Kids, AI Chatbots & the Gospel | Child Evangelism Fellowship - The Covenant Eyes Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Two children sharing the gospel.
They went out.
They were trained.
Children reaching children.
They went outinto the neighborhood.
They were teachingboys and girls
to share in the gospel.
And a couple of policemenwalked up.
The fact there was three of themwalked up federal police.
This is not in the US.
They walked up and asked them,what are you guys doing?
And the children said, well,we're just telling these

(00:22):
other children about Jesus.
And they said, well,tell us about that.
What what does that mean?
And so they actuallyshared the gospel
with these threefederal police officers.
They came to Christand they said, hey,
can we introduce youto our pastor, which is just
down the street.
And so they walkedwith the policeman, down

(00:44):
to the pastor, to the churchand said, pastor,
these are the three policemenwe just met.
We just led them to Christ,and we wanted
to introduce them toyou and to the church.
Well, our guest today is FredPry, and Fred
is with the Children'sEvangelical Fellowship.

(01:06):
Get that right.
Child Evangelism Fellowship.
You're good.
Very close.
I screwed that up last time.
That's all right.
That's all right.
Well, Fred, well,thank you for joining
The Covenant Eyes Podcast.
I appreciate it.
So, Fred,would you just start out?
Just tell us a little bitabout yourself.
But also, you knowhow you ended up at CEF.
So I'm a secondcareer missionary.
I start offin the business world

(01:27):
for over 25 years.
And then God called mefrom the business world
into full timemissions with CEF.
And you know, it's amazingto be part of a ministry
that reaches the most vulnerablein our society.
And I believe that's children.
They're faced withso many things today
that stealing their hope.
And it's it'sjust a great ministry.

(01:48):
Part of now how I came intoCEF is a little interesting.
My children were involvedwith CEF before I was and when I
what I mean by that isthey became Christian
youth in action.
So they were trained by CEFand then they did
summer backyard Bible clubsknown as five day clubs.
And I saw such a change intheir hearts and in their lives.

(02:11):
They were differentafter doing that.
You know, it's one thing.
Our kids were always in church.
We are a church,family were Christian family.
Kids came to Christ a young age,but it wasn't until they started
teaching other boys and girlsthe gospel, the good news
of Jesus Christ,that they started to really own
that for themselves.
Their faith became real to them.

(02:33):
As you know, it'sone thing to be listening
and, you know, to the Bibleteaching and preaching,
etc., etc.
but then when you startteaching the Bible to children,
it made a differencein their lives.
And it was so impactful.
And that's really what drew meinto the ministry.
And it's just it'sbeen now over 22 years

(02:54):
and God just continues touse us and bless us.
And it's excitingto be part of this ministry.
Yeah. That's wonderful.
And the ministryhas been around about
85 years. Yeah, 80.
Eight, 88. 88 years now.
Yes. Okay. Keeps going.
Yeah.
I got to share with you.
I think I told youthis last time,
but the five day clubs.
Yes, both myself and my wife,which I didn't realize

(03:16):
until just this week.
We were.
We both committed our livesto Christ through
five day clubs.
Oh. That's exciting.
Oh. That's great.
So we've knownabout this ministry
for a long time.
That's so good. Yeah.
Well, Fred, tell us a little bitabout the different
things that you do.
I know you have different clubsfor different groups,
and you have some onlinein person things.

(03:39):
Share a little bitmore about just the scope of.
Sure. Sure. Happy to do that.
Yeah.
We have we have what we callseven highways
to reach boys and girls.
And basically it's just avenuesfor the gospel.
Yeah.
And it's good newsclub, five day club,
which is a backyard Bible club,a good news
club meets in schoolsor community centers.
And it's just excitingto see children

(04:03):
involved in those ministries.
But we also have party clubs.
Christmas Party Clubis a huge part of our ministry.
In fact, we justcompleted a celebration on what
God did this past Christmasand in worldwide ministry
through Christmas Party Clubs,which is a one day,
one time event.
Sharing the gospel,sharing the true

(04:24):
meaning of Christmas.
We reached over 12.5million children
just this past Christmas.
Wow.
And that's and that's worldwidein places
that you couldn't imaginegoing up the Amazon,
where materials are carriedon rafts and boats and
and people wearing life jacketsbecause they don't
know how to swimand just amazing what, what.

(04:46):
Our workers are committed,workers are doing
trekking mountains in the snowin some of
these mountainous regions.
It really is truly amazing.
So ChristmasParty Clubs is one of those
we have camps for.
That happened over the summer,but even some in the fall
for children to attend.
And that's not in every locationbut many places

(05:07):
around the world.
Like in Greece,we have a strong camp
ministry in Greeceand it's powerful.
But here in the US as well,we have
camps around the country.
Okay, so that's one of thethe highways is just our
summer ministries.
But then we havechildren reaching children
and that'sa fairly new ministry.

(05:27):
It's ministrywhere we're teaching
some of the olderGood news Club children
how to share the gospelwith their peers.
And the beautiful thing aboutthat is kids are so bold
with the gospel.
You know, you and I,we get an elevator
and we don't want to saya word. Anybody.
But kids don't talk to anybody.
And when they knowwhat they're talking about,

(05:50):
when they'retaught to share the gospel,
they'll share itwith their peers,
their family members,mother, dad.
And it's just amazingwhat God has done.
In fact, I have a storyof two children
sharing the gospel.
They went out.
They were trainedchildren reaching children.
They went outinto the neighborhood.
They were teachingboys and girls

(06:10):
to share in the gospel.
And a couple policemenwalked up.
The fact there was three of themwalked up federal police.
This is not in the US.
They walked up and asked them,what are you guys doing?
And the children said, well,we're just telling these
other children about Jesus.
And they said, well,tell us about that.
What what does that mean?

(06:31):
And so they actuallyshared the gospel
with these threefederal police officers.
They came to Christand they said, hey,
can we introduce youto our pastor, which is just
down the street?
And so they walkedwith the policeman, down
to the pastor, to the churchand said, pastor,
these are three policemen.
We just met.

(06:51):
We just led them to Christ,and we wanted to
introduce them to youand to the church.
And it's just neat what God.
Does throughthese bold witnesses for Christ.
Yeah.
In fact, he calls each of usthat know Christ to be awake.
Absolutely.
You know,we all are to answer that.
Yeah. That great commission.
Yeah.
And boys and girlscan be powerful witnesses.

(07:13):
So that was another ministry?
No, that is amazing story.
I love that.
Now you also,you have a ministry
for military children.
Correct?
Yes.
Military children'sministry is a
wonderful ministry.
We're currently in 33 bases.
That's the last number.
I heard 33 installationsaround the country.

(07:33):
And it's just apowerful ministry.
These children are vulnerable.
They move so often.
It's hard.
If anybody knows the military,they're moving
every 2 to 3 years on averageto a new place.
So children don't know how toreally make friends.
The friendsdon't don't go deep. Sure.
But one thingthat does happen through this

(07:55):
military children's ministry iswhen they go
to a new installation, oftenthere'll be a good news
club meeting.
So there is a connection there,and it's a powerful ministry.
Plus these children are facedwith, well,
you know, some of thesome of the parents
are in active duty.
So is my dad coming home?
Yeah.
Isn't my dad coming home?

(08:17):
Is my mom coming home?
Isn't my mom.
And it's a scary time forthese boys and girls.
And to be introduced to Christand to know that their eternity.
Yeah, is settled in.
To know that they can praywhen they have
a relationship with Christ.
They can pray for their parentsto keep, for
God to keep them safe.
That's amazing.
That's a powerful thing.

(08:38):
It is.
That's a great ministry.
That's wonderful.
Well, Fred, back in two kidsnowadays, it's different
than when you and I grew up.
I mean,it is all about the internet
and computers and social mediaand all of these things.
It's a new world.
And kids are are different.

(08:59):
So how have youyou guys adapted to
facing that reality?
What kinds of thingsdo you do to
to reach kids through that?
Yeah.
So we do have adigital ministries
department at CEF.
It really startedfrom a result of Covid.
You know,we all look at Covid and say,
oh, that was sothat was so tough.
But actuallyit did some good things

(09:20):
for ministries like ours.
It really pushed us tocreate materials
that will reach to the kidsthat have screens
that they're on the screen.
And if you know statistics,they're saying even children
as young as four or spendingeight hours a week
in front of a screen,and that's not a television
screen, that's a screenconnected to the internet

(09:43):
in some way. Yeah.
And so when you realizethat we realized very quickly
that we're not going to reachall the children of the world
if we don't head this directionand put some content,
good content, biblical content,Christian content,
salvation, evangelisticcontent online.
And so CEF is doing that.

(10:05):
We have thousands of shorts,live action animation
on our unite channel.
And it's it's free for kids.
There's no cost for childrenfor parents to use
that they can download thethe episodes,
they can watch them offline,they can watch them online.
But it's it's good contentand it's not connected

(10:26):
to other advertisingthat they might see on YouTube.
So it really is a safe placefor children to be connected
and be introduced to the gospel.
The other thing we realize thatour one of our
our vision statementis to reach every child,
every nation, every day.
To do that, we knewwe weren't going to be able
to be face to face with boysand girls all over the world.

(10:49):
We knew thatwe had to have a platform
that would reach thosethat won't ever come
to a CEF event anywhere.
A good news club,five day club, party club.
And so we realized very quicklywe need to create some content
that would touch their livesto reach their lives.
And so we've done that as well.

(11:10):
So we do have someof our information on YouTube
because that's wherekids are to.
But we really wantto get them on
to our unite channel.
As much as possible.
I think that's so importantbecause it's really
about connectionfor these kids, connecting
in the right wayto the right message
and people and other kids,you know, with

(11:30):
and we talked about a littlebefore we started AI chat boxes.
Kids are connecting to sourcesand finding friendship
and finding informationfrom sources
that might not be the bestfor them.
I mean,are you seeing some of this?
Oh, yes.
And again, I don't knowif your listeners
are aware of this,but I wasn't aware of it

(11:51):
until I started reading moreabout the whole
AI world and AI girlfriends.
AI boyfriendsthat they can talk to and share.
And we're not saying that's notit's not good
to talk to someone,but who's creating that content
that then answersthe child's questions.
So that's where wehave to as parents,

(12:12):
especially as believingparents have to be.
Careful to be.
Careful that wewe know who's creating
that content.
Plus, we can't live in a,in a imitation
world, a fake world.
We live in.
This world. Exactly.
We need relationshipswith real people,
not fake people.
Yeah, and there's some scarythings happening

(12:34):
with the chat bot.
Whole world.
In fact, there was some recentlawsuits that were brought
against some of these creatorsbecause of some things
that were happening.
Kids were getting bad advice,somewhat.
A child mentions,hey, I'm thinking about
taking my life.
I'm losing hope.
They the chatbot doesn't knowwhat to do.

(12:57):
In that case,they just want to be friend.
They want to encourage.
So what do they dowhen someone saying, well,
I'm not happy in this life?
Well, they wantto add some encouragement.
So.
So I know there was athere was a child
that took his life.
Yeah.
Because of some.
You probably saw that.
As well.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a scary thing.
It is to see thatthat's happening.

(13:18):
In fact, some of the developersin AI are now raising that flag
and saying, hey,we've got to be careful here.
Yeah.
We don't know whatwhat the power of this is
having on lives of childrenthat haven't
been able to discernright from wrong and what's good
and what's not so good.
And and to really knowwhat direction they should take

(13:39):
in some situations. Scary.
It is really, reallytroubling stuff.
But but God bless these typesof ministries like yours
that that really replacesthat or connects people
to the right kidsto the right things.
So and it's about hope.
Yeah. See, that's the thing.
When you realize that suicidescontinue to rise, it's

(14:02):
because childrenare losing hope.
It is. It's hard to.
Imagine seeing.
Oh, yeah.
And isolation.
And there's so much there's,there's the,
the things that are happeningonline, the bullying
that's happening online.
Children are losing hope.
They don't thinkthey're valuable anymore
when compared tothis perfect person over a year

(14:24):
that looks likethey have everything
together in life and andthey children need hope
and they're losing hope.
How do you address that?
Jesus is the answer.
Yeah.
He's the only onethat truly gives us
hope in a worldthat's full of chaos.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Well, Fred,how for our listeners,
how do they find your ministryand plug into these

(14:46):
great resources?
Well, the best way is to go.
You can Google us, of course,but CEFOnline.com,
that's our website.
Okay. CEFOnline.com.
And if you go there you canread all about CEF,
you can explore our resourcesthat we have available.
There's articlesthere that talk about
some of the thingswe've just talked about.

(15:06):
You know howhow parents can deal with
this this AI world and how to.
So there's some resources there.
Of course,there's devotional books
that we've produce.
These are devotional booksthat take a child
in depth into the intothe reality of what God
what's God's message to them.
And it uses it.
And we use child language.

(15:28):
So it's not it'snot adult language.
It's putting the, I like to say,putting the
cookies on the bottomshelf for those children.
So we have reader devotionals.
We have that mid-rangereader devotional
so boys and girls can read,you know, for themselves,
and parents can help thembecause often parents say, well,

(15:48):
I want to have devotionswith my family,
with my children,but what do I do?
I just read from the Bibleand and what do I say?
So there's opportunitiesfor parents to use these
to really help discipletheir own children.
Excellent. Excellent.
That's great.
Well, we will put thoseor that address
in the show notes.
So all of our listenershave those.

(16:09):
That's great.
Fred, thank you so muchfor joining us today and sharing
more about about CEFand in the work you do.
God bless.
And if we can ever helpin any way
we would love to do that.
But so so gratefulyou joined us today.
Oh, it's been my privilege.
Thank you.
Oh, great.
And again, to our listeners,thanks for joining us.
I hope you like this.

(16:30):
And please share itand look for us
the next, next episode.
Take care and God bless.

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