A New League is Born

Last night was exciting, and I knew it would be, as families gathered in our home to talk about the idea of junior Bible quizzing.  This idea has brewed in my head since we first started quizzing nearly 6 years ago, and apparently it has been done in the past somewhere, maybe in a different league.  But I knew, if I mentioned the idea, it would have to be run by me or I would have to organize it.  With all the little ones around my ankles I knew it was impossible, so I just prayed and hoped someone else would do it.

A few years later, my little ones are now growing up.  The youngest is five, so no more little little kids.  I actively started my research again.  I found out that there was a league, but they used a different version of the Bible then we did, so we wouldn't be able to quiz against them without changing versions.  That wouldn't work either, though, now, I was getting excited that this was a real possibility.  I even got in contact with the other league and spoke with someone about how they ran their junior quizzing.  Maybe we could do it?

Then, I simply wrote an email to a few families and said, "Would this interest you?" and outlined what I was thinking.  I got immediate response from people saying, "Yes!"  A few weeks later a meeting was planned, league board members were invited, interested families contacted and the next thing you know....junior quizzing has been born!  

There was just one small problem.....did that mean I was taking that all on?  Was I the organizer? That was definitely not my skill set.  I am a recruiter, a cheerleader, an enthusiastic supporter of all things Bible Quizzing, but don't make me organize it.  My husband, however, is very good at putting those kinds of things together, but he was too busy....who then?  Suddenly, as I was thinking and talking all of this out loud, I looked over and saw my innocent daughter just standing there, unaware of my schemes.....I knew I had my victim...I mean, volunteer.

I quickly explained how she would be the perfect person for this position.  I explained how this could be a way she could give back after all these years of others building into her.  I went on and on.  To my amazement, she said, "Ok!"  That was easy!  So now, we have a point person, a new league, and all the kids you can imagine, ready to to start quizzing as young as 8 years old.  I'm so excited.  My younger kids are so excited!  They had been memorizing for a long time, but they never had a venue to compete, so they would stop memorizing.  Now we have a place for them.

This is the shocker.  My place should have been filled to overflowing last night and it was, but that's just because we have a small house!  I'm amazed at how many didn't come out.  We talked about it with everyone last night and why more people don't "Quiz".  It came down to this.....people assume it isn't fun.  People assume it is too much work.  It isn't "cool".  Yet, the kids who are in it, love it. Why? Because it is fun!  The competitions are extremely, well, competitive!  It is high stress (in a good way) to those who are in it and to those who watch it.  It is a lot of work, but not as much work as people think. Children's brains are sponges and they can memorize large volumes of whatever they want to.  We would just prefer that it be Scripture!  Not cool?  Who cares!?  The kids who choose to quiz could absolutely be doing something more "cool" by worldly standards, but we always try to look at the eternal picture....what's going to get them "home"?  

We want our kids to be "normal" (whatever that means) and be comfortable in all sorts of settings, and we actually think Bible Quizzing is a great way to do this.  It teaches confidence in large groups as they have to speak loudly and clearly in front of all sorts of people, coaches, the audience, other quizzers, etc.  I told everyone that I would like to do brain scans of quizzers before and after they start memorizing.  I'm convinced (and I'm going to make a stat up on the spot with no proof) that 100% of all quizzers' brains increase their synapses which leads to improvement in all their other subjects.  I'm going to suggest their chances of brain degeneration decrease!  As well, it gives them plenty of chance to "socialize" (everyone's concern with homeschoolers) with all the other quizzers and coaches.  You would think I got paid to say all this, but I'm just such a huge supporter of Bible Quizzing.

Last night my 10 year walked around with buddies on his new "team".  He and his friend now belonged to something...together.  "Hey Mom, we're on the same team, right?"  There was a connection made.  But what is different is that the Bible is the thing they have in common!  I love that kind of team connection.  And now, because of the junior quizzing league, my ten year old doesn't have to wait 2 more years to quiz and start memorizing.  He can, and he will, start now.  I am so excited, as you can tell.

Years ago we read a book that revolutionized our life.  It was called Ten Peas in a Pod by Arnold Pent III.  After the Dad in the book (Arnold Pent Sr.) got saved, everything changed in their family.  They took their life on the road (they also had 8 children) and went around sharing the gospel all over the U.S. and Canada.  But what struck us was how much time the Dad had his kids spend time in the Word.  He required anyone from 6-11 years read a half hour every morning.  Those who were 11-21 were required to read an hour. Pent added up all the hours this meant of Bible reading over the years (up to 21 years):  for the younger kids 913 hours, for the older kids 3,650 hours.  Adding up the 30 minutes of family devotions after each meal (1-21 years), that meant 11, 497 hours.  As well as miscellaneous times of Bible study, prayer time and church attendance, 6000 hours.  The grand total was 22, 060 hours of Bible study!  Incredible!  As a result of this much time in the Word, some of their kids had memorized the entire New Testament while the younger ones knew large portions of other parts of Scripture.  It was amazing!  We aren't necessarily trying to get them to memorize the whole New Testament, but it's not a bad goal!  Needless to say, it was an inspiring story and they didn't even have Bible Quizzing to aid them in all their memorizing, they just did it on their own.  We first read this when we only had the older four.  We reordered the book and have started rereading it to the younger four to inspire them and to re-inspire the older ones.  One of the Pent kids was being quizzed on how it was possible to know all that Scripture.  His answer was great, "You see, the only reason we can do this is because we spend time with it."  That's all we want for our kids, too.  We want them to spend time with God's Word and they will naturally commit it to memory much more easily.  The great thing about having God's Word in your heart is that it can't help but change you once it's there.  That is the goal, not just Scripture memory for it's own sake, but for the fact it will transform our lives.

This week coming up I will write another email, but this time it will go to all the teams in Ontario. All the families that currently quiz with the senior league will now have the chance to add junior teams.  I'm so excited to see how big this could grow!