Bible Quiz Meets Provide Great Challenges

Bible Quiz Meets Provide Great Challenges

Throughout the year, many students at Valparaiso High School get involved in after
 school activities.  Some students join activities that challenge the mind; 
others join activities that challenge the body, but a few students at VHS chose to 
joins an activity that would challenge their spiritual lives. Those
 students join Bible Quizzing.
	But wait a minute! What exactly is Bible Quizzing?  Every year 
teenagers throughout the country participate in an intense competition where
 they are asked questions that come directly from Bible Scriptures.  When a
 person feels that he or she has heard enough of the question to determine the
 correct answer, (or is driven by impulse after about three syllables), he or she
 ‘jumps’ off a quiz pad.  The quiz pad is connected to a set of lights that 
electronically determine who made the jump. To make a jump, a quizzer has to move
 off the quiz pad before everyone else just enough to make his or her light go on.
	If a quizzer jumps before the question is completed; he or she is 
expected to give the question in question form if it is a reference question, 
or five the essence of the question in his or her answer.  If the quizzer 
gives the correct answer, the team gets twenty points. However, if the 
quizzer gives the wrong answer, the team loses ten points and the opposing 
team gets a bonus question.  Answering the question lies
 solely on the individual who jumps, no group discussion is permitted.
	Bible Quiz teams have three levels; novice for the newbies, lower 
level for sixth through ninth grade, and upper level for advanced 9th grade 
quizzers and tenth through twelfth grade.
Okay so what about the students at VHS, how did they get involved?   “This is
 my fourth year,” says sophomore, upper level quizzer Molly McGowan. “In seventh
 grade when I had just started coming here  [Washington Church] Shannon  
Evers, Julia Slager, and Emily Linden made me join and they wouldn’t let me quit.”
	For a teenager to become involved in Bible Quizzing, he or she must 
be in middle school or high school and must regularly attend a church that 
offers a quizzing program.
	This year, Bible quiz teams across the districts are studying 
the gospel of John.  John has twenty-one chapters for the quizzers to study and 
know by the end of the quizzing season, which lasts from September to the end
 of April, with the exception of Nationals in June or July every other year.
	“[I study] once a week or so,” says junior upper level quizzer, 
Myles Clarke. “And I cram before quiz meets.”  There are around eight quiz 
meets a year, about one every month, in the Great Lakes District. The great 
Lakes District includes teams from all over Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. 
Some teams even come all the way from Wisconsin. 
	“I don’t really pay attention to where I am, I pay attention to what 
I am doing,” comments senior, upper level quizzer Kevin Spoolstra.  “It’s all
 about learning God’s word and praising God, and you can do that anywhere.”
	Some quizzers don’t have the time to study as often as they would like to
 and can’t know the who, what, when, where, why’s, and how’s of all twenty-one
 chapters, so they study specialty questions.  There are four specialties and 
general knowledge questions.  General knowledge is any question that is not 
a specialty.  Parts is a specialty in which more than one subject is required in
 the answer for it to be counted as correct.  Situation questions, or Sits,
 are a specialty that deal with the answers such as, who said it to whom, when,
 why, etc...  FTV’s are Finish The Verse questions, in which only a few words
 are given and the quizzer is expected to finish the verse, word perfect, and
 with the reference.   Reference questions are questions that a quizzer 
is expected to answer according to a specific verse.
	“My specialty is References, and I chose it because it’s nice to have 
a challenge with other verses with the same question,” says freshman,
 lower level quizzer Loman Fox.   Each quizzer has his or her own preferences
 to certain specialties, but some can answer any specialty question.  
“I don’t really have a specialty,” says sophomore upper level quizzer 
Dan Grigalanz.  “I just dabble on everybody else’s.”
	So what makes a person a good quizzer?  “[Quizzers] have 
to you be willing to study and show up to practices, and they can’t give up.”
  Says freshman, Upper level quizzer Aaron Brown.
	All that studying and showing up to practices is sure to pay off when 
a quizzer comes home with an individual prize.  “I brought home three or four
 top ten trophies,” says sophomore upper level quizzer Wyatt Clarke. 
“The first one I ever got was a Mighty Mouse trophy, so that was pretty cool.”	
	The last quiz meet was on March 8th in Chesterton, Indiana at 
Liberty Bible Church.  The Washington Upper Level quizzers, including 
Myles Clarke, Molly McGowan, Dan Grigalanz, Wyatt Clarke, and Aaron Brown
 brought home a team trophy for 1st place.  Dan Grigalanz brought home 
an individual trophy for 3rd place in the top ten for Upper Level.