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From spelling Bible terms to sword drills and quizzes, several students recently took part in the Bible Spelling Bee.
Semilore, Peniel, and Abimbola from Redeemed Christian Church of God, House of Victory, were on the winning team.
When asked why he participated in the Spelling Bee, Semilore said he wanted a challenge. "I wanted to give myself a challenge to see how good I was."
Peniel participated in the sword drills and wanted to represent his church well. "I joined so I could represent my church and show that I could do it well."
While sword drills are nothing new for him, he was excited to have the opportunity to participate. "Sometimes in church we have this meeting with a different church, we do games and have fun and learn about God. A common game there is a sword drill."
By participating in the Bible quiz section, Abimbola wanted to test her Bible knowledge skills. "It was good because I was able to get questions right, Glory be to God."
While the quiz component was easier than she was expecting, she had fun participating in it. "It was a very good first experience. Now I've learned new lessons about Paul and some of his letters to the Corinthians, and studying that helped me really zero in on those lessons, now I've picked up something from those chapters."
Pastor Stella from Redeemed Christian Church of God, House of Victory, has been able to watch and see how the students have grown in their faith since participating and was excited about the opportunity. "I jumped at the competition when I heard about it because the children in church have been going through reading one chapter of the Scripture every day. They completed reading the New Testament in 2024 and have started to read the Old Testament. They've been having quizzes during the church services."
Titus Olukitibi is the founder and CEO of Raising the Foundations of Generations Inc. and said that while there was a winner, he wanted to encourage participants to work together. "Part of our vision is unity among the body of Christ, especially in Winnipeg. One of the strategies we used to accomplish this was to organize an activity where all of the churches that came for the competition were mixed."
Teams would work on an activity based on a character from the Bible. "It was in line with the theme of the program, which was 'Solid Foundation.' The students came together and came up with lessons that they had learnt previously," Olukitibi said.
He said one group looked at Moses, one at Samuel, and one at David. "They took lessons from the Bible character that they could use in their life that encourages a solid foundation in Christ Jesus. The beauty of this event was that all of the churches from different places worked together as a team to learn the Word of God."