Blog

“I’m so excited for Beach Club today,” Madyson, a first grader at Rutherford Elementary School in Mesquite, Texas, said when she arrived at Beach Club earlier this month.

Why? It was Great Treasure Day.

“We get Bibles and get to take them home and we also get to pray to God!” she exclaimed with great anticipation.

The buildup for Great Treasure Day begins the first day our after-school Bible clubs begin meeting. Great Treasure Day is the day KiDs Beach Club® hands out a KBC Explorer’s Study Bible to every student in every Beach Club who has not yet received one.

God’s word is the greatest treasure and it is the centerpiece of Beach Club. The name itself was inspired from Psalm 119:162, which reads, “I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure.” Every child in Beach Club learns the verse the day they receive their Bible.

“I explained to them today, this is (from) God, your heavenly Father, who thinks you’re the most awesome thing He’s ever created, and he wrote you this letter that’s the Bible,” said Scott Morgan, a Surf Team leader at Rhea Intermediate School in Forney, Texas. “I don’t think a lot of kids understood that. They thought it was just a book with words in it. To see their faces smiles when they got the Bible was so awesome.”

Holly Grubbs, the principal at Rutherford, agreed. She praised the work Beach Club volunteers are doing at her school.

“We appreciate how you come in every week and pour into the hearts of our children who we see every day,” Grubbs said. “Today was Great Treasure Day at Rutherford and every child received a Bible. There is nothing more heartwarming than watching the smiles on these precious children’s faces.”

Your continued support of KiDs Beach Club® allows every student to have their very own copy of God’s word to read, study, share and grow from, which is making a daily and eternal impact on their lives. The Bible as a moral standard and the plumb line for character education. Good character starts from a transformed heart. God’s own perfect character is revealed in His word. When every child has a Bible of their own, they are better equipped to learn God’s word and live God’s way.

“It’s important for kids to be in God’s word because God speaks to them through His word,” Rhoda Golden, a volunteer at Rhea Intermediate, said. “It’s not second hand. When they can get into the word, they can read it and then the Holy Spirit will work within them as they’re reading just as He does for adults.”

The same day Reagan received her KBC Explorer’s Study Bible at Rhea Intermediate, she asked Jesus to be her “Forever Friend.” Angela Morgan, Scott’s wife, is also a volunteer in Beach Club and had the privilege of leading Reagan to Christ.

She explained to Reagan, “‘Now you can get into that Bible and read about God and get to know Him better; you get to see how much He loves you.’ She was so excited,” but she began to tear up and confessed that her family doesn’t attend church because they are busy with softball tournaments on the weekends.

“I told her not to worry; that she can pray to God anywhere,” Angela said. “You can open that Bible we just gave you; that’s all you need.”

“I was able to share with her that I was saved in the fifth grade and I didn’t have a family to take me to church and that’s what I told her, ‘don’t lose hope, stay in that word and God will provide a way.’”

KiDs Beach Club® is a solution for churches, like First Baptist Forney, which sponsors the Beach Clubs at Rhea and Smith intermediate schools, to go outside the walls of its church to reach unchurched children with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“I think (Beach Club) provides an opportunity for some kids,” Angela said. “Maybe their parents don’t have the time or make the time to take them to church, but here we are. All they have to do is stay after (school). They get a great opportunity to be in the word, to worship, to have fun playing games and just to be with other believers and grow in that way.”

GTD at Rhea Intermediate from KiDs Beach Club on Vimeo.

The little girl in this picture is Whitley. She is being raised by her grandmother. When she came into Beach Club on Great Treasure Day at Buckley-Carpenter Elementary School in Somerville, Tenn., she was in awe of the table filled with Bibles.

She told Ellen, a volunteer in the club, that she really hoped she would “win” one of those special books.

Later, she was so excited to receive her own KBC Explorer's Study Bible!

That evening, her grandmother messaged Jason Almond, the church coordinator for FBC Somerville, who partners with KiDs Beach Club to operate the club, to say, “Whitley keeps talking about how she won her very own Bible at KBC.”

When he sent the photo to KiDs Beach Club, Jason wrote, “This little girl in particular is close to making a decision for Christ. Having her own copy of the Word will certainly be another thing that brings her one step closer to that decision.

“I'm so excited for what the Lord is doing!”

Summer may be over, but your kids get to hang out at the Beach all year long – at least if they’re in Beach Club. That’s where kids hang out and find treasure; specifically, the greatest treasure – God’s word. Every student in every Beach Club gets a Bible of his or her very own.

KiDs Beach Club® is an innovative ministry established to mobilize local churches to go outside their walls in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of their communities. Our vision is to provide every third- through sixth-grade boy and girl a Jesus experience within the culture of his or her public school. Principals, teachers and even superintendents are telling us that they are seeing a change in the culture of the schools that have a Beach Club.

This year, we are in a record 191 schools, sponsored by 156 church partners in 11 states. The local church in your community cares about you and your family enough to invest its time and energy by partnering with KiDs Beach Club® in your neighborhood public school.

KiDs Beach Club® partners with local churches in order to:

• Impact Communities for the Kingdom
• Share Christ in Public School
• Foster Life Change in the Hearts of Children
• Connect Families to a Church Family

We have reached some significant milestones already this year. Since our ministry began in 2003, more than 105,000 kids have signed up for Beach Club, where nearly 22,000 volunteers have dedicated themselves to showing children the love of Christ every week in our public schools. To God’s glory, nearly 9,000 children have come to make a profession of faith to have a relationship with Jesus Christ while in Beach Club.

Since 2003, KiDs Beach Club® has handed out Bibles to 61,549 children in public schools. In 2015, we started Great Treasure Day to give a KBC Explorer’s Study Bible to every child in every Beach Club and since then, more than 40,500 Bibles have been distributed to kids at no cost to them, their parents or our partnering churches. We have been blessed by group of donors who passionately believe in getting Bibles into the hands of children and into their homes.

By connecting kids to Christ and putting Bibles in their hands, KiDs Beach Club® makes it possible for your local public school and your local church to work together in supporting kids and families like yours.

To find out which church partners with KiDs Beach Club® to sponsor the club at your child’s school, please visit kidsbeachclub.org/find-a-club. If your family does not already have a church home, we hope you’ll consider attending the church that sponsors your child’s Beach Club.

At the same link, you also can find the dates your child’s Beach Club meets, the date of Great Treasure Day, who to contact with questions and even a link to become a volunteer in your child’s Beach Club. We have parents who volunteer in our clubs and you’re welcome to attend Beach Club any time. We just ask that you reach out to the club leader ahead of time so he or she can provide your name to the school.

If you have any questions about Beach Club, please check out our website at kidsbeachclub.org. We also hope you will connect and engage with us on social media. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @KiDsBeachClub. We’re always looking for images and video of your kids in Beach Club or with their KBC Study Bible, so we hope you’ll share those with us.

We pray we are able to make a positive impact in your child’s life and to be a tremendous blessing to you and your family.

Great Treasure Day, the day every child in every Beach Club receives his or her own KBC Explorer’s Study Bible, is coming to your club very soon. Actually, a small number of clubs have already had Great Treasure Day. This fall, Great Treasure Day will take place in a record 191 Beach Clubs. This fall, it’s highly likely we will hand out the 65,000th Bible since our ministry began in 2003.

God’s word is the greatest treasure anyone could ever find, and it is the foundation on which KiDs Beach Club® is built. We want every child to have their very own KBC Explorer’s Study Bible to read, study, share and grow from, making a daily and eternal impact on their lives. This is a fun and exciting day for all involved.

Great Treasure Day is celebrated differently by every Beach Club and usually takes place during the fifth club meeting each year. Most of those will fall in the month of October though some Beach Clubs will celebrate their Great Treasure Day in November. 

Bibles are provided to our partnering churches at no additional cost to them. This is because of our many great Bibles for Beach Club donors, whether they give at the annual Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner, on North Texas Giving Day as a monthly Bible donor or at the end of the year.

We want to encourage our volunteers to take photos and videos during their Great Treasure Day and to share them with us at KiDs Beach Club®. And when your children bring those Bibles into your home, we want to hear what getting it means to your kids and what it means to you when your child receives a Bible.

Please share your pictures, videos and stories on social media by using the hashtags #KiDsBeachClub and #GreatTreasureDay. We hope you’ll follow us and engage with us in our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram communities.

If social media isn’t your thing, you can email us anytime at news@kbcmail.org so that we can communicate it on our blog or in the monthly Surf Report e-newsletter.

To see when Great Treasure Day will be held in your child’s Beach Club, visit that club’s page on our website, which can be found by clicking kidsbeachclub.org/find-a-club.

If you would like to support our Bibles for Beach Club Program, click here or text the word “Bibles” to 444-999.

Thank you to everyone who participated in North Texas Giving Day last Thursday, September 19! Your support is helping fight the spiritual battle that going on in our communities. Your gifts are helping our organization shine the Light of Jesus Christ in public schools.

Our volunteers shine the Light and then the students in our after-school Bible clubs are shining that Light in their school, at home and in their community. Your gift is making an eternal difference in the lives impacted weekly in Beach Clubs across the country.

You helped us raise nearly $55,000, easily surpassing our $40,000 goal and last year’s total of almost $37,500. Several of you made gifts on the North Texas Giving Day website, but others donated through our website, mailed in checks or gave using our new text-to-give technology. Of the 123 people who made a gift on North Texas Giving Day, 60 were first-time donors.

Your gifts allow our volunteers to shine the Light of Christ in public schools by sharing the gospel with kids, teaching them biblical character and providing them with their very own copy of God's word, which often times is their very first Bible. In some instances, it's the first Bible in a child's home.

We had a full slate of activities on North Texas Giving Day that started at 4:30 a.m. with a small group representing KiDs Beach Club® at South Victory outside the WFAA-TV studios in downtown Dallas and ended after 10 p.m. when Dr. Frank Banfill, our executive vice president for strategy and organizational growth, wrapped up an appearance on a local radio station. Watch Now!

If you were in the DFW Metroplex and tuned in to News 8 Daybreak on WFAA-TV that morning, you probably saw our motley crew wearing their bright orange KBC leadership t-shirts holding our new “KiDs Beach Club” and palm tree signs. Jack Terrell, our founder and president, talked about the armor of God and how Beach Club volunteers are helping students in public school suit up to fight the spiritual battle between darkness and light that is going on in our neighborhoods and in culture at large.

Throughout the day, we shared other videos and went live on Facebook on multiple occasions. One video highlighted volunteers from First Baptist Church Richardson who enjoy taking “church” into the community. Kathy Porter, a former educator and now the club leader at Northrich, said the gospel is the Light that can change a life.

Your generosity is appreciated. In times like these, the work you're helping us do is more important than ever. Your generosity is helping us share the Light of Christ in public schools, which is making an impact on the next generation. The impact is eternal. Thank you!

If you did not have a chance to make a gift on North Texas Giving Day, please know you can support us anytime at kidsbeachclub.org/give or by texting the word “Bibles” to 444-999.

Children who attend Beach Club already bring their Bible to school on the day their club meets, but KiDs Beach Club® is encouraging everyone to bring their Bible with them to school another special day; Bring Your Bible to School Day is Thursday, October 3. 

Bring Your Bible to School Day is an annual, nationwide, religious-freedom initiative for students from elementary school all the way up to college level. It was created by Focus on the Family to equip and empower Christian students to understand their religious freedoms and express their biblical beliefs in a way that shows the love of Jesus.

Participation in Bring Your Bible to School Day is student organized and initiated, as well as protected under both First Amendment and Equal Access rights. These are the same rights that allow KiDs Beach Club® to be held on public school campuses.

In recent years, you may have noticed the increase in news headlines about students being told they can’t engage in simple religious-freedom activities, such as reading their Bible personally during free time or praying during lunch. That’s why it’s so important to come alongside our students and encourage them that they do still have religious-freedoms protected under the United States Constitution – and they don’t have to be ashamed of or hide their deeply held religious beliefs.

Students in Beach Club know they can have their Bible at school and read it during quiet time. They enjoy reading it before school, in the library, hallway, cafeteria and even together on the playground.

They are taught how to share their faith and pray with their classmates. These religious freedoms are protected. 

Read More: Here's How You Can Make Jesus Cool at School!

On Bring Your Bible to School Day, thousands of students across the country will take the lead on their campuses to celebrate religious freedom and share God’s hope with peers by taking a simple action: Bringing their Bible to school!

We hope all Beach Club kids will participate and we encourage you to your KBC Study Bible with you to school that day. If you can take a picture of your child with his or her KBC Bible at school and share it with us using the hashtags #BringYourKBCBible and #MyKBCBible we would love to see those pictures!

To learn more about what you can do to support the students’ efforts and help them get the word out, please visit bringyourbible.org. They have resources for parents and churches to help you share the event with your students. They also have videos of students just like yours sharing their story of bringing their Bible to school. They even have explanations about myth vs. fact regarding students’ legal rights. 

I Timothy 4:12 says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” And that’s what the Bring Your Bible website seeks to equip students to do.

Parental support for students participating in Bring Your Bible to School Day will be absolutely key since it does require courage in this culture of spiritual relativism to acknowledge the existence of redemptive truth. So, we hope you will surround your student participant with prayer and encouragement as they participate in the event.