About CEF of NEW MEXICO

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CEF of New Mexico received a visit from founder, Mr. Jesse Overholtzer in 1936 which marked the beginnings of Child Evangelism Fellowship in the state. CEF's first director was Miss Mary Fought from West Virginia who began her work in 1949 and made it her priority to establish a strong CEF Board of Directors (see photo above). This committee was made up of community and business leaders who later purchased a home in Albuquerque which was the state headquarters office             until its sale in 2024. 

In addition to Good New Clubs, Mary started a sign language club in 1956 for the Santa Fe School for the Deaf as well as a summer camp at Mountain Conference Grounds. A young teen named Clare Weaver, gifted in sign language, became a club teacher and later a CEF New Mexico Director from 1965-68. Mary raised many financial supporters for the work and trained teen workers as Junior counselors and soon the ministry outgrew the camp. During the 1960's and 70's the ministry grew and so did the training of workers. The Albuquerque office became a key teacher training center for CEF New Mexico. God brought many leaders during this time and moved the ministry forward and new opportunities opened for After School Clubs and      even a club in a woman's home.   

God continued to bring capable and gifted leadership for CEF New Mexico over the next decades. CEF's growth has been nothing but the touch of God's broken heart for children as the doors have flung open for the gospel. Hundreds of volunteer teachers throughout the state brought the good news into public schools, recreation centers, churches in dozens of counties. 

God has called CEF to reach a multitude of children in New Mexico making the harvest field full.   In recent years, many challenges have come to the world resulting in a decline in mission outreach.  But the Church is rising again and we invite you to join us in the most wonderful commission of reaching an unreached, unchurched and lost people group - 

the children of New Mexico.  

 Mr. Overholtzer read one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons which stated, “A child of five, if properly instructed, can, as truly believe and be regenerated, as an adult.” The Lord used this statement in Mr. O’s life to lead him to begin the ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship when he was 60 years old. The ministry has grown into the largest evangelistic outreach to children in the world. 

Hear Mr. O's story of how God led him to start                      CEF in the video below. 

 Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is an international, interdenominational Christian nonprofit organization founded by Jesse Irvin Overholtzer (1877–1955) in 1937 at Berachah Church in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, which,   after a split, one moved and headquartered in Warrenton, Missouri, United States, while the other part headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. The organization lists its purpose as teaching the Christian Gospel to children and encouraging children's involvement in local Christian churches. It has programs established in all US states and in 192 countries, with 733 full-time workers in the US,                 an estimated 40,000 volunteers in the US and Canada,       and over 1,200 missionaries overseas, approximately 1,000   of them national workers, individuals trained with CEF      but local to the country of their service. During the    reporting year ending December 2014, CEF reported teaching more than 19.9 million children, mostly through face-to-face ministry.  CEF is a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

CEF branched to Europe in 1947 when Bernard and Harriet Swanson (from the US) began work in Gothenburg, Sweden. CEF soon spread across Europe, most notably in (Northern) Ireland from 1950. The headquarters of CEF Europe are in Romania, with its missionaries who train at different   centers across Europe.