Behind the scenes, CEF Dallas staff is always praying. Recently, an ongoing prayer included asking the Lord for ways to involve area college students in this ministry. In August, CEF Dallas received an email inquiry from Grace Palmer, a leader in the Texas A&M University Aggie Sisters for Christ student group, requesting assistance for a contingent of ASC members to spend a weekend in Dallas engaging in child evangelism.
When CEF Staff Dallas Member Warren Bird (also an Aggie!) responded, he asked Grace how she chose CEF.
Grace responded that she knew nothing about CEF but found the ministry using ChatGPT, which rated CEF as the top children’s ministry in Dallas!
Warren and the rest of the CEF Dallas staff worked for the next several weeks to train the ASC members and to line up sites with ministry partners where the girls could put their CEF training into action. Based on the number of Aggies coming to Dallas, and the length of the trip, a plan developed to divide the girls into two teams, and send each team to two locations.
The only problems: Where were these locations? Who were the children they would reach?
And, how can 25 college students be trained when they’re busy, and they’re located 200 miles away from CEF Dallas?
In mid October CEF staff provided training via Zoom where ASC members learned about the Wordless Book and the Gospel Pumpkin story, preparing them to share the Gospel with children in a way that is fun, engaging, and easy to understand. The CEF team also taught them how to invite children to trust in Jesus and counsel children for salvation.
That’s a lot to cover in a 2-hour Zoom meeting. When it was over the CEF Dallas staff prayed that the girls would follow through in reviewing and truly learning the details of their roles in each aspect of the CEF training.
As for locations, the first ASC Outreach location seemed obvious: the Korean Dallas Dream Church, as they are great partners to the CEF chapter. For the second location, CEF Team Member Brooke McCready suggested the Hillcrest Village Green, a public park surrounded by restaurants. This would be the Aggies’ main open-air ministry site. The Lord revealed the third location when Amin, the leader of a refugee ministry in the Vickery Meadows area of Dallas, contacted CEF looking for help to provide an after-school Bible club for apartment children. When Warren and Susan Moore met with Amin, he agreed to host a Gospel Pumpkin Party.
That left just one location remaining for the ASC team, but time was running short. Warren felt led to contact Mocha, whose ministry is reaching Hindus with the Gospel of Jesus. Mocha told Warren that he had just started a ministry to Afghan refugees at an apartment complex in northeast Dallas, and a public park adjacent to the apartment would be a great location for the ASC team. The Lord provided all four of the locations!
Behind the scenes, CEF Dallas staff created Gospel Pumpkin Party flyers in English, Spanish, and Pashto (Afghan) to distribute in the areas where the outreach events were scheduled. Dallas Dream Church shared the event via Korean language newspapers and contacted their VBS participants.
As the outreach weekend approached, the weather forecasts for October 25 grew increasingly bleak. Warren asked Grace if the ASC students would prefer to cancel due to the heavy rain forecast. Grace responded that the Aggies were coming and would pray for the rain to stop! And when the Aggies arrived in Dallas, the rain forecast suddenly had a gap on Saturday afternoon, precisely when the events were scheduled!
So, no one should be surprised that the Aggie Sisters for Christ showed up well-prepared to share the Gospel with the Pumpkin Party and Wordless Book. They interacted with 150 children at the four locations, sharing the love of Jesus and passing out tracts and other Gospel tools to the children – along with lots of candy! At one location, twelve children and many parents walked through light rain to attend the Gospel Pumpkin Party, and all 12 children were counseled for salvation – and one child made a profession of faith! Praise be to God!
The willingness of the next generation of Christian missionaries, the Aggies Sisters for Christ, to give up their weekend to reach children in the Dallas area is exciting and encouraging! It also provided the CEF Dallas team with new locations for ministry and a blueprint to involve future college students in CEF ministry!
The financial provision and prayer covering from CEF Dallas supporters made it possible for the CEF Dallas staff to provide training, publicity, and other resources to make this outreach happen! Because of that, one more child knows Jesus, and many more know about Him. Seeds were planted, watered, and one was even harvested. All because God used Aggies, ChatGPT, and pumpkins!
Want to see more from the ASCxCEFD Outreach Weekend? Check out our Facebook album!
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