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We just finished celebrating Great Treasure Day, the day in Beach Club that your child received a KiDs Beach Club® Explorer’s Study Bible.Thanks to our generous donors, more than 7,429 copies of God’s Word have been handed out this fall to every child in every one of our clubs at no cost to our partnering churches or the students. We hope you are enjoying the excitement of exploring the treasure of God’s Word along with your child.

Great Treasure Day isn’t just a one-time event. With thousands of new kids coming into Beach Club every year, we will be giving a Bible to each one of them, just like we did for your child. Would you please consider passing this blessing forward?

Join us by setting up a monthly recurring gift of any amount or give a one-time gift of $40 or more and we will send you a FREE KBC T-SHIRT. This special offer expires December 31, 2015, so give your gift today to support Bibles for Beach Club! With KiDs Beach Club® being an IRS qualified 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, all donations are tax deductible. Hurry and beat the deadline for this year.

Pay It Forward!

KidzMatter Magazine
By David Bivins 

“Her dad is in ICU and is not expected to make it.” These are words you never want to hear. But when it’s a child you’ve grown to know, you’d do anything to help bring comfort to her family. This opportunity to minister to the family didn’t directly happen through our church, but through our relationship with a local public school.

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Within a few miles of where I live, there are over 30 public elementary schools. Each school has hundreds of children who need to hear the Gospel and who long for a positive adult influence in their lives. The need is great, but how can we reach them when you can’t mention God at school? Or can you?

The truth is, my church is allowed to teach about God and salvation in a public elementary school near us. In fact, God is welcomed! Our church partners with KiDs Beach Club, an organization that equips local churches to impact communities by sponsoring weekly after-school programs on school campuses across the country. For one hour a week for 24 weeks each school year, volunteers from our church and community lead high energy games, provide snacks, give prizes, help kids memorize scripture, pray, and encounter Jesus on their school campus. A recent initiative through KiDs Beach Club puts a Bible in every child’s hand AND teaches them how to use it.

How is this possible? In 2001, the Supreme Court upheld the Equal Access Act, which states that if any group met on a public school campus, outside normal class hours, then no group could be discriminated against. It’s time for our churches to reach out into our communities — right into our public schools — to minister to children, their families, and administrative staff. When the mission of the Church is to tell others about Jesus, an effective strategy is to go to where they are. KiDs Beach Club empowers churches to do that.

KiDs Beach Club connects our church with a local school and supplies the curriculum, training, and Bibles. We even have an area director who provides guidance and walks us through the process. Our church supplies the volunteers, snacks, and prizes. Volunteers from our church build relationships with the kids and their families while leading activities each week. Sponsoring a club has been a great outreach opportunity since we often see kids at our church who attend KiDs Beach Club.

Our club leaders were invited to visit the hospital in a time of need and sadly went to the memorial service of one of our clubbers’ parents when he passed. We were able to be the Church for that family who didn’t have a church home. By venturing outside the walls of our building, we’re seeing God change the lives of kids in our community.

David Bivins is the Children’s Pastor at Fleming Baptist Church and enjoys woodworking and trail riding. He and his lovely wife Audrey and 20-month-old daughter live in Augusta, Georgia. This article was reprinted with permission from the November/December 2015 issue of KidzMatter Magazine.

Kids begin hearing about Great Treasure Day – the day they receive their very own Bible – when their Beach Club first meets. By the time a Beach Club meets for the fifth time, kids are beyond excited to receive their own copy of God’s Word.

“My students came in and they were just so excited,” Sheila Fortenberry, a third-grade teacher at Cooper North Elementary School in Lubbock, Texas, said the day her club passed out Bibles. “They came over to tell me, ‘Miss Fortenberry, today is the day we get our Bibles.’ It just melted my heart.” 

Children are definitely excited to get something they can call their own. A girl who received her first Bible at her Beach Club at South Athens Elementary School earlier this month couldn’t wait to start reading her Bible at home. 

“I’m definitely going to read my Bible,” she said. “I’m going to get a flashlight and sit up on the top bunk and read it because it’s awesome. I love the Bible and it helps me when I read it.” 

Aside from the reason kids embrace their new Bibles, school administrators, teachers and pastors love the benefits kids get from reading the Bible and the impact they can have on other students. 

“I think it’s incredible,” said the principal of one Beach Club school who asked to remain anonymous. “For them to have their own Bible so that they can read and study the Word of God is a precious gift that all children deserve and need. 

“I think Beach Club benefits our students in a lot of different ways. Our job is to instruct and help to mold them as a whole person and helping them develop their spirituality is a very important part of developing them as a whole person.”

A boy, who also attends the Beach Club at South Athens, likes his Bible for the messages from God and on life’s lessons.

“The reason I love the Bible is that I get to read about God,” the boy said. “I get to read his love message. When I have problems, there are people in the Bible who have experienced that so when I go to it and I read about how they handled my same problem, I can use their way to help me out. 

The KiDs Beach Club® curriculum promotes good character which is supported within the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible and its tip-in pages.

“The kids associate those character qualities with righteousness and not necessarily only with morality,” said Courtney Cain, a co-club leader at Hanby Elementary School in Mesquite, Texas. “I would hear the kids kind of speak up, ‘that’s not what you listen to (at Beach Club),’ so I definitely saw them being advocates for doing the right thing with the perspective of doing it to glorify God and not to just do the right thing.”

Cain, who taught at Hanby the previous four years before moving to a middle school this year to teach reading, thinks kids understand the impact and meaning of Great Treasure Day.

“I think that saying it was a Great Treasure Day is not over-exaggerating because for these kids in particular, being given anything just means so much to them,” Cain said. “Being given the Word of God obviously is the greatest thing you can give them. I don’t think they’re unaware of that. I think they will just value and remember this day.”

“One of the exciting things about handing out all these Bibles is that many of these students don’t even have access to a Bible, so to give them the opportunity to have a Bible to call their own, means a great deal,” said David Griffin, a pastor at Community Life Church in Forney, Texas. “How awesome is it that we get to come into a local school and get to hand out Bibles to people and they’re just longing to have those.”

The Beach Club at Hanby even gave away highlighters so kids could begin marking in their Bibles to identify their favorite verses and stories they learn about in Beach Club.

“One of the kids came up to me after he had been given his Bible and asked me, ‘do I really get to keep this?’ and that was probably my favorite moment,” Cain said. “Even after we had given the Bible to him, he really couldn’t believe it. He was just so excited to be reassured he was going to get to keep it.

“The spiritual implications are huge because the kids are literally being taken from death to life. We saw several kids come to know the Lord last year. Obviously, that is going to have an impact in the classroom.”

Great Treasure Day is the day that Beach Clubs hand out the KiDs Beach Club® Explorer’s Study Bible to every child in every Beach Club who has not already received one.

God’s Word is the greatest treasure on earth and it is the centerpiece of our ministry. We want every child to have their very own copy to read, study, share and grow from making a daily and eternal impact on their lives.

Most of the 164 beach clubs will hold their Great Treasure Day on the fifth week of their club. While schedules vary, most will take place this month. Some Beach Clubs, like the one at Shady Oaks Elementary School in Hurst, Texas, have already had Great Treasure Day. 

“The kids have been counting the days since we started” said Suzette McCash, the club leader at Shady Oaks, which distributed their Bibles October 8. “We told them on day one that in three weeks we would have Great Treasure Day and that they would get their own Bible.”

There are countless benefits to kids receiving their own Bible.

“Teachers tell us the kids open their Bibles in class and read their Bibles there,” said McCash, who has served as the club leader at Shady Oaks for all 10 years of KiDs Beach Club®. “In this day and age, you just would be surprised that could happen, but that way, they get to share with their friends who Jesus is. That is our main goal. We want them to know the Bible is a great treasure. That it is the true Word of God and that He loves them.”

Another positive is that KiDs Beach Club® may be putting a Bible in a home for the first time. 

“I think it is a good thing that we can give to know that these children are putting Bibles in their home,” McCash said. “Some of them may have never had a Bible in their home. There might be parents that are looking at these Bibles that have never opened one before. Hopefully, that is what is happening.

“We have a brother and sister here that came from Beach Club to join as members our church. The mother is an active member now. So it has just been an all-around good (experience). How can you go wrong when you put the Word of God in someone’s hands? It’s a Great Treasure Day every day when they can walk away with a Bible. I thank Beach Club for the opportunity to do this.

Perhaps the biggest positive is that kids are getting something they can call their own.

“They are excited. For one thing, it’s theirs,” McCash said. “Some of them don’t have any thing that is theirs and this Bible is theirs. The parents have been good to help them get the Bibles back and forth to school. I think they are just very proud that they are their own. We haven’t had many, if any, that have lost them.”

Before Great Treasure Day started last spring, each club was giving away just one Bible each week of the club. McCash said she noticed a big difference when KiDs Beach Club® began giving every child a Bible.

“When we were giving away one a week they would have it one week and lose it the next,” she said. “I think this has made a big difference, that we have made a big affair out of it and they see that they’re special because they get this Bible and they get to hold on to it. No one literally can take it away from them.”

Your support of our Bibles for Beach Club program helps put Bibles into the hands of every child in KiDs Beach Club®, helping connect them and perhaps their families to Christ. Thank you for your continued generosity.

KiDs Beach Club® is turning 10 years old in the spring and we will have a giant celebration on April 16, 2016 at the Hurst Conference Center in Hurst, Texas.

We will not only celebrate our birthday but we’ll also be celebrating more than 6,400 children who have put their trust in Christ in public elementary schools! By that time we will have also handed out more than 40,000 Bibles in Beach Clubs and will be raising funds to continue to provide God’s Word for every child in every club.

Would you consider volunteering for one of our committees?  We have opportunities to serve with the following committees: Silent Auction, Dine and Dash/Pick and Play, Decoration, Registration, Table Hosts/Ticket Sales, Sponsorship and Entertainment/Publicity.

Please contact Dave Crome at dcrome@beachclubs.org if you would like to be part of this great event.

Hey parents, have you contacted your church yet to encourage them to sign up for KiDs Beach Club® Summer Camp? Our camp will take place July 22-26 at the Latham Springs Camp and Retreat Center in Aquilla, Texas.

Right now, only KBC partnering churches have the opportunity to register groups for Summer Camp. That will change in November when spaces will be opened up to hundreds of additional churches. The camp is for all third through sixth grade children and you don’t have to attend beach club to join your church at camp.

“In my two decades of ministry experience, summer camp impacts kids like nothing else I’ve found,” KBC Executive Director Cindy Leach said. “There’s something about getting away from the daily routine and distractions of life that allow kids' minds and hearts to be open and to experience God in life-changing ways. That’s why I’m so excited about KiDs Beach Club Summer Camp.” 

A team of experienced camp leaders will provide a fun and impactful program that kids will remember for years to come. We’ve got all the details covered so your church volunteers can focus on your kids as they have a blast with traditional camp experiences while learning to share Jesus with their friends and become leaders on their school campus. 

“We’ll present Jesus to kids and prepare them to go back to their schools as leaders, sharing the truth of Jesus with their friends,” Leach said.

Why should your church choose KBC Summer Camp? Camp provides a unique opportunity for kids to get away from day-to-day distractions so they can hear the voice of God. Our prayer is that every child at KBC Summer Camp will experience God’s presence is a unique way and leave equipped to lead others to follow Christ.

Your church won’t want to miss this preteen camp experience with a KiDs Beach Club flavor. Contact your church and let them know you’re interested so it can reserve a space right now.

For more information vist: kidsbeachclub.org/summercamp