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Don Bearden is the pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Pass Christian, Mississippi, and the church partners with KiDs Beach Club® to sponsor a Beach Club at Pass Christian Elementary School.

With a reemphasis by KiDs Beach Club® this year to share the gospel throughout every aspect of a Beach Club meeting, Bearden sees the impact its making in the lives of children firsthand. Since August, a total of 457 children in Beach Club have made the decision to welcome Jesus into their lives. That includes four kids at Pass Christian Elementary. 

One Thursday after club this past fall and just like he does each and every week, Bearden was greeting parents in the pick-up line after Beach Club and asked one mother to pull off to the side so he could discuss something with her. That day, her son made Jesus his Forever Friend during Beach Club. It’s never a decision Bearden takes lightly. He takes it upon himself to make sure a child’s decision will be supported at home. He wanted to schedule a time to meet with the family to see if mom and dad also follow Jesus. 

Bearden and the mother had a long conversation outside her car window and then on the following Sunday, both she and her son, who had been attending Beach Club on and off for the last year, visited Cornerstone Baptist Church. The boy’s father could not attend. You see, he was on active military duty in Afghanistan.

The boy had been taking home material from Beach Club, including Hang 10 pages and Memory Link cards. After first studying it himself, he would send it to his dad. When he received the KBC material, he reviewed it and had questions of his own, so he approached his unit’s chaplain with questions about what it all meant. These conversations with the chaplain resulted in the dad accepting Christ and led to his own salvation!

Praise Jesus!

The family desired for the father and son to be baptized together. The two were able to set a date in a small window of time the dad would be home. Cornerstone Baptist was not able host the event because its baptismal wasn’t working. Instead, a neighboring church offered its facility for the special occasion. Not only were members of Cornerstone Baptist present for the event but members of the neighboring church also showed up in support of the family.

It was incredibly moving, but it’s also an illustration about how short our window is to reach kids (and their families) for Christ. It would be easy to think we have them for four years from third through sixth grades, but we know for many kids that window is even smaller. For the boy in this story and his family, the window was incredibly short. It was only a matter of months.

The family relocated to Tennessee shortly after the baptism of this boy and his father.

Club leader Susan Jiura was getting ready for KiDs Beach Club® in the cafeteria of Sherrod Elementary in Arlington, Texas. She noticed a little boy with slicked back hair sitting in a chair across the room.

Jiura was intrigued by him and asked the lady who cleaned the cafeteria if she knew who he was. It turned out the little boy was this lady’s grandson. She was proud to tell Jiura that she and her husband were raising this boy, named Rylen.

Rylen’s grandmother went on to say he would sit in that seat every week and watch the other kids at Beach Club. He even sang the worship songs along with everyone. During the week, Rylen’s grandmother downloaded the worship songs to her phone so he could learn the words.

Jiura was so moved by the woman’s story that she made an exception and invited Rylen, who was only in kindergarten at the time, to join them in KiDs Beach Club®. The volunteers genuinely enjoyed mentoring Rylen from that young age until he was in fourth grade. Jiura also added, “I had the high honor of presenting him with his very first Bible, which he treasures.”

This school year, Rylen was unable to attend Sherrod Elementary. All of the Beach Club volunteers miss him and the impact he made in their club. Rylen’s grandmother recently sent them an update about him. 

Rylen now enjoys living out his faith by witnessing in Walmart. He boldly steps out to share the gospel to these strangers, sometimes getting some hard rejections. Brokenhearted, Rylen would ask his grandmother, “How can people not want Jesus in their lives?” 

May we all learn a little from Rylen and follow his example of sharing the gospel and loving on the people in our own communities.

How have you been able to share Jesus in your community lately? Parents, if your child in Beach Club has been stepping out in their faith we would love to hear about it! Tell us your story. Use #KiDsBeachClub in your social media posts or email us at news@kbcmail.org.

It wasn’t the smoothest running of Beach Club meetings for Carol Bourland, the club leader at Miller Elementary in Arlington, Texas. The fall semester was winding down and Christmas break was quickly approaching. That led to not all their usual teachers being available to serve at club that day.

In the absence of their normal third and fourth grade teacher, Ryan Rasberry, a pastor at Pantego Bible Church, which sponsors the club, stepped in to fill the gap. Rasberry and his family assisted Bourland in starting the Miller Elementary Beach Club seven years ago. So Rasberry knew the routine of Beach Club well and delivered a great lesson that ended with an invitation for the children to respond.

That day three of the third and fourth graders responded to the invitation and made Jesus their Forever Friend!

With the chaos of ending Beach Club they missed getting the information of one of those children who made a profession of faith. Because Rasberry had been a visitor they did not know who it was. The only thing the volunteers had to go off of was that it was one of the fourth grade girls.

The next week, during the last club of the semester, Bourland asked a few of the fourth grade girls who it was that made Jesus their Forever Friend the week before. The first few girls did not remember who it was. Bourland recalls turning to another little girl and asking if it was her who asked Jesus into her heart.

“This is where God showed His presence so vividly,” Bourland remembers. “Because when asked if it was her, the little girl said, “No, but I wanted to.’”

Bourland asked her what it was she wanted to do the previous week and she responded that she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart. Bourland immediately paired the girl with another Beach Club volunteer to talk with her. In that conversation the little girl invited Jesus into her heart and her life making Him her Forever Friend!

“I am always amazed at how God shows us in an amazing way that He is present in our Kids Beach Club.” Bourand said.

In the new year, KiDs Beach Club® has expanded the corporate office staff as well as its field staff in Tennessee, Mississippi and throughout Texas.

Christy Hughes has joined the corporate office staff as a regional manager though she will continue to work remotely in Bartlett, Tenn. Missy Haladay has been hired as an independent area strategist in Southern Mississippi. Amber Goley and Traci Rosal have joined the ministry as club relations specialists. Goley will oversee an area around Weatherford, Texas and Rosal will guide KiDs Beach Club® strategy around Odessa, Texas. 

Additionally, Penny Eargle and Jordan Thomas have been hired in the corporate office. Eagle has been hired as the ministry assistant while Thomas has been serving as the communications specialist since last fall. 

Hughes has been a Beach Club volunteer since 2008 when her former church, First Baptist New Boston, Texas, started a club at the school where she was teaching. In her time at that club she saw first hand that KiDs Beach Club® brought change to the lives of children. She had not expected how much KBC had and would change her life. In 2013, she and her family moved when her husband took a position on staff at Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett, Tenn. In 2014, Hughes took a part-time role with the organization as an independent area director for Tennessee and northern Mississippi. She is thankful for the new opportunity to serve in this capacity. Christy and her husband, Terry, have one daughter, Grace (17).

Goley has been in children's ministry for five years and answered the call on her heart to join KiDs Beach Club® in early 2016. She lives in Weatherford, Texas with her husband Jon and their three children Layne (11), A.J. (10) and Tony (9). The entire family serves the Lord at The Fellowship at Weatherford. Goley enjoys making music with her husband, and cheering at her kids’ sporting events. She feels most connected with God while singing praise and worship songs at the top of her lungs in her car. She lives by the mantra, "I am not perfect, but I am loved deeply by the one who is."

Rosal has always had a heart for missions on any level. Rosal ahs spent several years as an administrative assistant at her church, so she knows how to help people and minister behind the scenes. Rosal loves to celebrate people and make them feel loved and valued. She met her husband, Romel, in Afghanistan on a mission trip. She is excited at this new opportunity and wants to grow several more chapters of KiDs Beach Club® in West Texas. She enjoys travel, helping people, learning about anything, and cooking.

Holaday has been a volunteer surf team leader with KiDs Beach Club® in southern Mississippi since 2015. Missy has been teaching and ministering to kids for 21 years and has a passion to reach the lost. She and her family moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast area in June 2005 as the Lord called them there for church planting missions. Missy and her husband Jon have two children, son Jordan (18) and daughter Hannah (15). Missy is excited and ready to start connecting churches with schools and seeing lives changed by Jesus through KiDs Beach Club®.

Thomas is excited to step into the role of communications specialist after previously interning for KiDs Beach Club® and being a long-time volunteer. Jordan is a graduate of Dallas Baptist University with a bachelor’s of business administration degree in marketing. Thomas is passionate about drama ministry and enjoys acting and performing in productions across DFW. She also enjoys narrating and producing audiobooks and creating greeting cards. Jordan is a member of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, where she actively serves in Gateway Performing Arts.

Eargle has been serving as a military spouse to her husband, Scott, for more than 20 years. They will now be calling Dallas-Fort Worth home as he retires from the United States Navy. With their two children, Alaina (16) and Trent (13), they enjoy serving together in their church, North Richland Hills Baptist Church.

KiDs Beach Club® continues to grow and is looking to fill other positions. Please visit our employment website for a complete list of positions and to fill out an application.

This past fall when North Euless Elementary School celebrated Great Treasure Day, each child was given a brand new KBC Explorer’s Study Bible. With excitement and curiosity on this highly anticipated day, the children flipped through the more than 1,420 pages of scripture and turned to the colorful KiDs Beach Club® insert pages.

The children’s enthusiasm was evident, but for some children on that day a small worry began to surface. Each week during Beach Club, the children had been told how the Bible is God’s love letter to us and his sacred word. With so much focus on its importance, the children were nervous and a little overwhelmed to use their new Bibles.

During one meeting, Kelley Crow, a member of the strategic growth team at KiDs Beach Club®, who also serves as a surf team leader at North Euless, was passing around a pencil for her Surf Team to underline the day’s Memory Link.

A little boy named Joshua expressed his concern about writing and marking in his Bible. He didn’t know you were allowed to do such things to such a special and holy book.

Crow was able to tell her Surf Team how it is not only OK, but it is encouraged that the children mark verses in their Bible. She also encouraged them to write notes in the margins of the text.

“It is important to be able to look back on what has been studied in Beach Club, and marking the verses helps you to remember later,” Crow remembers telling the children. 

The club leaders at the North Euless Beach Club, which is sponsored by First Baptist Church Euless, realized the problem and offered a solution. Now, every week at club, volunteers bring highlighters for the children to use during Beach Club. They must bring their Bible with them to club in order to get a highlighter. Leaders taught the children how writing and highlighting in their Bibles is OK, and how it can help them study God’s word better. They are encouraged to highlight that week’s Memory Link in their Bible and mark the page so they can review it between club meetings. 

Children at North Euless and at some other Beach Clubs across the country cannot wait to get their highlighters and listen to the lesson. They turn to the scripture passages and the next thing they want to do is highlight the verses in their Bibles.

Instead of the children being nervous to study God’s word, their Bibles are glowing with different colors of highlights on verses they have learned in Beach Club.

“Any time they can get excited to open their Bibles it’s a great thing,” Crow said.

The ability for these children to receive their own Bible to write in and learn from would not be possible without your support of the Bibles for Beach Club program. Without KiDs Beach Club® going into the public schools many of these children would not know how to use and study God’s word.

Our time to reach these children for Christ is short, sometimes even shorter than the four years between third and sixth grade we focus on. Joshua, whose concern led to the implementation of highlighters at North Euless, will be moving after this school year. There is not currently a Beach Club in the town where his family is planning to move, but thanks to your support and his concern, he will be armed with a KBC Explorer’s Study Bible that is now filled with highlights and notes from what he is learning in Beach Club.

Merry Christmas from the KiDs Beach Club® family! We hope you will seek Him and
celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior by attending worship services on 
Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. If you do not have a church home,
please consider attending the church that sponsors your child's Beach Club.
For the complete list of our partnering churches, click here.