In May and June I shared with you many of the changes CEF of Schuylkill County made or was in the process of making due to COVID 19. As you know, the changes in our community did not and are not at an end. We started the month of June with eight summer missionaries. By June 4, three of them decided not to serve with CEF® due to all the changes that were occurring. Our hearts broke, and I questioned if I had made the right decision. A person I respect was angry at me for cancelling camp, feeling that I had betrayed the summer missionaries. Had I?
The decision was made, there was no going back. We moved forward with 5-Day Club® LIVE!, scheduling three clubs a week and leaving the last week of July for open air ministry at the Schuylkill County Fair. Oh, how we prayed! Jerusha, Ellie, Xander, Anna and Bobby along with the staff (Elizabeth and myself) would be spending six hours a day, five days a week for six weeks in the same building: learning, studying, teaching, play-ing, challenging, annoying, and laughing with each other. Would they get along? Would they bond as a team and not let petty differences interfere with the sharing the Gospel? God moved in their hearts bonding them in a deep way, building solid relationships.
We had the summer missionaries, but would the children sign up for the clubs? In May we mailed 600 post cards promoting the clubs to all the children who attended some form of a CEF® ministry in the past. The registrations began to come in and then dwindled. In June we mailed another 400 post cards to the same family groups. We also made contact with three Chinese churches and a Chinese school in Northeast Philadelphia. The week of July 13 was set aside for the children of the Chinese school and churches. Along with the week of July 13, Chinese chil-dren signed up all throughout the summer to participate in 5-Day Club® LIVE!. We then learned, the Schuylkill County Fair was cancelled. The response from the Chinese families was so great that we added two more clubs the week of July 27 just for the children who attend the Chinese school. Of the 206 children who attended the seventeen clubs held this summer, 146 were Chinese children from Northeast Philadelphia. God answered our prayer for children to attend club.
Now it’s August and we are again preparing to do ministry in a new way. Pray for parents in Schuylkill County to have a burden for the salvation of their children. Pray. Pray. Pray. We are working with volunteers and churches in seeking new and different avenues to reach the children with the Gospel. Salvation comes through the hearing of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10 “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. v. 13 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” v.17
With challenges come great opportunities. God is not thwarted because of COVID 19. Our God is great! Our God is sovereign! Our God is omniscient! Our God is immutable! Our God is!
Desiring God to be glorified,
Shelley Hikes
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