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Karen King is a member of Trinity Bible Fellowship in Richardson, Texas and is a former volunteer at the Beach Club at Mohawk Elementary. She served as a KiDs Beach Club volunteer for one year before having to give it up to focus on other ministries with which she volunteers.

In her Prairie Creek neighborhood in Richardson, her 12 neighbors on the cul-de-sac gather once a week in front of her house. It’s a great way to meet and fellowship with neighbors. Through that activity a few years ago, one of her neighbors mentioned her son, Ben, did not have a Bible to take with him to church camp. She lent him an old Adventure Bible so he would be able to participate in the daily reading and devotional. 

At the beginning of the summer this year, she asked Ben if he needed to borrow her Bible for camp again, but he had started attending the Beach Club at Prairie Creek Elementary.

“Nope, I go to Beach Club now, so I have my very own Bible,” Ben told her.

Thanks to your giving, KiDs Beach Club® is able to provide every child in every Beach Club with a Bible. With nearly half of the 40,320 total Bibles KBC has distributed to children having been passed out since January 2015, the Bibles are being seen more and more outside of club meetings. 

Kids are taking their KBC Explorer’s Study Bible with them everywhere they go, including summer camps, Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, school and even to shopping malls. 

Counselors at Pine Cove Camp in the City, a summer day camp program in several communities across the country, told KBC staff to say they had seen the Bibles when Pine Cove Camp in the City was at First Baptist Church in Richardson in mid-June.

A club leader in Tennessee shared a story about a girl who committed to reading the entire Bible and takes it with her wherever she goes. She would provide weekly updates about her progress until club ended and after graduating from Beach Club. When the club leader ran into her at a retail store recently, the girl ran out to her parents’ car to grab her Bible to show the club leader her progress. 

Even Jack Terrell, the founder and president of KiDs Beach Club®, saw the KBC Study Bibles at a multi-church summer camp at the Riverbend Retreat Center in late July when he was there as the camp pastor. KBC Area Director Kristen Forejt sees kids bringing KBC Bibles to Sunday school, and her church, Trinity Bible Fellowship, had several children bring them for Vacation Bible School. 

That would only make sense. During the final Beach Club meeting at Mohawk Elementary last spring, the club leader invited all children to attend VBS at Trinity. One boy, a rising fifth grader who had attended Beach Club in third and fourth grade, brought his younger sister (and his Bible) with him. On Thursday of that week, both children prayed to receive Christ!

Everyone at KiDs Beach Club is encouraged at the frequency people are seeing the Explorer’s Study Bibles and thankful for your support of the Bibles for Beach Club program. The Bibles you’re helping put in kids’ hands are making an impact and connecting them to Christ. Thank you!

Wanna be a KiD who makes JESUS cool at YOUR school?

Here's How!

• Carry your Bible with you to school.
  
  
• Behave in ways that are pleasing to God.
  
  
• Wear your KiDs Beach Club® t-shirt.
  
  
• Tell your friends what you learn about Jesus.
  
  
• Read your Bible during your free reading time.
  
  
• Go to a church that teaches about the Bible. Invite a friend to go too!
  
  
• Pray to Jesus during your "moment of silence" and before you eat lunch.
  
  
• Show love to everyone... just like Jesus did.
  
  
• Come to KiDs Beach Club® and bring a friend with you.
  
  

Leadership Luau, a high-energy time of worship and celebration for Beach Club leaders, is right around the corner. It will allow you to connect with other leaders in clubs near you. 

If you've been serving in Beach Club for a while, you'll find that Leadership Luau isn't a typical training event. You'll be inspired and challenged to continue serving in Beach Club with excellence. You'll hear from a top-notch team of KBC leaders who will share ways to take your club to the next level staying focused on our mission of giving every 3rd through 6th grade child a Jesus experience in their public elementary school.

Our Leadership Luau is going to be really different, really great. Check out these 10 big reasons not to miss it:

1. Experience God’s presence and CELEBRATE 10 years of KBC ministry through worship and praise with fellow KBC Leaders.

2. Hear inspiring testimonies of GOD AT WORK in beach clubs both nationally and locally in your area.

3. Hear first hand WHAT’S NEW for beach club this school year including new Bible distribution processes for Great Treasure Day and Online Basic Training requirements.

4. KBC CURRICULUM has an updated look and layout. Learn about the helpful new features and where to find what you’re looking for. We can’t wait till you see our improved Memory Link Posters!

5. Hear the BIG NEWS about how we’ve streamlined the KiDs Online Management System. Sneak preview…kids information is staying in the system. Record Keepers, be there to learn what this change means for you. We trust you’ll love it! 

6. Help your club win 50 FREE CLUB T-SHIRTS for kids by having the highest percentage of your club volunteers present (Valid only at regional luaus in Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Florida.) 

7. Experience practical and challenging teaching for all leaders on how to effectively weave THE GOSPEL into every element of beach club. Yes, even for attendance and snack leaders!

8. Leave spiritually challenged and refreshed through a personal message from KBC Founder & President Jack Terrell. Word for the year: PASSION

9. Spend time in PRAYER as a KBC community of leaders committing to the Lord the 2016-17 year in beach club and asking God to move in the hearts of kids, families, school faculty and KBC volunteers.
   
   
10. Lunch is provided in most locations. Reserve your lunch for $7 online in advance or pay $10 at the door (supply limited). After lunch options include BASIC TRAINING for new clubs and new volunteers to learn the nuts and bolts of beach club, VETERAN CLUB LEADERS networking, discussion and idea share and RECORD KEEPERS get hands on the KiDs Online Management System to refresh on the basics and learn new processes.

Go to kidsbeachclub.org/leadership-luau to find the Leadership Luau nearest you. Please register to let us know you’ll be attending.

Not many people know where Pass Christian, Mississippi is. The fishing community sits on the eastern shore of Bay St. Louis along the Gulf of Mexico just to the west of Gulfport.

The community continues to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina destroyed nearly all of the town in 2005. After Katrina, the population of Pass Christian shrank from 7,000 or 8,000 people to around 1,000 people today. Most of the town has relocated, but others rebuilt or renovated. Among those is Cornerstone Baptist Church, which took over the site of another church about four years ago. Cornerstone sits just a few of blocks from the beach.

Last year, that small church took a step out in faith to sponsor a Beach Club at Pass Christian Elementary School. The club meets in the cafeteria most Thursdays during the school year.

Late last spring, after praise and worship time, the club leader began teaching the lesson about God speaking to Moses through the burning bush. 

“God told Moses to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground,” pastor Don Bearden remembers teaching. “When we finished the lesson, we asked if there were any questions and one little boy held his hand up and kept raising it higher because he wanted to make sure we saw him. So asked him what he wanted to ask. 

“He stood up like a little man and looked at me dead in my face and said, ‘I just have to get it straight.’

“I said, ‘What’s that son?’

“‘When God told Moses to take his shoes off, why did he do it?’ the boy asked. 

“I told him it was because it was holy ground and it is holy ground because God was there.’

“You could see his mind kick into a higher gear and then the boy asked, ‘so if this (school) is the same as church because we’re worshiping God that makes this holy ground?’ 

“I said, ‘that’s right!’”

Then, he looked at Pastor Bearden, took off his shoes and started moving his feet to feel the floor (like toes in sand at the beach) and then the young man hit his knees and bowed his head.

“You just would have had to have been there,” Bearden said. “You could feel an outpouring of the Holy Spirit rush in that place because this young man gave you the impression that he was genuinely kneeling and praising the Lord.”

Then the boy looked up and asked, “So we are standing on holy ground?” and I said, “Son, we sure are. Anywhere God is present is holy ground.”

One of the Beach Club volunteers tried to explain to him that holy ground is even in his heart and that the Lord is in his heart. 

The Lord definitely is in Micah’s heart. It’s where he welcomed in Jesus last November. It’s one of 19 professions of faith made by kids in the club, which more than 60 kids attended last year.

Bearden said there are always some of the teachers who just watch the club from the doorway. That night when he got home, he had one of the teachers call him and say, “I just wanted to let you know that I may never ever get over what I witnessed today. I know now that I have to get back into church.”

A total of three teachers have come to know Christ by observing that Beach Club. Another nine Beach Club parents have accepted Christ after Bearden and his team witnessed to them curbside when they pick up their children after club.

The Sunday after Micah’s inquiry about holy ground, the church reenacted what happened at Beach Club as part of the message.

“We had a man with a beard who dressed up as Moses,” Bearden said. “This guy looked like someone you would have seen in the movie The 10 Commandments. We had one of our deacons on the PA system as the voice of God. We were trying to make it as real as we could. We did the same thing in our church service and then I got up and told them what had happened.” 

Micah was in church that Sunday. It was his first time to be in church with his dad.

“When we told the story to our congregation, the young many was sitting on the edge of the pew with his dad sitting beside him and he again took off his shoes,” Bearden said. “When he did, I took off mine and several people in the church began to take off theirs and the alter began to fill.”

That story just swept through the town. 

“I didn’t even get to finish preaching because we had an alter call and the alter was filled up in 30 minutes,” Bearden said. “When we told them what had happened with that little boy, several people told me that I didn’t even need to speak. Everybody got the message.”

The KiDs Beach Club® “Hang 10” Summer Reading Program is about to enter its final month. It’s designed mainly with the Beach Club kid in mind to give them a plan to help them spend 10 minutes every day with God, reading His word or in prayer.

The reading plan isn’t just for kids. It’s for everyone. We invited KBC volunteers as well as the siblings and parents of Beach Club kids to participate. We even encouraged you to forward it to anyone looking to spend more time immersed in God’s word.

The focus this month has been to find out what God’s word says about the 24 character words taught in Beach Club. We want them to discover God’s character and explore how they can live with Biblical character, too.

Tammy Terrell, a Strategic Growth Director for KiDs Beach Club®, is reading along with you and your kids. One day, she discovered what she called a “gold nugget” nestled in the middle of a very familiar passage. On July 6, she was drinking a cup of coffee and reading the Bible.

“I was praying about an upcoming doctor appointment and reflecting over the past month,” she said. “I opened the Summer Reading Program and turned to the Gospel of Mark. The character word that day was compassion and the question asked, "How did Jesus show compassion?"

Here’s the passage, Mark 6:30-34…
30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. 33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.
(KBC Explorer’s Study Bible page 1,081) 

The answer, and the focus of compassion for the Summer Reading Program, is on the crowd. However, Terrell can’t help but think Jesus showed incredible compassion to His disciples as well. 

As she read the passage in her NIV Study Bible she stopped on verse 31. “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’” 

What compassion! In the verses just prior to this passage, it says that Jesus' disciples had just heard that John the Baptist had been beheaded and took his body and buried him. Then, in the very next verse, they went to tell Jesus everything they had been doing. I can’t help but think they told Jesus the sad news of John’s death in addition to everything else they “had done and taught.”

Terrell thinks Jesus saw how tired his disciples were both physically and emotionally. Not only had they been “doing” and “teaching” but they also were saddened by the loss of John the Baptist. Terrell thinks Jesus was, too. Jesus showed great compassion and extended to them an invitation to “come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Think about it! Almighty God in human form, Creator of the universe, Jesus, invited His disciples to get alone with Him and find rest. Do you know that this same God, Jesus Christ, invites you and me to come with Him by ourselves to a quiet place and get some rest? No matter what life throws at you, know that you can pick up your Bible, get alone in a quiet place, pray and find rest for your soul.

If you are not currently Hanging with God at least 10 minutes a day, we want to encourage you to join us. The Summer Reading Program continues through August and you can always go back and see what you might have missed by visiting our website. God loves you and invites you to meet with Him by reading the Bible and praying.

Do you know Jesus personally? Has there ever been a time in your life when you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and place your faith in Him alone to save you? If you haven’t, we would love to talk with you. In fact, it’s as simple as A-B-C! ADMIT you have sin. BELIEVE Jesus died on the cross to save you and forgive you of your sins. And make the choice to CHOOSE to follow Jesus by inviting Him into your life. You can read more about the A-B-C’s on the tip-in pages of your child’s KBC Study Bible between pages 626-627.

We want to encourage you to call KiDs Beach Club® and let us know if you have questions or if you have something we can pray about for you. Please share your story of how KiDs Beach Club® or your child’s KBC Explorer’s Study Bible has impacted your child, yourself or your family. You can even send us photos of you and your children reading their KBC Study Bible to news@beachclubs.org. We would love to hear from you.

What a month it has been. Notice there is no exclamation point after that statement. Outside of our nation’s 240th birthday, there were no celebrations. July was a tough month for America. From the killings by police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana to the killing of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge to the political conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia this week and last, the outlook appears bleak.

America is hurting. We’re becoming too secular and it’s time for a change - a change of heart. We think that starts with God and His word. America needs to reengage with the Bible if there is to be any hope.

KiDs Beach Club® staff regularly listen to podcasts of sermons from neighboring churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It’s another way for us to see how God is working through the churches in our community. 

Recently David Barton, the founder and president of WallBuilders, recently spoke at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. WallBuilders is an organization dedicated to presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious and constitutional foundation on which America was built. His message at Gateway is definitely worth checking out. 

He talked about how the Bible influenced the founding of our nation and how for a little more than two centuries significantly influenced our culture. Barton quoted many former United States presidents throughout his message.

“The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our civic and social life that it would be impossible for us to figure what life would be if these teachings were removed,” said President Teddy Roosevelt, who served from 1901-1909.

“If you take out of America what the Bible produces, you wouldn’t even recognize America. That is what Teddy said back then,” Barton stated.

He also quoted President Franklin Roosevelt, who was in the White House from 1933-1945, who said, “In the formative days of the Republic, the directing influence the Bible exercised upon the fathers of the Nation is conspicuously evident.”

Barton interjected, “Unless you go to school today and then it is conspicuously absent.”

Franklin Roosevelt continued, “We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic.”

President Andrew Jackson (1829-37), regarded by many scholars as the least religious president, said, “The Bibles is the Rock on which our Republic rests. 

President Zachary Taylor (1949-50) called the Bible the best of books and said, “I wish it were in the hands of everyone. It is indispensable to the safety and permanence of our institutions.”

Taylor continued, “Especially should the Bible be placed in the hands of the young. It is the best schoolbook in the world. I would that all of our people were brought up under the influence of that Holy Book.”

And American children were according to Barton. In 1844, the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous 8-0 decision, said if you’re going to be a government-run, government-operated school, you will teach the Bible. We won’t fund any government school that doesn’t teach the Bible.

That was the way it was until 1963 when teaching the Bible in school suddenly became unconstitutional despite no historical or legal precedent.

“In that decision,” Barton explained, “the Supreme Court, for the first time, said, ‘You know that thing about Bibles in schools, we’re not going to do that anymore.’

“Why did they do it? The court said that ‘if portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be, and… had been, psychologically harmful to the child.’”

Barton sarcastically said, “So, we’ve now discovered the Bible causes brain damage. We have to save our kids from brain damage. I would argue that we’ve suffered massive brain damage since we’ve taken the Bible out of schools. We’ve lost our senses in all sorts of areas. 

“Benjamin Rush, one of our nation’s founding fathers, said the Bible, when not read in schools, is not read in subsequent periods of life. We know statistically that the older you are the harder it is to start reading the Bible.

“Now if you read it when you’re starting school… you’ll keep reading it for your entire life. But if you don’t read it early on it’s pretty hard to start as a teenager. It’s even harder to start as a young adult. When you get over your 30s its even harder and as time goes on it’s even harder to start reading the Bible.”

That is why KiDs Beach Club® chooses to engage with children in third through sixth grades and where do we do it? In the public elementary school thanks to another Supreme Court ruling from 2001 that allows Bible clubs to meet in school after school hours. We’re able to do it because if a school is open to other outside organizations, it cannot discriminate against religious organizations. 

Not only are we teaching children about the treasure of the Bible, we’re giving each and every child in our 170 clubs across the nation a copy of the Bible of his or her very own. We’re teaching them how to read it daily and how to share it with others. It’s helping to change hearts of children, connect them and their families to a church and impacting communities.

“God has a great promise for us,” Barton said. “This is what God tells us in Joshua 1:8, ‘Constantly think about My Word every day and every night so you will be sure to obey it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.’ 

“What made America different for so many years is that we tried to apply those biblical principles and we weren’t always successful. We had lots of things wrong. But more than any other nation we tried to apply the Bible and Franklin Roosevelt said, the advances we made were because we did apply the Bible. So many areas, while we’re not a perfect nation, we are so far ahead of so many others with stability and prosperity and creativity, we just didn’t know that it came out of the Bible.

“That is our challenge,” Barton said in his message at Gateway. “If you’ll get into God’s word and read that and obey it and apply it, you will be prosperous and successful personally, in your family, in every institution we deal with. The whole thing will change if we get back to knowing God’s word, but that starts with us individually.”

If you’re interested in watching David Barton’s message in its entirety, please visit: http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/individual-messages-2016/session/2016/06/25/know-the-bible