‘No matter what region or culture, children are on fire for Christ all over the globe,’ says Child Evangelism Fellowship Executive Vice President Moises Esteves
For Immediate Release
August 28, 2023
ST. LOUIS — Children who are passionate about sharing the Gospel with their peers can often reach those whom adults cannot.
“There is nothing more important than rescuing young people from the world, the flesh and the devil,” Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) Executive Vice President Moises Esteves says. “One powerful way to do it is to teach children how to reach other children with the Gospel.”
That’s where Child Evangelism Fellowship’s “Go and Tell!” program comes in. These unique materials are part of CEF’s Children Reaching Children program, which teaches young people how to share their faith with other children. Although peer evangelism was already happening in many countries, this program provided an excellent resource to train children to share the Gospel with their peers.
One day, a child in West Africa heard the Gospel at a CEF Good News Club®. He talked with his teacher and expressed his desire to receive Jesus as Savior. After returning home, he told all six of his siblings the Good News and they also received Christ.
“We often hear stories like this one,” Esteves says. “No matter what region or culture, children are on fire for Christ all over the globe. From the overflow of their hearts, these little ones cannot help but share their new faith in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods.
The “Go and Tell!” program was recently implemented in Guyana (North America/Caribbean Region). CEF National Director Renwick Walcott and his wife Shaundell saw God work through this program in a big way.
“We are not free to go into many of our schools anymore,” they said previously. “But children can go where adults may not be able to go. And children equipped through ‘Go and Tell!’ can share the Gospel in those difficult homes, villages, communities, cities, countries, and regions where adults cannot.
“We equip the children, pray over them, and send them out. Then we hear how the Gospel changes the hearts of children and their families.
“Above all, we must not underestimate children. Many churches believe children should only be taught and not expected to do any real ministry until they are older. But ‘Go and Tell!’ has proven that children can do ministry at an early age.
“One boy in particular, I call him ‘the preacher,’ would stand on the street corner and preach to the children. We even saw adults impacted.
“As children join ‘Go and Tell!,’ they get excited to share the Gospel and go places their teachers could never reach. Whether at school, on the street, or at home, more people will hear the Good News from a new, growing army of evangelists.”
Luai Patu, national director of CEF of Samoa, reports similar success:
“In 2021, we used the ‘Go and Tell!’ program to train a total of 70 child evangelists between the ages of 8 and 13, as well as 50 volunteer teachers and helpers, from our surrounding churches and Good News Clubs.
“When the day of the outreach arrived, our evangelists went out by groups into the streets of Apia to share the Gospel. Some of our teams didn’t come back until well after the outreach was over. Our group leaders gave us the reason: ‘They didn’t want to come back.’
“A total of 398 souls (young and old) accepted Jesus Christ as Savior that day!
“The following year, many of those same churches were not able to participate because of COVID-19 restrictions, but one church decided to still go ahead with their own ‘Go and Tell!’ outreach. CEF Samoa trained 55 child evangelists and 24 teachers and volunteers from that church. On December 10, 2022, they were sent into town and 167 people received Christ that day! Many pastors, leaders, and parents said after the program, ‘This should be a yearly event!’”
Child Evangelism Fellowship, which was founded 86 years ago, has been establishing Good News Clubs® 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, and Uganda.
Last year, through CEF’s combined ministries, more than 19.5 million children worldwide heard the Good News. In 2022, more than 439,000 teachers were trained around the world.
For more CEF news, see the ministry’s latest edition of the online magazine Impact.
Child Evangelism Fellowship (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 Harrison, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102.