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!