Interview ~ Gary Cousins (CEF Child Evangelsim Fellowship) Part 1

I first heard of Gary Cousins while browsing the blogosphere, since then i've enjoyed his blog and the updates about the work he does etc. Recently it was great to meet him in person while he was back in N.Ireland for a short time. Gary kindly agreed to answer some questions for me and i hope you enjoy them and are blessed by them as much as i have been.

Thank you Mr Cousins:


Could you tell us a bit about your background and calling to Christ?

I grew up in the Lurgan/Portadown area of Northern Ireland. I have one younger sister. During the summer months an older couple (family relations) would have cared for us during the day while mum and dad were at work. On this particular summer the local Church of Ireland (St. Saviours in Dollingstown), invited CEF to help them hold a week long Holiday Bible Club. During this week the CEF workers taught the Bible Lesson using the colours of the Wordless Book. On the final evening, at age 7, I responded to the Gospel message that had been so clearly explained to me during that week.



In your earlier years of following Jesus, who did He use to shape, disciple & influence you onward with Himself?

Although we only attended church on very rare occasions, my mother would have read and prayed with us before putting us to bed. It was when we moved house, a year after my conversion to Christ, that I first met David Irwin (at that time a CEF volunteer and later the full-time Ireland coordinator for CEF Youth Challenge). He invited my sister and me to his Good News Club in Bleary. It was through that club that I grew in my young faith. David became quite a central figure in my life. When I entered my junior teens I was helping in his GNC, attending his JYC, assisting in his 5-day clubs and attending every camp in Kilkeel I was allowed to go to. We were sent to other children’s meetings, Sunday Schools, B.B., – however David’s ministry continued to have the strongest influence on me.

A major event in my life was when my father trusted Christ – I was 14 years old. It was then that we started to regularly attend Lurgan Baptist Church, where I profited greatly from the Bible teaching of Pastor Alec Judd.

The Youth Fellowship in Knocknamuckly Church of Ireland (near Portadown) was also influential in forming me. I think of Rodney Adamson who led the work there. He encouraged me to use my gifts for God and even took me with him (and his wife Pauline) on many Tuesday nights to hear Derick Bingham at the Crescent church in Belfast.



Could you quickly talk us through from becoming a Christian to where you find yourself now, (ministry, family etc)?

Through listening to missionary speakers as a child and teenager, God had placed a desire in my heart to be a missionary. I really couldn’t wait until the day when I would be old enough to go into full-time Christian ministry. Thus I asked to join CEF when I was 18 years old. By the age of 19, I was a missionary working in the CEF printing factory in Switzerland.

1980 – became a Christian
1981 – started attending a weekly CEF Good News Club
1990-91 Worked in my first job at Morton Newspapers, Lurgan
1991-92 Worked in Impro Printing, Belfast
1992-96 Served at the old CEF printing factory near Kilchzimmer in Switzerland
1996-99 Studied at Brake Bible College in Germany
2000-01 Studied at the Irish Baptist College
2001-03 Served as Pastor of Craigavon Baptist Church
2003-06 Served as Associate Pastor in Portadown Baptist Church
2006-07 Attended the Kilchzimmer Leadership Training Institute and prepared for moving to Germany
2007-present based at the CEF European Headquarters in Switzerland


I met my wonderful wife, Claudia at Bible College in Germany. We sat in the same classes for 3 years and we got married 5 weeks after graduation. I am so thankful to God for her. We have two boys who are bilingual although German would now be their first language. Balancing family life and ministry is something I constantly strive toward. I believe that we must be deliberate in allocating quality time to those who are closest to us.



You served as a Pastor in 2 Churches here in N. Ireland, what motivated, or rather how did Christ direct you to move from this into CEF?

Claudia comes from Germany and we both speak each others languages fluently. We often wondered if God would again place us in a German speaking context. We both had several years experience of working in multi-cultural settings and with living in Northern Ireland we really missed that interaction with different cultures.
We really longed for a setting where all of our gifts could be used to their full potential. So we began gathering information from different missionary agencies and from different countries. We proceeded to push doors looking at different possibilities while at the same time happily continuing to serve God where he had placed us.

Several months before CEF approached us we had attended part of their annual Eastern Conference. After that, we remarked to each other that we felt so much at home in the company of CEF people but that we couldn’t imagine being direct children’s evangelists. This appeared to us to be a hard circle to square and we were a little confused about how God might be leading. Why would we feel a pull to the mission but not to their main ministry?

Then in 2005, totally unexpected, we were approached by CEF and asked if we would become European Youth Challenge Coordinators. We had never thought of that? However when we started to think over what God had been saying to us up until that point – it all started to make sense. Both the ministry description and the prospect of moving our family to set up home in a German speaking area was all very attractive to us. Since then, God has confirmed this step in many ways. In summer 2007 we moved to the SW corner of Germany near the French and Swiss borders and 40 minutes from the CEF European Headquarters (Kilchzimmer) in Switzerland. We have a great sense of fulfilment in the ministry because we can see how God has been preparing us all these years for the responsibilities He has now given us.



Can you tell us a bit about the history and vision of CEF?

CEF is a Bible centred, worldwide organisation composed of born-again believers whose purpose is to evangelise boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, disciple them in the Word of God and establish them in a Bible believing church for Christian living. The work began in 1937 in the USA through the vision of our founder, Mr. Overholzer (more info at http://www.cefonline.org/).

We have 2650 full-time workers and thousands of volunteers worldwide with 560 workers in Europe.
Last year 9.3 million children in 163 countries received a clear presentation of the Gospel.



What is your specific role in CEF?

My ministry has many different facets.

As European Youth Challenge Coordinator:

• Teacher training (JYC Instructor Courses)
• Writing/revising teacher resources
• Coordinating and developing the ministry


As Interim Administrator of the Education Department for Kilchzimmer and Western Europe:

• Planning/teaching at the German and English Children’s Ministry Leadership Courses (CMLC) in Kilchzimmer, Switzerland
• Teaching at other CMLC’s held by extension throughout Europe
• Promoting our training courses and resources at conferences, Bible Colleges and in churches

I also organise our European Conference and serve on the board for the CEF Specialized Book Ministry.



. . . Part 2