Day 239

today we went to denver. after 12 weeks of working hard, my brother finally had his local bible bee competition. over the past twelve weeks my brother has memorized 500 verses. he also studied at least one book of the bible in depth. when he went to denver today he had to take a 200 question test (i think it was 200 questions) and he also had to say 25 random passages (usually about 3-10 verses in each passage, i believe)  to a couple of judges. after all of this (which the family and friends were all quarantined in another room so that they couldn't try to help, or cheat for someone etc...) there was a public contest (one that we could watch). it was like a spelling bee except for it was verses... aka the bible bee. There were three groups... younger kids, middle aged kids (12- 15 or so, which is the one Jonathan was in) and seniors (15- 18 or so?) There were about 30 kids in each group... for the bible bee part only the top five scorers on the written and oral test (which was earlier today) in each group would compete in the bible bee. to my family's amazement, Jonathan made the top 5. this was amazing, especially considering that he made it even while he was competing with other kids who had family who would sit with them and help them 3 hours a day.... while Jonathan did it all completely on his own. since my dad was gone for 2 months over the summer, and my mom has been busy packing and getting ready to move, they had no time to help him. overall he got fifth place in his group, and we are so proud of him! he is such a brilliant child! he may or may not make it to the national competition. if he does make it he has to learn 200 more verses and he has to remember the 500 that he learned this summer. if he does make it my parents will be making a trip with him to tennessee in november if he wants to compete.

this picture isn't the best. but i'll blame it on the lighting, and me still getting used to a new camera :) 

on another note, i found this kid here last night. 

anything is a toy to him :)