This is probably the highest honor I could receive in this life, and I think that is probably because Bible Quizzing has meant so much to me, and will continue to do so.  We have 7 children and 5 of them quizzed for 9 years, one for 7 and half years and one for 5 years. But really, the most impact has been on my own life and hopefully in the lives of the kids that have been involved.  Our immediate family has 87 years of Bible Quizzing logged. I have kept a log since the first year I began and have had over 200 kids on Bible Quiz teams with over 400 years total of Bible Quizzing participation. But what really matters is that if only one person is in heaven because of my involvement in this ministry, my life is one that made a difference to God. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of loving kids and introducing them to the good news of God's grace.

I was raised in the Christian and Missionary Alliance church and we were not involved in Bible Quizzing there. I did see a demonstration once. I became involved because my oldest son wanted to do quizzing when he entered fourth grade (as we have Junior Quizzing).

Within six months, I was coaching his team and continued in that role until I became co-director of the PNW conference for 3 years and directed by myself for 3 more years. But my heart has always been with coaching, so after stepping down as director, I have continued coaching ever since. I have been the church director at Rainier Avenue Church for about 10 years now and we have now had over 100 quizzers here.  At our most, we had 31 quizzers on 10-11 teams, and right now we have 13 quizzers with many more young people approaching quizzing age.

I started out at Eastside Free Methodist in Bellevue and when they disbanded, we attended Timberlake Christian Fellowship (FM) in Redmond for 3 years.  A new church plant had been started in our home town, so, for the next 10 years, I coached at Mountain Creek Christian Fellowship (FM) in Issaquah.  Since our kids graduated from high school, we have attended Rainier Avenue FM church in Seattle for ten years as they are a multi-ethnic congregation much like our own family.  We have 2 biological children and adopted twins from Korea as well as adopted triplets from Haiti. We adopted the triplets after going on two medical missionary trips there.

Many of the highlights of my coaching career stem from kids with challenges.  One year I had a team of three kids, of which none could read very well. My first team had a girl who had quizzed for 2 and a half years and had not answered one question, but the last half of the year she answered 4 questions and received the most improved quizzer award.  I have had ADDHD kids and kids from broken families. They provide the much inspiration for me when you see that light that comes in their eyes while Bible Quizzing.  One boy I had did not answer one question all year but at regional finals when playing for the championship, he answered the 14th question to help us send the match into overtime. My biggest joy is showing families that we love their kids.

We took the YTR championship at Roberts in 2007, defeating Wilmore in Super Finals.  My daughter, Elizabeth won the Dave Markell  award in 2000. Other highlights were when Rainier Avenue took 2nd place in the STV team division at SPU in 2012 and when I coached our YTV team and they took 2nd place at Spring Arbor in 2000.

My favorite scripture is James 1:22 "Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." We were in a Bible study for 9 years when I came to realize that I could study for the rest of my life, but unless I actually got out there and did what the Bible said to do, I was deceiving myself.

I am still the Rainier Avenue church Bible Quiz director and coach of one of the teams. My wife and I are also in the nursery and coordinate it for Sunday mornings.  You can't start recruiting for Bible Quizzing too soon.