You Share

Do you admittedly have too much "stuff"?? Are you looking for a way to give to those who might need it? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you should check out Youshare.org!

What is Youshare.org?
The idea for youshare.org began when a caring mom simply needed two mattresses for her kids. Recently employed after a period of homelessness, she was trying to furnish her new apartment. Local social service agencies knew there must be extra mattresses out there somewhere — but found it difficult to hunt them down with their other responsibilities weighing on them as well. She eventually found the mattresses on her own, but it wasn’t easy.

Youshare.org was created to serve people in this very situation. It goes one step further than simply meeting immediate needs. Youshare.org helps foster personal relationships that will help families in crisis build a better life.

Youshare.org's values include:
• Relationship building — Relationships are key to moving families from vulnerability to self-sufficiency.
• Compassion — Compassion is defined as a “deep awareness someone else’s suffering coupled with the wish to relieve it.” That is the heart of youshare.org!
• Stewardship — All of us can use our time, talent and financial resources to encourage and serve others

We are now Youshare.org "Administrators" at Sunshine. This means that families experiencing a crisis or need can share their need with us, and we can connect them with a "resource match" through Youshare.org. If you are interested in more information about this, contact Erica Avery at eavery@sunshinegospel.org.

Some New Editions To The Team

Mike Avery


Brittney Rost


CW Allen




This school year the Youth Outreach department at Sunshine will be adding 3 new staff persons to their roster: CW Allen, Brittney Rost, and Michael Avery. CW & Brittney will be pioneering a new high school student ministry, while Mike will be helping coordinate our after school programs for 2nd through 8th graders. We are very excited for all 3 of them to join our team! Each of them have unique gifts, talents, and passions in the area of youth ministry.

CW is a native of Cleveland, OH. He is soon to be a junior at Moody Bible Institute. CW was active in youth ministry at his home church in Cleveland, as well as in the area youth for Christ. He is also a Christian hip hop artist, and continues to write music and minister at various church and community events throughout the midwest. You can read more about CW at his blog, and you can also listen to his music on his Myspace page. Although CW is a Cleveland Browns fan, we will not hold that against him.

Brittney is a native of Elkhart, IN. She graduated this past spring from Moody, earning a degree in Urban Ministry. Brittney has been actively serving at Sunshine throughout her four years at Moody. She has assisted at AWANA, at our after school program, as a mentor to our young girls, and as a camp counselor one summer. She will join our staff with many ministry relationships already established! You can read more about Brittney at her blog entitled "City Light".

CW & Brittney will be part of a unique collaborative effort between Sunshine and Young Life. We are pooling our resources (financially and ministerially) in order to bring on this staff tandem. In addition, CW and Brittney will be raising a 1/3 of their salary as well. They are both currently seeking monthly supporters who will come alongside them in this endeavor. If you have any questions about how you could join their support team, shoot me an email at dave@sunshinegospel.org

Mike grew up in Chicago, approximately 30 blocks southeast of Sunshine. Mike recently completed a multi-year discipleship program in Arizona known as the Master's Commission. He began as a student there, and then transitioned into leadership. During his time there he used his dancing ability as a vehicle to share the gospel with teens at outreach events. He was a great intern with our summer staff this summer, and will now be doing a one year internship with us in partnership with TechMission.

Please continue to keep our Youth Outreach Team lifted up in prayer. We really desire to see the Gospel transform the lives of our kids, their families, and our neighborhood!

A quick Youth Outreach update...

Safe Families

Erica Avery is still hard at work networking, as she seeks to mobilize churches, Christian families, and social service agencies to take part in the ministry of Safe Families. SGM's network hub is one of the top performing hubs (amongst the new hubs trying to be established). Please continue to lift up Erica Avery and the ministry of Safe Families in prayer.

Summer Blast

Last week was SGM's final week of Summer Blast! The program has averaged between 30 and 40 kids each day, including a good group of returning day campers, and new kids and families with whom we have developed relationships with. The summer staff has done well, and we are thankful for all of them serving with us this summer.

Summer S.W.A.G.G. (Students Worshiping a Great God)

Last week was also the final week of Summer S.W.A.G.G.. We have averaged 20 to 25 6th through 8th graders on Monday and Wednesday nights! We have also made some new relationships, as well as strengthened some existing ones. Brittney Rost and CW Allen have done a great job!

Miracle League

We had a Junior High and High School basketball team this summer! The Jr. High team, coached by Dave Clark, ended the season with a record of 1 and 10. They also bowed out early in the season, ending the tournament. Although their record wasn't ideal, the time spent with the young men was amazing. We look forward to following up with them in the weeks to come. Seeds were definitely planted in each of their lives.

Montana Trip

We will depart on our annual pilgrimage out west on Sunday August 1st (returning on Tuesday August 10th). We will be taking 6 young men and 4 young women. Dave Clark and Mike Avery will be the counselors for the young men, and Sarah Murphy and Erica Avery will be the counselors for the young women. The Blodgetts will also be helping with both the ladies and the guys. Praise God for the church from Montana who is sending us a $2,000.00 check to help with various trip expenses!

Fall Staff Editions

We have revamped the 2-5-2 Director position, and are hoping to fill this vacancy by mid-August.

Brittney Rost is heading back to Elkhart Indiana during the month of August to continue to raise support. Lord willing, she will join our staff in September.

CW Allen may be coming on in the fall to work with Jr. High/High School students.

We continue to work through a potential "youth staffing partnership" with Young Life to help leverage our collective resources in order to bring on a youth staff team. Please pray for all of the above concerning staffing.

Come Run For Sunshine

Sunshine will once again be participating in the Chicago Half Marathon as a fundraiser event. Last September we had 2 people run for Sunshine: myself and Christi Gilbert. This year, we are expecting a much larger "Team Sunshine" to be running in the event. The date of the race this year is Sunday September 12. Would you consider running on behalf of Sunshine? The time to begin training is now. We will even set you up with a personal training to give you consultation through the training process. This is a great opportunity to get in shape and to help raise money for a Kingdom cause. Contact us at Sunshine if you would like more information.

Safe Families

Safe Families for Children-Chicago began in 2002 in the wake of a particularly deadly summer for children. Dr. Dave Anderson, Executive Director of the LYDIA Home Association (a Christian social service agency in Chicago) reacted to the crisis by writing to Mayor Richard M. Daley. Dr. Anderson made a radical proposition in his letter: What if compassionate Christians opened up their home to children from families in crisis before the children were taken into state custody? The Mayor and one of his trusted deputies responded enthusiastically and helped find seed money to implement this bold undertaking.

By February 2003, Safe Families for Children-Chicago began with a handful of volunteers. This movement has now grown to close to 400 volunteer families in the Chicago area alone with a placement rate of over 30 a month. Hundreds of people have been helped and changed - not only those served by the ministry, but those serving as volunteers as well.

Our goal here at Sunshine is to build a "Safe Families Hub" (a network of churches and social service agencies) on the greater south side of Chicago. Therefore, we have been meeting with pastors/churches, social service agencies, public schools, etc. The vision is to not only mobilize "host families" but also referring and support agencies who will connect us with families who are going through a crisis. Our prayer is that God will raise up a "village" within our community to come alongside families in need.

How can you be involved?
(1)Do you know of a social service agency (hospitals, clinics, after school programs, etc.) located on the south side that we could contact? We are looking both for referral partners (agencies who will refer us families) and for "family resources." Organizations who serve as family resources would be those who provide their services at a discounted price.

(2)Could you connect us with your pastor/elder board to make a Safe Families presentation?

(3)Within the body of Christ we are looking to recruit and mobilize
Host Families - families who practice biblical hospitality by opening their homes to children in need
Family Friends - Individuals who are able to help out with diapers, clothes, doctors visits and other expenses

We greatly appreciate your prayers and assistance as we begin this journey! We are excited about the potential of what God could do in and through His people in the city! For more information contact Erica Avery at eavery@sunshinegospel.org

A New Team Member...Meet Erica Avery

During the month of March, we welcomed a new "team member" to Sunshine to serve as our Safe Families Hub Manager (blog entry forthcoming to further explain Safe Families). Erica Avery was born on Chicago’s south side to two loving parents, Carleton and Desney Avery. From an early age she felt God calling her to a life of service. September 2007 to May 2009 Erica responded to that call by leaving all she knew to be a part of Masters Commission USA, a ministry training program where she learned the importance of discipleship, social justice, race relations, and most importantly the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After Erica Graduated from Masters Commission USA she heard Gods call to bring what she learned back to the inner city of Chicago. During the summer of 2009 Erica joined the Chicago Peace Campaign, a pro peace movement started by Chris Butler, Bishop Edward Peecher and several others that has markedly changed the atmosphere where it has been implemented. Erica soon after began working as the Volunteer Coordinator for a democratic candidate who ran for state representative in the 10th district of Chicago’s North and West side. As the campaign came to a close, Erica began to pray to God for her next assignment. A few weeks later the door opened for Erica to work for Sunshine, specifically focusing on the Safe Families program. Safe Families is a ministry that helps parents who are experiencing a temporary crisis arrange for their children to stay with a Christian family while they address the issues that led to their situation. Erica is currently focused on building up the Safe Families Network in the greater south side of Chicago. We are excited to have Erica serving with us! She is a great asset to our team!

Stay tuned for the Safe Families blog update!...

Bridge Builder Impact

It is college spring break season, therefore at Sunshine it's prime "Bridge Builder season." As many of you know, Bridge Builders is our short term missions trip experience. Last week we hosted 18 students from Eastern Michigan University. This week we have 91 students!!! These students represent the following schools: University of Tennessee, University of North Carolina, Furman College, University of Nebraska, University of Central Florida, Cornerstone University, and Judson College.
We will also host groups over the next 3 weeks from various campuses throughout the country. These groups come ready to learn and ready to serve.

The world's population is becoming increasingly urban. It is estimated that by the year 2030, 60% of the world's population will live in cities! This increasingly urban population will also be increasing poor. Therefore, as followers of Christ, we must be equipped to respond Biblically and missionally to these realities. The Bridge Builders program was designed with these challenges and opportunities in mind. When students spend a week with us they are given chances to learn, serve, and discover within the "classroom" of Chicago.

Learn
Learn Biblical lessons focused on the important topics of God's heart for the city, the poor, racial reconciliation, and justice!

Serve
Serve alongside urban ministries in Chicago through hands-on service projects and ministry visits that will engage your heart and mind, and open your hands!

Discover
Discover the realities of the urban context!

Pray with us that God would use these weeks in a powerful way in the lives of the college students who spend time with us! Pray that they would take the things that they have learned back to their campuses and communities where they can "flesh them out!" Also, please pray for our Bridge Builder's staff: Sarah Murphy, Brian Wongkamalasai, and Joel Hamernick.

Understanding The Urgency

One of our partnering ministries, Africa Revolution, highlighted the efforts of our young people in raising money for ministry efforts in South Africa. Specifically, we raised money to support the Life House - a local church ministry in Mamelodi, South Africa to care for abandoned babies. You can read the update here.

Still Sore From Camp

This past weekend we had our annual winter camp retreat. We headed to Sunshine Cove Christian camp in Union MI with 31 campers, 9 counselors, and a dining hall/kitchen crew composed of 3 high school students. The weather in southwest Michigan was perfect for the weekend! We had roughly 6 inches of snow on the ground and sunshine.

Our theme for the weekend was "Real Love" taken from 1 John 3:16-18. We talked about the amazing, sacrificial, selfless love of Jesus, and how we can demonstrate and display this same type of love to others. The kids really grasped the chapel lessons, and we had great discussions during our break-out times. Even this week during programs they have made statements connecting what we have read for tutoring back to the topic of the weekend.

The schedule was so full of activities that one of our students stayed home from school on Monday due to "soreness." Her first day back at our after school program she requested that we pray that her "soreness from camp would go away." We played indoor games, snow football, broomball on the ice, and went ski-tubing on two different slopes with varying degrees of steepness. We consumed large amounts of Ms. Rhonda's famous cooking and many cups of hot chocolate.

We concluded the weekend with a Sunday worship service at First Baptist Church of Elkhart IN. Pete's dad is the pastor there. They were very generous to us all weekend! They provided us with bus transportation to and from camp, and also had a "pizza buffet" lunch for us after the Sunday service. We are very grateful for all of their assistance over the course of the weekend!

Our kids are already looking forward to summer camp, and they are our best recruiters!

Kingdom Lenses

In our work with young people, one thing that by God's grace we want them to develop is Kingdom lenses. In other words, we want them to view the neighborhood and the nations with the love, compassion, and justice of God. One way that we have done this recently is by having our kids bring in their spare change for the benefit of others.

During the month of December, our youth programs raised money for the Life House in Mamelodi, South Africa. The Life House is a ministry of the Powerhouse Church in the township of Mamelodi to care for abandoned babies. In the midst of extreme poverty, and a growing HIV infection rate many women feel hopeless when faced with the prospect of caring for another life. This local church, in collaboration with the U.S. based ministry Africa Revolution, seeks to come alongside these mothers and help them care for these precious babies. When we described what the Life House was doing to impact the lives of babies in South Africa, our young people immediately "got it." They routinely brought in their spare change and bills each week. One of our 3rd graders even told her mom she was going to give her $5 allowance to the "babies in Africa!" At the end of the month, our kids had raised $75 towards this worthy cause.

This month we have decided to raise money to Haiti. We have spoken to our kids about the effects of the earthquake, specifically what it has done to families in Haiti. We have watched "Youtube" videos that portray the devastation. Shortly after we decided to raise money for Haiti, we received an email from AWANA Clubs International describing the work of AWANA in Haiti through local churches there. It seemed like a natural fit for our AWANA club at Sunshine (and our other youth programs) to raise money for the AWANA clubs in Haiti! The following video was produced by AWANA, and was viewed by our club this past Monday night.



We will do a follow-up post to keep you updated on how much money our kids have raised for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Christmas Store 2009

2010 Preface: The New Year has begun with a flurry of activity for us here at Sunshine. We have already hosted a Bridge Builder group, begun teaching classes at a second Community Technology Center (@ Christ Bible Church), and re-launched all of our after school programs after the holiday break! Therefore, this update was slightly delayed but definitely not forgotten.

Our Christmas Store this past year was on Saturday December 19. It was a great day! The day before the store we had a FULL day of sorting, pricing, and setting up the store. When Saturday morning arrived, we were ready! We had a great store staff comprised of Sunshine staff, volunteers, and friends. One of my favorite parts of the store was serving together all day. We invited approximately 60 families to come and shop at the store. I was outside during the store hours, greeting people as they came in and helping them load their cars if needed. That gave me the opportunity to ask people "how it went." Everyone seemed to have had a great time at the store, and for that we praise the Lord. We really wanted the love of Christ to be displayed and felt by all who came through our doors, and by God's grace I think this happened! Here are some answers to some frequently asked questions concerning the store...

What did you do with the proceeds from the store?
We "gifted" the proceeds to five families who were in need of a little financial assistance as the holidays approached. Pete, our youth pastor, and his wife Nikki delivered the cash gifts to the families the week after the store. These deliveries were a pleasant surprise to the families involved. They were received with smiling faces and great appreciation! One of the mothers stopped by our office just this week to once again thank us in person, and to drop off a thank-you card and letter to our staff.

Did you have leftover gifts, and what do you do with them?
We will be using the surplus gifts three different ways:
(1) We will use leftover toys in our "Sunshine Stores" for the children in our after-school programs. In all of our youth programs: AWANA, Club 2-5-2, Horizons, and ASM - we have a mini-economy set up. Our students earn Sunshine bucks through attendance, good behavior, saying memory verses, academic progress, etc. Then every couple of months we set up a store where they have an opportunity to spend their Sunshine Bucks. This not only serves as a great incentive for the kids, it also allows us to teach financial literacy in an experiential way!

(2)We are donating clothing items to a partner ministry of ours here in the neighborhood called "2nd CHANCE." 2nd CHANCE works towards transitioning women from homelessness to self-sufficiency by providing them shelter and guidance on every day living. The transitional home is located on the second floor of the building. The first floor houses 2nd CHANCE Resale Boutique. It is an upscale thrift store, which helps to support the transitional home.

(3)We are donating any surplus baby/toddler items to another of our partnering ministries, Africa Revolution (AR). AR is committed to church-based orphan care in impoverished areas of South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique. We will be sending a package to South Africa to be used at the newly launched "Life House" for abandoned babies.

We want to thank everyone who donated to our store this year! We are continuously overwhelmed by the generosity of our supporters - both churches and individuals. The economic downturn only seemed to inspire greater generosity from God's people! We also want to thank everyone who served with us on the day of the store. We look forward to continue to partner with all of you in ongoing Kingdom work in the new year!