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KiDs Beach Club® has added Susan Baird, Megan Brunner and Chinita Lewis to its club relations team as the organization continues to grow to serve its 170 clubs. Baird will serve as a club relations director in the Wichita Falls, Texas area, while Brunner and Lewis will serve in the same capacity in Tarrant County.

Susan Baird was born and raised in Wichita Falls, one of the newest areas to add KiDs Beach Club®. She loves being part of a close-knit community. Baird has served in part-time capacities in church childcare and preschool and children’s ministry while raising her family. Susan and her husband Terry have been married for 29 years and have one son, two daughters, and a son-in-law.

Brunner recently graduated from Northwestern State University with bachelor’s degrees in psychology and addiction studies. She has served in children’s ministry with experience as a camp counselor and Sunday school teacher. She also has led Bible studies. She and her husband Jeff, who is a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, were married this past May. They live in Fort Worth.

Lewis is a member of North Richland Hills Baptist Church, where she has served in children's ministry for the last eight years. She has taught Sunday school and Vacation Bible School. She and her husband Bryan live in Fort Worth with their three daughters Journee, Jewel and Joi, who all actively serve with in ministry alongside their mom at church. 

KiDs Beach Club® is also looking to fill other positions, click here for a full list of positions currently available.

Tyler Gets His KBC Explorer's Study Bible from KiDs Beach Club on Vimeo.

Chances are pretty good that you remember receiving your first Bible. So many KiDs Beach Club® volunteers and pastors at partnering churches are eager to share their memories with kids in their Beach Club.

Meet David Ng, a volunteer at Sherrod Elementary in Arlington, Texas. When his Beach Club celebrated Great Treasure Day last fall, he pulled out the very first Bible he received 47 years ago. It was written in Chinese and was so worn, the front and back covers were missing. He has to carry it in a Ziploc® bag to keep it protected. He told the kids he found Jesus in the pages of that Bible and the cafeteria erupted with applause.

Kriss Bryant, the children’s pastor at Center Point Church, which sponsors two Beach Clubs in Birdville Independent School District, mentioned a popular entry one of their volunteers posted on Facebook.

“One of our leaders shared the front of her Bible that she received when she was 7 years old,” Bryant said. “She said she still remembers that day and I hope that we have made that memory for these kids – that they will get to cherish that Bible and be something that they will hang on to for a really long time and even share with their own kids someday.”

KiDs Beach Club® has made it a priority to give a Bible to every child in every Beach Club and hopes that children will remember the day. In 2015 alone, Beach Club handed out 17,777 copies of God’s word on Great Treasure Day. 

“The most important thing about handing out the Bibles is that a lot of these kids don’t have the opportunity to own a Bible or ever read the Bible,” said David Griffin, a pastor at C-Life Church in Forney, Texas. “So to give kids the opportunity to have a Bible to call their own means a great deal.

“When these kids get their Bible, it’s an exciting moment for them to get to walk in and say this is mine and this is my treasure that I’m getting to learn from today.”

Great Treasure Day, no doubt, is not only creating memories that will last a lifetime, but also is giving kids a hands-on tool to use as they start life-long relationships with Jesus.

Tyler and Piper attend Beach Club at Johnson Elementary in Southlake, Texas. The club is sponsored by Southlake Baptist Church and pastor Clayton Reed.

“When I got my Bible I was surprised and happy,” Tyler said. “I use it everyday to learn about God and Jesus.”

“When I got my Beach Club Bible I was happy and excited,” Piper said. “I use my Beach Club Bible to read at home and when pastor Clay reads us a story from the Bible.”

Bryant enjoys watching the kids’ reactions when they receive their Bible.

“It’s a huge blessing to get to see their faces light up when they get their Bibles,” he said. “And to actually get to share with them all the different parts of the Bible about what they can dig in and make the Bible stories come alive and it’s just a great opportunity to do that.”

Hopefully, they’ll be able to keep the covers intact.

KiDs Beach Club® will celebrate its 10th birthday at the annual Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction April 16 at the Hurst Conference Center. Your monthly support combined with the funds raised at the last Benefit Dinner & Auction has allowed us to provide nearly 20,000 Bibles since then. Please help us purchase an additional 20,000 Bibles so we can continue to provide Bibles to every Beach Club child the next two years and make these memories for kids and reach them for His kingdom.

If you would like to attend this year’s Benefit Dinner & Auction please register at www.kidsbeachclub.org/BDA. Thank you for your continued support.

Now is the time to mark your calendar for April 16 so you can join us for our annual Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction at the Hurst Conference Center. You’re invited to join hundreds of KiDs Beach Club® friends, volunteers and supporters as we celebrate 10 years of sharing the Gospel in public schools!

• Worship with LifeWay songwriter David Gentiles
• Hear an inspiring message from WBAP Talk Show Host Chris Krok
• Enjoy a steak dinner with your friends and family
• Walk away with an amazing item from our silent auction
• See the impact of giving away 20,000 KBC Study Bibles in 2015
• Help us raise the funds to purchase 20,000 more KBC Study Bibles

Make your reservation today by calling 817-510-5885 or reserve your table online at www.kidsbeachclub.org/BDA.

If you have items you would like to donate for the silent auction, please contact KBC Vice President Dave Crome at dcrome@beachclubs.org.

Jennifer Harp, a volunteer at Northrich Elementary, recently shared her testimony with us about why she became a KiDs Beach Club® volunteer. We hope you find it inspiring and encouraging.

“I remember my 83-year-old mother, Billie Shotts, telling me about yet another ministry she was getting involved in,” Harp began. “She was already a Sunday school teacher for a women’s class in her church, volunteered with Christian Women’s Job Corps, and taught Vacation Bible School. She managed to juggle all these balls, along with taking care of my father, who had had a stroke, and a lifelong family friend, a single woman with no family, who suffered from Alzheimer’s. 

“When she said she was going to work with KiDs Beach Club®, I wasn’t sure she could handle another responsibility. She volunteered at the Beach Club at Porter Elementary School in Mesquite, Texas, along with other members of her church, including a man who was older than she was. She would talk about getting down on the floor with the kids and how hard it was for her to get back up. My mother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, and I knew it was very difficult for her, but she enjoyed it so much! 

“She was in her second year of KiDs Beach Club® when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She told her kids that she would be having surgery that might allow her to recover. But she also told them that she was ready to go be with Jesus and how important it was for them to have Him as their Forever Friend. She had surgery in December of 2013 and was never able to return to KBC. Although the surgery removed the cancer, she suffered many complications and was never able to overcome them. She died July 2, 2014. At her celebration service, we displayed her KiDs Beach Club® t-shirts; and several of her kids attended the service.

“A year later, my church announced that it was going to be sponsoring a KiDs Beach Club® at Northrich Elementary School in Richardson. Several of my good friends with whom I served in various ministries would be involved. At first I was hesitant to say yes because I already work with second- and third-grade choir at the church, direct a large Sunday school class, and sing in the Celebration choir. But then I felt a strong prompting from the Holy Spirit to get involved. And I can picture my mother in Heaven cheering me on. When I join her there, I know she’ll be rejoicing that I continued her legacy.”

We want to hear from you in the coming weeks. What makes KiDs Beach Club® special to you or your child? If you’re a volunteer, do you have a heart-felt story you can share about leading kids to Christ or about why you serve? If you’re a donor, why do you choose to support our ministry? If you’re a parent, what has KBC meant to your child(ren) and your family? If you’re a church pastor or children’s minister, what is it about this ministry you love most?

Shoot us an email with your KBC testimony at news@beachclubs.org

With your help, KiDs Beach Club® distributed 17,777 Bibles in 2015 and is poised to deliver God’s Word to hundreds more children this spring.

At least seven new Beach Clubs – five in Texas and one each in Tennessee and Louisiana – will start this spring, putting approximately 600 more Bibles into children’s hands between now and March when those new clubs hold their Great Treasure Day.

That’s the exciting day when each child receives his or her very own Bible. They begin hearing about it on the first day of club and it’s usually celebrated when the club meets for the fifth time.

“My students came in and they were just so excited,” Sheila Fortenberry, a third-grade teacher at Cooper North Elementary School in Lubbock, Texas, said the day her club passed out Bibles this past fall. “They came over to tell me, ‘Miss Fortenberry, today is the day we get our Bibles.’ It just melted my heart.” 

Children are definitely excited to get something they can call their own. A girl who received her first Bible at her Beach Club at South Athens Elementary School in October couldn’t wait to start reading her Bible. 

“I’m going to get a flashlight and sit up on the top bunk and read it because it’s awesome,” she said. “I love the Bible and it helps me when I read it.” 

Aside from the reason kids embrace their new Bibles, school administrators, teachers and pastors love the benefits kids get from reading the Bible and the impact they can have on other students. 

“I think it’s incredible,” said a principal of one Beach Club school. “For them to have their own Bible so that they can read and study the Word of God is a precious gift that all children deserve and need.

“I think Beach Club benefits our students in a lot of different ways. Our job is to instruct and help to mold them as a whole person and helping them develop their spirituality is a very important part of developing them as a whole person.” 

The KiDs Beach Club® curriculum promotes good character which is supported within the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible and its tip-in pages. 

“The kids associate those character qualities with righteousness and not necessarily only with morality,” said Courtney Cain, a co-club leader at Hanby Elementary School in Mesquite, Texas. “I would hear the kids say, ‘that’s not what Jesus would do,’ in class, so I definitely saw them being advocates for doing the right thing with the perspective of doing it to glorify God and not to just do the right thing.”

Cain, who taught at Hanby the previous four years before moving to a middle school this year to teach reading, thinks kids understand the impact and meaning of Great Treasure Day.

“I think that saying it was a Great Treasure Day is not over-exaggerating because for these kids in particular, being given anything just means so much to them,” Cain said. “Being given the Word of God obviously is the greatest thing you can give them. I don’t think they’re unaware of that. I think they will just value and remember this day.”

“One of the exciting things about handing out all these Bibles is that many of these students don’t even have access to a Bible, so to give them the opportunity to have a Bible to call their own, means a great deal,” said David Griffin, a pastor at Community Life Church in Forney, Texas. “How awesome is it that we get to come into a local school and get to hand out Bibles to people and they’re just longing to have those.”

“The spiritual implications are huge because the kids are literally being taken from death to life. We saw several kids come to know the Lord last year. Obviously, that is going to have an impact in the classroom.” 

The impact is real. A total of 361 children made Jesus their Forever Friend in Beach Club this past fall.

KiDs Beach Club® will celebrate its 10th birthday at the annual Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction April 16 at the Hurst Conference Center. Your monthly support combined with the funds raised at the last Benefit Dinner & Auction in 2014 allowed us to provide 20,000 Bibles. Please help us purchase an additional 20,000 Bibles to provide Bibles to every Beach Club child the next two academic years. Thank you for your continued support.

This month, Suzanne Massey and Dr. Rod Masteller have joined the KiDs Beach Club® Board of Directors. Each will serve a three-year term and will be eligible to renew for a second three-year term.

Massey lends KBC more than 26 years in the textbook publishing business and 20 years in education. Additionally, she has served on the staff as a bi-vocational preschool minister and children’s minister for 16 years.

A graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, Massey has experience both in the classroom with students as well as training educators in numerous areas of professional development, including KiDs Beach Club® leadership teams.

While serving as the children’s minister at Grandview Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas, she helped that church bring a Beach Club to Porter Elementary. The club debuted with 93 children and remains one of the largest Beach Clubs today. 

“For two years, I said no to KiDs Beach Club®,” Massey said. “I didn't think my church could do it. One day I realized I was saying no to God, instead of listening to His will and following His faithfulness to provide. From that day forward, not only has my church been blessed, but personally God renewed a passion to serve in me with a "Yes, Lord" to His calling. I look forward to serving this amazing ministry in this new capacity.”

While children’s ministry was always a priority, Massey worked closely with families. Family activities, including women’s ministries, are a part of her passion to serve others.

Suzanne, a resident of the Dallas area since 1976, has two children and three grandchildren as well as a close-knit extended family. She is excited to be a part of God’s plan for KBC.

Masteller has been pastoring churches throughout the southwest for the past 40 years. In November 2011, he retired as senior pastor at Summer Grove Baptist Church in Shreveport, La. after 13 years. He is currently the Director of the Joseph Willis Institute for Great Spiritual Awakenings and Ambassador for the Caskey School of Divinity.

“I believe one of the ways we can turn America around is through KiDs Beach Club®,” Masteller said after founder and president Jack Terrell and his wife Tammy shared the organization’s vision with him. “Getting God's word into these children in the public schools and reaching their parents for Christ is how to do that.” 

Masteller also has served as pastor at Westwood Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, First Baptist Church of Harrah, Okla., First Baptist Church of Jenks, Okla. and Putnam City Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, Okla. Masteller is widely known for his role in helping and teaching leadership skills throughout America. Prior to his going to Shreveport, he was vice president with John Maxwell’s Injoy Stewardship Services in Atlanta, Ga. 

He received a Bachelor of Arts from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo. He then went on to obtain a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. Masteller has also received a Doctor of Divinity from the California Graduate School of Theology, a Doctor of Sacred Theology from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., and a Doctor of Humanities from the Louisiana Baptist University in Shreveport, La.

Masteller and his wife Linda have four daughters and 10 grandchildren.