Proud Moments

I know you've had them...those moments when you've worked hard at something and hoped all the moving pieces will come together even better than you anticipated. Or, those moments when you've felt a need, had a vision to meet the need, poured sweat and tears into making the vision come to fruition, spent endless hours talking to God about the project; from every detail to every struggle and every personal triumph along the way; and then, stood back to watch God bring all the parts together. If you're like us, it's in those moments that you feel God smile, that you wish you had hired a bunch of cheerleaders to commemorate the moment, and that you wish your friends and family had a better idea of all the time you spent on the project.

It's safe to say moments like these have been apart of the building of our technology center. One of those stand-back, wish-the-cheerleaders-were present-moments was with the inauguration of our latest computer course for high school students. For these particular courses, Sunshine has teamed up with Chicago's After School Matters (ASM) invitative - an intitiative founded by Maggie Daley. This is the fourth session our Center's Director, Vince McCaskill, has taught in our new facility. Previously this year, Vince taught a a couple courses entitled, "The Business of Web Design". He recently switched things up, starting a new course for high schoolers in small home networking.

ASM courses are conducted with a good amount of seriousness; after signing up online, students must interview for a spot in the course and, based upon the interview, Vince decides if they will be able to enroll. ASM awards students stipends provided they remain engaged in the material and and continue to (punctually) attend. These technology courses have a capacity of 22 students. This semester more than 22 students interviewed for the course, 22 were chosen, and we are now at maxed capacity; Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. every one of our technology center's computers are in use!!!

Yesterday when I visited the class students were using Microsoft Office to develop proposals for a hypothethical client for a network design and installation package. This proposal included the scope, price, equipment, and labor for the project. These pictures were taken during that particular class session.

Vince has given of his extenstive technology skills in develop these courses and it's been an immense encouragement to see high school students seize the experience.

We welcome all cheerleaders who wish to share share with us in the success of the class. :-)

Luke in Action

Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all people.

Luke 2:52

It's from this Luke passage that our after-school program (as debuted in our now home community of Woodlawn) has taken its name and, more importantly, its vision. Our goal is to equip and to empower a group of 25 second through fifth grade students with the necessary tools to thrive spiritually, intellectually, socially, and physically within their various home and school environments. Our vision, subsequently, is to grow a Christ-centered, holistic after-school program which truly serves its urban youth in multiple ways. We see strength in pouring time and energy into a few; frankly put, to us it's about the depth and quality of our after-hours teaching is of more importance than the number of students. Right now, all 25 spots are filled and we have a growing waiting list!

Club 2-5-2 follows the public school calendar and runs Tuesday through Thursday. College students (most of which come to us from Moody Bible Institute), local high school students, and neighborhood moms teach, interact, and converse with our students together, helping to advance students' reading, writing, math, and computer learning skills. Witnessing the ease with which these three group of volunteers work alongside one another is a real joy for us to see young and old, black and white, working alongside each other, serving the young people.

Furthermore, there are moments like these...

* Sunshine officially opens its doors for tutoring at 3:30 p.m., but students have been showing up 15 to 20 minutes early eager and ready to learn! We appreciate their eagerness and as the minute our volunteers arrive the work begins.

* Two of our students - Mariah Harper (third grade) and Terrance Mills (fifth grade) - received their school's Student of the Week award based upon their excellent academic performance and citizenship.

* When you ask these grammar school students to describe their tutoring program, they they will reply with, "it's a college preparation program!" Praise God.

* One segment of our teaching is dedicated to teaching about the lives of "world changers" throughout time. We (the leadership) tell the students that they, too, are scholars and world changers. One day we had a discussion about what a world changer is, and about who some world changers have been. Students named people like Martin Luther King Jr., Moses, and Rosa Parks. A few days later, as Dave Clark was reviewing with them the explanation of a world changer, one of our students named Alexis responded with, "I am." That's exactly right! Best answer we've received so far.

It's moments like these, when we know the students are engaging with and enjoying their learning experience, that make tutoring an enjoyment for us as well.

ReCharge Update

ReCharge is our weekly discipleship program; this year the group meets on Thursday nights. We have approximately twenty faithful attenders (we have had up to thirty!). Attenders are generally students we have retained from our Summer Blast and Club 2-5-2 programs. Our Blodgett duo - Pete and Nikki Blodgett - are currently co-teaching a study on studying (a few) attributes of God. For example, last week's focus was on God's grace and goodness. In past weeks we have highlighted God's holiness, His justice, His love and mercy, His eternality, and the list goes on.

We began a new segment within our discipleship study which highlights global missions. We have been pleasantly surprised by the popularity of this time. Students are bringing in their loose change and dollars to support other ministries meeting people's needs in other countries. Staff member, Dave Clark, begins each month with a description of the country of note, leading into a discussion of the country's spiritual needs and highlighting a ministry within the country seeking to present the message of Jesus Christ as the solution to one's spiritual needs. This month's country of focus is China. Dave has been exploring the growing underground church movement in China. The inherent danger of the movement has captured our youth's attention and each week we are awed by the profound, heart-felt, and tender prayers of our students for Christians in China.

Furthermore, foCus, which is our monthly hip-hop worship service, is steadily becoming a greater avenue for discipleship as we meet local community members who may be interested in greater relationship with us. Our service, which targets those thirteen and older, brings in local and national rappers who present and live out a holiness within the hip-hop culture and are committed to the genre's return to the historic roots of celebration and social consciousness.

This month the group Anti-World joined us. The group is made up of two friends, Ron and Eric, who are empassioned to proclaim Romans 12:2 which says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." The very fact Anti-World is a hip-hop performance group attests to their (as well as our) belief that non-conformity does not mean divorcing from modern culture but rather about living a Christ-honoring life within our present culture.

If you are interested in hearing some of their music, check them out on mySpace.

Needless to say, there is a lot happening within our building. We truly look forward to continuing to update you on our discipleship studies, especially as our current relationships with Woodlawn grows and new ones are formed.

Allow Us Introduce To You...

We are delighted to have added Lue Williams and James Powell as staff members with our Technology Center!

Lue Williams is a native of St. Louis, who relocated to Chicagoland about five years ago after "the most beautiful women he had ever seen walked into his life". He has previously work experience in teaching computer courses and servicing computers. He increasingly sensed his gifts and abilities would be best utilized if they were paired with community service. Lue's personal mission and vision aligns with our mission and vision.

Also, with our Community Technology Center becoming busier by the day, Lue's computer background is a valuable asset to the community of which we're apart. Lue now oversees the Open Access service portion of our Tech Center and is developing a resume-building curriculum which will soon be offered on Saturday mornings. Resume construction and fine-tuning has been a need the community daily tells us about. We are grateful, therefore, for Lue's enthusiasm and ability to meet this need.

Lue has been married for a year now. He and his wife are expecting their first child in December!

James Powell was born in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago (just South of Woodlawn) and still considers this city home sweet home. Powell was first introduced to Sunshine when he "wanted to sign up for Internet use at the local library but, the next available reservation was the following day at 6 p.m.! The clerk gave me a flyer for Sunshine Gospel Ministries' Open Access program." Shortly after, Powell learned about the scope of programs Sunshine provides and inquired about staff opportunities. He continued to stop by for Open Access where in time he began to be introduced to various staff members.

At the time when Powell first entered Sunshine's doors he admits to "lacking drive and purpose" and experiencing some of the greatest challenges of his life. His new, part-time involvement with Sunshine as our technology center's adult class instructor is a service he described to me as, "Life changing for the students and I, both being dramatically impacted." Between the opportunities at Sunshine and his home church, he is invigorated with new avenues by which he can "share the good news of Christ and the salvation that his sacrifice has brought and will provide for those that will receive such a wonderful free gift!" Amen.

The energy the Lord has instilled in these two men is equally as exciting to Sunshine!

Join in the Fun!!!

We are hosting another volunteer training session on Saturday, November 3 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. If you know of a college student or young adult who might be interested, please spread the word to them. Listed below are the programs in need of volunteer and the time of their operation:

Club 2-5-2 Tutoring Program (2nd – 5th graders)

Tues,Wed, Thurs afternoons from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

ReCharge Youth Bible Study (age 7 thru high school)

Thursday evenings at 7 p.m.

foCus (hip-hop outreach service for 13+)

Every 3rd Friday at 7 p.m.

Adult Technology Classes

Monday - Thursday mornings from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Interested students or young adults?

E-mail Dave Clark by Thursday, November 1

dave@sunshinegospel.org