60 years of ministry to children

‘This is the story of how a powerful and extraordinary God uses ordinary people to accomplish his purposes.’ This is how Sam Doherty summarised the work of Child Evangelism Fellowship in Ireland during the past 60 years. He should know for he was there at the beginning!

In November 1949, Sam Doherty was a recently qualified teacher and a brand new convert to Christ, with no gospel background whatsoever. He took the words of his spiritual father, Fred Orr, seriously: ‘God always saves people for them to do something; you’d better ask God what he wants you to do’. Sam and his wife Sadie began to pray for God’s direction.

It came as quite a surprise to the young up-and-coming rugby player when God put a burden for child evangelism on his heart. Clear about God’s direction, he wrote to Fred Orr at Bible college asking how he could begin. On the same day as the letter arrived, so did the Rev. Art Nichol from CEF in USA. He asked Fred Orr to consider beginning CEF work in Ireland, but Fred was preparing for missionary work in Brazil and had to decline the invitation. He showed Art Nichol Sam Doherty’s letter. Before long Art Nichol was in Ireland explaining CEF ministries to the Dohertys. Sam’s response to a somewhat surprised American gentleman was, ‘Art, that’s it! We’re ready to begin’. And they did.

Club in the home

Their first venture was to begin a Good News Club in their home and though they were so young in the faith and inexperienced in evangelism, children came to know the Lord. More clubs were started in various venues, but most were in homes, providing an outreach to the children of the neighbourhood. During the 1950s, there were 100 Good News Clubs. CEF had seven teams which organised children’s missions.

Open air meetings for children were held in housing estates and villages. In parts of Belfast it was possible to gather 300-400 children in the open air. At this time the leaders learned that flannelgraph visuals were not the most suitable for open-air ministry! What was lacking in expertise and experience was compensated for by costly commitment and a burden to reach children. God was using ordinary people and giving them the joy of seeing boys and girls coming to the Saviour.

Just volunteers

Training people to do children’s work has always been an integral part of CEF work and this was a big challenge — even for Sam Doherty. He had not received any training, he had never seen a training class, but he found himself having to teach weekly training sessions in Belfast. He was ‘an eager listener, for I had never heard these things before!’ The amazing thing about CEF work in Ireland in the 1950s is that it was carried out entirely by volunteers. Sam Doherty was the National Director, but he continued to work full time, as did many others.

The 60s brought significant developments. The first full-time CEF workers in Ireland were appointed: two office workers, an evangelist and a promoter. A Youth Council was formed to foster fellowship among young folk involved in outreach to children and to keep the need of children before them. Irish CEF had its first missionary candidates, Roy and Ruth Harrison. In 1966, Sam and Sadie Doherty were appointed European Directors and handed over the leadership of Irish CEF to David and Mollie McQuilken who had been involved in the ministry since the early days.

Solid foundations had been laid, with an emphasis on the biblical reasons for evangelising children and on the biblical content of the programmes in the various ministries. These were important to the founder of the mission, J. Irwin Overholzer. When asked what was the best time to teach children, he replied, using the words of Isaiah 28.9: ‘To whom will he teach knowledge and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast’. He pointed out how this should be done, ‘precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little’.

Continued growth

Since those early days, Irish CEF has continued to grow, develop and adapt to a changing and challenging society. There are at present around 90 full-time workers, including missionaries, under the leadership of Henry and Madeline Berry. Public buildings are now more appropriate venues for Good News Clubs, of which there are 224. The Fellowship has two camp centres, one in Northern Ireland, one in the Republic, and organises some 50 camps each year. These cater for a wide age range, from primary school right through to young adults. ‘I can hardly explain the difference camp has made to me’ was a recent comment from a camper.

Training is provided for the hundreds of volunteers involved in the various ministries. Each summer in the two camp centres there is week-long training for young people involved in summer outreach. This has had a significant impact on the lives of many Christian young people, giving them practical training, Bible teaching, fellowship, food and fun — followed by the opportunity for frontline evangelism. Many people in Christian ministry today look back with thankfulness and fondness to ‘the training week’.

Step of faith

It was a huge step of faith for the Fellowship to commit itself to the distribution of The Wonderbook, a 32-page full colour evangelistic booklet, to every home in Ireland in 2003-05. Delivery was by Royal Mail and An Post and children had the opportunity to sign up for the Wondersearch Club — five follow-up lessons. A team of volunteers handled the correspondence and all the questions children asked were responded to individually. The Lord provided for the venture and many lives were changed as they came to know Christ. One Sunday morning, a Christian lady on her way to church noticed a young boy, a neighbour’s son, heading off alone. He told her he was going to look for a church; doing Wondersearch had taught him that it was good to meet with other Christians. The Christian lady knew his family had no church links, so she enquired if this was OK with his parents. He hadn’t asked their opinion or permission! She took the child to his home, talked with the parents and asked if their son could accompany her to church. Permission granted!

Missions

There has always been a strong emphasis on missionary work and at present workers from Ireland serve with CEF in Romania, Moldova, Lapland, Norway, Spain, Britain, Isle of Man, Zimbabwe and the European headquarters in Switzerland. Sweden will soon be added to the list. Many CEF workers from different European countries have had the opportunity to come to Ireland and experience an established work, learning lessons that they have taken home with them and applied to their own situations. This outward-looking approach has enriched and strengthened the ministry in Ireland.

CEF in Ireland, and in Britain, offers churches a programme for weekly evangelistic clubs and for shorter holiday outreaches, coupled with training by experienced workers. School ministry has greatly increased over recent years, providing opportunities to take assemblies, teach classes and hold after-school clubs. At present the Fellowship is promoting the widespread distribution of a children’s booklet, Meet the King; packs are available to introduce it to churches.

60 years have brought many changes in the lives of children and CEF has had to rethink strategies and adapt its programmes. The spiritual needs of children, however, have not changed and CEF will continue to partner with churches and individuals committed to evangelising them.

Jennifer Haaijer

Chris and Jennifer Haaijer are the leaders of CEF in Britain.

Further information about CEF is available online at: http://www.cefireland.com and http://www.cefbritain.org

CEF in Britain