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The end of the year is approaching quickly and some Beach Clubs have already wrapped up for the year. We’re thankful that we’ve had the opportunity to minister to 11,754 children this year and for the 2,525 volunteers to make these moments possible.

Here is a look at how some Beach Club are celebrating their final meeting this year:


First Baptist Church Highlands, Highlands, Texas
Victoria Walker Elementary and Highlands Elementary
First Baptist Church Highlands invited the Beach Club kids and their families to attend a Sunday church service. The kids sang one of their KBC songs to lead the congregation in worship. KBC volunteers also were recognized. After church, KBC clubbers and their families joined the church family for a carnival complete with hot dogs and clowns.

Faith Baptist Church, Bartlett, Tenn.
Bon Lin Elementary
Fifth graders moving on to middle school received a 4x6-inch scripture frame and a 4x3-inch graduation sticker for the inside cover of their Bible. All students received a "the love of Jesus is so sweet!" card with candy.

First Baptist Church, Kemp, Texas
Kemp Intermediate
First Baptist Church in Kemp threw Beach Club kids a pizza party on the last week of club. They recognized kids who have been part of KBC for all three years the club has been meeting, awarding each kid with a KBC t-shirt.

Calvary Baptist Church, Clearwater, Fla.
Eisenhower Elementary
Special awards were given to kids who had perfect attendance since coming to KiDs Beach Club®. Seven children in the club had not missed a day since joining KBC. One child has been to every club meeting for two years!  Another eight clubbers have only missed a day or two. Praise to the Lord for these faithful children!

Chris Bridges, the pastor of children’s ministry at Calvary Baptist Church, came to club to answer questions the kids had submitted in previous weeks. He presented each child with a devotional book and announced the church would provide scholarships for any KBC kids who want to attend their church’s summer camp.

Brown Missionary Baptist, Southaven, Miss.
Southaven Intermediate
During a Saturday evening service, the church baptized nine students who had made Jesus their Forever Friend at Beach Club this year. It was a great time of worship and fellowship between the church families and these Beach Club families. Click the video below to hear pastor Jeffery Jackson tell the story about how he will baptize an entire family thanks to one girl's participation in KiDs Beach Club®.

Jeffery_Jackson_Brown_Missionary_Baptist from KiDs Beach Club on Vimeo.

For many kids and volunteers, KiDs Beach Club® is the highlight of their week. While it’s hard to say goodbye at the end of every school year, we trust that the seeds of faith that were planted will take root and that kids will continue to follow Jesus like they were taught in clubs.

“The KBC Study Bibles that were placed in kids’ hands are now in their homes and the ministry of KiDs Beach Club continues,” said Cindy Leach, the KBC executive director. “God’s Word has the power to change lives, even the lives of kids. We pray that through the summer kids will spend time reading their Bibles and listening to God.”

To our sixth graders and others who are leaving Beach Club for a final time, we’re grateful KiDs Beach Club® has been a part of your lives and pray those seeds of faith that were planted will help guide you as you head to your next school and beyond. To the rest of you, we are already looking forward to our first meeting next year. It’s hard to believe summer is just around the corner. Enjoy it! Be on the lookout for our Summer Reading Plan so you can keep reading and studying your KBC Explorer’s Study Bible.

It's not too late to share what your Beach Club is doing or has done to celebrate its final meeting of the year. Email your story to news@beachclubs.org or tag #KiDsBeachClub on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Fresh off an amazing show of support at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction that saw KiDs Beach Club® raise enough money to purchase another 10,000 Bibles, the ministry is inviting you to become a monthly Bible donor.

Monthly funds are an important piece of the operational puzzle that helps put a Bible in the hands of every child in every one of our 170 Beach Clubs. KBC purchases Bibles in bulk and there is a one-time cost to accomplish that endeavor.

“We actually purchase in quantities of 10,000 in order to keep our costs down and be effective stewards of the resources that have come to us through God’s grace and the generous giving of our donors,” said Paul McCollum, the vice president for school relations and development at KiDs Beach Club®. “However, we do not distribute them as quickly as we receive them. Warehouse costs recur monthly, and like a dripping faucet, continue to erode the operational costs throughout the year.”

Monthly giving provides continued support to gird the budget against the recurring costs of warehousing. Many clubs are scattered across the state and country and require additional shipping costs to get the Bibles into the hands of the children. These costs also occur at varying times of the year depending on when clubs schedule their Great Treasure Day throughout the year. KBC tries to make these shipments in bulk to alleviate overages in shipping rates and fees, but as clubs grow, Bibles get sent as needed.

“All praise to God for this growth,” McCollum said. “There is nothing glamorous or exciting in operational costs. It’s kind of like putting in a water line for a fire hydrant. You spend the money and don’t really get to see the results – until a crisis gets averted.

"That is the same with the KBC Explorer’s Study Bibles. There’s nothing exciting about warehousing and shipping Bibles – until a child receives one and for the first time in his or her life understands that there is a God who loves them and wants desperately to be their Forever Friend!” 

Becoming a monthly Bibles donor is an incredibly simple process. Click here, enter an amount and then be sure to click the “Monthly” button under Frequency. You can even select what time of the month you want to have your payment processed. There are other ways to give, too, including weekly, semi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to watch the video about how God was at work to start a KiDs Beach Club® at Floyd Elementary School you definitely want to take about 10 minutes and watch it now. It’s simply incredible to watch how God orchestrated the events that came together to impact children’s lives in Balch Springs, Texas.

Beach Club at Floyd Elementary from KiDs Beach Club on Vimeo.

Alex Gonzales, the pastor at Hickory Tree Baptist Church, Dr. Tonya Mamantov, the principal at Floyd Elementary, and Lauren Reed, a teacher at Floyd Elementary in Mesquite Independent School District, all took a step out in faith.

They joined Paul McCollum, the vice president of school relations and development for KiDs Beach Club®, on stage after the crowd at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction watched their story. It was a brief question and answer session to further explain the circumstances that lead to the formation of the club. 

“What was impressed upon me through this was that God truly called and gifted each one these people and uniquely placed them in a time and place for His purpose,” McCollum said. “And, most importantly, they were faithful and obedient to the call and they used their gifts right where they were placed.”

Lauren responded to a call to prayer. Dr. Mamantov responded to a call to lead boldly and uprightly. Pastor Gonzales responded to a call to go and make disciples. A KBC donor gave generously as God led him to give from God’s provisions to him not knowing how the gift was going to be used.

As each of these individuals led out in faith in their various roles, other faithful stewards followed.

“We learned of positive culture change in the school,” McCollum said. “We learned of church growth and a renewed urgency of ministry. We heard from volunteers, who feel loved and needed and who have found significance in the work they are doing. We saw children learning God’s word and worshipping a Savior many never knew prior to their KiDs Beach Club experience. And the result has been God using each person and circumstance to bring about His glory.

“For me, this was Christ’s story reinforced by what the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:10-11, which says, ‘As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God… so that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.’” 

God could do it without us, but He has given us the grace and opportunity to be partners with Him in His plan to reach a lost and dying world through His church.

Together, we can connect kids to Christ and put Bibles in their hands!      

What a celebration April 16 at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction. We celebrated the 10th year of KiDs Beach Club® and applauded how powerfully God has blessed this ministry since it was founded.

A total of 12,255 volunteers have helped connect 66,830 children to Christ and you have helped put 40,269 Bibles in their hands. As of the day before the big night, a total of 6,954 children had made Jesus their Forever Friend.

KiDs Beach Club® is providing children with hope and pointing them in the right direction. That should be celebrated. In an era when people are out to prove God to be wrong, KBC is walking children and their families down the right path. 

It’s a path that is not always easy to find, especially in a society that is trying to go forward without Biblically based Christian values. That is why 62 percent of all children who attend a Beach Club do not have a church home.

“These kids are not getting the Truth at home,” said Chris Krok, a talk-show host on WBAP Radio in Dallas, who delivered the keynote speech at the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction. “They’re not seeing God or Christ in their homes.” This is your one shot. This is your chance to do something for them to bust the mold.”

He shared numbers with the crowd to prove this point: 

• 73 percent of African American kids are born out of wedlock
• 54 percent of Hispanic kids are born out of wedlock
• roughly 30 percent of white kids are born out of wedlock

He said that these kids who are born out of wedlock and raised in a single-parent home are more likely to go to jail, be on welfare or drugs and are more likely to drop out of school. They’re also more likely to have sex before marriage. What a vicious cycle!

Krok, whose own kids attended Beach Club, had nothing but praise for the ministry and its supporters.

“What do you think this program is doing for this lost generation,” Krok asked rhetorically. “What kind of life preserver is being thrown to them? You should consider re-naming this ministry ‘Kids Life Preserver’ or ‘Kids Life Saver,’ but that might scare some away!”

He encouraged everyone to step out in obedience like the pastor at Hickory Tree Baptist Church did; like the leaders at Floyd Elementary School did with that pastor’s help to start a Beach Club at the school earlier this year to help bring hope to a community that faces many worldly challenges he mentioned during his speech. 

What KiDs Beach Club® is doing in the lives of children at Floyd, throughout Texas and around the country is a result of people stepping out in obedience to the Lord. 

Equipping these kids with the word of God and arming each child with a Bible, KiDs Beach Club® is making a difference and we couldn’t do it without your help!

“You may not have the time, but have the money,” Krok said during the event held exclusively to raise money for Bibles. “You may not have the money, but have the time. Pour out yourself into a drink offering for the Lord.”

As a result of the Benefit Dinner & Auction, KiDs Beach Club® will place an order in May for another 10,000 Bibles so that kids will receive a copy of God’s word when clubs resume next fall. That number can grow even more if more people become a valuable monthly Bible donor. Click here to support us in this unique way to support KiDs Beach Club® and throw a life preserver to kids and families who need us most.

How does one of the smallest churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex sponsor one of the largest Beach Clubs in the nation? It is all about the volunteers.

This spring, Hickory Tree Baptist Church started a Beach Club at Floyd Elementary in Balch Springs, near Mesquite. The church averages around 100 people every Sunday and had a real concern about how it was going to staff the club.

“I was really worried about our volunteer base initially because over half of our church is senior adults and the younger families all work,” said Jason Points, the children’s pastor at Hickory Tree. 

“We put out a signup sheet,” said Alex Gonzales, the church pastor, who admitted they expected to have only a few people sign up. “With the exception of one volunteer, all are senior adults and they just flocked to the signup sheet.”

The also had incredible support at Floyd Elementary. 

“With the support of the principal, we put our heads together and she basically blessed the teachers and the staff to help with KiDs Beach Club®,” Points said. “From there it all took off.

“The next thing we know, we have over 20 volunteers and 120-something kids on the roles.” 

“That told us it was a God thing,” he continued. “It told us that what we were doing was something that God had ordained and that God had set in place. It’s pretty exciting to be a part of this, especially for such a small church.”

One of the volunteers from his church, Georgia Dowdey, who raised five children of her own at Hickory Tree, is appreciative of the opportunity to share Jesus with public school children. 

“It is awesome to be able to work with these kids with Beach Club,” she said. “It’s something that great to know that we can bring this in our schools again.

“It’s beautiful to see these children soaking up the information and the fact there are so many of them who are unchurched. It’s just amazing that we can do this and let them know that Jesus loves them, that God loves them and their family, and we can plant a seed here and then let God make it grow.”

Another church volunteer, Sue Murphy, a member at Hickory Tree for 44 years, said, “To think that you have an opportunity to help children, guide their thinking and maybe seek the Lord. That is our real goal, to help the children and find Jesus.

“That puts a big responsibility on us because we need to do our part about being a role model, being an example,” she continued. “It is worth it – spending time with little children. Our time to do that with children is very limited and very short. They grow up so fast.”

The principal and some of the staff at Floyd previously taught at schools with Beach Clubs and were thrilled it was coming to their school.

“I worked with Beach Club before and I saw all that went into it: the games, the music, the snacks, the attendance, even things like keeping track of the points,” said Lauren Reed, a teacher at Floyd who had been praying for three years for a Beach Club to come to her school. “It takes people that are willing to help and its amazing to me that volunteers want to help out with that and I’m so thankful we have this kind of a turnout at Floyd.” 

A few of her fellow teachers and other staff at the school also serve in the club.

“I allow any of my staff that participate to wear their KiDs Beach Club® shirt every Wednesday with khakis,” said Dr. Tonya Mamantov, the principal at the school. “Because this activity happens during their contract time, they take a break from their contract time and go do Beach Club and then they come back and finish their contract time. This is on their personal time. They choose to do this.”

The church volunteers enjoy serving alongside the teachers and staff at Floyd.

“I am so grateful to our precious principal, Dr. Mamantov, and these precious people, these teachers, who are Christian teachers allowing us to team with them to help the little children,” Murphy said. “To even have a few of the children find the Lord; every minute that you give is worth it. It is such a privilege.

“The children need to understand the importance of getting Jesus in their hearts young and early and having a whole life to serve the Lord.”

The community has truly come together to make an impact on the students at Floyd and their families and to help lead them to Christ.

“I’m making a difference,” Reed said. “These kids are learning the truth. They need to know the truth and they’re getting that now. I love Beach Club because it changes kids’ lives. Some of these kids have never heard the name of Jesus. Some of these kids have never heard what a Bible is. They haven’t been to church. It is so important to come to Beach Club to learn about those things and get exposed to it and to see their teachers and other people that are helping to influence their lives in a positive way.”

God gives us thousands of promises in His Word and Psalm 89:34 gives us assurance that he will never break one of them, “My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.”

There have been countless times during a decade of ministry at KiDs Beach Club® that the Lord has fulfilled promise after promise and we share Paul’s testimony in Hebrews 10:23 which says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

We will celebrate God’s faithfulness to KiDs Beach Club® April 16 at the Bibles For Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction when we will also celebrate our 10th year of ministry. Please make plans to be with us at the Hurst Conference Center for an evening of praise and worship with David Gentiles, a compelling message from WBAP Radio’s Chris Krok and inspiring testimonials of how Jesus is working in powerful ways reaching children inside elementary schools across America through KiDs Beach Club®. 

Watch the video below to get a sneak peek at one of those stories from Floyd Elementary in Balch Springs, Texas.

Preview of Bibles for Beach Club from KiDs Beach Club on Vimeo.