2014 Nationals

Also, Hannah B (Leah and John's sister) qualified in the Primaries :)

342nd?! passes out :P JK! Although I feel like such a slacker. :P

That God pulls no punches. :P But seriously it makes me think about how powerful God is, and whether I even recognize it most of the time. :) I'm studying it with my mom, and we have finished writing it down on paper, looking at the context of the book and the places mentioned in it, now were going chapter by chapter looking for key words, and cross-references. :)

I have found something encouraging though. I was memorizing 1 Peter 1:3-12 yesterday, and I realized that most of the verses seemed very familiar to me. That's when I realized that I remembered the verses from three years ago when we studied 1 Peter in the Bible Bee. This stuff sticks in your mind! :)

God is so good…I couldn't have done it in my own strength!! You're not a slacker!! :D You're doing really good!

Isn't it?

That is good!! :) I had memorized 1 Peter about 2 years ago, so that passage for me needed reviewing and perfecting :) I like it too!

Thanks!

Isn't it what?

IKR? :P

Maybe a better way to have said that is "Isn't He?" in referring to God's power :)

Do you know how many you knew to begin with? :)

Oh, yeah that makes more sense. Yup! :)

I had 15 verses memorized at the beginning. I was hoping I would have at least 50. :P

I know…I don't think it was fair the Juniors got the whole book of Jonah! xP I memorized it! I had 25 to begin with, that helped a tiny bit but not much :P lol

I know...I don't think it was fair the Juniors got the whole book of Jonah! xP I memorized it! I had 25 to begin with, that helped a *tiny* bit but not much :P lol

I know, right? I was not happy when I saw that the Juniors got all of Jonah. They could've at least split it between the Seniors and Juniors!

I also just finished "memorizing" my 163rd verse! :) Great job! Keep it up! =)

<blockquoteExcept for maybe when Daniel F. got Moses and Pharaoh mixed up in Exodus 2:10… That was kind of sad, but hey, if you're going to get disqualified, at least do it in style! xP</blockquote>

Yup! That one kind of hurt… but it was pretty funny too! xD "And she named him Pharaoh…"

Yeah, I only knew 21.

Our pictures finally uploaded on the website today. :)

I know… Everyone laughed and groaned at the same time. :P

Nice pictures!! ^Nicolas really should take a new one though…pictures aren't a once in a life time event… xPjk^

Nice pictures!! ^Nicolas really should take a new one though...pictures aren't a once in a life time event... xPjk^

I was hoping somebody would notice that! xP I did it on purpose, you know. :P

Lol, oh I noticed! That's the picture you put up in 2011!! :P Mmm-hmm xP

Nice pictures!! ^Nicolas really should take a new one though...pictures aren't a once in a life time event... xPjk^

I was hoping somebody would notice that! xP I did it on purpose, you know. :P

I noticed too… xP Probably would have mentioned it sometime. What, did you not want people to know how you look at your age?? :P

I keep seeing the Nationals lists get smaller and smaller… :( Out of the original 127 Seniors, 138 Juniors, and 132 Primaries that qualified, I think only 100 Seniors, 106 Juniors and 80 Primaries remain. People sure have been dropping out a lot…

:(

I think it has something to do with the cost as well….

I might be interested in that, Leah! When would we do it, since I would have to talk to my parents about it?

Left you a comment, Courtney on the SC to finish our conversation.

Okey doke. :)

Wow, 40 Primaries dropped out?!?!

52 actually. Surprising, isn't it? Yet when you think of all the work that Mom usually has to do in order to get those kids to study… it sort of makes sense…

Are you basing this on how many pictures aren't up?

No, I'm basing it on how many names aren't up anymore. :) I'm pretty sure that after the registration deadline (which is past now) that they take down the names of the contestants that declined on the National Contestants page.

Oh, ok… So you counted how many there were before September 15?

I guess that explains why some friends I made last year disappeared from the list… I was so disappointed!

Yes, that's right.

Didn't only about 80 Primaries test last year too?

Nice pictures!! ^Nicolas really should take a new one though...pictures aren't a once in a life time event... xPjk^

I was hoping somebody would notice that! xP I did it on purpose, you know. :P

Yeah, I noticed too. xP And my mom thought that was pretty funny….

It's a Memverse running joke. xP

Didn't only about 80 Primaries test last year too?

Yeah, I think so. counts them in the program There's 89. But that means only 32 dropouts last year - there's 52 this year… :\

It is a lot more this year, costwise… :\

Hey guys…
what do you do for the days where nothing wants to stick, or, it takes a long time to memorize something, longer than it usually takes you? I've had that difficulty yesterday and today…ugh. xP

Pray and ask God to help me get it done and for it to stick… And sometimes it's good to take a break…sometimes I just work on it a little, and then come back to it the next day, and that's helped me a lot. I'm sorry about that! x(

Some of what Emily said, and then just, pick easy verses! xP

Oh, yes!! Something else I though of was that, if I've been memorizing verses the same way for a long time (ie. doing the MV learn) I get kinda tired of that and it takes a lot longer to memorize verses. The novelty of switching to something else for a while really helps! :P

That's a good idea too! The MV learn doesn't work for me… :( I wish it did, I liked it when it did work!

Ahh, that's too bad! =(

Didn't only about 80 Primaries test last year too?

Yeah, I think so. *counts them in the program* There's 89. But that means only 32 dropouts last year - there's 52 this year... :\

:-/ You're right though, it's a lot of work on the parents to get little kids to study.

Yeah… x(

Didn't only about 80 Primaries test last year too?

Yeah, I think so. *counts them in the program* There's 89. But that means only 32 dropouts last year - there's 52 this year... :\

That means that it's just the little sibs of the faithful few that end up competing, and they're starting to age out into Juniors now… which essentially means BB is dying.

waaaaaa ;'( ;'( ;'(

Didn't only about 80 Primaries test last year too?

Yeah, I think so. *counts them in the program* There's 89. But that means only 32 dropouts last year - there's 52 this year... :\

That means that it's just the little sibs of the faithful few that end up competing, and they're starting to age out into Juniors now... which essentially means BB is dying.

PESSIMIST! That's not completely true! :P JK Seriously though, most of the Primaries each year are completely new to Bible Bee or at least the Nationals part of it. Going through the Primary national competitors this year, I only recognize like 1/4 or 1/3 of the names from previous years. Bible Bee may be rather small, but I doubt it will fizzle out for a while - you know I think there was an increase in registration this year. :)

EDIT - And it seems like even in Seniors, there's like 15 all-new contestants who are competing at Nationals for the first time. :)

I agree.

"you know I think there was an increase in registration this year. :)"
There actually wasn't…less than 5000 contestants registered. Over 7000 registered in 2013, I think.

"And it seems like even in Seniors, there's like 15 all-new contestants who are competing at Nationals for the first time. :)"
Yay! ;D

Are you sure about that? I looked at the contestant I.D.'s and they went up to like 7700.

Possibly, but we had asked Headquarters how many contestants registered for 2014 and they said somewhere around 4900, I forget the exact number. I could be wrong though…maybe that wasn't the exact number.

Hmm, okay… I wonder what's up with the contestant IDs then…