MN State Bible Bowl 2008 competition was held at Concordia University in St. Paul on Saturday, April 5th. The annual event had thirty-three teams competing this year. For the past 16 years, parents, teachers, mentors, drivers, test writers and volunteer quiz-masters from the Minnesota Lutheran Church, Missouri-Synod, have united to provide a fun event encouraging youth (grades 7- 12) to study God’s Word.
Last September team members from Emmanuel Barnum and St. Peter’s Moose Lake Lutheran Churches began studying for the competition. The groups met once a week on Sunday mornings with other teens and adults to work their way through a Bible Study on the book of Genesis. In addition to their weekly Bible study, the teens strived to read their Bibles daily.
The 2008 Bible Bowl questions were taken from the book of Genesis. Students were asked questions such as: “What did Abram give Melchizedek?” Answer: a tenth of everything he owned and “The dimensions of the ark were?” Answer: 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.
The competition consisted of two teams with 3 or 4 players’ competing against one another in a question and answerer quiz format. Emmanuel Barnum / St. Peter Moose Lake had two teams “A” and “B”. At the end of the competition, the “A” team (Brian Bothwell, Lynsey Hagen, and Seth Vogt) took sixth place, each team member bringing home a trophy. The “B” team members were Megan Bothwell, Rachel Vogt and Caleb Vogt. The sportsmanship during the competition was excellent and each team congratulated the other on their wins. There were no “losers” as it was an intense contest and all participants did their best and should be commended for their hard work.
In memory of Moy Langhorst, Emmanuel/St. Peter’s youth team members and their coaches wore t-shirts that honored Moy’s faith and service to his country. Moy enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after he graduated from high school and was killed in action as his squad was ambushed in Ar Ramadi, Iraq on April 6, 2004. Moy was a member of the Emmanuel/St. Peter’s Bible Bowl team as a youth and a lifelong member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.
On the front of the t-shirts these words appear "Semper Fidelis", Latin for "Always faithful," best known as the motto of the United States Marine Corps and words that would easily describe Moy as a person. On the back of the t-shirt is printed; Moy’s original words and a drawing in response to a Sunday school question. He was eight years old when he wrote: “If Jesus were alive today he would own a white jeep with a dove on the hood. He would work as a priest in Jerusalem. He would be a peace keeper during wars. Instead of dying on the cross, he would die in the gas chamber.” The Bible Bowl team members were honored to wear these t-shirts in memory of PFC Moisés Langhorst and in support of the PFC Langhorst Mission Fund.
