Local youth to compete in National Bible Bee
Hoffman Estates: A local youth is headed to Nashville, Tenn. from Nov. 16-19 to compete in the 2011 National Bible Bee. Abigail Lucero excelled in Bible memorization and study, enough to secure one of the top 100 national scores from her primary age group during the Local Bible Bee Contest. This contest was held on Aug. 27 at Living Christ Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights, under the leadership of Maile Bergen, Regina Ng and Linda Calzada, and memorization software was developed by Daniel Calzada.
Abigail is the daughter of Joe and Darla Lucero, a member at Living Christ Lutheran Church and an AWANA participant at Calvary Community in Schaumburg, along with her twin sisters and fellow Bible Bee contestants Rachel and Sophia. She and others from around the western suburbs memorized 250 Bible verses and studied the book of 1st Peter, including learning Greek words, cross-referencing Scriptures and journaling thoughts which this book brought to mind. As a national qualifier, she memorized 100 additional verses and in like fashion studied 2nd Peter.
The 2011 National Bible Bee Competition and Family Celebration will take place in Nashville, Tenn. at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel and the Nashville Convention Center. At Nationals, the 300 qualifiers from all ages groups will demonstrate their diligence in Scripture knowledge and memorization through a one-hour written test as well as oral rounds, in 10 minutes reciting from those verses memorized 25 randomly chosen verses.
This competition is surrounded by the events of The Shelby Kennedy Foundation's Family Discipleship Celebration. The foundation's chief executive officer Mark McMahan emphasizes that everyone is welcome, whether previously involved in the Bible Bee or not. “This event is designed to be family-friendly, engaging and encouraging for everyone,” says McMahan. “Those who attended last year's nationals in Schaumburg were deeply impacted by the celebration of God's Word and the sense of community among the families, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We anticipate the same and more for this year's event.”
Activities will include a hymn sing, square dance, family movie theater, play areas, ministry booths, soda shop and much more. Guest speakers will include actor Kirk Cameron ("Growing Pains"), our own local, internationally-known creative geniuses, artist Timothy Botts (Glen Ellyn) and Veggie Tales creator Phil Vischer (Wheaton), and acclaimed speaker and pastor the Rev. Voddie Baucham. More activities and ticket prices are listed at www.BibleBee.org.
An extra benefit for family and friends will be a live stream of Finals events via webcast at the Bible Bee's website.