Faith and Prayer in This Time of Crisis

“for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:7 

“fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10

I (Jim) asked Kathryn to help me put together the newsletter for this month. She has done a great job of capturing a number of issues we are facing:

Friends, family, and partners in ministry,

This is a time unlike any of us has probably ever experienced before. Businesses and schools are closed. People are living in fear. 

With the spreading of sickness around the world and in the US, let us not be afraid. Yes, take precautions. Yes, do what you can to stay healthy and protect others. But do not fear. Fear is not from God. He gives a spirit of power, love, and self-control. He is with us and is our strength.

This weekend reading through news articles made me (Kathryn) realize that now is a unique opportunity for all of us to share the hope and peace that is only found in Jesus. Call, email, text, post on Facebook, talk to your neighbor across the fence, leave a note of encouragement for your mailcarrier or the delivery person. Tell in love of God’s free gift available to any who will receive it.

Tell the children, the teens, the adults. They all need the unchanging and all-powerful God.

If you need help in knowing how to share the Gospel easily for any age, check out the free online Wordless Book training. This simple but powerful tool has been used over many years around the world to tell of our Savior.
https://online.cefcmi.com/course/view.php?id=162

While the Good News Clubs are unable to meet since school are closed, ministry is still ongoing. We are continuing to encourage our GNC teachers as they encourage their clubbers through mail or email in the next weeks. Summer ministry plans are still in the works. Also, we are looking into some possible ways of doing both online training and possibly online clubs that fit within CEF guidelines. We will try to let you know what tools we might use as soon as we can determine what options are before us. 

One of our biggest aspects of ministry right now is prayer.
We encourage you to join us in prayer.

Pray for our teams, our children, their families, and schools. Pray for their spiritual, physical, and other needs.
Pray for our children who've been in Good News Club that God will bring to remembrance what they have learned from the Bible about our mighty creator King and Savior. 

Pray for our nation, leaders, and world. This would include that the Lord would deliver people from the Coronavirus.

Pray for those who are lost. Pray that hearts will be softened, that God will call people to Himself, and that people will turn to God in faith through Jesus.
Pray for a revival and a renewal.

Pray for the summer Christian Youth In Action ministry and for the teens whom God is calling to serve Him teaching children about Him.

May God continue to nurture, protect, and multiply the fruitfulness of the gospel seeds you have sewn it the hearts and lives of so many!

For Christ and for the children,
Dr. James R Simoneau
Local Director
334-399-1733
cefofnal@gmail.com

Kathryn Burleson
Good News Club Coordinator & Teacher Trainer
256-353-3139
Cefofnal.gnc@gmail.com 

Being the Hands and Feet
One of our Good News Club church sponsors is helping in other ways for children and their families at their school. Here is their story:
-Two of our ladies packed 30 bags of food to go to our children while they are out of school. The bags were full to overflowing when they finished with goodies like bologna, hotdogs, lunchables, cereal, instant mac & cheese, and many other easy-to-fix foods that kids like. They shopped at multiple stores over two days to get 30 each of all the items!
-Two of our youth and I (Pastor Boyd) delivered 11 bags this evening, and we will get to do the rest tomorrow or Thursday.
-Joy and Edith shopped and did the work. The teens and I (Pastor Boyd) delivered. If you have given to our food ministry, you paid for it. The body of Christ working together, the church being a church!

We urge you to be in prayer and to be creative and careful as you find ways to help your neighbors.