Quizzing March Madness Part 2: Invitational

A good quizzing year has got to end with a bang. So what could be bigger than putting together 5 conferences of Bible Quzzing into one giant quizzing tournament. Yes, just as we finished every year, the last tournament is the invitational. The "Ohio tournament", as we ACC quizzers call it, was in Pennsylvania, at Lancaster Bible College. Kind of an oxymoron. There were 81 teams altogether: 2 from Virginia, 7 from Wayne County, 9 from West Liberty, 10 from Northwest Ohio and the most coming from, of course, the ACC with 53 teams. A total of 81 teams for 3 days in Lancasater, PA. What kind of craziness could this result in? Let me tell you...


FRIDAY NIGHT:
I was the first quizzer to arrive at the Deitricks. I was the first one that they saw live with the new shaven head. Yes, I followed my team into shaving our heads. I was the last,m but I did it. Now, while Tim and Mike bic-ed their head (shaved it down to the skin on their skull), I went with Bobby and wenth an eighth of an inch. Slowly all the quizzers entered in with their stuff. Tim brought Chelsea and Alyssa, and we saw Tim's bald head. He lookled like Mr. Clean. When Mike cam in, he looked like some kind of White Supremesist. Bobby had re-shaved his head for the occasion. Now we were truly 4 men in a vow. And these 4 men were ready.


Usually for practice, Spring City practices from 7-9 P.M., four practice matches, two from Dave, two from Vicki. Even when we had that overnight for the ACC Tournament, we did the same. But this was the invitational. This is different. So we practiced from 7-10 p.m., 6 practice matches, 3 from Dave, 3 from Vicki. Ya got to step it up for the big tournament of the year. After practice, we relaxed and had fun. I set up my Wii for the girls. They thought they set up all the pieces, but theey forgot the important sensor bar so the Wiimote could be read. Silly girls. "You need all the parts." lol. I was more focused on studying. In the middle of it, Tim and Mike called Bobby and I up to the room. Literally. I got a call on my cell phone from Tim to come up with Bobby and bring snacks and drinks. We did go up, but nothing happened up there. I just continued to study. So I went back down to play Wii until Mrs. Deitrick told us to go to bed at 12:30 because we had to leave by 6:30 a.m. the next morning. Bobby and I roomed. I went to bed listening to the material and praying for my team.


SATURDAY
I woke up at 6:10 to Bobby's cell phone alarm going off. He said, "We have 5 more minutes." So I rolled over. Well, a couple more "5 minutes more" I decided to get up. It was 6:25 a.m. So I decided to get up and do my thing to get ready. As my parents have always told me, I'm loud when I get up. I was loud enough to wake up the Deitricks. Apparently, the electricity went out and their alarm did not wake them up. So we rushed frantically about to get out of the house. The funniest part was Mike and Tim. Vicki explained to them what had happened, but not thoroughly enough for them to explain. She did explain how the power went off, but not that it was now back on. So when Mike went to turn on the lights, with his hand on the lightswitch, Tim said, "Don't bother to turn on the lights, the power is out." So Mike didn't turn on the lights and they got dressed in the dark. We finally were all together to leave by 6:50, twenty minutes after we wanted to. I practiced on the way up. Everyone threatened me that if I played "Horse-and-punch-buggy" they would all wail me back harder, so I skipped on that.

We somehow got there right on time, at 8 a.m. on the dot. Still, we were a little late for the big meeting because we had to say hi and catch up with the quizzers from our host family last year. Then we went into a packed auditorium for the announcements. We didn't hear a lot because we had to find a seat. I did hear an announcement about how they were going to deal with a block. If the quizmaster was uncertain of a block, but it kinda looked suspicious, they could reset the buzzers and ask another question. If it happened again, or if they were really sure, then they could asses a foul. It was a good call from the staff. We prayed, and then we off to matches.

We had the second round in the round robin, so we had to go to another match before. We went to GSC-205 because we had the next match there and we wanted to watch the quizmaster. The match there was Grace Chapel 2 (West Liberty) vs. New Danville (ACC). It was match from Group N with New Danville as the seeded team. It was obvious New Danville was seeded as they took off with the match. New Danville won easily. As our team watched, we watched where they were buzzing in and if we knew the answer by then. We were doing with that. The questions seemed easy, and we for the most part knew the answers. Now it was our turn in the room...well, almost. The match got over early, and we had to wait for our opponents. So we prayed and studied a little bit more. Tim read up on Honda motorcycles. Finally Zion 1 arrived. They had been watching Zion 2. Last time we quizzed against Zion 1 we won barely 90-80 in a hard match. This time, Zion 1 was not as hardcore against us. We maintained getting 90 points, which included me quizzing out. We won 90-45. We did better than we did last time against Zion. Spring City started in their round robin 1-0.

Repeat process. We had to wait a a round until our match, so we went to the room anyway to watch the quizmaster. This quizmaster was a favorite of our team: Jaime Detweiler. We also had a favorite scorekeeper as well. It always seemed like the match before us involved Grace Chapel 2 because the matched before us was Grace Chapel 2 (West Liberty) vs. Goods 2 (ACC). Grace Chapel 2 had a better start for this match, but they weren't going to win this one either. Spring City just watched how Jaime quizmastered. Now it was our turn up. Our match was against Crossway 1, a team from West Liberty. This was not the same one Landon from last year was on, thank goodness. They were seeded. Still, we approached this team with caution. Caution was not needed at all. We won 90-20. Spring City was still undefeated 2-0.

Reapeat process again. Spring City had a rest match, so once again we went to the room we were going to be in to watch the match. In that room the match was Petra 4 (ACC) vs. Central 1 (Northwest). We cheered for our friends on Petra 4, but mainly to watch the quizmaster. Next was our match against Byerland...again....again again. Yes, this was our third match against Byerland. The first time in the season we beat them greatly 135-55. The second time was in the ACC Tournament, where we barely won 65-55 by me quizzing out on question 15. We hoped to do more of a season performance thanthe ACC Tournament performance against them. Some things in the match never change. Both Charise and I quizzed out. But like other matches against Byerland, after Charise quizzed out, and there was really no action on Byerland's side. We won 105 to 45. Spring City remains undefeated 3-0 with one more match in the round robin.

Repeat process again again. We had to wait a match to our last match. So we went to the room and watched the match before us. It was important to watch this quizmaster because the staff was from West Liberty. We watched Timberline have a successful win against Neffsville 2. Now it was our shot. Our match was against Hinkletown 1. We had played them once in the season and won 100 to 45. This time Hinkletown 1 was stronger than in the season. They took control in the beginning and took a good lead. I quizzed out, but sloppily. In the end Hinkletown was the winner. Spring City finished the round robin 3-1.

Now things got difficult. We were done at 3-1. The other 4 teams still had one match to go. Hinkletown 1 was 2-1. Byerland was 2-1. Crossway 1 was 1-3. Zion 1 was 0-3. Because Zion 1 lost to Crossway 1, they were out of it. Yet their game would decide a major factor. We could be tied for first in a 2-way tie or a 3-way tie. A 2-way tie would be decided by head-on. A 3-way tie would be decided on errors. The 2-way tie would be in our favor, the 3-way tie would not be in our favor. We could end up 1st, 2nd or 3rd. We definitely did not want 3rd because 3rd meant quizzing against Sonnenberg/Pleasant View, a powerhouse team combining the best quizzers from two churches. 1st or 2nd is our aim. The last two quizmatches in our our group were Hinkletown 1 vs. Crossway 1 and Zion 1 vs. Byerland. We needed the underdog Crossway 1 to win over Hinkletown 1 to get first. If they couldn't win, we needed winless Zion 1 to win against Byerland so we could get 2nd. If neither happened, we would get 3rd, and have to quiz against Sonnenberg/Pleasant View. Tim and Mike went to the Zion vs. Byerland match; Dave and I went to the Crossway vs. Hinkletown match. It was looking good as Crossway was winning at one point with the score 55 to 20. But Hinkletown 1 got their act together and won against Crossway 1. So now we needed Zion to win. It seemed hopeless as Zion was winless at that point and clearly out of the tournament. But they put their best into it and got their only win of the tournament. Thank you, Zion 1! So Group F finished this way:

Group F
1. Hinkletown 1 (3-1)
2. Spring City (3-1)
3. Byerland (2-2)
4. Crossway 1 (1-3)
5. Zion 1 (1-3)

Not that first place we wanted, but it got us into the tournament. We were 1 of the 64 teams going to quiz in the afternoon in the bracket. Only 17 teams didn't make it, including Zion 1 and both Emmanuels. We found out our next match would be in GSC-204 against Rockville 1. But for now, we went and had lunch. Lunch was catered barbeque. Chelsea didn't like it because it was mostly meat. I enjoyed my chicken barbeque sandwich, but I also tried to study in between. When we were done, I took Chelsea and the rookies back to the Good Shepherd Chapel. We updated my personal bracket, and then we found a place in the hallway to practice. I ask them questions. Bobby got most of them.

As the morning went, we had to wait a match until we were up. The match in the room before that was Petra 1 vs. Blainsport. Since I usually root for who I predict will win, and the Deitricks were friends with the Eshes, I rooted for Petra 1. But Dave went to cheer for Blainsport. It seems like he never cheers for the people I'm cheering for. I'll never get that. Anyway, Petra 1 performed like a champion, which they are. Andrew Weiler quizzed out on question 3, all buzzes. Megan Blank covered the situation questions. They got team bonus and another quiz out, plus one more right to boot. Petra 1 was victorious, scoring 130 points. Now we were up against Rockville 2. We had quizzed Rockville 2 in the season, winning 75 to 50. This time we did better. We performed at Petra 1 strength, scoring in the triple digits, giving us the win. We were advancing in the winners bracket.

Our next match would be either against Zion 2 or Longenecker, and it was Longenecker. Longenecker finished 3rd in Wayne County, but it was a close 3rd, only missing 2nd place by 45 points. Longenecker has always been a tough team, and they still were. We could not compete with them and lost the match. We were on the one-loss side of the bracket.

Luckily going from one end of the bracket to another gives you a 1-match break until the next match. As usual, we went into the room we were in next. We watched Paradise 2 vs. Petra 3, both teams we quizzed in the ACC Tournament round robin. It started out as a close match, but Petra 3 took off and won the match. Now it was our turn up. The previous match was an inner church match between Goods 1 and Goods 3, and we would quiz the winner. Apparently Goods 1 was the winner because they were our opponents. Spring City took control of the match. I quizzed out. We won against Goods 1, advancing us in the losers bracket.

Since we were further in the bracket, matches were now closer, and we had hurry off to our next match. We returned to the room where we quizzed Hinkletown 1, hoping for better results this time. It was against Petra 6. I had forgotten it at the time, but this was another team we had quizzed in the season. We had beaten them at their home sanctuary in the season. At a smaller room at LBC, we were able to get our second win against Petra 6 this year. We were advancing in the second chance bracket more.

Our next match was against another Petra. This was Petra 5. Petra 5 was not to be taken lightly. Then finished 4th in League A, 6th in the whole ACC, with an average of 89 points. Seeded in both tournaments, they had also won the ACC Tournament this year. So it was the 2008 ACC Tournament Champions vs. the 2005 ACC Tournament Champions (even though Mike and I were the only ones left from that 2005 team). Another thing comes to play with quizzing against the ACC Tournament Champions. Last year Spring City quizzed against Rockville 1, the ACC Tournament Champions at the time, in the losers bracket and beat them, knocking them out! So it only made sense when we won against Petra 5. Yes, Spring City was the winners. We were moving on in the one-loss bracket, while Petra 5 was not. Add another ACC Tournament Champion to the Spring City victim list :)

Our next match was against the team we were avoiding quizzing against in the beginning. This was the dreaded match against Sonnenberg/Pleasant View. Being one of 6 matches going on, the small classroom was crowded with many viewers. Since Sonnenberg/Pleasant View was the only Wayne County quizteam quizzing at the time, it seemed like everyone from Wayne County was cheering for them! We had attracted some fans too. Zion was there, and so was Slate Hill 2, and even Blainsport was there! (See, it paid for Dave to be cheering for them!) Cheering might have helped Sonnenberg/P. View, but it didn't help Spring City. Sonnenberg/PV took off with their perfect quizzer Dennis Stauffer quizzing out. What suprised me is that they kept him in, despite having subs, including Dennis's own sister! The highlight for Spring City was that I quizzed out. That's it. They did a good job, and Sonnenberg/Pleasant View won.

So Spring City was done for the day, the tournament, and the year. As for the tournament, Spring City was 6-3: 3-1 in the round robin, 3-2 in the bracket. I quizzed out most, if not all, the matches. Comapred to last year, it seems we did better last year. Last year Spring City made it a match further in the tournament bracket: last year it was 4-2, this year was 3-2. But compared to 2005 and 2006, we did better this year than both of those years. Now that I look back on it, this was a pretty good tournament.

Our match was the last one of the afternoon, leading us up to the 2 hour break for dinner. We got to the dining hall late because of our match, and it was packed! We found some booths in the corner and had dinner there. Chelsea was relieved to find more meatless options this time. After dinner, Tim and Mike went to play frisbee with Calvary and Crossway (I found that odd considering both of them had matches that evening). Chelsea, Alyssa, Bobby and I went back to the Good Shepherd Chapel. I finished filling out my brackets, thanks to much help from Chelsea. We got most of the way done, then we went into the chapel for the fun match at 6 p.m.

At 6 p.m. there was a fun match, the biggest fun match I have ever seen among quizzers. 20 quizzers would be quizzing at once. It was the 4 best quizzers from each conference to see who the best conferences was. I didn't recognize any of the quizzers on West Liberty or Virginia because they don't put their standings online, but I recognized the other quiz teams. The ACC had its 3 perfect quizzers: Andrew Weiler (Petra 1), Jordan Keener (E-Town 2), and Kim Weaver (Good Shepherd), as well as 4th place quizzer Joel Delinger from 2nd place ACC team Paradise 4. Northwest Ohio had their 2 perfect quizzers Eliot Nofziger (Lockport 1), Whitney Stamm (Sand Ridge), 3rd place quizzer Sarah Schoenhals (Central 1), and 7th place quizzer George Miller (Edgerton Alliance). Wayne County came with their top 4 quizzers. They had their 3-year 1st place, and finally perfect quizzer Dennis Stauffer (Sonnenberg/Pleasant View) and his 3rd place brother David Stauffer (Sonnenberg/Pleasant View). They also had 2nd place Michelle Raber (Longenecker) and Brian Nussbaum (Orville). Their top 4 quizzer came from their top 3 teams! The buzzers were pretty well created for a 5-way match. The machine recognized the first one in, and blocked it out from all the buzzers. The bonus would be the second fasted buzz in from another team. The machine actually knew this! Pretty impressive! All cheering broke loose as every team cheered loudly for their conference. Last time there was a fun match was in 2005. In that 2005 match, Wayne County's best quizzer Dennis Stauffer (yes, the same Dennis Stauffer, duh) shamed all the other conference's perfect quizzers, especially the ACC's perfect quizzer Lisa Weaver, by quizzing out almost immeadiately. This time the ACC would not allow it. The ACC took an early lead. Since there are 20 quizzers up at the same time, quizouts were only 2 questions, totalling 25 points. Jordan Keener was the first perfect quizzer to quiz out, followed by another perfect quizzer, Andrew Weiler. Dennis still had to get in! He did eventually and quizzed out. Those 25 points were the only points for Wayne County. The match was interesting and fast paced. Poor Virginia couldn't seem to stay on pace! The weirdest question was this one. It was a good question that most of the quizzer audience knew, but no one on stage did! It went through all 5 conferences and was no one got it! That attracted a lot of boos. West Liberty pulled themselves together and make a comeback, having 2 quizouts. Northwest Ohio had Eliot Nofziger quiz out, and got 10 points on top of that. It came down to the last question with West Liberty and ACC tied at 50 points. On the last question, West Liberty buzzed in and got it right! West Liberty won with 60 points, ACC got 2nd with 50 points, Northwest Ohio 3rd with 35 points, Wayne County with 25 points came in 4th, and last was Virginia, unable to score anything. With West Liberty's all-star quizzers winning the match, it seemed like they were the best conference in quizzing. With their top 3 teams still in the tournament, could they go all the way and take first?

So I finished my bracket and looked for a good match to watch. I found one: Slate Hill 1 vs. Petra 1. Last year Petra 1 was unstoppable unless they ran into Slate Hill 1. That's what caused them to lose to Slate Hill 1 in the finals match of the 2007 season, making Slate Hill 1 the 2007 Champions. But this year, not needing to deal with Slate Hill 1 in the season playoffs, Petra 1 was the 2008 Champions. So this match was the 2007 Champions vs. the 2008 Champions. Who would prevail? The room was a classroom in Sabastian. I wasn't the only one who wanted see this match because the room was packed! I had to stand up in the middle to get there, and so did Chelsea, Alyssa and Bobby! It was apparent Petra 1 was the new champions, for they took a lead Slate Hill 1 couldn't catch up to. Slate Hill did their best, but they were not match for Petra 1. Petra 1 took the win, and moved on. Slate Hill1, who finished 4th place last year in the Invitational, was done, not getting anything in the Invitational this year. Still, I shook their hands and complimented them for a good year, although it wasn't as good as the last one.

I went back to the Good Shepherd Chapel to see the last match in the winners bracket which would decide who would go into the final match on Sunday without a loss. The match was Crossway 2 (West Liberty) vs. Sand Ridge (Northwest). This was literally 1st place in Group A vs. 1st place in Group B. Both were undefeated to this point, and they showed it. Sand Ridge did the same as they did last year. They took the match in their control and took the win. Just like last year, Sand Ridge would be quizzing on Sunday in the final match, either finishing 1st or 2nd.

I always liked watching inner-church matches in quizzing, and this match couldn't come any better. Late in the tournament, it was Petra 1 vs. Petra 2. These were (arguably) Petra's 2 best teams going at it. This match would decide what team would be in the top 4. The match was in s-101, and appriorately, for the lecture hall (of Tyrannus, lol) classroom was pretty much filled. All of Petra had to be there, as well as most of the ACC people still there, because the other match going on between 2 Ohio teams. Petra 1 was up to par, continuing their domination, but Petra 2 was not up to their par. Dave Jensen quizzed out, but that was the highlight. Petra 2 got enough errors to lose points, and the bonuses helped Petra 1. Petra 1 was victorious and going on. It was the end for Petra 2.

The final match of the night was between in the Good Shepherd Chapel between Petra 1 (ACC) vs. Calvary (West Liberty). The loser would finish the tournament in 4th place, the winner would go on to be one of the top 3 teams and quiz on Sunday. We knew Calvary because these were the girls who hosted us last year. This match also had history. Petra 1 and Calvary faced off in the losers bracket last year, with Petara 1 the victor. So here they went again. We cheered for our friends on Calvary, and so did the rest of West Liberty. The cheering didn't help. History repeated itself with Petra 1 being the victorious team. Crossway 2 (West Liberty), Petra 1 (ACC), and Sand Ridge (Northwest) were the top 3 teams, the last 3 teams in the tournament. They would go home looking forward to more matches the next day. The other 78 teams were done, and their year was over, including Spring City.

Once we got everyone rounded up, Spring City quiz team went back to their coaches' house. Mrs. Deitrick cooked us up a nice snack of soft pretzels and pizza rolls. We debriefed about what happen this day. We didn't play Risk, but had a small, short game of scum, and some more Wii. Alyssa really got into the Wii Boxing. We thought she was going to take out the TV! We all went to bed by 1 a.m., tired out by the days events. We made sure we all set our clocks :)

SUNDAY:

As the last day of quizzing came, we got up in enough time, got ready, had breakfast and left on time. On the way there, Tim and Mike caught up on lost sleep. It was very quiet. With the rest of people still up, I played my game of "horse and punch buggy, no punch backs". Since it was a Sunday moring, all the Amish were out, and so there was a lot of punching. Since Chelsea and Alyssa were in front of me, they got the most hits. I hope they didn't have too many bruises!

This time we arrived right on time for the start. We eventually found seats in the back. They did something different this year. Fred wanted to show how our quizzing is an act of worship, so he had us doing praise and worship mixed in with the final quizmatches. I liked it, very much because I agree with Fred's thinking. Quizzing is an act of worship and should be treated that way. It gives a new attitude to your heart when quizzing. So the first match was the match to figure out who would take on the undeafted Sand Ridge from Northwest Ohio. This match was Petra 1 (ACC) vs. Crossway 2 (West Liberty). This would be a deciding match, for if the winner wanted to be the champions, they would need to win 3 matches in one morning. These teams seemed evenly paired up, as they began the match with either a tie score or a near to tie score. But Petra 1 started taking a lead, and before Crossway 2 knew it, that lead was too far ahead to stop Petra 1. Petra 1 was the winner and was going on to the final match.

After more praise and worship, the final match was on. The last two teams standing were Sand Ridge (Northwest) and Petra 1 (ACC). What I saw, I'm not sure how many people were expecting that, but I wasn't expecting it, and neither was Sand Ridge! Maybe it was after having last year's Invitational championship handed to them through 10 bonuses, they thought the same would happen again. Not ture. Petra 1 quizzed wisely. As for what happened last year, almost the opposite happened as Petra 1 had no errors, while Sand Ridge gave up 6, all which Petra 1 used. That also means that Sand Ridge lost 10 points. They could've had 30 points, but they lost 10, thus only scoring 20. By question 13, Sand Ridge had clearly lost, but they still called a timeout afterward! Mrs. Detirick was wondering why the would call timeout after question 13. I joked around and say, "Threats. The coaches wanted to threaten their grades. The coach threatened with chains and ropes." (lol, that is definitely an inside joke.) Petra 1 won the match 155-20.

Since Sand Ridge only had 1 lost, and 2 losses are needed to be eliminated from the tournament, the same matchup had to faced off once again. The only difference in the setup was the team switched sides. So after a few more praise songs, both teams marched back onto the stage at different sides. Sand Ridge was looking for a win right after a loss, Petra 1 was looking for their 3rd consecutive win of the day. This match was closer than the last one. Even the errors were closer. Sand Ridge only managed to error 3 times, while Petra 1 errored 4 times, one away form losing points. But alas, the match went to Sand Ridge, winning 80-60. So this is the final results:

2008 Invitational
1st place: Sand Ridge (Northwest Ohio)
2nd place: Petra 1 (ACC)
3rd place: Crossway 2 (West Liberty)
4th place: Calvary (West Liberty)

There are many things you can point out as special for these top 4. The obvious is Sand Ridge is the Inviational Champions for the third consecutive year. Petra 1 is the first ACC team since 2004 to make the final match and place in the top 2 teams. According to our fun match on Saturday, the best team should've been from West Liberty. A West Liberty quiz team wasn't the best quiz team, but West Liberty did manage to have 2 of its teams finished in the top 4, the 2 seeded in the tournament. Furthermore, by Crossway 2 taking 3rd place, it is the first time a West Liberty team has been part of the top 3 since 2004. Between the 2 West Liberty teams, there was a split of brothers and sisters. It was great to see them both bring something home this year.

So that was it for matches.....for the year. The day closed off nicely. Merv gave a sermon on the material. It talked about Acts in our lives today. He seemed to mention everything, but he left out the revival fire seen in Acts, as Dave always tries to point out to us. After the message came a closing word with the word all next year's quizzers had been waiting for: next year's material. As the cordinator for Northwest Ohio walked up, it became obvious to what conference was hosting the tournament next year. Dave and I had figured this since they hadn't hosted since 2004. In 2009, we were going back to Northwest Ohio. I had only been there once before, and it was at Pettisville High School. This time, it was going to be at Archibold High School. The cordinator announced, "For next year's material, it made sense to us that we should go back to the beginning...we will be studying on the first part of Genesis." So the quizzing material will be the opening of Genesis. It was ironic because Tim said no more than 12 hours before that annoucement, "Wouldn't it be great to quiz on Genesis?" Tim insisted afterwards that he was right, while I his "guess" wasn't valid. Which chapters in Genesis they didn't specify. Anyway, I got started on the Tuesday after this anouncement.

So the rest of the day was peaceful. We all said goodbye to our quizzing friends, both the Ohio and Pennsylvania ones, not knowing if we will see them again until next year. I reminded some of them, including my own teammates, that I do exist outside the 3 months of quizzing :-). As these people were leaving, I got them to sign my orange shirt, the one with all the quizzers' names on it. Once our coaches gathered our quiz team together, they took us out to Friendly's to congratulate us for a year well done. There we ran into some ACC Quizzing staff. After full from a meal, we went back to the Deitricks. On the long ride back, most people slept, exhausted from the weekend and possibly the whole quizzing year. I decided to have last minute fun in the van, as I sat in the middle and played jello with Chelsea and Bobby on both sides. When we got back to the Deitrick's abode, we stayed there until picked up by our parents. All incoming parents congratulated the team for a good year.

So to briefly say what happened the next two days following. I was on Spring break. So I really had nothing to do. Monday was transition day, officially ending one year and beginning another year. I sorted through all my quizzing stuff, reflecting on the year. Maybe I'll tell you about those reflections sometime. Tuesday was the first day of the offseason. I opened my Bible, turned to Genesis 1:1, and wrote on a notebook, "Question number 1, question. When did God create the heavens and the earth? In the beginning Genesis 1:1". Look at quizzing 2009, here Graham comes!

Quizzing March Madness Part 1: ACC Tournament

Sorry I haven't wrote the results in a while. I had a lot of work to do for college. And I thought I should study quizzing for the tournament coming up (more about that later). Besides, this has given me time to think about what happened last Sunday.

Last week was the ACC Tournament. We practiced friday night, we practiced Saturday night, we practiced Sunday morning during Sunday school. We were determined in our practice. Yet we have some fun. The Spring City boiz stayed overnight, and played some Wii. And believe it or not, we went to bed at a decent time...1 in the morning. At church, we practiced, then we worshipped...well, most of us. Tim and Mike bought a pizza for Joelle so they could get Rit's Water Ice from her. Well, we were ready to leave to leave, and they weren't there yet. Mrs. Deitrick was about to kill both of them! So when they got back, Mrs. Detrick had and had a "talk" with them. And while she was having the talk with them, Chelsea, Alyssa, Bobby and I watched ironically as the pizza blew off the car top, came out of the box, and fell face down on the concrete. Well, Mike and Tim did what 2 smooth guys would do: dust it off and put it back in the box. It was a good laugh afterward. We arrived at Lancaster Bible College at noon. Being a student there, I bought my teammates and coaches lunch (and later on dinner). After eating a little studying, we went right to our 1:00 match.

Our first match was the first of the day at 1:00. We quizzed against Byerland. It was ironic that we were opening our ACC Tournament the same way we opened out season: quizzing against Byerland. there were a lot of things that happened the same in both matches. Charise Garber quizzed out early. After that, not much happened on Byerland's side. Then a lot of this happened different, and it was all on our side. We got a lot of errors, so many we lost points. Tim errored out. The suprising thing was Byerland was not picking up the bonuses we were giving them. If they did, they would have taken a clear lead and won. It was close. It came down to the last question. We were losing 45-55. Any Spring City quizzer getting it right and tie the match up, but if I could quiz out, we would win. The 15th question started, "Whose court..." and I buzzed in. I paused to think about it, and went with the first thing that came to my mind that seemed the most reasonable: "Caesar's court." I was right! We barely won against Byerland 60-55. Sloppy. Spirng City was up 1-0.

Our second match was 2:15 vs. Timberline. A rookie team who finished low in the ACC Tournament, we thought this match should be easy. With Fred as quizmaster, it wasn't as easy as we were hoping. I did the worst thing I could ever do: error out. I failed my team by killing a seat and not quizzing out. I'm embarrassed that I have to tell you this. I'm better than this. My team expects more out of me. I am the one who is suppose to set an example. That was a bad example. Luckily, my team was able to turn around my mistake and win 100-45. Another sloppy match. Spring City was up 2-0.

We had a back-to-back match. We quickly hurried to Sebastian to have a match against Petra 3. Coached by Jim Good, all the Petras give us a run. Petra 3 did. I was able to quiz out this on, including a question where I had to babble for the whole 30 seconds about Eutychus. But we went back to Tim erroring out. Our errors added up and we started losing points. Petra 3 was catching up, and they did good catching up, but they didn't catch up fully and at the end of the 15 regulations questions, we tied at 90 points. We had a timeout and we reminded our quizzers they couldn't error because we'd lose points. With myself quizzed out, and Tim errored out, we had to trust in the other quizzers because the top 2 were out. Question 16 Mike gets right and takes a 15 point lead 105-90. Question 17 Petra 3 gets right for ten points, keeping our lead to 5: 105-100. Question 18 the question was "Where was Mnasion from?" The whole question got out and since nobody else buzzed in, Chelsea buzzed in and tried. She picked the wrong place and errored, losing up 5 points. The bonus went to Petra 3. If they got it right, they would win. that was the longest 30 seconds I have felt in my life, but no answer came out. The scored was tied at 100, and we were going into a sudden death question. Question 19, question. "Who were rounded up.." Bobby buzzed. He answered, "Some bad characters." He was right! Bobby quizzed out and won the match for us! We were so happy for Bobby. We hoped that it would never come down to that close again. Spring City was up 3-0, and first place in our group.

We had a rest period and then went to our 4th match at 3:15 vs. Paradise 2. We lost to them in the season, and I thought this would be one of our hardest matches. In fact, this match was one of our best. We errored a lot as usual, but we scored 110 points, the most we scored all day in a regulation length match. We won 110-35. Spring City was still an undefeated 4-0. We couldn't stay too long. Our 5th match was at 3:35, another back-to-back match. It was against Bowmansville 1. We faced a Bowmansville last year in the ACC Tournament and won. I didn't do to well this match either. There was 2 situation questions. The first one I was beaten on because the Bowmansville quizzer buzzed in on "Who said this and..." and I wasn't lined up for the bonus. The second situation I did get in on, and I had a good buzz, but I suffered from a brain fart and couldn't bring up a right answer. The bonus was easily picked up. I also got a second question wrong that I was pretty sure I was right. Then this one question began "How many days..." Of course there are many days in the text. Since my roommate Eric was there, I decided to answer him. From the Strong Bad e-mail #186 called "Environment", I answered in my best Strong Sad voice, "3 days." Suprisingly, I got it right. and I did quiz out. We won 90-65. We had taken a 5-0 lead for first place. With our upcoming opponent Akron 4 being 0-5, and all the other teams having lost 1 to us, we had clinched 1st place in Group H. We were going to the playoffs. We still did do our best against Akron 1. It was sloppy, and almost as bad as we did against them in the season, but we won 80-30. Spring City went undefeated in Group H 6-0. Sadly, we had errored 30 times in 6 matches.

The afternoon round robin and evening playoffs were separated by dinner. We had dinner in the cafeteria, bought by me. We tried to study, but we were too distracted by other things and the excitement of making the playoffs. Before the playoffs were to begin, everyone met in the chapel for what we had been waiting for: the quizzing video and the announcement of the Top 60 Bible Quizzers List. The movie was awesome. Click on this sentence to see it. I made a few appearances in it. Just look for the orange, and it's me :). The best one was at the end, where you can see my going "BYAH!" at the end, even though you can't hear it. Then they started with the Top 60 Bible Quizzers List. As they started, they started with low points, and I felt good that I was going to finish high, and my hopes that I would be in the top5 rose. But as we got closer to my position, I realized Iwasn't going to finish that high. Tim finished in 29th place with 530 points. I finished 8th place with 600 points. It wasn't the top 5, but I set personal high records. This was the highest number of points, highest number of quizouts, and highest placing ever. But it didn't feel too special. I was 1 of 6 to finish 8th place. When 6 people are 8th place, 8th place isn't that big. Spring City had 2 top 60 quizzers (later stats would show Michael Schwager finished 85th place with 350 points, meaning Spring City has 3 Top 100 quizzers). The year ended with 3 perfect quizzers, one of them being Andrew Weiler, who is perfect for his third year in a row, and he's only quizzed for 3 years!

Then we were off to playoffs. We had to wait a match before we got to ours, so the match we watched was Petra 1 vs. Gehman. Since Petra 1 won the season, it looked like a shoe-in for them. Man, was I wrong. Gehman looked like they were the season champions the way they quizzed. The one quizzer looked like he was an Ohio quizzer. Gehman won and was moving on to the next round. Now was our match against Rivercorner. It was a close one, but midway through the match we came from behind and took the lead. The lead was so far ahead that we had despite them scoring on the last question, we still won 65-55.

The next playoff match was Spring City vs. Petra 2. Last time we quizzed them, we won 120-70. Petra 2 took the lead early in the match. We tried to catch up but when we did, they would just take the lead again. I got one situation right, but the second one I didn't because I said "apostles" when it should have been "elders". Petra 2 quizzer Dave Jenson said the same thing, and even contested he was right, and I rebuddled that I was right, but nothing happened, nobody got the points. At the end of question 13, we called timeout. I had 1 buzz in right and 2 errors. Tim had 2 right. We were one away from team bonus and Tim was one away from a quiz out. We needed both the team bonus and a quiz out. I shoulda been pulled, but I didn't think of it. Question 14 went to Petra 2 and they got it right. It was too late. We lost. Question 15 Tim buzzed in and got it right, and quizzed out, but it was no use. We were out.

Upset about being 1 match away from winning, I barely watched the semifinal match between New Danville and Petra 5. All I know was Petra 5 won. So the final match was Petra 5 vs. Petra 2 because Petra 2 beat Slate Hill 1 in their semifinal. Petra 5 took off and left their counterpart Petra 2 in the dust. Petra 5 beat Petra 2 115-55. Congrations to Petra 5 for the championship, congratualtions to Petra 2 for 2nd place, and congratulations for Slate Hill 1 and New Danville for the semifinals. Also, congratulations to the top 60 bible quizzers!

March Madness Quizzing style

The season is over, but quizzing is far from over! We got 2-weeks of fun-filled, full-packed tournaments. We have both the ACC Tournament with 55 ACC Quizzing teams and the Invitational with about 90 teams from 3 Ohio confrences, 1 Pennsylvania conferences, and 1 Virginia Conference. Let's go back to the first one, the closer one, the ACC Tournament. For those who don't know, here's how it rolls: The 55 teams are placed in 8 groups, A to H, with 6 to 7 quizteams. Each team plays everyone in their group, quizzing 5 to 6 matches. Standing are measured in win-loss, and the top 2 teams in each group enter a single elimination playoff to find the ACC Tournament champion.

So now to get more specific on Spring City. Spring City is 1 of 7 teams in Group H. The other teams are Byerland, Timberline, Akron 1, Bowmansville 1, Paradise 2, and Petra 3. Because we finished 4th place in the season, we got the seeding that makes us the highest in the group. That doesn't always mean anything because teams that weren't able to good on a weekly breakdown of 2 to 3 chapters can be outstanding when it come to 19 chapters of review. Just like real March Madness (the basketball), look out for upsets. There can be cinderella stories. You are definitely going to want to come and see this. Come to Lancaster Bible College to watch this great tournament go down. Come watch Spring City! we're trying to build huge fan base and it wouldn't be the same without you there. Here's our schedule


Time Room Match
1:00 p.m. GSC-201 Spring City vs. Byerland
2:15 p.m. GSC-203 Spring City vs. Timberline
2:35 p.m. SAC-107 Spring City vs. Petra 3
3:15 p.m. SAC-107 Spring City vs. Paradise 2
3:35 p.m. SAC-111 Spring City vs. Bowmansville 1
4:15 p.m. SAC-104 Spring City vs. Akron 1


And if we make to the playoffs, there will be at least one more match, hopefully 4 :). Oh, there is another event happening today. At 6:15 is the quizzing video and the announcement of the Top 60 Bible Quizzers List. Everyone should come out for that because Tim and I are in both! Come and watch! It's an all-day event, so come when you can, leave when you have to!

Now as the real March Madness comes along, everyone is starting to already fill out brackets, trying to predict who will win and go on to the next round. Well, since 2006 I have been attempting to do the same thing with the ACC Tournament, trying to predict the winner. Now there is a certain weight of favoritism for certain teams (lol), but for the most part, it is a good logical hypothesis, with the occasional yet expected upsest. So here is who I think the first and second teams will be in each group, respectivevly:

A REMINDER THESE ARE MERE PREDICTIONS!!

Group A: New Danville, Forest Hills
Group B: Petra 5, Emmanuel 1
Group C: Paradise 4, Hinkletown 1
Group D: Petra 2, Weaverland 1
Group E: Rockville 1, Zion 1
Group F: Petra 1, Rivercorner
Group G: Slate Hill 1, Petra 4
Group H: Spring City, Paradise 2

Yes, if you haven't noticed, I believe that 4 of the 6 Petra teams will go to the playoffs and 2 of 4 Paradise teams will go to the playoffs. Now that you see my prediction for who will be in the playoffs, let's see how I think the playoffs will go down.




So that would make the two semifinalist teams Petra 1 and Paradise 4 (who the finalists in the season final), the 2nd place team Rockville 1 (the 2007 ACC Tournament Champions) and 1st place Spring City (the 2005 ACC Tournament Champions). Hey, if it was your team, you be predicting it to go all the way too! What would be the point of competing if you didn't think your team could make it all the way?! But I give best wishes to everyone. Let's see who can go the farthest!

Closing the quizzing season at LMH

My apologies on it being so long for me to tell you what happened at quizzing. I've been so busy with other homework assignments that I haven't had the time. It is good that I waited as well because we didn't get the standings immeadiately so I couldn't tell you how I finished. Now I can.

I went to church at Spring City. Lunch quickly followed. I had many various things, from soup to bagel to pizza. After lunch, we had quizzing practice. I was feeling pretty good when I was studying. In practice, I seemed to be not studying. I couldn't buzz in on the ones I knew, and when I did buzz in, I didn't know the answer. I was also suffering from a lot of "brain farts", that is, not being able to recall what I knew. I always say there are 2 1/2 functures the brain does in quizzing. The first is to know when to buzz in. The second is to have the right answer. The half is to connect the two. My half wasn't working. So I could do was go over my notes again.

We arrived at LMH, me all decked out in orange, including orange hat, scarf and mittens. My orange quizzing buddy was tigger, but when Bobby gave me an actual orange and Chelsea drew a face on it, Otto the Orange became the new quizzing buddy. We went into the auditorium for praise and worship. A lot announcements followed, including one fun match with 20 quizzers. Sounded interesting. Then we were off to our matches. I was two quiz outs away from breaking a point record and a quizout record, so I wanted the quiz outs bad. I didn't get to see a first match. I wanted to watch Rockville 1, but when we got there, the buzzers weren't set up and the staff wasn't there. So I quickly rushed to go watch Slate Hill 1. I got to watch the middle part. Slate Hill 1 was losing and couldn't seem to get it together. This match was going to slow, and I had to go to my match.

Spring City's match was against Good Shepherd. I sat in seat 1 against the perfect quizzer Kim Weaver. She did good. She quizzed out yet again. I even helped her by giving her a bonus. So she was replaced by a substitute. The sub gave me a bonus, and I dropped it! Totally unacceptable. I couldn't get the situation either. I did quiz out eventually, on all buzzes. One down, one to go. Tim also quizzed out. Mike for the third consecutive match got 20, but couldn't quiz out. We won 90 to 45.

We had one match until our next match. So the guys watched Petra 4 vs. Rivercorner. Why? Petra 4 was in 4th place and we were in 5th place. We needed to score more than 20 points then Petra 4 to take the 4th place. 4th place was essential because we needed it to get a good seeding in the ACC Tournament. We must have made the match a bit ackward for RiverCorner. First, Rivercorner is an all-girls team, and only the guys for Spring City were there cheering. On top of that, we were the loudest ones there. I wonder if it effected Petra 4 that they knew we were cheering for their opponents. Whatever the case may be, 6th place Rivercorner beat 4th place Petra 4. Petra could only score 50 points. We were ahead by 40 points on the night. We just needed to keep it.

Our match was a long awaited match. It was against Zion 1. After much trashtalk and strategizing, both teams were ready for the head-on. I saw Jeremiah in seat 1 and wanted to sit across from him, so I sat in seat 1. At the last minute, they made a seat change and I ended up sitting across from Hannah. Fine. I was up to challenge. Or so I thought. Well, one again they stole our situation questions. Hannah quizzed out first and was replaced by a sub. I had to earn this on my own. I did it. Their loud cheering couldn't throw me off. I quizzed out on question 10 with one last loud BYAH! Zion 1 put up a good fight, but we won 90-80 by the same thing happening as last match. In the last 4 matches, I quizzed out, Tim quizzed out, and Mike was 1 right question short of quizzing out. We scored 180 points that night. As long as Petra 4 didn't score more than 120 points in their last match.

I quickly searched for anyone from Slate Hill 2 to find out how their match went. They didn't win, but they didn't lose either. They tied at 75 points! I was so happy that I went BYAH! down the halls. Spring City had finished their season in 4th place. This has been the highest I have ever finished with a team, either the 4 years with Spring City or 3 years elsewhere. Despite our average going down 1 point, we made it. Go Spring City!

So while they were trying to figure out what teams were in the playoffs, they had a fun match. 20 quiz coaches were randomly choosen to go up there. Dave was chosen as one of the coaches. I saw a lot of other familiar faces. Betty Esch was suppose to go up, but Rich went up in her place. So the quizmaster referred to him as Betty from that point on. Mark Graybill said, "If I get called up, you can call me Bob." He got called up. So if anyone sees him in the tourament, call him Bob. The match was intereting. Some showed they were good coaches by showing they knew the material. Dave showed the typical Spring City performance. He got one buzz in for team bonus, and then errored. His quizzers enjoyed cheering for him like a coach. At the end of 18, 2 of the 5 teams tied for the win. Dave's team was not that team. Now it was time for playoffs. League A 1st Petra 1 was playing League B 2nd New Danville, and League B 1st Paradise 4 was quizzing Slate Hill 1, who was 2nd in League A.

I went to see Petra 1 vs. New Danville. Let me tell you, from the beginning Petra 1 owned that match. New Danville only got one buzz in right, and two bonuses right, for 30 points. Petra 1 had the rest. They got 3 quiz outs and a team bonus, giving them a score of 135. You could tell Petra 1 had this match won since question 10. Petra 1 was victorious and moving on to the final match. I quickly hurried up to the door of the auditorium to see what was happening. The teams were lining up to shake hands. To my surprise, Paradise 4 had beaten Slate Hill 1 95 to 70. Slate Hill was not going to have consecutive championships.

The final match was Petra 1 vs. Paradise 4. Petra 1 had been in this position before. Would they repeat of overcome it? In the beginning, it was neck and neck. Andrew did his quizzing out thing. At the end of the match, it was tied at 75! Playoff matches can't end in ties, so they were going into 3 overtime questions. First question a quizout from Paradise 4. They take the lead 90-75. Second question is an error and missed bonus. On the third question, Deb Henson buzzed in and got it right. What was so special about this was she got team bonus and a quizout all on the same question! Despite all Petra 1's errors in the final match, they won it 105-90. Petra 1 takes home the season championship for the first time since 2003. Congratulations Petra 1!

Now we look forward to tournaments. More on that Saturday!

P-e-t-r-a Petra!

By a matter of 10 points, Spring City dropped from 4th to 5th. We needed to get back up to 4th for a good seeding in the ACC Tournament. Practice did not look too promising. Just like the last Thursday practice, I only quizzed out half my matches. I even errored out one. I didn't have a lot of time to practice before then considering I had 2 exams and I quiz I needed to study for in college. So I made up for the lost studying on Friday and Saturday.

I went to church with Spring City on Sunday. No crazy appearal this Sunday. Mike, Tim and I intentionally (and Dave unitentially) wore our Spring City 2007 shirts as I reminder to ourselves and our opponents that this 2008 team is just as powerful as the 2007 team. The only craziness is the quizzing buddy. I brought Stitch, the Stitch made famous by Bekah in 2006 when she tried endlessly to get its affection. I also got my secret sponser. Thank you secret sponser for the Garfield quizzing buddy, almond joys and the highlighters. They will be enjoyed. After church we got to have the lunch we were looking forward to all year: lunch at the Walleighs. It was the typical tacos, but they were good at always. Accompanying the quiz team was Bethany and her huband Steve, Seth and his adorable daughter Madison. Fun was had by all, but we had to get back to the church to get back to studying.

I was feeling more confident about myself after much studying Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. That was about to end in practice. Quizzing out for me became a struggle. I was having brain farts. Things I knew were leaving my mind. I couldn't recall anything. It was frustrating. I wanted to give up, but I knew giving up wouldn't help. So I just studied harder. Dinner was treated as a lunch as I warmed up my soup. We all ate in the kitchen. When we were done, we left for Petra.

When we arrived at Petra, I thought it looked bigger. Apparently they were just remodeling. Mike and Tim went off as usual to unknown locations, most likely the bathroom. Chelsea and Alyssa were roaming around the sanctuary and looking at it. Bobby and I went over keywords. We all got back together for praise and worship. Mike needed to be tuned for his singing. Annoucements told us where the rooms were, but didn't tell us any of the individual standings. Not even the perfect quizzers. I really think that's unnecesary. Shortly after Merv's joke, the quizzing was underway.

Just like last week, we had the last two matches. So we spent the rest of the time watching other matches, mainly future opponents. The first match I watched was Petra 6 vs. Maple Grove. I got to scorekeep. For the first 6 questions scorekeeping was boring because after 6 questions, the score was a tie at 10. Petra 6 was able to score 20 more points, but it lost 10 due to 6 errors. Maple Grove got 2 errors, both in review. Maple Grove won 55-20.

The next match I saw with Petra 2 vs. Conestoga 2. Conestoga was down to 3 quizzers. That meant when we would have a quizzer who would not get bonuses. It helped Petra 2. Petra 2 had quizzers buzzing in and quizzing out. They did get team bonus. One of the most imperssive questions was "With what did...." and Dave Jenson buzzing in, answering "Great pomp" and being correct. Petra 2 won with 120 points. I stayed in that same room to watch Petra 6 vs. Hinkletown 1, which Hinkletown 1 won. After that match, Dave drew the team together for some last-minute questions. We finished up, and watched the end of the match between Petra 4 vs. Weaverland 1 in the sanctuary. Weaverland 1 was the winner. We were now up.

In the second to last round, Spring City was taking on Petra 6 in the sanctuary with Jaime Detweiler as quizmaster. I sat in seat 2. I did not start the match as I wanted to. When I am in a quizmatch, the quizzeranium (the quizzing part of my brain) has 3 functions: first to know the right place to buzz in, second to come up with the right answer, and third is to connect the first two part. At my first buzz in, I had the good buzz. "What was Felix well acq..." but my brain farted and couldn't not come up with the right answer. When I made the second buzz in, and at seemed like the same thing was happening. My brain was farting and I was coming up blank with good buzzes. But the Holy Spirit came in and helped me. He did the connecting part and gave me the right answer scoring my first points. It was easier from there on. With two more questions, one being a situation question, I quizzed out. Tim also quizzed out. We came up short for team bonus. We did win 90-40 but we got a lot of errors. If I'm not mistaken, their points were all off of bonuses we gave them, but I could be wrong (Mrs. Deitrick, if you're reading this, my stats are off a bit. Please tell me what questions Tim and I quizzed out on for both matches.)

We had to hurry to our next match against Conestoga 2. The quizmaster was Bill Blank, which made me uneasy. He's a tougher On the first two questions Mike buzzed in and got both right. Unfortuneatly that the last we heard from him. I quizzed out, and so did Tim. Bobby also buzzed in and got it correct for team bonus! Bobby has now scored over 100 points! Welcome to the triple digits club, Bobby! Alyssa tried another buzz in on review, but this time her "tree" was going to help her. Spring City won 120-55.

So now I have 530 points, and I have now clinched a spot on the top 50 quizzers list. If I continue quizzing out, I will finish with 600 points, the highest yet. Spring City as a team has now scored a total of 1565 points this season, averaging 97.8125, rounded to 98. Our average went up 1 point! Let's see if it propels us back into 4th place.

Neffsville. Nuff said.

As Dave told us on Thursday's practice, 4th place with a gift from God. Our average dropped 40 points, and we were as low as 11th place. God saw that we were deserving to be lifted us to a higher place, and we were. Now the key was to try to stare there. Could we? At practice on Thursday night, for the first time I did not quiz out on practice. Twice I couldn't get higher than 20 points. I obviously needed more studying.

I came to church on Sunday. My strategy beyond hard studying was the intimidate the oppenent by looking insane. So I dressed crazy. My pants were blue and orange. My shirt was green. All 3 clashed, like I couldn't dress myself. To add to that, I had one black sock and one white sock, one white shoe and one black/orange shoe. I wore Mardi Gras beads and to top it all off, I had a inflatable hat with a brain on it. My quizzing buddy was green cow with orange and purple spots that didn't want to be tickled. I looked crazy, but by practice time, I was ready.

Practice was frustrating. Depending on whose questions I got was how I did. When I got Dave questions, I knew them, but I couldn't get in. When I got Vicki questions, I got in, but I couldn't answer them. In fact, I errored out on one of her sets. She was grateful enough to let me until another another error, but instead I quizzed out. I needed more studying. We couldn't do much during free time because there was a baby shower at the church, so I took the time to stay in the room and study. Then came the ackward moment of the year. Apparently, the shower was for someone related to Chelsea in Alyssa Mullins. So here I am, dressed like an insane man, studying aloud (I study vocally because it sticks better), asking myself questions and answers. Suddenly Chelsea and Alyssa come in with some girl (whose age I'm still trying to guess) from the shower. Alyssa says, "This is Graham, the duct tape guy, but today he's just crazy." What are you suppose to say/do in that situation? All I could do was say hi and be nice. Luckily it didn't last too long, so I could feel less ackward and practice more. Since we couldn't have a normal dinner like usual because of the shower, we had pizza in our practice room. Then we went to Neffsville.

Neffsville is only about 3 miles away from my college, so we had a pretty good distance to go up. We got our usual rounds of questions. Even when we got there, we went through more questions. Again we switched name tags. I received Tim's. Tim and Mike decided to have fun and sit in the wheelchairs....after much arguing with Vicki. Our time was cut short as we ran into friends from Slate Hill 2. We went to worship and then went to go watch matches because we had the last two matches of the night.

The first match I watched was Neffsville 2 vs. Akron 1. The match was slow because a lot of the questions would get out. Neffsville did well and got team bonus, leading them for the win. That looked good for our team. The next match I watched was Petra 3 vs. Petra 5. I like a good in-church rivalry. Petra 5 was the favorite in 4th, and Petra 3 was in 12th. Petra 5 showed that they were higher as they brought forth a win. Next was E-Town 2 vs. Petra 2, so I could scout out Petra 2. They struggled in the beginning, yet by the end, Petra 2 won 85-50. Still, it wasn't up to their aveage. Coach Dave thought we needed more practice so he had us meet in the hall for more questions. After those questions, I realized I needed more questions myself. So for one more round, I went off to study myself. After going over questions one more time, I was ready.

We started the match against Akron 1 with me in seat 1. Spring City finally had a match with favorite quizmaster Jaime Detweiler. I quizzed out on question 5. Tim followed by quizzing out later, after getting 2 errors. In the process of trying to score points, Mike errored twice, yet he scored for us 20 points. By the end of question 14, we had 3 quizzers who could get team bonus and one who could quiz out. Yet instead we got a fifth error, causing us to lose 5 points. We won 85 to 55. It was a win, but it wasn't as strong as we wanted. In a points where the standings are measured by points, we needed points.

The back to back match that followed was against Petra 3. A 3rd place team vs. a 4th place team. It wasn't what we expected. We got the early jump in. I quizzed out by question 6, and Tim followed up the next question. Mike and Bobby got us team bonus! Then came review. One question started, "On what was Jesus..." and BZZT came from....Alyssa? Well, Alyssa thought, and so did everyone else on the team, including coaches. No one could come up with an answer. Then Alyssa questionally said "A tree?" out of no where. A pause. Quizmaster Jon Howe smiles and saind, "He did!" Well, you can just imagine how frantic everyone was shouting. We were so happy over 10 points that we confused all the Petra fans. We had to explain it was Alyssa's first points. Good job Alyssa! Way to go! Once again, we had 5 of our 6 quizzers buzz in for a correct answer. We beat the 3rd place team 120-70. After Petra 2 knocked us out of the Invitational, I think we are now even!

We won't home happy. All 6 of our quizzers have points. Bobby is 5 away from reaching 100 (and in his rookie year too!). I have scored 460 points, and am 10 away from clinching the top 50 Quizzers List. Unfortuneatly they stopped posting individual standings, so we can't show you this. They still post team standings. Our team average went up 1 average point. That 1 point, however, was not enough. Petra 4 had a good night and passed us by a matter of half an average point. So we fell back to 5th place. Still, we are rearing to go another week to get back into the top 4, and if we do extremely well, the top 2! Pray for us!

Valentine's Day Reflections

You're probably reading the title and thinking, "This is a little late." Well, I didn't post it on Valentine's Day because I reflected on it on Valentine's Day. I have no intention of making this a rant. I want to be open and honest with you about my thoughts and feelings. So stick with me, and I'm sorry this goes off into a rant by any chance. But if it does, I've only ranted on the holiday once before, so I've been good

First of all, let me establish my relationship history: I am currently single. I have had 2 girlfriends in the past. I don't mean to be blunt, but if I do not say this up front, none of the rest will make to sense to you. This is where the "stick with me" part comes in. And while I'm at it, and I'll establish the fact that Feb. 15 is not Singles Day. Singles get a whole week, and it's the week Sept. 14 is in, 6 months after Valentine's Day.

I'm friends with a guy at college named Brady. Brady and I look so alike we've been mistaken for twins, but that's off topic. What annoys me the most about Brady is also what I like the most about Brady. When Brady has a problem in his life, he will randomly talk over it out loud, and anyone near him can hear it. Maybe Brady looking like me is not coincidence because if he is suffering from a problem I have just like him, it's almost like looking at myself talking over my problems (no joke intended, I am serious). So on February 12, just 2 days before Valentine's Day, Brady mentioned himself being single (as well as dealing with being single), and his struggle to not be able to get a girl. And I saw that mirror reflection of me.

Valentine's Day AKA "Singles Awareness Day [S.A.D.]" Why is it Singles Awareness Day, or S.A.D.? Because on Valentine's Day, the ones that are SAD are the singles. Why? This is a holiday which is spent a lot (although not the entire thing) on boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife. And it's public. So public some people, like the Sad Singles, don't want to leave their house (or in the college student's case, the dorm). I had experienced like feelings in high school. The Public Displays of Affection were at their height on this day, so greatly I didn't want to go to school. I started thinking this same thought for college. Do I really want to leave my dorm, a safe haven of guys only and no couples? I dare not go to Lower Level Peterson! I tried to get an idea of what Valentine's Day was like on a Bible College campus. Some said it's bad, others said it was not bad at all. Some said it's not as bad as high school, others said it's fine as long as you have tunnel vision (don't go looking for the couples on purpose, and avoiding it all costs). So since I was leaving at 4, I decided it was safe to venture, but just to classes, the cafeteria for food, and then the rest of the time my dorm.

Ah, I love my dorm. And that's one of the reasons why. It's just guys. Yes, I enjoy the fact that the dorms are not co-ed, and there a place I can go to get away to just guys. Not from girls, but from couples. There not anywhere in sight. Out of sight, out of mind. And they are out of mind because it's not brought up in my quad. Out of the 8 guys in my quad (I'm including the regular visitor Brady), 6 of them are single. And from the 2 that have girlfriends (actually, for one, it's finance), I don't hear about it on a regular basis. Sure they mention them when applicable, but it's not like they are announcing it on a daily. And I am very grateful for that. Thank you guys. Thank you for not making me a part in your relationship, the audience. But back to the cool singles guys. They are awesome. With the exception of Brady (there is nothing wrong with this, and I'll get to that later), none of them complain about not having a girlfriend. Sure, I bet they have girls they like, but I'm not hearing them obsess about it, or depressed because they are not dating. They are content with being single. One guy from my section actually verified this just last night, and I know others has told me this. One even told me that he was putting off any relationship for a long time on purpose. And it's starting to change me.

These guys influenced me all fall semister. And for the first time I can officially say that I'm content with being single. It's been a big help being around these guys. It helped me realize something. I now realize the reasons I wanted to have a girlfriend, and they might be the wrong reason. It goes all the way back to high school. I was in a school of show-off couples, which treated singleness as a curse. I was incomplete, and a girlfriend would complete me. I had no close friends and thought a girlfriend would be a good one. It seemed like I couldn't find anyone who liked me, and I was desperate to find one. Being single made me feel left out, unpopular and unliked. But then coming to LBC and meeting the guys in Peterson Hall 107 changed that. They were good friends, who liked me for who I was. All the past changed. Being able to go to these guys, where I could get away without really hearing about it, I didn't think about it. I had friends. And with these good friends who wanted to hang out with me, the strong feeling of needing a girlfriend just became a weak feeling of wanting a girlfriend. It wasn't necesary in my life. Through both words and actions, I saw that they felt the same way too. And even in the worse times, I could go to my Life Connect person Louis, and he's also helped get me out of the deepest funks of being single to the greatest contentment of being single. And some of my favorite moments with him is either doing Bible studies or playing video games - it takes my mind away from girls, couples, and being single.

And ironically, all my ex-girlfriends have taught me this lesson. This goes back to Brady speaking what's on his mind. On that Tuesday the 12th, Brady was talking about the "girls who got away." In his case it was just good female friends who he could have taken it up to the next stage, but in my case, thinking about the girls who got away from me were my 2 ex-girlfriends. I don't care how pathetic this sounds, it's true: both times I have been dumped by the girl. They left me. So to me, they got away. For the most part, I have gotten over them, but there is still a teeny tiny bit that wishes one of them would come back (let's say I'm 95% over them, 5% wishes one would come back). Thinking about both of them, I realized both had something in common. Both of them, when I started dating them, could be described as "desperately single" and both of them broke up with me after realizing they were happy when they were single. Now I don't believe that to be the full truth, but I think there is truth in that. And I look back at myself, I think when I started out going with those girls, I was a little desperate. Every time we've broken up, I've not wanted to, but I'd allowed it. A girl, who I liked and turned me down once said, "You're not ready to marry until you're ready to be single." I say the same is true for dating. You're not ready to date until you are ready to be single.

So was I ready to be dating? What I mean by that, was I ready to be single? I'm not sure. I can't say I compromised any beliefs or feelings. I was still behaving like a Christian. And they were Christian. They liked me, and I liked them. They met all my requirements. My second girlfriend I didn't go out with until 15 months after dating my first girlfriend, not really liking any girl. Does that say something? So am I ready to be single again? I don't know. I'd like to say I am. I'm not too concentrated on girls. Right now, there is no single girl that I have a major crush on. Yet I find myself having minor crushes on a bunch of girls. Is it a sign of being desperate, or is it keeping me in check for liking one girl too much? I also have found myself liking girls near my sister's age, which is roughly about 4 years younger than me. Now it's nothing sexual...or maybe a better term is nothing physical. I just like them for their personality, for who they are. Is this wrong? Am I getting so desperate that I am looking at younger girls? Or is that I'm just being too influence by Mike? :-P That's a scary thought.

Here's another thing that divides me on whether I am fully content with singleness . May it be a confession to all of you. I confess that I have been using dating applications on Facebook to meet girls. I "poke" them, message them, and add a few to my friends. I've met a lot of girls this way. It mostly is online, and even more stays to just Facebook. But a few I've gotten IM screenames from. And truthfully, my last girlfriend I did not know until I met her on Facebook. It just so happened that we had a common friend who went to a common church. So yes, we met through Facebook. Now I know a lot of people are against, mostly because it's unconventional, but also the fact these people on another computer are strangers. If you're not comfortable, let me tell you this. 6 girls I asked out before I had a girlfriend. All of them I knew face-to-face and had a friendship with. All 6 turned me down. After those 6, I had my 2 girlfriends. Both met me online. Sure the shortest one only lasted 10 days, but that's 10 more days then those 6 other girls gave me.But So I'm not really against it. I can see profiles of girls, with both pictures and info, and from that choose someone who matches me or I think will be good with. Sure they can lie, but I haven't really met that problem before, and if so, I can usually tell by exchanging messages. And it helps get rid of that ackward exchange of basic information on the first date because it's all there online. Same is true for the girl. Girls can see all my information and know who I am before making a move. That leads me to a topic I said I would get back to.

As I said above, Brady does sometimes struggle with being single, and will express it out loud. On that Tuesday the 12th he mentioned looking at himself, and what could attract girls, only to draw up a blank. I drew up that same blank. You ladies reading might be a girl who received an IM in September asking you "Why would you marry me". I had gotten a dating survey for college success that asked why some woman would want to marry me. Truthfully, I didn't know why. I myself did not know why I was worth marrying. This question that took a lot of thought. It got me stumped a couple of times. I had to get help from female friends. And still thinking about it, I can't see a reason why a girl would like me. I will outwardly tell you, I am not attractive to the eyes, not athletic or fit, not musical in any sense, nor artistic in any sense. I’m not really a genius. I’m not too rich either. My sense of humor is dry slap-stick (although my last ex always thought I was funny, and still does). There is nothing I got. Of course on the survey I put "I'm a good Christian." Yeah, that is good for a Christian girl, but seriously, that's a broad category. There are a lot of guys who are Christian. So after he's Christian, the next thing is...well, it's one of the above that I don't have. So pretty much, I'm screwed. It's hard to convince a girl to like you if you have low self-esteem. Now don't get me wrong, I like me for who I am. I realize God created me the way I was because he wanted me that way, and I am satisfied with the way I am created. It's just trying to get the girl to see the same thing, and like me enough to date me. But they're not always interested in that. As Napoleon Dynamite states, they want skills. What girl is attracted to a Bible Quizzer? Let me tell you not even the Bible Quizzing girls are attracted to that. Only I am (and it's kinda made me quizzing shallow, only liking girl quizzers with high scores). Like I said: screwed. So what's a guy to do? Nothing, absolutely nothing. I have come to the point where I say to ladies, "This is me. Take it or leave it." Don't change for someone else, you'll be living a lie. Tell them to take it or leave it. And remember, God made you, so He takes it, and leaves the sin behind.

So what's this got to do with Valentine's? This is what I was thinking during Valentine's, and it all draws to some good conclusions about Valentine's. The holiday can impact you no matter what your relationship status. So what are going to take from it? Couples, are you going to flaunt your love for each other? Careful, it may hurt your single friends. Singles, are you going to complain about how much this holiday sucks? Careful, it may hurt your dating friends. Let's compromise: if dating people promise to keep their displays of affections to themselves, then single people will keep their complaining among themsleves. Deal? Deal. Couples, go off alone and enjoy the time you have for the special someone. For you single people, hang out with a large group of people from the same gender. Guys, hang out with a large bunch of guys. Girls, hang out with a large group of girls. Do what you like doing the best, fellowship and get caught up with each other. And promise that talk about the opposite sex, couples, crushes, or dating will not come up. The idea is to take your mind of those things and focus it on something you enjoy. I know some people get together a co-ed group of single people to hang out, but I think this is going the wrong way at it. At these things, people just end up pairing up for the day, and it's pretty much conforming to be like couples so you don't feel left out. It's missing the point.

So in closing I want to remind you all that everyone will be eventually married...it is stated in Revelations, it's our marriage as the church to Christ. So if you're a couple, dating or married, it doesn't matter because at the end, the marriage is null-and-void. And for you single people, don't worry if you're not married, or not dating. Give God the time. In the mean time, take that love you usually give to the significant other and share it among your friends, family, and most importantly, God. And even if you're still single by the end of your life, know that God still loves you the same. He has given His love to you, more than any spouse can. In my singleness, I've been praying to God and talking through this to Him. And I feel like he's telling me, "Graham, if you do get a wife, you will have to make some compromises. But if you stay single, I promise I will open many doors for you to procede to do My Will and what you please. And I will give you more friends so you can give that love to them." God has not abandoned the single people. He does not choose His servants based on their relationship status. Christians, let us do the same as the Lord does to us. Let us not judge people on their relationship status.

I am single, but I am also taken by the Lord because I am in a relationship with Him.

Opening the 2nd half of the quizzing season

Our efforts at Conestoga paid off as we started a slow recovery upward. Now we needed to continue it into the 5th week of quizzing. If we didn't, the season could be over just as the second half was beginning. We were looking for at least 230 points to get us back to our week 2 average of 92.5 points/match. That average would keep us alive.

I went to Spring City for church. Today was what I called "causual duct tape day." I wasn't dressed up, but I had the duct tape on all over. I had a duct tape collar, duct tape tie, duct tape manacles, duct tape belt, and a duct tape cap. OK, maybe with the duct tape belt and cap I "cheated" on because I just put duct tape over a real cap and belt, but everything else was original. I had some duct tape props too. I brought back the duct tape baby, which has been described anywhere from a voodoo doll to the robot on the Day the Earth Stood Still. I also had a boquet of 3/4 dozen duct tape roses, which a few lucky ladies got (and I still intended to give some out to some, so it's not too late). My secret sponser got me some Swedish Fish and PB M&Ms. Thank you secret sponser.

After lunch with Brandon Tedor, we had our normal practice matches. The first three we had a lot of bonuses from errors. It gave our rookies a chance to get a lot of practice, thanks to Tim and Mike. But finally by the last practice match, Tim and Mike could buzz in and answer correctly. Unfortunatly, our rookies couldn't do anything then. It seemed like almost perfect timing, but just after we finished our last practice match and turned off the buzzers, the power went out. It was because of the heavy wind and on-and-off flurries. Luckily my mom cooked a dinner that didn't need to be heated. We ate and left a little before 4 so the coaches could make it to coach's meeting.

We arrived at LMH about an hour before coaches. Since only one coach had to go, Vicki went to the meeting, and Dave found an empty classroom where we could practice. We did rounds of questions. Tim decided just like last year we could switch nametags for this. I was Mike, and Mike was me. He didn't do too good of a job being me because he errored a lot. I did a good job of him: saying his old catch words, grunting a lot, flexing my muscles, "texting Steph" (haha, riiiiight) and beating around the bush for 28.5 seconds. The only thing I didn't do like Schwagg was error. That's good. Before the matches, I spat out my gum and started eating dark chocolate AKA "brain food" (dark chocolate has been said to stimulate memory). After Zion led a wonderful praise time, Merv made announcements and sent us off to quiz.

Before we had our quizmatch, I got to watch a quizmatch of Slate Hill 1 vs. Bowmansville 2. I had been wanting to watch a Slate Hill 1 match, but had not gotten the chance. It was a typical Slate Hill match. Mike Good started the match off. He quizzed out. They got team bonus. They pretty much dominated the match. But I noticed something important. Slate Hill 1 wasn't necesarily fast buzzing, but more..."smart buzzing". All were good buzzes, and they beat the other team in. They weren't concured about how many words came out, but rather what words came out. The only times the other team got in first were bad buzzers. It was 4 words, but Slate Hill 1 knew "In what city did..." was not enough. I took notes :)

Now we had our match. It was Spring City vs. Hinkletown 1, 11th place vs. 4th place. We were expecting a struggle, but the match went differently than expected. I quizzed out as soon was question 4. Tim followed me in quizzing out. Mike got two. Bobby got a bonus, but we still needed one more for team bonus. The other side wasn't looking too active. Cody Hoover quizzed out, and that seemed like it. On the last question, Mike eased up a bit to let Chelsea, Alyssa or Bobby get in for team bonus. Hinkletown 1 took advantage of this and got their last points. Spring City won 100-45.

Between my matches, I went to watch Akron 1 vs. Conestoga 2 for scouting. For some reason, Akron 1 only had 3 of its 4 quizzers this Sunday. It hurt them. Conestoga 2 has their act together. They took control of the match. I thought the match was going slow so I didn't stay the whole time because I wanted to make my match. Conestoga 2 got 2 quizouts and was in the lead when I left. I got to my match's room sooner than usual because they just got to the next question!

We had our next match vs. Emmanuel 2. The team consisted of 4 rookie girl quizzers, and a girl emu. I had predicted this match in the beginning of the year to be the second easiest. It was the easiest. I quizzed out on question 5...Mike followed on question 7....Tim then on question 10.....and even Bobby quizzed out! We had 4 quizouts!! Plus, all 4 of those who quizzed out did it all on buzz ins, so we got team bonus! Even Chelsea buzzed in and got one right. Actually, Spring City buzzed in all 15 questions. We errored 2 times, giving Emmanuel 2 a couple chances to score points, but the bonuses were dropped. We won with a 170 point shutout.

So I finished the night by watching Slate Hill 2 vs. Maple Grove and Petra 2 vs. Rockville 2. I watched Petra 2 because they are next week's competition and one of their quizzers is in my English Comp. class at LBC. They did just as well as we did. Dave quizzed out on all buzzes question 3. They also scored 170 points, but Rockville 2 found some room for getting points of their own. Good job Petra 2.

So I figured it out. I am now at 32.5 point average, which should move me up. Spring City scored 270 points this night, moving our average to 95.83. This should shoot us up, unless everyone else had a good day like we did, such as Petra 2. Speaking of which, I figuring Petra 2 to take the top seed unless they scored under 100 points in their first match. In two matches, Tim scored 70 points, Mike scored 55, Bobby scored 45, and Chelsea scored 10. Spring City is back, and we're having fun doing it. Let's see if we can repeat next week.

I say CONE, you say STOGA

Quizzing on Superbowl Sunday is always interesting. So we can get home in time for the Superbowl, the matches begin at 2 p.m. instead of the usual 6:30. So this changes a lot of things. First, we had to practice during the Sunday school hour. I quizzed out every match, although I came close once to not. The team was there for the whole worship afterward. Immeadiately afterward, we left for Conestoga. We had to eat our lunches in the van. I had a hoagie with a lot of odd combinations for condiments. I think I might have grossed out Bobby with it. When we got to Conestoga, we spent an hour doing rounds of questions, trying to get the last bit of material in our heads.

Since Conestoga is as close as it comes, we had lots of fans. Most of them were from Spring City, but we had a few from my church as well. My youth group leader Karen came with her sons, blessings from the church, and a cool new quizzing buddy. Everyone's parents were there. There is always a suprise in the crowd for fans. For the last two weeks it was Christine. This time I saw Angela, from Ark quizzing back in 2004. Thank you to all the fans that came out for this match. I hope you were pleased by our performance.

Our first match was the first of the afternoon. It was against Rockville 2. I took seat 4. We started out strong. I got the first question right, but the second question I errored on. Tim taked the Deitricks into a strategy. Once he buzzed in correctly, he sat out to let the others get in for team bous I quizzed out the next question, and Tim was already back in. I was the only one who quizzed out. We still couldn't get team bonus. We did win 75-50, but we were hoping to score more, get more quiz outs, and maybe team bonus. Still, we were happy for a win, and whatever points we could get.

Our second match was awesome. It was against Living Rock 1. On the first question, Tim buzzed in and got the answer correct. For the second question, I buzzed in and got it correct. On question number 3, Mike buzzed in and got it right. Living Rock 1 called a timeout knowing with 12 questions left, Spring City was only 1 question away from team bonus. Tim was pretty sure Chelsea (our other starter) was going to get it, he wanted to put his buzzer down. Mrs. Deitricks sternly told him he would do no such thing. It didn't matter because question 4 was a situation question, which I of course got right. The next situation question was question 6, which I quizzed out on. On one of the questions, they called "the crowd" a what question. Tim contested and said "the crowd" should be a who. Dave and I didn't think it would pass, but it did! The question was thrown out, Tim got the replacement question for his quizout. He hadn't gotten one of those in a long time. Mike also quizzed out, which we haven't seen in an even longer time. Chelsea got us team bonus with the right answer of "turmoil"! Alyssa buzzed in on "What was inscribed..." and we though she would get it, but alas not this time. Bobby finished up the match by buzzing in and naming what something like a large sheet contained. We won 145-20. These were the points we needed. But the coolest thing was 5 of our 6 quizzers buzzed in correctly.

So here's where Spring City is, according to the halfway mark stats. Although Spring City moved up to an 88 points/match average, we are still in 11th. Apparently, everyone else did well, too. Our team has only gotten team bonus 4 of the past 10 match. I rank as the top quizzer on the team, placing 18th in the ACC with 320 points. Tim is next, with 250 points, placing 49th. After Tim is Mike with 175 points and 95th place. Bobby has 50, and Chelsea has 40 points. We are still looking forward to match where Alyssa gets her first points.

The next week we start the second half of the season at LMH, quizzing against a below average team and an above average team. To get back up to our week 2 average of 92.5, we need to score 230 points in the 2 matches next week. That means scoring 120 points in one match and 110 in the other match. We're going to need lots of studying, prayer, and God's favor. Please pray for us. Also, please pray that I can continue to find car rides home!

Weary and worried at Weaverland

By the grace of God and some connections, I got home for practice on Thursday. Being the first week of classes, I didn't get much time to study. Apparently, I wasn't the only one. For the other 2 guys taking college courses, they weren't too studied up too. So it came to shock when we had quiz outs on buzz ins, especially me quizzing out all matches. Things went better than we expected, but some areas still needed improvement.

Practice on Sunday afternoon went both ways. Dave's questions we did good on, but Vicki's questions we hurted. That's typical of what happens. We just needed Dave questions rather than Vicki questions. I quizzed out as usual. Tim got quiz outs and errors, and same with Mike.

I want to thank my secret sponser for my gift. I don't have a lot of food in my college dorm, but his/her/their gift hepled greatly. I got 3 things of pringles, 2 liter Mountain Dew, M&Ms and a couple dollars. Thank you very much for the gift. Thanks also to the person who left "Spring City's #1 fan - Flubber." I used him as my quizzing buddy instead of the low-rider hamster. Low-rider went well with my black & white joker scheme (black pants, white shirt, black&white crown, black sock, white sock, black shoe, white shoe), but Flubber was cool because when he was hugged, he vibrated and made sound.

We arrived at Weaverland and we met by fans. The announcements were good ones. We got more interchangables, making our life easier. Good news = gospel = messgae. Brothers = believers = disciples. All helpful for us. It doesn't matter if kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven is not interchangeable, it shouldn't be a factor. The rooms were also changed around, so we had to figure where our first match on the first round was.

The first match was against Petra 4. It didn't matter that they were in 4th place, all the Petras always give us a run. They gave us a run, alright. Their buzzing was crazy. I was being beaten in on situation questions! I needed them, too, for I failed to quiz out yet again. Tim errored out again. Again, on the last question, someone buzzed in on We lost 50-70.

Our second match was against Strasburg 4, a rookie team. I took seat 1, hungry for a quiz out. I got it. First question, Bobby buzzed in, and got it right! It was a good start for team bonus. I quizzed out on question 5. We got team bonus in the end, but it was sloppy. We errored 6 times at the end, negating half our team bonus points. It forced Dave to make an unwanted decision of benching a quizzer to increase chances of team bonus and avoid killing a seat. First it was Bobby, then it was Tim. Near the end, it got close enough for Strasburg 4 to win or tie. We barely pulled away with a win 75-65. It's not the type of win we want, but a win was refreshing.

We had a consecutive last match. It was against 1st place New Danville, with 2 perfect quizzers. I sat in seat 1 across from Alyssa Mylin, who finished last year tied with me. Things started off roughly, but we turned it around midway. Tim and I quizzed out. But that was it. After suffering a midway loss, New Danville came through to win 75-70.

Reflections: Near the beginning of my first semister at LBC, Mr. Beers told a story that went well with his message of never giving up for God. He told on how he was coaching a basketball game, and at halftime the team was losing because of poor mistakes. So at halftime he made he team dress up, go out into the bleachers and apologize to the fans for such a bad performance. So right here, right now, I'd like to do the same. I want to apologize to all of Spring City's fans for not quizzing at our fullest. Right now, we are 11th place with an average of 82.5. points/match. I can't remember the last time Spring City was that low. I think it is safe to say the year was 2006. I can't help but feel a little disappointed. Before I go on, let me clarify that when I use the term "team" I do not mean the rookies, or even our second year quizzer. The rookies are right on path for how rookie should do with a starting line of veterans. Bobby, with his 30 points after 3 weeks, could possibly pass the mark. Alyssa, wait for your time. It will come. And Chelsea...good ol' "el fuego." If you haven't received any complements let me be the first one to do so. You're doing a very good job. Even in my second year, I could only get to 120 points at that end, and you're on track for that. But the rest of the team saddens me, including me. We have 3 quizzers with potential to be in the top 50, and they are currently in 22nd, 55th and 110th. In 8 matches, we have only gotten team bonus 3 times. Errors are causing us to lose points. When standings are measured by points, we need team bonus and we don't need errors.

What's to say? Once again, all I can say is sorry. I apologize to all our fans, especially those near to home who came out to watch us but have watched a poor match. I want to further extend my apology to my rookies. Looking at how we did last year, any quizzer in the beginning of the year would consider it a honor to be on Spring City's quiz team. That honor is gone. Tim and I always dreamed of having a team that was feared. Now being in 11th place, we are nowhere's near being feared. I always said, "Well, at least teams won't take us lightly." Now I'm not sure if even that is true. Maybe for the 17 teams below us, but not for the 10 teams above us. I want to apologize to my coaches. The Deitricks have put a lot into this team. It's a shame that nothing shows it. They want us to read, we lose our place. They ask us questions, we error and drop bonuses. They ask us to study, we socialize in excess. I am also sorry we put in the hard position to have to take out quizzers haven't yet quizzed out. It should never be that way. I will make it up to you. Lastly, I want to apologize to God. We have your Word, but it's not sealed up. If there is anything interfering with us doing well, please LORD, reveal it to us so we may fix our errorus ways and refocus back on You.

What's to do? I am thankful for the Deitricks are coaches because they have more mercy and grace than I do. If this was my team, I would have made practice into a Bible Boot camp. My first rule would be prohibiting any girlfriends or ex-girlfriends of the guys on the team (this would also be for the girls on the team, but considering our girls are 16 and 13, I don't think boyfriends are a problem yet) to be allowed at a match. It's not supersition, it some kind of psychological effect that when someone like the girlfriend/boyfriend or the ex come to a match, it diverts some of your focus to them, a focus which needs to be fully concentrated on the quizmatch. Besides, let's face it, they're not cheering for you, they're just sitting in the same room, giggling while they text on their cell phones. Get rid of them, get all focus on the match at hand. My second rule would be that all cell phones should be turned off, put away and not touched until after quizzing is over. Cell phones have caused enough distraction. My third rule would be revoking free time. I don't mean to sound mean, but if you are getting questions wrong, it's a sign you need to study. Take the free time to study. I congatulate those who already figured this out. Fourth, I would instate if you error twice, you will be benched. We cannot be killing seats. After watching the first two matches, I truly believed the starting line should have been me, Mike, Chelsea and Bobby. Think of errors like a stoplight. 1 is green, go at full speed. 2 is yellow, slow down. 3 is red, you are forced to stop. Well, obviously this is why I'm not coach and the Deitricks are. This is obvious why I am not a coach and I am still a quizzer. I'm not going to tell the Deitricks how to run the team. I can't command my fellow quizzers to do anything of these things, but I hope they take these suggestions seriously.

I've also been taking other people's advice: Show character, praise God in all circumstances, be humble, make sure there's a balance of the Word in the head and the heart. I'm trying to do all these things, but I'm not sure if I am doing all these things. Am I humble or am I self-pitying? Am I praising God or am I lamenting? Is the Word just in the head? These are things I am trying to struggle with while trying to study, and I don't exactly know which one should be the first priority.

Thank you for listening to my frustration. It is obvious what I need prayer for. Also throw in for prayer that I get a ride home for thursday night practice. At a time like this, it is more necesary than ever before. I need my team to see how much of the material I know, and they need me for support, strengthening and encouragement.

Stress at Strasburg

I want to thank all who were praying for me to find a ride home Thursday nights. I did find a ride that can get me home every other Thursday. So that covered this past Thursday night and half of my practices. So please continue to pray that I can get the other half of the practices covered. I need those practices, as you will find out soon.

As you may know, it snowed on Thursday night. The good news I got to Tim's house. The bad news is quizzing practice was cancelled. So I spent the night over Tim's house. Mike came over for "practice" (which was limited to circling keywords). I spent the whole night trying to get down awkward, obscure questions. I believe I was sucessful. Friday night we had practice. Chelsea had caught a virus going around, so it was just 5 of us. Since I was on a team of 2 with Bobby, I got ol' skool Ohio style quizouts (4 question quizouts). Still I quizzed out. Despite Tim quizzing out with few to no errors, it was apparent this material was getting harder. Dave showed us a map to get the idea of where Paul and Barnabas were going. I wrote out a "verbal map" to get it straight in my head what was happening where. The team still needed practice.

This Sunday I decided would be a duct tape day, professional style. I dressed up in pants and dress shirt, gray of course, but my tie, belt and cap was duct tape. For my quizzing buddies, I had the duct tape baby and 4 duct tape roses. I came for the church service. Since it was the third Sunday of the month, Spring City had fellowship meal. Tim came late. The quizzers gathered together at a table to study. After the meal was done, the team went into practice as usual. But practice didn't look good. It didn't look like we knew the material. Chelsea was hurting the most because she missed practice. So during break, I quickly tried to shove as much text into Chelsea's mind as possible.

After dinner we got right into the van to head for the quizmatches. Dave helped up as usual by giving us rounds of questions. With every round, we seemed to get better and understand the material better. We got to the church just in time for worship. There we met our fans, including retired quizzer Christine. We had a huge fan base for a distance between from the church. After worship, we had the first match right away. Ready or not, it was time.

The match was against Paradise 2, 15th place in our league. Our quizmaster was Fred, a surprise to us, because Fred is registered only as a judge, not a quizmaster. After scouting from the last week, I decided to take seat 2. The match was not a good one. Halfway through, I had buzzed in 3 times: 1 right, 2 errors. Those 2 errors helped the boy across from me quiz out. When the sub sat in across from me, I could tell immeadiately I wasn't getting any bonuses. I know I had to get this on my own. Buzzing in on question 12 and 13, I answered correctly and quizzed out. It was a heart stopper, but I did it. After question 14, the scored was tied at 80. It wasn't the win we were concerned about, it was the points. One short of team bonus could reach us into the triple digits again. The question began "In what city..." A Paradise 2 quizzers buzzed in, took a guess with pure luck, and got it right. We'd like to sayit was a team bonus block, but with a right answer, it's hard to say that. We lost to Paradise 2 80-90.

With matches between until our next match, I did a lot of scouting of the Strasburgs. I watched 2 matches of Strasburg 4 and a match of Strasburg 2. That was an important match to watch because we quizzed Strasburg 2 next. I watched and wanted seat 4. I didn't know if I'd get it, since Chelsea likes seat 4. But Chelsea wasn't ready to start again, so she let Bobby started instead, and he was fine in seat 3. So I took seat 4 for match.

This match was better for me. I buzzed in 3 times, and got them all right out for a quiz out by question 7. That was the highlight. Tim errored out, without getting a single answer right. Mike was able to quiz out this match, though. After question 13, we were 2 quizzers short of team bonus: Bobby and Chelsea (Dave had forgot to put Alyssa in). After having a bad match before, we needed team bonus now. On question 14, once again, a where question, and once again an early buzz in on the other's team side. They got it wrong. Once again, we'd like to argue blocked team bonus, but we can't contest a foul. We did win 75-55, but our points keep getting lower and lower.

We closed the night with a match against Paradise 4, ranked 5th with 103 point average. I was ready to be in seat 1, across from Joel Delinger, just like last year. But unlike last year, these results were going to be different. Tim regained himself and quizzed out. I was not doing so good. By the time I got to review questions, I had only 20 points, 1 buzz in and 1 right bonus. I had also dropped a bonus, which is never good. After question 13 and 14, I had still not gotten anywhere. The team was losing 65 to 80. The last question was "Whose feet..." and I buzzed in. I thought about a while and I quickly answered. Too quickly. I had a dyslexic moment. Instead of saying "Cornelius fell at Peter's feet" I said "Peter fell at Cornelius's feet." I said it so fast that they originally marked me right, but the judges caught it marked me wrong. So that's how Graham screwed up another perfect season yet again. Because Graham answered too fast and didn't think it out. Because Graham did not shut up at "Peter" but had to be impressive. Afterward the judges apologized for marking me wrong and the quizmaster apologized for convincing me I was right and then making me wrong, putting me on a "emotional rollarcoaster." What could I say? They did the right thing, I couldn't argue. Of course I went back to college disgusted.

Strasburg was stressful and an emotional rollarcoaster. I felt grace, redemption and humility all the same day during those 3 matches. So things are looking bleak for Spring City and its quizzers. Both perfect quizzers fell from perfection, Tim worse than me. My point average is 32 and Tim's point average is 18. While Chelsea scored points, Bobby couldn't. The team is down to a 93 point average. We're gonna sink unless other teams did bad. Things aren't looking any better for next week. The material is getting harder with more places and more people, generalized groups of people. The new standings aren't out, but based on the standings I do have, the teams are tough ones. We're gonna need to study hard, plus we need an extra dose of Holy Spirit. Please pray for the team.

Opening the quizzing season at LMH

Practices were going well. Rookies were buzzing in and answering correctly. Our 2nd year quizzer was quizzing out. Everyone else was doing the same. You know it's going to be a great year. It already is.

At the Spring City worship service, the quiz team was brought forth to receive the church's blessing. We each showed our name tags and the symbols on it, which are to represent who we are and how to pray for us. I got a pillar. I am the pillar of the team. Please pray I will be. I like being able to stand strong for the team. After church the quizzers did their thing by meeting in the kitchen and having lunch. Tim tried asking me questions, but Tim couldn't stump me. So he gave up and asked others. I was feeling ready.

So we had 5 practice matches before the real ones came up. I quizzed out on every one. Some were fast quiz outs, some took a while. But practices went well. One practice match Mike was the first one to quiz out. Chelsea quizzed out once, Bobby quizzed out once. Errors were limited. In one match, we errored the first 3 questions, and then never errored again for the rest of the match. It was all good. I had confidence in myself and the team. I was so confident, I was able to eat a whole meal. We were ready.

We got to LMH. It was our job to serve drinks and snacks, so our van trunk was full of all of it, including my stuff for back to college. We arrived there about 6:10 and had to find a new parking lot because of construction. I didn't know who to expect. No Hopewell, no Reading, no Hope Community, no Media. The people from Maple Grove wouldn't be the same. Who was there? Well, I saw friends from Zion and Slate Hill. And I did see some from Reading, in forms of a timekeeper, an Emmanuel quizzer, and a few fans.We got in for worship. Fred explained a few things, Merv pepped us up, and we were ready for another season of quizzing.

The first match I watched was Goods 3 vs. Neffsville 1. Goods 3 was a rookie team. I only watched this match because they were in the same room we would be next, and I watching how Jon Howe was quizmastering. He was doing his usual slow pronunciation of words. I was showing Bobby how a quizmatch worked and how to "scout" teams and staff, while giving some simple stragegy. Before we knew it, we were up. The team we faced was Byerland. I took seat 3 because I knew if I started in seat 1, I would stuck there all year. Tim took seat 1, Mike took seat 2, and Chelsea seat 4. Tim errored twice early. I quizzed out on question 6. Of course, question 7 was a situation question. My team didn't even try. But when Tim got the bonus, he got it right. Then we heard the question, "Whose clutches..." and Bobby buzzed in! He answered "Herod's clutches" and he got it right! Bobby got us team bonus!! Mike followed with a quiz out. Tim, with 2 errors, finally quizzed out on question 14. It was close call for Tim's quiz out. We won 135-55, with 3 quizouts and a team bonus.

We had about 3 matches until our next match. The first match I watched was Living Rock 1 vs. Slate Hill 2. I wanted to scout Slate Hill 2 and observe what this new church would do. By the end of the match, Slate Hill 2 won 75 to 15, but it was messy. Slate Hill 2 errored 4 times, and Living Rock errored 6. I wanted to go watch my friends at Zion, but I had to help unload the snacks for snack time. I got to hear that Zion 2 ended up tying E-Town 3. Finally, I went to watch Good Shepherd vs. Paradise 2 so I could scout Paradise 2 for the next week. Good Shepherd won 90 to 35. I hurried off to my next match

The last match of the night was Spring City vs. Slate Hill 2. We sat in the same seats. I wanted seat 3 because I knew from last match Sarah Good was sitting also in seat 3. We had talked before, so I thought it would be good to sit across from her, to make it a little more fun and interesting, and to make sure my bonuses were going to a good cause. But bonuses were not going over that way. Question 1 I buzzed in and got correctly. Question 2 was a footnote question (although Tim said they wouldn't ask footnote questions ). Still, I buzzed in and got it right. Question 3 I jumped, but Tim jumped faster. He got it right. With Spring City leading 30 to nothing, Slate Hill 2 called a timeout. They needed to rethink things over. Back in on question 4, I quizzed out. Tim soon followed with a quizout on question 11. Mike froze up this match. He buzzed in once, and got one bonus, but both were ruled incorrect. The one Mike errored on was a bit humerous. He told a 30 second story, and as he told it, he got further from actual text. After a judges meeting, they marked him incorrect. Then Mike contested. It was also a 30 second story, and that story also went further away from text as he told it. He obviously did not win the contest. We still needed team bonus. Even without Mike, we pulled through. Bobby again buzzed in and answered correctly. Chelsea got back into the swing of things. She buzzed in, answered correctly. We got team bonus. 2 quiz outs and a team bonus led us to win over Slate Hill 2 110 to 20. It was disappointing we couldn't have another year with 3 perfect quizzers or end the night with 135 average, but we did good in the match.

So here's how Spring City did. By scoring 135 and 110, Spring City now has an average of 122.5. We are hoping that propels into first place. I want to point out that our league does not have Petra 1, Slate Hill1 or Rockville 1, 3 of the 4 teams that made it to the season playoffs last year. Slate Hill 1 scored 145 points both of their matches, giving them an average of 145. Petra 1 got 140 points one match without team bonus, but they didn't get team bonus either matches, making them only score about 100 points the other match, making their average 120ish (compared to finishising with 131 average last year). The only other playoff team is Paradise 4, who are in our league. Dave found out that they finished with roughly a 100 point average. We definitely topped that. The only other threat is Petra 2, and I do not know how they did. 122.5 just might do it, even though it didn't do it last year. Sure, we not going to be the top team of all 56 teams, but we've already done that before. I just want the top spot in our league to give us hope for season playoffs.

As for the quizzers on Spring City, we did good. It's sad we can't start off with 3 perfect quizzers, but we do have 2, both Tim and I. Mine perfect is not fully perfect, but more perfect than usual. Both quiz outs were all buzzes with no errors and no bonuses. So 6 correct buzz ins gave me 2 quiz outs, on questions 6 and 4. It was awesome. Thank you, God! Tim was a little later for his quiz outs, question 15 and question 11, and Tim got a couple errors, but still he's perfect. Mike's one quiz out, and one match of nothing averages out to 17.5 point/match. Bobby scored 10 points each match for team bonus, totalling 20 points on the year already. Chelsea in 2 matches only got 10 points, but greatly helped for team bonus. She has average of 5 points/match. This team is looking strong, and I can't wait for the next week to go!

P.S. I got back to college on time. I got to reunite with old friends and set my room back up. Unfortuneatly, my ride home on Thursday nights fell through. Please pray that I can find another one! I miss my team and I need them!

New Quizzing Season Resolution

Did you know there is only 2 days until the first quizmatch of 2008? 2 days! It's so exciting that another year is upon us. This is my 7th year of quizzing. So much has changed, and yet it's still the same quizzing. This year's material finishes up our 3-year study of Luke's book. We wrap it up with Acts 10-28. The upcoming week will just be Acts 10-12:19. I can't wait to see my old friends and make some new ones.

I am quizzing with Spring City for the 4th year. The team is fearlessly led (or God-fearing led) by Dave and Vicki Deitrick. Spring City's team this year has 6 quizzers. Our 4 returning veterans are Graham Holcomb, Tim Moss, Michael Schwager and Chelsea Mullins. We have 2 rookies: Alysssa Mullins and Bobby. We've already had 2 pratices and it looks good. Our rookies are already giving correct answers and sometimes even buzzing in! Chelsea got back into buzzing. She even quizzed out twice! Of course, I quizzed out all 7 practice matches. My earliest quizout was question 4, and my latest was question 14. That question 14 quizout scared me, but hey, a quizout is a quizout, no matter when it happens. As long as I get it. Tim and Mike are performing the same as always. So I'm hoping they'll perform this season the same the did last season. If Chelsea gets confident and believes in herself, she can be steady in getting us team bonus. Heck, if she get very confident, she can get her first quizout this season, and cover Mike's butt if he can't quizout. In a few weeks, I bet even our rookies will be able to participate in team bonus. I say it again, this is going to be our year!

As for me, of course I'm putting my best into quizzing. Quizzing out every practice match has shown me I'm back into the swing of my normal quizzing. I'm going to do my best. I plan this to be my year as well as my team's year. I have already chosen my goal for this year:

• Finish as one of the Top 5 Quizzer
• Be a perfect quizzer for the first 3 week
• Reach the 600 point mark
  

Finish as one of the Top 5 Quizzers
This is a goal I had set last year. I failed to reach because I had to quiz in a double week with 2 Petra teams. The dangerous combination led to me falling short. So here I am, trying again. For the past two years I finished 12th and 16th, the top 20, in these past 2 years. Give or take, I averaged out these past two years. Now I'm ready to move up. I want to go for something higher. Top 5 is high enough. Rumor has it that this invitational will have a 5-way fun match with the all-stars from each conference. Being on the top 5, I would make the team. It would be an honor. Even being in the fun 3-way match with all-star quizzers vs. coaches vs. staff would be an honor. I think it is a good position to aim for. Not too easy, not too hard. My second attempt at the goal should be the time to reach it.

Be a perfect quizzer for 3 weeks
This is a goal I have been aiming to earn for 3 years. Last year I came dangerously close. I tied my past record last year by being perfect two weeks. On my third week quizzing, I had 3 matches. I quizzed out the first twice, but failed to quiz out that last match! Augh! so frusterating. So here we try again. This is interesting on how I will do this. This year I have 3 matches week 2 and 3, the only two weeks I have 3 matches. So to be a perfect quizzer, I have to quiz out 8 matches! It is a challenge I am up to. If I ever want to be perfect, I must get passed the first two weeks.

Reach the 600 point mark
I waited to decide this goal until I knew I had 18 matches. Last year we only had 17 matches and couldn't score more than 595 points (that was perfect). Now with 18 matches, 630 points is perfect. I would just be satisfied with 600 points. These past 3 years I have scored in the 500s, with 585 being the highest. One more quiz out would get me up there. It was only 15 points away, and an extra quiz out would get there. Probably need at least 16 quiz outs to get it. That will beat another record. See, two records at once!

So that's it. Now you all know, you can help me reach these goals. First and foremost, pray for me. Pray that I can reach these goals, and bring God the honor in doing so. Second, help me. Help me practice. The quizzing material is Acts 10-28 for the year, starting this week with Acts 10-12:19. You don't need to be a quizzer to make sure I know the Scriptures. Third, just encourage me. Encourage me to complete it. Lift me up when I fall down. Last, if possible, come to a match. A fan in the audience is encouragement and an answer to prayer. My first match is this Sunday, January 19, at 6:30 p.m. It is located at Lancaster Mennonite High School. Come support me and the team!

I am a virgin, am I an island?

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" -Romans 6:1,2,15

First off, may I wish everyone a happy New Year. May both God bless us and we bless God in the new year.

Now it is time to talk. It is a subject that is touchy, and rather not talked about. But it has been burdening my heart recently. It is the virginity of my generation.

I am 19. Not married, not dating, but single. I still consider my generation the high school age group. And it saddens my heart to know how little we care about our virginity. Our media doesn't happen. Celebrities having babies out of wedlock, especially with 16 year old Jamie Spears now having a baby, and we just shrugg it off, and maybe get a little excited about the new child. In the same way, our generation responds to any girl getting pregnant. We shrug it off, or just focus on how excited.

It amazes me how this worldly problem is seeping into the church. I have tried my best to grow up in Christian atmosphere, being around people who also resist temptation, which helps me avoid sin. Yet since I could comprehend prematural sex, I have known of 7 girls and 2 guys who called themselves Christian (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, although they could be weeds who like springing up among the wheat) and were sexually active. Furthermore, may I say that 4 of those girls ended up pregnant. But I do not want to emphasize that, for I don't want to say sex before marriage is only a sin if it leads to pregnancy. That would be like saying sex is only a sin if you catch an STD. Teens will have sex without ever facing any STD, while at the same time a married couple can get one. For a liberal generation that's in a liberal time period, let me be straight out and foreward to you: PREMARITIAL SEX IS A SIN!!!

We hear a lot about the santicty of marriage, but it's talking about the homosexual vs. heterosexual marriage debate. But it also refers to respecting the boundaries of marriage. How come I see Christian girls one day wearing the purity ring, and the next day they have the swollen belly? So much for the ring. You may be thinking that this happens in the secular community, too, and you're right, I've seen it when I go out to evangelize. But the difference between and us and them is big. We know right from wrong because we have God's Law. They do not. They are lost; they are blind of their sin. When I go evangelize to them, I make them realize that sin in all aspects of their life is the problem. We are different because we know right from wrong. And we were reborn, we set ourselves apart from our sinful living. As Romans 6:2 said above, we died to sin, so why are we still in it? If we have given everything to God, that includes our bodies, our virginity, our sexual activity.

So for all those out Christian teens out there who are sexually active, I am not going to judge you or condemn you. The Lord will judge you, and the Law will condemn you. Here's what I am going to do. First, I am going to show the Bible says it wrong, for any of you who doubt it. It's as clear as the 7th commandment in Exodus 20: "Do not commit adultery." Let's look back at the beginning, as in Genesis. On the sixth day, after creating the man, God did not command, "Go out and have sex. Be sexually active." Rather, he said, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." (Genesis 1:28) If we remember 7th grade Health class, we remember sex is how we reproduce. God's concern was not that couples were sexually active, but rather that more humans were being produced. So may I make a hermeneutic different from normal thought and suggest this: God made sex strictly for reproduction, and nothing more. The only reason it's pleasurable is an encouragement to do it. Let's face it, we are lazy. We don't do anything unless we are benefiting from it. If God made the curse be painful sex, a lot of humans would say, "Not worth it" and the human civilization would die out due to lack of reproduction. I want to look at something else. Not as much in the Bible, but the customs in Bible terms, which will help produce a healthy exgesis. Let's start out with Genesis 2:24, when the first marriage is established. The verse says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." In a B.C. wedding, the final event that bound the couple as husband and wife was a parade to the bedroom, where the father would hand his daughter off to the groom, and they would make love for the first time. What do we get out of this? Making love is a binding marriage. The first person you have sex with, the person you lose your virginity to, is now married to you because you are one flesh. This even includes minors. It doesn't matter if the state or nation recognizes it as marriage. So how many of you Christian youth out there are married? How many of you have "married" many men or women, which we all accept polygomy as sin? Isn't that a new way to put it that might cause all of you to quiver. If you've had sexual with multiple partners, in a way, you're a polygamist. Bottom line again, ADULTERY IS A SIN!!!

This is the second thing I will offer to the Christian teens who are sexually active is forgiveness. The Bible says only blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an unforgiving sin, and adultery is not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. You can all be forgiven, and it's not too late. I think that's the biggest lie my generation believes is forgivness has to do with the human anatomy. I cannot deny that when you physically lose your viriginity, you cannot gain it back. No doubt about it. But a lot of my generation think something like this, "Well, I lost my viriginity and now there's no turning back. So I guess I'll have sex whenever now because I can't get my virginity back. Wrong. I like to believe in not only a physical virginity, but also a spiritual virginity. This is what we as Christians have set apart to God to preserve until marriage. I believe if someone confesses their sin of adultery, and repents by stopping all sexual activity until marriage, he or she will be forgiven and the spiritual virginity will be restored. In the eyes of God, they will be virgins again. But as I said, it requires admitting you were wrong by having sex early and turning away from any sexual sin. Once again, I am not judging or condemning anyone. My generation already gets a lot of that from the generation above. I am encouraging all to do what is right in the eyes of God. There is forgiveness, and it's not too late. Do not refuse it, and don't just accept it. Gladly embrace it.

I believe it is the job for those Christian teens who are still sexually pure to encourage the others sexually pure to continue to abstain from sex, and to approach those who did not abstain, and encourage them to confess, repent, and be forgiven. They don't need more adults and elderly yelling out them for doing sin; they already have enough of that. They need encouragement from their own peers. They don't want to listen to those older, they want to listen to those around their age. Listening to the secular world is what got them into trouble, listening to the Christian peer will help them get out. It will be hard, but it will also be worth it. I can demonstrate this by telling you about a conversation I had with a Christian girl a while ago. She was 15, and sexually active with her boyfriend. She was considering going on The Pill and wanted my advice. I didn't get in her face, but I showed her why it was wrong. I explained to her the wrong was not taking the pill, but having sex with a boyfriend without first being married. I presented her all the evidence she needed. And she really did listen. That's the last I heard from her. I don't know what her decision was. But her last line will never leave me, "Thanks for caring. My other friends would just say whatever and not pay any attention to it, but because you are going against what I am doing, it shows me you care." That's what we got to start doing. Start caring. Start loving. If we start loving, we can start to show true love. For it's time our youth discover this truth: you can have sex without any love, and you can love without any sex

I want to give a final encouragement by telling everyone what I do. This is usually personal and private, but I want you both guys and girls to see what I am doing and thinking to show it is impossible. I am saving myself for marriage, and I don't need a ring to show. And as I am saving my viriginity for my wife, I am setting the standard higher to say I will only marry a virgin. If I saved my virginity to her, I want to know she did the same for me. I do not want to be an adulterer because my wife decided to mess around with other guys first, whether it be husband, boyfriend, or accquaintance. And a God as my witness, if I am 40 years old and not married, I will be the 40 year old virgin. And if I'm 70 and still not married, I will be the 70 year old virgin! Further more, I keep my dating relationships to a minimal phyiscal action. Some people go as far as beliving the first kiss should even be saved on the wedding day. In my personal convinction, I don't see that necesary, but I have high respects for those people, keeping everything to God until marriage, even the little things. And if I ever have a girlfriend like that, I will respect that and do the same. I want my relationships to be built on true love, which is communicaiton and emotion connection between a guy and a girl, nothing physical. Trust me, after both times that my ex-girlfriends broke up with me I felt guilty for any physical stuff that went on. And the first girlfriend, it was just holding hands! I just don't give away signs of affection, I only give it to those who I truly and deeply love. I wish everyone in my generation could do the same, but it seems not likely. So all I can do is pray. This past week I have been praying for those 7 girls and 2 guys. I have been praying that they cease their actions, turn back to God, and find true love. I have also been praying for their forgiveness. Then I pray the same for my generation in general. There's probably more people I know and am unaware of their sexual activity (for which I am glad, after all, ignorance is bliss) and I pray the same for them. Finally, I close my prayer by asking for strength to stay pure as long as God calls me to be and end with this line:

"May my virginity be an offering to you, O LORD, in place of those who decided it was not worth waiting."