Jump If You Know the Question...AND the Answer!

The most transforming experience I had during high school was being part of our YFC Quiz Team. To compete with teams across the area, the state and nation, we formed a Crescenta Valley team. In eleventh grade we studied and memorized the book of Mark and in twelfth grade took on the book of Hebrews. Can you imagine memorizing those wonderful books during the teenage years? It helped me know Jesus better and many of the verses remain familiar and well loved today.

As a local team, we met weekly to practice answering questions and then monthly had contests against other schools' teams. We studied one chapter a week. The judge would ask a question and as soon as we knew how to complete the question AND give the answer, we jumped out of our chair. The first one up got to try to answer correctly. Here's an example:

Judge: “Who is the So…..JUMP!  Chair #3, what is the question and answer?”

Chair #3: “Question: Who is the Son? Answer: ‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word’ (Hebrews 1:3).”

Judge: "That's correct. SCORE 1 point!"

I remember spending many hours studying and memorizing God’s Word late at night. My sister Nancy remembers helping me study for this. And Marilyn (Petersen) Kirshberger remembers all the 3 x 5 cards we created with rubber bands around them to keep chapters together. Then we quizzed each other daily. And while we never made it to Winona Lake for the national championships, it worked its way deeply into my heart.

Here's a photo I found online to make you chuckle. We didn't really jump that high but sometimes it felt like it as we tried to be the first one out of our chairs. Kinda felt like Jeopardy!

Apparently the Quiz Teams are still going strong. Scroll down to the one minute mark on this linked video and see how to really jump out of your chair: Quizzing video.  And YouTube is full of videos of all ages doing Bible quiz teams. Today Quiz Teams can download the questions all ready for them too!

I’m so very grateful that God allowed me to come to know Him through His Word. It helped form the direction for the rest of my life, including later joining Wycliffe Bible Translators to help people who didn't yet have a Bible in their own language to hear about Jesus, and learn to read, in God's Word.

Our Youth For Christ Club was an encouragement in several other ways too. We had monthly meetings in one location for all the Los Angeles area YFC clubs. These meetings were life-changing times of hearing God's word from many respected leaders in the church. Roy McKeown was the Los Angeles leader and Gene Sweeney was our area director. It was during this time I really came to know and love Jesus.

OK, next blog I MOVE again, this time to college. Mom had drilled into Nancy and I that we needed a profession in which we would have a guaranteed job with income and to choose to study either nursing or teaching. Even though all my family were nurses and doctors, I already knew I would be a teacher, so that was easy. My days of studying geometry, chemistry, and college prep courses, and even my wonderful years of piano lessons with Mr. Frost, were soon to be part of the past. But my four years of Spanish were to continue into college along with my heart for international peoples.

One of my favorite songs about God's Word is Ancient Words Ever True Changing Me and Changing You.

Hebrews 4:12: For the Word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.