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WHO IS CHILD EVANGELISM FELLOWSHIP® (CEF®) Someone once said that "the work of CEF is the best kept secret". At first I did not want to believe this, but as I travel around, I am beginning to understand what they mean. So few people know what CEF does and how we operate. So let me introduce you to CEF. . . Rev J Irwin Overholtzer, at sixty years of age (60), without administrative experience, but with God's enablement, founded Child Evangelism Fellowship. In his younger days, he did not believe that children could be saved. But God, who cared about and loved children, had a plan for Rev 0. After reading Matthew 18 (especially verses 1-14) and a quote written my Charles Spurgeon "A child of five, if properly instructed, can as readily believe and be regenerated as anyone." Rev 0. decided he would "experiment". Much to his surprise, about 20 children came to know the Lord. Amongst them were two sisters whose parents were not believers and did not attend church. A few weeks later, the mother, attended meetings and was saved. Why? "I came because of the changed lives of my two little girls." "If little girls, dealt with in secret and even forbidden to publicly confess Christ, could give evidence of salvation, said Rev 0., "then child evangelism is real and Spurgeon was right." Rev 0. stepped out in faith and started CEF in 1937. It was during the warl
children around the world. Today we are reaping the results of this man's prayer burden. CEF is the largest missionary organisation to children in the world. They work in 150 countries with over 1400 full-time and more than 40 000 volunteer workers reaching the boys and girls around the world. Why is this ministry necessary? Children are Satan's .number one target. Abuse, neglect, drugs, violence, TV, the media, prostitution and you name it, is being used by the devil to destroy the lives of our children. Recently, in a local Afrikaans magazine, there was an article that said "Mother sells daughters to prostitution". Newspaper reporters interviewed a 14 year old boy prostitute in Pretoria. He said there are prostitutes as young as 10 years old on the streets of Pretoria. What did the parents think of this? They did not mind. It brought in the money. Satan is destroying our children. The Lord Jesus Christ loved the children so much. He said "Let the children come to me". He also said "It is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish." Workers in CEF have only one purpose and that is to share the message of salvation with these children. Today people are all speaking about the rights of children. According to John 1 : 12 the most important right of a child is to become a. child-of-God To give children an opportunity to become a child of God we in CEF use many different ways. Let me share with you how we operate.... CEF is divided into 7 Regions - one is the Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Region. Each region has a Regional Board and a Regional Director. Our newly appointed Regional Director is Rev Frik (and Petro) Janse van Rensburg. For the past number of years he has been a missionary with CEF in Madagascar. They are still operating from Madagascar. In any given region there is a national work organised by a National Board and a National Director. I will speak only about South Africa because that is where we work. Kobus and Annamarie Olivier are the National Directors for South Africa. In South Africa we have Provincial Directors. They are in charge of the work in the Province where they live. Others co-ordinate the work in the area. Let me give you their names so that you can also pray for them. They oversee the work on "ground level". They are responsible to establish the work in different areas of their province so that boys and girls are reached for the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of their ministries to children include Good News Clubs®; Party Clubs, Holiday Clubs, School outreaches, camps, open air outreaches, etc. We minister to adults through promotions, training teachers, speaking in churches, etc. They work really hard to get the work off the ground. Their names. . . Johann Alberts in Gauteng; Amor Bezuidenhout in Eastern Cape; Margaret Motsoene in Mpumalanga; Werner & Tania Schultz in Western Cape; Willie & Erica van Aswegen in Free State; Heidi Venter in Pretoria; Lee Worthington in KwaZulu- Natal. We have a strong follow-up ministry led by Annette Ruppert. She runs the Mail Box Club®. They have 1000 children on the mailing list, but her vision is to reach ALL the children of South Africa through these correspondence courses. To advertise the courses, a colourful tract "Good News for You" is distributed to children especially in the schools.-The tract has a return slip and when children write in they are sent the first lesson. The tracts and the courses are available in Afrikaans. She is very enthusiastic, but will need much prayer and help (financially and practically) to reach her goals for this ministry. Her husband, although not full-time, fully supports what she does. Another ministry of CEF is training people to reach children. Lynette Schafer is Director of Education for CEF in South Africa. Our main training is the Teaching Children Effectively™ Levels Courses. TCE® 1 teaches students the basic skills and effective
Seminars are shorter courses to encourage people to evangelise and disciple children. The training ministry that has really helped people practically have been the workshops. In our Good News Clubs we systematically teach through the Bible during a 5-year period. Many Sunday Schools have come onto this cycle. Because so many extra helps are suggested in the visualised lessons, the Lord burdened Annamarie Olivier to present a quarterly workshop. She and her team prepare and print all the extra helps. Then at the workshop, they show the teachers how to use the material. The teachers buy the "package". This package includes visualised songs, memory verses, missions ideas, attendance incentives, take-home activities, etc. All they need to do is give the visuals a bit of colour, cut them out and they have material for at least 8 weeks of teaching! Up to date 120 teachers use the material and about 80 attend the workshop. The exciting development has been that the material is now printed in English, Afrikaans, Sotho and Xhosa! Pray that the Lord will provide people to sponsor this material for those who are not able to afford them, but want to reach children. Workshops are not only held in Cape 'Town, but in other parts of the country as well. The Regional Childrens Ministries Institute® (CMI) is held once a year from February to April in Vereeniging, South Africa. Beth Isaacson is Director for CMI. This ministry trains students to teach children, train other adults to teach children and run a children's ministry within CEF or at a local church. Pray that God would send the right students to attend and give the staff wisdom, health and strength to run the Institute. Other important people in CEF are the workers reaching the children. Up to date we have 70 full-time workers - 53 in South Africa - they do a great work and need your prayers and 17 workers overseas. It is getting more difficult these days to get all the papers necessary for working overseas. There is so much "red-tape". It is also a challenge to raise enough money for their support while on the mission field. Pray that God will continue to open doors so that children of other countries will also hear the message of salvation.
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