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First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas has enjoyed sponsoring a Beach Club at Meadow Creek Elementary in Bedford, Texas for several years. This year, the volunteers decided they wanted to add another unique element to their club.

Club leader Carla Moody started leading once-a-month service projects this school year. These projects let the Beach Club volunteers not only teach the children about character during club, but they also allow the kids to see how to live out with character.

Their most recent project was creating bags filled with food, hygiene products and other essentials for the children to take home and give away to someone in need. The volunteers encouraged them to keep the bags in the car with them so they could be ready to give it away when they saw someone in need.

This gave Paul Tinguely the opportunity to share with the kids that “when you make Jesus your Forever Friend, He will speak to your heart! And Jesus will help you know who you should give your bag to!”

The children were given empty bags, instructed to visit each “filling station,” and told grab one item at each station. There were socks, snacks, deodorant, toothbrushes, water bottles, tissues, chap stick and a local hotel even donated all kinds of soap for the occasion. Once the bags were created, the kids divided back into their surf teams.

One little girl immediately grabbed her memory link card and put it in the bag she had just assembled. Surf team leader Nora Solis told her she needed to have that card for what they going to do next as a surf team. The little girl was adamant to Solis that her memory link card should go into her bag, “So they can learn about God!”

Each girl then wanted to add a note with the memory link for their bags, too. Then, as they went through their prayer requests, most girls wrote down prayers for who would receive their bag. One of the younger girls specifically wrote, “God ples Help the Homlis (God, please Help the Homeless).”

It’s important to the volunteers to do these projects because, “I don’t think these kids get it anywhere else,” surf team leader Doug Brown said. Moody added, “It’s important to give kids ideas and show them how we serve others.”

The children were encouraged once they found someone to give their bag to, to make another with their parents to keep blessing others. They were excited to assemble the bags together with their friends and even more excited to find someone to give their bags to.

“Even if you’re small you still have the ability to make the community better,” Moody told them before they did the project. “If you feel like what you’re doing is small, if it is done in His name, it’s big.”

Rachael Wilson has been a faithful surf team leader for the past four years at the Beach Club at Wilson Elementary School in Coppell, Texas, which is sponsored by Coppell Bible Fellowship.

Two years ago, she was assigned a surf team of rowdy third-grade boys. Having a military background, the club leader thought Wilson would be the best fit to match their high amount of energy. Wilson ended up teaching the boys different phrases and practices that she used in the military to encourage them to pay attention and listen while in club. The boys loved it and caught on quickly.

That group of third grade boys turned their rambunctiousness into a passionate energy for the Lord! They soon grew into the largest surf team at Wilson Elementary. Wilson said they are a special group.

“They invite their friends and really keep track of each other to make sure they are at club,” she said.

Coppell Bible Fellowship organizes their Beach Club so that the fifth-grade boys each year help lead worship. They stand up front to do the motions and sing, as examples to the rest of the kids. When Wilson’s surf team of boys were in fourth grade, they had a deep desire to help lead worship. The fifth-grade boys at the time didn’t mind letting the fourth-grade boys take their privilege, because the fourth graders cared so much about doing it.

Each boy is special to her in different ways.

“Thomas is the Bible encyclopedia of the group. He knows more detail of the Bible stories and I often ask him if there’s any more facts he wants to add,” Wilson said. “Noah accepted Christ at club and prays with boldness. Gonzalo puts things in little parables he relates to, to understand what we are talking about.”

Wilson’s favorite thing about volunteering is when the kids explain back what the lesson and the scriptures mean to them. She loves hearing how they can apply it to their lives and how they want to put it into action.

Wilson got to present them all with their very own KBC Explorer’s Study Bible when they were in third grade. She was able to explain to them how the Bible is like our owner’s manual. Like for a car, for instance, “the owner’s manual tells you how to operate the vehicle and keep problems from happening. The Bible is in the same way, an owner’s manual for life, showing how to live right and keep problems from happening. They were amazed they truly had a treasure!” she said.

“You can go through your day and feel like you didn’t do anything important,” Wilson said. “I look forward to those times solely talking about God and how He is acting in those boys’ lives.”

Wilson sent in her KBC Story through Instagram. Thank you for your willingness to serve and sharing your story with KiDs Beach Club®.

Hey volunteers, were you assigned a rambunctious group of kids at the start of club, and like Wilson, got to see God move in them at Beach Club? Or are you the Beach Club worship leader and had an extra special time at worship one club meeting?

We want to hear from you! Send in your KBC Story using the hashtag #MyKBCStory on social media or email us anytime at news@kbcmail.org!

It is always exciting for Jack Terrell, the founder and president of KiDs Beach Club® to hear someone tell him that they know that the Lord is calling them to serve KBC and that didn’t just happen once last month, it happened three times!

Let us introduce you to Angie Hughes, Becky Morton and Kerri Nelson.

Three years ago, when her daughter Tyler was in fifth grade at Stonegate Elementary in Bedford, Texas, Hughes heard about an after-school Bible club that was meeting in the Stonegate cafeteria. Tyler spent two years memorizing scripture, playing games and hearing Bible stories in KiDs Beach Club® and then went on to middle school, but KBC is still a part of Hughes’ life as she now serves as the ministry’s finance director at the corporate level. She grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and has spent the better part of three decades in the accounting field. Hughes and her husband Rob have three children, daughters Dani (20) and Tyler (13) as well as son Reese (7), who is excited to participate in KiDs Beach Club® next year. Currently, Reese is active in the Boy Scouts and keeps his mom busy on the pack committee. The Hughes family serves and worships the Lord at First Baptist Church in Colleyville, Texas.

Like Hughes, whose daughter introduced her to KiDs Beach Club®, it was Morton’s son, Dawson, that got her acquainted with KBC. While at Meadow Creek Elementary in Hurst, Texas, Dawson heard Terrell, who was serving at the school’s Beach Club as the Bible connection leader, share the gospel week after week and one day decided to make Jesus his Forever Friend. From that moment on, Morton started volunteering in the club. Dawson has since moved on to college but Becky has continued to serve as a club leader at River Trails Elementary and then heard God calling her to join the KBC staff.

“God has revealed to me that I need to be more involved with this ministry and He opened the door for me to work at the corporate level, as a club relations specialist, where I will have the opportunity to still love on the children, but also love on the churches and school staff in our community.”

Morton and her husband Dave have been married 23 years and serve and worship at First Baptist Church in Hurst, Texas.

Serving for 32 years on the preschool staff of First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas, shows where Nelson’s heart is – the kids! During the more than three decades of service, she has held virtually every role including starting up and directing the church’s weekday preschool program then developing the popular preschool program on Wednesday night known as Pajama Jam!

Nelson also started the preschool home-school program and was in charge of organizing and equipping the Sunday morning preschool ministry for 2-year-olds through kindergartners. While the Lord has instilled her passion and talent for the preschool ministry for many years, He recently has been calling her to a greater role in evangelism and opened the door for her to join what she calls “a dynamic team at KiDs Beach Club®, dedicated to sharing the Gospel with Children and making Jesus Cool at School.”

Nelson and her husband Brian have been married for 36 years and have two adult children, Matt (33) and Jenn (28). Jenn and her husband Patrick recently welcomed son Liam into the world making Kerri and Brian grandparents for the first time! Kerri and Brian serve and worship at First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas.

Do you feel the calling from God to join our KiDs Beach Club® team like these three ladies?

We currently have three areas for you to serve as a club relations specialist in North Dallas, South Dallas and East Texas. Make sure to check out the job descriptions on the employment opportunities page of our website.

Thanks to your donations in support of KiDs Beach Club®, we are able to provide Bibles to every child in each Beach Club across the country. Partnering churches do a fantastic job of telling theses children how God’s word is truly a gift to us that should be treasured. One church in West Texas emphasizes that fact by wrapping each Bible it hands out in a different, yet meaningful way.

First United Methodist Church in Lubbock, Texas, has sponsored a Beach Club at Bayless Elementary for several years, and they have been using a special method of wrapping the KBC Explorer’s Study Bibles since their first Great Treasure Day four years ago.

Their unique method wraps the Bibles in three different layers of wrapping paper like a present. Each layer has a significance to share with the children some reasons why their Bible is something to treasure. The idea first came from the church’s children’s director.

“The first time she did it,” club leader Leslie Moss said. “I thought that is what we need to do.”

The Bibles are brought to club ready to be unwrapped by the children. The outside layer that everyone sees at first is plain brown paper. This layer represents history. The Bible has stood the test of time and is also full of truth that is still relevant today.

The middle layer is bright and fun superhero or comic book wrapping paper. This paper helps show that the Bible is packed full of heroes and fun adventures.

The final layer before their new Bible is revealed is fancy gold paper, which helps the children see that the Bible is something to be treasured. It is worth more than gold and should be read and cherished, not thrown aside or kept on the shelf.

They considered other ideas for layers like wrapping the Bibles in a layer of newspaper to share how the Bible is full of good news to us. Or, wrapping the Bibles in old maps since the Bible is a map for us to live our lives well. The volunteers also thought of wrapping them with a layer of blueprint paper because the Bible is a blueprint on how to live our lives.

“The children are precious,” Moss said. “Ninety percent carefully open each layer and many of the children save the wrapping paper.”

The coolest thing about presenting the Bibles this way is the kids vividly remember the meanings and the symbolisms of each paper. If a child misses Great Treasure Day and receives their Bible later, their whole surf team chimes in to explain each part and what it represents.

“It is exciting to see the difference we are making in these kids’ lives,” Moss said.

She finds giving the kids their Bibles this way helps them better understand how important the gift of a Bible is. Great Treasure Day will be a lasting memory for every child who attends Beach Club at Bayless Elementary!

Jone Branum knows it can feel like a big decision to try something new like volunteering at a KiDs Beach Club®. But after praying about it and stepping out in faith, she now serves as a surf team leader at the Beach Club at Crockett Elementary in Weatherford, Texas. In fact, she even has great tips for finding volunteers.

“People are somewhat reluctant to participate, because Beach Club seems like an overwhelming commitment.” Branum said. “They don’t know the kids, they don’t know how to do it, and all of the unknowns cause them to say no.” But Branum was determined to gather more volunteers for a growing club. 

The first person Branum asked to sign up was a woman in her 70s who is in a wheelchair. Since the woman led Bible study for years, she appeared to be a great fit. But when asked if she would like to volunteer, she said, “I don’t like kids, I don’t do kids.”

Branum then thought about what was really required to volunteer for an after-school Bible club. In response she asked the woman, “Could you look a child’s eyes and say their name? Could you tell them hello? Can you help them say a verse? Or ask them how their day was and pray with them?” 

And lastly, she asked, “Can you show a child love?”

Her answer was, “Well, I could try.” This lady was there the next week of club and quickly fell in love with the ministry. Another woman Branum asked to volunteer was in her 80s. While Branum was confident the woman could do it, the woman was not so confident in herself. Branum also assured her that it would be simple material. 

“It’s really a matter of loving the kids and letting them know that someone cares about them,” she told her. And again, this woman came and thrived.

Even the club’s storyteller was not a super talented teacher, but he loved Jesus and was willing to serve. Branum remembered how you could hear a pin drop in a room full of kids while he spoke. He cared for those children and the children knew it; they were quiet because someone who cared had a message for them.

Volunteering at Beach Club is not an overwhelming commitment. There are many roles to choose from and in that the load is light.  For any surf team leader, it’s a matter of prayer, reading a couple of paragraphs beforehand, and knowing what the lesson is going to be about. 

“God directs the whole thing,” Branum said. “God does the work. We just need to show up with a little bit of preparation and a lot of love in our hearts.”

John 13:34-35 says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

KiDs Beach Club® has the mission to mobilize the Church to go outside its walls to take the message of Christ into the heart of its community by doing a Beach Club. More than 2,000 people across the country take time out of their schedule to volunteer for the one hour, one day a week Bible club.

One volunteer in particular is combining her love of serving with her love of sewing to make relationships with these children in order to show them Jesus. Sandy Stanley volunteers as a surf team leader for the Beach Club at Shands Elementary, which is sponsored by Calvary Hill Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas.

Stanley’s church jumped in to sponsor a short six-week club last spring. The amount of time together presented a small hurdle in making relationships with the fifth-grade girls in her surf team. When Beach Club began Stanley asked the girls what little things they would like as a gift to have on hand. One girl replied that she wanted a diary so she could write down her thoughts. Another wanted a photo album to have pictures of her friends.

An idea came to Stanley. She had a sewing and alteration business and could get these girls simple photo albums and diaries and create decorative covers for them. She knew how girls love to express themselves with glittery accessories and she decorated each item in just that style, along with each having a vinyl cross on the front.

What started as a kind gesture became a distinct way of ministry for Stanley. 

As the weeks of club went on she started to connect and build relationships with the girls through their diaries and photo albums. She would ask questions like, “What picture did you put in your photo album?” and “What did you write in your diary? Anything important, anything exciting?” The girls would often share more details and some even tore out pages of their diary with private prayer requests written on them.

“When you share those personal things, you’re building the relationship. And you have to have that relationship with them in order for them to trust you to trust Christ,” Stanley said.

“Miss Sandy’s treasure box” has been expanded for the new full semester of Beach Club at Shands Elementary. She has added a few more types of items to choose from as well as a special decoration theme she uses to share more scripture. This design holds a pearl in the center of the cross.

When a child picks it, Stanley tells them, “Oh, you have picked the pearl of great price!” When time allows, she tells them the story of the parable of the pearl of great price found in Matthew 13:45-46: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

This year, she is prepared to let any little girl who asks for something from Miss Sandy’s treasure box select an item. Stanley is excited for her personal ministry to expand throughout the whole club and not just in her surf team.

“It’s a good personal way to connect with the kids,” she said. Stanley encourages any other Beach Club volunteers to try this idea to build stronger, more trusting relationships with their kids in Beach Club.

If you're interested in connecting with Sandy Stanley to find out how you can make these items for your Beach Club, please email us to ask for her contact information.