Have you ever heard of harvesting soybeans in the summer? Here at CEF World Headquarters in Missouri part of our land is rented to a local farmer. In the spring Bob works hard preparing the ground, planting and spraying acres and acres of soybeans. But no matter what he does Bob doesn’t get a soybean harvest until fall.
Unlike farmers who must wait for their harvest you can have a harvest this summer! Larry Thompson, a CEF worker in Illinois shows how.
Larry and the volunteers who work with him invest in their crop. They look for the right fields and use the best spiritual food available. Then when the crops are mature they gather the harvest. Punky (her nickname) was part of that harvest.
Punky attended an open-air 5-Day Club®. Larry tells us that if someone bugged her she wouldn’t think twice about beating him up. But when school started in the fall Punky’s middle-school teacher asked Larry what had happened to her. The teacher explained that another student had called Punky a name. Instead of punching the other girl, Punky had called her a name back. A few hours later Punky went to the teacher in tears and told her what had happened. Punky wanted to apologize to the girl! The teacher couldn’t’ believe her ears. You see, Punky had prayed to receive Christ as her Savior at the 5-Day Club—along with her older brother, older sister and younger brother—and Jesus changes lives!
Statistics tell us children are ready and waiting for the message of Christ. Researcher George Barna says in his book Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, “We discovered that the probability of someone embracing Jesus as his or her Savior was 32 percent for those between the ages of 5 and 12; 4 percent for those in the 13 to 18-age range and 6 percent for people 19 and older. In other words, if people do not embrace Jesus as their Savior before they reach their teenage years, the chance of their doing so is slim.”
Jesus tells us in Matthew 9:37 that the harvest is ready. Don’t wait until it is too late!
The Right Field
The right field is your neighborhood and the neighborhoods of those you attend church with. Don’t let this summer go by without a harvest. Start talking about it now. Get families signed up to host a 5-Day Club in their backyard, in a park or in a community center. Above all, pray. Matthew 9:37 tells us to ask God to supply workers for His harvest. Ask—and if His answer is you, CEF is ready to help you reach the children!
Contact Child Evangelism Fellowship at 1-800-300-4033 for further information about training for your church or a team that can teach your 5-Day Clubs for you.
Summer 2007
8,202 5-Day Clubs in U.S.
155,003 Children Enrolled
30,983 Professions of Faith
