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It was a normal Wednesday afternoon at Bukhair Elementary, where volunteers from The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas arrived the usual 45 minutes early to set up for KiDs Beach Club®. 

To the volunteers’ surprise, their normal meeting place had been double booked and they agreed to instead meet in the gym. However, the gym had classes meeting right until 3 p.m., only five minutes before Beach Club was set to begin. This left little set-up time. Once in the club’s temporary meeting space, volunteers discovered technical problems with their computer, which was loaded with the worship music, lyrics and the PowerPoint presentation containing visual aides for the story.

Nancy Joyner, co-leader of the club with her husband Keith, said, "This is happening because of the lesson today."

The lesson that day was the story of Nicodemus approaching Jesus at night to ask Him some questions. Found in John 3:3, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus goes on to explain that being born again is believing in Him. In John 3:16, which was also the memory link, Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

At the end of the lesson five children raised their hands to talk to a leader. One of those girls was a smiling, brown-eyed, third-grade girl who wanted to make Jesus her Forever Friend. Her name – Forever.

On that day of club where it seemed nothing was going right, the Lord moved. The complications of the day could not overpower the love of Christ reaching the hearts of these kids. The perseverance of the volunteers to share the gospel led to little Forever making the decision to make Jesus her Forever Friend. 

As we approach Thanksgiving, KiDs Beach Club® is thankful for the 375 Beach Club children like Forever, who have made the personal decision this fall to follow Jesus Christ. 

Tell us what you are thankful by leaving a comment below or sharing with us on social media.

If you know KiDs Beach Club®, by now you know Great Treasure Day is the day children are given a Bible of their very own. For most, the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible is their very first Bible. For some, it might even be the first Bible in their home. Sixty-two percent of children who enroll in Beach Club do not claim to have a church home. 

For many of these children, this is the first Bible they have interacted with on their own, so they don’t know how the Bible is structured. They don’t know how to find a book in the Bible or find a Bible verse.

Do you remember a time when you didn’t know what a Bible verse was? Do you recall the slight confusion to be told there are 66 books inside the Bible, which is a book itself? How about the amazement to turn all the way to page 1,291 right after it was just given to you to learn about the armor of God in Ephesians 6? For kids in Beach Club, this time is now.

KiDs Beach Club® not only wants to give every child their own Bible, but its also our responsibility to teach every child how to use their Bible.

In Beach Club at Spring Garden Elementary in Bedford, Texas, which is sponsored by Woodland Heights Baptist Church, volunteers are teaching kids how to use the Bible throughout an entire club. Woodland Heights provides their volunteers with a KBC Bible to use during club. They think it’s important they use the same Bible as the kids they’re teaching. While in Surf Teams, there is a “Focus on the Bible” time to help instruct the kids where that day’s Bible verses are found.

The kids begin Beach Club by looking up and marking the verses they will be reading that day for the story as well as the memory verse. The older kids are eager to help the younger ones as they learn to find the verses for themselves. During the story the children are called on to read and use their Bibles while they listen.

The Beach Club at Mary Moore Elementary in Arlington, Texas, reviews the books of the Bible each week before the club’s Bible connection leader shares the story.

“I love that this club is not only interested in teaching the lesson, but is also interested in teaching these children how to use a bible,” said Megan Brunner, an area director for KBC, who recently attended the club.

The volunteers at Spring Garden also go over the special “tip-in” pages that are specially made for the KBC Bible that discuss topics like salvation and spending time with God. The very first tip-in page of the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible shows “How to Use This Bible,” specifically pointing out where page numbers are located and how each book, verse and chapter are identified in the Bible.

To encourage spending time reading their Bible outside of club, kids are given a “Hang 10” page each week. These pages have different challenges on them to get the kids praying and reading their Bibles five times throughout the week. The goal is to encourage children to spend 10 minutes each day reading the Bible or in prayer. Club leaders at Spring Garden celebrate children who return their Hang 10 pages the next week with a parent signature.

“It is an immense privilege to stand in an elementary school and give a Bible and show the kids how to use their Bible, to teach from the Bible, and then encourage the kids to read it at home,” club leader Stephanie Thames said. “The kids are ecstatic to receive a Bible of their own.”

Your monthly support for Bibles for Beach Club does not just put a Bible in the hand of a child for one special day. It helps KiDs Beach Club® equip and train volunteers to teach kids how to read the Bible and how to make it a part of their lives forever.

Prayer is powerful. Prayer is effective. Just like it is written in James 5:16,“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

Don Bearden is the pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Pass Christian, Miss., and his church sponsors a Beach Club at Pass Christian Elementary. 

Last spring, the school system got a new superintendent. Bearden knew the status of his Beach Club would have to be decided by the system’s new leadership and the odds of continuing the Beach Club looked slim. Bearden began trying to contact the new superintendent to see if she would allow the Beach Club to continue in the school but wasn’t getting through.

Just weeks before school started, Bearden felt specifically led by the Lord to do something. He called her office early one morning, and to his surprise, was connected with her right away over the phone. She immediately told him she had not yet made a decision about Beach Club to which Bearden responded that he wasn’t calling to talk to her about Beach Club.

“Have you ever felt led to do something?” She answered, “Well sure.” He continued, “Well this morning God laid on my heart to pray for you.” Without waiting for a response he prayed for her right over the phone. After the prayer, he and the then emotion-filled superintendent said their good-byes. 

Later that morning, Don Bearden received a call from the superintendent. She said, “The Lord spoke to me. He made me realize the reason I’m so jammed up in my job is because I forgot the One who has all the power. Your Beach Club is approved and anything else you guys ever want is approved.”

Later that afternoon, Bearden received another call from the superintendent who asked him to serve as chaplain for the entire school system. The school system had never had a chaplain before. She explained that after some prayer she came to the conclusion that the children have counselors and emotional support, but no one is there for the teachers and faculty.

He accepted the position with the overwhelming thought of “how big is God?” 

That same day at about 4 p.m., Bearden’s phone rang yet again. This time, the call was from a teacher. The teacher explained that she had been going to church and she realized from the pastor’s sermons that she was a lost person.

“Well pastor, what do I do now?” she asked. Bearden went through the plan of salvation and even the ABC cards from Beach Club: ADMIT you’re a sinner; BELIEVE that Jesus is the Son of God and He died for your sin; CHOOSE to follow Him. 

She accepted Christ on the phone that day and requested that Bearden talk to her husband about salvation, too. The next morning she called back to tell him she had never had a more peaceful sleep and that she couldn’t stop smiling. 

All that happened in just one day! Bearden was able to impact a superintendent and a teacher and made connections for lasting impact in an entire school system through pursuing a KiDs Beach Club®.

In Cornerstone’s Beach Club at Pass Christian Elementary they have seen teachers, interns and cafeteria workers impacted by what they are teaching. KiDs Beach Club® is making an impact on the entire community by making Jesus cool at school.

Serving in a KiDs Beach Club® has provided people of all ages, an opportunity to follow the Lord’s command to carry out the great commission. Many churches have done an excellent job of communicating these volunteer opportunities to their senior adults and to the parents of children in their Beach Clubs.

But with the growing amount of teens being homeschooled these days, The Village Church in Southlake, Texas has reached out to a brother and sister to serve in the Beach Club at Dove Elementary. 15 year-old Halle Wilson and her 14 year-old brother, Landry are assisting with several roles in the Beach Club.

Halle has jumped right in by assisting with a surf team and loves being a role model for the younger girls each week. 

“I wanted to get to know some of the girls and hang out with them,” Halle said. “I just want to be a positive influence and get to share what I believe in, just get to know them, help them find the scriptures in the Bible and just hang out with them.” 

Landry brings his guitar and leads worship each week and is thrilled to be able use his musical talents to fill the public school gymnasium with praises to God.

“I love coming up with songs for each week and play the guitar and the kids get all excited,” Landry said. “By serving in Beach Club, I have the opportunity to point them to Christ. My objective in this is not to make myself look cool or to further my talent, but to show these kids what worship is all about. The fact that worship is an expression of our love for God through song and through singing and using our voices, that’s really what I wanted to show these kids is that we can express our excitement and express our love for God through singing songs and in a fun way.”

Seeing these teens in action, serving the Lord is an inspiration for Dove Elementary Beach Club Leader Sherri Jursnick.

“It just makes me smile and shows that they love the Lord and they want to worship, they want to share,” said Jursnick, whose grandson Aaron is also a homeschooled volunteer assisting in a surf team for third grade boys.

Aaron attended that same Beach Club during his elementary school days and loves giving back.

“I know how much Beach Club has done for me,” Aaron said. “When I was attending club, the volunteers helpers helped me more than I could even imagine so now, I thought that I would be able to come in impact other people’s lives.”

Sherri Jursnick, who previously served as a Club Leader at Donna Park Elementary in Hurst, Texas, asked homeschool kids to help her serve in that club as well.

“The kids just gravitate to them and they just have a different way of getting to the kids and showing them God’s love.”

Sherri encourages club leaders to be proactive in providing these teenagers a chance to serve in Beach Club. 

“Since there are lot of churches that are looking for volunteers and there are a whole bunch of teenagers that could step up to help, they can inquire with the different homeschool organizations which often offer their teens credit for service,” she said.

“This also teaches the older kids that there is service involved with being a Christian and you are never too young to learn to help others.”

In the rural area of Tool, Texas, the bus rides to school begin quite early in the morning and are often long ventures. Steve Palmer, the pastor of Providence Baptist Church, and his wife Wendy, greet children coming off of the bus every single morning when it arrives at school. They also greet parents at their cars when they drop off their children. 

Two days after the school’s Great Treasure Day celebration in early October, a little girl named Kendal stepped onto her school bus with a special request. Her bus driver, Ms. Mary, usually kept the bus lights turned off so the children could sleep or rest on their long drives to school in the early morning hours. But, with her KBC Explorer’s Study Bible in hand, Kendal asked Ms. Mary if she would turn on the bus light so she could be able to read her new Bible. Ms. Mary happily obliged and Kendal was able to read her new KBC Bible on the bus ride to school.

Wendy Palmer noticed Kendal with her new KBC Study Bible as soon as she hopped off of the school bus that morning. Wendy found out from Ms. Mary how Kendal had requested the bus lights be turned on so she could read her Bible. 

Wendy called Kendal’s mother to talk to her about it, and her mother shared how since Kendal started attending Beach Club their family has developed a genuine love for attending church. They do not see it as a chore as they once had, but instead they count down the days with excitement to the next time they can attend. 

While they have been faithfully attending a church together, Kendal’s mother said their family will visit Providence Baptist Church because of the impact the church leaders have made at the school through KiDs Beach Club. She loves how the pastor takes the time to greet the parents each day and how Kendal enjoys Beach Club.

Now that your child has his or her very own KBC Explorer’s Study Bible, we want to make sure they understand it. 

The word Bible means “book.” In fact, the Bible is THE BOOK, the most important book every written. It’s like a library of 66 smaller books that all fit together. The Bible is God’s message to all people. It tells what God is like, shows who Jesus is, and explains how we can have a relationship with God.

THE BIBLE IS DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS

The Old Testament

• Is in the front of the Bible.
• Contains 39 books.
• Was written many years before Jesus was born.
• Points to a promised Messiah, who is Jesus. 

The New Testament

• Is in the back of the Bible.
• Contains 27 books.
• Tells how Jesus is the promised Messiah who came to save all people from sin.
• Explains how Jesus’ first followers became the church.
• Tells how a person becomes a Christian.

WHO WROTE THE BIBLE?

God did. People who were listening to God wrote down the things that God wanted them to write. The Bible has many different writers who lived at different times and in different places. Yet their message remains consistent, because it’s God’s message! That makes the Bible true, dependable, trustworthy and right. 

Every part of the Bible was spoken by God and is useful for showing what is true, revealing sin, correcting errors, and teaching people how to have a right relationship with God. Because of the Bible, people can be complete through Jesus and prepared to do the things God has planned for them.

God wants you and your children to spend time with him daily and KiDs Beach Club tries to help you with that. Each week in Beach Club, your child learns a word that teaches biblical character as well as a memory link (Bible verse) to help them learn God’s word. They’re also sent home a Hang 10 page that provides a daily reading plan, activity and prayer. 

For more information about spending time with God, look at the tip-in pages in the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible between pages 242-243. Those pages provide the when, where, what and how to spend time with God every day.