Spouses Share KBC Background
Married couples often share commonalities. For Trai and Kesa Chavez, who will celebrate their second wedding anniversary in August, one of those commonalities is that they are both former Beach Clubbers. Moreover, both spouses attest to the impact that KiDs Beach Club® made on their lives.
They didn’t know each other back then. Kesa attended the Midway Park Beach Club in Euless, Texas, off and on during third and fourth grades. She was shy, and being involved with KiDs Beach Club® helped her feel accepted.
“The leaders of Beach Club really loved on me,” Kesa said. “I had a leader actually share with me John 3:16 and the importance of love, and that right there was just something huge to me because it was a one-on-one connection.”
In addition to her shyness, Kesa was also struggling with a difficult family situation at the time.
“It was a really tough time for me in third grade. My dad almost passed away, and dealing with that when you’re a little kid – there’s so much that runs through your mind.”
She credits KiDs Beach Club® with helping her through those days.
“It spoke life to me,” Kesa said.
It also gave her a tool for coping with those situations.
“That was the time I actually started to learn how to pray, from the leaders at Beach Club,” Kesa said.
For Kesa, as for many kids, Beach Club supplemented her regular church attendance. However, her husband came from a different background.
“Beach Club was the first seed planted for me,” Trai said.
Trai attended Beach Club at Lakewood Elementary, also in Euless, during fifth and sixth grades. For Trai, Beach Club gave him something to do after school. Although he didn’t fully embrace the message at the time, he enjoyed going.
“Though I didn’t get the whole spiritual part a whole lot, I felt like that the people, the leaders that were there, they were nice people; they were fun to be around, played games, and I knew that they were there for good reasons… My heart just wasn’t in it for the ministry part of it.”
Nonetheless, Isaiah 55:11 promises that God’s word will not return to Him void, and God began working on Trai.
“I remember after going (to Beach Club), I would think about death, and I would think about what’s after.” Trai said. “It really got my gears grinding for the first time thinking spiritually.”
The seed that Beach Club planted ultimately matured, and in ninth grade, Trai accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and began attending church.
Today, the couple is answering God’s call on their lives. Trai is preparing to enter Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in the fall to pursue a bachelor’s of arts in humanities and Biblical studies. Meanwhile, Kesa will be taking courses in Southwestern’s women’s program while interning at their church, First Baptist Euless.
The couple is grateful for the foundation that KiDs Beach Club® gave them, and for the seed that was planted in Trai.
“I’m thankful,” Trai said, “because I did look back once I started going to church in ninth grade, and I was like, ‘I remember a little bit about this stuff, I remember hearing a little bit about this.’”
Published on Jun 28 @ 11:08 AM CDT
College Student Reflects on KBC Influence
When Dawson Morton began attending KiDs Beach Club® at Meadow Creek Elementary School in Bedford, Texas, he didn’t go on his own volition, but instead because his mom said he should. What he found out, however, was that he liked it.
Now a sophomore at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas, Morton has a long history with KiDs Beach Club®. After joining Beach Club in third grade, he attended regularly for three years. He credits this to Jack Terrell, the KiDs Beach Club® founder, who was volunteering in the Meadow Creek Beach Club back then.
“That’s what I looked forward to when I went to Beach Club, was hanging out with Jack, and talking to Jack,” Morton said.
Terrell was serving as the Bible Connection Leader, teaching the weekly Bible story. Morton liked the way Terrell presented it, saying that although he had heard the stories in church, hearing them in Beach Club gave him a new perspective. This led to him accepting Jesus Christ as his Forever Friend.
“Jack is actually the one who brought me to Christ because of one lesson that he gave me,” Morton said.
That lesson was about Gideon. Making that day even more special, Morton had also been selected as that week’s Bible recipient. At that time, KiDs Beach Club® was only able to award one Adventure Bible each week in each club; Morton says that he still has his and plans to give it to his kids someday.
Eventually, as kids do, Morton aged out of Beach Club. However, he soon got the opportunity to return in a new capacity. His mom decided to volunteer at a Beach Club sponsored by their church, First Baptist Hurst, and she asked Morton to join her. Just as he had the first time, Morton balked at the idea.
“At first, I was kind of nervous about it,” Morton said. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I can do that.’”
At his mom’s persistence, he finally agreed to go one time. That was all it took.
“It was almost as if it had changed my life again, as to what it was when I participated in Beach Club… It filled my heart up with joy because I could see all these kids accepting Christ just like I did one day, and the joy when they got the Bibles that were given to them.”
Morton continued to volunteer at the River Trails Beach Club in Fort Worth, Texas, throughout junior high school. Today, he studies international marketing and plays baseball at Wayland, but he still remembers his time in KiDs Beach Club®. He has also remained close to Terrell, and still cites “talking to Jack” as his favorite part of Beach Club.
Morton offers this advice to kids who, like him, might be unsure about joining Beach Club: “Stick through it, even though your friends might not be there with you. And you might feel alone, but there’s always going to be people there for you, and good will most likely come out of it.”
Published on Jun 28 @ 11:03 AM CDT
Hang 10 Summer Reading Program Continues in July
We hope you and your kids are enjoying the "Hang 10" Summer Reading Program. Can you believe it's almost July? Don't fret; there is still plenty of time left this summer before your kids head back to school.
The Summer Reading Program continues the purpose of building habits in kids of daily Bible reading and prayer. This year’s Summer Reading Program focuses on character words already taught in Beach Club. The program, which provides a daily Bible verse, an action and a prayer, began just before Memorial Day and continues until Labor Day,
If your son or daughter is participating this summer, he or she has already learned about truthfulness, confidence, love, obedience and forgiveness. In July, the program will focus on generosity, thankfulness, compassion and humility.
Summer Bible reading isn’t just for kids! We are encouraging everyone to “Hang 10” this summer. Parents, teachers, volunteers and other Beach Club supporters can lead by example and spend at least 10 minutes each day with God through Bible reading and prayer.
We hope you will stay connected to KiDs Beach Club® during the summer. We would love to see you, your children and your grandchildren spending time in their KBC Study Bible this summer. Please follow us at @KiDsBeachClub on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and be sure to like, comment and share your own posts by using the hashtag #MyKBCBible. We may even share your posts and pictures!
The Summer Reading Plan for July is currently available at kidsbeachclub.org/readingplan
Published on Jun 27 @ 3:49 PM CDT
Susan Jiura, the Beach Club leader at Sherrod Elementary, recently attended the high school graduation party for Camrin Langston, one of her former Beach Clubbers. On a table displaying some of Langston’s favorite things from her youth, Jiura noticed the young woman’s worn KiDs Beach Club® Devotional Bible, the Bible that preceded the current KBC Explorer’s Study Bible.
Jiura was thrilled when Langston told her that it’s the Bible she still uses. That “made my day!” Jiura said.
Langston, who graduated from Lamar High School in Arlington, Texas earlier this month, became involved with KiDs Beach Club® in fifth grade during a difficult time in her life. Not only had she just moved to Sherrod Elementary, she had just had major back surgery. She credits Jiura with making her transition easier.
Langston said, “Whenever I had first started coming to Beach Club, Ms. Susan Jiura… made sure I was comfortable and put me in the right group with my grade level and the other girls involved, and she made sure that I had everything I needed to be involved and that I wasn’t left out.”
Jiura’s care and compassion gave Langston a sense of belonging for the two years that she attended Beach Club.
“It made me feel like that’s where I needed to be, and that I wasn’t in a place that I was forced to be in,” Langston said. “We were welcome to be there and we were safe there with them.”
According to Langston, one benefit of KiDs Beach Club® is that it teaches the Bible in a way kids can understand.
“It can help you on your level, and not a higher level, but also be where you can ask questions and not feel uncomfortable asking those questions,” Langston said.
One way that this is accomplished is through the KBC Bible. Although Langston owned a traditional Bible at the time, receiving her KBC Bible was truly a blessing. She is dyslexic, and having a Bible geared specifically toward kids helps her understand what she is reading.
“I just felt very relieved when I got mine,” Langston said, “because I was able to read it better than the Bible I already had. And the extra things they have in it, like the devotions and stuff, were able to connect better with my age group that I was in at the time.”
Her enthusiasm for her new Bible was apparent, even to her club leader.
“She was always so focused on listening to the Bible lesson and loved studying her KBC Bible,” Jiura said.
Although the ease of reading is what initially drew Langston to her KBC Bible, she has found additional reasons for continuing to use it today. She sees it as a tool for connecting with her younger siblings and those currently in the Sherrod Elementary Beach Club, where she volunteers when she is able.
“It helps me be able to know how to speak with them, or how to speak with the younger kids in my church,” Langston said.
At the time Langston received her Bible, only one child per week received a Bible. Now, thanks to generous donors like you who regularly support the Bibles for Beach Club program, all kids in Beach Club receive a KBC Bible. This provides each child a valuable tool that they can use well past the few years we have them for Beach Club.
Langston, who attends Dayspring Church and hopes to begin working toward a photography degree in the fall, encourages donors that their donations do make a difference.
“It definitely does help,” she said. “Especially, like my school that I went to was a lower-income school, and so being able to… get that Bible – a lot of kids probably don’t have one to that degree that they can understand, so it definitely does help.”
Published on Jun 20 @ 2:06 PM CDT
Outside of participating in our Summer Reading Program, you and your child might not be thinking too much about KiDs Beach Club® during the summer, but rest assured, we are thinking about you, planning for our future and getting ready for the return of Beach Club this fall.
As a part of those plans, we launched a redesigned website this week and hope you will check it out. It’s vastly different than our old site. Our organization has changed a lot over the years and we think this new design better conveys where we are as an organization by telling the stories about our Beach Clubs, the kids who attend and the volunteers who serve.
“Our kids and clubs have great stories to tell and we want to do that justice,” said Dave Crome, the vice president for marketing and communications at KiDs Beach Club®. “There are a lot of great photos and excellent videos throughout the site. We want people to be proud their kids are a part of this ministry and we hope that with this new site, everyone will want to share it with their friends.”
As the organization continues to grow, it is important that our current church partners understand our commitment and that our potential church partners gain a full understanding of what we do in connecting kids to Christ and helping their families find a church home if they don’t already have one.
“Connecting families to a church family is one of our core values,” said Jack Terrell, founder and president of KiDs Beach Club®. “Our records say a high percentage of children who enroll in Beach Club do not have a church affiliation. Therefore providing a tool to our partnering churches that is easy to navigate expresses our commitment to excellence. I believe it further communicates, at a high level, the value we have for all of our ministry partners.”
KiDs Beach Club® seeks to make Christ relevant within the community by providing Christ followers an opportunity to serve at the very heart of the neighborhood… the public school.
The new design focuses on the ministry’s four core values, the four Cs: Impacting Communities for the Kingdom; Sharing Christ in Public Schools; Fostering Life Change in the Hearts of Children and Connecting Families to a Church Family. And it’s all presented right on the front page.
The website comes with new features, including real-time reporting of the number of kids impacted by Beach Club, the numbers of volunteers who serve in Beach Club and the professions of faith made by Beach Club kids, both for the current school year and since the start of Beach Club in 2003. Also on display are the number of clubs, partnering churches and the all-time number of Bibles distributed.
Other new features include a way for anyone to Get Involved in Beach Club, the new Beach Currents blog, and coming soon, a way to find a Beach Club. Every Beach Club will have a page on the website devoted solely to it with information about meeting dates and times, location, information about the sponsoring church and a direct link to our new online registration/parent permission form. Be on the lookout for more details about that closer to the time your child heads back to school and back to Beach Club!
Social media is integrated throughout the website, allowing viewers to share content from any page with their friends on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn directly from the site. Content also can be shared with the most popular social networks.
“We would love to hear your stories about how Beach Club has impacted your family, particularly your children and grandchildren,” said Todd Lamb, director of communications for KiDs Beach Club®. “We would love to tell these incredible stories on our new website, blog and various social media accounts.
You should always mention @KiDsBeachClub in your social media posts and if the post is about the Bible, we encourage you to use hashtag #MyKBCBible. Stories and photos can be submitted by email as well at news@kbcmail.org or photos@kbcmail.org.
Most of the information from the old site has migrated to the new site, but it is presented entirely different and in an engaging way. We think you will find the site does a good job explaining who we are, what we do, where we are, when clubs meet and how to do a Beach Club.
We hope you like it and visit often to read and watch the countless stories about how KiDs Beach Club® is connecting kids to Christ and putting Bibles in their hands.
Published on Jun 08 @ 2:32 PM CDT
As the grandfather of four children, best-selling author Lee Strobel is especially touched when younger children decide to follow Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
“I see kids within a new light now. My grandchildren who are 8 and 10 years old, received Christ during a Houston mission trip,” said Strobel, who will deliver the keynote address at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner on July 14 in the Grand Ballroom of The Speedway Club at Texas Motor Speedway. “They both are on fire for the Lord and involved. It’s great to see the next generation take the banner of Christ and hold it!”
Recently, Strobel learned about how KiDs Beach Club
We have put together a first-class evening for our guests who will arrive to free valet service, a visit to a cutting-edge interactive photo booth and then have an opportunity to participate in the exciting live auction, popular raffles and games such as Dine & Dash, Pick & Play as well as Last Man Standing.Published on May 25 @ 4:54 PM CDT
