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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.

KiDs Beach Club® is grateful for our kids, parents, volunteers, educators, churches and other friends of our ministry. We are excited to hear how the Lord is working in your child’s life, in your family, in your Beach Club, in your school and in your church.

Your KBC stories and experiences not only inspire us at the corporate office but they also encourage others who are part of our amazing team of more than 2,500 volunteers and more than 20,000 parents and supporters. 

As the Lord provides powerful moments in Beach Club, please take a moment to share them with us by visiting kidsbeachclub.org/mykbcstory. Of course, you can email your story idea to stories@kbcmail.org or you can share them with us on social media by using the hashtag #MyKBCStory.

We want to not only showcase you and the kids at Beach Cub but to show our amazing donors and supporters how their prayers and financial gifts are resulting in life-changing experiences in communities and public schools across the country.

We have many avenues to share your great stories with thousands of our KBC friends:

• Surf Report E-News
• KBC "Beach Currents" Blog
• Bibles for Beach Club Monthly Newsletter
• Social Media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @KiDsBeachClub

Share Your Story

We hear it all the time: God can’t be in public schools! The Bible isn’t allowed in schools anymore! Since you’re a supporter of KiDs Beach Club®, you know neither of those statements is true.

Even some of our volunteers occasionally find it difficult to believe they are sharing the gospel with kids in public school, but they never take it for granted or underestimate their role in the spiritual development of children.

“Being able to come into this school on a weekly basis and teach God’s word and teach who He is to these kids is an amazing and unique opportunity,” said Katherine Criswell, a Beach Club volunteer at Mohawk Elementary in Richardson, Texas.

“I didn’t even realize that you could go into a school and have a Bible club at a public school,” she admitted. “To have that opportunity is a huge blessing and a huge ministry opportunity… they may not have a good understanding as to who God really is and who Jesus really is and why Jesus was sent to earth for them to have that intimate relationship that they can have with Him.”

Kids not only have a weekly opportunity in Beach Club to sing worship songs to God and to learn who God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are, but they can learn about Him through stories in the Bible. Thanks to donors like you, we are able to provide every child in every Beach Club with their very own study Bible and our volunteers are teaching kids how to use it.

“We can teach them how to incorporate that into their lives,” Criswell said. “We can teach them character traits that hopefully we’re planting nuggets and truth within their hearts… that I hope will eventually take root and that they can then look back years later and have those little nuggets that they can dwell on for whatever experience and trials they are going through.”

Courtney Cain spent several years as the club leader at Hanby Elementary in Mesquite, Texas. She had previously taught fourth grade at the school and remembers when she first realized the school needed Beach Club at her school.

“One day, in the middle of the school day, one of my students was very upset so I took him aside in the hallway when the rest of the class went to P.E.,” Cain said. “He said he was very scared because his older brother had given him drugs and he had smoked earlier that morning. He was terrified that he was going to get arrested.”

Cain said she knew many kids she taught have difficulty at home but said that story made it very real for her. That is when God told her it was time to get Beach Club at Hanby. Beach Club is teaching kids the difference between right and wrong through the truth of God’s word.

“God’s word is so powerful!” Cain reminds us. “When we put Bibles in the hands of these kids, those Bibles are going into those homes where these things are happening and where these kids are experiencing trauma or hopelessness. For the word of God to be going into their homes and for them to go share what they have just learned at Beach Club, and for the kids to have consistency with people of God each week and to associate God with love and with generosity, it really opens their eyes to all that He has for them. It really just starts planting those seeds and giving them hope.”

When you read stories like these about the opportunity we have with this ministry, there is little doubt of the eternal impact we’re making in God’s kingdom.

I don't know about you, but doesn't it seem like the summer keeps getting shorter and shorter? How is it August already? That means that it's the final month of the "Hang 10" Summer Reading Program! We hope you'll stick with it even after you head back to school.

If you've kept up you should be in Week 10 this week, leaving us just four weeks to go. During that time, we'll explore: Paul's Letters, Paul's Pastoral Letters, General Letters and Prophecy.

Remember the Summer Reading Program isn't just for kids! We are encouraging everyone to "Hang 10" this summer. Parents, teachers and Beach Club volunteers can lead by example and spend at least 10 minutes each day with God through Bible reading and prayer.

LINK: Summer Reading Program

The entire program will continue to walk you and your child through the Bible, book by book. These daily readings help kids continue the habit of daily Bible reading and prayer.

Another way you can participate is by sending us photos of your children or grandchildren doing the Summer Reading Plan with their KBC Study Bible. Follow us at @KiDsBeachClub on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and share your posts by mentioning us or using the hashtag #Hang10SRP. 

With every photo you share using that hashtag during the months of July and August, you will be entered in a drawing for a 20 oz. Bison tumbler branded with the KBC logo.

Following our social media accounts is also a great way to receive daily reminders about the Summer Reading Program. We'd love for you to share the reminders with your friends using your own social media accounts or by forwarding this email to all your friends using the "forward this email" link below.

Good luck as you head back to school and don't forget Beach Club will be starting back up soon and we can't wait to see you there! We pray you have a great year!

You almost can’t turn on the TV, read a newspaper or sift through your social media feeds without seeing discouraging news about the culture of public schools. From bullying, peer pressure, alcohol or drug use, sexual harassment or assault, suicide and even school shootings, what our kids experience in schools is mirroring what we see in our communities.

People are quick to point a finger at why they think it’s this way, but many people fail to acknowledge the real reason. As believers in Christ, we know the real problem is sin.

"When God left the schools, chaos entered in,” Dallas-Fort Worth area pastor Tony Evans said during a sermon at his church – Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship – following the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. in February. “Wherever God is removed, chaos will fill that space… in your life, in your family, in our culture.”

Too many people in our country think they can live without God, but they lack an eternal focus. Politicians were pressured to remove God out of our schools and we’re seeing a moral decline in that space where our children spend so much of their time.

“The wrath of God is revealed when He releases you to life without Him,” Evans said at the Southern Baptist Conference Pastors Conference in Dallas last month. “When He releases you to put Him out of our lives, out of our schools, out of our culture, out of our environment… God is saying you can have life without Me, but you won’t like it.”

Evans said the responsibility falls on the church to get God back in spaces where he has been removed. He told his congregation, “We will do our part as a church for you, for our community to get God back in the proper place so we can bring ease to a chaotic world.”

He’s right! It’s the responsibility of the church to help our communities return to God. KiDs Beach Club® is a solution to do just that. KiDs Beach Club® is an innovative ministry established to mobilize the church to go outside its walls in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of its community.

Speaking just two days after Evans at the Southern Baptist Conference Annual Meeting, Vice President Mike Pence spoke to attendees and praised the work churches and ministries like KiDs Beach Club® are doing to change communities.

“The most important work in America doesn’t happen in the White House,” Pence said. “We know the most meaningful work, the most transformative work, happens where you live, where your ministries impact, in the hearts and minds of American people.”

This fall, KiDs Beach Club® will partner with churches to sponsor after-school Bible clubs in nearly 200 schools in 11 states. Each club meets immediately after school for 24 weeks during the school year and our screened and trained volunteers teach an energetic, customizable curriculum that stresses the character words they’re already talking about in school; but in Beach Club, are defined through the lens of scripture.

Just like a message from church can stick with someone the rest of the week, an hour of Beach Club can stick with a child and change the outcome of their week to follow.

And in many instances, Beach Club may be the only “church” a child is exposed to.

Historically, more than 62 percent of children who come to Beach Club have indicated they don’t have a church home. To God’s glory, nearly 8,300 children have made Jesus their Forever Friend and accepted Him as Lord and Savior of their lives in a Beach Club.

Through our generous donors, KiDs Beach Club® provides a customized study Bible to every child in every Beach Club at no cost to our partnering churches or families. Since 2003, we have given out more than 55,000 Bibles to children in public schools. In most instances, those Bibles are the first Bible a child has ever received and in some instances it’s the only Bible in their home. Together, with weekly take-home reading plans encouraging kids to spend 10 minutes daily reading God’s word or in prayer, we’re able to reach their entire family and connect them to the partnering church.

Michael Proctor, a retired juvenile probation officer, volunteers at the Beach Club at Mohawk Elementary in Richardson. He has seen first-hand what can become of a child with no love and guidance.

“More needs to be put into prevention,” Proctor said about how to make an impact in communities. “Instead of dealing with things after they have already happened. That is what this program (KiDs Beach Club®) is about.”

Dr. David Vroonland is the superintendent of schools in Mesquite Independent School District and sees the tremendous benefit KiDs Beach Club® brings to his campuses. This fall, as many as 20 of his 33 elementary schools will have a Beach Club with that list expected to grow by at least two in the spring.

“All of those children need the opportunity to experience the love and the faith and the educational experiences.”

As a young child, Vroonland grew up in poverty. Approximately 75 percent of the children in his school district come from poverty. Without these three elements in his life, Vroonland could very well have been stuck in poverty, but through his adoptive family he was shown love, brought up in faith and received a quality education.

“Those three things made a huge difference in my life,” Vroonland said. “Significantly and obviously is God’s presence. Those three things matter… That’s why church volunteers who minister to these kids with love, helping people in faith, and your ensuring the quality of their education will provide a direction for young people you just simply can’t understand. You can’t understand the impact of that.”

For more information about how your church can start a Beach Club or to see how you can get one in your child’s public school, click here to see how your church can partner with us or get a Beach Club in your school.

We hope that you have been enjoying your summer and have found some time to take advantage of the children being off school to relax and spend some quality time with them.

For KiDs Beach Club®, the summer is all about setting up Beach Clubs for the next school year and we are excited to say that our team of 14 club relations specialists along with the corporate staff have experienced God’s blessing of multiple new Beach Clubs for the fall semester.

“KiDs Beach Club® is quickly approaching another major milestone,” said Jack Terrell, the KBC founder and president. “Our team is committed and focused to the securing of additional church partners and schools to meet our goal of 200 Beach Clubs. I’m confident of Father’s favor to allow us to achieve this milestone this October. “This amazing accomplishment of 200 clubs represents an estimated 12,000 pre-teen students in weekly Bible study on elementary school campuses in 11 different states.

“That is an estimated increase of 28 percent from the 9,313 students enrolled last school year in 169 Clubs. I’m overwhelmed by His goodness and favor upon us.”

Leading the charge from the KBC corporate office is Suzanne Massey, the organization’s strategic growth director, whose team has utilized events such as the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas and each of the Texas district assemblies of the Church of the Nazarene to tell the KBC story to numerous church leaders and staff.

“We were excited to be able to visit with pastors and church staff members from across the country who have a passion to reach the lost for Jesus Christ,” Massey said. “Our field staff utilized events like this to reach out en masse this summer, but our group has firmly grasped the concept of 1 Corinthians 3:6 which says, ‘I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.’

“Our staff has been working tirelessly to, one by one, plant and water seeds about this ministry to hundreds of church leaders. I believe God is honoring their labor with a fruitful increase in Beach Clubs.”

One of the areas that KiDs Beach Club® has seen significant growth is in Arkansas. Grand Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Smith started the state’s first Beach Club at Albert Pike Elementary last fall and when school kicks off this fall, there will be seven Beach Clubs in Fort Smith public schools.

Paul McCollum, the chief operating officer for KiDs Beach Club®, joins Terrell and Massey in giving God all the glory for the growth.

“When I consider how the Lord has blessed our ministry during the last several months, 2 Timothy 2:2 comes to mind.” McCollum said. “In that passage, the Apostle Paul instructs Timothy to take what has been learned and ‘entrust those things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.’

“Our success is not about great strategic growth strategies, sales charisma, or even KiDs Beach Club® as an organization. What God has required of the church is to ‘go and make disciples.’”

The KBC mission is to help the church do just that. When individuals in the church, whether it is a local body, or the church at large, take hold of their God-given calling and begin to not only fulfill their part, but teach others to do the same, God goes before them.

That has been our experience during the last few months.

Jeff Thompson, director of missions for the Arkansas Concord Baptist Association, understood the call, saw opportunity within KiDs Beach Club® and not only shared that opportunity, but also helped empower the churches within his influence join him missionally by partnering with KiDs Beach Club®.

In Arkansas alone, KiDs Beach Club® has grown from one club to seven clubs this summer “through the effort of one faithful man who heard and understood God’s call and taught others,” McCollum said. “It really makes you wonder what could be accomplished if we all faithfully responded and empowered our circles of influence. My prayer is that many others will hear and respond. To God be the glory!”