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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.

The children who attend Beach Club have a vastly different childhood than any generation before them. The internet has been around their entire lives. Fifty-six percent of these kids have a cell phone, and 38 percent have social media accounts. Although so much information is at the fingertips of the kids who attend Beach Club these children still want someone to tell them what truth is. 

This was especially true for kids at the Beach Club at Lakeland Elementary in Lakeland, Tenn. The club is sponsored by First Baptist Church Lakeland. 

A fifth-grader came to club one day last year heavy with questions. Carter was confused about evolution and was bursting with questions that his surf team leader just did not know all the answers to.

The surf team leader recruited the help of church coordinator David Riggs, who took Carter into the hallway and listened to all of his questions. The two talked through a few of his questions until Beach Club was over for the day. Riggs says he left discouraged by the conversation, as he was not confident with how he answered the questions. Riggs wasn’t sure he provided answers in a way Carter could understand.

Riggs wanted another chance to explain the complicated information and hopefully answer the boy’s questions. He knew he could do a better job if given another chance. So, he prayed, “Dear Lord, please let me have another opportunity to speak with him.” 

And the Lord answered Riggs’ prayer.

Carter was back at Beach Club the next week with more questions, and again Riggs felt as if he answered those questions inadequately. He prayed again to be able to continue the discussion with the boy.

Carter returned for the third week. He came in and sought out Riggs saying, “I have some questions about micro evolution.” Riggs was taken aback. He didn’t even know what micro evolution was when he was in the fourth grade and here this little boy was asking intelligent questions about the subject.

They discussed it for about 15 minutes when Carter nodded his head and said, “You’ve answered everything I need to know. I am ready to become a Christian.” 

“It is the first time I’ve been involved with something like that and I can tell you, there’s nothing like that,” Riggs said.

Carter, who is now in sixth grade, and his family are members of another church in the community, but they invited about 10 Beach Club volunteers to witness his baptism.

Because of Riggs’ obedience as a Beach Club volunteer and being faithful to witness to these children, he saw a harvest.

“I know we’re teaching children, but God was teaching me before club ever began,” Riggs said. 

He felt the Lord was telling him, “It’s not what you do, it’s what I can be done through you if you’re just obedient.”

Bonnie Robertson is a volunteer for the Beach Club at Mabank Intermediate School in Mabank, Texas. In a club of all fifth- and sixth-grade students, one little girl stood out in her memory and prompted her to submit her story using the #MyKBCStory hashtag.

At Beach Club one afternoon, one of the talkative and outgoing fifth-grade girls came over to Robertson with a serious demeanor. The two of them went to the back of the room together to talk more privately about what was bothering her.

This little girl shared that she wasn’t sure if Jesus would accept her or that He would love her. Robertson asked, “Why would you think that?” The girl said because all of her family are wiccans. The little girl went on to say, “I want Him to be in my heart, but I don’t know if He will come in because of my family.”

Robertson was able to explain to her that it doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of her family, only her. And that little girl accepted Christ that day!

In the car pick-up line after club, Robertson was able to share with the girl’s family about her profession of faith. 

“Her mother, who was a wiccan was ecstatic that her daughter had accepted Christ,” Robertson said. “It was the best day ever. It was wonderful, and it was all because she came to Beach Club!”

Bonnie Robertson volunteers at Beach Club for the kids. “They are important. That’s what counts. They are the future,” she said. “I do it for Jesus, but I do it for the kids so that they aren’t left behind.” Robertson loves seeing the children being taught truth in club and taking it home to share with their families.

KiDs Beach Club® wants to hear YOUR story! Volunteers, what has been a stand-out moment for you in Beach Club? Was it a time like Bonnie Robertson’s when a child accepted Christ? Or a time a child received their first Bible? Have you had an extra special time of prayer with your surf team? Parents, what has been your child’s favorite part of Beach Club? Have you come to know Jesus through your child sharing what they learned in club?

We want to hear from you! Use the #MyKBCStory hashtag on social media or write us at news@kbcmail.org.

If you attended the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner in July, you likely saw the 20-ounce Bison Tumblers that were part of the popular Pick-and-Play game before the dinner.

Now, those same tumblers featuring the KBC logo etched in the side, are available in the KBC online store. They come in eight different colors including lime, pink, red, purple, light blue, sand, orange and black (not pictured). Be sure to place your order before they run out.

Since KiDs Beach Club® first began in 2003, teaching children about God’s word has been the focal point to giving each child a Jesus experience inside their public elementary school. From 2003 through the fall of 2014, only one Bible was given to a child in each club each week the club met.

Beginning in the spring of 2015, giving every single child in every Beach Club their very own copy of God’s word became a priority. This special day of Beach Club became known as Great Treasure Day. 

This month KiDs Beach Club® celebrated a very special Great Treasure Day as we handed out our 50,000th Bible since that very first Bible back in 2003. 

After weeks of anticipation and watching the tally of Bibles given to kids climb on the front page of the ministry’s new website, it was projected that the 50,000th Bible would be given away on October 10 at the new Beach Club at Gilbert Elementary, which is the second club to be sponsored by Christ Church Irving.

Gilbert Elementary had dozens of children in attendance for Great Treasure Day. All were giddy and excited to receive their new Bibles. What they didn’t know before they arrived that afternoon was one of them would be the 50,000th child in the history of KiDs Beach Club® to receive a KBC Explorer’s Study Bible. 

When it came time for the presentation, the room full of volunteers, kids and KBC corporate staff cheered as each child received their new Bible. After several were handed out, Beach Club leader Molly Greenlee announced the very next Bible would be the milestone 50,000th Bible, and that Bible was being presented to Jamie G.! Everyone erupted in celebration. 

Jamie was a little shy to have all the attention, but she was not shy to share that this was her first Bible, and the first Bible in her family. 

Once she sat down and removed the plastic, marking that this book had never belonged to anyone else, she was given a permanent marker to write her name in the front page.

Jack Terrell, the founder and president of KiDs Beach Club®, said, “It was amazing the intensity that she took, and the deliberateness that she took, in putting her name for the very first time, in her Bible.”

Jamie loves attending Beach Club with her friends because, “My friends and I can learn more about Jesus and we can spread the word to others that don’t come to Beach Club.”

Jamie was excited to receive a Bible, “So I can read it every night and tell my brother about Jesus.” Jamie has a 10-year-old brother who also attends Gilbert Elementary and does not attend Beach Club. Jamie hopes she can get her brother to come with her to Beach Club soon. But she is ready and excited to use her Bible to share Jesus with her family at home.

The milestone of 50,000 Bibles being given away to children is monumental. We are also celebrating you, our donors, as we rejoice in knowing that to purchase those 50,000 Bibles, it took your generosity to provide those Bibles to children in public schools! 

“God has blessed KiDs Beach Club® with some amazing, amazing donors who not only caught the vision of connecting kids to Christ by putting Bibles in their hands, but who actively participate in it with their generous gifts,” Terrell said. “Our donors have given $1 million since 2003 to purchase 50,000 KBC Explorers Study Bibles which will continue to impact not only the lives of the kids who receive them but also their entire families.

“So to our donors, from the bottom of our heart, we thank you!”

Be sure to watch the video above until the end for a special message from KBC President & Founder Jack Terrell.