Season of Opportunity

In season or out of season, the Church is commanded to share the good news of Jesus Christ with thoughts, words, and deeds of truth and love. Child Evangelism Fellowship is seeking to reach every child, every nation, every day by praying for workers to enter the harvest, training and equipping individuals and church groups, and building bridges in schools and communities so that all may know that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord!

Even with the Co-vid quarantine, God has given us some ways in which we are working. We would like to share some of what we have been doing:

1. Social Distance Clubs – The Decatur home Good News Club surprised us. A close friend of CEF approached one of our committee members and said, “My children need Jesus time!” Kathryn got right on it, trained the team, and got everyone background checked. They have 34 children with social distance rules! They are continuing for 6 more weeks, and we are all rejoicing. In Madison County, God opened a door for our director to lead a one-time party club with social distance rules, and 12 children attended. Two of these children had never heard the Gospel before!

2. Training Opportunities – Kathryn conducted teacher trainings for the Decatur home Good News Club volunteers, Parkview Baptist Church in Decatur, Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, and Mosaic City Church in Huntsville. Three of these trainings were held over Zoom!

3. Christian Youth in Action- This summer, our team taught 8 clubs (7 5-Day clubs and 1 one-day Party Club) reaching 35 children! All of these but two were taught over Zoom. Together with Kathryn and Jim, the teen summer missionaries recorded videos to reach children with the Gospel. Around 70 videos have been recorded since beginning recording videos in March 2020. Through these videos, kids are learning about Jesus from their home. It has been successful with 18,000 hits so far.

4. Opportunity to Learn: Jim Simoneau has been taking Children’s Ministry Institute classes. Jim will finish his class on Progressive Methods of Child Evangelism very soon. Kathryn is studying The Armor of God from Ephesians in her personal study time and using what she’s learning to record a series of videos for children and their families; the first part of the series is already available on our social media.

5. Giving opportunities / Tax Law 2020

Giving and thanksgiving – This is often the season of giving and thanksgiving. Like for so many other ministries, this is a critical time for us to receive the necessary funds to make it through the year. With the virus still lurking around, we have not been able to get out and see as many of our supporters and supporting churches.

Many of you have been so faithful! We are extremely grateful! Your ongoing gifts and help, especially through this season, are much needed. We received $82,000 through September 2020. Any year end gifts would be greatly appreciated as we seek to reach $139,000 for 2020 if the Lord allows.

You can give by mail or online. We have a PayPal link on our website and on our Facebook page (It shows as “Shop now” on our Facebook page.).

For your information, there has been a change to the 2020 tax law regarding charitable giving while taking the standard deduction (The Cares Act provision see below).

If you take the standard deduction on your 2020 tax return (the one that you'll file in 2021), you can claim a brand new "above-the-line" deduction of up to $300 for cash donations to charity you make this year. Donations to donor advised funds and certain organizations that support charities are not deductible. Normally, you have to itemize on Schedule A to get a tax break for charitable donations. In this case, though, it is the other way around—if you itemize, you cannot take this new deduction.

Tinsel Tree – Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville is sponsoring a Tinsel Tree. $5 per ornament! In the first week $300 was received. If you would like to contribute before November 8th, please go to: https://southwood.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/263/responses/new

Special Projects – The Child Evangelism Fellowship of North Alabama Committee retreat has also identified many one-time needs to help the ministry in our area. We are increasing our labors:

  a. CEF start up kit for new Good News Clubs ($85 for each complete 6-week teaching kit)

  b. CEF training equipment. Heavy duty projectors for Kathryn’s teaching and Jim’s church presentations ($1,500)

Child Evangelism Fellowship® will make every effort to honor the contribution designation of the donor, yet contributions must be under the direction and control of CEF®. CEF has the discretion to determine how to best use contributions to carry out its functions and purposes. Such control of the funds by CEF is required to ensure the donor's contributions satisfy requirements for tax-deductibility.