To the Bible Quizzing Family,

It is with mixed emotions, but primarily with a joyful heart, that I write this last newsletter. We indicated at the start of the quiz year that this would be our last season in leadership of the quizzing program, and we have been especially treasuring the quiz meets and our relationships with all of you this year. This last quiz meet was the culmination of a very long run and it was especially satisfying to us. I'm sure we will never forget it. Thank you all for making it so special.

We were very honored (and humbled) by your expressions of appreciation to us. We were enriched by the kind words many of you shared throughout the day. We value all the signatures on my old quizzing T-shirt and the memories those will invoke. We enjoyed the goofy "parting gifts" that Christina presented to us. We appreciated the Gander Mountain gift certificate - it will come in handy as it seems we always need things for our outdoor adventures. We will treasure the clock and plaque and find a significant place for it in our home, as a continual reminder of you all. And when we got home, we had great fun opening and reading all of the home-made cards you gave us. Thank you all, so much, for the place you have made for us in your hearts.

Though we were exhausted at the end of the day, we were unable to sleep much that night. We kept replaying and relishing the events of the day. So consequently, we were zombies for the next couple of days until the sleep finally caught up with us, but it was all worthwhile.

I think we will forever treasure the look on the quizzers' faces when the team of adults leaped onto the stage to take their places in the final quiz. I haven't quizzed in many years, and that was so much fun I could hardly believe it. It was definitely a great way to finish up.

We've been amazed over the years by your long-term support of us and the program. Many of you have been with us for a very long time. For others of you, it seems like we were just getting started. For all of you, it has been an honor and a privilege for us to have worked with you and gotten to know you, and to be a part of getting God's Word deeply implanted in all of our lives. We count many of you as among our dearest friends.

It is astounding to think of how many hundreds of kids (and even parents) have studied and memorized huge portions of the Bible over these years. And for us personally, our own understanding of the landscape of the New Testament has been firmly established if for no other reason than because we've done this for so long. There's no way we could ever claim to know the Word as well as the quizzers (with the possible exception of I Peter chapter 5), but we have benefitted greatly in terms of our knowledge of Scripture because of the time we've invested. This can only be a good thing, for each of us in the coming years.

As I indicated at the end of the day, we've spent most of our adult lives involved in ministries to the Christian community, but we see several things converging to steer us in a different direction. Martha has already retired from teaching. Retirement from IBM (or at least some form of reduced work) will soon be a reality for me. In our church we are constantly being challenged to direct our ministries towards "restoring a broken world". We have a long-standing dream/vision of being involved in missions work in our retirement years, so it seems everything is coming together to focus our lives in that direction. So as a result, we are freeing our lives up from our current responsibilities to get ourselves ready for whatever is next. I can't say that we've got a clear roadmap at the moment, but we keep working on it, and I hope that some of it can begin yet this year.

In the short term, we'll be pursuing a long-standing desire we've had to do some study tours in the Holy-land. In April and May we'll be involved in tours of Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Turkey. We'll be tracing Israel's journey out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land, and tracing the spread of the gospel through Asia minor, including the seven churches of Revelation. While this will be quite a serious hiking adventure, we expect that it will greatly impact our understanding of the meaning of the Scriptures because of being able to understand them from the context and culture of the day in which they were written.

We also hope to work part-time someday in the camp store in Isle Royale National Park (the big island in Lake Superior). We applied for that job this summer and didn't get it, but our names are on the list for next year and we expect it will work out at some point. If any of you are interested in a backpacking sort of vacation, talk to us about that place. Hopefully at some point we can serve some of you a sandwich after you've completed a long hike there.

We leave the Bible Quizzing program in good hands with Jim Benson and the rest of the committee. We know it is time for new leadership to enable the program to continue forward in new directions that are outside of our paradigms. We trust that you will give Jim and the committee the same kind of support and encouragement that you've given us over the years. And we hope to be involved if still needed as quizmasters whenever we're around.

Thanks again for all of your support, encouragement, and friendships. We wish God's richest blessings on you and on the quizzing program.

Karl Kirkman
Bible Quizzing Director

March Novice League Team and Individual Standings
March Little League Team and Individual Standings
March A/B League Team and Individual Standings