Annibirthary 2025

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

Many times in the Old Testament we see the same thing as you

read to the Scriptures and that same thing as the people of God

recounting their story. They're giving the testimony of

Israel and they usually gather together and then they share

this entire story of Israel. If you look in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 1 · chapter mention

chapters 1 to 4, you will see the story of Israel.

Joshua chapter 24, verses 1 to 13, Psalm 76, entire Psalm 78,

Joshua 24:1–13

excuse me, the entire story of Israel, Psalm one O 4 and one O

5, the same thing. Nehemiah Chapter 9, verses 5 to

Nehemiah 9:5–38

38, they're telling their story once again.

Ezekiel chapter 20, they're together recounting their story.

Ezekiel 20 · chapter mention

Why? Well, of course to remember

God's faithfulness, but also to teach their children this is

what God has done. This is what he's brought us

through to renew their covenant, which is in a way their, their

time to renew their commitment to the Lord to to repent of

sins. Sometimes if you think of what

God has done in your life and you remember what God has done

in your life, it makes you go, wow, I should live like he's

done something in my life instead of the way that I'm

living. And I'm going to return them it.

It caused them to unify as a people, that caused them to

worship God. And certainly as they told their

story, would help them to find hope in any crisis.

Because if this is what God has done, then surely this is what

God will do. And my current here and now, if

I remember the story. And so the Israelites were doing

this constantly. It was a dynamic practice for

them. It would help them to keep their

faith alive and it would help them also to have identity

together as a people. This is our story.

Our story. So this morning, very briefly,

because so many new people are here at Illuminate Church over

the last few years, I want to tell you our story as a

testament to the Lord our God and His faithfulness.

And then as a response to that story, I want you to meet a

special guest so that we together can give God a gift as

a thank you. Amen.

Our story begins when people sailed across the ocean and

landed here in America. I mean, how far back do you go

when Jesus died on the cross? I mean we.

Could go all the. Way back, but I'm just going to

start in 2010 when God called myself, my wife Christine and at

the time our two kids, we didn't have Eli yet.

It's kind of crazy to think about.

He called us here to lead a campus of the Crossing Church

which is a big ol mega church over in Tampa that we were

serving at and there was a. Church here.

Locally that was dying, for lack of a better term.

And the the doors are about to close and the dream was going to

die for this church here in Central Florida.

But God said I'm not done here yet.

And so we came over, we adopted this church and we became the

crossing church in Celebration. We met at reunion for a while

and we moved to the high school, Celebration high School and we

would set up the screen. We called it Godzilla because it

was a massive screen. It was kind of like this big,

but we set it up every week. And then Pastor Greg Dumas would

preach on that screen from Tampa.

The problem was no one in Orlando knew Pastor Greg from

Tampa and they were used to live preaching and now they got a

screen and this, the campus wasn't working.

It was kind of like flapping in the wind.

And so the leadership of the crossing called us up.

They're like, hey, how's your Wednesday?

Good. OK, good.

We're closing the campus and you're moving home.

It's like what? We just moved over here.

We huh, what do we do? So at that point, that church

again would have ceased to exist and that would have been the end

of the story for that church here in Central Florida.

But God said I'm not done here yet.

He spoke to the leadership of the crossing church and he spoke

to our family and a lot of families that were around that

time. And we decided together that it

was time to plant a new church here in Central Florida out of

these two other churches. And that church was called

Illuminate Church. October 7th, 2012 we held our

first service at Celebration High School.

Amen. 354 people showed up. That first Sunday.

Y'all I preached so well. Here's a picture of me.

Preaching that very first Sunday, by the way, I think we

have, Yep, there it is, just a kid.

I had no beard back then. I had a lot of nothing back

then. But yeah, the first series,

Miracle Maker, I remembered I preached so well that the next

Sunday we had 114 people. Yep, the the fastest degrowing

church in America. Yeah, a lot of people that come

over from Tampa. My parents were there.

A whole bunch of people were there.

And then the next week they went back to their churches, like,

wait a second, 114 people, That's what we started with.

And four of them was my family, and ten of them at least were

Tafts and everyone else, right? Oh man, 114 people who believe

with all their heart that God wanted to make disciples in our

region. Over the next few years, as the

church formed an identity, which took a minute.

Were we the crossing where we celebrate church?

No, we are Illuminate church. And we fulfilled Our Calling.

We grew and we grew. People are being saved.

People are being baptized. And we waited and we looked and

we said, God, is there a place that you would give us for our

home? A place that we could plant a

flag and declare that this region belongs for Jesus?

Is there a place? Well, in 2018, I made a back

hallway deal. I literally signed the contract

for the land that we're on in the back hallway of the high

school right before Vision Sunday, January 7th.

Also 2018 and that day nobody knew except for the elders and a

few others that we had bought land.

They just came to a normal church service expecting normal.

And I said, hey, I want to show you a video.

And I showed them this video. I just realized that guy looks a

little bit like me. That's not me, not even close.

That's Josh Sakis. Our it was a youth director,

youth pastor here for a while. And when we showed that video,

the place went bonkers. People in the back were weeping.

I was, it's like a football game happened.

And it was the craziest thing because I told them like, we are

not dreaming or thinking about this.

This morning I signed the contract and the feeling in the

room was like, God has done it. It's finally happening.

We're going to take the land. We called it the promise, a home

and that God was finally promised promising to give us a

home. We continue to grow as we were

getting ready to to go on the land.

People are excited about it that the church that the high school

began to fill out and get packed out and then 2020 happened,

little thing called COVID happened and during COVID this

church that it's been eight years or so or six or seven

years, however long it takes to get from 2012 to 2020, that's

eight. I could do the math.

We grew from 114 people on a weekend to about 600 people on a

weekend. And then like overnight 250

people vanished. By the time we were able to

regather at the high school, we were back down to like 300,

three, 150. And I thought, Lord is are you

done here? And God said, I'm not done here

yet in Jesus name. Also another bonus of COVID

supply chain issues. You remember that anyone?

The building that was supposed to cost $6 million went up to

almost $12 million. And at that point I was like,

OK, God, you must be done. There's no way.

There's like 400 of us. How in the world are we going to

do $12 million? Not possible.

With man it's not possible, but with God, how much is possible?

All things are possible. God said, I'm not done here yet.

Do you know that? Why we're here on this land, in

this building together, celebrating 13 years.

Do you know why? I'll tell you why.

Because God gave his heart to this region and said, I want the

people of this region to know of my love and my power and that

they can have abundant life in Jesus Christ.

And he gave those 400 people an opportunity and those 400 people

seized it with faith and action in an unbelievable way.

This little group of people gave huge, gave big.

It's stunning when I tell you all that they gave when we when

we said, hey, it's time to give towards the promise of home.

We said it's never about equal gifts because we all have

different abilities in terms of giving, but it is about equal

sacrifice that we will all put it on the line to say we want to

see this dream fulfilled. And what we asked the people to

do is give one large gift at the beginning and then give monthly

for the next two years and they did it.

Someone family sold a condo and gave $500,000 the entire proceed

of the condo. Another family gave a piece of

land in North Carolina and we went to look up the land and we

found out that the land was on Promised Land Rd. in North

Carolina. I'm not kidding.

The promise of home on Promised Land Rd.

Somebody gave Facebook stock. You're sitting in a seat bought

by Facebook stock, Can you? But some people gave jewelry,

some people gave coin collections.

Some people like our family, we took a big swipe out of a

retirement and it's like, God, we believe, go and do it.

All of these people gave and they gave and they gave.

And at the end of two years with the supply chain issues, I said,

would you go one more year, Another year?

And a whole bunch of people said, yes, we'll go one more

year. Exactly.

This project with the land, everything that you see, all the

lights, all the kids ministry, all the staff, all the the dirt,

the retention pond, the parking, all the trees, all of it

combined is $16,000,000. And this original group of

people, the OGS, gave $7,000,000.

Are you hearing what I'm saying? There's another part of the

story that's not even included in the $7,000,000.

When we found out the price of the building skyrocketed.

It was one day the reports came back like, here's the new cost

of your building. Pastor Kim and I were sitting in

right in front of the old offices in the car, like, wow,

what's going to happen now? There's no, I mean, we're going

to have to wait another five years and, and raise more money

and we're going to wait. And we're like, God's going to

do it. Like somehow we knew that God

was going to do it. He wouldn't have taken us this

far. And so I walked into the office.

I sat on my seat. 15 minutes later, I get a phone call from a

man who had no idea about anything that had happened with

our building. He said our company has

$3,000,000 that we like to loan you interest free.

Could you use $3,000,000? I was like, absolutely.

Just we've. Saved over a million and a half

dollars just in interest by this family, this company giving this

this loan to us interest free all of this time 15 minutes

after we're sitting in the car wondering God, how in the world

will this ever happen? He says watch, watch this.

I just want to say this, if you're part of that original

group and you're here today, thank you.

Thank you if that's. You would you stand and be

recognized? Come on.

Don't be shy. Come on.

Stand up, normies. Let's go.

I see you. Come on, Mom.

Mom and dad, stand up. You did it.

You did it. You did it.

You did it. You did it.

God did it through you. There's a whole bunch of people

not standing. There Should be standing.

I see you hiding. Yep.

Praise God. They gave faithfully and

sacrificially. That's why we're here.

And I'm going to tell you, God is responding to your faith.

It's never been about the money. It's always been about the

faith. It's never been about the money.

It's always been about people, and God is responding.

Did you know that there's nearly 2000 people a weekend who come

here now who are meeting God, discovering who they are in

Christ, becoming more like Jesus, and leading others to do

the same? Did you know that?

Did you know that? Each year we're baptizing at

least 100 people a year, if not more.

It keeps growing year after year Did.

You know. That our kids ministry the

average church. Size in America is 65.

Our kids ministry, our. Next Gen.

Ministry, which includes students and young adults.

They serve over 5. 100 people a week.

And just in the Next Gen. ministry, this is.

Amazing thing that God. Is doing and there's there's

stuff we do in the community that I don't think you know

enough about. For instance, just two weeks ago

we started our third crossroad kids club in a public school

teaching kids about Jesus, teaching kids how to worship,

teaching kids the word of God. We're at Westside KA.

First time we've ever been at Westside KA.

Here they are. Look.

These are This is a public school.

Kids are bowing and praying. What?

What does that happen? Only by the hand of God.

Incredible program. Crossroad kids program also.

A few weeks ago, a few months ago, a gentleman from Tampa

called me. He said, hey, for some reason

God gave me your church and your name and I just want to meet

you. I'm like, this is strange, OK?

We're meeting on the phone. He's like, no, we need to meet

face to face. I'm like, OK, come on over.

We planned an hour together. We spent hours together.

I felt like I met my long lost fourth brother.

We had, well, third brother, me. I'd be the 4th, right?

I have two brothers now. 4th brother, third brother,

whatever. And we connected, we laughed, we

cried, we prayed together. And I'm just so in love with

this guy. Like, how can we support your

ministry? He's like, well, if you want to.

I mean, we're building this literacy lab in our church to

help peak kids in our neighborhood to know how to

read. Because if they can't read, they

can't advance like they need to. And we, we want to bring them

in, teach them literacy and then give them Jesus.

I said we are in. How much is it to complete the

project? He said $5000 and said the check

is on the way. And you all together by your

giving have sent $5000 to the way church in Tampa Bay.

Here's Pastor Keith to say. Thank you, Pastor Keith.

I'm Keith Babb and I get the privilege of being the lead

pastor of the Way Church of Tampa Bay.

And I just came on to tell Pastor Tim, the Board of Elders,

and the entire Illuminate Church family thank you for your

generosity. I know this may not look like

much behind me, but because of your kindness, this room is

going to be turned into a family resource room and learning

literacy lab. And here's what I really want

you to know. Beyond reading this room will

mean the rescue of another life beyond even comprehension.

It's going to be another soul that's going to come in covenant

with the Lord beyond resources. Another life is going to be

redeemed. So I want to tell you again,

thank you, Illuminate Church family, and thank you for the

lives that will be impacted tremendously, not just here on

earth, but for eternity. Pastor Keith and his wife.

We were just growing closer together.

We're about to, I was about to say have a sleepover.

That just sounds weird, but they're coming over with some

other pastors from Florida and some from Texas as well.

And we're just going to meet here and reunion and pray

together and worship together. And I'm, I just feel so in love

with this guy and his, his church.

And I thank you for giving faithfully here.

Because you did that, we're able to do things like that.

Amen. So I just believe that God is

saying I'm not done yet here and there's so much more that is yet

to have happened. We have so much vision still in

US of what God wants to do on this property.

We're only about 1/4 of done what we want to do on the

property. So much more ministry and life

to the community that we can be doing.

And God has been so good and faithful to us.

And today I want to give you an opportunity to say thank you to

God, to give God a gift. If you were, if you will,

Proverbs chapter 19 verse 17 says whoever is kind to the

Proverbs 19:17

poor, lends to the Lord, gives to the Lord and he God will

reward them for what they have done.

Way back in 2002, we had our first child, Owen, and shortly

after that we went to a Sunday at our church and had a

compassion Sunday and we adopted a child.

His name was Elva Stone Masharia from Kenya, and he's a he was

the same age as our son. And they've grown up together.

And every time that we've had a child, we then added another and

another. And some of our kids have

graduated the program. We've taken on new kids.

We have three kids that we have personally adopted because we

believe in the ministry of Compassion International.

And it's an opportunity to say thank you.

God, I love you so much. And I'm so grateful for what

you've done in my life that I want to give it to another.

And I'll make a small sacrifice, $43 a month in my life to change

the eternal destiny of a kid. One such kid is here that has

grown up through the program and is now making in a massive

impact in her nation, also from Kenya.

And I'm going to show you a video and then I want you to

give a huge welcome to our guest from Compassion.

Maureen Kaderi, would you please watch this?

My name is Maureen Kaderi. I was born in Karubangi.

Life was not so easy, especially as a girl child and as a baby in

the slum. My mum was not working, My dad

was a cashew labourer. The days he was working, he will

get like. $10 a month. And our house was $6.00, so you

can imagine how we will survive with $4.00.

Poverty brings bondage. Where you.

Tend to feel like this is me and this is how I live and this is

how I die. But the moment I joined

Compassion when I was seven years old, my life changed.

The compassion. Project was a second family to

me where. I received even more.

Love, you know and care at a very personal level.

I remember the first time I got a picture, a photo of my

sponsors and a letter. I was so excited.

I believed in myself and I believed that I was beautiful

and I started loving myself. And the letter continued that I

want you to know that we love you so much.

We are always praying for you. I received hope and compassion.

And you know. That is where I was taught how

to pray. I got my first Bible and I was

taught how to read the Bible and believe in the words that were

in the written in the Bible. And I started working hard.

I got yes, education academics, which helped, but also these

other livelihood skills which kinda empowered me, transformed

me and brought myself worth. I started believing that I can

do something. You know, my dreams are valid.

All these things is because of what I learned from the

Compassion Project. I am who I am.

Today, because of compassion. What I went through.

Has shaped who I am right now and what I do.

I started Rehema House Christian and nonprofit organization which

rescues young, poor, pregnant girls from the streets and slums

of Kenya. To me, Rehema is a baby of

compassion. There's counselling, there's

discipleship, there's mentorship.

We have people working with them.

I love these girls and. I connect you.

I connect everything happening with my story because.

That's why I'm. Thankful for my background.

If. I never went through what I went

through. I will not give the guys my all.

I know what it means. Go hungry for days.

These guys, that is what they're facing right now.

I'm able to fit in their shoes. You don't have to be reached to

have a good impact. There is power.

Let me tell you, there is power in.

Holding other people's hands, that is what compassion did,

that is what my sponsors did, is hope that trickles down to the

family, to the community and to the world.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

That song says today is a good day because you have seen the

Lord, Illuminate Church has seen the Lord.

And now, now let me wish you happy anniversary.

Happy anniversary or something like that.

Sikuye New Year Kuzaliwa Sikuye newly.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Illuminate

Church, and thank you so much, Pastor Tim, for having me all

the way from Kenya and to all the glory, all the honor to

Yahweh ABBA, our ABBA Father, the one who was, who is, and who

is to come. Let's give God a round of

applause. Thank you so much, Jesus.

And just as you've come back today to say thank you, I'm here

today to say thank you. Thank you to God and thank you

to my sponsors. I don't know what you're going

through today, but regardless of that, I want you to believe that

God is God. I am a living miracle.

The story I'm sharing is not mine, but it is God's story.

God rewrote my story. I was born and raised in

Kariobangi slum, the third largest slum in Kenya.

My family and more than hundreds of our neighbors lived in the

confines of just three square miles.

Every open space was filled with garbage, sewage and scrap

materials that people fastened into makeshift homes.

Poverty, chaos and darkness was so much in the slum that it

threatened the very life or to suffocate the very life out of

us. Extreme poverty, extreme anger,

substance abuse, violence, backstreet abortion, survival,

prostitution and crime. Rain wild in the slum.

My name is Maureen Kaderi and even as a young girl I realize

it will either take death or a miracle for me to escape

poverty. Cruel grip.

There was no bathroom in the slum.

We used what is called a flying toilet where you take a plastic

bag, release your waist, swing it and then release it wherever

it falls. That is where it was meant to

be. So if you are walking and it

lands on your face, that is why it was meant to be a miracle in

the slum. Can something good come out of

Kariobangi? My three siblings, my parents

and I lived in a 10 foot by 10 foot room that was made of mud

and rusted metal roof that had so many holes in the middle of

the house. There was a dirty tattered

curtain that hung in the middle separating the cooking area from

the sleeping area. Despite our parents hard work we

went for days because the only we only survived on $10 or less

in a month. So most of the times that will

go 4-5 days without eating and if we had to eat, they were

rotten fruits and rock rotten vegetables that we picked from

the nearby dump site or market. Remember our house was made of

that floor and the roof had so many holes.

So every time we'll sleep, we'll count so many number of stars

that were on the sky because of the holes.

Last months or days when it rained at night, we will all

squeeze in a corner that was dry until it stops raining.

And even when it stopped raining, we could not go back to

sleep. Sleep was impossible because the

dirt flow turned into mud. Even amongst the poor, I felt we

were the poorest. I was so bitter with God, so

angry. If God exists, why would we go

through what you are going through?

That is what I thought at one time.

I contemplated. You know, I wish we were all

dead, other than hoping for a miracle that mine will never

come. But God saw me and even maybe

before I talk about God seeing me, I will never forget the day

our mum cooked stones or she boiled stones in a pot because

she wanted to give us hope and comfort of a warm meal.

That is what mothers do. But God saw me, His face shined

so bright upon me. The darkness of poverty in

Kariobang Islam was no much of His light of mercy on me and my

family. When I was seven years old, I

was enrolled in Compassion International Child Development

program at a local church. I will never forget the first

day when I got there. That is the place where I felt

loved, accepted and wanted. We played with the toys.

I had never had any toy. We sang, we dance for mid

morning. We were given tea with milk and

sugar and a donut. During lunchtime.

I was given a steaming plate of rice, beef Stew, cabbage and

fresh fruits for the very first time.

My stomach was so full. Every Saturday became Christmas

for me and I was always looking forward to every Saturday.

And so I devised a plan because my family had gone for days

without eating. At least I was.

Saturdays I will eat. So I started carrying a plastic

bag with me and hiding it. So during lunchtime, I'll go for

my first plate and then go back for a second serving, third

serving and 4th serving, pretending that I'm not full and

then pour it all in the plastic bag to take back home.

I believe the cooks thought I had a bottomless stomach.

One thing that really stood out for me is that the compassion

staff never shamed me or stopped me.

In school, I used to be called a hyena because I was always

begging, stealing other people's food and kids called me a hyena,

which really lowered myself esteem.

And so for the compassion staff, not stopping me or shaming me

meant so much to me. I was given my beloved sponsors,

Mr. Rick and Roxanne Robinson, who loved me so much, who we

communicated through letter writing.

And I remember in one of the letters they said, Maureen, we

love you so much. We are praying for you.

We have a picture of you in our refrigerator.

As much as I was proud about a picture of me in a refrigerator,

the truth is I did not know what a refrigerator was.

So I had to go and ask the compassion staff what is a

refrigerator? And she explained to me it's a

big box that people store food, rich people store food in it and

makes it cold. And one time she had to take me

somewhere to show me how it looked like.

And the letter continued. You are beautiful.

I'm Maureen. Beautiful.

I used to be called Hyena. Malnourished, but they saw me

and said I was beautiful and they said poverty does not

determine your future, it shapes it.

And as I stand before you here today, I live that, and I'm so

grateful to God for poverty, because poverty did not

determine my future. It shaped it.

I'm grateful to compassion. Because I received my first

Bible from Compassion Project, I was taught how to pray and I

surrendered my life to Christ through the word of God that was

shared. Matthew 633 Seek ye first the

Kingdom of God, and all the other things shall be added unto

you. When I received Christ, I

received everything and I'm so grateful to compassion because

that is the best thing that they gave me.

Thank you SO. Much when you grow.

In poverty, you live both in physical and spiritual poverty,

but right now it did not matter what I was going through because

I knew I was spiritually rich. It is through compassion.

That I learned that it is impossible to.

Meet someone's spiritual. Needs until you meet their

physical needs. The hope of Christ.

Rewrites Stories I went from last in my class to being the

first person in my family to attend and graduate from

college. Thank.

You and as I. Stand before you here today.

I'm the founder and executive director of Rehema Foundation

where we rescue young poor pregnant girls from the streets

and slum of Kenya. These are girls aged 15 and

below who are pregnant either due to rape, incest and survival

prostitution and the only option they have is either to commit

suicide or procure an abortion. As a Christian minister, the

only option we have is Jesus Christ.

So we love on them until they love on Jesus and keep their

babies. I went from surviving.

In the slum to. Helping teenage.

Mothers escape the darkness of poverty in the slum.

I went from being sponsored to becoming a sponsor through

compassion for children. To be exact, the first child

that we sponsored was a gift to me from my husband when we got

married. That was in 2013.

I went from. Wanting to die to living a life

of purpose. I will tell you this sponsorship

is so powerful. It is not just about changing

one life, but it's all about changing destinies and changing

generation. I'm so grateful to my sponsors

who they not only saw a packet, but they saw a world changer.

They believed in me even when I when I did not believe in

myself. And they not only touched my

life, poverty ended with me. My children no longer face

poverty. I was able to take my family out

of poverty. The 90 gas that we've rescued

and the 90 miracle babies that have been born, the 64 women

under our community artisan group, there are 100 children

who attend Bible study. All this is because of one

couple that said yes because they said yes.

I keep saying yes it has. Not only changed my.

Life and my family and my community.

But sponsorship has also changed their life.

My sponsor testifies of this every now and again.

They were able to pass that on to their children and now to

their grandchildren, who are now sponsors.

As I conclude if. You ever think of me?

Maureen Caderi, if you are down there and feeling hopeless, I

want you to remember all the things that God did to me.

Please remember these three things.

One that God is good #2 the gospel changes lives and #3

compassion program in Jesus name transforms lives, it transforms

mine. And my prayer today is that you

will be that miracle that a child in poverty is praying for

with me today. Here is Rod Nason from Haiti, 9

years old. Who would want to be the next

Marine? There are so many children

outside there who are waiting for one person or a couple or

whoever it is to pick a packet and bring hope in their lives.

Remember the hope of Christ spreads.

Thank you so much and God bless you.

Thanks for joining us today. We hope God is speaking to your

heart through this message. If you'd like to connect with

us, you can text connect to 407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate

dot church. Have a great week.