Director’s Address
Spring is finally here and our Good News Clubs® (GNC) year has come to an end. All but two of our clubs have ended. One that is still going will continue through the end of May, the other one is all year. We praise the Lord for what he has done this year in all of our clubs. We have seen the Lord increase our clubs to 9 this year by opening the doors to three school districts. We now have a total enrollment of 159, with 14 salvations. We are already looking forward to next year’s clubs. In a couple of the schools that we are in, we are hoping to expand to the preschool and middle school. For the middle schools, we will do the JYou Connection™ (JYC). We are also praying the Lord will open the door for us to get into the Ludington, Hart, Fremont, and Baldwin schools. Please be praying for us as we work to get into these schools.
On March 19, we had the opportunity to be at the Family AfFAIR that was held in Scottville at Mason County High School. This was a free event open to the public for people to come in and have fun and get information about businesses and groups around the area. At the event, we made bracelets with the children, and had some puzzles and a game for them to play. We were able to see several children that attended the GNC in Scottville. We also had the opportunity to talk with several adults about the ministry of CEF. Several people were very interested in what we were doing, and asked a lot of questions. By the end of the time there, we had talked to over 350 people. We praise the Lord for this opportunity and plan to be there again next year.
Annual Banquet
Our banquet will be held on Monday, April 11. It will be at Mason County Reformed Church in Scottville. We have a great meal planned followed by a great program. You won’t want to miss it. Plan to bring your children. We will have a special children’s program that will be fun and exciting. Thomas and Evelyn Bump will be doing the children’s program, and Dan Hoven, State Director of Michigan, will be the guest speaker. If we have enough children sign up, there will be a special meal just for them. If you plan to come, please RSVP by April 4.
Special Projects
Child Evangelism Fellowship® National Conference—Money has started to come in for us to attend the National Conference in May. Thank you to those who have given. At this point, Wendy, Virginia Campbell and I will be attending. We still need approximately $900 to cover the conference fees and travel expenses. Please pray that the rest will be provided.
Ministry Updates
Virginia
Rachel
Both Virginia and Rachel are doing well at Children’s Ministries Institute (CMI). Both will be done April 15, and be home to start their ministries here in Shoreline. Virginia needed to raise $1329 for her monthly support. She still needs to raise about $1100 to be fully supported.
Rachel, for her summer internship, needs to raise $5000 to meet her summer needs. Some support has come in for them. Pray that the rest will come in.
Hailey & Madison
All the paperwork for Hailey and Madison Westerbeek is completed and we are waiting for the confirmation from our state office. Both are planning to work with us the entire summer as much as possible. Madison will be going to Summer Missionary Assistant and will need to raise $200 to cover her training. Hailey is planning to be a paid summer missionary and she needs to raise $2500 to cover her training and her salary for the summer. Money has started come in for both of these girls. Please pray for the rest to come in.
Resurrection Party
We had the great opportunity to have a Resurrection Party over Easter weekend at New Era Bible Church. We were able to send out over 600 flyers throughout the elementary schools in the Shelby school district, and in the AWANA program at the church about the party. After we set the date, we found out that there were three other egg hunts going on the same day. Despite the other events, we had 18 children come to this event. Eight of them had never been to Good News Club. One of the mothers told us that she did not know about the club this year, but she will send her daughter to club next year.
During the two hours, we had games, a craft, and an evangelistic Bible lesson. The lesson was about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The kids all seemed to enjoy playing the games and doing the craft. We finished the day with an egg hunt. We hid 383 eggs filled with candy hoping the children would find all of them. We found out the next day that they didn’t.
We were very pleased on how the party went, and praise the Lord for the turn out even though we had competition. We definitely plan to do this again next year.
Fair and Festivals
A big part of our summer ministries is the fair and festival ministry. So far this ministry year, we already have been in 2 festivals and have been able to make over 400 contacts. We are scheduled to be in 3 more festivals, and two fairs. If it all works out, we will finish the year with at least seven different fairs and festivals, which will be an increase from last ministry year.
There are two more festivals that I am currently working on to try to get into this year. They are the Apple Festival in Silver Lake, and the Trout a Rama Festival in Baldwin. Please pray as I try to make contact with these festivals so we might have a chance to add two more to our list.
To make these fairs and festivals a success, we need several volunteers who are willing to come to hand out tickets, face paint, run games, and do gospel presentations. If this is something you can help us with, these are the festivals and dates. We also need people to pray for these events and the children we will reach.
Fair and Festival dates
May 28 – Horse Pull in Fountain
June 10– 11 – National Asparagus Fest in Hart
July 20 – National Baby Food Fest in Fremont
August 9 – 13 – Western Michigan fair in Ludington
August 24 – 27 – Oceana County Fair in Hart
If you can help in any of these fairs or festivals, please contact our office.
Download the Newsletter here in PDF format – Shoreline Sentinel April 2016
