Permission to Brag (just a little)

Chase signed up for Bible drills at our church. He started a bit later than some of the other children, but he jumped right in and got on with it. Having participated in AWANA was a big boost for him. However, this is his first time to participate in Bible drills.

For several months the children who participated learned to recite from memory and word perfect 25 scripture references from the NIV translation. Also, there were 10 key passages that the children must learn. For example, if the caller called "The Faith Chapter," then the drillers must know from memory that is Hebrews 11. Also, the drillers must know the books of the Bible in order. Now here's the difficult part. When the caller calls out and then says start, the driller has 10 seconds to find it or recall it from memory in order to step forward.

Let's say the caller called out the book of Amos. The child has 10 seconds to find the book of Amos, place his (or her) finger on on the name of the book on the left or right hand corner, and then step forward. If the caller calls the number of the driller, he must state the book before the book called, the book called and the book after the book called. So for Amos, that would be Joel, Amos, and Obadiah. With the key passage, their finger must be on the passage. Such as "The Temptation of Jesus," the scripture reference must be found which is Matthew 4:1-11, the finger placed anywhere on that passage, and step forward in less than 10 seconds. If the caller calls the driller's number, he must state the title of the Key Passage, the scripture reference and then he will be asked to read a scripture from that passage.

There were three levels of competition--the church level, association and state. Chase advanced to state level this past weekend. At state level competition, the drillers may not use the Bible that they practiced with. Each driller receives a brand new Bible and has 15 minutes prior to the competition to break it in. If any of you have used a brand new Bible knows that is difficult. This presumably levels the playing field. Chase won STATE LEVEL PERFECT! Which means he did not miss any calls--24 in all. Five of the seven elementary drillers (4th -6th grade) from our church received State Level Perfect.

Chase won the Bible he used in the competition and received a certificate for his accomplishment. What can be a better prize than the Word of God? This is Chase's very first Bible of his own. We have plenty of Bibles in the house which he has used. But this is his first Bible with his name in it. He was so excited when he received it this morning in church, he started reading in Matthew. He told me he was going to read through the New Testament.


Proverbs 22:6
Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.

I pray that as Chase hides the word of God in his heart and learns how to use God's sword that he shall never depart from the ways of the Lord!!

Blessings in Christ--