Custom Upcoming Event Loop [PHP]

I have an event loop I’ve created that isn’t functioning properly.

I’m using the plugin wp-types (www.wp-types.com) to create custom post types and fields. I’ve used it to create a custom post type called ‘events’.

My loop looks something like this –

<!-- LOOP START -->
<?php //WP_Query Arguments
	$args = array (
		'post_type' => 'event',
		'posts_per_page' => '4',
		'meta_key' => 'wpcf-event-start-date',
		'meta_value' => date('Ymd'),
		'meta_compare' => '>=',
		'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
		'order' => 'ASC',
		);

?>
<?php $the_query = new WP_Query( $args ); ?>
    <?php while ($the_query -> have_posts()) : $the_query -> the_post(); ?>
    <div class="col-md-2">
		<?php $date= get_field('wpcf-event-start-date'); ?>
    <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail( 'medium' );?><div class="overlay"></div></a>
    <div class="event-info">
    <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
    <p class="date"><?php echo date('l, F jS, Y', strtotime($date)); ?></p>
	<!--<?php the_excerpt(); ?>-->
    </div>
    </div><!-- /.col-md-2 -->
    <?php endwhile;?>
<!-- LOOP FINISH -->

I’m assuming the reason that nothing is displaying is due to the meta_key/meta_value property(ies). The plugin exports the DATE field as the following:

It requests and input format of – Month dd, yyyy + 24 hour time.

It returns – 1403388000 – for June 21, 2014 22:00

I think my loop is not properly translating the value returned. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!