Contact: Melody Bentley, 571-274-6058
WARRENTON, Mo., June 5, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Child Evangelism Fellowship, the largest Christian ministry to children in the world, has expanded its global ministry for the fifth consecutive year. CEF announced the establishment of its international ministry in four more countries at its 75th anniversary celebration in May. This brings the total number of countries and territories where CEF is present to 180. According to Mr. Tom Levanos, CEF executive director for operations, the ministry is now present in the Commonwealth of Dominica in the Caribbean, the Republic of Guinea in West Africa (Guinea-Conakry), another country in Africa and one in the Asia Pacific region. These last two countries cannot be named in order to protect the safety of the CEF workers serving there.
The model that CEF uses contributes greatly to its successful establishment of programs abroad. Rather than send missionaries to a foreign country, CEF finds nationals who are eager to go into full-time service to evangelize children in their own country. To prepare them, these nationals, or workers as they are called, attend a 12-week training course usually taught by CEF workers from the same region of the world. These new workers are then equipped to go back home and train local volunteers to evangelize children through the establishment of local clubs, called Good News Clubs. If possible, the workers try to partner with local churches offering training to willing church members to run Good News Clubs sponsored by their particular church. "Our goal is not to compete with the local churches, but to support them," said Mr. Harry Robinson, executive vice president of International Ministries at CEF. "We do this by providing churches with a program that will help them evangelize children." CEF considers its ministry established in a given country when the workers are trained and have set up an active ministry of Good News Clubs meeting regularly.
Another key component to CEF success is the establishment of an indigenous board composed of individuals from a cross-section of the culture, and if possible representing different denominations. Such a broad composition of the board fosters greater outreach. The board's responsibilities include prayer for the success of the local CEF work, holding workers accountable, and insuring that the CEF program they run stays true to its purpose of meeting the spiritual needs of children. Additionally, the board works to raise financial support for the workers from local sources. Finally, it helps with that crucial work of integrating the CEF program into local churches. "It's vitally important that the CEF ministry is the ministry of the local people. They know their culture better than anyone coming from the outside. They are the most qualified to explain and contextualize the gospel for their own people," said Mr. Levanos.
None of this would be possible without the dedicated support of the CEF International Headquarters in Warrenton, Missouri. Besides the training already described, CEF Headquarters creates training materials for volunteers all over the world as well as the curriculum they will use to evangelize and disciple children. Finally, CEF arranges financial support for many of the full-time workers through its program, Sponsor a National, or SPAN, until local financial support is established. Most of the support for this program comes from the charitable contributions from citizens of the United States or other western countries. Currently, CEF has 2800 workers around the world, 94% of whom serve in their home countries.
