On Saturday, August 27, 2016, the Southeast Bible Quiz Association kicked off the 2016-2017 Bible quiz season with the first quiz meet of the year. The event took place at the Temple Baptist Academy campus in Powell, TN. It turned out to be a very exciting event. The field of teams included a team from West Park Baptist Church, a team from Rhea County TN and two teams from Temple Baptist Church. It was very exciting to see two ministries compete for the first time in the SBQA.
This month, there were several close quizzes. In the first quiz match West Park Baptist faced Temple Endurance. The West Park Baptist team only had two quizzers so they needed to quiz a flawless match or both quizzers would quiz out or error out and the Temple Endurance team would be able to sit for the whole question for the last 10 questions and win the quiz match. Surprisingly, the West Park Baptist team only had three errors as a team and rolled to a 200 to 160 victory. In round two, Rhea County quizzed their first quiz match ever against Temple Endurance. They were shockingly good as the score was tied after 20 questions. On the tie breaker question, Karis Kroeker from Rhea County won the jump and gave a correct answer to secure the first victory in Rhea County Bible quizzing history. As the quiz meet progressed, it was clear that the teams from West Park Baptist and Rhea County were clearly the strongest teams. They eventually faced off in head to head competition and West Park Baptist rolled to an early 150 to 60 lead on question 10. Rhea County then started to mount a comeback, but were eventually defeated 210 to 170. As a result, West Park Baptist won the SBQA Team of the Month trophy.
There were six different quizzers that quizzed out forward with five correct answers in a single quiz match and won a Quiz Out Achievement Ribbon. They are as follows:
1. Scott Firebaugh – West Park Baptist
2. Caleb Hancock – Temple Courageous
3. Johnny Hancock – Temple Endurance
4. JuliAnn Jouben – Rhea County
5. Karis Kroeker – Rhea County
6. Kierstin Balka – Temple Endurance
The Quizzer of the Month award was hotly contested this month as the top two quizzers quizzed out multiple times and tied in points. As a result, a tie breaker rule was used which gives the award to the quizzer that quizzed out the most times. When this rule was applied Caleb Hancock from Temple Endurance finished in second place and Scott Firebaugh from West Park Baptist was awarded the Quizzer of the month medal.
It is very encouraging to see the time that these quizzers and their parents have invested in God’s Word, and it is exciting to think about the way God will use it in their lives in the years to come.
In Christ and In His Word,
Michael Balka