes I feel like he’s an old friend, but it’s time for the service to start.

                The auditorium is also well lit and inviting. The music is comfortable and modern. The worship team starts up with a few praise courses as more people come in. There’s a broad variety of blacks, whites, Latinos, and others. There’s also a spread of ages from young adults to the elderly. Half-way through the first chorus I’ve got tears in my eyes. This is so much better! I feel welcome, safe, and at-ease. When the pastor steps onto the platform he greets everyone with a warm welcome and starts into a few announcements. He’s probably somewhere between 40 & 50, but in very good physical shape and adept with communicating naturally to an audience. After the announcements he directs us to 1 Timothy 3. He’s working through the book apparently and this week places him in a difficult, controversial passage where Paul lays out the qualifications for church leadership. I’m impressed by how he holds a strong line about the expectations for God’s people, but does so with awareness, tact, and sensitivity to the modern difficulties of our culture. We wrap up with a prayerful worship song and the service is over.

                I head back to the café to refill my coffee cup and get a slice of the cheese cake they’re giving out. Ernie is still there and we talk again for a few more minutes. I think I’d actually like to go back to the 12:30 service! It’s a repeat of the same songs and message, but I just love the environment. If I stay in this area, I’m definitely looking forward to coming back to this church, and hopefully getting involved or helping out somehow.

                I have to think about what to do next. They have a Spanish service at 7:00 and I’d really like to go to that, but if I do, I need to find something to do in the area until then because I’m not making the two and a half hour trip back to Haulover only to come back tonight. Normandy Shores Golf course is nearby, and that would be a good place to look for a job, so I decide to head over there to see what I can find out. I hadn’t considered this area, yet since it was too far outside the radius of where I’d been looking, but with a nice neighborhood like this and such a great church, I can definitely see myself relocating to this area! Normandy Shores is also a privately owned island golf course. There isn’t a security gate but there’s a sign saying that only residents are allowed on the island. Oh well, I wasn’t expecting to get anywhere today anyway. I’ll find the phone number online and go that route this time instead of trying to walk out over and over again. The next things I want to check out is a library Ernie told me about. I’m there in about 20 minutes, but it’s closed for Sunday. I kind of expected that, but at least I know where it is and it definitely looks nicer than the tiny crowded library in Sunny Isles!

                With that, I decide to give up on the Spanish service and head back to Haulover for the night. If I can get on a bus I’ll go to Dunkin’ Donuts for the evening and write about this awesome day. The schedule “S” bus that I need is just pulling up to the stop in front of the library, so I get in line and pull two dollars out of my wallet.

                “Hey, I already told you, you can’t get on the bus with that!” It’s the same driver I ran into this morning! Shoot! What are the chances? It will be a while before the next bus shows up so I might as well start walking again. I REALLY hope I don’t have to walk all the way back! I notice a small park behind the library that wasn’t on the map. It separates the library from the beach. I guess I might as well check it out. There’s a path way going down to the beach and a paved jogging trail that runs parallel to the shore. There’s also several clusters of the sea-grape trees around. One of them makes a lovely little secluded shelter from the sun. My wheels are turning now. I could hang my hammock in that little patch of trees. It’s a decent place to spend the night, and tomorrow I can use the library all day! Then I’ll still be in the area for Bible study on Tuesday night, and if Indian Creek ever calls back I’m closer to them here than I am at Haulover. And this way I can go to the Spanish service tonight! Sweet! It looks like I might be relocating to this area!

                I haven’t had much to eat since breakfast so the first order of business is to get some food in me but then I go about setting up the hammock. My cousin Seth gave it to me when I was in Pennsylvania (The same one who gave me the camping stove, he’s clearly done plenty of back-packing before and knows how to find top-notch gear!). It’s made of lightweight nylon so it stuffs into a little pouch the size of a large potato, but it holds me up without a problem and it’s quite comfy. I’ve got the whole afternoon until the Spanish service at 7:00, so I do a lot of relaxing as well as reading and going through my Greek vocabulary flash cards.

                It’s starting to get dark by the time I decide to pack up and head over to the church. I find the pastor and a Latino lady standing out front and they greet me warmly. The pastor recognizes me from this morning. I try some of my rusty Spanish on the lady and explain that I studied in high-school and had many Spanish-speaking friends in college, so I’m hoping to continue working on it. I’m even impressed at myself by how much of it comes back as soon as I start hearing it again. My biggest problem has been switching out of French-mode since I’ve been studying that for the last few years. The worship team is made up of mostly the same people. The leader is obviously not a native speaker, but it’s impressive to see that he’s clearly been making a serious effort to learn the language so that he can reach out to his community. I notice that the bulletin is the exact same as this morning’s except everything is translated into Spanish. There’s a small group of about 30 when the service starts. They begin with a familiar chorus that I remember learning in Chile and I still remember the chorus well enough to sing without looking at the words.

                I’m surprised when I see the pastor step up to give the message. I had assumed they would have a different speaker, but he’s apparently the one. Apparently the church leadership has been working hard to learn Spanish and begin outreach to the Spanish-speaking people in the area. He has to mostly read the sermon from his iPad and he struggles with a little of the pronunciation, but it's impressive that he’s doing it at all! It’s the same message as this morning, so that helps me follow along better. I had been strongly considering trying to find a Spanish church in the area, but I wasn’t sure if I would understand enough to be fed, but if I stay in this area I can get both English and Spanish in the same church! This is better than I’d thought to pray for! I understand almost the whole message without much difficulty and when I talk with the others after the service I find more and more vocabulary coming back to me.

                Now I really hope I get work in this area! I’d love to live here and go to this church. Back down by the beach I sling up my hammock again. If I’m going to relocate here, I’ll have to figure out some new issues. The patch of trees doesn’t provide shelter from rain like the pavilion does, so I’ll either need to find a better spot or hassle with a tarp or something. I also miss the concrete floor and the picnic tables. This sandy ground is littered with trash and I don’t want to put anything down. I’m sure there’s been homeless people stepping into these trees and peeing, so I can’t let my things touch the ground. I’ll have to do some exploring around the area and see if I can’t turn up a better place to spend the night, but this will do for now and I’m feeling much more encouraged!

Oh! And something else! I was talking with a man at the church earlier today who works for the Miami-Dade county parks & recreation department. He told me that legislation has recently passed that forbids park rangers or cops from removing homeless people from public land unless they can provide another place to stay! That’s very encouraging news! The lady driving everyone off Haulover the other night definitely had her info wrong. (I thought so!) Now I can sleep in peace without worrying about getting run off!

With a little more to eat and few gulps of the water that I refilled at the church, I settle back into the hammock for a restful night in the ocean breeze.

I'll close up with a question: What are two or three things you look for the most in a church and what is one thing that really makes you want to leave a church? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment box below, and if you read the blog in your email, you can load the web page by clicking HERE and enter your comment at the bottom of the page. It's optional of course, but I'd be interested to hear how some of you feel about choosing a church.