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Published: March 13th 2011
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These are WWII planes
and they're flying to Falcon Field which is across the road from us. I was told there is a club there, and they fly these planes. They were awesome to see. (Sunshine Acres Children’s Home)
We have relocated to Mesa, AZ, about 30 miles southwest of where we were. We were scheduled to be in Picacho, but that project was cancelled, and that is how God put us at Sunshine Acres Children’s Home (SACH)! There has been an RVICS team here for two months, and they are staying through March also, so there are 12 couples here! We do our morning devotions separately, our Friday tours separately, but socials and Bible study we do together~~it’s working wonderfully, and gives us new stories to listen to! We are with the same team this month as the previous two months~~that’s how it’s done January-March.
Sunshine Acres began in 1953 with a vision of helping needy children. The kids are homeless because of illness, incarceration, deceased, or rehab, on the parents’/guardians’ part. They aren’t orphans, as they’re not adoptable. They stay here a minimum of three years, but can stay as long as they need a home. There are scholarship funds to help them in college, and many of the kids come back here on their breaks. They attend school on campus for the first year, while they get settled and get caught
I think they deserve a second look!
They flew around for quite a while, and were in many different formations. up to grade level; then they go into the public schools in Mesa. They live in homes that include house parents (who may or may not have their own children) and ten children. There are currently seven homes, but they’re planning on more, with the goal of housing 200 children. (Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they get those homes built and find out there aren’t 200 homeless children?) A unique thing about Sunshine Acres (and there are many) is that they’re completely financed by donations~~if they don’t have the funding for a project, they don’t begin; consequently, they’re debt free. When Rev. James & Vera Dingman purchased this property (123 acres for $29,500) it was miles from Phoenix, way out in the desert with nothing around it! Now it’s on the edge of Mesa, surrounded by buildings!
You’re going to hear a lot about how things are run here~~the homes are like something you’d see on House Hunters (oh, don’t pretend like you don’t watch HGTV!) in that they’re large, and they’re absolutely gorgeous! I’ll include pictures~~trust me!~~ that show more what I’m talking about.
Our women are painting the woodwork in one of the girls’ homes. This
One of the NASCAR rooms...
Kyle Busch has done different projects at Sunshine Acres, and donating the items to furnish two bedrooms in the boys' houses. How fun is this! I thought he must be a good guy~~I mean hey, he drives the m&m car~~but Bob said he has a bad reputation. I thought I'd include this information so you could see that there's more to him than you see! home has girls from 9 through 17; they have four that will graduate this spring. (Both of the girls’ homes are multi-age, but they find that the boys do better if they’re divided age-wise.) The men are doing various jobs, Bob went through all the homes and changed the venting system on the dryers to make them more efficient, some are hanging sheetrock, some are doing electrical things, etc.…guy stuff!
Usually the first week of a project I’m busy getting things going, so I don’t get a blog done, but I have to confess, this time I didn’t get it done because of the sunshine pouring down! It has been incredibly nice weather. Ev-ery-day. Hard to do inside things!
We are located across the road from Falcon Field, which Falcon Field got its start prior to World War II, to train British pilots. It’s named after one of the British planes. It’s now used for an airport, although not the main one in Mesa. You’ll learn more about it in a few weeks when we take a tour there. When we were in Phoenix we listened to ambulance, fire and police sirens day and night. In Mesa we
Do you think this is a boys' home backyard?!
Every child gets a new bike when they arrive here. listen to aircraft sounds! There’s an Apache helicopter plant next to Falcon Field, so we hear those as well as the planes coming and going! (Nope, they don’t allow tours~~not hard to figure out why!)
A big thing I forgot to mention is the Warehouse (thrift store) and the Boutique that are located here~~they provide 20% of the annual budget, so I figure by shopping there I’m donating to the cause! Bob hasn’t embraced that thinking yet, so I’m still trying to explain it! The Warehouse was originally set up to clothe the kids, but now they wear new clothes, donated by various stores, or people. I like that! The things, and amount of things, people donate is incredible. Most of it is nice, and some of it garbage that apparently needs someone, other than the owner, to dispose of it. SACH recycles what they can, and the rest they sell in bulk; for instance, they only keep the best clothes, the rest they bag up and sell to a children in crisis organization, who uses some, but, because they don’t have the manpower or space to go through all of it, they sell it to another business that
Patio on the dining room.
The kids eat three meals a day here (unless they're in school off campus) and lunch on Sunday. The rest of the weekend meals are cooked and eaten in their homes. They eat with their families in the dining room. separates it into usable clothing, which they sell in thrift stores, and the remainder they sell to a company that makes rags, which they in turn sell! So look what happened to that blouse that I decided not to throw in the garbage!
Speaking of garbage, SACH recycles aggressively, so we decided to tour a recycling plant. I think it would be good for everyone to tour one, but is especially good for our age group, because I suspect that we are prone to toss things. Recycling isn’t a way of thinking to us yet, but I can tell you I’m thinking differently. Learning what all can be recycled, and how it’s reused, was an eye-opener for me. And how one business sells it to another who repurposes what they can and then sells it to someone else! I thought the recycling plant sorted through our garbage bags and picked out the recyclables, but they don’t….bottom line is that if it gets put in a garbage can, it’s garbage. Perhaps it could have been reused, but not now. Too late. Landfill. Needless waste. Shame.
Things I’ve learned: If you live in an area with 4.3 million people (and
We've all seen these trees!
Moral of the story~~get reusable bags and then reuse them...I tend to leave mine in the car. But not any more. The plastic bags aren't recyceable, so if you have some to throw away, tie at least one knot in it so it can't become a balloon. I can hear you wondering why anyone would!) there are too many planes in the sky to be able to spot the International Space Station. I can tell you the schedule, I can tell you the direction, and I can tell you we haven’t seen it!
Something funny just happened, and it will let you know how tightly we’re packed in this month. I’m sitting at the kitchen table and I sneezed and Katie, in the next rig, opened her door to check on me! They put out their awning, and we get shade! There’ll be no telling secrets this month!
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