More News

Joe Currie's voice cracked with every word he spoke. His 13-year-old voice, still between childhood and adulthood, strengthened and matured when his mother, Kathy, asked him to name his favorite Bible passage.

"Psalm 103:8 to 18," the Germantown teen said.

"It's about the Lord's mercy," said Currie, a finalist in the inaugural National Bible Bee Contest. "When you think about the Lord's mercy, he forgives and forgets."

Currie and Jedidiah Olson, 10, of Montgomery Village, are among the 100 youth who will compete in the inaugural bible bee in Washington, D.C., next month. The two, along with a Clear Spring, Md., teen, advanced from a Bible bee at Central Baptist Church in Derwood, said coordinator Duelene Olson, Jedidiah's mother.

Contestants will compete in categories divided by age. The top senior winner wins $100,000 and the junior and primary winners will receive $50,000 and $25,000 respectively, said Dr. Ron Barnes, theological editor for the National Bible Bee.

Mark Rasche, director of the California-based National Bible Bee Contest, said the bee was inspired by Shelby Kennedy, who died in 2005. Kennedy could memorize Bible passages, he said. An anonymous donor to The Shelby Kennedy Foundation wanted to start the bee in her honor, Rasche said.

"There are thousands of children around the country studying to spell words correctly for a national spelling bee," Rasche said. "We figured it would be great to have them study the word of God in a competition."

Olson and Currie dedicate at least an hour a day to studying Bible passages in preparation for the bee, a drop from three and four hours in the summer. The two home schooled finalists have unique ways for studying hundreds of passages: Olson uses study cards while Currie uses his photographic memory.

"We've been teaching our children to memorize the Bible," said Kathy Currie, pastor at Relevant Life Ministries in Germantown. "We feel that's important. When I was growing up, that was something we had to do and we want our children to know the Bible as well."

Joe Currie has been doing Bible quizzes since he was 7-years-old and began learning scripture even earlier.

"It's pretty intense. I don't think I could do it," Kathy said. "I wouldn't have prompted him to enter the competition if I didn't think he could do it."

Olson has been learning about the Bible and "everything else," since age 2, his mother said. His older sister, Hannah, 19, a sophomore at Bob Jones University in South Carolina, tutored Jedidiah this summer.

At a recent Awana club meeting at Central Baptist Church in Rockville, where the Olson family worships, Olson said making the finals "wasn't easy at all." Awana is a worldwide organization for children from 2-years-old to 18 that teach them to know, love and serve Jesus Christ, Duelene said.

"I'm pretty excited about being a finalist. I had to study pretty hard to make it to the finals," Olson said. "It takes a long time to learn the passages."