What We Have Been Doing During the Coronavirus
/What has CEF of North Alabama been doing through the Coronavirus Shelter-in-Place?
We have been looking and learning from the past:
One of our key leaders in Huntsville was doing Good News Clubs long before he was working in Alabama. Tim Coley, and his wife, Kippy, and their family served in Slovakia and taught Good News Clubs there for years. As a matter of fact, he was going back for a brief period to help the mission for a few months when the Corona Virus travel restrictions hit, and he and Kippy had to return to the states.
Tim tells us that they were recently blessed and encouraged to receive emails from some of the children (now young adults) who attended their Good News Club while they lived in Slovakia. One of them writes:
“I was pleasantly surprised to hear from you after so many years. (It has been almost 20!) I now live in a town about 4 hours away. I began attending club at your home around the age of 7. Your son . . . and I were in the same grade in school, and he gave me an invitation to come.
It was at the Good News Club where I believe I first heard the Gospel. It is amazing to realize how God led in all the details of my life and how He used your family to help bring me to the knowledge of His salvation. Everything He did in my life was so that I might come to know Him. What wonderful grace!”
“I remember the . . .snacks, the . . . napkins . . ., and the games we played . . . . You had a piano in your living room and we sang songs like, . . . ‘Jesus Loves the Little Children’.” She also recalled when the family gave her family a gift one Christmas. It was a framed picture of John 3:16.
There is more to tell, but space is limited. She is still walking with Jesus today!
From the great news of God’s work in the past and around the world, we come back to His work here through CEF in North Alabama for this past school year. We finished up this school year with 95 professions of faith and were teaching 1098 students on a regular basis before the virus shut down our after-school clubs. We had 36 clubs, a few of those clubs being held in local community centers.
We have been continuing ministry in the present:
Still, our innovative partners and workers kept up their great work. Cathy Watts writes, “The DAR Good News Club teachers were able to connect with their club members for an Easter surprise!! It was fantastic to see their faces even through a car window!! “—
One of our clubs and their sponsoring church passed out food baskets. Friendship Baptist Church in Huntsville dropped off literature and Bible lessons for children at their homes. Another church club team called teachers and students alike to encourage them.
One of our church partners helped with meals for the children working with the schools. Also, they were able to give about 60 copies of our “Wonder Why?” booklets that explain how Christ helps through hard times.
With innovation, creativity, and help from so many people, 3 of our Good News Clubs finished the club year as online clubs after the schools closed. Kathryn helped in a club, Kathy Leach and Dana Farris taught a second group, and our team at Heritage Elementary used a different software to make another club work online. I am so thankful and proud of our teams!
Dana Farris, one of our local committee leaders, writes, “My great blessing is to have served Decatur area Good News Clubs on CBC Good News Facebook page. Through video recordings, we sang GNC favorite songs and listened to Bible lessons. With pdf downloads, we shared Bible Memory Verses and review questions. We have shared CEF “Stuck at Home” daily Bible devotions to minister to our children and families also. We love and miss them and pray for them!”
Besides these ministries, our staff and leadership have been participating in the Zoom prayer meetings, committee meetings, and learning how to better use this new platform. Rachel, our 2020 5-Day Club Student Leader, has done video spots for our website to promote Christian Youth In Action, which is our teen summer ministry. (5-Day Club is the name of the Bible club program the summer teens teach.) Kathryn Burleson, our Good News Club Coordinator & Teacher Trainer, has made YouTube videos called “Vids for Kids” to share the Gospel and to help children share their faith! Our Local Director, Jim Simoneau, has done a series of brief devotional thoughts using the Lord’s Prayer to improve our own prayer lives. With Kathryn’s help, we have been promoting many free resources from CEF USA like Unite (CEF’s YouTube channel for kids), songs, and other tools.
We are looking to the Lord to continue to navigate our future through the health concerns:
We have two or three opportunities we are praying about and planning to start. We are planning on doing social distance training of the Wordless Book and God’s View of Children classes for our teens serving this summer in Christian Youth In Action (CYIA). If the Lord allows and restrictions are lifted, we will be going to Clanton, Alabama in early June for even more CYIA training to prepare our youth to share the Gospel locally at YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, and other community centers that are open and safe.
Kathryn is also planning on teaching TCE1. That is Teaching Children Effectively, Level 1. It helps our leaders pick up even more details and skills to better enable them to do the work of ministry. It is one of the first courses in Children’s Ministry Institute or CMI that leaders are supposed to take when they are on leadership staff.
As you can see, God is using your partnership with us in the Gospel to help us press forward with making disciples and seeking to reach every child, every nation, every day. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:16 (ESV) says, “I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.” At the end of the verse, Paul is asking the Corinthian Christians to send him on his way to Judea. He was not just asking for a kind word of encouragement but for resources to help make the trip and do the work. It was a polite request for their support.
Thank you for your support through these challenging times. Many are struggling with finances, sickness, or other issues, but you are still helping to send us on our way. We thank God for your support and pray that you can rejoice with us in what we see the Lord has done, is doing, and we believe will do even more through your gifts, efforts, and prayers!
Please mail your tax-deductible gifts to: CEF of Alabama, Inc. North Alabama Chapter, P.O Box 2034, Huntsville, AL 35804
For Christ and for the children,
Jim Simoneau, Local Director of CEF of North Alabama
Kathryn Burleson, Good News Club Coordinator and Teacher Trainer of CEF of North Alabama
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.
