Galt House Grandeur – NABQT 2001, Louisville, KY
An in-depth look by Chad L. R.
Faubert
Hundreds of quizzers, coaches, officials
and observers flooded into the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky for the annual
North American Bible Quiz Tournament (NABQT) held
October 6-12, 2001.
The field: 61 registered teams.
The material: The Heart of
Acts.
The quest: To hoist the first
place trophy at the Quizzing Banquet Friday night.
The purpose: For His Glory!
First year National Quizmaster Nathan
Reever met with his officiating team at 5 p.m. on Saturday to
inform, encourage and thank the NABQT officials, many of whom sacrificed
precious vacation time. Orientation
at 7 p.m. kicked off a fantastic week of quizzing, praying and mingling by the
60 teams actually arriving to compete. While
registration was down a substantial 12 teams from the previous
year record of 72, the presence of the Lord still
blessed those gathered to quiz unto His Name.
It had been eight years since the NABQT was held at the Galt House, and
due to scheduling conflicts, Bible Quizzing had been forced to be regulated to
meeting rooms under renovations which acquired the affectionate name, The
Waterfront Warehouse. Fortunately,
this year would be different, when (as back in 1989), the NABQT and Quizzing
Banquet were held in the plush Archibald Room.
First round action began Sunday morning
with spilt session quizzing presided over by both Nathan Reever and Lonnie
Brown, each with Session A and Session B
respectively. After two full days
of quizzing, the teams from Indiana 1 (Evansville, Indiana) and Louisiana 1
(Dequincy, Louisiana) faced off for the finals of Round 1, with Indiana 1
capturing the win to remain undefeated and await a challenger in Round 2.
Louisiana 1 secured no less than third place, with Oregon 1 (Estacada,
Oregon) and Ohio 1 (Cincinnati, Ohio) sitting in a tie for fifth place each.
One of the most uplifting aspects of any
quizzing event are the powerful devotions.
On Tuesday afternoon, Jonathan Walker, former four-time National Champion
from Cincinnati, Ohio, shared his heart with the quiz family in relating the
three special Thursdays in his quiz career.
The last Thursday he mentioned was the one, where sitting on the top of
the kitchen counter studying his verses, he truly fell in love with God’s
Word. He then went on to remind us
to not just memorize the Word, but to live It and love It.
Due to the high profile general
elections in the UPCI, there was no devotion or
quizzing on Wednesday afternoon. (This allowed all ministers participating in
the NABQT the freedom to vote.)
General session quizzing resumed
Wednesday evening, and ended with only 7 teams left quizzing. That’s when one
of the most dynamic quizzes of the tournament occurred, with
Colorado 1 quizzing Minnesota 1 into overtime. Both CO 1 quizzers were no longer in the quiz after question
22, and were up by 20 points, however MN 1’s captain had 7 correct and only
needed to answer question 23 correctly to quiz out and gain an extra 10 points
to win the quiz. That is what
happened and eliminated the two fine quizzing (twin) brothers from CO 1.
Tense quizzing resumed on Thursday
morning with the quarter and semi finals to see who would compete with Indiana 1
for the Championship on Friday afternoon. This
team turned out to be (Dexter) Maine 1.
The favorite two hours of the NABQT for
many officials and former quizzers is Prayer & Share, a time where last year
quizzers are given the opportunity to publicly reflect and share with the
audience how quizzing has affected their lives. (In many cases, they related how quizzing has greatly
impacted their lives for the better.) Marvin
and Claudette Walker, the former National Quizmaster and his wife, were invited
by Bro. Reever to help co-ordinate
and take part in this event. Once
all the last quizzers completed
pouring out their hearts, Bro. Walker then asked for coaches and ministers to
come up and lay hands on them and led every one in prayer for the quizzers—not
just to keep and be strengthened by the Word, but to use it in reaching others
for His Glory.
Friday began with the NABQT officials
voting on the New Team Merit award, the Coach of the Year and the most
prestigious award, the Quizzer of the Year.
(Results of the voting to follow.) The
finals are always at 4 pm Friday afternoon due to the noon Youth Day service at
General Conference sponsored by the General Youth Division.
This year’s Youth Day service was highlighted by the memorial of former
quiz coach and quiz pastor, Mark Reed from Troy, Michigan led by Marvin Walker.
Mark Reed was not only the innovative and creative Michigan youth
president, but was also a supporter of Bible Quizzing and many of its
participants. Preaching at the
Youth Day service was former quizzer, and current quiz coach and quiz pastor,
Norman Paslay II (Norman Paslay II has also been a two-time coach of the year.),
who challenged everyone to take up the buckler and be the warriors of this
generation.
With only the finals to conclude the
quizzing portion of the NABQT on Friday, the teams from Indiana 1 and Maine 1
(the first time a team from Maine has ever competed in the finals of an NABQT)
took their places in front of a packed out audience for the National
Championship. Indiana 1’s
experienced captain, Aaron Henson, completed a wonderful ride to the top for the
undefeated team by having a great quiz and helping them capture their second
National Championship in four years. Rounding
out the top four teams for the 2001 NABQT were Indiana 1 (Evansville, IN), Maine
1 (Dexter, ME), Louisiana 1 (Dequincy, LA) and Georgia 1 (Buford, GA).
Rounding out the week was the Quizzing
Banquet, where those of the opposite gender
gather up enough courage to ask that special someone for a date or least a chair
beside them. Besides the tasty
lasagne, the banquet included the awards, and hilarious entertainment provided
by Chad Faubert and Company, which garnered a few choice comments by individuals
remarking that (ahem!) it was potentially the best ever.
After the banquet, the flash and click of cameras could be heard as
friends said their goodbyes, and pens were signing autograph sheets and
exchanging phone numbers and email addresses.
Bible Quizzing provides not only an excellent medium for memorizing
God’s Word, but also the perfect opportunity to meet and gain lifelong
friends.
The awards were as follows:
New Team Merit Award
Louisiana 4 from Church Point,
LA
Highest Scoring Individuals
Lindsi Creel
from Louisiana 1 (Dequincy, LA)
Matthew Morris from Georgia 1
(Buford, GA)
Coach of the Year
Kevin Brewer from Indiana 1
(Evansville, IN)
Runners Up:
LeAnn Landry/Cindy Creel
from Louisiana 1 (Dequincy, LA)
John Jackson from Oregon 1
(Estacada, OR)
Deborah Woodbury from Maine 1
(Dexter, ME)
Tom Martinez from Colorado 1
(Denver, CO)
Quizzer of the Year
Aaron Henson
from Indiana 1 (Evansville, IN)
Runners Up:
Lindsi Creel from Louisiana 1
(Dequincy, LA)
Sammy Godair from Oregon 1
(Estacada, OR)
Matt Martinez from Colorado 1
(Denver, CO)
Leah Shultz from Indiana 2
(Edinburgh, IN)
All-in-all, another wonderful time in
Bible Quizzing was enjoyed by almost everyone in Louisville, KY.
2001 marked the first year that the Walkers weren’t directly involved
in quizzing in over 25 years, but they assured us that they would be having a
team this year in their new church in Troy, MI.
Congratulations to all those who made
the effort to be involved in the Bible Quizzing ministry. I look forward to
seeing all the familiar faces, as well as some new ones, next year as the 2002
NABQT will take place in Phoenix, AZ.
ninetyandnine.com
© 2001, Chad L. R. Faubert
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After an elongated university career, Chad
Faubert, an ex-quizzer,
now currently sits in a cubicle and attempts to provide financial reporting and
forecasting for the Canadian government. He
one day hopes to be a full-time quiz groupie to remain youthful, as he enjoys traveling
and being a positive influence on the youth of the UPC who still find him
humorous.
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