Youth Bible Quiz
This year’s Bible Quiz final was held at Maranatha Primary school on the 8th of September 2019. A total of 72 participants were involved in the three categories namely Pathfinders (24), Ambassadors (24) and Young Adults (24). Each conference brought in twelve participants in each category for this years’ challenge that was based on the books of 1st Kings, Zephaniah, Obadiah, John, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd John and chapters 126-135 of the book Messages to Young People. The event was a success and the Youth directors commended the young people for the hard work they put in to commit scripture to their memory.
The Bible Quiz program started way back in 1996 with Dr. Eugene Fransch, the then ZUC Youth Director introducing it. It started small with Youth using the Bible Study Wheel on which were texts arranged under some of our Church Fundamental Beliefs that could be fitted on to the Bible Wheel. Youth would memorize the verses on the Bible Wheel and compete on a given date.
This program has excited the youth over the years and encouraged them to study the Word of God. The structure of the Quiz has been evolving with the current structure having been adopted since 2008. It started being an activity where each youth would do their preparation, then later teams who would compete and win as teams. Now the participants come as teams, but each team member participates in an individual accomplishment level. This activity has tremendously encouraged Bible reading amongst the youth. We have even added to the Bible books that we choose for each year, the Spirit of Prophecy. Next year we will be completing the book Messages to Young People.
This activity begins at the local church, where teams at that level participate and pick a team to go to the next level which is the district and/or federation level. From there, a team is picked for the conference level where a team of 12 is picked for the Union level quiz.
Participants from different backgrounds including atheism have joined in since it is open even to those that are not members of the Adventist church and the number of these has been increasing each year. One of these remarked, “of the books that I have read so far, I now know them to the extent that if someone misquotes from those books I can tell with ease that they are misfiring”. “Bible reading for quiz has improved my quest and interest in reading any book, school books included, it has broadened my mind even in my schoolwork,” said another participant.
S uch testimonies have helped us realize that though there are some misgivings in some quarters about the Bible quiz program, it is not going without benefit to the mission and spiritual growth of our young people. We thank God for the continued support of our youth, parents, leaders, and sponsors for this worthy program.
