FEBRUARY 2009 NEWSLETTER AND MARCH 2009 CALENDAR

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me. Matt: 25:40

Lakewood Nursing Home Salem Village Nursing Home
Rosewood Care Center Sunny Hill Nursing Home
Paradise Park Assisted Living

I don’t believe we have ever experienced a month like we have just had in February. So many good things have happened; I hope I can fit it all into the Newsletter. Regardless how much we have already grown since we started four years ago, I keep praying the prayer of Jabez, that God would Bless us and enlarge our territory and He continues to answer in ways that we cannot comprehend.

For some time now, we have been praying about a Ministry at Sunny Hill Nursing Home. We have had several people ask us to come, and our answer has always been, “we will be happy to come if God works it out so we can”, thinking in our minds that it would be impossible to take on another Nursing Home since we have four already and there are only four Sundays in a month, however, we must never under estimate what God can do. We continued to pray for His Will to be done and we let Him know our heartbeat and our willingness to go where ever He sends us and isn’t it just like Jesus, to make it all work out.

I was praying about this one day when the Lord revealed His answer to me. Amanda Fuller and her son Rhys along with the Cherry Family and Judy Pine, our pianist, are a very faithful part of the Ministry team at Paradise Park and what a Blessing it would be if the Lord just used them to continue on with the services there. Amanda has always had a soft heart for this home. She and her husband, Jonathan, also work with the youth at their church and they could get the youth group involved and what a Blessing that would be. So I prayed “Lord you have given me the answer so I am assuming you have already spoken to Amanda”, and with that in mind, I picked up the phone and called her and before I could say a word, Amanda says, “I was just getting ready to call you”. I think we would like to do the services at Paradise Park” and I simply said “Thank you Jesus”.

He always works it out. We never want to cancel services at any of the homes that we have started, however, we were sure God was calling us to Sunny Hill, and the key to it all is, you never jump ahead of God, you just ask Him and He will work it all out for you. What a mighty God we serve. The amazing thing about it all, Sunny Hill just had a church cancel their ministry on the same Sunday afternoon that we would have available to come. Our first service was on the 4th Sunday of February and we had a wonderful service. After the service, a gentleman wanted to talk and I sat down beside him and he said, “I have a weight in my chest and it’s so heavy” and I prayed with him to receive Christ. It was a good day and it was a re-affirmation that God had opened these doors and made it all possible.

We had a great service at Lakewood in Plainfield on the first Sunday with almost 60 people present. The residents there really look forward to our coming and they wanted to sing a song for us this month. They sang “You are my Savior” to the tune of “You are my Sunshine” and what a Blessing that was. So many times you do Ministries like this to be a Blessing to others and you feel like you walk away receiving all the Blessings. It was great to hear all the residents singing. Our own Ministry team, Nellie and Joe Anglin sang a special number and Karl, Margie and Kim sang a special number so we had some really good music this month, good preaching and good devotional.

We continue to have the services in the Dining area at Salem and that seems to be working out well. We don’t have to haul the equipment so far and we don’t have the elevator problems that we use to have. Despite the fact that Rosewood had a lot of sick people this month, we still had a good service. Each one of the homes has their own personalities and it never gets boring. We look forward to seeing the residents that we have become so close to and we have them at each of the homes.

We have changed our weekly visitation at the homes, instead of going to Salem each week; we are visiting each individual Nursing Home the week prior to going there on Sunday for the service. That allows us to visit all the homes and get to know all the people and it allows us to reach out to so many more people. We pass out lots of tracts and brochures. Our visits are never the same, some visits are really good and we can talk about Jesus with just about everyone we meet. Others days we just listen or pray with residents who are sick, depressed and hurting. We never know from one week to the next what God has in store for us, we just ask for wisdom and His perfect Will to be done and we pray that He will lead us to the ones who need us that day.

I want to share with all of you, another outreach the Sonshine Ministry has decided to do, and that is to support 2 Missionaries whose Ministries have become dear to our hearts. Since so many of you contribute to the Ministry, I want you to know who these Missionaries are.

First of all, Bob Holmes, the One man Volleyball guy, visited our church last year and he has a Ministry of going into the schools and playing volleyball with the various teams, and he usually always wins, and then he preaches at a rally, to a group of young people on how to “beat the odds” against drinking, suicide, drugs and sex. He has had over 30,000 kids raise their hand for salvation since 9/11. He has an incredible ministry but desperately needs supporters. We have agreed to give him $50.00 per month so we can be a part of this great Ministry. (You can personally support this Missionary for as little as $10.00 per month).

Secondly, Tom Graef and his family are going to Romania as missionaries. This family visited our church last year and we fell in love with them. They not only presented their heartbeat for going to Romania at our church, but they helped us in the Nursing Home service in the afternoon. They have been a real Blessing and inspiration to us. They are currently working with youth in their church and are leading many to the Lord. We pledged $50.00 per month for support to this wonderful family.

The mission and heartbeat of the Sonshine Outreach Ministry is to lead people to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There are so many people in our world who live in darkness and have no knowledge that Jesus saves and can give them a new life in Him. While our ministry is mainly with the Nursing Homes, we are also thrilled to be a part of the Ministries of these two Missionaries who are leading so many young people to the Lord. We are very wise stewards of God’s money and feel it will be multiplied many times over as we give to these Missionaries.

I praise the Lord that He is using this ministry to reach out to so many people and it continues to grow and we are humbled that God is using each one of us as His servant.

Beginning in April, we are planning a Sunday night sing, every 4th Sunday, 6:00pm Come bring your talents.

PLEASE NOTE: All contributions to our ministry should be made payable to “Sonshine Outreach Ministries”. You can mail your gift to SonShine Outreach Ministries, c/o Joyce Mancke, 509 Rhonda Dr., Lockport, IL. 6044l. Your gifts are tax deductible and you will receive an end of the year statement.

Our schedule for March is as follows;
Lakewood Nursing Home, Plainfield – Mar 1st @ 2:30 p.m.,
Salem Village, Joliet – Mar 8th @ 2:30 p.m.
Rosewood Rehab Ctr. –Joliet -Mar...15th @ 2:00 p.m.
Sunny Hill, Joliet –Mar. 22nd @ 2:30 p.m.

Everyone is welcome. Come join us, we need your talents. You will make a difference and God will bless you for it.

Respectfully submitted by Joyce Mancke
EMAIL: jmancke@sbcglobal.net

Telephone: 815-351-7659