Wednesday, October 17, 2012

WHILE AT ST PAUL chapter 166


The South Pacific District quiz team was made up of John, Jim, Richard and Bonnie from the Long Beach Church.

Paraphrased comments from a SPD quizzer:
The uniform was a blue short sleeve his/her knit shirt. They have a photo of me (Clyde) in the same shirt, but wearing a Canadian hat. I must have had mixed loyalties, Maybe! But I put that hat on after the South Pacific team was eliminated. There were some CMD quizzers that I had connection with. I still felt connected to Canada and was planning to go back in another year. Sorry!
The quizzer has a picture of "Bert the man that ran the quiz seats and score board. Also one of Richard Mehl and an Asian American (from Rosemont CA) holding out their arms towards Bert's hearse - in the back it reads "Don't wait for the hearse to take you to church". He hauled all his equipment around in that hearse.
 Another picture shows a blond Caucasian, slight build, shorter - also in our uniform.  He, Bonnie, and Richard are sitting in front of a green-board that says (in white chalk) "SLOW DOWN".  I recall that was your advice to the team. Perhaps that young teen was also from Rosemont CA?
PS errors were killing us.

While in St. Paul I spent time with Dan Rinker, the International Youth Director, It was at competitions in 1970 when Dan first approached me about writing a manual for quiz coaches. I just didn’t see myself as a writer. But he thought I could do it because I had just won our second International Quiz Championship in a row. I also had a tremendous amount of input regarding the rules. He hit me up again to tackle the project after we won out third International Quiz Championship in 1971. By then I was also getting the occasional letter on the subject
Dan brought this issue up again at LIFE in ’72. I put him off then since I did not have a quiz team. He didn’t care. My name was becoming synonymous with C&MA quizzing and he believed I had the experience and authority to write to book. I hemmed and hawed and never gave an answer. So when He approached me at the 1973 championships we talked seriously about how that might be accomplished.
By that time I was trying to figure out how to kill two birds with one stone. To get my masters, that I would begin that fall, I was going to have to write a thesis. We talked about the possibly of my thesis being a manual for Bible Quizzing. I really didn’t know if it could be done. I didn’t know how they would respond to a thesis based on Bible Quizzing. I would have a challenge trying to prove the primary focus was Bible knowledge and application above competition. We talked about things that should be included and I promised I would try to tackle it. Besides, I had no other idea for a thesis.
I also spent time with Dr. David Rambo, then president of Canadian Bible College. I would be joining a Christian Education staff as the third member of the team. Bob Rose was chairman of the department and the other member was Norma Bailey. We discussed possible courses I could teach and how I might fit in. I was open to anything. The only thing for sure was that I would teach Youth Ministry. I got more and more excited as we talked, but still wondered if I had the ability to teach at all. I did not share that fear with Dave.
I did not discuss any of these things with the SPD quiz team. However, I shared some with Bill and Faith. They knew I was returning to CBC when my education was completed. The whole church knew our plans, but there was no point dragging my hopes and reams in front of the kids. Della and I still wanted to be all there until we left.

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