History and present

The origins of the Czech Bible Championship and its connection with Jerusalem

The circumstances surrounding the origins of the Czech Republic Championship in Biblical Knowledge are very interesting. It all began during the Christian Conference held in Prague in the summer of 1998, when one of the guest preachers was Robert Stearns from the USA. After his message he asked everybody who felt in their hearts a burden for Israel and its people to step forward. Between 30-40 people, including my beloved wide Darina and I, responded. Robert had a message for each of us, a prophetic word. He told Darina and I we would become a bridge and a highway between Israel and the Czech Republic. We were shocked, though not by the message itself; for by then we had already visited Israel five times and had made some good friends there. What surprised us was that Robert did not know any of this, as we had never met him before.

A similar atmosphere prevailed at the conference the following day. During his message, Robert asked Darina and I to come forward again, this time just the two of us, and he prayed a blessing over us: that we would fulfill our calling and be established as this "bridge."

This message, and the fact it was delivered in front of all the people attending the event, left us somewhat confused, all the more so when, following this prayer, the pastor of the Prague Christian Fellowship, Dan Drapal, told us that in the autumn we were to go to Jerusalem to attend an international Christian convocation. This was overwhelming; at the time we did not even know what a convocation was!

That September we did indeed attend this convocation. It was a beautiful meeting of Christians from more than 200 countries. Included in the seven-day program were group prayers for each of Jerusalem's Old City gates. Darina and I took the bus to Jaffa Gate where we prayed for the peace for Jerusalem.

After this time of prayer we met a lady who owns an apartment in Jerusalem and who expressed surprise on hearing we were from the Czech Republic as she had wrongly assumed us to be South African. We were surprised in turn when she revealed to us that the ancestors of her American husband came from Czech. Before very long Mrs. Roberta Hromas told us she believed we should hear what she had to tell us. And so, for the first time, we heard from her about the World Bible Championship.

We missed our bus, but this turned out to be the first of many subsequent meetings between us. Roberta told us how it all started: In Israel, there is a long-standing traditional Bible knowledge competition (without the New Testament naturally), whose winner is regarded as a very reputable person. We agreed that studying the Bible and using the Word of God in our everyday life should also be a Christian priority.

Mrs Hromas has been the director of the American Christian Trust for 25 years, and the author of many books, including "'Passport for the Bible" and " 52 ways how to teach your child to pray".

Under Roberta's leadership, the WBC's International Board of Directors produced a publication introducing, together with the convention of the championship, many useful suggestions and rules for the competing teams.

During our last few days in Jerusalem we met several more times, spending a couple of hours together on each occasion. Increasingly we were persuaded that we should start organizing a contest in biblical knowledge in the Czech Republic as a part of the International Bible Championship.

So we returned to Prague with this vision in our minds and began the first practical steps to bring it about. After meeting with the director of the Czech Biblical Society, Dr Jiri Lukl, and the director of the International Bible Society, Jiri Drejnar I invited them to participate in the meeting of the Biblical forum. Express support for the idea of this competition also came from a representative of Scripture Union, Mr. Pavel Tuma. Later, at the invitation of Mr. Tuma, Mr.Vladislav Jech also joined our team. He represents the spiritual education division of The Beavers and Scouts in the Czech Republic. In this way the Steering Committee of the World Bible Championship in the Czech Republic was established, and these same people remain on the committee to this day.

It is rewarding to see participating in the contest each year about 60 competitors from different towns and villages from all parts of the Czech Republic, Moravia and Silesia, representing over 11 denominations.

Apart from the first year of the contest in Kutna Hora in 2000, there were 2 years of the Championship of the Czech Republic in Prague. What do you value the most about this competition?

I appreciate many aspects of it and it is bringing me real joy. But where to start? Maybe from the real beginning: I am happy that the vision conceived in Jerusalem successfully came to birth in the Czech Republic. We apply the same rules for the Czech championship as those being used for the international event, and I think that we are contributing to the treasure of experience. It is interesting that this competition is happening at the moment only here in Czech Republic. I am sure that in the right time this preparation will be helpful also for the other countries. I also value very much the attitude of the competitors, their enthusiasm for the Bible and its message.

I believe that their changed lives will have an impact on many other people outside their closest circles too. I am thankful for our good relationship with the media whereby we are able to fulfill one of the main purposes of the Championship, which is to turn the attention of the people of this country towards the Book of books. I also value the fact that Mr. Petr Pithart became the Championship patron in 2001, 2002 and again this year. He is very interested in the contest (as a matter of interest, after each competition he asked if he could have the questions that we had used); he has always sent a wise greeting address to the competitors and from the start has helped us immensely.

I thank God that our Steering Committee has been working from the beginning of 1999 with the same people and in unity. It is rewarding to be preparing and organizing such event.

During the last year we were delighted and honored to welcome also the Director of the World Bible Championship, Mrs. Roberta Hromas. She visited us for three days, coming all the way from Los Angels right after she had returned from a trip to Tibet just to see the materialization of the vision, which came from and will eventually return to Jerusalem.

Last year I asked the competitors if they would find it appealing if the first prize for the contest this year would be a trip to Israel. To my big joy the majority said yes.

It leads us to the last question: what is the connection in between the Championship of the Czech Republic in the Bible knowledge and with the International Festival of the Czech-German-Jewish culture Nine Gates with this year motto: Dialogue Prague - Jerusalem?

I think it is not difficult to answer that. Just as Jewish culture connects the above-mentioned cultures, so too the Bible connects Jews and Christians in the Old and New Testaments. The Bible was created on Israeli territory. We have got the same God and we have very close values together with the Jews.

We have also taken into account that many people in the past - and nowadays too - are unaware of this essential biblical truth.

That is why we would like within the Festival to start a dialogue between the Jewish and Christian communities in the lectures that will take place during the event under the title "Today's reality in Israel from a biblical perspective". One speaker was Mr. Stan Goodenough from Jerusalem and the other was Mr.Mojmir Kallus from Prague.

We also symbolized the connection between the two events by presenting the winners of the 3rd Championship of the Czech Republic in Biblical Knowledge with their prizes during the Gala Opening of the Festival Nine Gates. It is also important to remember that the Festival helped us significantly with the realization of the first prize - organizing the trip for winning team of four to Israel. And we must mention that Mr. Petr Pithart, President of the Senate of the Czech Republic, was once again the patron of both the Championship and the Festival.

We believe that links like this can gradually enrich both events and add to them another dimension useful for all. In this way we will enjoy the fruits from the tree that grows from the same roots and which is watered by mutual understanding and love.

This last reply closed the interview published in the Mana magazine before the 3rd Championship of the Czech Republic in the Knowledge of the Bible in 2003.

What has happened since then?

I will try to give a brief description of those great many things.

The year 2004 is gone. It was the first year over the four preceding years that the Championship of the Czech Republic in the Knowledge of the Bible did not take place. In 2003 we reached a certain peak. Together with the Czech-German-Jewish Culture Festival we managed to send the winning team for a journey to Israel and also to invite Stan Goodenough, an important Christian journalist, from Jerusalem over to the Czech Republic for a discussion about the current situation in Israel from the Biblical perspective. The awarding of the first prize mentioned above to the winning team, which took place in the Valdštejnské Garden, and the subsequent public testimony of all of the team members describing their relation to the Bible was an achievement crowning the mission of the Championship just as the subsequent official reception of the winning team by Mr. Uri Lupolianski, the Mayor of Jerusalem.

You can imagine how difficult all this was. - We had to stop for a moment to consider in prayers the way to go on.

Thank God we got the strength and blessing to carry on with the vision that we received in 1998.

The composition of the Steering Committee has changed the Committee being joined by the Czech branch of the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ). Also, there have been changes in the management structure. These changes involved, among other, the creation of a project team gathering ideas and bringing them to existence while being responsible to the Steering Committee. The dialogue mentioned in the above interview and the cooperation with the Jewish community are also translated into a closer link to the Czech branch of the corporation KKL, which is involved in land reclamation and in the plantation of new trees in Israel.

This year's Championship in the Knowledge of the Bible will be taking place on Saturday, September 17 in the Conference Hall of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. It is a unique place. The organization of the Championship of the Czech Republic in these premises has a special symbolism. Traditionally, it is organized together with and under the auspices of JUDr. Petr Pithart, 1st Vice-Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The Championship, which will be taking place in the morning, will be followed by an afternoon gathering organized in the premises adjacent to the Senate under the provisional name "Joy from the Bible". Besides the traditional ceremony linked with the presentation of prizes to the winning teams, the afternoon program will include also performances expressing the joy springing from the title of the afternoon mentioned above.

The first or second prize for the winning team is going to be a bit untraditional, about an hour-long sightseeing flight over Bohemia. This is what we can guarantee already. Another very interesting prize is starting to be negotiated with sponsors. If the negotiations are successful, it would take the place of the first prize. If you have an idea of who could be a sponsor, let us know, together we would talk about the steps to take.

So this is the current situation that fills us with joyful expectations.

We like to remember the truly ecumenical character of these championships and their joyful atmosphere - the mutual link among His children united through love and enthusiasm for the Word of God.

Ing. Karel Sedláček
Chairman of the Steering Committee