Summer Greetings Friends!
Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and are now looking forward to some summer fun!
What a wonderful time we had last Thursday at our Volunteer Appreciation Lunch! We were blessed to see many friends, old and new, join us for this very special occasion. What a great privilege we have to celebrate all that God did through Good News Clubs, Party Clubs, and other outreach in the last 12 months.
It was great to hear from the Good News Club Leaders about their year, to honor Pastor and Mrs. Charles, and to hear from new partner ministries. For those not able to join us, we shared our new Good News Clubs 2022-23 video, which is on our home page. You might see yourself in the video.
This week geared up for Summer Outreach with our Dinosaur Tracks Demo with 24 trainees. We were blessed by and thankful for the ICR Discovery Center’s gift of 1,000 T-Rex squishy toys provided for the children we’ll share the Gospel with this summer. The kids are going to love them! There’s still time to join us and be part of the fun!
At our lunch, I shared our new 10 year vision to reach 60,000 children by 2032. Our chapter is adopting the new strategy of our international and national offices and aligning our mission to this God-sized vision — 60,000 children per year represents 6% of the 1 million children in our chapter region. How could we, together, reach this tremendous goal? Only with God!
In the last 12 months we reached more than 5,500 children. This was accomplished through Good News Clubs, Party Clubs, Summer Ministry, outreach events, and literature distribution. The graphic posted below is the growth plan to reach our goal. It certainly seems like an impossible goal but I am reminded of what Jesus says in Matthew 19:26: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
We know it is our Heavenly Father’s desire that not one of his precious little ones is lost. That being the case, we must do what we can to “win more” (1 Corinthians 9:19) of them for the sake of God’s glory, to change the future for as many as possible, as we work to transform our culture.
The place to begin is in united prayer. At our lunch, I announced the pre-launch of our new One Million Prayer Initiative. Here’s the simple idea. We mobilize 1,000 Prayer Warriors who commit to pray just three minutes per day every day for a year. Together, that’s more than 1 million minutes of prayer for the 1 million children in our chapter region. We might not be able to reach every child, but God can through our prayers. Join us in prayer by clicking here and let us know of your commitment.
Our new Ministry Strategy develops through five ministry streams that are outlined in the graphic posted below. The plan calls for a shift in focus to grow Christmas Party Clubs. It has been our international ministry experience that as Christmas Party Clubs grow, Good News Clubs also grow. In fact, many of our Party Club sites have been asking us to come weekly for Good News Clubs.
Each of our other areas of ministry (summer, events, distribution) grow as we make this shift as well. We’re developing our Christmas Party Club plan with a “Christmas in July” campaign. Other exciting plans are in the works to “win more” children to Christ.
Registration is now open for Teaching Children Effectively Level 1 Training and class starts July 29. This excellent training will help you be more effective in reaching more children, whether in Good News Clubs, Party Clubs, or other ministries. I took this course in the spring of 2020 and highly recommend it.
How can you help us achieve these growth plans? You can pray, give, go, and lead. We are asking you to do more in each of these areas as the LORD leads you. Let’s pray together about how we can do more to win more, together! We pray you have a winning summer!
In Christ for the Children!
Brian Considine, Director
CEF Dallas
