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We shared this story on our blog about three years ago, but wanted to share it again because we think the KBC Study Bibles is the perfect Christmas gift!

Christmas is just around the corner. Do you need a gift idea for the person or group of people, like your coworkers, who you just don’t know what to buy? 

The legal assistants at Dawson & Sodd LLP, a law firm with offices in Dallas and Corsicana, came up with a great idea for their attorneys last Christmas.

“Last December, it came time to buy the attorneys Christmas gifts and they’re always hard to buy for,” Tanya Norris, a paralegal at the firm, told KiDs Beach Club® in an interview last winter. “We talked about donating money or our time to a charity that each one cares about. We were all trying to come up with ideas of which charity to donate to.

“It was funny because not more than 5-10 minutes after having that discussion with all the girls, I received an email from Beach Club. It was a few days before Giving Tuesday when I got that email so I just felt like that was God’s way of telling me that is what He would have us do. So we did that.”

In Tanya’s 18 years with the firm, she has seen how God has blessed the people there, saying that everyone has a story on how God has made an impact in their lives.

“There are a lot of organizations that are dear to everyone there and they all start with God and His blessings,” said Norris, whose son Cameron attended the Beach Club at Malakoff Elementary the last two years. “We decided the best way to repay that was to share the news of Him.”

Norris gave each one of the attorneys a letter at their annual Christmas party that pointed out how everyone at the firm had been blessed.

“We gave them my letter with the information from Beach Club,” Norris said. “No one really read it that night at the party. It was really in the days after when they gave us a thank you card or told us how much that meant and there wasn’t really a better gift that could have been given.

“Some of (the attorneys) said that was the best gift they ever received. We were just so glad to do that for them and they were so glad that we did.”

Cameron received one of the 24 weekly Bibles each club passed out before the organization started Great Treasure Day this past spring in response to the generous support of donors at the 2014 Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner and Auction.

The gift the legal assistants gave to their attorneys last Christmas went directly toward providing Bibles for every child at Malakoff Elementary when they held Great Treasure Day last February.

Cameron had already brought home his Bible last fall. It had been just a few weeks before the letter arrived from Beach Club encouraging donations for the Bibles for Beach Club program so that every child in every Beach Club can receive their own copy of God’s Word.

“I think it’s wonderful. Many kids would never have a Bible otherwise,” Norris said. “There are so many kids, there are so many families that need to have Jesus.

“It’s impossible to get into every home and share the Word with everyone who needs it, but it’s easy to donate some money, even enough money for one Bible or whatever you can donate. That Bible gets into that home and that child may pick it up and mom may pick it up or dad may pick it up, and it can change the entire families. You can just change their lives.” 

If you’re interested in giving KiDs Beach Club® Explorer’s Study Bibles this Christmas season, you can do that by clicking here. If you want to buy a Bible for a child in your life who does not attend Beach Club, you can do that in the Surf Shop.

Character education is an important element of KiDs Beach Club®. It’s one of the main factors why elementary school teachers, principals and superintendents love having Beach Club in their schools.

For each of the 24 weeks of Beach Club throughout the school year, KBC volunteers teach from a curriculum designed around a different character word that is taught through the lens of scripture.

Within the hour-long, after-school Bible clubs, that word is defined from a story in the Bible and paired with a Bible verse to further illustrate the character word. KBC volunteers emphasize the character trait during small group time as well as during the review game. By the time a child leaves Beach Club, they will have learned about that week’s character word at least six different ways.

The Beach Club at Janie Stark Elementary in Farmer’s Branch, Texas, reinforces character education a very unique way. Schalee Sanchez, the club leader at the first-year club sponsored by The Branch Church, was looking for a way to not only teach about character, but to have the kids put it into practice.

“One of the hardest things, as I was thinking as a leader, how are we going to encourage good behavior?” Sanchez asked herself. “What can I do to help the kids understand the value of not just learning about these character traits, but actually putting them in practice and doing the things that we’re learning?

Before Beach Club started in September, she was watching a surfing movie where each surfer’s score from the competition was put up on a leader board for spectators to see.

She thought, “Hey, we could do that.”

Each week during Beach Club, they have a segment when the entire group leaves their tables and come together to worship God and learn that week’s Bible story. Before that gets started, they recognize children who are displaying and practicing the character traits they are learning in Beach Club.

They put names up on a “leader board” and hand out small trinkets to those who are recognized. During the week of Great Treasure Day in October, five kids were recognized and were given lanyards with the words “I love Jesus” they could attach their KBC nametags to.

Those kids were singled out for living out patience/self-control, generosity, respect, helpfulness and courage. Sanchez mentioned how they each had displayed a trait while at Beach Club.

Just as educators embrace the emphasis on character education Beach Club provides, so, too, do our club leaders and volunteers.

“If we don’t teach these kinds of character traits, they’ll grow up to be adults who don’t know about being kind and haven’t practiced it,” Sanchez says. “All of these things have to be practiced. If a child goes through their entire life without having seen examples of these things shown to them and being given opportunities to practice them, then they’re going to become an adult who is not orderly, who is not respectful and who is not kind.”

Sanchez mentioned kindness, orderliness and respect as character words that are being taught and practiced in her Beach Club. They’re among the KBC list that also includes compassion, confidence, contentment, courage, dependability, determination, forgiveness, friendliness, generosity, honesty, humility, love, obedience, patience, responsibility, self-control and thankfulness.

Sanchez offers a different perspective about why teaching biblical character is important. She moved back to the United States about four years ago after serving with her husband and children as missionaries in Colombia. At that time, they were contemplating and praying about where their kids should go to school or if they were going to homeschool them.

“My heart was extremely burdened after seeing all of the things that happen in our public schools now,” she said. “As I began praying about that more and more, I really felt like God was saying, ‘I want to teach you to fight back, but in the right way.’ I really believe that KiDs Beach Club® is doing that. That KiDs Beach Club® is a way; that in a spiritual realm, the armies of God are being able to fight against the darkness and being able to shine His light in places that are dark.”

“We really felt called that God opened a door for our kids to come to school here and that His mission in that was for us to be a light.”

Our commitment to teach Christ-like character in Beach Club is the focus of our year-end fundraising campaign. Your financial support is crucial to our mission and vision and we could not do it without you. As you pray about which ministries fit your giving strategy as we close out 2018, we request that you ask the Lord if KiDs Beach Club® is one of those.

The year-end charitable giving season officially begins with Giving Tuesday – the global day of giving – the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. This year, that date is November 27. To lend your financial support to our ministry, you can give any time at kidsbeachclub.org/give.

KiDs Beach Club® enjoys telling great stories about what is happening in Beach Clubs across the country and we are thrilled to be able to recognize a school that we have been a part of for 12 years. Carroll Elementary in Southlake, Texas was recently ranked the No. 1 Best Public Elementary School in the state of Texas by Niche.com, a company out of Pittsburgh, Pa. that annually analyzes public data to form its rankings.

“It’s certainly a great honor and quite a surprise, but a happy surprise,” Stacy Wagnon, the school’s long-time principal said. “What it tells me is that our staff, students and parents are all hard workers. We’re going to do whatever it takes to stay No. 1.”

The data team at Niche.com combines national algorithms and statistical categories to compare, score and connect millions of data points that analyze U.S. schools and neighborhoods. Test results indicated that 97 percent of students at Carroll Elementary are proficient in both reading and math, but Wagnon believes her school has a tremendous sense of togetherness and community and credits having a Beach Club there as a major reason for that.

“Right now, I think we’re at an all-time high with 150-plus students that are attending,” she said. “Beach Club gives them an opportunity to connect with others outside school hours and I know that friendships have been birthed, not just with our students, but our parents as well. It just shows them another group of people who can love and teach them and who can be in their corner.”

Another reason Wagnon says she loves having Beach Club on here top-rated campus is for the character education that they get in each and every lesson throughout the school year and how it supplements the character education program they teach during school hours.

“I think what’s really cool is that I see it transferred into their daily lives,” she said. “We’re seeing a decrease in bullying and some of our discipline opportunities that we’ve had in the past. I think that’s definitely transferred into their daily school day.”

Seeing that type of behavioral change makes Carroll co-club leader Ashley Nadeau’s heart, proud.

“Absolutely, that’s the most important thing,” Nadeau said. “We are witnesses to Jesus no matter where we go, so we absolutely expect the kids to take what they learn out into the real world whether it is at school or at home. We definitely talk about it all the time – that we want to be the hands and feet of Jesus – and if the kids are doing that, it couldn’t get any better.”

Teaching kids to be the light in a dark world, using the character of Christ as the standard, is exactly why Angelique Schlosser loves being part of this after-school Bible club.

“I think that there’s a stigma about teaching the Bible in a public school, even though it’s after-school, and I’m not really sure why, but in this school, there’s absolutely no stigma,” Schlosser said. “It’s very warmly received we have over 150 children and this isn’t a very big school, so about a quarter of the kids in the entire school come to Beach Club.”

Schlosser has a small group of boys that she leads in Surf Team time each week.

“I think it’s extremely gratifying to be a surf team leader because you get to lead an active role in these children’s lives and you’re introducing the word of God into their lives,” she continued. “You’re providing a safe environment, a community for these children and they can open up to you about things they might not otherwise feel comfortable doing. That gives you the chance to pray over them; you can help protect them and you’re guarding their sweet hearts and I think that that’s really important for them socially and emotionally. The word of God just loves you and protects you here.”

A fact not lost on the school’s principal.

“I’m thankful for 121 Community Church which sponsors us,” Wagnon said. “I’m thankful for our parents, our volunteers and our staff who are all here to love on our kids.”

How much thought have you put into your Christmas shopping this year? May we suggest a KiDs Beach Club® Explorer’s Study Bible for your children, grand-children, nieces and/or nephews that don’t have a Beach Club to attend?

The kids in Beach Club love reading the KBC Study Bible because it features many fun illustrations and study applications that make it fun reading for pre-teens and teenagers. The KBC Study Bible also features colorful tip-in pages that feature topics such as how to read the Bible, how spend time with God, the 10 Commandments, different heroes of the Bible and where to read their stories. It also features the complete gospel presentation for those children who haven’t yet chosen to make Jesus their Forever Friend, Lord and Savior.

Giving the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible reminds us of a story in December of 2014 when a group of legal assistants chose to show honor the attorneys in their office by making a donation on their behalf to provide children in public elementary schools with their very own KBC Study Bibles. Some of the attorneys said it was the best gift they had ever received.

Share the blessing of God’s word this Christmas and purchase the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible on our website in the Surf Shop or if you prefer to make a donation to KiDs Beach Club® to help place Bibles in the hands of children next spring, you can give here.

You’ve heard us talk about how easy it is to support KiDs Beach Club® through AmazonSmile and several of you have signed up this year.

In fact, in 2018, Amazon has already sent us checks from your purchases totaling $471.14 which amounts to nearly two cases of Bibles that go to children in public elementary schools.

“What a treat it is to receive a check from Amazon and the joy it brings to know that folks are thinking of KBC when they make their purchases,” KBC Finance Director Angie Hughes said. “The beauty of this program is that when our donors shop Amazon for items they regularly purchase, they don’t have to pay even a penny more to contribute to the meaningful work of KiDs Beach Club®.”

When you use AmazonSmile to make your purchase, Amazon automatically donates 0.5 percent of your purchase to KiDs Beach Club® at no additional cost to you. The company says that 10 of millions of products on their site are eligible for AmazonSmile donations without any higher prices being passed on to the consumer.

If you haven’t had a chance to sign up yet, it only takes a minute. You can start by logging onto smile.amazon.com and login with your regular Amazon account.

Then select KiDs Beach Club® as your charity and start shopping. It’s as easy as that. The hardest part is remembering to do your shopping on smile.amazon.com instead of the regular website, amazon.com but that’s what bookmarks are for!

So, when you’re doing your Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas shopping this year, please shop AmazonSmile and support KiDs Beach Club®!

Glenna Hockensmith, a club relations specialist for KiDs Beach Club®, was meeting with the assistant principal at the Second Street School in Frankfort, Ky., telling him about Beach Club and explaining how it worked, when he stopped her midway through her presentation. He had just one question.

“Answer this question for me,” he asked. “Is the purpose of Beach Club to teach kids about Jesus?”

“Yes!” she replied. “Then you’re welcome in our school,” he responded.

It’s a story that Glenna’s husband Michael, also a Beach Club volunteer, told their congregation at Peaks Mill Christian Church before it kicked off another year of Beach Club this past August. The Hockensmith’s mission-minded church partners with KiDs Beach Club® to sponsor Beach Clubs at two schools.

It is great when educators welcome KiDs Beach Club® and understand the impact the ministry can have in their schools. Like that assistant principal in Kentucky, Dr. Amanda Martin, also a Christ follower, sees the tremendous benefit of having KBC on her campus.

After nearly 18 years working in Mesquite ISD in Texas, Martin is in her first year as the principal at Rugel Elementary having come from another school in the district that had a Beach Club. Dr. David Vroonland, the superintendent of Mesquite ISD, wants a Beach Club in every elementary school in his district.

“I love being the principal here at Rugel,” she said. “I love the kids. I love the staff and I really love the community and Beach Club has certainly added to that community and I don’t think Rugel would be the same this year without it.”

Martin really enjoys the character education component Beach Club provides her students.

“I love being able to talk to the students about those character words,” Martin said. “And really having that common language with the kids because of what they’re learning in Beach Club. Then I’m able to really talk with them about those words and developing character.

“What’s even so much more powerful is knowing that our kids are learning more about the Bible. Today is Great Treasure Day and our kids are going to get their very own Bibles.  [View Facebook photo gallery]

“I absolutely love it and to know that they get to read those Bibles in their spare moments is powerful as well and I love the fact that I get to be a part of that as a principal and I love that Dr. Vroonland supports this initiative and I love that we have his support. It’s just a fabulous opportunity to really minister to our students.”

We could not do that without your continued support and for that we say thank you! Together, we’re connecting kids to Christ and putting Bibles in their hands.

“We are planting seeds in these kids’ hearts,” said Aubrey Eudy, the children’s pastor at the Mesquite Church of Christ, which partners with KiDs Beach Club® to do Beach Clubs at Rugel and Rutherford elementary schools in Mesquite. “We are teaching Jesus in public schools. Some people never would’ve thought that that would be possible.”

KiDs Beach Club® has given Bibles to 3,361 kids so far this fall. Since 2003, when our ministry handed out its first Bible, nearly 59,000 kids have been given a copy of God’s word in our after-school Bible clubs. With your help, those numbers will continue to climb.

To donate to the Bibles for Beach Club program, click here.