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If there's anything 2020 taught us, it’s that things rarely go according to plan. In a year of canceled get-togethers, weddings, parties, and even jobs, we’ve all had to come to grips in one way or another with the fact that even our simplest plans can fail.

What do you do when it feels like the world is against you? What’s your response when things just fall through?

For Pastor Steven Greene, prayer is always the answer. 

In January 2020, Pastor Steven Greene spearheaded the effort within Central Baptist Church to engage Lawrenceville Elementary School across the street via KiDs Beach Club. The club was growing rapidly in those first few weeks; then the infamous shutdowns were enacted, and schools all across America shut down due to COVID-19 concerns.

Steven was as disheartened as anyone when he heard the news. But he wouldn’t let this stop him; he turned to the highest power for help. When the world was in disarray and absolutely no one appeared to know what to do, Steven asked for God to show him how to continue the ministry and to watch over his students wherever they may be.

God provided. Steven was met with inspiration to provide neighborhood Bible Studies with VBS kits in the local community. These Bible Studies proved a success, and God’s work had just begun.

Steven and his team at Central Baptist Church blitzed the local communities with flyers, emails, and phone calls of encouragement and help. It wasn’t easy at first. Many of the students were still not catching wind of the opportunities available to them even during the shutdown.

“Some never checked the emails because they didn't have internet access,” Steven said. “The majority of the kids that we knew at the school weren't making any contact that way. It's been pretty difficult.” They wouldn’t let this stop them, however. They continued attempting to make contact, all while engaging local kids living in trailer parks with the message of the Gospel.

One young man named Tristan, who attended KiDs Beach Club, was prevalent in Steven’s prayers and remained one of the students that Steven’s team had lost contact with. Little did Steven know, but God was fully on the move in reconnecting Tristan with his KiDs Beach Club family. 

In the weeks preceding the shutdown, Tristan was very quiet and listened intently to the lessons taught at KiDs Beach Club. On the last in-person day of the semester, Tristan actually asked a volunteer about trusting in Jesus, expressing he wanted to put his faith in him. 

“I talked to his mom after the club meeting, and she was excited for Tristan,” Steven said. “She's a single mom with two kids and was struggling to hang in there. She had been saved and baptized as a young person herself. So she said, ‘I want you to come to talk with my other son about it.’

I responded saying, ‘We want to get both of them in church and get them baptized!’ Then COVID shut us down. Then her phone number went dead, and I never got an email response. We even had trouble locating the apartment listed on Tristan’s sign-up sheet. I mean, we just went months without any contact. It was seemingly a dead end.” 

Steven continued, “I added the younger brother to my salvation-prayer-list and began praying for him with our church once we were able to meet back for Wednesday services. In our prayer meeting, we prayed by name for that young man. After church, I drove home, and he was standing in the road in front of my house!” 

Steven jumped out of the car and asked him what he was doing there. The boy simply said his grandmother lived around the corner from Steven’s house. “I asked him to talk to his mom about reconnecting, and he texted her on the spot,” Steven related.

“A month passed. I called again, and a week later she called me back on a new number saying her old phone broke out of the blue.” Another week later, and the entire family showed up Sunday morning for church!

“We talked about going ahead and starting counseling for Tristan to get baptized, and at the same time, we would witness to Jayden, the younger son. Then she said she wanted to rededicate her life as well!”

So Steven set up a meeting to arrange it all, but she never came. She called and asked if he could reschedule for the next day. The morning of the new appointment she called saying Jayden was feeling sick. Another appointment was set up; again, she didn't come. Steven called again to discover that she was now hospitalized after a dog had bitten her!

Steven was shocked at the difficulty of getting this family baptized. He was even more shocked when he was in an accident on his way to work, T-boned by an oncoming car the day the mother finally arrived for the meeting. Steven was at a complete loss. He set up another appointment right away, only for her to be in a car accident this time! 

After all this madness, the mother started bringing the boys to Central Baptist’s Youth Group. After one hospitalization, one quarantine, two car accidents, and weeks without contact, Tristan was finally baptized.

His family has been attending the church for weeks, and Steven can breathe a sigh of relief as he and Tristan minister to Jayden both in and out of KiDs Beach Club®.

Regardless of how difficult the situation became, Steven and his team never gave up the battle for Tristan’s soul. God empowered them all, no matter how hectic things appeared.

A year filled with uncertainty concluded in celebration.

No matter how crazy our day-to-day gets, we have the ultimate help from our Lord, Jesus Christ. God is on the move in KiDs Beach Club and His Kingdom.

So when you feel like the world is upside-down, backward, or what have you, remember, prayer changes everything.  

With 2020 throwing all of us a curveball or two, it could be easy to become discouraged. 

Lockdowns, restrictions, the media giving us 24/7 coverage of bad news nobody asked for—sometimes everything just looks bleak, causing us to wonder, Can I really still make a difference?

As a result, those times we encounter light, hope, positivity, and encouragement are even more special, and at Midway Elementary in Sanford, Florida, two KiDs Beach Club® volunteers are shining examples. 

Mary and her daughter Ashley have been working hard at Midway to keep their Beach Club the same welcoming place for their students it's always been. The joy of seeing their students’ beaming (but masked) faces after school every Monday is part of what motivates these two diligent volunteers to persist even in the face of unprecedented and unpredictable challenges. 

The beauty of meeting in-person, even with appropriate safety measures in place, is that Ashley is able to enjoy listening to what's been going on in the students’ lives just as much as she enjoys sharing the Good News with them. She’s grown closer to everyone in her group. 

It hasn’t been normal, and it hasn’t been easy, but with plenty of prayer and determination, Mary and Ashley have made it work during the hectic first few months of the 2020-21 school year.  

With the pivots made and the fall semester well underway, the next exciting event for the students in KBC at Midway Elementary was Great Treasure Day! 

Ashley recalls the high level of anticipation among the kids: “When the school year started, we gave them big black Bibles, and we told them that when they got their Beach Club Bible, they could give the other one to a friend. And they felt really excited about that!

But when I told them, ‘Hey, next week is our Great Treasure Day. That's when you're going to get your new Bibles, and we're going to have a celebration!’ I've never seen kids get so excited about getting a Bible...ever. It just made me so happy and they were just thrilled!” 

The kids were literally jumping in anticipation of Great Treasure Day!

Before Great Treasure Day came, Ashley was met with an inspiring surprise. One of the little girls ran up to her, gave her a huge hug, and exclaimed, “I was with my aunt this past weekend, and I prayed for Jesus to be in my heart!” 

She explained how she was asking her aunt about the cool things she learned at KiDs Beach Club, and she made the choice for Christ. Ashley overflowed with joy for her young friend, now also her eternal friend. 

While the small group enthusiastically celebrated their new Bibles on Great Treasure Day, another student approached Ashley and Mary to ask them about what baptism has to do with being saved. 

They explained that accepting Jesus is what saves. After thinking about it a moment, the student declared, “I think I need to do that!”

As they approach the end of the first semester of this entirely unique school year, Ashley and Mary, along with their team, continue to minister to these children each week, determined to keep bringing them the Word. 

As Mary so eloquently put it, “If these two kids are saved, and that's all that came out of this little club, it's already been worth it.” 

Mary and Ashley would both encourage other churches, club leaders, and schools to get back into bringing KBC to the students as soon as possible. “It's not that hard to do it once you get back in; the school already has the safety standards going, so you don't have to worry about that. But don’t be afraid to start small!” 

Together, even at a time such as this, we can bring more kids to Christ both in-person and online! We can’t do it without the support of our incredible team of KBC volunteers, our partner schools, and you! 

Thankfulness...a virtue we all teach our children, grandchildren, students—and often have to reteach ourselves. As time progresses, we realize just how many blessings the Lord has bestowed upon KiDs Beach Club®.

From our amazing students, to our TV episodic adventures of Beach Club at HOME!, we truly have been blessed beyond measure and have never lost faith that our bountiful Father would provide for our ministry. He has always fulfilled our needs. 

Even in a year of confusion and delay, with many of our clubs losing their host schools and many of our students remaining home, we still find our hope in God’s love for us and our students. 

Instead of looking back at the 2020 calendar to see what challenges stared us down, we see the hope of reaching thousands and thousands of children in 2021 in many new and fun ways. 

Our new TV series, Beach Club at HOME!, is surfing into the lives of our students, wherever they may be, to bring encouragement, scripture, positive role models, and more!

Great Treasure Day is also just around the corner as several of our churches who are presenting virtual Beach Clubs and some who are still able to conduct in-school Beach Clubs, prepare to give KBC Explorer's Study Bibles to children who don't have a Bible. 

We all have so much to be thankful for. 

KiDs Beach Club® would like to thank you for supporting us and contributing to our ministry. Your gifts truly do enable us to fulfill our financial needs and continue bringing scripture to children who otherwise might never have the opportunity.

You will always remain in our prayers, and remember that God is multiplying His Word far more than any of us could ever imagine. 

In the immortal words of the Psalmist,

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! 
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Beach Club at HOME! is splashing into kids’ lives all across the nation!

For those who have not already visited Jeremy and Jennifer—our Beach Club at HOME! leaders—and the kids over at the clubhouse, allow us to introduce you!

Jeremy is our goofy group leader who leads in our games and engages with the kids on-screen to help themuse their character word in their daily lives. Every week under the alias of Fink Martinstein he hosts “Make It Stick”, the exciting game show-style game where the kids can answer questions on their verse and character word. 

Jennifer is the other volunteer who often brings up the scripture she has rigorously been studying. She encourages and always brings a smile to the Club members. She helps in games and the entire club session. 

Matt is one of the loveable and quirky Beach Club kids. Matt is an encouraging friend, and while he often forgets to say hello to Cody, he always has the best of intentions. In the first episode, he struggles with being dependable, and after losing his dog Penelope, he learns an important lesson about striving to be the dependable young man God wants him to be. His natural leadership talents shine through whenever the group gets into a tough situation. 

Amy is the intelligent and polite member of the group who enjoys reading and finding solutions whenever any of her friends come across a problem in their lives. She often brings reasonable answers and even helps Cody get his Baseball practice scheduled to help him be more orderly.  

Emma is the excitable, youngest member of the bunch. Her comedic timing is always right on cue, giving her pals a good laugh, and often bearing an ironic sense of humor. Her lovable smile and pure sense of friendship helps her instill confidence in her friends. 

Cody is the athletic and witty member of the crew, often providing a laugh for his friends. He is quick to think of ways he can use each week's character word in his daily life. In episode two, he struggles with the thought that maybe he is not good enough for the coming baseball tryouts, and he needs to learn how to have orderliness in his life. 

Pastor Mark shares the scripture in story form for our students every episode. He not only helps with the memory verse, but relates some of the most amazing moments in Biblical history to support the memory verse. In every episode he directs the kids’ attention to the option they have to make Jesus their Forever Friend!

Of course, all of our Beach Club at HOME! episodes are FUN and FREE!

Parents, all you have to do is click here to register your child so they too can enjoy and join the fun of Beach Club at HOME!

We hope you and your kids can join Jeremy, Jennifer, Matt, Amy, Emma, Cody, and Pastor Mark for all of the weekly fun over at the clubhouse!

Let’s face it: COVID-19 has disrupted many of our plans this year. Events have been cancelled, family reunions have been postponed, and schools’ opening protocols remain a huge puzzle. It’s sometimes hard for us to know how to move forward at times like this, but for Chris and Lisa, a Children's Pastor and his assistant, as well as Beach Club volunteers, this has been a time of action!

Chris Burton and Lisa Willis serve in the Children's Ministry at Cross City Church in Euless, Texas. This vibrant church hosts not one, not two, not even three Beach Clubs—but seven! Through this extensive ministry partnership, together we’ve reached just under two hundred children each year with the Gospel. 

Their ministry was vast and appeared to keep growing until COVID-19 entered the picture. But with so many things closing, one might conclude that Chris and Lisa would close their ministry until things returned to normal, right?

On the contrary! They doubled down on their outreach to the families and kids, and they developed a strategy to further their ministry in ways they had never previously imagined. 

First, they started Zoom online classes to keep up the connection with the kids. Then they developed their four-step process to engage kids and their families through this COVID time: 

1. KiDs Beach Club® (KBC) takes the first step and engages with Beach Club families, sending weekly invitations to the parents of more than 10,000 Beach Club students each week to register and view the new Beach Club at HOME! TV shows, a fun and free way they can connect with their friends and Jesus!
2. Once the students login to watch Beach Club at HOME! on the KBC website, that student's activity is registered in a data base where the partnering church can access attendance information for the students who are engaged with the weekly TV episodes.  This gives the church a good idea who to contact.
3. Next, the volunteers ask the parents if they can drop by for a porch visit with various gifts for the kids, which may include fidget spinners, small toys, candy, fun crafts, and more. 
4. From there, Beach Club volunteers connect with the parents to invite the family to attend the partnering church, either in person or online, and welcome them to join the community! 

This process they've designed is not only a fulfillment of the KBC mission to mobilize the church to go outside its walls in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of its community but also KBC's vision to provide pre-teen students a Jesus experience within the culture of their public school. Even if school is primarilty at home these days, Beach Club at HOME! is keeping kids connected to the fun they are used to having in their in person Beach Club and great churches like Cross City Church in Euless is establishing and deepening meaningful relationships that will last far longer than this temporary pandemic.

You can see ALL of the Beach Club at HOME! episodes on the KBC You Tube Page, www.youtube.com/kidsbeachclub.

KiDs Beach Club® has taken a leap of faith this year. Since the founding of the ministry in 2003, we have purchased over 66,000 Bibles and gifted them to preteens across America in the public school system. 

Under normal circumstances, KiDs Beach Club® hosts an annual fundraiser event, Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner, to offset the cost of these Bibles. This event has historically been held at the Texas Motor Speedway where participants have enjoyed rides around the track before relaxing with us for a delicious dinner and hearing inspiring messages from our guest speakers. 

While this event has always been an exceptional treat for our guests and staff alike, having fun has never been the main goal of the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner.  Rather, the goal is to raise the much-needed funds to get these Bibles into the hands of more and more kids each year.  

This year, we were thrown a curveball with COVID-19 forcing the cancellation of our in-person event. Our Bibles were ordered and on their way, so we still needed to raise the funds tosupport our mission of spreading the gospel in our schools. 

Every year at the benefit dinner, we receive generous and critical donations that make our gift to these children possible, but this year we were faced with the question of how to pivot around the inability to host our event live. We needed to get more creative in how we would continue God’s work.

Undersanting the COVID-19 restrictions placed on large group meetings, we stepped out in faith and decided to move the entire event online in an event called, Rise UP 4 KiDs! You can watch the hour long online virtual celebration by clicking here.

We dove into re-imagining the event to be a user-friendly and enjoyable experience for our supporters. We planned multiple gift card giveaways, fun trivia games, and more interactive events for our guests to participate in. George Barna graciously agreed to remain as our guest speaker for the virtual event, just as he would have been in-person. 

We also included a segment from our founder Jack Terrell. The stage was set, and we eagerly awaited the evening which would kick off this year's Rise UP 4 KiDs event. 

Finally, the night of Sunday, August 30th arrived. With a prayer that our event would be well-received far and wide, we went live, streaming both on KidsBeachClub.org and on Facebook. Throughout the evening between 400 and 600 hundred people viewed the event with many giving generously to help our efforts.

The audience participated in the interactive portions of the evening, and we heard a lot of approving comments. 

The entire event lived up to our highest expectations and was an inspiring, successful, and fun evening. 

But the highlight of the evening was the gifts of $222,550 to our Rise UP 4 KiDs fund! The night was a roaring success, but our work is not over yet. 

The Rise UP 4 KiDs campaign continues in September to reach our goal of $500,000. And we need all hands on deck to reach that necessary amount. That's why we need your help to assist in our ministry and to help get Bibles and the good news in the hands and hearts of kids across the nation and now even around the world. 

You can explore how easy it is to become a fundraiser as part of the campaign by clicking here.

We’re praising God for what He has done and continues to do through generous gifts from our faithful supporters like you!