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Susan Jiura, the Beach Club leader at Sherrod Elementary, recently attended the high school graduation party for Camrin Langston, one of her former Beach Clubbers. On a table displaying some of Langston’s favorite things from her youth, Jiura noticed the young woman’s worn KiDs Beach Club® Devotional Bible, the Bible that preceded the current KBC Explorer’s Study Bible.

Jiura was thrilled when Langston told her that it’s the Bible she still uses. That “made my day!” Jiura said.

Langston, who graduated from Lamar High School in Arlington, Texas earlier this month, became involved with KiDs Beach Club® in fifth grade during a difficult time in her life. Not only had she just moved to Sherrod Elementary, she had just had major back surgery. She credits Jiura with making her transition easier.

Langston said, “Whenever I had first started coming to Beach Club, Ms. Susan Jiura… made sure I was comfortable and put me in the right group with my grade level and the other girls involved, and she made sure that I had everything I needed to be involved and that I wasn’t left out.”

Jiura’s care and compassion gave Langston a sense of belonging for the two years that she attended Beach Club. 

“It made me feel like that’s where I needed to be, and that I wasn’t in a place that I was forced to be in,” Langston said. “We were welcome to be there and we were safe there with them.” 

According to Langston, one benefit of KiDs Beach Club® is that it teaches the Bible in a way kids can understand.

“It can help you on your level, and not a higher level, but also be where you can ask questions and not feel uncomfortable asking those questions,” Langston said.

One way that this is accomplished is through the KBC Bible. Although Langston owned a traditional Bible at the time, receiving her KBC Bible was truly a blessing. She is dyslexic, and having a Bible geared specifically toward kids helps her understand what she is reading.

“I just felt very relieved when I got mine,” Langston said, “because I was able to read it better than the Bible I already had. And the extra things they have in it, like the devotions and stuff, were able to connect better with my age group that I was in at the time.”

Her enthusiasm for her new Bible was apparent, even to her club leader.

“She was always so focused on listening to the Bible lesson and loved studying her KBC Bible,” Jiura said.

Although the ease of reading is what initially drew Langston to her KBC Bible, she has found additional reasons for continuing to use it today. She sees it as a tool for connecting with her younger siblings and those currently in the Sherrod Elementary Beach Club, where she volunteers when she is able.

“It helps me be able to know how to speak with them, or how to speak with the younger kids in my church,” Langston said. 

At the time Langston received her Bible, only one child per week received a Bible. Now, thanks to generous donors like you who regularly support the Bibles for Beach Club program, all kids in Beach Club receive a KBC Bible. This provides each child a valuable tool that they can use well past the few years we have them for Beach Club.

Langston, who attends Dayspring Church and hopes to begin working toward a photography degree in the fall, encourages donors that their donations do make a difference.

“It definitely does help,” she said. “Especially, like my school that I went to was a lower-income school, and so being able to… get that Bible – a lot of kids probably don’t have one to that degree that they can understand, so it definitely does help.”