Fred Pry, CEF Vice President of Administration:
‘No matter what obstacles arise, CEF will never stop answering God’s call to share His Good News with the children’
For Immediate Release
March 5, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Cartel violence is escalating across Mexico, pushing the nation toward a humanitarian crisis. Yet the country’s unrest extends beyond recent turf battles. According to global data, Mexican cities consistently rank among the most violent urban areas in the world.
Child Evangelism Fellowship® (CEF®) is committed to carrying the light of Christ into some of the darkest places on earth.
For over 80 years, CEF has been faithfully sharing the Gospel with children across Mexico. In 1943, CEF sent its first missionaries from the United States to Mexico, advancing founder J. Irvin Overholtzer’s vision for worldwide evangelism. What began as a bold step of faith quickly grew into a global movement, reaching hundreds of millions of children since then with the life-changing message of salvation by grace through faith.
Fred Pry, CEF Vice President of Administration, shared, “God can do miracles through a loving and courageous person who shares the life-changing message of the Gospel with these vulnerable children. No matter what obstacles arise, CEF will never stop answering God’s call to share His Good News with children.”
Today, CEF’s ministry in Mexico is flourishing. CEF currently has 23 offices across the country, and in 2025, the ministry reached 628,656 children with the Gospel — an increase of over 100% year over year.
For the first time in three decades, CEF Mexico is entering a renewed season of leadership and governance through the re-establishment of its National Board. Through prayer, careful discernment and renewed trust in God’s leading, CEF Mexico appointed eight committed and capable members to its National Board.
Daniel, the newly selected board chairman, brings a uniquely deep and personal connection to CEF. He first received CEF training at just eight years old, learning to share the Gospel with his peers. As he continued in various CEF training programs while growing up, he developed a strong and enduring understanding of the ministry’s mission and values.
The re-establishment of the National Board stands as a testimony to God’s faithfulness, the perseverance of His servants, and the importance and power of healthy leadership to strengthen and expand Gospel ministry.
A recent testimony from CEF in Mexico reflects the thriving ministry:
A CEF Mexico missionary family in the state of Guanajuato met Pastor Martín Izaguirre when presenting a project to 10 local pastors. Pastor Martín now wants to be a part of their project, to train teachers to go and start a Good News Club® in several locations in the community.
Pastor Martín participates in training seminars, promotes the training to other pastors in the area, and offers his church as a training headquarters time and again. When the CEF missionary family invited him to take TCE 1 (Teaching Children Effectively), he accepted without hesitation. Upon finishing, he immediately started a Good News Club, which meets at his church, and continued on with the next training, TCE 2, that focuses on discipleship.
Pastor Martín is a vital part of the CEF (APEN) Guanajuato team. He is living proof that when a leader embraces ministry to children, it doesn’t just change a church; it changes a whole region.
Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), which was founded 88 years ago, has been establishing the Good News Club® in countries around the world for decades. Clubs are thriving worldwide, in countries including Australia, Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda, and many more.
In 2024, through the combined ministries of CEF, more than 31 million children worldwide heard or read the Good News. More than 533,000 teachers were trained around the world.
For more CEF news, see the ministry’s latest edition of the online magazine Impact.
CEF is an international, nonprofit, Christian ministry that has been dedicated to seeing every child reached with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, discipled and established in a local church since 1937. CEF is located in all 50 American states and in most countries around the world, with over 3,500 paid staff and tens of thousands of volunteers around the world.
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To interview a representative from Child Evangelism Fellowship, contact [email protected], Beth Bogucki, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, Dawn Foglein, ext. 100, or Daniel Moyer, ext. 104.