BIBLE NEWS: Airdropping Bibles into North Korea

For most of the world, this is a great time to read the Bible.  It is available free on the internet at sites like BibleGateway.Com and it is available free through countless Missions organizations.  But there are still places on Earth where getting your hands on a Bible is a life and death situation.  Christians are seeking to sneak more Bibles into North Korea, one of the most tightly controlled Communist dictatorships left on the planet.

The balloons, made from a large sheet of "farm plastic," said Foley, are filled with hydrogen before the Bibles and "tracts" - testimonials written by other North Korean Christians - are attached at the bottom inside a sack or box. Timers are then used to release the materials in stages, dispersing them at high altitudes across North Korea.
Foley and members of his Christian mission group, Seoul USA, use GPS technology to help direct where the Bibles land. Around 50,000 of them have dropped from the skies in the last year.

NEWS FROM THE FRONT: Former Bible Quizzer on Dancing Mission

"News from the Front" will be a periodic feature over the summer, reporting on former Bible Quizzers now working in ministry, either full-time or short-term.  We'll always try to include how their career as a quizzer prepared them for their work.  If you have a story about your missions trip, or a former Bible Quizzer, please e-mail the coaches!

Katherine Sarris - formerly known as the Trumbull Bible Quizzer "Kiwi" - will be on a missions trip this summer as part of two different organizations.  First, Project Dance...

Project Dance is a movement of dancers seeking to positively impact culture through artistic integrity. Our desire is to see every dancer nurtured to their fullest human potential for their own wellbeing and their contribution to the world. We offer training, education, and performance opportunities for dancers worldwide who desire to dance with integrity to inspire. 

And second, Operation Mobilization...

OM’s role in the body of Christ is to motivate, develop and equip people for world evangelization and to strengthen and help plant churches, especially among the unreached in the Middle East, Europe, South and Central Asia.

Katherine will be training dancers in evangelistic dance and doing choreography for them to be used in missions to England, Malta, France, and Italy!  Her Bible Quizzing experience gave her a strong grounding in the Word, and helps give her confidence as she "goes forth" to use her talents in this new way.

NEWS FROM THE FRONT: Bible Quizzers in Manassas, VA

"News from the Front" will be a periodic feature over the summer, reporting on former Bible Quizzers now working in ministry, either full-time or short-term.  We'll always try to include how their career as a quizzer prepared them for their work.  If you have a story about your missions trip, or a former Bible Quizzer, please e-mail the coaches!

Several members of the Monroe Bible Quiz Team are going along with the Beacon Hill Church Youth Group on a missions trip to Manassas, VA from June 30 to July 5.  The team will consist of 10 people - 8 teens and 2 chaperones - going on a "Week of Hope" to the area.  While their exact duties are not yet fully known, the group will be focussed on Community Service and Outreach, along with over 100 other students from around the country.  The theme for the week will be "What Do You Stand For?"

Please be praying for this trips - and especially your fellow Bible Quizzers - as they go on this adventure for God.  There are sure to be difficulties and trials - Satan rarely fails to oppose warriors on the battlefield - but please pray that they will overcome and see spiritual growth in their own lives and the lives to whom they have been sent!

NEWS FROM THE FRONT: Bible Quizzer on a Missions Trip

"News from the Front" will be a periodic feature over the summer, reporting on former Bible Quizzers now working in ministry, either full-time or short-term.  We'll always try to include how their career as a quizzer prepared them for their work.  If you have a story about your missions trip, or a former Bible Quizzer, please e-mail the coaches!

Mari - also known as "Fishy" and "Quirky" was a Bible Quizzer with the Trumbull Quiz Team for many years and this summer is working with the organization "Mercy Ships" for a short-term missions trip.  Here is her report.

All staff on this ship are volunteer Christians with differing amounts of Bible knowledge.  But all are very honest and open about their faith. We, as a missionary team, represent 4 different countries: England, the Netherlands, Swizerland, and the United States of America. It is amazing to meet and talk with people from countries you only usually hear about in a very secular missionaries-need-to-go-there, sense. The discussions we have range from why we got to this point of wanting to help out on the Ship. . .  to what Jesus and the Bible means to us, specifically. 

There are about 31 different countries represented (again all Christians) in the whole staff aboard this ship. What is so amazing is the African Christians aboard - who are helping from different African countries -  praising God with you. 

Last night, I was having a conversation with a man from South Africa. We got into a discussion about the earth and all the creatures in it. I was so grateful for the knowledge and memory I had stowed away years ago from Quiz Team!  I was quoting scripture and talking to him about all that I knew of Science from not only my teachers, but also from the Bible. I remember thinking as I was talking about how this was a prime example of my years of memorizing for a tournament years ago is still benifiting my life today. Many other conversations with older more knowlegable people still make me proud because I can hold my own among them. All thanks to those years of studying and listening to my coaches. I could never have guessed how far reaching an impact Quiz Team would always have on my life and sometimes maybe most of the time I do not realize all of it, but when I actually catch myself quoting or arguing using long-lost scripture verses, it is a wonderful realization every time.   

This is truly a remarkable experience and I am looking forward to the weeks ahead, but I also encourage any other young quizzers to never just view the studying as a chore, but as a gateway into so many amazing realizations of yourselves.