‘We see no reason to slow down, and every reason to expand our outreach. Souls are being won all over the world,’ says Child Evangelism Fellowship Executive Vice President Moises Esteves
For Immediate Release
January 15, 2024
ST. LOUIS — Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), the world’s leading child evangelism organization, is increasing its commitment to the Great Commission.
“We see no reason to slow down, and every reason to expand our outreach. Souls are being won all over the world,” says Child Evangelism Fellowship Executive Vice President Moises Esteves. “But hundreds of millions of people have yet to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. Evangelizing children often leads to entire families and communities becoming believers.”
A long-term goal for CEF is to minister to 100 million children each year globally with the Gospel within 10 to 15 years. In 2024 alone, CEF plans to reach at least 30.4 million children.
Other plans this year include increasing the number of Good News Clubs®, which already serve children in about 3,000 American schools. This involves training hundreds of thousands of adults worldwide for child evangelism. Good News Clubs® are a space for children to come together each week and learn about the timeless truths of the Bible in exciting and engaging ways.
CEF has 3,500 staff members around the world and in nearly every country and plans to add another 1,000 in 2024.
“Training Christians to effectively minister to children has been the core of our ministry since it was founded in 1937,” Esteves says. “Training is offered throughout the USA and around the world through seminars, conferences, and formal courses.”
In the USA, CEF has 400 offices (“chapters”). Internationally, the Sponsor a National (SPAN) program funds more than 1,400 CEF workers in 140 countries. These missionaries are national workers receiving assistance through SPAN who are otherwise unable to raise support in more traditional means.
CEF’s cross-cultural approach is focused on how to share the Gospel with children, using curriculum and provided literature. Some of the leading countries that have seen significant growth since 2020 include Kenya, Ethiopia, and Zambia. Combined, CEF ministries in those countries reached 1.4 million in 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, CEF reached 4.2 million children, representing a 200 percent growth.
Here are a few snapshots from CEF staff:
Zambia
“Hannah and the team in Luapula Province went flat out to train government and Sunday school teachers on how to conduct Christmas Party Clubs,” said a CEF staff member in Zambia. “The teachers in most schools have decided to make their classes into Good News Clubs®. The number of Good News Clubs® has gone up tremendously in Luapula and Zambia as a whole.”
Kenya
A CEF staff member in Kenya shared their story, “While attending the Children’s Ministries Institute in Kenya, I was offered a job as an architect with a construction company. But God convinced me to surrender all my time to Him and serve full-time reaching children. When I returned home, I set July as my target month to start a Good News Club® in an area where many children didn’t have an opportunity to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. Although some of these children attended church with adults, I saw it was difficult for them to understand what was taught. I knew I was the one trained to share the message of salvation with these children.
“That was going to be hard though because we were about to move to a different neighborhood. But God had plans for these children. He answered my prayers by providing a way for me to stay. On that first Friday of our Good News Club®, I was amazed to see 30 boys and girls come and 21 receive Jesus Christ as Savior.”
“It’s stories like these that encourage everyone involved in Child Evangelism Fellowship,” Esteves says. “And this is not an unusual account by any means.”
Child Evangelism Fellowship, which was founded 87 years ago, has been establishing Good News Clubs® 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.
Last year, through CEF’s combined ministries, more than 19.5 million children worldwide heard the Good News. In 2022, more than 439,000 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.