Bible Bowl in Woodlake, California

Go Bible Thumpers!

The Bible Bowl has now become an annual event for our youth, between high school and early college age. It is a time of healthy competition on the knowledge of the Scriptures from a given book of the Bible. The aim is to get young people to study and memorize the Word of God as much as possible.

 

This year's Bible Bowl took place during the Special Meetings in Woodlake, one of our branch churches in California. The young people had the privilege of listening to the Word of God as preached in the Friday night service. The competition took place on Saturday at about 4 p.m. Pacific time. The competing teams were:

•  Los Angeles – God's Young Souljaz

•  Richmond – Bible Thumpers (named naturally, after the   adorable rabbit from Bambi)

•  Sacramento – Sac(k) Town Baggers

•  Woodlake – Addicted To Jesus

 

Competition was stiff as our six-member Richmond team competed against the other three teams in the third semi-annual Bible Bowl. The competition centered on the Gospel of Mark and the teams were quizzed with several true-false and multiple-choice questions, mixed with occasional harder questions which relied on direct memorization. To keep things even between the teams, the team roster was rotated after every question.

 

The final round of the competition was between Sacramento and Richmond after the other two teams had been eliminated. The Richmond team fell behind on the scoreboard, but the determination of the members and the Sunday afternoon study sessions held by coaches Sue Martz and Maryann Spakousky, paid off. Towards the end of the round, the Bible Thumpers were trailing only by few points. Sacramento tenaciously hung to the lead, but on the last question, Richmond managed to tie the game with the correct answer to a True-False question. Though the final question was hand-selected by Steve Hopper and Reverend Mark Staller, who composed the questions on the Gospel of Mark, both teams failed to provide adequate responses to satisfy the impartial panel of judges. On the fourth hand-selected question, Richmond squeaked out the victory, and the room resounded with elated cheers. The final score was 19-17.

 

Medals were awarded to the Richmond team members; Tsungai and Rutendo Tungwarara, Renate Rudolph, Erin McKibben, Ima Etim, and Justin Staller, as well as those who had supported the team, including Richard and Sue Martz, Tyresha Robinson, Maryann Spakousky, our pastor Reverend McKibben and his wife Lori. The Bible Bowl championship trophy was also given to Reverend McKibben.

 

While winning is always nice, those who competed would agree that it was not winning the competition that was most valuable. In addition to studying Mark's Gospel and learning more about Jesus which is inestimable in value, very memorable was the spirit of Christian competition that prevailed. Even while trying to out-answer other teams, members were all rooting for each other. Watching their counterparts on the other teams quote answer after answer was inspiring, and the enthusiasm of the audience invigorating. At this Bible Bowl, every one won, even though Richmond had the trophy.

 

On the whole, the young people had a good time, but most importantly they left with better knowledge of the scriptures. It is our prayer that all youths everywhere may grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and as Woodlake team puts it, be ‘Addicted to Jesus' .