From July 20-August 1 we were in Little Rock, Arkansas sharing the Gospel with inner-city children. It was amazing to be part of the 109 Child Evangelism Fellowship® workers from 26 states involved in this inner-city outreach ministry! CEF partnered with 30 local churches that sponsored over 85 5-Day Clubs® with 400 volunteers from these churches helping out in this tremendous ministry.

The two of us, along with two young people, made up one teaching team that went to three locations during the day and taught 5-Day Clubs. Unfortunately, our first club (a morning club at a park) was in a neighborhood where there were no children during that time of the day. After three days with no results from canvassing and trying to round up children, the club was canceled. However, our afternoon and evening clubs were at apartment complexes where there were lots of children!

The first week of the Little Rock ’09 outreach was spent in team building and training to prepare for the 5-Day Club that were scheduled for the second week. On Friday night of the second week, each sponsoring church hosted a rally for the 5-Day Club children and their family. Over 1,000 people attended these rallies.

We praise the Lord that 1,874 children heard the Gospel during Little Rock ’09 and 252 children were personally talked with regarding salvation. There were 567 children who returned their Mail Box Club correspondence Bible lessons to be enrolled in our discipleship program. Will you pray that the Lord will continue drawing children to Himself and continue working in the life of each child and family member who were involved in clubs?

After-school Good News Clubs® are the goal for on-going ministry in Little Rock.

The purpose of CEF is to reach children with the Gospel, disciple them in the Word of God and establish them in Bible believing churches. The Little Rock ’09 outreach is more than just a two-week ministry outreach that happened this summer. CEF wants to see the partnering churches have on-going ministry with the children through after-school Good News Clubs sponsored and taught by the partnering churches. To assist and train the churches for on-going Good News Club ministry we took part in an all-day training seminar on September 18-19. The two of us, along with three other Department of Education co-workers, traveled to Little Rock on Friday afternoon, set up for the seminar that evening, conducted the 8-hour training seminar on Saturday, then headed back home that evening. We arrived at our house right before midnight. (It was a quick trip!)