At Sunny Glen Children’s Home in San Benito, two men come to work every day to do something that’s harder to define than it looks. Mr. Craig Keel and Mr. Scott Pinkerton are the Sunny Glen campus ministers, and their work lives in the ordinary rhythms of campus life, not behind a desk or at a pulpit. For children who have learned, often through painful experience, that adults don’t always stay, that kind of steady presence is no small thing.
They aren’t house parents or counselors or administrators. They’re something rarer. And the warmth they bring to this work is impossible to capture in a job title.
What Called Them to This Work
Mr. Keel came to Sunny Glen because of one word: opportunity.
“In the gospels, there were times when people brought their children to Jesus and the disciples shooed them away,” he says. “But Jesus said, forbid not the children to come unto me. What we find is, there are times in a child’s development that they have a curiosity for God. At Sunny Glen, we have an opportunity to be in the lives of those children when that opportunity shows up. And that’s what drives me.”
Mr. Pinkerton’s path was more personal. His wife Cynthia was already working on campus, and he’d built real relationships with the kids through Sunday morning worship services. When the position was offered, the decision came quickly.
“I had a good job where I was, but this job was offered. How can you have a bad day at work when you’re a paid grandpa? It was just a desire to make a difference in children’s lives, and in staff lives too.”
What a Day on Campus Actually Looks Like
No two days are exactly the same, but there are rhythms that anchor the work. Mr. Pinkerton starts each morning in the front office, speaking to everyone there, checking in on how the day is beginning. Then the day opens into pastoral care.
Mr. Keel describes it this way: “The type of pastoral care we give includes individual counseling, biblical counseling, prayers, weekly Bible studies with the children, and church services for them and for the staff. We provide devotional time, prayer for staff, and pastoral care if they request it.”
Mr. Pinkerton adds something that tends to surprise people. “I do more than just campus minister things. I’m called on to help fix things around campus. And probably the most surprising thing is that I get to teach the teenagers how to drive. My kids grew up on the farm. I taught them to drive when they were six and seven years old. At least these kids can see over the dash.”
The Relationship the Kids Actually Choose
The Sunny Glen campus ministers hold a position unlike any other on campus. When a child arrives at Sunny Glen, they’re placed into relationships with house parents and staff. Those relationships are real and important. But the relationship with Mr. Keel and Mr. Pinkerton is different. It’s chosen.
Mr. Pinkerton explains. “We’re fortunate because they choose to have a relationship with us. We’re not disciplinarians. They choose to be with us, and we get to do the grandpa things.”
That chosen quality changes everything. A child who has learned to brace for disappointment won’t trust on command. But when trust is allowed to grow at the child’s own pace, something real can take root.
It’s Not “What’s Wrong With You?” It’s “What Happened to You?”
One of the most important things Mr. Pinkerton brings to this work is a reframe that started with his own children.
“It’s hard for most of us to know what it’s like growing up the way some of these kids have,” he says. “When my kids would misbehave, my first response was, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ And it’s not what’s wrong with them. It’s what happened to them. We need to remember that. Behavior tells us a lot about their past. We have to get better at reading the behavior, addressing the behavior, and seeing if we can help improve that behavior.”
Mr. Keel adds an image that stays with you: “When a child comes into care, it is a moment of total surrender to a strange people in a strange place. So we try to make it as friendly, as comfortable, and as structured as possible, so that they have something to cling to.”
Teaching God’s Love in Teachable Moments
For children who are still deciding whether adults can be trusted, a formal lesson about God is unlikely to land. Mr. Keel’s approach is quieter than that, and far more patient.
“The way we teach God’s love is in teachable moments,” he says. “Every day as we interact with the kids, we share God’s Word with them, like Jesus did. He taught about farmers, about fishing, about building a tower and counting the cost. He used what was right in front of him. There may be a situation a child is going through that we can share a small portion of God’s Word. And as they hear this over a period of time, we pray they gain that wisdom and that knowledge.”
It’s never forced. It’s woven into the ordinary, offered gently and repeatedly, the way good things tend to grow. These children aren’t receiving a curriculum. They’re experiencing what it looks like to be loved by people who believe God’s love is worth passing on.
One Story That Makes It All Worth It
Mr. Pinkerton pauses when he gets to this question. He was driving with a teenage girl from campus when they stopped for lunch. She started talking the way kids sometimes do when they’re side by side instead of face to face.
“She told me, ‘Kids like me are given a lot of things. We’re given too much. My friends have to work hard to get a lot of the things that I get.'”
He told her that the best way to show appreciation was to do well with what she’d been given, and then give back when she had the chance. What struck him wasn’t what he said. It was what she’d already figured out on her own.
“It’s just the wisdom that some of these kids show,” he says quietly. “It makes it all worth it.”
Staying Full When You’re Always Pouring Out
Pouring steadily into children from hard places takes something out of you. Both men know this, and both are intentional about staying filled up themselves.
Mr. Keel turns to Romans 8:18 when the days are heavy. “I reckon that the suffering of this world is not to be compared to the glory that’s revealed in us. Whatever we’re going through, if we remember that and keep that goal in focus, it helps through the hard times.”
He’s also honest about how personal faith has to be actively tended. “I have to constantly meditate on the word of God. And I have to be fed by others. That’s why my church family is very important, because there are times I need to be fed just as I feed others.”
There’s something quietly profound about that. The men who come in every day to fill others up have to stay grounded themselves. They do it through Scripture, through worship, through the kind of close-knit Christian community that believes we were never meant to walk through hard things alone. The work stays alive because the people doing it stay connected to something bigger than themselves.
What They Want You to Know About These Kids
Ask either man what they want supporters to understand, and the answer comes without hesitation.
Mr. Keel: “Our kids are not troubled kids. They’re kids who are going through trouble, and they need help getting through that trouble.”
Mr. Pinkerton builds on it: “Kids are kids. No matter where they come from or what they have lived, first and foremost, they’re kids. And we try to provide as normal a place for them to grow up as we possibly can.”
Not children to be fixed. Kids who got handed something hard, and who deserve the same chance at a good, normal life that everyone else takes for granted. That’s what Mr. Keel and Mr. Pinkerton come back to protect every single day.
The Sunny Glen Campus Ministers Are One Part of Something Bigger
The work of the Sunny Glen campus ministers is one thread in a much larger fabric of care. Grounded in Christian faith and 90 years of service, Sunny Glen has walked alongside more than 25,000 children through programs and ministries that include residential care, the Poenisch Counseling Center, the Allen House Supervised Independent Living program, and children refugee services.
If this story moved you, we’d love for you to learn more about who we are, find a way to get involved, or give a gift that goes straight to the kids. And if you have questions, we’d genuinely love to hear from you. These kids are learning, little by little, to trust again. You’re invited to be part of what makes that possible.
What do the Sunny Glen campus ministers do each day?
Mr. Keel and Mr. Pinkerton provide pastoral care for both children and staff, including individual and biblical counseling, weekly Bible studies, prayer, and worship services. Beyond that, they come alongside people in ordinary ways, checking in, helping around campus, and simply being available. Their daily presence is as much a ministry as any formal program.
How is the campus minister role different from other staff roles at Sunny Glen?
Unlike house parents and other staff, the campus ministers offer a relationship children can choose on their own terms. That voluntary connection gives kids a sense of agency that matters deeply, and the warmth and steadiness both men bring to it makes those relationships feel safe in a way that’s hard to manufacture.
How do the campus ministers share faith with children who are still learning to trust?
They rely on teachable moments rather than structured lessons. As Mr. Keel explains, they share small portions of Scripture as situations arise naturally in daily life, the same way Jesus taught through what was right in front of him. Gentle, repeated exposure to God’s Word builds familiarity and trust without pressure or force.
What other programs support children at Sunny Glen beyond campus ministry?
Sunny Glen offers a full range of care through its programs and ministries, including residential programs, the Poenisch Counseling Center, the Allen House Supervised Independent Living program, and refugee services. Campus ministry works alongside all of these, tending to the spiritual and relational wellbeing of every child and staff member on campus. Learn more about Sunny Glen’s values.
How can someone support the work happening at Sunny Glen?
You can volunteer your time, make a financial contribution, or simply spread the word. Every act of support helps create the stable, loving environment these children deserve. Visit the Sunny Glen website to learn more or reach out to the team directly.