Blog

Three moms and their daughters in Grapevine, Texas had a small Bible study and rotated having it at each other’s house every week. Their kids told their friends about it and more girls and their moms came. It eventually became too big to be held in houses, so they looked into other options.

The girls found out about Beach Club from other girls who they took dance lessons with. Those girls were always working on their Hang 10 pages or trying to memorize the memory link verse before practice, so one of the moms, Lisa Floyd, researched it. Another one the moms, Sara Roach, heard about KiDs Beach Club® when she attended another church and heard great things about it.

Floyd said to the other moms that “it’s time to bring KiDs Beach Club® to the school.”

Fast forward to today and not only do they have a Beach Club at Heritage Elementary, but they have maxed out for their space at 60 kids!

All of those kids now get to hear the word of God taught every week in their public elementary school and receive a free Bible; all thanks to three obedient mothers who took the initiative and saw the importance of God’s word being taught to their children.

The kids love it and love learning about the Bible. Watch this video to see!

If you attend Beach Club, you already know you can have your Bible and talk about your faith at school, but we hope you will participate in a nationwide celebration this Thursday.

Thursday Bring Your Bible to School Day, the day thousands of students across the country share God’s hope and celebrate religious freedom by doing something simple, yet powerful: they bring their Bibles to school and talk about it with friends!

Here are a few tips to have fun while being obedient to God on Bring Your Bible to School Day:

Participate with your friends
Doing something is always easier with support, so gather your closest friends and bring your Bibles to school together. Make it cool! Laugh, have fun, take pictures with your Bible. Faith it until you make it. The impact you can make at your school is bigger than one person’s opinion.

Make a game out of it
You and your friends can challenge each other to see who can have the most gospel conversations at school that day. The loser buys the winner lunch, or ice cream from their favorite place. You and your friends can come up with the terms, just have fun with it.

You only have an audience of one
God is the only one we really have to please, so keep that in mind when you face opposition. The world is temporary, but the kingdom of God is forever. God will bless you for being bold in your faith and bringing your Bible to school. Remember you are storing up your treasures in heaven. A few hard days on earth are nothing compared to spending eternity in heaven with the Lord.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
James 1:2-3

God didn’t say we wouldn’t face troubles or “if” we face troubles. He said you will have trouble and, when your face trials. There will be opposition for some bringing your Bible, but as it says in James, consider it pure joy!

To make your day go smoother, we found out what you can and can’t do at school.

You can:
Bring your Bible
Read your Bible during free reading time
Pray at school
Share scripture with friends
Show love to everyone, just like Jesus did
Participate in Christian themed events

You can’t:
Disrupt instruction time
Harass other students
Ignore school policies

God called us to be the salt and light of the world, but remember too much salt can ruin your meal and too much light can be blinding. A little bit goes a long way. Don’t force it. The most important thing is to love your friends like Christ loves you and share about the Bible as you feel led. If they see you loving well and see that you read the Bible they will make the connection.

We are praying with you on Bring Your Bible to School Day and can’t wait to see the impact you make on your campus! Post pictures on social media and use the hashtags #BringYourBible and #BringYourKBCBible.

For more information about Bring Your Bible to School day, visit bringyourbible.org.

Another exciting year of Beach Club is under way and we couldn’t be more excited your children are a part of it. In club, they are hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, learning character through the lens of scripture and receiving a Bible of their very own.

KiDs Beach Club® is an innovative ministry established to mobilize local churches to go outside their walls in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of their communities. Our vision is to provide every third- through sixth-grade boy and girl a Jesus experience within the culture of his or her public school. Principals, teachers and even superintendents are telling us that they are seeing a change in the culture of the schools that have a Beach Club.

This year, we are in a record 180 schools, sponsored by 149 church partners in 11 states. The local church in your community cares about you and your family enough to invest its time and energy by partnering with KiDs Beach Club® in your neighborhood public school.

KiDs Beach Club® partners with local churches in order to:

• Impact Communities for the Kingdom
• Share Christ in Public School
• Foster Life Change in the Hearts of Children
• Connect Families to a Church Family

Since our ministry began in 2003, more than 18,000 volunteers have dedicated themselves to showing children the love of Christ every week in our public schools. To God’s glory, more than 8,300 children have come to make a profession of faith to have a relationship with Jesus Christ while in Beach Club.

Since 2003, KiDs Beach Club® has handed out Bibles to 55,212 children in public schools. In 2015, we started Great Treasure Day to give a KBC Explorer’s Study Bible to every child in every Beach Club and since then, more than 34,000 Bibles have been distributed to kids at no cost to them, their parents or our partnering churches. We have been blessed by group of donors who passionately believe in getting Bibles into the hands of children and into their homes.

By connecting kids to Christ and putting Bibles in their hands, KiDs Beach Club® makes it possible for your local public school and your local church to work together in supporting kids and families like yours.

To find out which church partners with KiDs Beach Club® to sponsor the club at your child’s school, please visit kidsbeachclub.org/find-a-club. If your family does not already have a church home, we hope you’ll consider attending the church that sponsors your child’s Beach Club.

Also at that link, you also can find the dates your child’s Beach Club meets, the date of Great Treasure Day, who to contact with questions and even a link to become a volunteer in your child’s Beach Club. We have parents who serve in our clubs and you’re welcome to attend Beach Club any time. We just ask that you reach out to the club leader ahead of time so he or she can provide your name to the school.

If you have any questions about Beach Club, please check out our website at kidsbeachclub.org. We also hope you will connect and engage with us on social media. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @KiDsBeachClub. We’re always looking for images and video of your kids in Beach Club or with their KBC Study Bible, so we hope you’ll share those with us.

We pray we are able to make a positive impact in your child’s life and to be a tremendous blessing to you and your family.

Thank you to everyone who participated in North Texas Giving Day! Your support is valuable to our ministry and is helping connect kids to Christ and put Bibles in their hands.

Because of your participation, we were able to raise $37,409, surpassing our ambitious goal of $30,000. Several of you made gifts on the North Texas Giving Day website, but others donated to our website, mailed in checks or joined us at Texas Roadhouse in Bedford and Mesquite, Texas, where a portion of that night’s sales were donated back to KiDs Beach Club®.

Of course, that total also includes a generous gift of $10,000 that was provided to us by a passionate donor of our organization to be used as a matching gift, helping double our first $10,000 given to KiDs Beach Club® that day.

Your gifts allow our volunteers to share the gospel with kids, teach them biblical character and provide them with their very own copy of God's word, which often times is their very first Bible. In some instances, it's the only Bible in a child's home.

We had a full slate of activities on North Texas Giving Day that started at 4:30 a.m. with a small group representing KiDs Beach Club® at Victory Park in downtown Dallas and ended after 10 p.m. when Jack Terrell, our president and founder, wrapped up an appearance on a local radio station. Watch Now!

If you tuned in to News 8 Daybreak on WFAA-TV that morning, you probably saw our motley crew wearing Hawaiian shirts near a guy holding a KBC surf board and with pictures of kids showcasing their KBC Bibles. Shortly after that show ended, Tammy Terrell, Jack’s wife and our club relations director, appeared on Facebook Live with WFAA and told them all about our ministry that is making a difference in the lives of kids, their families and their communities and how we are trying to change the culture of public schools. Throughout the day, we shared video from other staff members and went live on Facebook on multiple occasions, including one time that joined Jack and Tammy Terrell inside the Beach Club where they serve at Viridian Elementary in Arlington, Texas.

We mentioned Jack’s appearance on the radio, but earlier that night, Dr. David Vroonland, the superintendent of schools for the Mesquite Independent School District, joined the Chris Krok Show on 820 AM WBAP in Dallas to discuss his desire to have a Beach Club in all 33 of the elementary schools in his district. Listen Now!

Vroonland, who will be a featured speaker at the next Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner April 13, 2019 at Texas Motor Speedway, understands the importance that faith and love play in the development of a children. He says they are just as important as a quality education, which his district is providing.

While children may feel loved at home, some may not. He says that what KiDs Beach Club® provides for kids who attend our after-school program in the 19 schools in Mesquite, as well as 161 other clubs across the country, is a foundation of faith. Those kids also feel the love of volunteers, who weekly model the love of Christ.

We encourage you to visit our Facebook page to hear his full interview or to watch Jack Terrell’s interview on the Chris Krok Show. All of our North Texas Giving Day content on Facebook is still available.

Your generosity is appreciated. In times like these, the work you're helping us do is more important than ever. Thank you for helping us make an eternal impact in the lives of children.

If you did not have a chance to make a gift on North Texas Giving Day, please know you can support us anytime at kidsbeachclub.org/give.

Great Treasure Day, the day every child in every Beach Club receives his or her own KBC Explorer’s Study Bible, is coming to your club very soon. Actually, a small number of clubs has already had Great Treasure Day. This fall, Great Treasure Day will take place in a record 180 Beach Clubs. This fall, it’s highly likely we will hand out the 60,000th Bible since our ministry began in 2003.

God’s word is the greatest treasure anyone could ever find, and it is the foundation on which KiDs Beach Club® is built. We want every child to have their very own KiDs Beach Club® Bible to read, study, share and grow from, making a daily and eternal impact on their lives. This is a fun and exciting day for all involved.

Great Treasure Day is celebrated differently by every Beach Club and usually takes place during the fifth club meeting each year. Most of those will fall in the month of October though some Beach Clubs will celebrate their Great Treasure Day in November. 

Bibles are provided to our partnering churches at no additional cost to them. This is because of our many great Bibles for Beach Club donors, whether they give at the annual Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner, on North Texas Giving Day or as a monthly Bible donor. 

We want to encourage everyone to take photos and videos during their Great Treasure Day and to share them with us at KiDs Beach Club®. And when those Bibles make it into your home, we want to hear what getting a Bible means to your kids and what giving a Bible to a child means to you!

Please share your pictures, videos and stories on social media by using the hashtags #KiDsBeachClub and #GreatTreasureDay. We hope you’ll follow us and engage with us in our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram communities.

If social media isn’t your thing, you can email us anytime at news@kbcmail.org so that we can communicate it on our blog or in the monthly Surf Report e-newsletter.

To see when Great Treasure Day will be held in your child’s Beach Club, visit that club’s page on our website, which can be found by clicking kidsbeachclub.org/find-a-club.

Children who attend Beach Club already bring their Bible to school on the day their club meets, but KiDs Beach Club® is encouraging everyone to bring their Bible with them to school another special day; Bring Your Bible to School Day is Thursday, October 4. 

Bring Your Bible to School Day is an annual, nationwide, religious-freedom initiative for students from elementary school all the way up to college level. It was created by Focus on the Family to equip and empower Christian students to understand their religious freedoms and express their biblical beliefs in a way that shows the love of Jesus.

Participation in Bring Your Bible to School Day is student organized and initiated, as well as protected under both First Amendment and Equal Access rights. These are the same rights that allow KiDs Beach Club® to be held on public school campuses.

In recent years, you may have noticed the increase in news headlines about students being told they can’t engage in simple religious-freedom activities, such as reading their Bible personally during free time or praying during lunch. That’s why it’s so important to come alongside our students and encourage them that they do still have religious-freedoms protected under the United States Constitution–and they don’t have to be ashamed of or hide their deeply held religious beliefs.

Our Beach Club kids know they can have their Bible at school and read it during quiet time. They enjoy reading it before school, in the library, hallway, cafeteria and even together on the playground.

They are taught how to share their faith and pray with their classmates. These religious freedoms are protected. 

On Bring Your Bible to School Day, thousands of students across the country will take the lead on their campuses to celebrate religious freedom and share God’s hope with peers by taking a simple action: Bringing their Bible to school!

We hope all Beach Club kids will participate and we encourage you to your KBC Study Bible with you to school that day. If you can take a picture of your child with his or her KBC Bible at school and share it with us using the hash tags #BringYourBible and #MyKBCBible we would love to see those pictures!

To learn more about what you can do to support the students’ efforts and help them get the word out, please visit bringyourbible.org. They have resources for parents and churches to help you share the event with your students. They also have videos of students just like yours sharing their story of bringing their Bible to school. They even have explanations about myth vs. fact regarding students’ legal rights. 

I Timothy 4:12 says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” And that’s what the Bring Your Bible website seeks to equip students to do.

Parental support for students participating in Bring Your Bible to School Day will be absolutely key since it does require courage in this culture of spiritual relativism to acknowledge the existence of redemptive truth. So, we hope you will surround your student participant with prayer and encouragement as they participate in the event.