To the Bible Quizzing family,
It was a very special quiz meet we had a week ago, being the 25th
anniversary of the start of the Bible Quizzing program. It was started
by David and Jeanette Cooke, who were former quizzers with a passion
for getting kids into God’s Word. They came to Rochester as David was
training at Mayo Clinic. They visited churches in the area to find
people who had some experience in quizzing, and they enlisted a few of
us to help get the program started. David & Jeanette have long
since moved back to southwestern Michigan, where they have started the
Berrien Quiz program. We cross paths with them every year when we go
to the Chicago Tournament, and there’s no question that the Berrien
teams are always top-notch. We hope to have the Cookes join us at our
25th Anniversary Celebration next fall, and look forward to the
challenge and encouragement they will bring to each of us.
Worship and Devotions: A special thanks to Ben Raygor for
leading us
in worship and devotions. We have openings for both positions at our
February quiz meet, so please think about volunteering for one of them
and contact me about it.
Crown College Tournament: We’ve just returned from the
tournament and
had a very good time. It certainly is an uplifting and encouraging
experience. And congratulations to our quizzers for their achievements
at the tournament:
A Division Gold 5th Place: Bretta Grabau, Ben Raygor, Katie
& Kristen Roberts, coached by Micah Faas
A Division Silver 4th Place: Isaiah Faas, Jackie, Jenna,
& Jeremiah Saunders, coached by Matt Block
B Division Gold 5th Place: Margaret & Thor Alexander,
Brandon & Ryan Golley, coached by Ruth Alexander
A Division Individual: Isaiah Faas (19th), Ben Raygor (2nd)
B Division Individual: Ryan Golley (4th)
Chicago Tournament: The Chicago Tournament is on the horizon,
the
weekend of March 28. We will start making registration plans during
our February quiz, and will plan on wrapping up all of the details in
March. We can register at a lower rate ($65 per team) if we register
before the March quiz, so I would like to register as many teams as
possible at the February quiz, and make any necessary updates to the
rosters at our March quiz. This tournament is for both leagues, and I
would like to encourage as many of you to go as possible. Be thinking
about which quizzers would make up the teams. The tournament will be
at First Baptist Church in Geneva, Ill, in the Chicago suburbs, where
it was last three years. Besides the opportunity to quiz against other
teams, just going to a place like this as a group is a lot of fun.
Please plan on paying your share of the team registration fee this
month if at all possible.
The Chicago tournament is a bit expensive, mostly because of two nights
in the hotel. Here are some suggestions for reducing the cost, or
“earning” the money for it:
● Sometimes it helps to go as entire families and make a
mini-vacation weekend out of it.
● All of the quizzers are welcome to participate in the
Verse-A-Thon. Much like a Walk-A-Thon or a Bike-A-Thon, a quizzer
would invite people to pledge a certain amount of money for each verse
from this year’s material that he would quote from memory. This is a
way to raise a lot of money. The money a quizzer raises would go first
to cover his expenses, and the rest would go to the benefit of the
Quizzing Program.
Cleaning up after quizzes: Thanks to the people who stayed
around and
really put the elbow grease into cleaning up the church after last
week’s quiz. It was important that we did this (as we had been getting
a little lax in this area) and that we continue to do it in the months
ahead. If you can plan to stick around after either of the next two
months to help, please do so. And if it is convenient to bring a
vacuum cleaner with you, that’ll help. There is certainly a lot of
floor area to sweep!
February Quiz: Our next quiz is coming up on February 14, at
Emmanuel
Baptist Church at 1:00 pm. Points earned that day will be multiplied
by 180% when accumulated toward the yearly total. The A/B League will
quiz over Luke 4:1 - 7:17, and the Little League over Luke chapter 23.
March Quiz: We would like to make a special effort to invite
potential
next year quizzers and families to join us during our March quiz, as
spectators. They would be free to come and go throughout the
afternoon, and would be especially welcome to join us for our pizza
party at the end of the year. If you know of people whom you would
like to see be involved in quizzing next year, start thinking now about
how to include them in our March quiz. We really could use several new
teams in each league.
25th Anniversary Celebration: We would like to have more people
help us plan this event. Please contact us to volunteer!
Karl Kirkman, Bible Quizzing Director
January Little League Team and Individual Standings