Metropolitan Ministries, Tampa

Haiti is a land who lunges into our headlines with momentary tragedies, but whose enduring tragedy can't compete with Kardashians and coups, ambitions and avarice. Rose knew nothing but anarchy, capricious violence, and scant comfort.

She came here.

She came to Metropolitan Ministries five or six years ago, and now she's now a married citizen with a nursing degree and a new house.

My wife and I walked around Met Min's buildings Wednesday with Ana Mendez, who participated in and told us Rose's story (details and Rose's video story here). Hundreds of stories like Rose's keep Met Min people coming to work every day. Chef Cliff says it's a God thing; he's living his dream. Miss Ginny says her GED students sometimes come in jumping and screaming, "I passed! I passed!"

Met Min has multiple programs to "break the cycle of poverty." I asked what that meant for them, in this inner-city part of Tampa. The cycle they refer to is the intergenerational one: poor people whose parents were poor, who can't see what an escape to "not-poor" looks like. Practically, some of their emphases are:

• Education (Head Start, after-school programs, K-5 school, GED training, tutoring, parenting skills, close partnering with Brewster adult-ed tech school right across the street, teen programs, counseling, etc.)
• Housing (residential, temporary assistance, mentored, etc.)
• Employment (resume & interview training, job-finding, computer and telephone access, etc.)
• Food (for residents and a number of food-assistance programs, including a no-kidding, run-like-a-business catering service, Inside the Box, where people can learn how to work in the food business)

The problem with a list like that is that is misses all the relational connections between them. But Met Min isn't too big to make those connections, which keeps it a ministry and saves it from being simply another social services agency. Ana's smile isn't the "Yep, job well done" kind when she talks about Rose; it's the softer, "she's my friend" kind of smile. Lovely. She isn't the only one; they have about a hundred paid staff and 12,000 volunteers who are involved with the ministry. Whew! Imagine being able to change a life for the better, every week.

Met Min started out as a cooperative venture between 13 downtown churches, which is actually quite a statement in itself. That sort of thing still goes on quite a bit. One measure is that 95% of their donations are from local community and church groups. Another is area-wide partnerships, best seen with this map, with more info at the link here. It's a silent testimony to Jesus when so many people agree to touch "the last, the least and the lost," from the inner cities of Tampa and St. Pete to the migrant workers of Plant City.

Rose is a rare escapee from Haiti, whose inmates are sentenced before birth. But Haiti isn't the only Alcatraz in the Caribbean. There are plenty of Alcatrazes in our backyards, where tropical paradise blends with human cruelty. Our prayer is that the staff of Met Min will find all the encouragement and refreshing they need (and they need a lot) to serve in joy. May they be blessed, that they would be a blessing. (Like God's blessing of Abram, so that Abram would in turn be a blessing, here.)