An Urgent Message From Our President

As the coronavirus continues to be a growing concern around our world and nation, all of us at Sunrise are responding quickly and responsibly to this crisis. We are making decisions not out of fear but out of genuine love and concern for the children and families we serve. They are Why we exist – they are our mission.

We are currently restricting visitors to our residential facilities to family members only and Sunrise staff.  In other ministries we will be limiting home visits while making better use of technology such as Zoom to stay connected with our hurting families and children. We will continue to monitor recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and other public health agencies to keep our Sunrise children and families safe.

Many of you are wanting to know how you can help. Prayer is so critical. As we know from the Scriptures, prayer can move mountains. Specifically, pray that our children and families will be healthy. Pray that our committed team members will continue to shine hope and love to all the individuals we serve. Pray for the staff as the closure of daycares and schools has brought uncertainty to them as well.

Pray that we can do whatever is necessary to bring back normalcy to our children and families. Please join us in praying for all those in our world who have been personally impacted by this virus.

There is absolutely no doubt that the adverse economics caused by this virus will not come and go quickly. Many economists are anticipating an inevitable recession. For how long, no one really knows. The domino effect is in play and will have a negative impact on everyone – businesses, churches, individuals and, yes, Sunrise. But Sunrise has had an amazing history through tough times. Its genesis began in the aftermath of the Civil War. Subsequently, it survived the devastating influenza outbreak of 1918, two world wars, the 1930s depression, and other more recent global and national events for this one reason – to meet the needs of Kentucky’s kids. Allow me to paint a current picture of what we do so you can understand Why I am going to ask you to go above and beyond.

When Reuben Watson, one of our co-workers who is a former Sunrise ‘kid,’ stood in front of 40 young men at our Cumberland Adventure Program and told his own story of abuse endured and 13 foster homes, he was able to end his painful tale with a message of rescue, safety, and hope, that Sunrise gave him as a teenager. He shared the amazing story of Christ coming into his life when he came to Sunrise and his story of forgiveness…..he renewed my Why. One of our residents asked Reuben how he could forgive the abusers in his life. Reuben looked at the young man and said, “You are free to forgive them, you don’t have to live in fear anymore.” The young man wept as Reuben comforted him in his arms. The young man shared that he had been in foster homes since he was five and had always lived in institutional care. His experience in some of those homes is not repeatable.  He did not know what normal was. He has found his place of rescue, safety, and hope at Sunrise.

Our Why is to continue to give our 111 residential young people a place to heal.
Our Why is to provide counseling to over 700 families and individuals we serve.
Our Why is to meet the needs of our 185 foster families and the kids under their care.
Our Why is celebrating over 100 adoptions and 100 children giving their hearts to Christ over the past 24 months.

Our Why is why we are asking you to give above and beyond to take care of the children and families we serve. We absolutely understand the current downturn in the economy could be devastating to our ability to continue our much-needed ministries. As an organization we are extremely concerned, which is why we are being proactive.

Why you? If not you, then who? If 5,000 people would give $25 a month or more for the next 6 months, we can continue to meet the needs of these young people and hurting families. Our Whys are the kids and families we serve- more than 1,100 of them.

Here is a link for you to give. Also, please send this link to others who would understand what we do. We need your help as we are anticipating a major shortfall of donations.

We need you to be our Why for supporting us – because you see what we are doing for Kentucky’s kids. As noted above in our history, we have always overcome and, through God’s grace, we will do so again. Why? Because of God’s love for Kentucky’s children and your response to Him who split the Red Sea and raised Christ our Savior from the dead! Doing the impossible is His specialty!

You are in our prayers,

Dale Suttles
President