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Are you a CCFSF Donor or Lifework Leadership Class Member? CLICK HERE to tell us your Story of Giving!
Al Petrangeli (CCFSF Board of Directors and Lifework Leadership Class of 2007) Profiled in Atlanta Business Chronicle - February 2010
Al's love of airboating has come in handy in his efforts to give back to the community.
CLICK HERE to read the full article
Angel Relief Fund Success Story (Summer 2009)
Following Hurricane Katrina, many CCFSF donors contributed to the Angel Relief Fund to provide critical, life saving support and services to those in along the Gulf Coast who were impacted by the storm. One of the local agency's that received a grant from the Fund helped Gordon and June Herron rebuild their home in Kiln, MS. They recently told us, "The house is doing great and is a blessing to their large family. We currently have six children that we are caring for and our oldest daughter Michelle is looking at adopting a baby girl. Gordon was just baptized at Bayou Talla Church and he is excited about his relationship with God." In fact, he is still wearing the Angel Relief bracelet he received four years ago! June is attending church with him and Gordon is encouraging her in her walk with God.
CCFSF Donor and supporter Wayne Huizenga, Jr. has a deep faith, and it is a top priority in his family and work life. He was interviewed in April 2009 on the "Family Life Today" radio program, where he recalled the emptiness of living life in the fast lane without Christ. Click a link below to read the transcripts of his interview, which aired in three segments:
Interview Day 1
Interview Day 2
Interview Day 3
I was raised by a single mother who raised seven of us, and so I have a heart to help kids. While at a meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, a lady who looked in need of help 'appeared'. I felt convicted to give her the gift card that was given to me at Lifework Leadership, and tell her that God loves her and that I hoped the gift card helped her in some small way. She returned a beautiful smile and seemed very grateful.
-- Wayne Schuchts
One Woman’s Search for Significance Leads To Compassionate Giving
A Story of Giving from Lisel Morris
I was beginning my senior year in college at Southern Methodist University when the panic really started to creep in. I can’t remember an exact day or defining moment, just a snowballing feeling of the need to make major life choices while time waged against me. I’ve always been a bit of an odd-ball: never fully ‘fit’ into my family, Miami, school…if anything, I related too much with too many things to ever have loyalty to one – to ever feel like there was one place I wanted to return to more than another. I was constantly restless. I believe this restlessness was the catalyst for me traveling so frequently, and what set me out searching for ‘something more’ than my own reality.I began panicking about the career and lifestyle decisions I was going to have to make after college. I wanted to be ‘successful’ (whatever that means): I grew up in an affluent family and was accustomed to a certain lifestyle. At the same time, I had worked with nonprofits during college and found meaning for myself through my vocation. The corporate world seemed a little too ‘vanilla’ for me. During this Period of Panic, I attended a conference for young adults – focusing on career paths. The founder/CEO of Life Fitness was a speaker. He had Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was young, fit and good-looking. He had made his millions and had a beautiful family. Doctors gave him 18 months to live and he was in his 18th month. His advice? “You are at the point in your life to live your craziest dreams. You haven’t set into your career yet, you don’t have a family you’re responsible for, you already have your education, so now go for your wildest goals.” I began to see my situation as an opportunity instead of a precarious, unstable point in life. My burning goal: to travel to as many countries as possible before I die, learn as many “Truths” from other cultures, gain as much insight as possible into the greatest similarities and differences between cultures and nations… and to find my role, my greatest potential, in the big scheme of things. And so my trip began. I tried raising enough funds to participate in social work, through numerous countries, for a year but had to ultimately compromise at three months. I learned that three months through South Africa, Egypt and India can feel like a year. Each place grabbed me in different ways but I will concentrate on Chennai, in southern India. Sangita Charitable Trust, is a grass-roots organization founded 10 years ago by an Indian woman who lost her own child. In her grief, she began to notice the countless number of homeless children on the streets of Chennai. She and her husband, who works with International Christian Sports Coalition, began taking children into their own small apartment. Word spread, and children were so frequently left on their doorstep that they soon filled their family’s apartment on the floor below. When I arrived, they had rented a house for a family of 6 in a small village called Padappai, no longer able to fit the children in their apartment nor afford Chennai’s rental rates. Sixty-eight children and four caretakers, abused women seeking shelter, slept on the floor of this house. I had no phone, no internet. My days consisted of waking in the morning with the children, roughly between 2-5 years old, and walking them across the street for their bath. A bare concrete room held 68 tiny, naked bodies. They would all wait quietly in line to enter the bathroom. A caretaker stood inside the tub as I stood outside with a towel. My fast-paced panic was forced to dissolve. In that orphanage, there was nothing but time. I didn’t have the luxury of worrying about myself every moment: there were 68 wet bodies to dry, 68 mouths to feed, 68 toddlers with inexhaustible energy to entertain. Nothing about my identity in the U.S. mattered. All they needed was my patience and love. I constantly wrestle with the idea/concept of God. After loving and receiving love from people in cultures and religions so different than the reality in which I was raised, I cannot condemn one “God” under another. I can, however, agree with the Bible verse that “God is Love.” My idea and concept of Love expands constantly, but the foundation remains: a selfless, patient and kind giving of oneself. I’m back in Miami now… in the corporate world that I dreaded. CCFSF has kept the corporate ‘vanilla’ flavorful. Although I’m in front of a computer all day, I established a CCFSF Donor Advised Fund that accepts donations and is able to send money to the children in India by sponsoring the orphans in Chennai and helping build an adequately-sized orphanage where the children can continue education and Christian mentorship until they are eighteen. (Grants from Lisel’s Fund are directed to the U.S.-based administrative office of Sangita Charitable Trust.) Knowing me, my life will probably be very different five years from now. But that CCFSF Fund will still be there. And despite all the different lifestyle changes I will make, I have something consistent, something selfless, where I can continue to give of myself. 
A New Van For Joni and Friends | Doug Goddard, Area Director, and his wife, Leanne, Program Coordinator, work for the South Florida chapter of Joni and Friends, founded in 1979 to communicate the gospel and equip Christ-honoring churches worldwide to evangelize and disciple people affected by disabilities. Doug uses a wheelchair, and the couple was having serious, on-going repair delays with their specially-equipped van. The CCFSF inquired about the problems with their van when staff noticed they were taking the bus home each evening. A grant from the CCFSF paid for a rental van while their own van was being repaired. Then a generous CCFSF donor purchased a new van so that Doug, Leanne and the ministry could continue their work. |  |
Donor Story -- Helping A Friend Regain His Independence “Greg Cornell is an amazing man. An accident seven years ago left him a quadriplegic, unable to move from the neck down. Despite the enormous challenges he faces from such a devastating injury, Greg, who now lives at the VA Hospital in Miami, has accomplished tremendous feats! He was accepted into Miami-Dade College and recently earned his Microsoft Office Specialist Certifications for Word, Excel and PowerPoint using voice-activated software. He has been recognized by the College’s President, Board of Trustees and even appeared on an NBC Channel 6 newscast several months ago for his unprecedented achievements. Greg’s next goal is to find a job. A group of caring people, including Mr. Allen Morris, employees at the Allen Morris Company and other friends contributed to a Giving Fund at the CCFSF, so that we could buy Greg a loaded Dell laptop computer, complete with all the special software and accommodations he needs. That computer is more than a convenience for him…it’s become his lifeline to others, enabling him to talk on the phone, communicate via email, and, hopefully soon, return to the work force. Greg is truly inspiring. And we are so blessed that the CCFSF was able to help us accept cash and non-cash donations so that we could help Greg along his path to even greater independence.” -- Thad Adams, The Allen Morris Company
Donor Story – Bob Denison
“Lifework Leadership of South Florida Changed My Life”
I have always had a heart for the poor. When I “grew-up,” I wanted to be the guy that looked out for the needy, the homeless, the forgotten. So after I graduated from college, got a job, and became a real grown-up I did that. When I’d hear about a place that was taking care of the needy, or the homeless, or the forgotten, I’d write a check. Once in a while I might actually go over to say hello to those my checks were helping. This worked out pretty well until I heard a story last January at Lifework Leadership of South Florida. Bob Lupton was speaking about changing communities and bringing hope to the forgotten parts of our cities, the parts that lots of us overlook. He had a right to talk. He’s directly had an impact of restoring and revitalizing the worst parts of Atlanta. Needless to say, I was listening to every word: “If you want to help the community, if you want to love the community, you must live in the community.” All of a sudden it all made sense. Suddenly my checks weren’t enough. My heart to love and change a community must not be done from a safe distance. It all became so clear: God doesn’t love me from a safe distance. Jesus came crashing down to earth, the dirty slums of God’s galaxy, to save me. How can I expect to truly love the least of these by limiting my love to check-writing from my cozy house in Rio Vista? My fingers were busy writing checks, but what were my legs and arms doing to love? Within days my friends and I started hitting the streets with bags of food, water, socks, and invitations to a homeless church. We haven’t looked back. God has been using our ordinary group to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give shelter to the homeless. By the summer 2007, a few of us are hoping to get a place to live off Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, one of the lowest income neighborhoods in the City. In the meantime, we’re using our house in Rio Vista as a launching pad to hit the streets. So far God has used our group to restore hope and change our community in a tiny way. So far God has used us to permanently rescue three people from the streets. We’ve got as long way to go, and lots to learn but I feel like a new journey is just beginning…. The speakers I heard at Lifework Leadership of South Florida, especially Bob Lupton, have helped shape this new journey for me. And the guys I shared this vision with at Lifework Leadership have had a massive role in guiding me, and keeping me accountable to doing the things God has put on my heart. -- Bob Denison, Graduate, Lifework Leadership of South Florida, Class of 2007 “He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know Me?” –Jeremiah 22:16
Firewall Ministries Says "Thanks" for the Big Yellow Bus
| A recent grant from a CCFSF donor helped Firewall Ministries, based in Davie, Florida, acquire a bus that is used to transport families to and from events, activities and outreach programs. It was used on April 7, 2007 during a large Easter Bash Carnival the ministry hosted for nearly 300 children, teens and parents. The ministry made a small group gospel presentation, where about 120 children and their parents had the opportunity to hear the Easter story and to accept Jesus into their hearts. |  |
CCFSF Donor Sends SOS Children's Villages of Florida Kids To Lion King A recent grant from a CCFSF donor provided an exciting entertainment experience for some disadvantaged children in Broward County. "On behalf of SOS Children's Villages - Florida, thank you very much for the 30 tickets to The Lion King (performance at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts). Several of our families attended the show and really enjoyed it! Our children come to SOS after enduring the early childhood dramas of abuse and abandonment. Thanks to friends like you, they can begin to move beyond their pasts and look forward to hopeful futures. Thank you for your generous and thoughtful support." -- Marjory Bruszer, Chief Executive Officer, SOS Children's Villages - Florida A New Van for Joni and Friends
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