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Just like every Beach Club is different, every Beach Club also hands out Bibles differently. Some churches go the extra mile on Great Treasure Day, the day children receive their own KiDs Beach Club® Explorer’s Study Bible, and rightfully so since there is no greater treasure than God’s Word.

Churches might display all of their Bibles on a table on a stage with the names of each recipient already written in them and then call up each child to the stage individually.

Some churches might have their congregations pray over the Bibles during a church service on the Sunday before Great Treasure Day.

They might even ask members of their congregations to write personal notes to the Beach Club children on an inside cover of the Bible.

Some may do all of these things. Other churches have been known to downplay the gifting ceremony entirely in favor of diving right into the Bible to explore God’s Word.

Every KBC Explorer’s Study Bible comes individually wrapped in cellophane from the distributor so if a church elects to write in the Bibles, they have to unwrap each Bible. That may take some time with club sizes averaging around 80 kids.

The Beach Club sponsored by Christ Church at Farine Elementary in Irving used to take the time to unwrap each Bible, but not any more.

“One of things that caught us off guard when we gave the kids the Bible is that they wanted us to give them the Bible in the plastic wrap because they knew it was brand new,” said Molly Greenlee, the children’s director at Christ Church Irving. “It was only theirs and it was priceless.

“The first time we did it, we opened it and we thought it would be great if we would write their name inside, but they wanted to write their own name in it because it was theirs.”

Not many Beach Club kids have something to call their very own and take great pride in this gift.

“I cannot tell you how many kids told us, ‘I don’t get things that are brand new. I have never had a book, period, that was brand new,’” Greenlee said. “And they got these Bibles and they’re beaming and it is just amazing.

“These Bibles have become precious items to these kids that they hold onto.”

Have you considered becoming a monthly Bibles for Beach Club donor? KiDs Beach Club® could not give every child in every Beach Club a Bible without your continued support. We have placed an order for another 10,000 Bibles for the 2016-17 school year as a result of the generous support shown at last month’s Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction. We continue to add more Beach Clubs and more kids in our current clubs and everyone will continue to receive a brand new Bible to call their own.

KiDs Beach Club® is going to have a presence at both the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting and the SBC Pastors’ Conference in St. Louis in June. KBC is one of the sponsors for the Pastors’ Conference and will have a booth at the Annual Meeting to share its mission and vision with a national audience for the first time.

Churches who partner with KiDs Beach Club® have an immediate connection point for evangelism teams that accelerates open doors within a community and allows churches to focus on the people. Specifically, it helps churches connect people back to their church and into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

One of the people who caught that vision is Byron McWilliams, the lead pastor at First Baptist Church of Odessa.

“When I first heard the logic for utilizing KiDs Beach Club® as pre-evangelism for Can We Talk, I immediately saw it as a blend of two fantastic strategies with great Kingdom potential,” McWilliams said. “Both CWT and KBC are proven to powerfully impact ‘lostness’ as stand alone ministries, but the blessings magnify when they are used together.”

He saw this firsthand when he visited a Beach Club kid and his mother in 2014 with a Can We Talk team at First Euless. KBC opened the door to visit Felicia and Fabian in their Bedford, Texas home. God used CWT to open this young mother’s heart to the Gospel.

“In just minutes, Felicia prayed to receive Christ and plans were made to follow up with Fabian, McWilliams said. “After this visit, if I had any doubts about utilizing CWT and KBC as complimentary ministries they were long gone. If you are seeking qualified contacts for your CWT participants to visit, KBC is a proven source that will provide them. 

“It’s a key piece of what we do in our overall evangelism strategy at First Odessa because it works!”

It’s our understanding that he’s going to share portions of this story during his address at the SBC Pastors’ Conference, which leads up to the SBC Annual Meeting.

KiDs Beach Club®, which is headquartered in Texas, has 44 clubs in seven states outside of Texas. The ministry has recently been developing a national growth strategy while continuing to expand throughout Texas. 

A KBC donor who is passionate about the ministry’s national expansion has fully funded the efforts to put KiDs Beach Club® in front of a national audience at the SBC Annual Meeting and to be a sponsor of the SBC Pastors’ Conference.

The end of the year is approaching quickly and some Beach Clubs have already wrapped up for the year. We’re thankful that we’ve had the opportunity to minister to 11,754 children this year and for the 2,525 volunteers to make these moments possible.

Here is a look at how some Beach Club are celebrating their final meeting this year:


First Baptist Church Highlands, Highlands, Texas
Victoria Walker Elementary and Highlands Elementary
First Baptist Church Highlands invited the Beach Club kids and their families to attend a Sunday church service. The kids sang one of their KBC songs to lead the congregation in worship. KBC volunteers also were recognized. After church, KBC clubbers and their families joined the church family for a carnival complete with hot dogs and clowns.

Faith Baptist Church, Bartlett, Tenn.
Bon Lin Elementary
Fifth graders moving on to middle school received a 4x6-inch scripture frame and a 4x3-inch graduation sticker for the inside cover of their Bible. All students received a "the love of Jesus is so sweet!" card with candy.

First Baptist Church, Kemp, Texas
Kemp Intermediate
First Baptist Church in Kemp threw Beach Club kids a pizza party on the last week of club. They recognized kids who have been part of KBC for all three years the club has been meeting, awarding each kid with a KBC t-shirt.

Calvary Baptist Church, Clearwater, Fla.
Eisenhower Elementary
Special awards were given to kids who had perfect attendance since coming to KiDs Beach Club®. Seven children in the club had not missed a day since joining KBC. One child has been to every club meeting for two years!  Another eight clubbers have only missed a day or two. Praise to the Lord for these faithful children!

Chris Bridges, the pastor of children’s ministry at Calvary Baptist Church, came to club to answer questions the kids had submitted in previous weeks. He presented each child with a devotional book and announced the church would provide scholarships for any KBC kids who want to attend their church’s summer camp.

Brown Missionary Baptist, Southaven, Miss.
Southaven Intermediate
During a Saturday evening service, the church baptized nine students who had made Jesus their Forever Friend at Beach Club this year. It was a great time of worship and fellowship between the church families and these Beach Club families. Click the video below to hear pastor Jeffery Jackson tell the story about how he will baptize an entire family thanks to one girl's participation in KiDs Beach Club®.

Jeffery_Jackson_Brown_Missionary_Baptist from KiDs Beach Club on Vimeo.

For many kids and volunteers, KiDs Beach Club® is the highlight of their week. While it’s hard to say goodbye at the end of every school year, we trust that the seeds of faith that were planted will take root and that kids will continue to follow Jesus like they were taught in clubs.

“The KBC Study Bibles that were placed in kids’ hands are now in their homes and the ministry of KiDs Beach Club continues,” said Cindy Leach, the KBC executive director. “God’s Word has the power to change lives, even the lives of kids. We pray that through the summer kids will spend time reading their Bibles and listening to God.”

To our sixth graders and others who are leaving Beach Club for a final time, we’re grateful KiDs Beach Club® has been a part of your lives and pray those seeds of faith that were planted will help guide you as you head to your next school and beyond. To the rest of you, we are already looking forward to our first meeting next year. It’s hard to believe summer is just around the corner. Enjoy it! Be on the lookout for our Summer Reading Plan so you can keep reading and studying your KBC Explorer’s Study Bible.

It's not too late to share what your Beach Club is doing or has done to celebrate its final meeting of the year. Email your story to news@beachclubs.org or tag #KiDsBeachClub on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Fresh off an amazing show of support at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction that saw KiDs Beach Club® raise enough money to purchase another 10,000 Bibles, the ministry is inviting you to become a monthly Bible donor.

Monthly funds are an important piece of the operational puzzle that helps put a Bible in the hands of every child in every one of our 170 Beach Clubs. KBC purchases Bibles in bulk and there is a one-time cost to accomplish that endeavor.

“We actually purchase in quantities of 10,000 in order to keep our costs down and be effective stewards of the resources that have come to us through God’s grace and the generous giving of our donors,” said Paul McCollum, the vice president for school relations and development at KiDs Beach Club®. “However, we do not distribute them as quickly as we receive them. Warehouse costs recur monthly, and like a dripping faucet, continue to erode the operational costs throughout the year.”

Monthly giving provides continued support to gird the budget against the recurring costs of warehousing. Many clubs are scattered across the state and country and require additional shipping costs to get the Bibles into the hands of the children. These costs also occur at varying times of the year depending on when clubs schedule their Great Treasure Day throughout the year. KBC tries to make these shipments in bulk to alleviate overages in shipping rates and fees, but as clubs grow, Bibles get sent as needed.

“All praise to God for this growth,” McCollum said. “There is nothing glamorous or exciting in operational costs. It’s kind of like putting in a water line for a fire hydrant. You spend the money and don’t really get to see the results – until a crisis gets averted.

"That is the same with the KBC Explorer’s Study Bibles. There’s nothing exciting about warehousing and shipping Bibles – until a child receives one and for the first time in his or her life understands that there is a God who loves them and wants desperately to be their Forever Friend!” 

Becoming a monthly Bibles donor is an incredibly simple process. Click here, enter an amount and then be sure to click the “Monthly” button under Frequency. You can even select what time of the month you want to have your payment processed. There are other ways to give, too, including weekly, semi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to watch the video about how God was at work to start a KiDs Beach Club® at Floyd Elementary School you definitely want to take about 10 minutes and watch it now. It’s simply incredible to watch how God orchestrated the events that came together to impact children’s lives in Balch Springs, Texas.

Beach Club at Floyd Elementary from KiDs Beach Club on Vimeo.

Alex Gonzales, the pastor at Hickory Tree Baptist Church, Dr. Tonya Mamantov, the principal at Floyd Elementary, and Lauren Reed, a teacher at Floyd Elementary in Mesquite Independent School District, all took a step out in faith.

They joined Paul McCollum, the vice president of school relations and development for KiDs Beach Club®, on stage after the crowd at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction watched their story. It was a brief question and answer session to further explain the circumstances that lead to the formation of the club. 

“What was impressed upon me through this was that God truly called and gifted each one these people and uniquely placed them in a time and place for His purpose,” McCollum said. “And, most importantly, they were faithful and obedient to the call and they used their gifts right where they were placed.”

Lauren responded to a call to prayer. Dr. Mamantov responded to a call to lead boldly and uprightly. Pastor Gonzales responded to a call to go and make disciples. A KBC donor gave generously as God led him to give from God’s provisions to him not knowing how the gift was going to be used.

As each of these individuals led out in faith in their various roles, other faithful stewards followed.

“We learned of positive culture change in the school,” McCollum said. “We learned of church growth and a renewed urgency of ministry. We heard from volunteers, who feel loved and needed and who have found significance in the work they are doing. We saw children learning God’s word and worshipping a Savior many never knew prior to their KiDs Beach Club experience. And the result has been God using each person and circumstance to bring about His glory.

“For me, this was Christ’s story reinforced by what the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:10-11, which says, ‘As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God… so that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.’” 

God could do it without us, but He has given us the grace and opportunity to be partners with Him in His plan to reach a lost and dying world through His church.

Together, we can connect kids to Christ and put Bibles in their hands!      

What a celebration April 16 at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction. We celebrated the 10th year of KiDs Beach Club® and applauded how powerfully God has blessed this ministry since it was founded.

A total of 12,255 volunteers have helped connect 66,830 children to Christ and you have helped put 40,269 Bibles in their hands. As of the day before the big night, a total of 6,954 children had made Jesus their Forever Friend.

KiDs Beach Club® is providing children with hope and pointing them in the right direction. That should be celebrated. In an era when people are out to prove God to be wrong, KBC is walking children and their families down the right path. 

It’s a path that is not always easy to find, especially in a society that is trying to go forward without Biblically based Christian values. That is why 62 percent of all children who attend a Beach Club do not have a church home.

“These kids are not getting the Truth at home,” said Chris Krok, a talk-show host on WBAP Radio in Dallas, who delivered the keynote speech at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction. “They’re not seeing God or Christ in their homes.” This is your one shot. This is your chance to do something for them to bust the mold.”

He shared numbers with the crowd to prove this point: 

• 73 percent of African American kids are born out of wedlock
• 54 percent of Hispanic kids are born out of wedlock
• roughly 30 percent of white kids are born out of wedlock

He said that these kids who are born out of wedlock and raised in a single-parent home are more likely to go to jail, be on welfare or drugs and are more likely to drop out of school. They’re also more likely to have sex before marriage. What a vicious cycle!

Krok, whose own kids attended Beach Club, had nothing but praise for the ministry and its supporters.

“What do you think this program is doing for this lost generation,” Krok asked rhetorically. “What kind of life preserver is being thrown to them? You should consider re-naming this ministry ‘Kids Life Preserver’ or ‘Kids Life Saver,’ but that might scare some away!”

He encouraged everyone to step out in obedience like the pastor at Hickory Tree Baptist Church did; like the leaders at Floyd Elementary School did with that pastor’s help to start a Beach Club at the school earlier this year to help bring hope to a community that faces many worldly challenges he mentioned during his speech. 

What KiDs Beach Club® is doing in the lives of children at Floyd, throughout Texas and around the country is a result of people stepping out in obedience to the Lord. 

Equipping these kids with the word of God and arming each child with a Bible, KiDs Beach Club® is making a difference and we couldn’t do it without your help!

“You may not have the time, but have the money,” Krok said during the event held exclusively to raise money for Bibles. “You may not have the money, but have the time. Pour out yourself into a drink offering for the Lord.”

As a result of the Benefit Dinner & Auction, KiDs Beach Club® will place an order in May for another 10,000 Bibles so that kids will receive a copy of God’s word when clubs resume next fall. That number can grow even more if more people become a valuable monthly Bible donor. Click here to support us in this unique way to support KiDs Beach Club® and throw a life preserver to kids and families who need us most.