OOSC Spring Camp II. “Treasure is Everywhere!”  That was the theme of this year’s SunRidge Out of School Care Spring Break Camp.  We found treasure in the forest, treasure in the lakes, treasure in our talents, and we became a treasure to our community by washing their cars.  Treasure is truly everywhere.  But the greatest treasure is the treasure that God gives us by inviting us into his kingdom (Matthew 13).  

Some of the highlights from the second week of camp were:
► An amazing talent show!
► Taking 21 kids fishing.  We caught about 150 knots and 12 nests of line. (see the picture of our catch). Frustration abounded, but s’mores made everything better in the end.
► Raising $191.15 for the BC Children’s Hospital by putting on a community car wash. (half of our earnings)
► Spending $191.15 on ice-cream, slushies and candy by putting on a community car wash! (the other half of our earnings)
► Crashing the Bulk Barn with 21 kids to shop for candy.  The owner of the store was delighted and gave us a 25% discount!
► Expending energy at the Johnson Bentley Skate Park after eating slushies and ice-cream.

Hats off to the OOSC staff who love on these kids and make their day!

If you or someone that you know would like to join us this summer for Camp, please reach out to Jon at jon@sunridge.org, and he would be happy to connect you with the registration link!

Sunridge has been hopping with spring camps over March break in full swing! How can you tell spring is in the air? - The kids have been out exploring, learning about God, holding talent contests, making friends! Here's a glimpse into some of their adventures. :)

Hats off to the OOSC staff who love on these kids and make their day!

Spring has sprung! Or so we thought as we planned a large youth event to take place outside... and then it was freezing and actually snowed. No matter! We pivot. What was originally going to be a doughnut tree by the bball court became a doughnut Christmas tree inside the auditorium. I must take a moment to mention, one student actually ate 12 doughnuts. RESPECT.

Inside, to the sounds of Christian EDM music, we played nine-square, really pushed the limits of facepaint, had a lot of snacks, and capped it off with a raffle! (One prize was live fish throwback to our last RIDGE Retreat if any of you remember that fish-centered hilarious time...but also the mud fight... I guess we've involved fish in a few events haha) It was awesome and was a huge team effort! Shout out to the amazing RIDGE Roadies who make so much happen behind-the-scenes! It's a joy to just be joyful in the name of Jesus before we pause for Spring Break.

Hats off to everyone pouring into Sunridge! From new basketballs being donated, to new bathroom mirrors, to a new furnace - stuff's happening around our campus, with more to come! :)

Thanks goes out to Fusion Glass for the mirror donation and for Adam for hanging them up. See some patches on the walls around the church? That's Adam too as we prepare for some paint. :)

Remember:  Love Jesus - Love People - Live Mission!

This year our youth retreat was centred around the Rush Youth Conference at Willow Park Church in Kelowna and IT WAS AWESOME!!! We're talking glowstick dance party on an epic scale, a city-wide amazing race... WHICH WE WON... amazing food (thank you RIDGE Roadies), yell/singing on the church bus, ridiculous amounts of sweat, a send of a snowball fight (which you might've heard outside after church), late nights, party squawkers, so much it's hard to list all the joyful things! BUT here is the best, best, best part... you stand back in those Rush worship sessions and you see hundreds of students passionately worshipping God!!! The teaching was powerful and students responded, making beautiful commitments to follow Jesus! God moved in powerful ways this weekend.

We're so grateful for the many, many people from churches all around our city who worked to make this weekend happen! God is so good and we're so blessed!

We recently met as staff to do some brainstorming and planning for 2025 as evidenced by the post-it covered calendar up on the lobby wall. It's pretty amazing to look at the year as a whole, you realize how much is actually going on around our church! Check it out, it'll still be up this Sunday,  and if we've missed something - add it with the post-it notes supplied. Just please don't move around what's already been added. :) Excited for this coming year!

We took Christmas wrapping very seriously this year at our youth Christmas party. What better way to grow our skills than taping someone to a wall and decorating them after?? We're proud to say Kira and Jax both successfully held to the wall before slowly falling off and we're also happy to say the portable wall did not fall down in the process. But for real, it was a great time!

We took time at the beginning to watch the Bible project video on the Christmas story. It's amazing. Highly recommend. Then we went right into taping games, cookie decorating, snowball fights both inside and out, and finished the night by taping Garnet to a round table and rolling him through the auditorium! This night was joyful and we laughed a lot. God is so good and we're so grateful for this crew!

Our Men's Group year end family celebration was a ton of fun for the whole family. Men made dinner for the ladies while the kids watched a Christmas movie on the big screen. Everyone worked together to clean up. Thank you John Chapman for your leadership in this ministry!

Our Christmas Eve service this year was a smashing success! We had to keep setting up more and more chairs - over 150 people came! It was a great time of celebrating our Lord's coming with laughs, touching moments and of course - hugs. :) Looking forward to next year already! (did you know that it's only 362 days until Christmas?)

As usual, our Christmas Eve offering was gathered for the Child of Mine organization in India that is so dear to our hearts. We're very happy and excited to say that your generosity supported this important ministry to the tune of almost $17,000. Well done Sunridge!

Hope the holidays were good to you and Happy New Year!

A fun time was had by all Thursday as we gathered to get the church ready for the Christmas season! Thank you everyone who helped out, many a laugh were had and many a snack were enjoyed! :) 

Wanna see the finished product? See ya Sunday! :)

Too good not to share! A fun time was had at OOSC during their "Pumpkin Smash 2024!" Those pumpkins were doomed! :)

Paint, pool tables, shelves, repair, stucco scraping, table building, so many awesome things have been happening around SunRidge by so many people! Thank you to all the volunteers who have been inspired to dive in and serve so ministries could run for another year! Not only have the results been awesome but it's been a lot of fun to do this all together God is good and life is rich in community! 

SHCOOP (SunRidge Homeschool Co-Op) is a weekly group of families that meets to do activities together. Just another way we show our commitment to the community and the NextGen! Keep it up Sunridge, you're making a difference! Learning is meant to be fun and sometimes...tasty! :)

Painting Party! A big thank you to the small army of SunRidgers, small and tall, who helped transform the lobby and hallway of our church.  It was a fun morning, which started at 4am for Adam Retzer, who came in to prep the space.  Painting started at a more reasonable hour and went right into the evening.  The Ridge Youth finished the job and we celebrated with pizza.  Thanks again for making things happen SunRidge! We're grateful God has blessed us with this facility and we pray we would steward this property for His glory!

SunRidge, check out your Leadership Team of Elders! (Shout out also to Bernie who isn't shown here :) They meet once a month and do lots in-between meetings! Wondering what being an elder at SunRidge is all about? Here's a bit of info taken from the SunRidge Constitution..."The spiritual leadership of the church is entrusted to a team of leaders, described in the Bible as "Elders"; we refer to this group of Elders in our church as The Leadership Team. SunRidge has a leadership structure that is designed to lead this local church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to bear fruit, prevail, and fulfill its God-given calling under the Great Commission. Our structure is meant to serve our vision, ultimately"Leading people to become passionately committed followers of Jesus."

It's no small thing to be on this team, especially during a time of leadership transition!

Church family, please be praying for this team!

• Pray each member would be filled with the love and wisdom of God to lead our church and fulfill the important and beautiful role they have

• Pray God would bless and protect their families

• Pray they would be full of the hope of God as they lead through this unique season

Summer is often a time to change gears, and in a lot of cases that includes some much needed resting. While a lot of Sunridge programs take a break over the summer, we decided to “rest” without taking the break as ladies devos and I can say I’m so glad we did. This summer, Sunridge ladies have been meeting together Thursday mornings at various locations throughout West Kelowna. We have taken some extended time to meditate / “chew on” Psalm 23 together as we memorized it through the summer, as well as taking extra time to pray together for things that are weighing on our hearts and affecting our community. It has been such a rich time of community, encouraging one another, and lifting each other up in prayer. I am so grateful for each woman who was able to show up this summer! We are looking forward to shifting gears in the fall as we go back to our regular meetings of 9am on Friday mornings in the church lobby. We are an open group and all women are welcome to come attend on any Friday. We would love to see some new faces join us this fall. If you are interested but would like more information please reach out to me (Carla) here

Summer camp is drawing to a close...

We have spent 6 glorious weeks together and it has been a blast (and exhausting)!  The first session of the summer was "The Amazing Race, SunRidge" and the last session was "SunRidge Art Gallery".  

Friday will be a bittersweet day as we say farewell to some of our OOSC kids for good (as they graduate into middle school), while others will be back with us in a few weeks for the start of a new semester.  

Thank you, kids, for playing with us this summer!

Stand up! Sit down. Stand up! Sit down. Stand up! Sit down. We had a good laugh last Sunday as our time of announcements unfolded into many rounds of standing up and quite a meaningful time of prayer! Kyle welcomed Stephanie Retzer to the stage to announce she was officially an elder! We stood and prayed! Then Kyle invited Mikaela up so we could say goodbye and pray for her as she moves to Ontario for school in Occupational Therapy. We stood and prayed! THEN Steve came up and had us stand again to pray for Kyle who was heading into surgery the next day. We stood and prayed! The rounds got a laugh but also, wow, so much richness in such a short time! This is the blessing of walking through life as a church family; we get to gather and pray to our Heavenly Father together for each other, through the ups and downs (literally ;)

Last month after Soup Sunday (Salad & Sandwiches Sunday actually :) ), a number of our family went across to the park for a game of ultimate! Why let a Sunday afternoon go to waste when you can spend it with friends and have some fun right?
This Sunday afternoon we're doing the same again after lunch, so come out and join the fun! :)