‘Rich in Faith’ stars: A couple on a mission

Rich and DawnChere Wilkerson love their life in Miami.

The couple, costarring in the Oxygen reality show Rich in Faith (premiering at 10 p.m. Wednesday), live east of Wynwood, got to witness the action of Art Week up close.

“We are pretty much right there,” said DawnChere. “It’s a little crazy, for real. Every year it changes and gets bigger and better. It blows my mind.”

Rich has his own way of dealing with the traffic and crowds.

“I dominate Citibike,” he said of the bicycle rental stations. “I’m the guy holding up traffic on U.S. 1. I’m the guy you’re honking your horn at.”

Yep, we have true locals on our hands. And Rich in Faith will give Miami its due. But viewers will see a softer side of our town, not the flashy metropolis featured in say, Real Housewives or Million Dollar Listing.

There will be individuals’ stories of pain and loss — a patient with cancer, a couple having problems in their marriage, drug addicts.

“We get asked why we are doing this because we’re not reality TV fans,” said Rich. “But love it or hate it, it’s the language of our culture. And for us it’s another great platform to encourage and help people.”

In each half-hour episode, cameras capture Rich and DawnChere amid their daily routine, which includes moving away from working at the pastor’s parents’ Trinity Church in Miami Gardens and mounting their own church called VOUS in Wynwood.

How the duo came up with the name is kind of interesting and slightly ironic: It’s short for “Rendezvous,” a popular Tuesday night service for young adults at Trinity.

“As it grew — from 12 to well over 1,000 people — we found out pretty quick that no one knows how to spell it and they would Google the word and all kinds of weird things came up,” said Rich, laughing. “Everyone started calling us the VOUS and before we knew it it had a life of its own.”

Drama? Sure. But not the kind you get from Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which stars the Wilkersons’ pals, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Rev Rich (as he is known) officiated their Italian wedding in May 2014, but the new parents will not make an appearance.

Translation: This is family-friendly fare.

“I’d rather be the person that lights a candle instead of cursing the darkness,” Rich said simply. “Of course, everyone’s life has drama, but all things have a resolution.”

Rich in Faith is also a study of a nine-year marriage; though the Wilkersons are devout, they have the same spats as regular folks.

“You’ll see she’s not always so kind to me. You may even catch her beating me at times,” joked Rich, adding, “No really. I think you’ll say, ‘These two really do like each other. Their life isn’t perfect, but there is a joy and a confidence to them.’ The answer is faith.”

They swear (sorry, couldn’t resist) that you needn’t be religious to enjoy their story.

“Yes, we’re faith people,” said Rich. “But we don’t talk about Jesus every minute.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 5:03 PM with the headline "‘Rich in Faith’ stars: A couple on a mission."