Contact: Melody Bentley, 571-274-6058
WARRENTON, Mo., Nov. 11, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- This year marks the 25th anniversary of Mr. Reese Kauffman's tenure as president of Child Evangelism Fellowship, which under his leadership has become the largest Christian ministry to children in the world. Last year, CEF reached 15.6 million children around the globe with the Gospel.
According to Mr. Bill Elgin, chairman of the International Board of Trustees for CEF, Mr. Kauffman came at a crucial time. "When Reese was installed as president of CEF, the ministry was in crisis. The buildings and equipment at International Headquarters were in a state of disrepair, morale was low and the lack of financial support seriously hindered the ministry to the children. Reese immediately provided vision and godly leadership that began to change the culture of CEF. This has resulted in improvements to the facilities, motivated leadership around the world, a rapid increase in the number of children being reached, and an aggressive vision for the future. It is safe to say there will be millions of souls in Heaven that may not have heard the Gospel if it were not for Reese's leadership these last 25 years." A self-effacing man, Mr. Kauffman gives all the credit for these accomplishments to the Lord first of all, to the CEF staff, workers and volunteers. "Our people are what make the difference," he says.
The ministry has indeed expanded enormously over the past 25 years. Today CEF has ongoing daily ministries in 190 countries, more than double the number of countries it had in 1989. Currently there are over 4300 CEF Bible clubs for children, called Good News Clubs, in public elementary schools all over the United States and over 62,000 Good News Clubs worldwide. Every summer CEF reaches thousands of children through 5-Day clubs and its Good News Across America campaigns which target a different American city every year. Its published materials have reached children in every corner of the globe. For example, the CEF Wonder Book has been translated into 150 languages and millions of copies have been distributed all over the world. The Do You Wonder Why? booklet, designed to help children cope with tragedy, has been distributed by CEF to countless children after major natural or man-made tragedies, such as the September 11th bombings, Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti and the tsunami in Japan.
Mr. Kauffman who grew up in Indianapolis and now resides on Sanibel Island, Florida, built a successful manufacturing business in Indianapolis where he became involved in a local CEF committee in 1975. Later he served on the CEF International Board of Trustees. Then in 1989, he was asked to take on the leadership of the entire international ministry. He agreed to do it for one year, refused a salary, and left his business in order to take the reins of CEF full-time. He never left and has been a volunteer president ever since. "I am not a children's worker," says Mr. Kauffman, “I am a business man and I understand high volume, high output organizations. CEF is just that. When you realize that 85% of Christians in the world trust the Lord Jesus as Savior by the age of 15, and see the extraordinary work God does through our children's workers, you can see why CEF runs like a high output business."
Asked about his future goals for CEF, Mr. Kauffman does not hesitate. "By 2017 we want to be in every nation in the world; we have seventeen to go. Ten of them are going to be tough but it won't be accomplished by a strategy, method or program. If it happens it will be done by God and His grace. Our motto is 'Every Child, Every Nation, Every Day.'"
cefonline.com
