This is going to be a long but fun post.
Let me begin at the beginning.
My daughters are involved in Bible Quizzing. It sounds geeky, and it is. But the kids have a great time! This year we're learning Luke, and they learn it inside and out. Typical question would sound like this: Question 3 is a Multiple Answer question: Take nothing for your journey, what? Answer: No staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Like I said, it's obscure.
Kids can start in grade 6 and go to grade 12, and we have four regional meets each year. Our region has about 160 kids in it this year from seven different churches. The top 10 quizzers from each district go to the Internationals in Pennsylvania in July.
Anyway, Rebecca started last year at age 12/13. She won second highest rookie for the year, and won a big award for Best Overall New Quizzer. Yesterday we had our first meet for this year. My daughter Katie just did amazingly well (she's 11) and she won Top Rookie. My nephew Alex, whom we homeschool, won 2nd best rookie. And he hasn't even really gone to church until we started homeschooling him last April! But he's having a great time. And Rebecca placed within reach of making the international team.
To get a feel for it, here's a little video from last year (I didn't tape yesterday; I was too busy coaching). Last year was the epistles. Rebecca's the one in the forefront in the tiara. (Just for information, in the background people are saying, "Come on, Quinte!". That's not her name. It's the name of our church (Quinte Alliance).
They are sitting on these little pads which are hooked up to a main board, and the first one off their butt clicks a little buzzer off, so they get to answer the question.
Anyway, the kids have a great day, and we have a great time practising!
But the neat thing is all the other kids you meet there. These are all families who love God, love the Bible, and want their kids to learn it. And the kids are on board, or they wouldn't do the work!
I know it sounds really boring, memorizing the minutiae of all these Bible books, but the kids have a great time at the meets, and they get to know a lot of other teens, and love hanging out together. And we do lots of fun things at practices! And best of all, when you get these verses in your head as a kid, they'll never leave you.
Anyway, on to the topic at hand. Now, I figure that who you marry is too big a decision to leave to the kids themselves. After all, this affects their whole lives, and we agonize over what camp to send them to, or what soccer team they should belong to. How can we leave it to them to decide who to marry?
Obviously I'm being a little fecetious, but on Saturday I met a woman who feels exactly the same way as me. And she has two boys, 14 and 16. They're cute. They're brilliant. They're both on the international team. They're homeschooled and interested in missions. They both had poppies on for Remembrance Day (do you do that in the United States? That's a big thing here in Canada). Supporting our troops means a lot to me. They're articulate. Keith even sat down with one and just talked for twenty minutes and was very impressed. So their mother and I agreed that our children could marry each other. We shall exchange phone numbers in 7 or 8 years.
And there were two other boys there I really liked, too. So I'm telling Rebecca she has a choice. I'll provide a pool of about twenty boys, and she can choose. That's generous, isn't it? :).
Katie I've already reserved for a wonderful friend of mine who has a 12-year-old boy who is already in love with her. I really like this boy. He has a servant's heart, and he'd be great for her. Of course, she has no interest and they're not allowed to date until they're 18, but I feel wonderful now that I have all this sewn up.
When the kids are older they may demand a say in it. I hate it when kids do that! But for now, I am happy just knowing that such boys exist and are out there, ready for my daughters!
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Hi...I don't Blog, or at least not anymore, but i read blogs....lots of them. Anyway my daughter is also a Bible Quizzer. This is her first year, she is 9... and our church has 2 groups..Jr (gr 3-6) Sr (gr 7-12). I think it is a great place to make friendships, meet new people.
Leslee (woodslj@comcast.net)