Jose and Maria Basoco are the Founders and Directors of Sunshine Land Orphanage (Tierras del Sol Brillante) in El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico. In 1995 while employed as a maintenance worker at an orphanage in San Luis, Mexico, Jose felt the clear call of the Lord to provide a safe and loving place for the orphans in his home state of Sinaloa.
After 12 years of prayer, encouragement from their pastor, and waiting on the Lord, during which Jose and his wife Maria attended and graduated from seminary in Nogales, Arizona, a plot of land was purchased by a church that they had previously helped plant in El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico, beginning the journey of opening their orphanage.
In 2007, Jose and supporters began working on the first building. After four years of working on the building brick by brick with their own hands, it was finally completed in 2011 and Jose and Maria’s daughter Isabel and son in law Eduardo, who felt called by the Lord to work full time at the orphanage, moved in. Soon the first 8 children arrived at Sunshine Land.
Currently, Sunshine Land houses 20 children, some of them with special needs. Though Sunshine Land currently only has room for 20 children, Jose and Maria’s vision from the Lord far exceeds that number. Their vision is to build more accommodations to be able to provide a safe, loving and Christ-centered home for up to 50 more children in the midst of a very dangerous place.
Jose’s philosophy in ministry is simple: “God sowed this dream in my life. I asked him, ‘And how am I going to achieve it?’ With the passing of the years, that question became part of my life…sometimes I would ask it of the Lord, and sometimes people would ask it of me. I always answered, I don’t know….but if it pleases God, He will do it.”