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KiDs Beach Club® often impacts more than just the children who attend Beach Club. It can be a life changer, altering the lives and eternal future of an entire family.

Christine Zanella, a volunteer at Wekiva Elementary School in Longwood, Fla., and her family’s trajectory were completely changed by her son after he signed up for Beach Club.

“My son, John, was the first child to sign up for KiDs Beach Club® in 2015 at Wakiva Elementary,” she said. “Throughout the first two years, I could see how this ministry was a blessing for my family.”

The simple and practical way the Bible was explained was amazing.

In 2017, Zanella’s son and daughter were in Beach Club. John was starting fifth grade and her daughter Carolina was starting second grade. She had already been volunteering for Beach Club events but was asked to become a full volunteer with this club.

“I certainly loved and was excited to be a part of it,” she exclaimed. “Today, I have been volunteering at this Beach Club for two years, and this ministry is, literally, God's hands in my family's life.”

Zanella says that both of her kids chose to have Jesus as their savior through Beach Club and that they attend First Baptist Church Sweetwater, the partnering church.

“My daughter and I were both baptized there on February 3, 2019,” she said. “The kids are participating in the youth groups at church, and John attends FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) at his middle school every Wednesday morning.”

KiDs Beach Club® was the open door for her family to come to Jesus as Savior and for a life closer to God.

“I am really grateful to be a KBC Surf Team leader today, share the word of God with the kids in our school, and pray for their families!” she said.

When Jack Terrell, the president and founder of KiDs Beach Club®, heard about the Zanella family, he responded, “it’s humbling to know that when a church is mobilized to see people outside its walls and then allows its laity to be equipped to use the KBC model, the results are always the same... changed lives!”

The Beach Club at McCall Elementary School in Willow Park, Texas is teaching character words through action and discipleship. The fifth graders often mentor, teach or take on extra responsibility in their Beach Club.

Club Leader Sean Crevier, the children’s minister at Willow Park Baptist Church in Aledo, Texas, explains that once children receive Christ as their savior, just like you or I, they have been given spiritual gifts and they need to learn how to use them for the Lord.

“For example, we see that some of them are teachers and some of them have the gift of administration, so we really try to use them where they have gifts and talents,” Crevier explained.

There are several fifth graders who help out with younger groups.

“Now we still have adults at each group who help with discipline and such, but the younger grades are bonding and connecting with the fifth grader as more of a friend or peer than an authority figure,” Crevier said.

They have found that the younger Surf Team groups are really receptive, more attentive and tuned in when an older peer is helping teach. Not only are those helpful benefits, but the fifth grader really has to digest the lesson and the Hang 10 before they can turn around and teach it to others.

“It is the same philosophy we use at our church and we have found good success transitioning it over to Beach Club as well,” Crevier said.

They have even had kids prepare to lead the Memory Link time or lead the Review Game.

“We always try to lean on the older kids to try to have them prepare ahead of time to do that,” Crevier said. “It’s been really cool to see the kids learn and turn around and lead.”

In addition to discipleship, they are learning to use some of the character words like dependability, friendliness, kindness and responsibility to be leaders and teachers to their peers.

What are your favorite things about summer? We bet some favorite things on your kids list include swimming, vacation, ice cream, hot dogs, fireworks and baseball. Our guess, though, is that most kids probably respond, “No school!”

It’s true; school is almost out, and Beach Club has come to a close or is about to. We know your kids enjoy Beach Club, and we want them to enjoy it during the summer, too. With KBC Explorer’s Study Bibles in kids’ hands and in their homes, boys and girls can continue learning with Beach Club. This summer, KiDs Beach Club® is providing a summer Bible reading plan for kids and their families.

“Hang 10” is the phrase that KiDs Beach Club® uses to encourage kids to hang out with God for 10 minutes each day reading the Bible and in prayer. At the end of each club meeting, kids are given “Hang 10 Pages” to take home and use as a guide to spend time with God each day. 

The Hang 10 Summer Reading Program continues building and strengthening these habits of daily Bible reading and prayer. Just like last year, this year’s Summer Reading Program focuses on walking kids through the Bible, using stories selected from each Bible book. Each week for 14 weeks, beginning the Sunday before Memorial Day and continuing through the Sunday before Labor Day, the plan will provide daily Bible readings designed to help kids dig deep into the Bible.

Better yet, the Summer Reading Program isn’t just for kids! We are encouraging everyone to “Hang 10” this summer. Parents, teachers, volunteers and other Beach Club supporters can lead by example and spend at least 10 minutes each day with God through Bible reading and prayer.

We hope you will stay connected to KiDs Beach Club® during the summer. We would love to see pictures of you, your children (or your grandchildren) with their KBC Study Bible. Please follow us at @KiDsBeachClub on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and be sure to like, comment and share your own posts and photos by using the hashtag #Hang10SRP or #MyKBCBible.

Look for the Hang 10 Summer Reading Program in your inbox next week! OR find it now on our website at KiDsBeachClub.org/SRP.

The Hang 10 Summer Reading Program has been written for best use with the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible, which is given to every child in every Beach Club. You can still follow along with our program even if you don’t have the KBC Study Bible, but you won’t be able to read the bonus material contained in many of the lessons.

If you want your kids to have their own KBC Study Bible, it is available for only $20 in the Surf Shop.

Despite an April Saturday filled with steady rain and thunderstorms, a big crowd gathered at Texas Motor Speedway for the 2019 Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner for an evening of fun, inspiration and giving.

The bad weather cancelled the popular pre-event pace car rides for event sponsors and table hosts, dozens of KBC supporters were lined up and eager to flood the Grand Ballroom of The Speedway Club when the doors opened at 6 p.m. to get in on the popular Dine & Dash and Pick & Play games, which featured more than 200 restaurant gift cards and certificates for entertainment venues in the DFW area.

Prior to and during dinner, guests were entertained by music from Travis Muscatell, artist in residence at KBC partner, 121 Community Church in Grapevine, Texas. Following dinner, Grant Johnston, the morning meteorologist at NBC 5, showcased the impact of KiDs Beach Club since 2003 with nearly 20,000 volunteers ministering to more than 97,000 children and 8,730 of those kids making Jesus their forever friend in Beach Club. Those numbers brought hearty applause from the crowd which also cheered the fact that 60,901 Bibles had been handed out to children in public schools since 2003. Johnston then told some impactful stories of how God’s word had made a difference in the lives of several children who received Bibles from the previous benefit dinner in 2017.

Entertaining auctioneer Loyd Sawyers and his team of energetic screaming spotters led the crowd through a series of adventures to bid on which included a year’s worth of flower bouquets popular with the ladies in the audience, and a helicopter hog hunt which brought top dollar amounts from the men.

Mesquite ISD superintendent Dr. David Vroonland then delivered a powerful keynote speech starting with a shower of praise for almighty God.

“All praise and honor to our God and Father who created all,” he said. “Who created each of us, all of us, uniquely and wonderfully and gifted us to serve Him and serve His people.”

Vroonland’s message, which evoked a standing ovation, recounted his own childhood struggles of growing up in the foster care system until a family adopted him and raised him in the love of Christ helping him overcome adversity.

He encouraged the crowd that “each of us, while we share much in common, are uniquely created to have impact on the lives of others.” Vroonland said he shared his own story to build confidence with the crowd that when people in the audience give their gifts to the service of God’s people then those gifts will be used by God.

“Perhaps your gift will change the life of a child, your gift may be an expression of love felt by a child or your gift may help a child feel like they are valued and help them make a declaration of faith,” Vroonland said. “People like you made a difference in my life and I know you can do the same in the lives of my children and the many children like them. I promise you, your gift of love will make all the difference.”

Continuing the theme of being a person of influence was Dr. Jeff Thompson from the Concord Baptist Association in Fort Smith, Ark. He saw how KiDs Beach Club® was sharing the gospel with children in public schools every week and wanting that for the Fort Smith area, led the association to offer financial assistance to seven member churches resulting in seven Beach Clubs.

Thompson shared his vision.

“By 2023, I would hope and pray that 1,000 Baptist churches and 1,000 other evangelical churches step up to start a Beach Club, because we could easily have 2,000 clubs in Arkansas if we had the churches and people willing to serve and do it,” he said.

That type of vision and inspiration prompted the supporters to enthusiastically give to the Bibles for Beach Club Program which covers, but is not limited to, the purchase of the Bible and all costs associated with getting that Bible into the hands of the child including the storage, shipping, design and marketing.

Thanks to the generous outpouring of giving and sponsorship of the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner, KiDs Beach Club® raised nearly $200,000, and the following Monday, put in an order for 10,000 Bibles to be handed out to children in public schools for the 2019-20 school year.

Jack Terrell, the founder and president of KiDs Beach Club®, is grateful for everyone who participated in a memorable evening.

“A heartfelt thank you to every donor, sponsor and volunteer, who came through in spectacular fashion to contribute to making this night a huge success,” Terrell said. “Your gracious support Saturday allowed us to place our next order for 10,000 new KBC Explorer’s Study Bibles and it also allows us to take the initial steps toward our ambitious growth plan to minister to 100,000 children a week in 2,000 schools nationwide by January of 2025.

You are helping us make an eternal difference in the lives of thousands of children and their families. Thank you for believing in our ministry and helping us connect kids to Christ and put Bibles in their hands.”

We are so excited to announce four new additions to the KBC family. Dr. Frank Banfill joined KiDs Beach Club® as the executive vice president for strategy and organizational growth; Christy Hughes has a new position as remote club relations specialist; Keith Williams is a club relations specialist; while Anna Tromanhauser has joined our corporate staff as our ministry assistant.

Banfill will oversee the ministry’s development as an organization. He will help ensure that KiDs Beach Club® has the best team and strategies possible to reach our goals. Banfill comes to KiDs Beach Club® with more than 30 years of experience in ministry and business. His ministry experience includes serving as a senior pastor in Ohio, as the director of mobilization for the missions organization e3 Partners/I Am Second, and as the founder/president of MaxPoint Missions, a non-profit organization that trains leaders and transforms African villages out of extreme poverty. He co-founded a college in Africa and helped launch several nonprofits in the United States. He also trained leaders across six continents and helped plant churches in nine countries. 

Banfill’s business experience includes the founding and development of an international travel agency. Also, he worked for popular comedian Michael Jr., managing his career and building his expanding organization, Michael Jr. Productions. 

Banfill has a doctorate in global leadership and organizational management from Indiana Tech, as well as seminary and undergraduate degrees from Liberty University. He has authored two books, as well as numerous magazine articles, research papers, and blogs. Banfill’s community work includes serving on the Tarrant County College Trinity River Business Advisory Council and teaching adults at Cross City Church First Euless. He has been married to Beth for nearly 30 years and they have two adult children.

Hughes’ new role at KiDs Beach Club® will work with our partner churches and participating schools that are located in areas where do not have a local KBC representative. She will provide training, mentoring and resources to help these churches better impact their communities through Beach Clubs.

Hughes, who has been a member of the KBC staff since 2014, has been a volunteer with KiDs Beach Club® since 2009. She lives in Lakeland, Tenn., where her husband Terry is the senior associate pastor at Faith Baptist Church. Together they have one daughter Grace, who attends Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss. 

Williams is a native and lifelong Memphian. During his formative years, he was licensed to preach the gospel at the age of 15. During the last two decades, Williams has worked in Urban Youth Development with at-risk youth at Memphis Boys and Girls Club, Benjamin Hooks Job Corps, and former Memphis City Schools. Most recently as an education advocate and clergy organizer, he organized hundreds of congregations for transformational education reform serving as senior advisor for the Tennessee Pastors Action Coalition and field organizer of the Memphis Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 

As a licensed and ordained pastor, Williams believes in the future of all children and is unwavering in his belief that every child needs and deserves a relationship with Jesus Christ. He received his Bachelor of Religious Arts in Christian education in 2003. Currently, he is completing the Master of Divinity at Memphis Theological Seminary. Williams and his wife Lashonna do ministry together in a variety of contexts. He also is the interim pastor of the Greater Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church. They have two boys, Nicholas, a high school senior, and Marcus, a third grader. In addition, the Williams’ just had a sweet baby girl Anaya, born May 3. 

As ministry assistant, Tromanhauser supports our accounting, operations and donor development activities. She comes to KiDs Beach Club® with an extensive background in office and business management and has also worked for or volunteered with multiple parachurch and non-profit organizations during her career.

Tromanhauser graduated from Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. There, she also met her husband David, who is a Texas native. She and her husband moved back to Texas from Tennessee four years ago, and currently attend and are very involved at Cross City Church First Euless.

Tromanhauser is an avid sports fan, loves to do crosswords puzzles and plays board games and cards. Most of all, she enjoys traveling to be with her family, which includes five children and seven grandchildren. She also enjoys a great cup of coffee, while watching the news or visiting with friends. She is excited about this new adventure at KiDs Beach Club® and hopes to be able to contribute to its future growth and sharing the gospel to and putting Bibles in the hands and hearts of many more kids and their families.

Help us welcome to all four to KiDs Beach Club®!

If you attended the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner April 13 at Texas Motor Speedway, you may remember hearing a short message from John Kramp, the senior vice president for Bible distribution at HarperCollins Publishing.

That’s the parent company of Tommy Nelson, which partners with KiDs Beach Club® to produce the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible. He asked the crowd of nearly 450 attendees to fill in the blanks of Psalm 119:11. “Your word I have hidden in my ‘heart,’ that I might not ‘sin’ against You.”

“How is it that so many of you know that verse?” he asked. “I thought about that today.

“I’ll tell you why I know it,” Kramp said. “It’s because, along the way, I had access to the Bible. I had access not only to a Bible just in any form, but a Bible that I could understand. But more importantly, I had access to people who helped me hide that word in my heart.

“That’s what we’re doing tonight,” he told the crowd. “We’re trying to put God’s word in kids’ hands. We’re trying to give them a copy of the Bible they can understand and we’re supporting a ministry where people are helping children hide God’s word in their heart.”

That is what you are helping KiDs Beach Club® do in a growing list of nearly 200 Beach Clubs in 11 states. We’re connecting kids to Christ and putting Bibles in their hands! You are helping to enable nearly 2,700 volunteers to share the gospel and teach biblical character in our weekly, after-school Bible clubs.

“Being able to come into this school on a weekly basis and teach God’s word and teach who He is to these kids is an amazing and unique opportunity,” said Katherine Criswell, a Beach Club volunteer at Mohawk Elementary in Richardson, Texas.

Your support of our ministry allows us to give a Bible to every child in every Beach Club at no cost to our partnering churches or families. In most instances, those Bibles are the first Bible a child has ever received and in some instances, it’s the only Bible in their home.

During the 24 weeks of Beach Club, our trained volunteers use our Bible-driven curriculum, which is written specifically to point kids to their KBC Study Bible six times during every one-hour Beach Club. Each Bible story is assigned a character word and memory link (or Bible verse) that best compliments that story.

At the end of every Beach Club, children are given a take-home card with the memory verse on one side and the corresponding character word (and definition) on the other. Additionally, each child receives a “Hang 10” page that connects that week’s lesson to a daily plan allowing kids and their families to spend 10 minutes daily reading God’s word or in prayer.

When we fill our hearts and minds with God’s word, it helps foster spiritual growth and guards against a secular culture that often times seems overly negative and increasingly ungodly. It will guard against things that hurt us and displease God. Keeping His word inside our heart fills it with the wisdom of God and leaves little room for sin and other worldly wisdom. We each have a responsibility to guard our heart and to keep track of the things we hide inside it.

The KBC Explorer’s Study Bible presents God’s word in a way kids can understand and enjoy reading. Tommy Nelson is a fitting partner in helping KiDs Beach Club® produce and distribute Bibles that speak to kids on their level.

After getting her own KBC Study Bible, a girl in Beach Club at George Bush Elementary in Addison, Texas, said, “It’s cool because it has God’s words in it, and God’s words are in the Bible so we can read them all the time.”

Another child in the same Beach Club could not stop sharing how thankful he was to receive a Bible. “I can’t believe that I have my own book that came from God. I’m so happy. I thank God for it. Thank you!”

You are the reason why not only those two kids have a Bible, but why we are able to put a Bible into the hands of every child in every Beach Club. You are making it possible for kids to learn God’s way at this young age, providing a resource that will help and sustain them throughout their lives.

To God’s glory, we have been able to put more than 61,000 Bibles into the hands of children since 2003. We have already placed an order for another 10,000 Bibles thanks to contributions made at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner earlier this month.

You are making this possible and for that we celebrate!

John Kramp, HarperCollins Senior VP for Bible Distribution from KiDs Beach Club on Vimeo.