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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.

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.