North Valley News

Ministry Newsletter of Joel Cripe,

Child Evangelism Fellowship

August 2022

Nadya, Michelle, and Veronica get ready for open air evangelism in Tuolumne City last month.

Truth For Honest Questions

In my June newsletter I wrote an article about our one-time outreach in La Grange, where we spent four hours sharing the Gospel while making Wordless Bead Bracelets. At the end of the article I invited people to call me to see about setting up a similar event in their area.

Michelle Lillis, a former Good News Club^® volunteer in Tuolumne County emailed almost immediately and we were privileged to set up our table and spend four hours looking for and sharing the Gospel with some children in her small community. There weren’t many children in the park that day, but we did share with a handful, including a 12-year-old girl who we will call Sally.

Sally came over and, after hearing a portion of the Gospel, began to pepper us with many questions ranging from sexual identity, to angels, bullying, and purpose in life.

We spent a considerable amount of time discussing what God has to say about her sexual identity, and she listened intently as I explained that the only sin that would keep her out of heaven was not believing in Christ. The Gospel was clearly shared and reviewed throughout our two and a half hour conversation in the park.

It breaks my heart that a twelve-year-old girl was asking these questions. While Christians argue over whether children can even be saved, the world is successfully evangelizing them with a false Gospel.

Statistically, what a child believes by the age of 13 they die believing. Sally is twelve. Will you pray that the Gospel will penetrate her heart? And can I challenge you to evangelize young children as faithfully and purposefully as the world does? We don’t have to lose an entire generation, but we will if we do nothing.

Gloria Paredes teaches at 5-Day Club.

Praise & Prayer

Praise God for the four 5-Day Clubs that took place in Modesto and Turlock last month. Pray for the final 5-Day Club of the summer taking place in Le Grand the first week of August.

Praise God for the one-time Gospel outreaches in Tuolumne City and Los Banos last month and for the twelve children that were reached in them.

Pray for God to keep the door open for Good News Clubs^® in Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Denair, Le Grand, Valley Springs, and Groveland.

Pray for God to open the doors for ministry in Mariposa County.

Pray for church partnerships to develop in Alpine and Mono Counties.

Pray for one or two more applicants for our local committee, and praise God for the faithful service of those who will be rotating off at the end of the year.

Praise God for His faithful supply of finances this past Spring and for His continued provision during the summer months.

Pray for our upcoming Fall Fundraiser (October 15). The banquet has been completely underwriten, so Pray that God will lead new people to hear about and give to the work of CEF.

The "Hunnicutt" 5-Day Club team.

GNC

Short List

- As you take time to pray for our upcoming Good News Club year, here are the schools where clubs are either in the works or already approved. New means new, Returning means it was going last year, and restart means it is starting for the first time since the Covid lockdowns.

NEW

1. Madison (Stockton)

2. Flora Arca Mata (Stockton)

RETURNING

3. Dent (Escalon)

4. Van Allen (Escalon)

5. Chrysler (Modesto)

6. Eisenhut (Modesto)

7. Hart Ransom (Modesto)

8. Everett (Modesto)

9. Enslen (Modesto)

10. Agnes Baptist (Modesto)

11. Shackelford (Modesto)

RESTART

12. John Muir (Modesto)

RETURNING

13. Brown (Turlock)

14. Julien (Turlock)

NEW

15. Denair (Denair)

16. Valley Springs

RESTART

17. Michelson (Murphys)

18. Tenaya (Groveland)

NEW

19. Le Grand (Le Grand)

RESTART

20. Dena Boer (Salida)

Prior to the Covid lockdowns in early 2020 we had 30 clubs, then we went down to 8 (4 on Zoom) in 2021. Last year we were back up to 13, and we could start this year with 20. Five of those clubs could be in brand-new locations in four different counties!

Mary & Marlene at 5-Day Club.

Travel Teams

Last summer, when we found out that the Stan Union School District was opening up again for after-school groups, we made plans to launch the Good News Club program once again. We had a traditional long-term club (September to May) already established at Chrysler Elementary, and another one just starting up at Eisenhut, but there were no clubs yet in the other three schools in the District.

That’s when Calvary Chapel Modesto stepped up and volunteered to put together a GNC team who would go to each of those three schools and teach shorter clubs. They started in January and taught five weeks at Mary Lou Dieterich, five weeks at Agnes Baptist, and were prepared to teach five weeks at Stanislaus Elementary, but that club did not materialize.

What if we had five churches who would follow the same model but begin in September instead of January. They could take five weeks of material and teach the same material at five different schools. That would be 25 clubs taught! The reach in a school district would be tremendous!

Would your church consider putting together a travel team? We’d love to inspire, train, equip, and support you do so! Call for more information.

RESERVE YOUR SPOT!

GIFT OF STOCK

About half of all Americans invest in the stock market, but only a small fraction ever consider making gifts of appreciated stock to their favorite ministries.

When giving appreciated assets, such as public stock, you not only receive a tax deduction for the fair market value of the stock, but you also avoid capital gains tax.

This can be much better plan of stewardship than giving cash.

Maximize your giving through the CEF partnership with the Barnabas Foundation for stock gifts. No commission is taken from the gift to reach more children with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For more information on how to best give a gift of stock to CEF, click HERE. Simply fill out your contact information, choose "donation information" from the drop down menu, and type "gift of stock" in the "Other" box. We will get back to you promptly with the next steps to take.

You can also email Joel Cripe at joel.cripe@cefnorcal.org, or call our office

(209) 250-2561.