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Having earned a first place standing in two previous meets, at the Area and State Bible Bowls, three Minnesota Pathfinder teams traveled to Lincoln, NE for the well-attended Union Bible Bowl held Feb. 17 at the Piedmont Church.  A total of sixteen teams from five conferences--Minnesota, Kansas-Nebraska, Iowa-Missouri, Rocky Mountain, and Dakota-- participated.   Representing the  Minnesota Conference were teams from the following clubs:  Open Arms Northern Lights, Owatonna Wolves, and Maple Plain Messengers, who were presented with 1st, 2nd,  and 3rd place trophies, respectively.   Pathfinders faced 120 questions from the last five chapters of Deuteronomy and all 24 chapters of Joshua.  The teams had ten seconds to answer each question using an electronic “clicker”, but they weren’t the only ones scratching their heads for answers to scripture-based questions.  While clubs were submitting their answers electronically, members of the audience were invited to try Bible Bowl for themselves by recording their answers on paper.  This, of course, heightened audience interest while, in the words of one attendee, “it also humbled us greatly.”

During the tallying of results at the conclusion of Bible Bowl, Matchbox Music Ministry, a group of students from Union College, led the audience and teams in singing.  The Open Arms team was awarded a first-place standing, and is now eligible to join 20 teams from around the nation as they participate in the Invitational Bible Bowl, to be held March 10 at Vista Ridge Academy near Brighton, CO.  This will mark the final level for Bible Bowl.   

Getting to the Union Bible Bowl has been a journey involving months of study, discipline, and preparation.  The process has impacted many people besides the six youth on each team.  Team coaches and families have studied, drilled, quizzed, and driven hundreds of miles so that their Pathfinders might participate in the event.  In northern Minnesota and North Dakota, Bible Bowl has created quite a buzz, and entire communities have followed it with great interest.  Local newspapers have provided very good coverage, the Grygla Eagle giving the event front-page exposure in three separate issues.  Radio Station KTRF in Thief River Falls featured Bible Bowl during a 20-minute interview with Marilyne and Katherine Sayler.    Caleb and Lydia Pongo, who attend public school in Grygla, have been pleasantly surprised by the interest and support their teachers and classmates have expressed, and their mother, Karen, a teller in a local bank, reports that every day there are at least three people from the community who come to her wicket and inquire about how Bible Bowl is going.   Meanwhile, classmates at South Middle School in Grand Forks, N.D., noticing Joshua Saunders carrying his Bible with his schoolbooks, began asking him questions.  The concept of Bible Bowl appealed to them, and soon they became as approvingly accustomed to seeing Joshua with his Bible as they were with his gym bag.  Both students and teachers at South continue to enthusiastically cheer him on.

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