Monday, April 28, 2008

A Process Report on Sunshine Cove

Dear Friends,

I am excited to be able to give you an update about what is happening with our summer ministry.

As you know, we have been blessed to own and operate Sunshine Cove Christian Camp for many years and this has been our focus for ministry during summer. Over the past year, however, we have decided to no longer operate our own facility and have wrestled with how to go about transitioning the facility to new ownership.

I am grateful to be able to tell you that Sunshine Gospel Ministries will remain in partnership with Sunshine Cove and will be sending campers to the Cove again this summer. During the past few months we have been negotiating a process that we expect to result in Sunshine Cove Christian Camp becoming a separate entity, operating as a new independent ministry.

This new partnership arrangement will allow Sunshine to expand what we are doing this summer here in the city. Each year the youth in our community face struggles of the urban context scarcely imaginable to most. In just this past week Chicago’s urban communities have dealt with more than 35 shootings – about half have been in our community and those that immediately surround us.

As we wrestle with what effective urban youth ministry means this summer, we realize that God is calling us to have a more profound neighborhood presence. With this in mind we will be providing 8 weeks of youth technology programming (TECHcamp and After School Matters programming) as well as 6 weeks of Summer Blast (this in addition to our overnight, residential camping at Sunshine Cove). We will also continue our Bible studies and youth outreach events, reaching hundreds of kids here in our community.

We depend on your partnership and are grateful for your role in bringing the hope of the gospel and the hands of Christ to our community. Please partner with us generously this summer in both financial support and in prayer. Your financial support will allow us to increase the number of youth that are able to attend camp – Summer blast, TECH camp, and Sunshine Cove. Standing with us in prayer will enable you to surround us with spiritual protection extending to the physical well-being of our youth, their families and our staff.

Thank you for your prayer and financial support!

Joel on behalf of the Sunshine family.

P.S. If you would like to learn more about about ministry or, would like to give to our summer camp outreach, visit our new website at www.sunshinegospel.org