Congratulations

Congratulations to two of our Sonshine Learning Center students for making it to the National IFL Competition! Isabella Patricio placed 2^nd in the Reading Comprehension category and Jemaicah Tanedo made it to top 9 for Declamation category. We are so proud of you and to God be the glory!

Congratulations

Congratulations to two of our Sonshine Learning Center students for making it to the National IFL Competition! Isabella Patricio placed 2^nd in the Reading Comprehension category and Jemaicah Tanedo made it to top 9 for Declamation category. We are so proud of you and to God be the glory!

We are Expanding

 

At Sonshine Center, we have decided that since we can’t fit every child we want to reach out to at the Center or in our jeepney, we undertook the exciting adventure of starting Sonshine Kid’s Club (Children’s Church) in two satellite locations, San Isidro and Calajunan.  San Isidro is a relocation site that some of our missionaries are working with for community development. There are over 1000 kids estimated to be living there. We are going there once a month to start with to do Sonshine Kids Club. We have opened our outreach in San Isidro last January with a dental clinic and about 50 kids  came to be checked by our volunteer dentist. Last February 26, we did our regular program for Sonshine Kids Club and about 80 kids showed up! We can’t wait to see how God will transform these kid’s lives as they get to know Jesus.

Nate and Abegail Shuck are our missionaries who has a heart for Calajunan, the city’s trash dump site. The Shucks are working along side the local church to develop a Sonshine Kids Club as well as they will be launching a community development project to equip and train the families to grow FAITH GARDENS(Food available in the house- gardens). The area around the church building will be set up as an organic urban farm, growing organic fruits and vegetables which will be used up for the feeding program. The rest of the produce can be sold in the market for profit which will then help the church become self sufficient and self sustaining thus enabling the church to continually reach the lost children and families of Iloilo City.

 

These two locations are a product of a dream and we thank God that He enables us to fulfill our dreams.

 

Kingdom Quest

The warm breeze brought by the promising season of summer is finally here! And for this, the staffs are passionately working again for another unforgettable summer camp adventure with this year’s theme “Kingdom Quest”. Kids will learn that they have a destiny as they face trials, stay faithful, trust in God, and forgive others. In Discovery Time children will discover who they really are—children of the King of Kings!  Princes and Princesses don’t just happen in fairy tales. They are our children’s identity in God’s Kingdom!

Please help a “prince or princess” discover his or her true identity in God’s kingdom by sending him/her to camp this summer.  For a donation of $10 per camper, the child will get to attend a three day camp full of fun, Bible stories, games and surprises! If you are sending your donation to Go to Nations (info at the back) please specify that you want it designated for camps.

 

Life Changing

He is one of the original “street kids” that Camp Sonshine was reaching out to when it first started in 2003. He started coming to Camp Sonshine at the age of 6 but he confessed that he only went for the snacks; all the teachings never entered his mind. He thought then that life was a game so he involved himself with the wrong company, sniffing rugby (an adhesive solvent that makes one high) with the “rugby boys”, smoking cigarette and stealing. He also earned his first pay by doing traffic in the grocery parking lot and assisting customers carry bags to their car. But now, at age 14, he is far from the boy he used to be. He plays guitar during worship at the Center, plays the drum in his church, and he is one of the youth leaders undergoing our discipleship program. Zacarias or “Car-Car”, as he is fondly called has come a long way for being a part of Sonshine Center. He knew that his old life was not pleasing to God and wants to be a role model to the younger ones. He attends the Bible study regularly and wants to minister to his fellow youth.

Car-Car now regards his life with more meaning having realized that Jesus died for him and loves him so much. He is happy to have Jesus in his life and wants to share that happiness with others by sharing with them the truth about the gospel. He will be graduating in Elementary this April. We are so proud of what he has accomplished and we know that God will fulfill Jeremiah 29:11(“For I know that plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”) in Car-Car’s life.

Visions with a mission

After graduating from high school I decided to take a year off and not go straight to college due to some financial difficulties my family was going through. Before graduating high school I lived with the Landis family. During the summer season I helped as a counselor at Camp Sonshine throughout our region of the Philippines. After camp Jesse Landis the director & founder of Camp Sonshine Philippines, talked to me if I want to help with the after school program and if I was interested in being an intern at Camp Sonshine for the next year. I had no idea that saying yes would drastically change the rest of my life. God changed me as I walked with Him and changed my perspective in life.

Working with different kinds of children, tested my patience and through that God showed me how much He loves the children even if they were difficult. In that span of a year, God changed my plans and what degree I would pursue in college. I really wanted to be a nurse, since my oldest brother was a nurse in London. I thought he could assist me in some of the medical studies. But God had a better plan for me. I graduated last March 28, 2010 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education. God is so faithful and true. Currently I am a kinder-1 teacher at the Sonshine Learning Center. I thank God for Camp Sonshine Center Foundation, Inc. and Sonshine Learning Center for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to serve and teach the children in school. Through them I was able to reach the next step of God’s purpose in my life.