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Ronni Holley has been a KBC volunteer for several years at the Beach Club at Hurst Hills Elementary School, which is sponsored by North Point Baptist Church in Hurst, Texas. After contemplating quitting because of some struggles her first year as a volunteer, Holley is rejoicing in the victories she has seen since then because of the decision to continue volunteering!

“I want to share what is on my heart in hopes of encouraging you,” Holley said.

In her first year as a volunteer Ronni Holley felt discouraged. It was difficult for her to show up and serve when she felt like she wasn’t seeing the fruit of her labor. She prayed during the summer, asking God if she was supposed to continue volunteering in Beach Club. Despite her hard start, she came back for a second year ready to see God’s hand moving and working in the children.

“I was not disappointed!” Holley said. For starters, she saw the now sixth-grade boys who could not behave as fifth graders, turn into leaders.

“They showed the younger kids that it's cool to praise God, worship God, be in God's presence, even when you're a sixth grader,” she said.

One special moment she remembers is sitting down to help a little boy named RJ find the right page in his KiDs Beach Club® Bible during the large group story. He had a bookmark in his Bible and Holley took it out so that when they found the page she could mark it. Once RJ realized his bookmark had been taken out, he became upset. Unbeknownst to Holley, RJ had specifically marked that page because he had been reading his Bible on his own.

Holley apologized as RJ quickly turned to the table of contents. He had circled the book of Luke and next to it he had written the page number 1106. RJ turned to that page where at the bottom was a “Digging In” section. He had circled the words “Growing Up God’s Way.” RJ pointed to it and smiled at Holley before placing his bookmark back between the pages.

Later that same month, RJ made a profession of faith!

Holley is also seeing Beach Club impact her own children. Her now 9-year-old twins have been coming to club since they were in kindergarten, while Holley served. This school year is the first year they have had friends in club because they are now in third grade. The two have made Beach Club their mission field and invited evert kid in their class. Thanks to their excitement and invitations, the third-grade group is the largest group in the Beach Club at Hurst Hills.

“I am grateful, and blessed to be a part of this Beach Club!” Holley said.

Volunteers, have you had a season where you felt like you weren’t seeing the fruit of your labor volunteering in Beach Club? Have you since seen Jesus move in the lives of the kids in you club? Parents, have your kids decided to use KiDs Beach Club® as a way to tell their friends about Jesus? We want to hear your stories! Use #MyKBCStory in your social media posts or email us at news@kbcmail.org.

KiDs Beach Club® would like to welcome three individuals who have joined the ministry in the new year. Two people, Kelly Golden and Fray Webster join the KBC board of directors, while Pattie Rowland has joined KiDs Beach Club® as an independent area specialist.

Golden is the compliance director with Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow, Inc. which specializes in the death care industry. Previously a senior examiner with the Texas Department of Banking and an assistant vice president at several bank holding companies, Golden examined funeral homes, cemeteries, insurance companies and performed various entity loan reviews.

Golden believes knowing Christ and His salvation is vital to understanding the huge difference between facing death and having eternal life. Always up for a challenge, Golden loves adventures and learning new tasks to see how God will use her experiences in serving others.

She holds a bachelors of business administration in finance from Texas A&M University and attends First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas, where she has served on budget/finance, personnel and other task force committees at the church, and was a director in the singles ministry. Currently, she is serving on the personnel committee and in the worship ministry.

Webster, who returns to the board of directors after a year away, is an entrepreneur who has spent the past 34 years serving the DFW Metroplex in the construction industry. He is the founder of Bramata Company LLC, a family owned general contracting firm that specializes in Commercial Land Development and the construction of dental, medical and professional offices. 

Webster and his wife, Nancy, have raised three children, Tara, Brad and Mark. He considers his marriage of 36 years, their children and grandchildren as his greatest blessings. As a family, they joined First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas in 1984 and have served in the preschool, children’s, youth and adult ministries at the church. He was ordained as a deacon at First Euless in 2000.

Webster also serves on the board of National Prayer Room Ministry and previously served several years on the President’s Advisory Council at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Webster accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior at the age of 19 and knew that he had become a new creation in Christ. He is passionate about building a legacy of faith and dedication for his children and grandchildren. Fray’s desire is for KiDs Beach Club® to build its legacy as it shares the love of Christ with children and their families.

As an independent area specialist, Rowland will be leading KBC expansion efforts in East Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.

Rowland has previously been a volunteer with KiDs Beach Club® in Bartlett, Tenn., serving in Beach Clubs for two and a half years as a surf team leader at Bon Lin Elementary and later as the club leader at Bartlett Elementary.

She and her husband Jim relocated to Erwin, Tenn. and currently attend Ninth Street Baptist Church. She is involved with the church’s outreach ministry and also teaches Mission Friends.

The couple has four grown children. Rowland enjoys playing tennis, bird watching, hiking, wildlife photography, raising butterflies and gardening.

For the Beach Club at Ocean Springs Upper Elementary in Ocean Springs, Miss., Great Treasure Day was especially exciting. Earlier this month, the club’s new church sponsor, St. Paul United Methodist Church received its shipment of KBC Explorer’s Study Bibles to hand out to 75 children, each Bible wrapped in shiny Christmas paper.

It wasn’t the first time that kids had received Bibles in that school. Ocean Springs previously had a Beach Club, but it ended in the spring semester of 2016 when the partnering church experienced leadership changes and decided not to conduct Beach Club during the 2016-17 school year.

In an elementary school of roughly 1,400 fourth through sixth graders and with many other after-school club options, not having Beach Club left a void and not just with the kids, with the school’s administration as well.

Jon Wilson, the vice principal at the school, said the kids kept coming up to him asking why they weren’t having Beach Club that year. The kids who had been attending that club at Ocean Springs Upper really wanted it back. He also noticed that without a Beach Club at the school, the culture was changing in a negative way so he went to work to try to get Beach Club back.

Wilson picked up the phone and started out calling many churches in the area to ask if they would consider sponsoring the club for the upcoming year and when St. Paul United Methodist learned what Beach Club was all about, church leaders jumped at the chance to get a club going again this fall.

St. Paul United Methodist was excited to be part of the growing number of churches who are using KBC as a tool to go outside the walls of their church to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of their community. Specifically, KiDs Beach Club® enables churches to give boys and girls a Jesus experience within the culture of their public school.

By the fifth week of club, Ocean Springs Upper had nearly 80 kids in attendance and gave away 75 new Bibles on Great Treasure Day.

Marina, now in sixth grade, received a KBC Bible when she was in fourth grade and brought hers on Great Treasure Day while others were receiving their own Bible for the very first time.

“I am happy to have Beach Club back because I really missed it,” Marina said. “It really helps me learn more about God.”

Anna, in her first year in Beach Club, received her very first Bible on Great Treasure Day and it has created a special opportunity at home. Her favorite part of getting her new Bible is, “reading it with my mom,” she replied

Your commitment to our Bibles for Beach Club program is putting Bibles in the hands of every child in every one of our 166 Beach Clubs and it is teaching kids character through scripture which is resulting in a change of culture in our schools by, fostering life change in the hearts of children and their families.

Stories like this couldn’t be possible without your generous donations to KiDs Beach Club®. Together we’re connecting kids to Christ and putting Bibles in their hands.

In the spirit of Christmas and from the file of “Children say the darndest things,” we want to tell you about what children at two Beach Clubs near Memphis, Tenn. put under the Christmas tree recently.

Volunteers asked the children in to write down something they would give to Jesus for Christmas. Their answers were written on notecards, each one with a bow and were placed under a Christmas tree.

Ranging from humorous and childlike, to serious and kind, we hope you enjoy reading a few of their answers!

• I want to give him my heart
• My gift to God is my heart and my love
• I want to give Jesus my love and that it is true he died for the cross
• I want to give God all of my “praiar”
• An XBox 1
• A star of love
• If I could give Jesus something I would give him my life
• I’d give Jesus a bible
• My gift to Jesus is my everything
• I would give him worship
• “Nintindo Swich”
• A car to drive and it’s going to be a “lambo”
• My heart, love, and talent
• Giving something to someone that needs it
• I would give to Jesus worship, praise, glory
• I would give more of my time to him in prayer
• I would give him a sign that says, “Thank you Jesus”
• I would give Jesus my Beat Boxing “talant”
• I would give him love
  
  

Merry Christmas!

As we’ve reached the final month of the year, the holiday giving season has arrived. We give thanks to God for His provision in our lives and all of the physical blessings He has provided for us. Gift giving at Christmas dates back more than 2000 years ago.

Remember the time that the Magi recognized Jesus, not as a baby, but as our Messiah. Their joyful response was to offer gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh as an act of worship. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, the Bible mentions giving thanks dozens of times. The New Testament Greek word for giving thanks, eucharisteó, means that “God’s grace works well for our eternal gain and His Glory and we are thankful for God’s good grace.”

This type of giving isn’t a business transaction, it’s a human connection with God.

Why do you give?

• Is it because someone asked you and you want to assist them?
• Is it because you emotionally connect to someone’s story and want to change the life of others?
• Is it because you want to leave a legacy and support those who share your values and beliefs?
• Is it because you want to give back to show God you are thankful for His good grace?
  
  

At KiDs Beach Club®, our way of giving thanks to God is to be obedient to His calling to share the gospel in public schools so that unchurched children can hear about Him for the first time and accept Jesus as their Forever Friend. For churched children, KiDs Beach Club® helps provide an assurance for the time they put their trust in Jesus as their savior and helps provide a way for them to share that faith with friends at school.

For more than a decade, thousands of men and women, like you, have come along side us with a financial gift as a way of thanking God for His grace and blessings in their lives. This financial support has helped us provide more than 50,000 Bibles to children in public schools and for many, it’s the first Bible in their homes. That’s why WBAP Radio talk-show host Chris Krok gives to KBC.

“It’s important because many children are in families that are lost, don’t have a Bible and don’t have a barometer for anything. How many times have you heard a person say on radio and TV, ‘Well when they took God out of the schools…’ well that’s a lie. KBC is putting God into the schools with this program, how could you not give!”

Giving Bibles to every child in every Beach Club is a major reason that Gary and Michele Cramer, owners of Let It Shine Boutique in Hurst, Texas, are long-time financial supporters.

“I think it’s amazing that they can take Bibles and Jesus into public schools,” said Gary, who has been a donor for more than a decade. “It’s an incredible thing and they open up doors that are amazing.”

Gary’s wife, Michele agrees.

“There are a lot of ministries that we’ve been exposed to but KiDs Beach Club® stole our heart from the very beginning because we can see their heart. Anytime you’re around the people from KiDs Beach Club® you can see Jesus.”

Please go to KiDsBeachClub.org/give to hear more stories from these and more of our amazing donors and please consider joining them by providing a financial gift to support our ministry which God birthed and continues direct and bless.

We're also celebrating the many great stories you've helped us accomplish in 2017. To read some of those stories, visit KiDsBeachClub.org/2017. Please know that none of these stories could be possible without your financial support.

Now that the season of thankfulness and gratitude is upon us, our thoughts turn to all that we are thankful for. Family, friends, health and food are often high on everyone’s list. At the Beach Club at Ridgeway Balmoral Elementary in Memphis, Tenn., church coordinator Jason Almond decided to ask children what they were thankful for, but he was not prepared for some of their answers.

Almond and the rest of the volunteers were ready and excited for the Thanksgiving lesson at their Beach Club, sponsored by Ridgeway Baptist Church. Once they reached the point in the lesson where they began to ask what the children were thankful for, Almond said, “These kids surprised me, and brought all the leaders to a point of tears almost.”

Some of the kids shared that they were thankful for friends, parents, grandparents, teachers and other things you might expect a child to say. Almond remembers going through their responses and not really thinking too much about it.

That is, until the children started sharing how they were thankful for them, the volunteers.

Almond recalls one child saying, “We are thankful for you guys.” The children all then added on saying, “We can count on y’all to be here every week,” and “We look forward to this every week.”

The volunteers were caught off guard that the children would think of them and remember to list them as one of the things they are thankful for in Beach Club.

This attitude of love from the children to their Beach Club leaders continued all year. For another lesson, the children were prompted to share with everyone who they knew they could trust. One little boy raised his hand with such excitement and pleaded to be called on. Almond was expecting his answer to be his family, a firefighter or a police officer.

Instead the boy said, “We know that we can trust y’all. You’re here every week, you’re always there, we know that we can trust you.”

It was another touching surprise for the volunteers at Balmoral Ridgeway Elementary. “I didn’t realize the impact that we were having on these kids’ lives,” Almond said.

Volunteers, you are indeed impacting these kids’ lives for good. KiDs Beach Club® could not make Jesus cool at school without the time every volunteer invests in loving these kids and sharing Jesus with them. KiDs Beach Club® is so thankful for you!