On October 5th, the St. John Bible Quiz team competed at Holy Cross Lutheran, coming in 4th place! I’m very proud of our students for all the effort they put into studying in the weeks before the competition, and for their effort and enthusiasm on the night of the competition. Thanks be to God for the wonderful children in our community!

 

This year the Bible Quiz focus was on the Gospel of Mark. Mark proved to be a challenging book for the competition. Because it is such a well-known Gospel, all the teams were well prepared, and scores were higher than the previous year, when we studied Judges, a book full of facts that we don’t often encounter during the Divine Service. Next year, the book is Genesis, which will present an entirely new challenge—rather than 16 chapters like Mark, Genesis has 50!

 

We studied after school twice a week by reading through the book together. Students paid attention to assigned tasks, such as alerting us when a new character or object was introduced or when Mark recounted a miracle. Practice was a great time! I was blessed with the opportunity to point out to the children the love Jesus has for us. We also had snacks, graciously provided by the parents of our competitors. A special thanks to Mr. Davis for letting us use the 7th-grade classroom for our practices.

On the day of the competition, we gathered again for a longer study session, including time for homework, pizza, and trivia games. We then all went up to Holy Cross for the competition.

 

This year, we had over 25 students sign up to be on the team, the most we’ve ever had! Our team is so big that, for the first time ever, we will be having a Kids vs. Grown-ups competition. This will take place on November 11th at 6:30 p.m. in the Dwelling Place. Our 8th graders will help design the competition, add some fun surprises, and emcee the event. I’m looking forward to being together as a community to have fun with God’s Word.

 

A lot of people came together to make this possible. Mr. Davis and Pastor Duling helped me coach the children. Many parents donated snacks, especially Mrs. Sanders. Rev. James and Dr. Claudia Schroeder provided Thrivent cards to help defray the cost of T-shirts and pizza. Dustin Andrew helped design the T-shirts. Chris Theis and Game Gear helped us print the T-shirts. A special thank you also goes to Pastor Benzinger from Lutheran High School for organizing and running the competition!

And most of all, I must say thank you to the parents. Telling children about Jesus is the best way I can spend my time, and the parents made it possible by bringing their children to St. John. Thank you so much!

 

Here at St. John, we are sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ’s atoning life, death, and resurrection with the world. Thank you to everyone who supports the ministry here.

 

United with Christ in His Resurrection,
Vicar Noah Schroeder