‘Many children already love Christmas and know that it is a special time of year in which gifts are given, so they are very receptive to hearing about the ultimate gift from a loving God of His Son,’ says CEF Acting Vice President of Administration Fred Pry
For Immediate Release
December 16, 2024
ST. LOUIS — Child Evangelism Fellowship® (CEF) is thinking big this year with its Christmas Party Club™ aiming to reach children in communities around the world with the real meaning of Christmas. Last year, CEF staff and volunteers held 295,000 clubs, reaching 9.1 million children around the world with the Gospel. Of those children, 2.5 million were counseled for salvation.
“Our goal in 2024 is to conduct 16,000 Christmas Party Club™ seminars to train 348,000 volunteers, to conduct 367,000 clubs, and to reach 12.6 million children with the true meaning of Christmas,” says CEF Acting Vice President of Administration Fred Pry.
While each club is Gospel-centered, there are also teachings for children who have accepted Christ. CEF® will connect volunteers and leaders with the training, materials, and activities they need to confidently host a Christmas Party Club™.
A Christmas Party Club™ can open the door to hosting a CEF Good News Club® at a school, community center, church, or home. Good News Club® can be the next step in reaching more children and discipling them regularly in God’s Word.
Christmas Party Club™ reports are coming in from around the world. Millions of children are attending, and many are professing faith in Jesus, including those from war-torn countries.
Here are some recent 2024 CEF Christmas Party Club™ stories:
Red River, Texas, USA
“Our first Christmas Party Club™ was held at Southern Hills on December 3, and had 22 children hear the Gospel and several made professions of faith. Praise that the team is coming together for Sheppard Elementary. Backgrounds are checked, training was attended, and the team is excited to share the Gospel with the children of West Texas,” said a CEF staff member.
Liberia, Africa
“We thank God for laying on our hearts the goal to reach all of the public and private schools with the Gospel through a Christmas outreach. At the end of this event, most of the children responded to the invitation to trust Christ.
“At the end, we told them some ways that they could grow spiritually, such as reading God’s Word. After telling them that they could have devotion time, we gave each one of them a CEF Wonder Devotional Book. We told the smaller ones to carry it home to Mama and Papa, and to tell them that the teacher said everyone should gather and listen together.
“Ten parents have already called us to thank us, because of their little kids, they have become believers as well and now share a devotional time as a family! One parent shared that their son told them that evening around 7 p.m., ‘It’s devotion time!’ Thank God for these devotionals that came just in time,” said Tom, national director of CEF Liberia.
Lebanon
“As many of you know, there is currently a war here in Lebanon, which has displaced more than one million people. They have had to leave their homes, their lives, and everything they know, seeking safety in schools, shelters, or even on the streets. Most of these individuals come from a Muslim background.
“As a team in Lebanon, we felt called to visit some of these shelters and share the Word of God with the people during these challenging times. We recently visited two shelters in a village: In the first, there were 70 children attending, and in the second, there were 65. The parents were present with their children, listening to the program and learning about Jesus. They were eager to know more about God, learning how He can be with them even in times of war — assuring them that He will never leave nor forsake His children, as they trust in Him,” said Sister S, national director of CEF Lebanon.
“Many children already love Christmas and know that it is a special time of year in which gifts are given, so they are very receptive to hearing about the ultimate gift from a loving God of His Son,” says Pry.
Child Evangelism Fellowship, which was founded 87 years ago, has been establishing the Good News Club® in countries around the world for decades. Clubs are thriving worldwide, in countries including Australia, Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Uganda and many more.
In 2023, through CEF’s combined ministries, more than 25.2 million children worldwide heard the Good News. More than 577,000 teachers were trained around the world.
For more CEF news, see the ministry’s latest edition of the online magazine Impact.
Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is an international, nonprofit, Christian ministry that has been dedicated to seeing every child reached with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, discipled and established in a local church since 1937. CEF is located in all 50 American states and in most countries around the world, with over 3,500 paid staff and tens of thousands of volunteers around the world.
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To interview a representative from Child Evangelism Fellowship, contact [email protected], Beth Bogucki, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, or Daniel Moyer, ext. 104.