Closed for Conference!

The Café is closed this week, as many of our staff and readers are at the CEF International Conference in Ridgecrest, NC. We hope that those IOTs attending the pre-conference will enjoy the Instructors’ Café Live! on Tuesday night.

Please pray for the conference—for safe travel for attendees from all over the world, for the Bible teachers and workshop leaders and for a good spirit of fellowship with our CEF family.

We will re-open the Café next week when we return here to Warrenton. See you soon!

Retraction!

This just in from the "Don't Believe Everything You Read" department! The inspiring story that was posted this week, Robby's Night" turned out to be untrue. Sharp-eyed Cafe visitor, Cora Johnson, tracked it on snopes.com and found it to be one of those annoying fake stories circulating on the Internet that sounds so good, but is not true. Our thanks to Cora for her kind and tactful e-mail to let us know.

We have removed the post and apologize to our Cafe visitors. We try hard to make sure we are not passing along urban legends, but this one escaped notice. We would also take this moment to caution all our IOTs to use illustrations with care. Some fake stories take on a life of their own and get circulated for many years as true accounts. Using such stories can hurt our credibility over time. If you have any doubts about a story's origins, go to http://www.snopes.com/. You can put the story title or key words into their search engine and see if they have any data on it.

Now, to make up for our error, we present an illustration you can use with confidence! The following poem, penned by Barbara Ryberg, has been around for a long time. Barbara's words are a challenging reminder to teachers about preparation and taking our ministry to children seriously. She had a Sunday school class in mind, but it certainly applies to a Good News Club as well. You could use this poem as an illustration in TCE classes such as Importance of the Teacher, Managing Your Classroom or Bible Lesson P&P, session 1 (teacher's preparation). Enjoy!

Defeated (by Barbara Ryberg)

I meant to study all the week
And very carefully prepare.
I meant to kneel—yes, every day
And bear each child up in prayer.
But I was weary and I found
So many things that I must do—
Important things that could not wait;
The week was gone before I knew.

I meant to visit several homes
And mail some cards to absentees
To let them know that they were missed,
For such a word is sure to please,
And often brings them quickly back.
But, somehow every day went by,
And not a single card I sent.
And now I ask, “Why didn’t I?”

So this morning when I rose
I tried to study while I ate.
I briefly read my lesson,
And hurried out, five minutes late.
I found them singing, and I dropped
Breathless, ashamed, into my seat,
For I intended to be there
That I the earliest child might greet.

Time for the lesson, and a group
Of eager voices beg their turn
To quote by heart the memory verse
Which I, alas, forgot to learn.
And so I stumbled through the hour,
And built with stubble, hay and wood
Instead of gold and precious stones
And silver, as His servants should.

“Go feed My lambs,” was His command
And shall I hope for them to live
On little morsels such as this,
When mighty feasts are mine to give?
Forgive me, Lord, that I should treat
Thy Word in such a shameful way,
And may I never stand again
Defeated, as I’ve done today.

Becoming the Sycamore Tree

Youth pastor, David Skidmore, tells about trying a role play to make the story of Zacchaeus more interesting for the children. He assigned various kids to each part, and had an adult helper play the part of the sycamore tree. After the drama (“with a few giggles as ‘Zacchaeus’ made his way up the ‘tree,’ hitting a few ticklish spots on the journey”), they all sang the familiar song about Zacchaeus. Then he asked the children, “What would have happened if Zacchaeus had not climbed the tree that day?”

One eight-year-old girl responded, “His song wouldn’t be as much fun to sing! “

The pastor imagined this new version of the song:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man
A wee little man was he
He started to climb in a sycamore tree
But he didn’t...
And then...he went home.

The little girl was right--not much fun to sing. Her response made the pastor think of all the children he was ministering to whose songs weren’t much fun to sing because “their faith was so small...and the crowd was too tall...and they had no sycamore tree to climb.”

Then he realized the truth. For many years he had been trying to BE Jesus to the kids. He tried to save them and heal their hurts. But that wasn’t his job. He was called to be the sycamore tree! He says, “Like the sycamore tree, my job is to lift the (children) above the crowd so they might see the approaching Savior."

This is what TCE is all about. We train teachers to be sycamore trees. It is not their responsibility to save the children in their clubs, but to give them a new perspective and an opportunity to meet the Savior.

Pastor Skidmore concludes with these powerful thoughts:

“Luke eventually tells the story of another tree.
The first tree holds a man living a lie.
On the other tree hangs a Man dying for truth.
Zacchaeus climbs a tree to get the attention of Jesus.
Jesus climbs a tree and dies to get ours.
Being a tree is easy.
Being a Savior is not.”

Your TCE students will have many children in their clubs whose songs are not much fun to sing. But as you train your teachers and listen to their practicum lessons on Zacchaeus, you can remind them that they have the awesome privilege of being the sycamore tree to those kids God entrusts to them!

CMI Goes Online!

We are celebrating! CEF is excited to announce the launch of CMI Online! Check it out at: http://www.cefcmi.com/online/
Our new online program gives students the flexibility to receive specialized training in children’s ministry in the comfort of their own home! Now YOU can study in your pajamas!

Two individual seminars are available now at no charge: Can Children Be Saved? and The Gospel Prepared for a Child’s Heart. They can be viewed by individuals or groups. These seminars include printable student notes and an audio presentation synched with slides.

These are the first two sessions in the Teaching to Transform seminar series. Each month new seminars will be added until all nine are available. To access these seminars directly, visit http://cefcmi.com/online/course/category.php?id=22.

A free demo course, The Romans Road for Children, will be available soon. It will allow participants to experience online learning and determine if it is suitable for them. TCE Level 1 will be the first full 8-week course to be added online and will be available later. Keep watching the blog for updated information on these courses.

We have also updated our regular CMI website, adding links to our online training. Check out our new look at http://www.cefcmi.com/. Both the regular site and the online site have been added to our list of favorite links in the sidebar on the right for your convenience.

We thank God for the gifted people He has provided to our staff who have worked endless hours to make the online program a reality. Please pray with us for God's continued direction and blessing as we work on the TCE course content and other training we hope to launch in the near future.

We hope you will visit these sites today, and let your teachers know about this wonderful new resource!