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Your Online Instructor and Teaching Staff

Debbie Day

  • CEF CMI Master Teacher Certificate (Spring 2015)
  • Credentialed TCE 1 Instructor of Teachers
  • Masters in Nursing (1988)
  • B.S. in Nursing (1984)
  • Diploma in Nursing (1980)

Debbie started conducting Good News Clubs in 2012 and joined CEF as staff in 2015 as the Trainer for Northwest Arkansas. She taught several years in Sunday School, VBS, and a Bible Camp utilizing CEF curriculum. Prior to joining CEF, Debbie spent 35 years in the nursing profession in a variety of roles, with the last 15 years as a Director and Nurse Educator of a Licensed Practical Nurse program.

Email: [email protected]  (Type UTC in the subject line.)

Phone: 870-416-9594
Speak slowly and clearly while leaving a message. Leave your name, number with the area code and a brief description of the message. She is also able to receive text messages.

Forum: You may also post questions and comments in the forum. She will be checking them regularly and will reply to you as quickly as possible.

NOTE: If you do not receive prompt feedback (within 24 hours during the course (or within 2 hours when an important assignment is due the same day) from your instructor, please contact the CMI Online team at [email protected].

Your Video Teaching Staff:
Much of the course content for Understanding Today’s Child is delivered through pre-recorded video sessions. The following instructors who teach on-campus classes for the Children’s Ministries Institute recorded various sessions for use in this online course.

Name: Tina Busenitz

Profile: 
Associates Degree in Missions from Grace University

Tina Busenitz is a volunteer with Child Evangelism Fellowship serving as the TCE Program Director for the Education Department since 2015. She resides in Kansas with her husband Lester and travels to CMI to help teach in the Understanding Today’s Child and Dynamics and IOT modules at CMI each fall and spring. She also helps write curriculum and online articles for CEF. Having trusted in Jesus as Savior at age 8 gives her an understanding of how God can change a child’s life and she has a great desire to train believers to reach children with the Good News. Tina enjoys teaching, meeting new students, writing and spending time with her family.

Class Sessions Taught: Children at Risk Sessions
Name: Tim Deam

Profile: 
Graduate of Christ Unlimited Bible Institute, Kansas City, Missouri
B.S. Children’s Ministry, Calvary University

Tim Deam has been involved in children’s ministry since 1982. Before joining the department of education staff at the Child Evangelism Fellowship International Headquarters in 1997, he and his wife, Lisa, served as CEF directors and state teacher trainers in Indiana. Over the years he has gained a wealth of experience in teaching children as well as training children’s workers throughout the USA, the Caribbean, and India. Presently, Tim is a faculty member at the Children’s Ministries Institute in Warrenton, Missouri where he trains others. He also serves as the International Headquarters Prayer Coordinator, directing and gathering prayer support at the International Headquarters and around the world. Tim serves in his church as a greeter and substitute usher. His hobbies are collecting old books written by “the old dead guys” (Spurgeon, Moody, Murray, Tozer etc.). He enjoys going to the shooting range and target shooting.

Class Session Taught: Mormonism 
Name: Faith Dugan

Profile: 
B.A. Regents Degree with Elementary Education emphasis, WV State College
M.A. Counseling, Biblical Theological Seminary
Currently working toward a Doctorate in Educational Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Faith trusted Christ as Savior around the age of three. As a teenager, she served as a CEF summer missionary. After graduating from the Children’s Ministries Institute in 1989, Faith began working with Child Evangelism Fellowship of Greater New York City. She served in NYC through 2015. She is now a Leadership Training Instructor at the Children’s Ministries Institute in Warrenton, Missouri. She is also the Director of CMI Online. Faith’s life verse is Acts 20:24 (ESV): “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

Class Sessions Taught: Age Group Characteristics Sessions 
Name: Lynne Herlein

Profile: 
Diploma in Christian Education, Grand Rapids School of the Bible and Music
B.A. Christian Education, Trinity College & Seminary
M.S. Religious Studies, Calvary University

Lynne Herlein has served full time with Child Evangelism Fellowship since 1983. Besides serving as the Children’s Ministries Director for her local church, she has served with Child Evangelism Fellowship as a local director and leadership training instructor in Michigan, Missouri and East and Central Africa. Since 1986, Lynne has been a part of the faculty of the Children’s Ministries Institute in the US and overseas and currently serves as the Associate Director of Education and Children’s Ministries Institute Director. She is passionate about training leaders to effectively reach children, having come to know the Lord as her Savior as a direct result of CEF ministries at age 5. Lynne enjoys playing the clarinet, reading, playing with her dog and spending time with friends.

Class Sessions Taught: Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, Hinduism/Buddhism