Sonshine Haven – Mari Rothman, Dora Breuninger, Chris Alley

[00:00:00] Kevin Conover bring your time bring your shame [Music]

[00:00:06] welcome to educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover my website is joined educate for life dot o RG I’ve got 40

[00:00:13] online classes defending the truth of the Bible it’s a great resource if you’re a homeschool parent or you lead a

[00:00:19] home fellowship or maybe a Sunday School class or you just want to get more equipped to be able to defend the Word

[00:00:24] of God if you want to be able to share some solid answers with neighbors or friends or coworkers it’s a great

[00:00:31] resource for you my guests today are with sunshine Haven sunshine Haven Orr G

[00:00:37] which is a a club a Bible Club for kids in elementary schools and middle schools

[00:00:43] Mary Rothman is the founder of the sunshine cliff sunshine Club she’s with

[00:00:49] us today Dora Bruna injure also who works with Mary and Chris Alli is going to give us

[00:00:55] a little bit of a testimony of how the club’s impacted his life and I just want

[00:01:00] to thank you Mary for being on the show today honored yeah awesome and also Dora thank you for being here

[00:01:06] thank you and Chris you just came back from a camp a Christian camp where you were helping out yeah that’s true so so

[00:01:12] Chris sounds a little like kind of Batman like right now but that’s because he’s yelling and screaming with all

[00:01:18] these kids I am like Ben if you’re watching on YouTube you can see I’m in

[00:01:23] here and he does look kind of like Batman anyway so I wanted to start off

[00:01:30] Mary just by finding out how long ago you started the sunshine clubs because they’re all over the clubs

[00:01:35] my own mom volunteered and the one in him wool and there were 200 kids in the in the sunshine Club which I when I

[00:01:42] heard about that I wasn’t that’s incredible that you have such a presence on the campuses in East County and are

[00:01:48] doing so much to impact the lives of so many young people it’s really incredible can you start us all the way back at the

[00:01:53] beginning and what started you down the road to founding the sunshine clubs and

[00:01:59] we’ll talk more about what what you’re doing now and then what you foresee for the future too sure started by walking with a friend

[00:02:06] who worked with high-risk kids in a school in El Cajon and she would tell me stories about kids whose mom

[00:02:13] didn’t wake him up for school they didn’t have a jacket to wear or umbrella or hadn’t eaten when they got to school

[00:02:20] and I kept saying what can I do Louise what could I what could I help with yeah

[00:02:25] I met with her and the school nurse in the principal and we started a club well

[00:02:31] actually it was a grooming readiness Club during school time in a little tiny

[00:02:37] classroom and we’d take six kids at a time and show them how to be ready for

[00:02:44] school groomed and how to make a little healthy meal themselves that’s that’s

[00:02:49] awesome now I want to interrupt here because there’s a question going through my mind is probably going through some of our listeners Minds which is did you

[00:02:55] have like a degree in starting Bible clubs or something or a degree and I mean because a lot of people are

[00:03:01] thinking it’s amazing to me that you just saw a need and you jumped in and decided hey I’m gonna I’m gonna make a difference here what was your background

[00:03:08] in did you have some sort of a speech in English major in college okay but I

[00:03:14] loved kids yeah I love the Lord that’s great now did you grow up in a Christian family I did my dad was a pastor okay so

[00:03:21] I mean that’s encouraging to our listeners because if you’re out there listening you’re thinking hey I want to serve the Lord in some capacity I want

[00:03:27] to find a way you don’t have to have some sort of a theology degree in order to go out and make a difference in the

[00:03:32] community no I think you just have to have a vision that the Lord’s planted in your heart mm-hmm and then go for it that’s

[00:03:39] fantastic he opened the doors every step of the way yeah so you started that first little Club where you were you’re

[00:03:45] teaching kids how to make meals were you already sharing Bible stories with these kids or what was happening no but I’d

[00:03:50] always ask a lead question like who would you like to be like when you grow up and they would say well what would

[00:03:58] you say miss Mary and I said why I’d like to be more like Jesus and they admired the six of us so much that they

[00:04:06] were easy to impress and and love on and it was such a rewarding time that is so

[00:04:13] great so how many clubs do you currently have on the campuses in East County now 41 but we could have 53 we’ve got

[00:04:23] schools that we have opened that we’ve had a presence at that back but it takes three or four

[00:04:29] volunteers in each school for the safety and for the handling of a club yeah and

[00:04:37] so it is getting those volunteers and it’s once a week and it’s an hour and a

[00:04:43] half if you love kids you love the Lord you could do this job yeah that’s

[00:04:49] fantastic now so you went from one club to 41 clubs in how long like how long did that take oh my goodness I think it

[00:04:57] was about seven eight years it was at one time I was teaching five clubs a

[00:05:03] week whoa and I would go to schools and I would look in the playground area and I’d see

[00:05:11] the kids with uncombed hair and the shoes that had holes in him and I go that’s the next school and the Lord just

[00:05:19] directed and led an open doors and brought the volunteers it was such a

[00:05:24] exciting marvelous time mmm just just couldn’t give enough or do enough for

[00:05:30] those kids yeah that is that is great and so so when it comes to volunteers it

[00:05:36] just has to be a somebody who loves the Lord and loves kids and wants to serve and our these clubs during school hours

[00:05:41] or are they after school right after school’s over most of them in our hour and a half after the school is over and

[00:05:48] they are these with elementary kids what what grades are they elementary starting with first grade and then middle school

[00:05:55] okay so you have middle school so how many are elementary and how many are middle school or how many would you say

[00:06:00] what twenty-eight elementary and the rest about fifty the balance would be

[00:06:05] middle school okay that’s great and and how have things changed over time as far as are the needs the same or the needs

[00:06:12] changing at all how do you have since I mean I think you said you’ve been doing this for 27 years is that right yes so

[00:06:18] have things changed at all say there’s a lot more regulations at the schools okay that’s why we have to have more

[00:06:24] volunteers and in the very beginning because you can’t let somebody go to the bathroom by themselves or go get a drink

[00:06:31] by themselves and you can’t discipline someone by having them sit right outside

[00:06:36] the door for a minute settle down you can’t do that anymore Oh what do you do you give him a job okay in the back

[00:06:44] corner of the room gotta be creative that’s great okay and and so Dora what’s

[00:06:51] your role with the sunshine Haven how do you I oversee all of the programs that we do

[00:06:57] we do all the sunshine clubs so I oversee all of those teams and make sure things are going well if they have any

[00:07:04] needs we have a lot of resources at the Haven mm-hmm and so just constantly trying to communicate with the club

[00:07:10] leaders is there anything you need is there anything we can do for you – I am

[00:07:16] head up the training for all of the club leaders we have an annual training well that’s a great that’s a great question

[00:07:22] right there that a lot of people are probably probably going through the mind is I feel completely unprepared so you have training for people yeah we

[00:07:28] have the structure we have the training we have resources and then we are there to support so it’s probably the easiest

[00:07:34] ministry to step into because it’s all laid out it’s ready to go we can show

[00:07:40] you how to do it yeah get help you get started and stay in there with you and

[00:07:45] not just say okay good luck thanks for saying you have it’s been great so we we

[00:07:51] have a lot of support a lot of resources I also help promote and run our life

[00:07:58] skills program which we can talk at some point here which is one of our other amazing programs that kids who go to

[00:08:06] sunshine Club get invited to go to our life skills program which is at our site

[00:08:11] not on the school campus so it’s a different program but it’s really how Mary started with the life skills for

[00:08:18] those six children saying with helping out with making a meal for yourself right it is just expanded and grown into

[00:08:25] something really big and where the kids can learn a play guitar learn to cook learn to so continue their literacy and

[00:08:33] does that cost money for them to attend them now everything we do is free for the children wow that is incredible it

[00:08:39] is it’s so fun I’m so I’m blessed to be part of this and so so you’re helping

[00:08:46] both our spiritual needs and their physical needs and their mental needs exactly the whole child yeah and and

[00:08:52] that’s really what the Bible teaches us to do right is to help a person in James it says if

[00:08:57] you say be well but you don’t help them with their physical needs with their food or their drink or whatever they need then you know yeah so that’s great

[00:09:04] you’re really putting representing Christ well to them that’s fantastic children who’s come to club they stay in

[00:09:11] club first grade through fifth grade then they go into a higher ground which is what our middle school clubs are called and they participate in life skills

[00:09:18] those children have a really good foundation when they are in middle school in high school much stronger

[00:09:24] foundation than if they didn’t have that because they’ve got all these people they know love them support them have

[00:09:30] invested in them once they’ve participated in club or life skills they never forget it how does this day’s part

[00:09:37] is part of them and all these people loving on them and talking to them engaging them in conversation this life

[00:09:44] changing and what and and that’s what Chris is gonna share is how the sunshine clubs actually impacted him so stay with

[00:09:50] us when we get back we’re gonna have a testimony from Chris Ali he’s gonna share how this impacted him when you

[00:09:56] were 10 years old is that right yes yeah so what an amazing testimony and you’re just one of hundreds and hundreds of

[00:10:02] kids whose life has been changed and then to see what you then go and do is absolutely incredible so we’re gonna be

[00:10:08] right back stay with us I’m with Mary Rothman Dora Bruner and Chris Ali from sunshine Haven o RG we’ll be right back

[00:10:16] [Music] hi this is jason hall president of team

[00:10:22] home loans a branch of synergy one lending i just wanted to take this opportunity to think Kevin Kahn over for

[00:10:27] the profound impact he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible teacher while our

[00:10:33] kids were his students his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important it is to be defenders of our faith

[00:10:39] it’s our honor and privilege to support Kevin and his show is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to

[00:10:44] learn to be defenders of your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you

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[00:12:31] thanks for listening today this is educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover my website is joined educate for

[00:12:37] life dot o-r-g you can pick up recordings of previous programs if you’d like to you can check

[00:12:43] us out on Facebook and YouTube also I’ve got all kinds of amazing interviews up there not too long ago I interviewed a

[00:12:50] man who has the world record for the fastest gun disarmed he can take a gun out of a person’s hand in under a

[00:12:56] quarter second and he’s also a missionary in Iraq so that’s Victor Marc’s incredible interview check that

[00:13:03] out on our our Channel and also on our website all kinds of resources for you there my guests today are Mary Rothman

[00:13:10] Dora Brunner and Kris Ali from sunshine Haven Oh RG and they are really looking for volunteers so I hope that you will

[00:13:17] take the time if you’re looking for a way that the Lord can use you to be involved and make a bit and a big impact

[00:13:23] in the lives of other people this is an incredible ministry and they really need volunteers is that right Mary oh yes we

[00:13:30] always do yeah and you have 41 clubs but you could have as many I mean there are

[00:13:35] there are a bunch of other schools that would love to have clubs we just don’t have enough volunteers we could have another 12 open that we’ve already been

[00:13:42] in the schools wow that’s so you’ve already got it’s already past the yeah the administration that hey we like this

[00:13:47] club yes it makes the difference in kids and they can tell in the school in fact the

[00:13:52] principal in the first club would send me kids and say she needs to be in your club again but I would go and invite and

[00:14:00] but he was just so he saw the difference in the kids and anyhow he was the one

[00:14:07] that helped me be the tough person too and when somebody was bullying somebody taught me how to deal with it yeah

[00:14:14] instead of saying no no anyhow it was really smart that’s great okay so Chris

[00:14:21] we wanted to hear your testimony when were you first made aware of sunshine Haven and and how did that how did you

[00:14:28] get involved yeah so when I was in second grade I don’t know exactly how I ended up in the room I heard there was

[00:14:33] candy that’s all it takes my kids would all be there in a heartbeat yeah so I ended up

[00:14:40] going to we called it good news club back then I ended up going and that was the first time I showed up and then what

[00:14:49] grade were you in I was the second grade second-rate okay so then one of the teachers pulled aside the lady that was

[00:14:54] running at sharing a shard and told her that they shouldn’t let me in the club because I was a bad kid yeah so one of

[00:15:02] those but it didn’t make sense to Sharon yeah Sharon thought I was a great kid they thought I was a bad kid it didn’t

[00:15:08] make sense to her so what she decided to do was she started volunteering at my school and so she would come in my classroom and

[00:15:14] observe what was going on so she’d figure out what the difference was so I was the kind of kid that had my desk in

[00:15:21] the back in the corner and I was facing the wall I didn’t participate a new thing if the teachers wanted me to do

[00:15:27] something I would say no they’d be like did you do your homework I was like no I didn’t do my homework okay can you read this like no I’m not

[00:15:33] gonna read that stop telling me what to do second grade this is second grade this is second I had a really weird

[00:15:41] upbringing up to that time here with us wait wait what what do you mean by that well I was born in Northern California

[00:15:48] yeah my mom was addicted to drugs we lived with my grandma who had 12

[00:15:55] grandkids well lived there and there was a lot of different types of abuse so up

[00:16:01] to that time I had lived in like 20 23 different places you know I was homeless I was in and out of foster care I had

[00:16:09] been in a lot of different types of abuse so no wonder you were as upset as you were right yeah yeah so I I had a

[00:16:16] lot going on I knew a lot of things children shouldn’t know yeah but I also missed out on a lot of the fundamentals

[00:16:21] that children should have known so yeah so either way house in this classroom teachers didn’t like me I didn’t like

[00:16:29] them and that my mentality was if you were nice to me I was gonna be nice to you if you weren’t nice to me

[00:16:34] I wasn’t respect to you yeah it’s the mentality that I had in the living in the ghettos that I lived in sure yeah so

[00:16:41] but either way she was observing me and what she figured out that the teachers hadn’t figured out is

[00:16:47] I had never learned how to read I was 10 years old as the second grade I didn’t know my ABCs because I had been

[00:16:54] in and out of so many different schools it just felt that he didn’t know no they thought I was just stubborn I I would

[00:17:02] tell them that I wouldn’t read that or I wasn’t going to do that because I was embarrassed and that I didn’t know how

[00:17:08] to read Wow yeah so I hid it from them do you think there are other kids that are still facing those kind of circumstances in

[00:17:13] the schools today no I’m sure there are yeah I’m sure there’s plenty of kids that are just being diagnosed as bad

[00:17:19] kids when really there’s they have a lot going on and they don’t know how to bring it up yeah and they’re also like

[00:17:25] you said they’re embarrassed that I don’t want people to know you know where I’m weak or that I I don’t know

[00:17:31] something of this age and so forth yeah yeah so so what happened next so Sharon pulled me aside and she asked

[00:17:37] me if I could read I think I started to lie and then I just started to cry and I remember she hugged me and then the next

[00:17:44] thing I knew she had gone out with her own money and bought the Hooked on Phonics program and was taking me

[00:17:51] contact my parents and she was taking me places and hurt her son they were working with me teaching me how to read

[00:17:57] a ton phonics and then I was going to the Bible Club and I’m learning how to read and learning about Jesus at the

[00:18:03] same time yeah and it changed my life so so when did you do you have a moment in

[00:18:09] time where you decided to commit your life to Christ yeah that year so we

[00:18:15] shared chard and and dealing we’re teaching this program they said you need to know about Jesus if you want to go to

[00:18:20] heaven and I was like okay and then dealing side we said a prayer and I’m

[00:18:26] like okay so I’m a Christian it’s like yep like all right awesome so so share

[00:18:33] with our listeners real quick what you do today and what your involvement is in in youth and ministry yeah so today I

[00:18:39] work in foothills Church I am the junior higher division director so I oversee all our small groups I lead our big

[00:18:45] groups I lead our camps I just got back from one of our camps was awesome it was crazy the Lord’s good yeah I

[00:18:51] else has a gigantic youth ministry yeah it’s awesome I also get to work with our young adults with our college ministry

[00:18:57] I’m also overseeing part of our Mexico missions and I help lead some of the trips with the college students going to

[00:19:04] Africa and Guatemala so that’s what I do I do use the ministry young adults and missions and this this is all comes from

[00:19:11] the fruit of sunshine Haven and what was started here in San Diego so many

[00:19:16] thousands of salvations that’s the thing that’s amazing I just looked at one of the clubs that

[00:19:22] door and I are involved in and so far there’s been 26 kids self saved and it’s

[00:19:30] just such a joy to introduce them to the love of Jesus yeah and and forgiveness I

[00:19:36] think those things especially forgiveness so important yeah I mean

[00:19:41] forgiveness changes everything it changes everything about our relationships and it’s the essence of

[00:19:46] Christianity right so that is a powerful testimony and and this isn’t like an

[00:19:52] abnormal thing like you said there’s thousands over 27 years I mean how many thousands of kids have come to know

[00:19:57] Christ through these clubs what a fantastic opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people

[00:20:03] and you know just to have one person who

[00:20:08] commits their life to Christ and then gets so involved I mean it the the the trickle-down effect of that impact is

[00:20:15] just phenomenal uh-huh it’s so interesting to see how many kids in East County and and ongoing are probably in

[00:20:23] ministry or loving their kids or being better parents or whatever the case is so that’s incredible so you have other

[00:20:29] testimonies I know that you wrote down to share with some of our I stopped at

[00:20:34] one of the houses today as I was going into the Haven office and the mom still lives there and her kids were in second

[00:20:43] and first grade mmm when I started teaching them and now they’re 30 years

[00:20:48] old and 28 years old and one of them is serving in Iraq and he’s in the Army Wow

[00:20:54] and the other one is in Computer Sciences and lives in Temecula and it’s just wonderful to see

[00:21:00] struggling kids that they didn’t have a dad that lived with

[00:21:06] him and there was just a lot of a lot of hard hard hardships in the house and

[00:21:12] I’ll never forget one of us gave an

[00:21:17] invitation that day and went outside to pray with those two boys Romeo and Antonio and one of the fathers came up

[00:21:25] to see what was going on he was ready to pick them up and we said we were just going to pray with him would you like to

[00:21:32] pray with us and we talked about the love of God and forgiveness and then asked the boys if they wanted to pray

[00:21:38] and make this life-changing decision and the father also knelt down and prayed with him well and he was the father of

[00:21:45] Antonio the one in temecula and he was also just a really sharp sharp man and

[00:21:52] Romeo had a disability with stuttering that really affected him I’ll never

[00:21:59] forget I brought all the costumes for an Easter Show and I was at Emerald middle school and he said can I be Jesus can I

[00:22:08] be Jesus and Jesus had the most lines of anybody for the Easter Show and I looked

[00:22:13] at him and he just wanted to do it so bad and I said guess Romeo you can do Jesus and we did the whole the whole

[00:22:21] thing until the crucifixion where he said it’s finished and rocked his hand

[00:22:27] and he did such an eloquent job writing the donkey in and the whole everything and at the end I had Academy Awards and

[00:22:34] who won was Romeo on a great big chocolate Easter Bunny and I took him

[00:22:39] home that day and we went into his house and he said mom I won and he went on to

[00:22:45] become a football player at Grossmont high school and he’d stopped by the haven and he’d say she always has food

[00:22:51] and bring his footprints after football practice anyhow it’s just been such an

[00:22:56] awesome and exciting life to see kids change kids who would who were shut in a

[00:23:02] closet with a dirty diaper or not fed all day we used to sit underneath the desk at sunshine Club and and hood up

[00:23:11] over their heads and I remember these boys there was a lot of kids living at

[00:23:17] the grandma’s house and I remember the day I told the story about a little boy that wanted to play

[00:23:22] baseball and he’d never hit the ball and he prayed before he went up and he said

[00:23:29] O Lord would you help me hit the ball and he hit the ball and Chris came up to

[00:23:34] me afterwards and he said Miss Mary I’ve never hit the ball either and I said let

[00:23:40] me pray with you Chris and he came back to club the next week and he said Miss Mary hi Paul and from that point on he

[00:23:48] sat in the front row he had his hand up for every question I couldn’t call on him often enough and anyhow he is a

[00:23:55] wonderful father yeah and married these days and you know it’s just really exciting to see the

[00:24:02] difference the Lord made oh yeah I mean he changes everything it’s absolutely phenomenal well we’re over our break

[00:24:07] here so we’re gonna be right back my guests today are Mary Rothman Dora Bruner and Chris Alli sunshine Haven dot

[00:24:13] o-r-g please check out their website they’re looking for volunteers to help out they can have a lot more clubs on

[00:24:19] the campuses but we need people to step up and make a difference you know I was

[00:24:25] actually reading a verse today the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few pray to the Lord of the harvest send out more workers into the harvest field

[00:24:31] and so that’s our prayer is that if you’re here in this radio program today that God would spark your heart to get

[00:24:38] involved and contact Mary Rothman or Dora Berninger we’ll be right back

[00:24:44] [Music] before I bring my knees I will bring my

[00:24:51] heart [Music] hi this is Kevin Conover will you please

[00:24:56] donate to educate for life so we can share the truth of God’s Word with kids in public schools

[00:25:01] you can donate online at donate to EFL 0rg the Bible used to be read in public

[00:25:07] schools on a regular basis prior to the 1960s but today most kids are completely clueless when it comes to the content

[00:25:14] and historical and scientific accuracy of the Bible please help us by donating online at donate to EFL RG hi this is

[00:25:23] Jason hall president of team home loans a branch of synergy one lending I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank

[00:25:29] Kevin Conover for the profound impact he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible

[00:25:35] teacher while our kids were his students his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important it is to be defenders

[00:25:41] of our faith it’s our honor and privilege to support kevin and his show is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to

[00:25:47] learn to be defenders of your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you

[00:25:53] Kevin from the hall family and team Home Loans hi I’m Marisa Conover and I would

[00:25:59] love to help you buy or sell your home I’ve worked as a realtor for more than 13 years and as a San Diego native my

[00:26:07] passion and experience will help make your move as peaceful as can be call me at

[00:26:14] [Music]

[00:26:25] this is throughout all ages ministry with Joe and Stacy if you would like to equip me to share the gospel with

[00:26:30] confident in a biblical and effective way we would like to teach you through the proclamation of the gospel how do

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[00:27:00] for tuning in to educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover my web site is joined educate for life dot o-r-g n–

[00:27:06] you can pick up a recording of this show or past shows we also have all kinds of resources on there if you have any

[00:27:11] questions about God in the Bible how do we know the Bible is actually inspired by God answers to that kind of a

[00:27:17] question how do we know that Genesis is true what about the issue of slavery in

[00:27:24] the Old Testament why does the Bible talk about that all kinds of questions that people have about God in the Bible real solid answers the Bible is true you

[00:27:31] can build your life upon the Word of God so my guests today are from sunshine Haven sunshine Haven do our ji Mary do

[00:27:39] you want to share your phone number if somebody wants to get in contact you six one nine four four zero one two two

[00:27:45] one okay one more time four four zero one two two one great okay and if you if

[00:27:53] you want to get a hold of them and volunteer you can call or visit their website now Dora how did you find out

[00:28:00] about sunshine Haven and what prompted you to get involved my family was planning to move to El Cajon we had

[00:28:06] lived in East San Diego so we are getting ready to move in with my parents in the El Cajon area and my

[00:28:13] mother-in-law Margaret Berninger kept saying oh yeah my my friend inquire her daughter’s

[00:28:18] doing Bible clubs in the elementary schools in El Cajon and she helps the

[00:28:23] families with food and clothes and just whatever she can and I said you can do that in California I was I was stunned

[00:28:31] and I’m sure a lot of people are listening I’ve heard that so many times since I’m like that’s what I said or

[00:28:37] separation of church and state right yeah but we can do this because we are after school we’re not endorsed by the

[00:28:43] school we do the facility use we get permission to be there after school and we just do our thing and so as a

[00:28:51] conscientious mom I didn’t want to assign my kids up for some weird Christian kind of Club so I went the

[00:28:58] first day with all four of the kids and signed them in spell out the permission

[00:29:04] slip hung around in the back a little bit and I could sell within five minutes this is wonderful and it was Mary’s club

[00:29:11] and um I said at that point 18 years ago well I’m gonna be here with my kids

[00:29:18] since my kids are coming can I help and that’s all it took so I’ve been helping

[00:29:23] her ever since at that Club at chase Avenue and then ten years ago I agreed

[00:29:30] to become an employee and work at the Haven and enlarge the capacity now how

[00:29:37] many employees do you currently have working for sunshine Haven there’s five of us on the team okay and we’re all

[00:29:43] part-time every one has very distinct jobs but then we all work together on the projects and the ministry and how

[00:29:50] many volunteers do you have we have hundreds of volunteers there’s probably 200 or more that just participate in

[00:29:58] helping with the clubs and then we have another group that helped primarily with life skills

[00:30:03] and then other volunteers will just come in to do various things we’ve had a moms night out ministry fro for many years

[00:30:10] just different volunteers who enjoy doing different kinds of things for our ministry for this ministry but the bulk

[00:30:17] are the sunshine clubs and the higher ground so now how many volunteers does

[00:30:24] it take to run a club out of school legally we have to have two adults but really we need three or four because if

[00:30:31] one person gets sick then you’re stuck you can’t run a club with one percenter so just to keep things flowing and it’s

[00:30:38] a lot more fun with more people – yeah so you spread out the tax a little bit you know one can do the verse one can do

[00:30:44] the songs one can do the lesson signing kids in the snacks running the games so

[00:30:50] there’s a lot to do there’s a lot of things to choose from yeah so the more people you have the more fun it is you’re not doing it all

[00:30:56] yeah that makes sense and then you were you were talking a little bit about the life skills can you expand on that like what what that is

[00:31:03] when it was started and so forth well it started when that was the first thing Mary did with children was teaching them

[00:31:09] to to learn some skills to take care of themselves so what it’s grown to is it’s

[00:31:15] not at school anymore it’s F during school vacations so we have two weeks at

[00:31:20] Easter time and five weeks in the summer where kids come to us three days a week for four hours a day again for free and

[00:31:29] they sign up for two classes a day so we’ll post on a board old school write

[00:31:35] it on a whiteboard their choices and so is there waiting in line they get to

[00:31:40] decide which classes they want so right away they’re learning a life skill of decision-making looking at their options

[00:31:46] making their choice they tell the leader these are my two choices what are some

[00:31:52] of the choices they can choose from computer art sewing cooking guitar if we

[00:32:00] have someone with animals we have animal care just and whatever our volunteers

[00:32:05] can do those are the classes we offer okay so it can vary my husband likes to

[00:32:10] do more of the science nature classes like learning about butterflies or bees or I’m just learning about the amazing

[00:32:17] we live in and then we feed the children a breakfast a breakfast bar lunch and

[00:32:23] then a snack before they go home in the middle of the day after lunch we have a Bible lesson in a worship time so we

[00:32:29] keep feeding them like you’re saying earlier we’re feeding the spiritual part the emotional part the psychological

[00:32:37] part the physical part yeah one of the classes we always offer is sports or fitness so the kids who just have to get

[00:32:44] out there and play yeah they’re they just need to be moving we always have a class for them and they sign up as often

[00:32:50] as they can to do that that’s great and and this is all free yes Wow so you you

[00:32:56] must have the entire ministry is supported by through donations is that completely through donations that’s

[00:33:03] great so if somebody wants to donate can they donate on the website or how does that work yes they can let me tell you a

[00:33:09] funny story I got a phone call and we’d had it we do a lot of special events for the kids that are free too we had 900

[00:33:15] kids at a ranch trip way out in Hamal oh my god I just got back and it was just

[00:33:21] amazing 900 kids that said that is a kinds of like things like fishing and

[00:33:27] and potato sack races and barbecue and Ahana took a lot of adults to do it too I got

[00:33:34] home and the phone rang and it was a guy who said I heard you work with kids what

[00:33:40] have you done lately and I said well today we had a huge ranch trip it was during spring break yeah and he said

[00:33:46] well my wife and I would like to meet with you and I thought his name was Sidney Hitchcock and so I told my

[00:33:53] husband I have a meeting with Sidney Hitchcock and his wife and I went and met them I had no idea that he was a

[00:33:58] baseball star Stirling Hitchcock and so I told him all about the things we are doing and I thought he’d maybe want to

[00:34:05] help with a club yeah and I and I really got his name wrong and he never corrected me and the next thing I know

[00:34:12] we got a call from his financial advisor saying we need your 501 3 C number

[00:34:18] because sterling would like to help support and he still continues Cinderella Day is one of our great big

[00:34:24] things where we get kids ready for middle school and when we’re short on funds I call stir

[00:34:31] and say Stirling do you think this is really important because it is really important to me it makes me glad to

[00:34:37] think of not doing it getting new shoes and backpack a new outfit and and haircut and getting the kids ready for

[00:34:43] middle school and they’re so nervous about it anyhow and he says yes Mary is important he was a foster child and he

[00:34:51] knew how important it was for that first day of middle school and so people like

[00:34:56] that that their hearts are touched by the stories yeah and this is Ben’s in

[00:35:03] San Diego yeah that is great now we’re on another break here but when we come

[00:35:08] back I have a few more questions about higher ground and also about what

[00:35:14] exactly I mean there is a lot of programs you’re doing I mean you’re doing so many different programs so

[00:35:20] we’ll learn more about that my guests today are Mary Rothman Dora Brunner and Kris Ali from sunshine Haven do our G

[00:35:27] we’re going to be right back hi this is Jason hall president of team

[00:35:34] home loans a branch of synergy one lending I just want to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Conover for

[00:35:40] the profound impact he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible teacher while our

[00:35:45] kids were his students his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important it is to be defenders of our faith it’s

[00:35:51] our honor and privilege to support Kevin and his show is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to learn

[00:35:57] to be defenders of your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you

[00:36:03] Kevin from the hall family and team Home Loans this is throughout all ages

[00:36:08] ministry with Joe and Stacy and he would like to equip you to share the gospel with confident in a biblical and

[00:36:14] effective way we would like to teach you through the proclamation of the gospel

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[00:37:39] there’s got to be welcomed to educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover and

[00:37:45] if you want to listen to if you missed part of this show and you want to listen to the rest of it you can check us out we’re podcasting the show it’s if you

[00:37:52] use iTunes or whatever the case we can all see you can also check it out on YouTube and you can go to my website educate for life o our G you can visit

[00:38:00] the website there my guests today are from sunshine Haven o RG sunshine Haven org they are a non-profit here in San

[00:38:07] Diego Southern California and they have clubs on 41 campuses elementary and

[00:38:12] middle school but they’re trying to expand that to at least 12 more schools they need anywhere from two to four

[00:38:18] volunteers per school so if you’re out there and you have a heart for kids you love Jesus they would love to have your

[00:38:25] support your help to volunteer on these clubs we have so many kids that need to hear the gospel and so there’s so many

[00:38:32] opportunities and it’s an after-school Bible club so please get in contact with

[00:38:37] them if you are at all interested in finding out more or supporting the ministry so I was going to ask about the

[00:38:44] higher ground clubs they those are the middle school clubs and you you Kris said that you were involved with those

[00:38:51] now how many clubs are you involved with I currently run two clubs along in El Cajon and one in La Mesa that’s great

[00:38:57] and what is involved in that I imagine that’s slightly different than what goes on in them at elementary clubs how are

[00:39:04] you what’s the what do you do with there are the higher ground clubs so our template is very similar we get there we

[00:39:10] do announcements we go out we run around play a game come back do a snack a Bible

[00:39:15] study we try to end in a time of worship and and so how long do these run

[00:39:20] typically one club I have is an hour the other clubs an hour and a half okay and

[00:39:26] then how does Sunshine Haven work with the churches what obviously these kids a

[00:39:33] lot of them they don’t have Christian parents and they might come to a Bible club once a week but really you want to

[00:39:39] get them plugged into a church and begin to build a community in a family and that’s really what happened to you eventually so how does that process work

[00:39:45] Mary well we used on a bus and take kids to church but fortunately Chris’s church

[00:39:50] has buses that pick up kids and so we always let them know about that or a local church that’s close to

[00:39:56] them that just loves working with our kids and it’s just turned out to be a

[00:40:03] real growth thing putting them into church but they also come back and

[00:40:08] volunteer with us mmm and they volunteer with a club or they volunteer at life skills skills and it’s wonderful to see

[00:40:16] them taking apart a leadership – absolutely they’re not just there they’re actually putting feet to their

[00:40:23] faith and getting out there and making a difference and do you see Chris and your experience because I know you have such

[00:40:28] a large youth ministry do you see a lot of kids transitioning from this the sunshine Haven and so for the higher

[00:40:34] ground into the Bible clubs yeah I see a lot of kids coming we have programs that

[00:40:39] we do where we do competitions between the clubs like okay we’re gonna do this big event and the highest percentage of

[00:40:45] your club that gets there is gonna win a pizza party so we get a lot of kids to come to foothills or come to a church

[00:40:51] events and then sticking around it’s not quite as massive but I was just at this

[00:40:57] last camp just blessed cuz I’m looking at these these young ladies that I invited to church five years ago I

[00:41:04] invited to higher ground there’s three sisters and now their entire family comes they’re in leadership at our

[00:41:09] church and we have one in high school one in eighth grade and one in sixth grade and I just say man I am so blessed

[00:41:14] yeah played a part in that do you see that a lot do you see where these kids go homes and I know you shared that

[00:41:20] story where they go home and then that the parents are impacted by the what’s happening in their kids life we have a

[00:41:26] plug teacher Stephanie hammer shots our biggest cloud they have over a hundred students every week coming to club she

[00:41:34] got saved when her child went to sunshine club at Highlands way back when he was a little kid and she was similar

[00:41:41] to me she’s like I need to go see what my child is learning and so he started going to club she went to see what he

[00:41:48] was learning about she got saved their whole family got saved got baptized and now she’s leading our largest club and

[00:41:55] she they’re they’re in her more the whole area and JCC Himal Community

[00:42:02] Church is so intent on reaching these families for Christ and

[00:42:08] bringing them into the church and they’re doing a very good job of it they have a very high rate of there’s

[00:42:15] sunshine club kids families coming to club maybe for an Easter event or for a

[00:42:21] special presentation and it’s such a small community yeah that they’re very

[00:42:26] effective in that but yes children get saved their families get saved not every

[00:42:31] one of them but it happens frequently oh yeah and so our goal is not just to come

[00:42:38] to sunshine Club and then that’s it it’s we want those families to get involved in a church we have 27 28 or more

[00:42:46] churches represented in our volunteer base hmm so whatever churches are

[00:42:52] represented at that Club those churches are welcome to promote the activities

[00:42:57] that their church is offering like it’s the Easter egg hunt or if it’s a Halloween thing or so that’s that’s a

[00:43:03] great thing for churches to know because this is their opportunity to get the word out about their church and to build

[00:43:09] that community in that family through getting involved with Sunshine Haven right and doesn’t have to be your church

[00:43:14] is sponsoring this club necessarily either it can be just one or two from a church that hey we want to help other

[00:43:21] people with their club and can they can just come together in unity because what

[00:43:26] we’re preaching the same message yeah and we’re one in Christ and it makes a

[00:43:31] great team that’s great and my I’ve heard the stat over and over again that

[00:43:37] people accept the Lord at a young age more often than when they get stuck in a rut as they get older is that something

[00:43:44] that you you’re familiar I just read that statistic the other day and it said after 14 it’s rare for kids to come to

[00:43:52] the Lord and as young as four years old we used to have kindergartners in our

[00:43:58] club but like my Club in El Cajon it’s so large and we have so many of the

[00:44:03] older kids yeah that we want to keep it not anyone taking a nap on the floor in

[00:44:09] the other room or playing with each other’s braids and so now it starts at

[00:44:16] first grade just to just to keep it not as many yes and we do so many other things too

[00:44:23] like Christmas Thanksgiving Cinderella day lots of pot raid tickets

[00:44:29] so many so many things are offered to us and we hope yes yes yes yeah and we get

[00:44:35] our snacks at food bank and and we had a huge delivery today what was that one

[00:44:40] from feeding San Diego and they even delivered it which was awesome Wow now what happens during the summer when

[00:44:47] school gets out is it time to take a break or what what happened no we don’t have any prey yeah you know we’re gonna

[00:44:56] slow to get some time off like oh no we’re just gearing up we’re just you know life skills is a very intensive

[00:45:03] tiring and it’s very busy does that run like June July August kind of yes and

[00:45:09] and we start adding new things like reading at least started reading classes

[00:45:14] because my broken arm last year and my my surgeon was saying do you know how

[00:45:19] kids lose their ground in elementary school they don’t have any tutoring in

[00:45:24] the summer reading is so important hmm and he hammered that into me and we went back and we went to the school district

[00:45:31] and we said we need some used books so we can have the kids reading together and reading out loud in small groups and

[00:45:37] they furnished us with a ton of books and so reading was a really big class by

[00:45:44] summer and of course we’re doing it again this year and this summer we’re also gonna do survival skills yeah which

[00:45:49] are things like what to do if you have a fire in your house we had that happen with a fireman had come and showed him

[00:45:55] how to pull out that emergency thing and there was a fire in her house that very

[00:46:00] day apartment Wow and she had just learned that so we’re gonna have survival class yeah once a

[00:46:07] week where they have they know who to call what to do about it and how to make

[00:46:12] emergency meal and those basic things that that we need to teach the kids yeah that’s excellent we have we just this

[00:46:19] past year just had two families homes burned down just last week we had a family’s home burned down yeah very tragic but very valuable what

[00:46:27] you’re what you’re sharing my guests today are Mary Rothman Dora Berninger and Chris Ali from sunshine

[00:46:32] Haven and they’re looking for volunteers so if you can get involved please do so pray

[00:46:39] about it and it’s a way that you can make a very quick difference if you’re one of those kind of people that you

[00:46:45] know once immediate gratification you want to see people’s lives change quickly this is a ministry where I mean

[00:46:50] these are immediate results you’re seeing as you impact a child’s life for the kingdom of God and for Jesus Christ

[00:46:56] we’re gonna be right back we have one segment left for 36 years Fastlane

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[00:47:34] two two zero seven sixty-six hi this is Jason hall president of team home loans

[00:47:39] a branch of synergy one lending I just want to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Conover for the profound impact

[00:47:45] he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible teacher while our kids were his students

[00:47:51] his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important it is to be defenders of our faith it’s our honor and

[00:47:57] privilege to support Kevin and his show is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to learn to be defenders

[00:48:02] of your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you Kevin from the hall

[00:48:08] family and team Home Loans hi I’m Marisa Conover and I would love to help you buy

[00:48:15] or sell your home I’ve worked as a realtor for more than 13 years and as a

[00:48:20] San Diego native my passion and experience will help make your move as peaceful as can be call me at six one

[00:48:28] nine two five one one five seven seven that’s six one nine two five one 1577

[00:48:35] or visit Conover homes

[00:48:41] hi this is Kevin Conover will you please donate to educate for life so we can share the truth of God’s

[00:48:47] Word with kids in public schools you can donate online at donate to EFL 0 RG the Bible used to be read in public

[00:48:55] schools on a regular basis prior to the 1960s but today most kids are completely clueless when it comes to the content

[00:49:02] and the historical and scientific accuracy of the Bible please help us by donating online at donate to EFL RG

[00:49:15] welcome to educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover we’re on our last segment of today’s show thanks for

[00:49:20] joining us this Saturday and my guests today are from the Sunshine Haven Mary Rothman Dora Bruna Durand Chris Ali and

[00:49:27] their website sunshine Haven Arg they run 41 clubs in Southern California

[00:49:32] East San Diego on the elementary and middle school campuses in Dora when we

[00:49:38] were all fair you were mentioning that you’re looking at doing some sort of a fundraising events coming up potentially

[00:49:44] in the spring do you want to share with us a little bit about that well because my burning desire is for them to go to

[00:49:49] camp again and it cost so much to go to camp yeah I was talking to one of our

[00:49:54] moms who said her son attends club she said I would love him to go to camp and

[00:50:00] she recalled with me how you never saw the lights in the city but out at Camp you could see all the stars and hear all

[00:50:07] these insect noises and things you never expect to see and fun from the morning you get up yeah and until you go to bed

[00:50:13] at night and I said I’d love to raise money for that again so we’re planning

[00:50:18] on having a spring event and it’s in the works right now I’ve got somebody who is

[00:50:23] a party fun planner and we are working on a date in May and it’s gonna be

[00:50:29] especially so we can raise money for camps so if somebody if somebody wants to donate specifically I have somebody

[00:50:36] in my mind right now who actually told me he only likes to donate specifically for individual students that are going

[00:50:42] to be going to camps and that sort of we can make that hard yeah Wow okay yeah two hundred dollars it is for a kid okay

[00:50:49] and it’s four nights and we meet at the Haven and give them a separate for their

[00:50:54] families so they send them off on the bus and wave goodbye because we found if we didn’t do that people didn’t stay and

[00:51:01] wave goodbye to their kids and we wanted to have that big send-off yeah and so we have a family supper and then they go

[00:51:07] out to camp and we should go out at night just because we love seeing the

[00:51:13] bonfire in the case right for salvation and it’s just wonderful and and where is

[00:51:19] the camp is that Indians okay great great and then I was going to ask you I

[00:51:25] know that you have camp you know the clubs in the El entry in the middle school do you have

[00:51:30] clubs in high school or what what’s the what’s the thought there in high school the students have to lead the clubs okay

[00:51:39] so they’re typically during school okay so we don’t we do the clubs that where

[00:51:48] we go in and we oversee we manage we do the whole club so the high school

[00:51:54] foothills has several campuses where they mentor and assist the students but

[00:52:03] that’s not what sunshine Haven does but we you know we support them and like love that what they’re doing and a lot

[00:52:10] of our higher ground club teachers also do high school ministry but it’s not what we focus on okay but we certainly

[00:52:16] take them as volunteers with our clubs and sometimes it works out some of our clubs are later and they come in and

[00:52:24] sometimes they’re not there for the whole club but they want to see the kids learning and the joy of learning

[00:52:30] absolutely and how old does somebody have to be in order to be a volunteer in in the sunshine Haven you know what we

[00:52:36] even have middle school graduates who come back to life skills and want to help teach a club if we always have them

[00:52:42] combined with with adults mm-hmm but they they loved it so much they just

[00:52:48] want to be there sometimes we have way more volunteers that we need and we have fifty junior high graduates sitting

[00:52:54] outside having lunch and because we can’t say no yeah it’s a safe place for

[00:53:00] them to be absolutely and and it’s so much fun for them to see each other and we love their help too that’s great

[00:53:06] now has there ever been a thought of expanding beyond the schools that you have I know you said you still looking

[00:53:11] for volunteers for those twelve more schools but what about like the city of San Diego I know you go anywhere if we had volunteers to do the climbing there

[00:53:18] okay so it’s just a matter so it doesn’t matter whether somebody’s in North County or anywhere that’s fantastic and

[00:53:24] what what have what’s the farthest you’ve had clubs outside of the East County area why are you this Sarah Mason

[00:53:31] area yes mhm okay that’s great and are there other organizations that do

[00:53:36] ministry in San Diego that are similar to what Sunshine Haven is doing we went

[00:53:41] to a can um and and viewed what they were doing and it was high school kids

[00:53:47] it was young life young life okay and and one of the leaders went with us in

[00:53:53] our car and it was really really great but they work with high school students also and I guess I guess we love the

[00:54:02] teachability of that little kids that’s true the attention span you can just hear a pin

[00:54:09] drop I’m giving the Bible lesson yeah and they want to hear so much about answered prayer in in friendships and

[00:54:18] there’s so many things to teach them and we just go through the Bible miracles and Old Testament in and share with them

[00:54:25] the excitement of it’s not a history book it’s now yeah yeah Christ is moving

[00:54:31] now yeah in our lives and making a difference now so that’s fantastic well I want to thank you guys so much for

[00:54:38] being on the air today thank you for having yeah it’s it’s a huge blessing and I think it’s such an

[00:54:44] impactful ministry so if you’re listening out there I’ve been saying this over and over again but please get

[00:54:50] involved there is no greater time to make an impact in a kid’s life that like

[00:54:55] Mary was saying under 14 years old is when you know they’re looking for hope and they’re looking for encouragement

[00:55:01] and a lot of them come from struggling backgrounds like Chris shared and so we love to have you get involved you want

[00:55:09] to share one more story before we wrap up here Mary or do you have something more well I was just finding a quote

[00:55:14] that I hit copy mm-hmm and it said as you age volunteering can improve your

[00:55:21] sex life and decrease depression kids

[00:55:28] but you’re helping yourself as a great sales pitch I wasn’t expecting that

[00:55:44] okay well thank you very much you guys for being on the show really appreciate it thank you okay so

[00:55:50] we’ll be back on the air next Saturday I hope you’ll join me I’ll have another guest on the show

[00:55:56] and I think I’ll have a surprise guest coming up here soon that’s going to have a big impact also if you remember I was

[00:56:03] handcuffed to an atheist last year and the video should be coming out on

[00:56:08] BuzzFeed I think this week or next week so keep your eyes open for that that

[00:56:14] should be pretty interesting I’m not sure what to expect so lots of fun stuff god bless your Saturday look forward to

[00:56:21] being with you next time did you miss part of today’s program don’t worry work Han mitad to helping

[00:56:26] you get the info you need okay that was dumb but for real visit educate for life Khan for podcasts

[00:56:33] and video recordings of the show and to sign up for the school of unshakeable faith leave us your comments compliments

[00:56:38] questions or concerns at 800 243 9