Deep in a tiny town called Askewville lies a small church. Inside, a small audience has gathered in anxious anticipation. The excited conversations are quickly hushed as the squeal of a microphone screeches through the room.
"Good Afternoon!'' The leader steps on stage and clears her voice, "thank you all for your patience. I'm excited to announce that the results are in."
A nervous murmur races through the crowd. The questions still loom in all their minds and hearts; whose journey will continue to Alabama and whose journey will be stopped in its tracks? Everyone is exhausted. They have faced a grueling day of quizzing. Some have felt the sweet taste of victory. Others have experienced the sting of defeat. Yet, only five teams will embark on the next segment of their journey and advance forward. And there will only be one North Carolina State Champion.
One of the quizzers sipped his orange Gatorade bottle. He had experienced a slightly different day than the others. He had woken up that morning and something didn't feel right. He had been feeling sick and had thrown up multiple times that morning on the way to the competition. But he had decided not to let that hinder his chance to compete and use his Biblical knowledge and his team agreed to let him jump in. Little did he know that soon his name would be called as the first place quizzer. But he knew the place he achieved wouldn't matter in the long run; what truly mattered was the Scripture that was hidden in his heart.
Hi, my name is Paul E. and this quizzer is me. Although my time of competing in Junior Bible Quiz has ended, I still have the lessons that I've learned and the Scripture that is hidden in my heart. To say that JBQ has affected my life is an extreme understatement. JBQ has shaped my entire worldview and impacted my life in the deepest ways. I hope to share just a couple of examples with you of how JBQ has changed my life.
I began Junior Bible Quiz when I was four years old. I started in X-League which includes only the 10-Point questions. I enjoyed practicing with my friends every Wednesday night and getting to compete against other children my age who were also learning God's word. Within the first year of quizzing I decided to believe in Jesus as Savior just as Acts 16:31 explains, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved..." This was strongly affected by JBQ.as I was beginning to grow in my knowledge of Biblical concepts.
As the years continued to progress, I moved to Novice league. I began learning 20-Point questions. The first few years I would attend competitions, quiz to the best of my ability, and usually achieve somewhere between tenth and fifteenth place. But in my third grade year, things changed. At the kickoff meet, I came in second place individually. Then the next month, my parents surprised my brothers and me with a surprise trip to Disney; but we then came to find out that the JBQ meet for that month had been moved to the same week as our trip. While I was excited to visit Disney, I was also upset that I would have to miss the meet. When the other matches that season arrived, I won second place individually at all of them. And yet, when the awards ceremony for the season came, collectively I only achieved seventh place. I was fairly upset that the first year I could have won a trophy (only first, second, and third get trophies), I hadn't placed high enough and all because I missed a meet. But I was forgetting 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I was being ungrateful for an amazing gift that I had been given. Once I remembered this verse I realized that I should be grateful for all God has given me.
After another year had passed, I was moved to the Experienced Level and began studying the 30-Point questions. When we were just beginning JBQ, my parents offered my brothers and me a deal. If we learned all of the 20-Point questions and could answer them all at the cutoff in one sitting, we would receive a Kindle to help us study more. And if we learned and answered all the 30-Point questions at the cutoff, we would receive another prize (which had not yet been decided). I began studying the 30-Point questions extremely hard, really wanting to earn whatever prize lay ahead of me. I tried multiple times in the first few months but failed all of them. My mother then reminded me of what Matthew 6:20-21 reveals, "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also." I had failed to remember that it's not about earthly treasure, but the eternal treasure of hiding God's word in our hearts. At that time, something clicked. I finally understood that it wasn't really about the competition, but about learning the Word of God (although, the competition definitely helps drive the memorization on hard days!) It was no longer about a human competition, but about memorizing the words breathed by our Heavenly Father (2 Tim. 2:15).
As my sixth grade and final year of JBQ approached, I was excited for my final season. The season began in the fall of 2019 and we were all excited that the National Festival would be held in Naperville, Illinois that year. My team was pretty confident that we would make it to the festival for our final year (the three of us were all graduating) since we had placed third in the Regional competition and seventeenth in the National Festival the previous year. The beginning of the season began as normal and my team was excelling. But when March of 2020 arrived, the District finals, scheduled for April, were canceled due to COVID. The Regional and National competitions were both canceled. My last year in JBQ had been turned on its head. Nothing was the same. I no longer needed to study the questions that I had spent the last eight years of my life learning. The fire that I had for earning my way to the National Festival was gone. But one verse I had learned kept coming into my head. Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Even though it may not have seemed like it at the time, God was working the situation together for good. When the next year's National Festival came around, things were still small due to COVID. As a result, I had the privilege of quiz mastering one of the rooms (My younger brother is still quizzing and his team was attending). I enjoyed being a quiz master so much and still continue to be a quizmaster to this day. Had 2021 been a normal year, with the same amount of people and volunteers as normal, I may not have had the opportunity to be quiz master since I was younger (just in 7th grade). God worked it all together for good. I just had to have faith and watch Him work.
There are so many other examples of ways that JBQ has affected my life that I could fill a book with them. In my sixth-grade year, I also wrote an entire magazine about JBQ. I love the program so much, I chose to write about it for my school that year.
I also have a wall in my room that I have completely devoted to Bible Quiz. It holds the seals that I have earned, pictures of the National Festivals I have attended, ribbons and trophies I have won, and a sword I received from my church when I graduated. I wanted to be reminded every time I walk in my room, that no matter how many awards I've won, how many seals I've earned, how many memories I've made, that above it all, God's word is hidden in my heart, and I've seen first hand how much God has done for me through JBQ.
"Good Afternoon!'' The leader steps on stage and clears her voice, "thank you all for your patience. I'm excited to announce that the results are in."
A nervous murmur races through the crowd. The questions still loom in all their minds and hearts; whose journey will continue to Alabama and whose journey will be stopped in its tracks? Everyone is exhausted. They have faced a grueling day of quizzing. Some have felt the sweet taste of victory. Others have experienced the sting of defeat. Yet, only five teams will embark on the next segment of their journey and advance forward. And there will only be one North Carolina State Champion.
One of the quizzers sipped his orange Gatorade bottle. He had experienced a slightly different day than the others. He had woken up that morning and something didn't feel right. He had been feeling sick and had thrown up multiple times that morning on the way to the competition. But he had decided not to let that hinder his chance to compete and use his Biblical knowledge and his team agreed to let him jump in. Little did he know that soon his name would be called as the first place quizzer. But he knew the place he achieved wouldn't matter in the long run; what truly mattered was the Scripture that was hidden in his heart.
Hi, my name is Paul E. and this quizzer is me. Although my time of competing in Junior Bible Quiz has ended, I still have the lessons that I've learned and the Scripture that is hidden in my heart. To say that JBQ has affected my life is an extreme understatement. JBQ has shaped my entire worldview and impacted my life in the deepest ways. I hope to share just a couple of examples with you of how JBQ has changed my life.
I began Junior Bible Quiz when I was four years old. I started in X-League which includes only the 10-Point questions. I enjoyed practicing with my friends every Wednesday night and getting to compete against other children my age who were also learning God's word. Within the first year of quizzing I decided to believe in Jesus as Savior just as Acts 16:31 explains, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved..." This was strongly affected by JBQ.as I was beginning to grow in my knowledge of Biblical concepts.
As the years continued to progress, I moved to Novice league. I began learning 20-Point questions. The first few years I would attend competitions, quiz to the best of my ability, and usually achieve somewhere between tenth and fifteenth place. But in my third grade year, things changed. At the kickoff meet, I came in second place individually. Then the next month, my parents surprised my brothers and me with a surprise trip to Disney; but we then came to find out that the JBQ meet for that month had been moved to the same week as our trip. While I was excited to visit Disney, I was also upset that I would have to miss the meet. When the other matches that season arrived, I won second place individually at all of them. And yet, when the awards ceremony for the season came, collectively I only achieved seventh place. I was fairly upset that the first year I could have won a trophy (only first, second, and third get trophies), I hadn't placed high enough and all because I missed a meet. But I was forgetting 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I was being ungrateful for an amazing gift that I had been given. Once I remembered this verse I realized that I should be grateful for all God has given me.
After another year had passed, I was moved to the Experienced Level and began studying the 30-Point questions. When we were just beginning JBQ, my parents offered my brothers and me a deal. If we learned all of the 20-Point questions and could answer them all at the cutoff in one sitting, we would receive a Kindle to help us study more. And if we learned and answered all the 30-Point questions at the cutoff, we would receive another prize (which had not yet been decided). I began studying the 30-Point questions extremely hard, really wanting to earn whatever prize lay ahead of me. I tried multiple times in the first few months but failed all of them. My mother then reminded me of what Matthew 6:20-21 reveals, "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also." I had failed to remember that it's not about earthly treasure, but the eternal treasure of hiding God's word in our hearts. At that time, something clicked. I finally understood that it wasn't really about the competition, but about learning the Word of God (although, the competition definitely helps drive the memorization on hard days!) It was no longer about a human competition, but about memorizing the words breathed by our Heavenly Father (2 Tim. 2:15).
As my sixth grade and final year of JBQ approached, I was excited for my final season. The season began in the fall of 2019 and we were all excited that the National Festival would be held in Naperville, Illinois that year. My team was pretty confident that we would make it to the festival for our final year (the three of us were all graduating) since we had placed third in the Regional competition and seventeenth in the National Festival the previous year. The beginning of the season began as normal and my team was excelling. But when March of 2020 arrived, the District finals, scheduled for April, were canceled due to COVID. The Regional and National competitions were both canceled. My last year in JBQ had been turned on its head. Nothing was the same. I no longer needed to study the questions that I had spent the last eight years of my life learning. The fire that I had for earning my way to the National Festival was gone. But one verse I had learned kept coming into my head. Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Even though it may not have seemed like it at the time, God was working the situation together for good. When the next year's National Festival came around, things were still small due to COVID. As a result, I had the privilege of quiz mastering one of the rooms (My younger brother is still quizzing and his team was attending). I enjoyed being a quiz master so much and still continue to be a quizmaster to this day. Had 2021 been a normal year, with the same amount of people and volunteers as normal, I may not have had the opportunity to be quiz master since I was younger (just in 7th grade). God worked it all together for good. I just had to have faith and watch Him work.
There are so many other examples of ways that JBQ has affected my life that I could fill a book with them. In my sixth-grade year, I also wrote an entire magazine about JBQ. I love the program so much, I chose to write about it for my school that year.
I also have a wall in my room that I have completely devoted to Bible Quiz. It holds the seals that I have earned, pictures of the National Festivals I have attended, ribbons and trophies I have won, and a sword I received from my church when I graduated. I wanted to be reminded every time I walk in my room, that no matter how many awards I've won, how many seals I've earned, how many memories I've made, that above it all, God's word is hidden in my heart, and I've seen first hand how much God has done for me through JBQ.
Paul E.
Former JBQ quizzer
Active JBQ Official and Writer