He came when he was just 10, an angry boy who would get into all sorts of trouble at Paya Lebar Methodist Church’s (PLMC) community bonding project, Sonshine Kids.

“He was brought here by his classmate,” Carolyn Lee, Director of Children’s Ministry at PLMC, told Salt&Light.

“When he joined us, he shared how his mum left him. On the day she left, she gave him lots of snacks.

“He was confused because his father and his grandmother told him that his mum didn’t love him. But he thought, if she didn’t love him, why would she have given him all these goodies?”

As he got more familiar with Sonshine Kids, he realised that when he was just five years old, his mother had brought him to Sonshine Kids.

“We were amazed at how God’s hand had been with him,” said Carolyn.

The staff and volunteers at Sonshine Kids were also heartened by how this boy always received encouragement from God through images.

“Once, he drew a picture of Jesus. He told me how Jesus showed him the three crosses and a rock,” she related.

“In class, he often shows he’s not interested. He is now in the class for Primary 5 and 6s, and we sometimes go into teaching on doctrines. He cannot pay attention and he doesn’t understand some of the terms.

“But God still ministers to him in an amazing way.”

It is for children like this young boy that PLMC started their community outreach programme, Sonshine Kids. It is separate from their children’s ministry, Silver Boxes, which caters to children of worshippers.

Reaching communities

Every Saturday afternoon, 40 children – aged five to 15 – from the community gather to receive free English tuition for an hour. This is followed by a children’s programme of action songs, Bible stories, games and age-based cell groups of up to five children per group.

Through fun programmes, Sonshine Kids reaches out to community kids and shares the Gospel with them.

The children of Sonshine Kids come from the church’s kindergarten, Covenant Kindergarten, as well as its student care centre, Hope Student Care Centre.

Carolyn explained: “It started with us wanting to reach out to and connect with the children in our outreach centres.

“We felt that English tuition would supplement the children’s education and attract the parents to bring their kids.”

This year marks the ministry’s 20^th anniversary.

“One of our pioneer kids is now a grown woman and has a one-year-old kid of her own,” said the director, smiling with pride.

While the church has a ministry to nurture and grow children of congregants, Sonshine Kids exists to give children in the community a chance to hear the gospel and encounter God.

“We have a girl who joined us in Primary 3. She is now in Primary 5. She had an encounter with God: When she didn’t know how to do a Science question, she prayed and God answered her prayers.

“Because of that, when I asked her, ‘Do you think God is real?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ Subsequently, her mum let her younger siblings – a sister and a brother – come as well even though the family are staunch believers in another religion.

“The kids love coming so much that there is this boy whose mum told him, ‘If you don’t finish your homework, you cannot go to Sonshine Kids.’”

From communities to families  

The hope is also that through these children, their families and their communities can be reached.

“Matthew 5:16 says, ‘Let your light shine so that all man may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.’ That is our mission for Sonshine Kids. We want them to go out and influence their families with their character change.

“We have some parents who see the change in their kids’ behaviour and want more Christian education for them. So these kids join our Sunday School.”

There is a little six-year-old whose older siblings joined when they were in Kindergarten 1 and Primary 1, before she was even born. When she was old enough, her parents allowed her to be in Sonshine Kids. Her siblings have moved on to the church’s Sunday programme.

“At the same time, God was touching the father who went to Israel on a work trip. He was awed by this God of Israel, and he had an encounter with God. Then the whole family decided to come to church.”

Some of the Sonshine kids even graduate to the church’s youth programme.  

Added Carolyn: “One of them went to our Youth Service and later joined Trackers, the three-month discipleship programme for youths that TRAC (Trinity Annual Conference) organises.”

Leading children to experience God

Since the children at Sonshine Kids are pre-believers, the programme is geared towards equipping them with Christian values and giving them opportunities to experience God for themselves.

More than just knowing the Bible, the children are given the chance to experience God.

One Easter, the children participated in an activity to retrace the steps of Jesus leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection. They even took part in a recreation of the Last Supper.

The children were also taught that God speaks even today, and one of the ways He speaks is through visions.

“After that, we had a time to let them hear from God,” she said. “They waited and then they drew what they saw. Following that, we got them to share.

“There was this boy who drew trees. He goes for art classes. So I thought it was from something from his art class. But he said that this is what he saw in a vision of heaven.

“He is very stoic. He doesn’t really show his emotions. It broke my heart in a good way how he encountered God,” said Carolyn.

In a recent exercise to allow the children to encounter God through what is revealed in pictures, the same boy drew a waterfall. He told the teachers that God showed him heaven and there was a waterfall in heaven.

The director was personally encouraged: “For me, it spoke to me about how God refreshes us even when we are tired.”

Some may be sceptical about children’s ability to hear God accurately. In answer to such doubts, Carolyn said: “Even if it is their imagination, if they can share what they think God is saying to them, it is something.

“I believe that if we help the child hold on to God’s Word, and the Word is the sword of the Spirit, we can continue to journey with the child as God speaks to them.”

Diamonds in the rough

For Carolyn and her team of two full-time children’s ministry workers and 20 volunteer children coaches, programmes and plans aside, it is the reaching of community children one life at a time that is the primary goal.

The coaches of Sonshine Kids giving their all at a theme party for the children.

“When children come to me and tell me testimonies and share how God has touched them, it touches me,” said Carolyn.

“Sometimes, it’s also about not only us ministering to them, but also the children ministering to us.”

She recounts an incident with a boy who was giving the coaches a difficult time. The lesson was on fixing one’s gaze on Jesus and the boy was not paying attention. Then came time for craft work.

The children were given pipe cleaners to fashion their own spectacles. When the boy wore his creation, he complained that the pipe cleaners were prickly.

“We offered to get him another type of pipe cleaner but he said, ‘I don’t want to change. I want to remember that Jesus died for me because He wore the crown of thorns on His head. The crown is even more prickly and painful.’

“We were all humbled because we thought he was not really paying attention in class. They surprise us with such gems.”

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