2021 is the Platinum Anniversary of CEF of South Carolina!
One way we’re celebrating is to highlight one of our staff members each week. (You can read more about our 70th Anniversary on our blog here.)
This week, meet Jean Ballew! She is a valuable part of our staff that takes care of many of our office needs. She began to volunteer at the office and at Good News Club in 2016. She first learned about the ministry when a friend became a Summer Missionary with CEF Greenville.
“ I began supporting her, because I love her and I loved what she was doing. I really didn’t know much about the ministry until January of 2016, when Taylor’s mom recommended me as an office volunteer. At that point, as I learned about CEF and Good News Club, I fell in love with the ministry, and have volunteered and supported it ever since. And I plan to until I die, or Jesus returns, whichever comes first!”
Her favorite part of working with CEF is seeing children and families come to Christ, knowing that the lives of hundreds, even thousands, of children are changed forever through the incredible work of the Holy Spirit, taught and led by GNC volunteers who desire to be a change for good in this old world. She shares her favorite memory below:
I have many favorite memories of working with CEF Greenville, but I will relate this one. As many people who know me know, I have a daughter and school age grandchildren who live in Kershaw County of SC. For many years, Kershaw County, along with a wide swath of other SC counties, had no GNC’s in their schools, which amounted to countless numbers of unreached children. I began praying that the ministry would expand to these areas; my beloved friends and coworkers prayed along with me that God would orchestrate the details to make GNCs in Kershaw County schools a reality. My friends were so faithful to pray with me. They were patient to listen to my pleas, so that when the first GNC opened in an elementary school in Kershaw County schools, not only was I privileged to be a part of those first club meetings, my CEF Greenville friends knew how much it meant to me, and rejoiced with me. As a volunteer going to brand new clubs, I was so very blessed to be able to tap in to their expertise. They were so gracious in sharing invaluable information to help clubs get off the ground in a new territory. The pandemic has meant that clubs there have been interrupted. But there has been a start, and that is enough for the gospel to continue to be taught when hopefully schools reopen their doors for clubs in the fall.
She feels very privileged to have grown up surrounding by believing adults who taught her of Christ from a young age, and to have had an army of Christian adults who taught her in church all the years of her life. “I am grateful for this legacy, and stand in awe of the responsibility it has given me to give back.”
