January 2013 Sonshine Hacienda Newsletter

A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS

At 7:30 sharp on Christmas morning, we opened the doors to our living room at Sonshine Hacienda and 16 bright eyed, excited children entered the room and ran towards the Christmas tree. They were overwhelmed I am sure by the huge mound of presents surrounding the tree and spilling out onto the floor. All around the room the children also found their Santa Stockings, filled to the brim with all sorts of perfumes, lotions, manicure sets for girls and airplanes, hot wheels, card games, etc. for the boys. The first order of business were their stockings...they seemed delighted with every little thing. Then the chaos began! The children began opening their gifts and it was such fun to see the excitement in their eyes as they opened their specially selected gifts for each child. Every child received a new set of clothes to wear to church, a new pair of pajamas, new tennis shoes and other items of clothing, and then there were the TOYS! The boys were all about cars and Legos!  The girls were all about Barbie and Barbie assessors!  I have never seen so many toys at one time...what a sight it was.  But the best was yet to come. While the children were in the process of opening their gifts inside, there were ELF'S outside of the patio preparing for an even bigger surprise for the kids. When things finally wound down and the kids had finally opened all the gifts, there came a knock at the door.  One of the children answered the door and were told that all the children were needed outside immediately!!  As they filed out the door, their eyes were filled with wonder and amazement. For there in a semi-circle were 16 beautiful brand new bicycles! What a special gift God had provided for these children!!  The children rushed to the bikes and thanks to large name tags, they were able to find their bikes in record time, put on their bike helmets and begin to take the bikes for their first ride. It was so funny when Rene (9 years old) came to me and told me that there was something wrong with his bike...it did't work right. I had to explain to him that he had to learn to ride the bike. He was very disappointed that he couldn't just take off and ride. But good news...he has mastered the bike and is doing great on his two wheeler.

Now for the rest of the story. We cannot begin to thank all of you who helped make Christmas so special for our children at Sonshine Hacienda. Thank you for all the love that was poured out to the children this Christmas season. Thanks to the donation of all the bicycles,bicycle helmets, shoes, money to buy all the toys that were under the tree for the children...we even were given a Karoke Machine!  We were blessed with so many gifts that I do not even have space to list them.  I also need to thank the local Mexican community of San Felipe for their love and attention that they showed the children of Sonshine. We had High Schools, families, Mexican Churches from the Los Angeles area, local restaurants, and many people we did not know drop by with gifts, food and Piñata's for the holidays. These visits are called "Posada's" and they are so wonderful. What an outpouring of love that was displayed!!  It is interesting...Santa's name was never mentioned that I recall...BUT WE DID PRAISE OUR HEAVENLY FATHER FOR THE BOUNTY OF HIS BLESSINGS THAT WE RECEIVED!!


 

OUR SPORTS FIELD...A DREAM COMING TRUE!!

During the past year, we have have seen a level of excitement grow for the development of a sports field on our empty lot that is adjacent to our Sonshine building. The leadership of Sonshine Hacienda all were in agreement that we needed this Sports Field for the children's physical activities. While all were in agreement, but I have to say that Alvaro, our Administrator was the Head Cheer Leader for the development of the Sports Field and was busy urging us to make this a top priority. It all began about last May when Auturo, a member of our church offered to come with his heavy equipment and clean off the lot, level the land and bring in red dirt. Then he compacted the red dirt so that it was more useable for athletic purposes. Next, was the need for a fence around the lot. As usual, the Lord provided and we were gifted the funds needed to pay for the 8 foot cyclone fence. Alvaro knew a man from San Luis that gave us a good deal on the installation of the fence...so it all became a reality. The fence was up and ready for the next step. The next step was the development of the track oval for running, bike riding...all other types of fun stuff!!  So a cement curbing has been poured on the inside of the "oval" and further work done on compacting the dirt on the track. That is where we are currently on our Sports Field...PRAISE THE LORD!! We will continue to develop the Field, but what is great is that the children can use it in the meantime.  OUR VISION IS TO SEE NOT ONLY OUR CHILDREN, BUT CHILDREN FROM THE COMMUNITY PLAYING BASKETBALL, BASEBALL, SOCCER AND RUNNING TRACK ON SPORTS FIELD!! 

 

PRAYER REQUESTS

* Pray for 4 year old Jorge, who has a very serious kidney disease. He was released from the hospital after a three week stay before Christmas.  He is on a very strict diet and can only have 800 ml of water per day. He also takes some "heavy duty" medicine three times a day.  Pray for a complete healing of this precious little boy.

 * For Roberta Grover (our Missionary from Maine). Pray that her level of financial support will continue to increase.

* Pray for Rafael and Lucinda, a new couple from Ensenada, who have joined our Sonshine Hacienda Staff.  Pray that their transition to their new life with the children will be a blessing for both them and the children.

* A prayer of thanksgiving for all the outpouring of love shown to all of us at Sonshine Hacienda this Christmas season. This thanksgiving goes out to our North American and Mexican supporters.  God bless you for all your help this Christmas!!
 

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NEW MAILING ADDRESS FOR MARKETPLACE MISSIONS & SONSHINE HACIENDA

 

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT OUR NEW MAILING ADDRESS IS NOW:
PMB 41
P.O. BOX 9011
CALEXICO, CALIFORNIA 92232-9011


FYI: WE ALSO HAVE PAYPAL

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!  WE COULD NOT ACCOMPLISH OUR WORK HERE WITHOUT YOUR HELP!!

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"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength".  Deut. 6:5

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NOTE: THE PHOTO ABOVE IN THIS COLUMN WAS TAKEN WHEN THE CHILDREN DID A DRAMA OF THE "GOOD SAMARITAN" AT MISSION SAN FELIPE