Child Evangelism Conference (CEF)

We’ve just returned from a week in Warrenton, Missouri - a week spent volunteering our time at CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) world headquarters. This is an amazing ministry, focused on winning children to Christ. A group from our church has been going to Warrenton, Missouri each year for the last three or four years as volunteers to help in this highly effective ministry. Ann and I have joined the group the last two years. I’m convinced that this is one of the most effective evangelistic ministries in existence in the world today. We all came back with a feeling of having been blessed.- probably far in excess of any blessings given.

CEF began about 70 years ago as in the inspiration of one elderly man - Mr. Oberholtzer - a man with a vision for reaching children with the Gospel. I don’t have the exact statistics, but research has proven that most Christians received at least the basis of their faith as children. If you look at any group of 10 Christians, 7 or 8 of them will be so because of early training as children. So, that’s the focus of CEF. The organization is worldwide, reaching children in 130 countries. Their international headquarters is now in Warrenton - about 60 miles west of St. Louis.

Most of us who made the trip this year were involved in what they call the Mail Box Club. The Mail Box Club sends out lessons that instruct in the Christian faith to children all over the world. The lessons are mailed back, graded, and mailed back to the child with the next lesson. This is a fairly recent effort, having its start in 1999 - seven years ago. And, it’s growing rapidly. There are presently almost 100,000 active students - 98,851.

You just wouldn’t believe what it takes to grade all those lessons and turn them around. 27 people touch each lesson in the process - from opening the daily mail, sorting, grading, adding a personal note, saying a specific prayer for each, checking, matching to a new lesson, stuffing envelopes, stamping, etc. That’s all done by volunteers - like us.

Periodically, bells will ring, indicating that a student has reported that he or she was saved as a result of a lesson. Everyone stops what they’re doing to clap and celebrate. There have been over 18,000 decisions since the Mail Box Club started.

After an hour or so, everybody moves to an assembly room for announcements, instruction, and inspirational activities. Letters from students are read, pictures of students are shown, and there’s some singing. Prayer groups are then set up, and prayer assignments are made. Then small groups move into places where there can be individual prayer for requests from students and other concerns.

Then, it’s back to work until lunchtime. I might mention that we were provided rooms or RV sites and served three meals a day. With room and board provided, all we had to pay for was the expense of getting there - and it’s not all work. After work hours, we play board games in the rec room, and there are other things to do. One night a band came in to entertain us with some first class gospel music.

A couple of years ago, it was decided to target the children of prisoners across the country. This has mushroomed phenomenally - because the prisoners themselves are taking the lessons and sending in the tests. My job was grading prisoner lessons. Some of the stories the prisoners report would just break your heart. They know they’re in trouble, they have had time to reflect on life, they have time to read, and they’re hungry for answers. Ministering to these people through the notes we respond with is richly satisfying.

There are, of course, expenses to all this effort. CEF has an annual budget of $16 million. It takes $1.2 million a year just to keep the Mail Box Club going. All the materials are composed, printed, and published on site. Just the postage to mail out all those lessons is more than $5,000 per week. So, in addition to the volunteers, they must attract a steady stream of donations.

I’ll finish by repeating what I said to begin with. I’m convinced that CEF is the most effective evangelistic ministries in the world. I’m sure glad to have a part in it.