“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
— Psalm 119:105

The Minitonas First Baptist Church (MFBC) Bible Quizzers are gearing up for another fulfilling year of Bible Quizzing competition with the Canadian Midwest District (CMD).
“This year we will be studying the Gospel of John, written by the man self-described as ’the disciple whom Jesus loved’,” said MFBC Bible Quizzers Head Coach Karla Reader. “John tells an eye witness account of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth from the perspective of someone who was very close with Jesus.”
While the first practice of the season has been scheduled for Sept. 3 at 7 p.m., after the catastrophic flooding the region experienced this past June, the location of practice has yet to be determined.
“Like so many others that are in this position of loss, we are looking into a suitable place for the quizzing group to meet until the church is able to rebuild and restore the basement,” noted Reader.
Last Season Reflections
Part of the excitement for the new year also comes from the growth and success of last years’ program.
“This past season we saw our number of participants nearly double from our first year and then settle in with a dozen youth committed to the program,” said Reader, noting last year’s selection was 1 and 2 Corinthians.
In Bible Quizzing, three teams of 3-4 youths compete to answer questions in a quiz-style tournament, and while memorization is a key part of being successful, there is much more to quizzing.
“It is a team sport that includes strategy, team work, performing under pressure and positive comradery amongst all participants,” said Reader. “Similar to a player learning what position they play best in a sport; the quizzer learns their strengths in which question types they excel at and will strive to answer those questions.”
While maintaining weekly practices, the youth had a number of opportunities to compete against other teams.
“They competed in three local one-day meets,” said Reader, indicating they travelled to Yorkton, Sask, and Humboldt, Sask. in the fall, while the group hosted an event in the spring. “Hosting our own small meet the week before traveling for finals served a two-fold purpose. Not all our quizzers were able to travel to finals and this local meet served as a great end of year opportunity to compete on all the material memorized throughout the year. For those going to finals, it was a full day of extra practice that sharpened their skills.”
However, the meet wasn’t just all about competition.
“Several of our youth led everyone in a time of worship,” said Reader. “They (also) got to enjoy time together with the other youth doing activities and games.”
During the winter, the group participated in two district Bible quizzing meets, the first in Saskatoon, Sask. and another in Winkler.
“The weekend kicks off with quizzing on Friday night and then all day Saturday,” said Reader. “Once the quizzing is done, the youth take part in some kind of activity or group event such as roller-skating, go carts, or glow stick capture the flag. By Saturday evening, it’s time for awards and a time of praise and worship with a guest speaker to finish off the service.”
At CMD Bible Quizzing district meets, statistics are kept for teams as well as individual quizzers.
“These district meets bring in approximately 50 teams with close to 200 youth competing,” said Reader.
“At the second district meet, one of the MFBC Bible Quizzer teams consisting of Kenya Thiessen, Chloe McKay and Mark Reger brought home the first-place trophy for the B-Division, while Mark also received a second-place trophy for his individual standings in the B-Division.”
To end the season, quizzers travelled to the CMD Finals, held at Millar College of the Bible in Pambrun, Sask.
“Both our teams narrowly missed getting to the medal round pulling off fourth and sixth places in the A-Con division,” stated Reader. “Kenya Thiessen received third place for her individual standings in the A-Con division.”
MFBC Bible Quizzer Caleb Reader reflected on the past events and the experience of competing.
“At a quiz meet, you are never bored and you are never left out,” he said. “As you are quizzing, your brain is going so hard, you are pouring sweat, just focused in. The cool thing about going to meets is that you make new friends because you get billeted with families within the quizzing community.”
A Challenge Conquered
At the start of each program year students choose which club within the program they would like to participate in – which correlates to the number of verses memorized through the year, 150 verses, 300 verses, or total material.
After memorizing the entirety of 1 and 2 Corinthians - a total of 694 verses - Grade 8 student Kenya Thiessen took on the challenge for Total Material.
“All the verses from 1 and 2 Corinthians are put into a bag and shook up, then 45 are pulled out. I had to successfully quote 15 verses, and then the first four words of (each verse were) given to me for the rest of the 45. And I did that,” said Kenya Thiessen.
What kind of time does it take to learn and memorize so many verses?
“I didn’t commit that much (time), but if you really want to, 20 minutes a day,” she said, noting there were challenges. “When there is 40 verses a week (that is the hardest part), just learning 40 verses.”
“I was blissfully unaware that it was (almost) 700 verses.”
However, receiving her ribbon during the recognition ceremony at the CMD Finals made it all worth it.
“Being a second-year quizzer, it was great to be included with these really good quizzers from the top that have been quizzing for five years,” she said.
Competing in the Club 300 Challenge, Joshua Reader, Mark Reger, and Chloe McKay successfully earned their ribbons after memorizing 300 verses.
“We had to quote 10 verses and we had to finish 20 verses (after getting the first four words),” said Joshua Reader.
For the trio, the achievement came with plenty of practice in perseverance.
“Practicing them at home and then quoting them (each week at practice) was all challenging,” said Reger. “Sometime I have really bad weeks where I can’t memorize. (But) if you memorize them, then the quoting is going to be easy.”
“Finding the time to do it, was challenging,” said McKay. “On average it was 13 verses each week.”
“It gets easier as you go,” commented Joshua Reader. “The more you memorize, the easier it gets.”
And while it wasn’t part of Club 300, McKay also chose to add additional verses to her list, memorizing the entirety of Second Corinthians Chapter 13 as well.
“(I did it) just because at quiz meets I didn’t want to jump on a question and then have it be a quote, and a full content for 2 Corinthians Chapter 13,” she said, explaining the entirety of 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 was included in Club 300. “So, I just decided to learn 21 verses that week.”
Completing the Club 150 Challenge of memorizing 150 verses, William Hunt, Simea Kiefer, and Gylfa Machan successfully quoted five and finished the verse for ten of the fifteen randomly drawn selections.
“It was hard to quote,” said Kiefer. “Some verses I’m not quite good at (and sometimes) you just forget it, but in the end I got it done.”
“For me (the hardest part) was probably matching the verses to the reference,” said Machan.
Overall, each of the youths expressed a positive takeaway from another year participating in the program.
“The quiz meets are really cool (to attend) and it’s cool that you have a chance to earn a prize after quoting each week’s (verses during practices),” said Hunt. “It’s just good to memorize God’s word.”
“For me, it’s being with my friends and earning (the ribbon) because I was proud I was able to earn so many things based on God’s word,” said Machan. “I feel like it strengthens my relationship the more and more I do this.”
“The more I’m in it, every single quiz meet (we attend) I’m just more comfortable with hanging out with people (and making) more friends,” said Joshua Reader.
“Something we hear over and over from graduates is that it is such a great family. Nobody leaves you out. It’s completely different than other sports, they just do things a little differently.”
“People are friendly, even though it’s competitive,” agreed Thiessen.
“It’s awesome,” said Reger.
While the Minitonas First Baptist Church is the host for the group, they also presently have members from Durban’s Valley Evangelical Covenant Church participating, and welcome all youth from within the Valley from Grade 6-12 who are interested in this program based on Bible memorizing and competition.
For more information on the program check out www.cmdbiblequizzing.org or contact MFBC Bible Quizzers Head Coach Karla Reader at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..