Public Murals Speak to God's Grace in Woodlawn

March is Spring Break month! And, the start of a heightened Bridge Builders season at Sunshine. As you may well know, Bridge Builders is our short-term missions program designed to immerse college and adult participants from around the country in the urban context. The program engages participants in a multi-faceted agenda that address matters which affect the urban poor, examining the many passages in Scripture which speak to these matters. While the program emphasizes listening and learning about cross-cultural engagement in our country, participants also engage in service.

Each year we work hard to engage our Bridge Builders partners in effective community ministry. This can be challenging as effective work is genuinely beneficial to both the community as well as team members. This year our teams are working on an inspiring and extremely creative project: public murals!!! These murals are being designed by a local artist and will be actually painted and installed by our Bridge Builders participants. The installations will occur on our building, in a public location outside in our community, and in one of our partnering elementary schools.

Murals in the community can be a powerful way to reflect the image of God in contextualized manner. We expect the murals will be well received in the community, extending the long-term relationships between Sunshine and community residents while also portraying with clarity God’s grace and love. Stay tuned to see what transpires from these beautiful projects.

Young Entrepreneur Earns Competitive Program Placement

Ever since Teandra Armstrong volunteered her Saturdays washing and braiding hair at her cousin’s beauty salon she has dreamed of opening up her own shop. She says, “There’s a vibe. I don’t know. I can’t quite explain it. It’s just fun. Secrets are opened up [at the shop]. People can’t keep the stories to themselves anymore.” You get the sense in talking with Teandra that the beauty shop is her element and, as long as the neighborhood ladies keep coming and telling their stories, it will forever be her element.

Teandra is a part of our technology apprenticeship program for high school students, which meets three days a week after school through our partnerships with After School Matters and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Teandra is one of approximately 22 students who participate in the apprenticeship program each semester, including summers. The program is a place where she can be encouraged in her dream of opening her own beauty shop and receive the mentoring and skill training she needs to set her on a course to accomplish the dream.

Teandra is a sophomore at Bronzeville Scholastic Institute, located about a mile from our Center. This spring is her third semester in our apprenticeship program, where this past semester she crafted a business plan for her own beauty shop. Throughout the program and into the young entrepreneur’s small business competition, Teandra showed great promise. In looking forward to this summer she was recommended to the Rotary Job1 program by NFTE staff who watched her compete this beauty shop business plan. Job1 provides high school students, like Teandra, with substantive summer internships with local businesses, where students, like Teandra, will receive continued mentoring and advice from a professional business advisory team. She recently learned of her acceptance into the program, already spending one Saturday a month until the summer, in job readiness training. (She tells, with humble satisfaction, of this past Saturday’s group project to redesign the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate candy bar, providing a new slogan, logo and commercial for the company. Her teammates picked her design to expand upon – a design which ended up winning the day’s competition.)

We are proud of and excited for Teandra! “We will miss her [this summer],” says Vincent McCaskill, our technology center director, “but she is an example of what we hope the students will achieve.”

Willow Creek: Thousand Questions Video

For the last several years the Willow Creek Association (spawned through Willow Creek Community Church) has hosted the Leadership Summit. The annual conference has grown each year and is now hosted in 80+ satellite locations and attracting people for around the globe. The premise of the conference is that whether at church, school, business or home, so many of us are leading everyday. Leadership takes perseverance, dedication and a commitment to stretch your mind, expand your heart and use your God-given gifts to impact your world in real and powerful ways. And, it's important for diverse leadership to come together to be encouraged, to share best practices, and to be sharpened. The resources that come out of the Association have been beneficial to thousands of people, their teams, theirs congregations. Sunshine is no exception to that; we have benefited from the print, media, and conference resources.

The artistic genius that has flowed out of the Willow team and been expressed at these conferences has so often impressive and inspiring. One particular video came out of last year's Leadership Summit that particularly caught our attention and it's safe to say, the attention of many others.

You can see for yourself here on YouTube.



The questions that are asked in this video are honest, transparent ones that pull from the gut. They are humble us. We show this video to our Bridge Builders teams. The video is a important place to start for to dismiss the fatigue, the doubt, even the cynicism in our hearts when it comes to our individual role in missions is shortsighted and, in end, unproductive.

What are your thoughts after watching the video? Did it resonate with you?

The next Leadership Summit is scheduled for August6-7, 2009. You can register here.

Instilling Compassion While Shooting Baskets

During the months of November and December we placed special emphasis on character development with our Horizons after-school youth program, for students in grades 6-8, in a series entitled, “Living A Life That Matters.” We looked at Biblical examples of men and women who lived their lives with intentionality toward glorifying glorify God and, in turn, impacting others with their witness. We also looked at present day examples of ordinary people who in big and in small ways had a positive impact on the lives of others.

One of the examples we studied was Austin Gutwein, a 14-year old who founded the organization Hoops of Hope. He became burdened to help AIDS orphans in the African country of Zambia after watching a World Vision video. He then came up with the idea to do a shoot-a-thon. From that event, Hoops for Hope was born. It is the biggest basketball shoot-a-thon in the world, much like a walk-a-thon, but way more fun! Each year thousands of participants from around the world shoot free throws for children in need. This year, every shot taken will help to build a medical facility in Zambia. Every free throw will literally help keep children from becoming orphans.

Our students, and staff alike, felt compelled to get involved! So, we are hosting our very own shoot-a-thon on Saturday, February 28th at the Agape Center (342 W. 111th St). Each student will raise pledges per free throw they shoot on that day. The enthusiasm of of the kids for helping others through the event has been heartening. We look forward to sharing anecdotes and picture with you. And, hey, come join us!

Black Family Technology Awareness Week

Next week Sunshine is collaborating with other community organizations in Black Family Technology Awareness Week (Feb. 15-20). The week is designed to assist African-American communities in obtaining access to and training in web technologies, enabling these communities to leverage key information from virtually anywhere. Since it's inception nine years ago in New York City, collaborative efforts between a large variety of professional and community organizations have sprung up in 200 cities, supporting increased technology awareness. You can read more about the awareness week on this blog. As part of the festivities, Sunshine will be hosting a workshop on Friday, February 20th from noon - 2 p.m. in Social Networking and Community Development. Interested? Feel free to contact our main office for more information.

Register TODAY for the Legacy Conference!

Registration has begun for this year's Legacy Conference! Here at Sunshine we are big fans of this conference (a few of us just might be involved in its planning :wink: ) The 2009 Legacy Disciple Making Conference will be Thurs, July 30 - Sat, August 31st. This year's conference will take place on the campus of Chicago's Moody Bible Institute. Register today at: www.legacy-conference.org !