Dear Prayer Partner,
Three and a half years ago, the state board of Children’s Evangelism Fellowship was established in Rhode Island (CEFRI) with the hope of starting Good News (GNC) and J-You Connection (JYC) clubs in the public schools. At the time, RI was the only state in the US without a club. In fact, every country in the world, except North Korea, had clubs. And think: RI had none.
As of this month, eleven GNC and two JYC clubs have started in thirteen different public schools in seven school districts in RI—Chariho, Cranston, Coventry, Exeter/West Greenwich, Providence, Scituate, and Warwick. In addition, we are currently training to start five more clubs in January of 2020.
When a church tells us in which school they want to have a club, CEFRI does the initial heavy lifting. We take care of getting permission from the district superintendents, performing background checks on all new volunteers, producing the permission slips, and training GNC teachers and volunteers to use the CEF materials. CEFRI has done all of this without any paid staff and very little funds. However, with God’s blessings, lots of prayer, and a dedicated Board of Directors we have followed the opportunities God has opened to us. Recently, we met with both the Providence mayor and superintendent of schools; they want a club in every school!
It is clear to us that God wants us to reach the children of RI with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Word. But none of this can happen without you, your gracious support, and your prayers. You are vital partners in this ministry. We need your prayers for wisdom, guidance, and protection. We need more churches to sponsor clubs—we have the schools; we need the churches to provide the volunteers. Most importantly as we have grown, we need a full-time state director to oversee the work and the funds to support him.
We are so thankful for you, our prayer partners who intercede at the Throne of Grace on our behalf. In the following months, would you please petition the Lord for the following needs?
Praises
- More GNC and JYC clubs in the schools
- Successful training for clubs
- New church partners
- God’s expanding work in Rhode Island
- Funds to cover operational expenses
Prayer Requests
- Wisdom, guidance,and protection
- Smooth access to all the schools
- Successful distribution of club info to the students through the schools; this has been a challenge at some schools
- Successful training sessions for the Good News and JYC clubs
- Churches to build solid teams of volunteers for all the clubs
- All of the children who attend the clubs
- Development of new church partners
- Development of CYIA training program in RI in summer 2020
- Funds to support operations
- Fund support to bring on a full-time State Director
To God be the Glory,
The CEFRI Team
You can contact CEF-RI at Child Evangelism Fellowship of Rhode Island, P.O. Box 688, Hope, R.I. 02831, email info@cefri.org or call 401-391-7963.
