Blog

Volunteers from First Baptist Church, which sponsors the Beach Club at North Euless Elementary in Euless, Texas, are passionate about each child in club hearing and understanding the gospel.

Each week, club leader Stephanie Mounzika comes excited to see the students and excited share with them the love of Jesus.

Imagine her joy when a fourth-grade girl named Nicole came to her at club and said she had led a friend of hers to Christ!

On days when there is no Beach Club, Nicole attends the daily after-school program. She regularly talks about Jesus with her friends there and shares what He means to her.

“Whoever will talk to me I’ll just tell them about Jesus,” she said.

When talking with her friend Haley, Nicole discovered that Haley had never asked Jesus into her heart. Nicole then decided she would share the gospel with Haley the next day at recess.

Mounzika is faithful to tell the children how the gospel is not just for kids at Beach Club.

“This is not just for here inside of these walls, once you leave Beach Club you are to share the gospel and tell everyone that will listen about Jesus,” Mounzika said.

The North Euless Beach Club focuses on sharing the gospel and giving children the opportunity to make Jesus their Forever Friend, but they don’t stop there. Each week they teach kids another way to share the gospel with their peers.

Some weeks they use EvangeCubes to share the gospel. EvangeCubes are used by folding sections in a specific order to reveal different pictures. The cubes help kids learn to tell the story of Jesus step by step with each picture. Other weeks they use a hand game to explain the gospel, or the Beach Club A-B-Cs (in the KBC Study Bible between pages 626 and 627).

“There are so many ways to lead someone to Christ and anyone can do it,” Mounzika said.

Nicole decided she would bring her EvangeCube to school to show Haley and lead her in a prayer of salvation if she wanted to.

At recess the next day, Nicole told Haley the gospel with the EvangeCube.

“I told her the only way to heaven is through God, and you have to ask God into your heart first,” Nicole said.

It turns out Haley did want to ask God into her heart, and Nicole confidently led her in that prayer. Nicole then wrote down what she said so Haley could share then with her family, too.

“It’s not that hard to tell people about Jesus,” she said.

Nicole said that some of her friends get a little tired of her talking about Jesus, but she’s not afraid to talk about Him and tell others how they can be saved.

“Nicole is only in fourth grade and is already leading others to Christ,” Mounzika said. “We are so happy and excited to see what all God will do through Nicole. It's always a joy to see what she will share with us each week!”

In Isaiah 55, the prophet extends God’s great invitation to put our trust in Him who alone and only can satisfy our greatest needs and desires. The invitation comes to all who will trust and believe in His word and His character.

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. ²Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. ³Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.”
Isaiah 55:1-3 (NASB)

My prayer is that you have placed your confidence in the work of Jesus Christ and the power of His life, death and resurrection. If not, I would invite you along with the prophet, Isaiah, to stop and consider all that God offers to us through His Son and respond today. You have no greater priority than to respond to God’s great invitation. Time is short, and the consequences are eternal.

Prayerfully you have responded and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life. But, the question remains, “Are you still spending your money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?”

Throughout the New Testament, we see a pattern of believing Christians faithfully supporting the ministry of those who were taking the message to unbelievers throughout the world. It was a response of thanksgiving for their own salvation and a love for the unbelievers that prompted the believers to support the mission to reach the lost.

Would you consider asking the Lord if KiDs Beach Club® is a ministry that He would have you support? We continue to be successful through the faithfulness of our friends and supporters – our extended family – of KiDs Beach Club®.

First of all, we need your continued prayer. We have a real enemy and he works hard to hinder the work of the gospel. Secondly, financial support is mission critical for us to continue our work into and throughout the 2018-19 school year. Please pray about how God can use you to further the mission of taking the gospel into public schools across America.

Lastly, please don’t do ministry alone. We, as believers, all need to be about the business that Jesus commissioned us to in Matthew 28:19-20. Be an encourager to those around you to discover a way to advance the kingdom to a lost and dying world. Who can you introduce to KiDs Beach Club®, and who can join you in being a faithful supporter of this ministry in both prayer and financial support?

We have created a page on our website that contains a thorough explanation of how our ministry operates and how our ministry dollars are invested to both evangelize and disciple the children and families that we serve. Please share this information with those in your circle of influence who might be interested in the KiDs Beach Club® ministry.

For those who can financially support KiDs Beach Club®, there is a “Donate” button in the top corner of our website that takes you to a secure site where you can enter your gift – whether it is a single gift or a recurring gift – and some suggested areas of the ministry that may impassion your giving.

If you are setting up a recurring gift, please note that giving by e-check is the most efficient and convenient way to give consistently as additional processing fees are not incurred by the ministry.

Thank you for your prayerful consideration and we look forward to partnering with you again in 2018.

“Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you.”
2 Thessalonians 3:1 (NASB)

Paul McCollum
VP Development & School Relations
KiDs Beach Club®

The Beach Club at Sherrod Elementary in Arlington, Texas had the high honor of hosting Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson as the guest storyteller earlier this month. He inspired both children and volunteers with the powerful message he shared.

Club leader Susan Jiura enjoys inviting guest speakers who attend Pantego Bible Church, which partners with KiDs Beach Club® to sponsor the club, and various community leaders throughout the school year. She heard Chief Johnson speak a couple times before she was brave enough to invite him to speak at Beach Club.

Lt. Scott Brown of the Arlington Police Department already comes to speak at the Sherrod Beach Club as a special guest once a year. Chief Johnson had already been keeping up with the Sherrod Elementary Beach Club through Lt. Brown’s visits and updates. Chief Johnson was honored to be asked to come, and gladly accepted the invitation.

“Chief Johnson shared with our kids that he made many mistakes in his younger years, and he is thankful for people who cared about him, forgave him and helped him grow,” Jiura said in summary of Chief Johnson’s remarks. “He went on to say that the Bible teaches us about how God forgives us. As believers we are supposed to act like Jesus and forgive others.”

Based on Chief Johnson’s message, the volunteers were able to discuss the importance of prayer in life. Chief Johnson shared with the kids that they can pray to God any time. He likes praying while he jogs. He also gave a few examples of the things he prays about and thanks God for, like his family and being a police officer in Arlington.

"We represent light in the world as God's family. We are leaders. Others are watching us," Chief Johnson said. 

The kids, at first, were surprised and nervous to see a police officer visiting Beach Club. In the end they really enjoyed his talk. One fourth grade boy requested to have his picture taken with Chief Johnson. Jiura shared how many children don’t have a positive view of police officers these days. She hopes to help change that.

Even though Chief Johnson oversees a department of 649 officers, 195 professional staff and 12 reserve officers, he finds time to speak to kids in the community and share the love of Jesus to the kids at Beach Club.

Many churches were inspired to love their community a little extra in honor of Valentine's Day last month. Ridgeway Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., decided to celebrate an entire week expressing love around its community, and its favorite project centered around loving on the elementary school where they sponsor a Beach Club.

A group of Beach Club volunteers woke up in the very early hours on Valentine's Day to set up a coffee stand in front of their Beach Club school, Balmoral Ridgeway Elementary. These volunteers prepared enough coffee to give away to hundreds of parents and teachers and even decorated the tables with a fun Valentine theme. They served the coffee from 6:45 a.m. until the last parents came through to walk their children into school.

"I hope it lets the parents, students and faculty/staff know how much we care about all the students – not just those who are members of KBC,” Toni Davis, the club’s record keeper, said. “I hope the parents felt a sincere welcome for their families to visit Ridgeway Baptist Church. It’s important for those we encountered to have seeds planted that might grow into new Christians.”

Ridgeway Baptist Church sees the benefit of loving on the entire school. Right now, the Beach Club has only 18 children registered, but that smaller number does not deter the 15 volunteers from coming each week to invest in the whole school.

Along with the coffee they also gave out a card with their church information and offered a free copy of a book their pastor wrote about following Jesus. The church hoped to make many connections through its coffee stand; not only to grow their Beach Club, but also see more families connect to a local church.

This outreach by Ridgeway Baptist is exactly what KiDs Beach Club® was designed to do by mobilizing the church to go outside its walls in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of its community.

It’s a cycle that allows the church to make an impact in its community for the Kingdom, allows the church to share Jesus Christ in public schools to foster life change in the hearts of children and then connects that child and his or her family back to that partnering church.

Davis’ highlight of doing the coffee stand was getting to see the kids in Beach Club and their families as they were coming to school. She loved being able to wish the kids a great day at school, “and get hugs from them, too!”

When a child receives a KBC Explorer’s Study Bible on Great Treasure Day it gives that child something of their very own that they can treasure forever. But, as KiDs Beach Club® found out, the gift of a KBC Study Bible can also give the parent of a child overwhelming peace during a devastating time.

In more ways than one, overwhelming peace is exactly what was given to a single mother of two little girls, Graceann and Julie, who both attended the Beach Club at Lakeview Elementary School in Gun Barrel City, Texas.

It is the goal for every child in KiDs Beach Club® to take home what they learn each week in club and to share it with their family. The life change in the hearts of the children should affect the whole family, and it will hopefully lead them all to connect to a church family if they are not already.

Grace and Julie’s mother was out driving one day when she felt a nudge to stop by First Baptist Church Gun Barrel City, the partnering church of her girls’ Beach Club.  After talking awhile with a church leader there, she accepted Jesus as her Savior! Because her girls had taken home what they learned in Beach Club their mother came to know Jesus, gaining the peace of where she will spend her eternity.

This past August, while the family was together on vacation, Graceann tragically died. Following her death, Grace’s mother found the KBC Bible her daughter was given in Beach Club on Great Treasure Day.

On the front page of her KBC Study Bible, Graceann had written the date she had asked Jesus to be her Forever Friend.

According to Melissa Compoc, the club leader at Lakeview Elementary, Graceann had not told her leaders at Beach Club of her decision to make Jesus her Forever Friend. Because of that decision, and because she took time to write that in the front of her KBC Bible, her family and leaders now have peace that they will see Graceann again in Glory!

Compoc shared this story during Leadership Luau, a training event for Beach Club volunteers. In her nervous preparation, the Lord put a verse on her mind.

“I know it’s twisted up the way it came into my mind,” she said. “But I was thinking, through faith by grace, we’re saved. It’s through grace by faith, but just think about Grace’s life.”

After seeds being planted by Graceann from what she learned in Beach Club, her mother accepted Christ through faith. This happened only a couple months before her daughter’s death. She now has peace that she will see her oldest daughter again one day. She is so thankful to the leaders, and to the Lord for KiDs Beach Club® for being a part of her daughter’s life.

Thank you for your support in making sure every sure every child is given a Bible in KiDs Beach Club®. Your donations are proving to eternally impact the children they are given to, as well as their families. Please pray for the family and friends of Grace as they continue to walk through this difficult time.

Jack Terrell, the president and founder of KiDs Beach Club®, delivered a powerful message at two of the three Leadership Luau: Spring Training events designed to encourage volunteers. It’s a strategy he uses to lift up others and take them to a higher level.

Terrell opened his talk with a short story from his childhood. His family owned a couple businesses in town where he helped out when he was young. One of those businesses was a gas station in near proximity to a few local bars. People coming over from the bars would often make a mess in their bathrooms and Terrell’s father wouldn’t allow anyone to clean it up except Terrell. Because of the experience, Terrell knew from an early age he didn’t want anything to do with alcohol, because of the byproduct.

“Sometimes people don’t want to have anything to do with us because they’ve seen the byproduct,” Terrell said about how the world mistakenly labels Christians.

“I believe what Father is wanting us to do is to set the appropriate example,” he continued. “The world wants to see that joy!”

Terrell encouraged each listener to practice their faith and lift up others.

To create a visual, Terrell talked about the glass half empty against the glass half full example. Your perception of the glass will determine the outcome of how you act. As Christians, we should lean toward choosing joy and rejoice in the Lord in light of any situation, as it says in Philippians 4:4-9.

In order to do this there’s got to be a plan. Terrell uses this one: commit, know, initiate and understand.

For commit, Terrell said to, “commit to daily encouragement.” Rather have a mental commitment to love on people. Know says to, “know the difference that separates hurting people and helping people.” People need to know there’s a difference between the two, and approach them in different manners if they are hurting or healthy. During Beach Club, this means not ignoring bad behavior in children, but instead, loving them through it.

“We need to be willing to work differently in different environments,” Terrell said.

For initiate, you “initiate the positive in a negative environment.” As Christians, we need to be the ones to initiate relationships, and we need to do it from a positive perspective, not a negative perspective. The last, understand, is to “understand life is not a dress rehearsal.

“You’re on stage; it starts the moment you wake up. People are watching to see how you react. For the kids in Beach Club, they are watching you to see if you are really who you say you are.

“If you don’t ‘commit,’ you can’t act on the ‘know.’ If you don’t ‘know’ you can’t ‘initiate.’ If you don’t ‘initiate,’ you will never ‘understand.’ These four things build on each other and work together to showing Jesus to those around you, and the children who attend Beach Club.

“When you see people, whether you know them or not, say a good word unto the Lord,” Terrell said.

Watch Terrell’s full message from the Leadership Luau: Spring Training in Houston below: