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Alexander the Great, known as the world’s greatest empire builder had his target on Persia.  Two barriers to achieving his goal of conquering were present: the Greeks were less in number when compared to the other army and the Persians had the most powerful naval fleet in the world.  Thinking that his men would run away when realizing the poor odds of winning, Alexander burned his boats.  There was no return.  All that was left was to fight and conquer… so they did.

Uncertainty, doubt, fear, and hopelessness are feelings that usually paralyze us.  Frequently, we are trying to achieve a goal or change something with which we are not comfortable.  We strive for more.  In fact, this comes naturally for us as creatures of a Mighty God.  He created us with a purpose.  We are part of His plan for the world.  Nonetheless, sometimes our human thinking prevents us from seeing what God sees; an immense frame of colors with carefully delineated figures and trails called His plan for our life.  For some, this vision has been shattered by unhealthy family relationships, hurtful memories, past experiences, and failures. … so we fear.

Scripture tells us in Mark 5:25-34 about a woman who suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.  Numerous doctors had seen her and all her money was spent on them, yet her disease worsened and there was no hope for her cure.  But in her heart, deep in her soul and spirit she was not defeated.   This can’t be over! Just imagine! After twelve years of suffering she still expected something to happen.  She knew Jesus was coming.  She believed He would bring her healing. The odds were against her; she was a woman and an “unclean” one at that.   It was going to be difficult for her to get to Jesus with that many people, and there was no more hope from the experts who had treated her.  On her way to encountering Jesus, this woman “burned” her fears, her pain; both physical and emotional, her doubts, and the words of hopelessness.  She burned the word impossible.  She knew that without “burning” all of these, she could not get to the source of her healing, to the source of new life. “Oh, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed”, she thought to herself. She did and she was.  Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.” What a moment for that woman! What a great way to start a new life! Her faith guided her to conquer.

As Alexander the Great and other great conquerors, we will come to a historic moment in our life where we need to “burn our boats”.  The “boats” of conformity, fear, the “I can’t do this” boat, the boat of “the old ways were better”, the boats of self-pity and frustration.  Think for a moment. Give a name to your boat.  Start this new year by burning your boats on the shore.  Leaving no way back!  Let the power of the Holy Spirit burn the barriers that are precluding you from living the way God wants you to live.

We are pleased to announce Cindy Leach as the new Executive Director of KiDs Beach Club®.

Cindy will spearhead the continuing implementation of the mission, programs, and activities of KiDs Beach Club®. She will oversee organizational operations to ensure ministry efficiency, quality of service, and cost-effective management. She will also provide strong leadership development strategies for our Area Directors.

Cindy comes to us with vast ministry experience and a proven track record of success in the area of leadership development.  Prior to joining KiDs Beach Club®, Cindy served the past 8 years at North Richland Hills Baptist Church in North Richland Hills, Texas as the Minister to Children and Women. She also served at First Baptist Midland, Texas as Minister of Childhood Education from 1999 to 2005.

Cindy is a writer for LifeWay and Childhood Ministry Publishing. Her projects include: Bible Studies for Life, ZIP for Kids and FLYTE. She is also an Associated Certified Coach (ACC) and serves as a Regional Representative in Women's Ministry with the SBTC.

Cindy grew up in Bedford, Texas and attended FBC Euless where at the age of ten she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She attended Hardin-Simmons University where she met her husband Jason. Cindy finished her education at Dallas Baptist University, receiving a bachelor's degree in Christian Ministry, while serving as Children's Ministry Associate at Hampton Road Baptist Church in DeSoto, Texas. Cindy and Jason have two daughters, Melissa and Carrie.

We are confident Cindy Leach will be strong leader and an invaluable asset for meeting our growth goals and objectives as well as for the entire KiDs Beach Club® team.

Welcome aboard Cindy!

Recently, I was exposed to a new and fresh strategy as it relates to church health.  John Meador, Sr. Pastor of First Baptist Euless, is leading his church to build "bridges" to those in his community that have no church home.  One way they are doing this is through their partnership with KiDs Beach Club®.  First Euless sponsors 11 Beach Clubs and by utilizing the KBC Online Management System (KOMS) they are identifying hundreds of Beach Club families that have indicated they are not connected to a church. 

Pastor Meador has trained and mobilized multiple teams of three that go out each week to ask the simple question, "Can We Talk?"  Then they begin building bridges. Since launching "Can We Talk?" over 250 visits have been made with 32 adults coming to know Christ as savior this semester alone. Pastor Meador explained that KBC allows this bridge building with the families to be a natural process due to the connection already in place with the children attending their Beach Clubs.

Blessings,

Jack Terrell
President & Founder

Sidney and Kim Galloway are part of the Beach Club volunteer team from First Baptist Orlando that serves at Catalina Elementary School.  Their initial thought was that Sidney would help out some and be at Club as much as possible, but he would primarily take care of their business as needed on club days since Kim was the Club Leader.  

Sidney and Kim work together as full-time residential realtors (www.sidneygalloway.com). Both of them preparing for and serving at Beach Club meant they would not be covering their work for part of Wednesdays. After their first club meeting, which was the very first, ever, at Catalina, they agreed that the Beach Club commitment must have priority.  It was a greater; better Kingdom investment of their time, they said.  When it came down to it, when all was said and done, there was no "loss" on the business end of things.

Sidney and Kim shared that they were recently reading a devotional (Stories of Faith by Ruth A. Tucker) and it relayed a great story about a young D.L. Moody chasing down a child who had been skipping out of the Bible club he was leading.  This chase took him through a saloon and eventually lead him to the child's tenement, where he met the child's mother.  There is so much more to that story, but what was left lingering in the hearts of the Galloways was this, "Oh, that we'd have that same passion and same love for all the children."

Sidney and Kim are very excited about this new school year and are both serving again at the Catalina Elementary Beach Club.

It is that time of year again, temperatures are dropping, kids are back in school, Friday night means high school football and yes, Beach Clubs are back! We have had a tremendous summer with a buzz of Beach Club activities around parks, swimming pools and baseball fields.  We are starting up with 110 Beach Clubs in 49 school districts this fall in 7 different states. Praise God!

One thing I do in the Beach Club process is getting everything set up for us to be able to enter each school campus.  Each school district is different and has its own steps for setting up a lease agreement so that outside organizations, such as KiDs Beach Club®, can  come onto the campus to do after school clubs.

Even though some districts may be a little more difficult than others, we are still standing on Revelation 3:8 that says, "I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it."  We believe that God's timing is perfect and that when He wants us to go into a new district or school He will open that door for us to be able to share the gospel with more students. It is our job to walk through those doors boldly and not in fear as it says in Psalm 27:1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear?"

I love this time of year because we get to see shining new faces as well as some faces of kids we've grown to know and love. We also get to begin to see the amazing things that God is going to do this year through these clubs.  One club began with 11 kids asking Jesus to be their Forever Friend!

Come and join us in reaching kids for Christ.

May God Bless Your Day, 

Beach Clubber, Dakota Glidewell, is a hometown hero.  On Friday, August 2, 2013 at approximately 12:45pm, Dakota went outside his home in Coppell, Texas and noticed smoke coming from his next-door neighbor’s house.  He immediately went back inside and alerted his family and the Glidewells called 911.  The family lost many belongings, but all family members, including their pets, were not harmed.  Thankfully Dakota noticed the fire and acted quickly before it could have turned deadly.

Dakota also exhibited outstanding character and generosity by handing the homeowner $72, all the money he had.  When asked why he gave the money he said it was because he wanted to.  The homeowner commented, “This little eight year old kid gave me all the money he had because he realized that we were in need.  That touched my heart because that kind of kindness is not something seen too often, even amongst adults.”

Dakota attends KiDs Beach Club at Wilson Elementary, sponsored by Coppell Bible Fellowship.

This story was brought to our attention as reported in the August 9 edition of the Citizens’ Advocate by Behdad Jaffri.