The 61st St A's

(Deanna, Nikki, Brittney, and Taniya at WMBI!)


(Deanna & Taniya in the booth!)

The "61st Street A’s"

The 61st Street A’s are buckling down and ready to win! Our middle school girls here at Sunshine have been playing their first year of little league softball this summer. Coached by myself and our high school intern,Nikki Blodgett, our season started off about 2 months ago. Most, if not all, of our girls had never played the game before. We even had girls ask if they could wear gloves on both hands so they could be more likely to catch the ball! Yet, after smoothing out the kinks and finding our groove, our team is beginning to truly look like a team.

Every game we’ve played we have grown in our competitiveness. We recently lost only by one run! It is so exciting to see the unity within our team of teen girls. They have truly grown together, become amazing friends, and developed softball skills and even skills for life. We have not only worked with the girls on hitting and fielding the ball, but on representing Christ with their attitudes, and on responsibility, and teamwork.

Some of my favorite times with the girls are the long drives through traffic to the West Side games as sing our favorite songs at the top of our lungs, laugh, and share our hearts with one another. The relationships that this season has facilitated couldn’t be forced in any other way, but have come together by the grace of God.

As the season started, I was able to go on WMBI Moody Radio and talk about our season and the needs that we had as far as equipment. Not only did we receive a plentiful amount of items to be able to be supplied for the season, today we (Nikki and I) were able to go back on the radio show with two of our players- Taniya and Deanna. Though we were all a little nervous, we had an amazing time sharing with listening ears about our team and Sunshine.

Continue to pray for relationships, discipleship, and even a win for the 61st Street A’s!!

Brittney Rost
HS Ministry Coordinator
Brittney also has a personal blog called "A City Light" that you can check out here.

A Week At Camp

(D'andra, T'anna, and Natalie enjoying a rainy day at camp)

Last week at camp was fantastic! The best part was chapel time. I really enjoyed talking about God and learning more about how He invaded the world (John 1:14). I learned that no one is perfect, and that we all make mistakes and sin (Romans 3:23). It’s up to us to learn from those mistakes, and make choices that would please God.

D'andra Phillips
HS Intern Youth Outreach
D'andra will be a senior at DuSable High School in the fall.

Camp, Day Camp, & A Book Discussion

(Brittany Fisher is pictured on the left)

Last week (June 20-24) at camp was a decent week! I felt that the kids actually learned about God, and got to express some thoughts that they had. I also believe that they now feel more comfortable to be Christians in every environment they may be placed in.

So far this week has been great! The kids are having a great time at Summer Blast (our summer day camp for 7 through 11 year olds), and I feel like the summer staff has been doing a good job teaching the kids and bonding with them as well.

Finally, we are also discussing the book Radical Together as a youth staff. We discussed the second chapter yesterday. The book discussion went well! I actually learned something, and got a different view on the gospel!!

Brittany Fisher
HS Intern
Brittany will be a freshman at Eastern Illinois University in the fall.

Educating Our Youth

Educating Our Youth

During our staff training we had the opportunity to watch a film about the education system in America called "Waiting For Superman." The documentary highlighted five families that were currently involved in one of the most surreal aspects of our present public education system, school lotteries. These school lotteries that leave the fulfillment of a child's hopes and dreams to nothing more than a series of random numbers. This was my first time watching this film but as I was watching it I began to become heartbroken because the parents desired a great education for their children but weren’t able to get it because of the low quality of schools in their area. I could empathize with these parents because being a parent myself I want the best for my children, especially with their educational endeavors. I enjoyed this quote by the narrator of the film, “I think that every kid, no matter where they are born or what they have been given in life, deserves a great education." I believe we, as a country, and especially Christians should desire a great education for all kids across America. It shouldn’t matter the status of the child or where they come from to determine the type of education they get. After watching this film I was left with this question: how do I as a Christian respond to the current state of our education system? I believe we have answered this question at Sunshine by volunteering in our local schools and providing afterschool programs for our kids. Although we aren’t in government to change laws that can help better our schools we can do tangible things like this to support our local schools and come alongside our kids to support them.

Nikki Blodgett
Summer Youth Intern
Nikki will be junior this fall at Moody Bible Institute. She is a youth ministry major.

The Main Thing

During staff training, I had the opportunity to teach a session on discipleship, entitled "A Worthy Investment." This topic of making disciples has been a consistent theme of conversations, meetings, and times of prayer that we have been having as a Youth Outreach staff. Over the last few months, I have read a couple of books that have further fueled my fire to see disciples made in all nations. These two books are: “The Complete Book Of Discipleship” by Bill Hull and “Radical Together” by David Platt. Platt challenges us to think about what we as communities of faith (Churches, ministries, etc.) are devoting our time and resources towards. He exhorts us to ask ourselves, “Are these programs and activities the best way to spend our time, money, and energy for the spread of the Gospel in our neighborhood and in all the nations?”

As we read through “Radical Together” as a staff, we are asking ourselves this question. We recognize that making disciples is not an 8 week assignment, but rather a lifelong commitment to a lifestyle devoted to seeing “Christ formed” in others (Galatians 4:19). It is hard work. It is messy. Yet, it is what God has both commanded and created us to do. Living out the Great Commission, and devoting our lives to it, is in our DNA as Christ-ones! In the same way that Jesus called His disciples to Him that they might be “with Him” (Mark 3:14), we desire to make discipleship time with our youth a priority this summer. I like the way Paul put it in his letter to the Thessalonians - that we share not only the Gospel, but our lives as well (1 Thess. 2:8). Pray with us that as a staff this summer we would “spend ourselves” on behalf of others in life on life discipleship!

Dave Clark
Youth Outreach Director
You can read Dave's personal blog, "Continuing Education," here.

It's Been A Whole Year...

It’s been a whole year…

Over twelve months ago I arrived in Chicago after spending four years in Phoenix, Arizona. My entire life, mindset and spiritual outlook was completely different. I wanted to do ministry and help people, but I also had my own ambitions I was tending to. I had so many opinions, ideologies, presumptions and perspectives of myself and how God viewed me. Some of them weren’t entirely wrong. For example, I loved to share the gospel and dance for Gods glory. However, the way I exemplified this wasn’t exactly the healthiest.

I thought I was doing someone a favor by telling them about the love of Jesus then politely sending them on their way. I figured they had now received the gift of salvation and if I pray hard enough “someone” will take it upon themselves to disciple them. One thing that I missed and realized is that according to the scriptures, if I proclaim the Gospel and the redeeming power of Jesus Christ AND they decide to Follow Christ, they are now “my” disciples just as Paul exclaims to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:12-14. The funny thing is I graduated and helped start a discipleship program, yet I failed to grasp the blatant concept of Matthew 28:19-20. Over the next twelve months little by little my eyes were opened to the simple truth: Discipleship and Evangelism go hand in hand.

You can’t effectively evangelize without making disciples and you can’t make effective disciples without continued evangelism. I would challenge all Christians who are proclaiming the good news to not just throw an Easter outreach say a prayer then move on to the next lost soul, but MAKE disciples!

Mike Avery
Club 2-5-2 Director
D3 Movement Founder

A Long Journey

A Long Journey
1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Last night I had the privilege of watching the final game of the 2011 NBA finals with some of my close friends. I love the NBA, and I love sports! I love the idea of a player working as hard as he can to reach a goal, and even if it takes years, finally achieving that goal. As I watched the final moments of the game, I just thought about the players on the winning team, and their dedication to the game. Jason Kidd who is now 38 and has played 17 years and failed twice at winning the NBA title. Dirk Nowitzki who has played for his same team 13 years and reached the finals once but lost. Of course there were more, but these players stand out because they believed in each other and stuck with what everyone said was impossible for them to do. It reminded me, to not grow weary in well doing!

Then I reflected on my peers and I at Sunshine Gospel Ministries. Some of us have been doing ministry for years, and others are newer to the set, yet we all have one common goal, and that is to see the Great Commission fleshed out in our neighborhood. Sometimes It seems like this work is not paying off, but every so often we get the great reward of a student telling us how they have been touched, changed or encouraged. The prayers sent up, the time spent, and the great sacrifices made, all pay off in those moments. We are "YO"(youth outreach) team missionaries! Please keep us in prayer as we move forward this summer!

CW Allen
High School Ministry Coordinator
Sunshine Gospel Ministries
CW will be a junior this fall at Moody Bible Institute.
He is also a musical artist. You can check out his music here.