Home from Haiti

Haiti Pictures Link

An exhausted mission team has returned home after a very hard week of work with the Haitian people. I'm so proud of every one of the members on the trip and the great things we accomplished for the cause of Christ.
I'm very appreciative for the safe travel and grateful to be home with my wife and family, yet (I think I speak for each one of us) it seems somewhat unfair to come home to so much and leave those behind who have so little. If there were one thing I think I have learned from this experience it would be that small efforts can make an enormous difference in the lives of others. The young man in the bottom photo really captured the hearts of several of us on this trip! I'm currently uploading pictures to a Kodak Gallery and will post a link when completed.

Some pictures of Haiti....

A woman named Robin was in Haiti while the Sunshine crew was there and she emailed this link to Mike Dixon. It is some of the pictures that she took.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=16jv3s04.c6wxkf4&Uy=mz0ker&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

It is a real eye-opener for those of us that didn't go. You do NOT have to sign-up or pay for anything to see the pictures.

Hello From Haiti

First off I want to say that we arrived safely in Haiti along with all of our luggage and supplies! Everyone wishes to tell their families that they love them and miss them.

To Jodi and the girls - Aaron misses you very much and he is fine.
To Sam - I'm keeping an eye on Karen for you and she sends her love.
To Candi - Matthew and I are fine and we send our love to you and Morgan.
Kristine and the girls - Jason misses you and is well.
To the Dixon family - Mike is fine and sends his kisses and love.
To Mark and the girls - Brandy is fine and doing very well. She misses you very much!

We have been in Port au Prince, but will be leaving tomorrow so we most likely will not be able to send anything else until Friday evening (if at all)
The mission is going very good. We have had over 400 people treated so far! We have so many stories to tell. The daily letters you sent are wonderful and inspiring.
The abject poverty in Port au Prince is staggering! The people are wonderful, spirited and we have made many, many friends both Haitian and American! God is blessing our efforts for sure! Tomorrow we are traveling to the country side for two more days of medical clinics. On Friday we will most likely be going to an orphanage rather than the ocean. We are all overwelmed!
Aaron say to tell you the toilets in Haiti flush clockwise like in the US!
Matthew may be bringing home a bride!
We have seen so many children we would like to bring home with us!
I can't get any pictures to load but we will have many to share with you when we get home.
Please continue to pray for us and our mission!

Prayer On The Blog

I'd like to ask anyone who wants to lead us all in prayer for the Haiti Mission Team to help me by posting a prayer each day here on the church blog. I would like to think there would be enough of us wanting to do this, that we would have titles to posts called "Morning Prayer", "Afternoon Prayer" and "Evening Prayer". I think this is a great thing to do and I hope to have your cooperation during the entire week they're gone. We are simply talking to God as a large group of people from all over the world (considering we have visitors to this blog from everywhere). How good to know that people everywhere will be praying your prayer about our church family?!

Jennifer

Initiated Into Adoption

by John Eldredge

“He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will…which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:5-6)


We aren’t meant to figure life out on our own. God wants to father us. The truth is, he has been fathering us for a long time we just haven’t had the eyes to see it. He wants to father us much more intimately, but we have to be in a posture to receive it. What that involves is a new way of seeing, a fundamental reorientation of how we look at life, and our situation in it.

First, we allow that we are unfinished people, partial men and women, mostly child on the inside, and we need initiation. In many, many ways. Second, we turn from our independence and all the ways we either charge at life or shrink from it; this may be one of the most basic and the most crucial ways a person repents. I say “repent” because our approach to life is based on the conviction that God, for the most part, doesn’t show up much. I understand where the conviction came from, battle it constantly myself, but still it’s faithless, is it not? We must be willing to take an enormous risk and open our hearts to the possibility that God is initiating us maybe in the very things in which we thought he’d abandoned us. We open ourselves up to being fathered.

I’ll admit, it doesn’t come easily. A sort of fundamental mistrust is something we learn through the course of our days, built on that core mistrust in God we inherited from Adam. Making the switch will feel awkward. As Gerald May says, the more we’ve become accustomed to seeking life apart from God, the more “abnormal and stressful” it seems “to look for God directly.”
Especially as a Father, fathering us. But it is worth it. It is worth it. Worth allowing ourselves to be fathered, accepting that this new way of living will take some getting used to, and taking the posture that we’ll do whatever it takes to get used to it.

What I’m suggesting is that we reframe the way we look at our lives. And the way we look at our relationships with God. The reframing begins when we see that a person’s life is a process of initiation into true masculinity and femininity. It is a series of stages we soak in and progress through. And as for God, I believe that what he is primarily up to at any point in a person’s life is initiating him. So much of what we interpret as hassles or trials or screw-ups on our part are in fact God fathering us, taking us through something in order to strengthen us, or heal us, or dismantle some unholy thing in us.

In other words, initiate us into our true position as adopted children of a good Father.

This Week
Ask the Lord to help you reframe the way you approach life and give you the grace to do whatever it takes to allow yourself to be fathered.

Prayer
“Father, your word says that I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Please help me to reframe the way I approach life, and give me the grace to open myself up to be fathered by you.”


(Adapted from The Way of the Wild Heart by John Eldredge. Watch John on LIFE Today on Monday and Tuesday, January 21-22. )

Haiti Mission Team

Brandy Gampp, Scott Gampp, Aaron Kallner, Matt Gampp, Mike Dixon, Jason Coriell & Karren Griffith

From January 19 - 26th, these missionaries are headed to Haiti to do God's work. These brothers and sisters are exactly who God wanted to go, and for His purpose. From all of us at Sunshine, our thoughts, love and prayers go with you.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15: 4-6 NIV

Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray wrote these words to himself when facing a difficult situation:

"First, he brought me here, it is by His will I am in this strait place; in that fact I will rest.

Next, he will keep me here in His love, and give me grace to behave as His child.

Then, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.

Last, in his good time He can bring me out again-how and when He knows.

Let me say I am here,

(1) By God's appointment,
(2) In His keeping,
(3) Under His training,
(4) For His time. "

In my reading, I came across this - I thought I'd share.

God-given dreams

Last Saturday, I attended the Martin Luther King Scholarship Breakfast. Something was said that has really resonated with me. So, I am passing it on to see if it strikes any of you.

One of the speakers referred to MLK as having a "God-given" dream. She went on to state her belief that we all have God-given dreams.

I, too, believe in God-given dreams. I am constantly dreaming about our congregation. Most every experience I have, whether it be business or church related, I think of Sunshine. I note things going well, things going not-so-well, strengths, weakness, on and on. Over time, I have come to realize that my true passion is the congregation. Every good thing I come across, my first thought is 'How can this help the congregation?' Likewise, the failures of the congregation bother me personally, even if the particular situation has nothing specifically to do with me.

Factoring out pride and ego-centrism (which I confess is a continual need), I believe the origin of my dreams are from God. I think that it is right to put to the focus on the family of faith. I think the Sunshine congregation is a good place to pour out time and energy. The trick is not letting glorification of self mix with a pure desire to see the work of Christ accomplished right here at home- where you and I live.

Really, that is the dream! To see the work of Christ ongoing in the Sunshine family. To see the community reached, because that the logical outgrowth of the work of Christ being accomplished among us. To see CHANGE! I want to see people overcome the world, to find love and express love in ways and to degrees that could only be accounted for by God's power.

It's really best expressed, "Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven."

What are your dreams for the Sunshine congregation?

Ohio State Championship Game

Anyone interested in catching the OSU Championship game at Innermission tonight? The building will be open for anyone wanting to enjoy the game with a lot of fellowship. Bring family and friends, enjoy the game, and have a good time. We'll order some pizza when we see how many we need. Game starts at 8:00.

For Our Favorite Librarian

I read this earlier and couldn’t help sharing it here… well I guess I could have resisted the urge but why? It’s pretty funny in a weird way – and I’m good with that!

So Tim – this is for you…

Oh – Yeah, you have to replace the “she” in this joke with “he“– the “he” being Tim. It’s really not that difficult, I think we can pull it off but you have to use a little imagination.

Once again…this is for you Tim…


A librarian is working away at her desk when she notices that a chicken has come into the library and is patiently waiting in front of the desk. When the chicken sees that it has the librarian's attention, it squawks, "Book, book, book, BOOK!" The librarian complies, putting a couple of books down in front of the chicken. The chicken quickly grabs them and disappears. The next day, the librarian is again disturbed by the same chicken, who puts the previous day's pile of books down on the desk and again squawks, "Book, book, book, BOOK!" The librarian shakes her head, wondering what the chicken is doing with these books, but eventually finds some more books for the chicken. The chicken disappears. The next day, the librarian is once again disturbed by the chicken, who squawks (in a rather irritated fashion, it seems), "Book, book, book, BOOK!" By now, the librarian's curiosity has gotten the better of her, so she gets a pile of books for the chicken, and follows the bird when it leaves the library. She follows it through the parking lot, down the street for several blocks, and finally into a large park. The chicken disappears into a small grove of trees, and the librarian follows. On the other side of the trees is a small marsh. The chicken has stopped on the side of the marsh. The librarian, now really curious, hurries over and sees that there is a small frog next to the chicken, examining each book, one at a time. The librarian comes within earshot just in time to hear the frog saying, "Read it, read it, read it..."


I could’ve altered the joke by inserting Tim into it myself, but I think we would all agree that we need the opportunity to exercise our imaginations from time to time – and it’s just funnier this way.


By the way – I hope there are no rules against putting “fowl” jokes on our church blog-site or I’m in a lot of trouble. :p

Party For Zoe!

On January 13th at 3:00PM, we are having a birthday/welcome home party for Zoe and we're planning to show pictures of the China trip. So, after church is over go grab something to eat and come back to the church building for some cake and pictures!

We were too exhausted to have a birthday party for her on her birthday (January 2nd) so this will be her actual party.

Jennifer

OSU at Innermission

Anyone interested in catching the OSU Championship game at Innermission Monday night? The building will be open for anyone wanting to enjoy the game with a lot of fellowship. Bring family and friends, enjoy the game, and have a good time. We'll order some pizza when we see how many we need. Game starts at 8:00.