Bible Quizzing, Now and Then

I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; ...teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 11:18,19

The quizzing "stance"

I had the privilege of going to watch a Bible Quiz Meet at our church. Erin, the teenager I am mentoring, is on one of the teams at our church (we have 2 teams). There were 6 teams and 4 churches involved in this meet. There were 3 rooms of quizzing going on at one time, and each team played every other team there at some point. Then they set up an "A" and "B" bracket for the final quiz-offs, based on how many games they had won.

I had told Erin that I was on a Quiz team when I was in high school. I thought it might be done differently now, but I discovered that it was very much the same. The seats have buzzers, so that when the question is asked, the first person off their seat is allowed to answer. So as you can see above, most of them sit with there hands on their knees, leaning forward, so that they can just push up quickly. This takes a little practice to do well; if I remember correctly, I wasn't as fast as I would have liked to be getting off the bench.

Emily, Jacob, Erin, and Kevin

There are 20 questions per round; if an individual quizzer answere 5 right, he/she has "quizzed out" and is not allowed to answer any more questions. Erin did really well, and quizzed out one time.

A few of the rounds got really exciting and were tied after the 19th question. Erin's team had a round where they were tied at the end, and went to sudden death overtime. They answered correctly and won the round. Very exciting!

The trophy--team and individual

Their team was in the "B" bracket for the play-offs, and they placed 2nd in their bracket. Also, they had a mini individual tournament, where a quizzer went 1 -on-1 with another quizzer. Erin won 1st place in her division in the individual quiz-off. I was very proud of her! I think she was pleased that I came to watch.

Erin and I

( I don't know why I so often close my eyes when my picture is taken!)

I gave Erin a little gift and a card telling her I was very proud of her accomplishment. She has a rock collection, which I realize seems a little unusual. I had picked up some rocks in the Valley of Elah, where David fought Goliath, when I was in Israel. I gave her 2 of those rocks. I told her whenever she looked at them to remember that when God is on your side, you can face any giant that comes your way. I could tell she was really pleased. I'm sure most any other teen might have thought it was a little wierd, but I knew it would be something she could appreciate.

Watching the quizzing brought back memories of my quizzing days, and also reminded me that I really need to start a Bible memory program again. Our pastor's wife has been encouraging us to memorize just one verse a week. So this week I started on a very simple verse, but one that will help in difficult times--Psalm 25:15. My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare.