CEF® is on a mission to reach 2.7 million children each year through the training of 66,000 Christian children by 2028
ST. LOUIS — It is no secret that today’s young people are searching to find faith in the Lord. According to George Barna, over half of Gen Z teens feel more motivated to learn about Jesus; they see Him as someone who offers hope, cares about people and is trustworthy.
To meet young generations in search of faith, Children Reaching ChildrenTM, a ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship® (CEF), is focused on equipping children to share the Gospel with their peers through the interactive Go and Tell! training.
“Our goal is that by 2032, 1 million children will be trained annually and that they will share their faith with 10 million children each year,” says CEF Vice President of Administration, Fred Pry. “The long-term impact of a generation committed to the Great Commission cannot be overstated.”
Go and Tell! teaches Gospel truths, provides witnessing tools, and includes group instruction, small group and partner practice. The training is flexible in format, so children can easily participate wherever they are. It is divided into four 50-minute sessions with breaks and a closing challenge.
“This is a highly interactive program designed to help children learn how to reach their friends for Christ,” Pry says. “Go and Tell! teaches kids how to share the Gospel truths using colors. Engaging teaching, demonstrations, review games and practice times are all included.”
CEF aims to grow the Children Reaching Children program implementing the Go and Tell! training for more children, with a goal of reaching 2.7 million children each year through the training of 66,000 saved children by 2028.
A testimony from Mexico about Children Reaching Children
High in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, where the Mixe people live, a boy started his three-hour hike to attend a CEF evangelistic training for children called Children Reaching Children. In Mexico, they call it Niños Con Visión, literally, “Children with Vision.” These discipleship courses have been going on annually since 1997. In 2023, 20 courses with 1,696 children in attendance resulted in reaching 1,080 souls for Christ. Worldwide in 2023, 7,080 were reached through CRC training.
Enrique Serralta, the national director for CEF of Mexico, has had the pleasure of meeting many precious children through this program. One night after a campfire, he heard the Mixe boy pray: “God, thank you for a mat to sleep on, tortillas and beans to eat, and thank you that I get to see my dad next weekend.” (His father was in prison for being a believer.) “God, I ask you for a Bible, so I can get to know you better.”
This humble prayer prompted Enrique to ask God for Bibles to give to each child at future CRC seminars. “One thing that fills me with joy,” says Enrique, “is to see a child receive a Bible and say, ‘It’s mine? It’s for me?’” At the seminars, the children learn to use their new Bibles to share the Gospel, using specially made bookmarks with key evangelistic verses.
Enrique knew the Bible was not only a primary tool for evangelism. Through God’s Word, children grow in their relationship with God and are transformed. One girl who came to the CRC seminar believed she would ultimately end up a prostitute, like her mother and grandmother. After hearing the truth from God’s Word, she realized, “My life has a different purpose, and I am going to be different.”
Enrique points out that if we are going to reach more children with the Gospel, children are our best allies.
“They don’t struggle to be with and understand children because they are already children. They don’t have to fight to get into schools because they are already in the schools. They don’t have to lower themselves to the level of a child to play with a child because they are already children!” – Enrique Serralta, National Director, CEF of Mexico
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.