Good News about COVID-19
Would you like to hear some good news about how God worked through COVID-19? Our hearts grieve for the death and destruction in this tragedy, and now it’s time to take a look at how God has been working and even brought good from it. In the world of CEF, it’s not uncommon for many workers to face sacrifice, hardship, instability, and loss, but COVID-19 brought new challenges with quarantine and social distancing. For a ministry that thrives on face-to-face contact, COVID-19 appeared to be a crippling blow. When schools suddenly shut down, over 100,000 Good News Clubs around the world could no longer meet. 
How do you reach children with God’s message of love, life, and hope when you are told to stay home and limit contact with others? You look to God to provide another way! In short, God has opened doors that were closed before, ministry has expanded in unexpected ways, communication improved as people needed to embrace technology and use it more, and a greater unity was fostered among our workers. For example, Zoom prayer groups encouraged and empowered CEF workers as ideas and hearts were shared before God’s throne.
We asked God how to reach boys and girls and their families living in fear and isolation and He showed us how. CEF International Headquarters provided a variety of resources to help workers. Our people experienced amazing provision to be highly creative and productive. Training was provided to workers around the world in their own languages, so workers knew how to move their Good News Clubs online. Club attendance exploded in many places as children were eager to see their friends online and invited them to join. Good News Clubs were produced in video and distributed through social media and apps to club children. Children who never attended after-school club because of having to ride the bus home, now had the opportunity to attend club. An after school club in Michigan had 23 students and grew to 43 when online. A club in Norway which used Facebook Live had over a thousand children in its first meeting. A school in Washington state originally had one club per week but when online, had two clubs per day, every day of the week. In a Caribbean country, businesses provided a computer to every home so children could do online school and therefore they could also do online club. Online clubs also have parents and siblings watching. Clubs have also reported international audiences, for example, a club in Asia had children from 17 countries watching.
Many free resources were produced and made available at cefonline.com. I’ll give you that address again in a minute. Booklets like Do You Wonder Why Bad Things Happen were distributed by the millions both in hard copy and as a free digital resource. Tracts such as Stop the Spread of Fear and The World’s Greatest Doctor were also produced in many languages and distributed digitally. Homeschool resources, Bible activity booklets, and devotional booklets were all made available online and utilized both in the United States and abroad. The Jesus Film for Children was distributed even more widely. A dramatized podcast for children telling gospel stories was launched. Children’s Church programs for use by churches which were streaming services were made available. 
As people hunkered down at home and were thirsty for answers to life’s biggest questions, these resources were grateful received. You can still find them at cefonline.com/covid19. Local CEF chapters also produced their own programs and materials, continuing to reach children. As parents looked at all these resources and watched the programming while off work, many understood the gospel like never before. They called chapter workers and received phone counseling for salvation and got their families started on devotions and online church. Being stuck at home gave many the chance to start a new routine where God comes first. These are only a few of the amazing things God has done through the crisis. Isn’t he awesome?