‘Our Good News Clubs often reach entire families after they see the positive change in the children,’ says CEF Executive Vice President Moises Esteves
For Immediate Release
September 25, 2023
ST. LOUIS — It can take time, but parents often come to Christ after the children learn the truth of the Gospel through Child Evangelism Fellowship, a worldwide ministry. Many go on to lead others to Christ.
A prime example is the Dragon family, who live in Poland.
Recently, someone handed Dominika Dragon a Bible. As she read about God, his Son and Jesus’ death on the cross, she wanted to better understand what she was reading. So, she took her three daughters, ages three, six, and 10, to a CEF Good News Club® supported by a local church.
Soon, she too was attending the club on a regular basis.
A short time later, the church held a program in which parents were invited to hear their children recite verses they had learned the previous months at the Good News Club®. Dominika’s husband at first refused to go, saying he wouldn’t take part in “that circus.” After a long, persuasive talk, he decided to join them.
“That program became a huge turning point for our family,” she said. “My husband was very moved and asked me to read the Bible to him at home. Before, he didn’t want to hear about this at all. A few weeks later, we gave our hearts to our Lord Jesus.”
Now, Dominika is involved in the Good News Club® ministry and sometimes teaches Sunday school at her church. She also completed Teaching Children Effectively™ Level 1, a course that teaches methods and procedures to lead children to Christ. Her husband is involved in church too, and their three girls have received Jesus as their Savior.
“Our Good News Clubs® often reach entire families after they see the positive change in the children,” says Child Evangelism Fellowship Executive Vice President Moises Esteves. “And, in Poland, we are not only giving the Gospel to Polish children and their parents but to Ukrainian refugee children as well.”
Poland has one of the highest childhood poverty rates in Europe, with about one in four living below the poverty line. Children in certain remote regions of the country suffer from malnutrition. Many other young Poles suffer obesity due to overeating or poor eating habits. This is particularly worrisome for children.
CEF’s Poland team is small but very active. One of their strongest ministries is the 5-Day Clubs, held in the summer, along with winter and summer camps. Last year, the team launched a new CityKids project, which serves children in Poland’s urban centers.
Ministry in Poland can be a challenge for the CEF team, since the nation is staunchly Catholic, with 90 percent of communities having no Evangelical church. For many, personal faith in the formerly communist country is nominal and a corrosive culture is chipping away at morality.
“There is a desperate need for people to learn how they can have a personal relationship with Jesus,” Esteves says. “Thanks to CEF, children are hearing the Gospel in Poland and having an impact on their families and communities.”
Worldwide, CEF is continuing to reemphasize its commitment to the Great Commission with a new slate of ambitious goals. With God’s help, the ministry hopes to:
- Reach approximately 26.5 million children in 2023.
- Minister to 100 million children each year globally with the Gospel in the near future.
- Increase the number of Good News Clubs® — in 2022, CEF’s Good News Clubs® served children in 79,733 public schools worldwide.
- Train hundreds of thousands of adults worldwide to reach more children for Christ.
“We are already sharing Christ with nearly 20 million children every year,” says Esteves. “What may seem impossible to man is attainable with God, for Whom nothing is impossible.”
Child Evangelism Fellowship, which was founded 86 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 Harrison, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102.