Make An Impact in A Childs life
About Sunshine Acres
Mission
Goals
About
Admission Process
Children come to Sunshine Acres Children’s Home for a variety of reasons. Some have parents in prison while others have a parent who is too ill to care for the child. The family could be homeless or the child has been living with grandparents who find it difficult to care for their grandchildren.
Sunshine Acres History
It started with a desire to give their lives to caring for children who are hurting and a faith that God would provide all they needed. Reverend James and Vera Dingman (Uncle Jim and Aunt Vera) had spent their lives serving those forgotten by society: the sick, the poorest of the poor, migrant families and those in prison. They were grandparents with no income, 11 years of mortgage payments, no electricity and a well with a broken pump.
For 17 years, Uncle Jim and Aunt Vera prayed for a place where they could care for homeless children. Then the answer to their prayers came in 1953, when they sold their home, and with the help of the Mesa Optimist Club, made a down payment on 125 acres of Arizona desert with a few run-down buildings.
In 1954 Uncle Jim and Aunt Vera opened Sunshine Acres Children’s Home, which became the beginning of the Miracle in the Desert.
No child will ever be turned away for financial reasons. Sunshine Acres does not receive government support for the direct care of the children. Many friends, businesses, churches and volunteers contribute and host fundraising events on behalf of the home – proof that God is still working miracles in the desert.
“That day we both felt that we should never solicit money, a board or a brick, and that no child would ever be turned away for financial reasons. God impressed upon us very strongly that this was His work. We were to take care of the children, and He would take care of the finances.”