WARRENTON, Mo. (WordNews.org) June 5, 2012 — Child Evangelism Fellowship, which bills itself as the largest Christian ministry to children in the world, has extended its reach in four additional countries, bringing the total to 180 countries.de

The expansion comes as the ministry celebrates its 75th anniversary. The ministry has added new countries to its service each in each of the past five years.

Tom Levanos, CEF executive director for operations, said the new countries being served include the Commonwealth of Dominica in the Caribbean and the Republic of Guinea in West Africa (Guinea-Conakry), Two countries were not named as a result of safety concerns for CEF workers there. One is located in Africa, the other in Asia Pacific.

CEF’s model is to equip nationals eager to work full-time to evangelize children. Nationals attend a 12-week training course taught primarily by CEF workers from the same region. These new workers are then equipped to go back home and train local volunteers to evangelize children through the establishment of local clubs, called Good News Clubs. Nationals also try to partner with local churches, training church members on how to run a Good News Club.

“Our goal is not to compete with the local churches, but to support them,” said Harry Robinson, executive vice president of International Ministries at CEF. “We do this by providing churches with a program that will help them evangelize children.” CEF considers its ministry established in a given country when the workers are trained and have set up an active ministry of Good News Clubs meeting regularly.

CEF has 2800 workers around the world, 94 percent of whom serve in their home countries.