Meet Brianna Minica, a member of your 2023 Alumni Service Team! Here are a few quick facts about Brianna.
Age: 21- Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
- Fun fact: Brianna has 10 siblings, 5 brothers and 5 sisters. 1 brother-in-law, and an adorable nephew who’s about to turn 1. She also has a rabbit named Biscuit who lives in her room.
- Work and ministry: Brianna currently works full-time as a cake decorator at a cake shop in San Antonio. Talking about her job and service opportunities, she says “Praise Jesus because it is the perfect job to meet my needs and where I am in life right now. I don’t have to bake any of the cakes (though that’s fun too) or deal with any of the customers, I just get to decorate cakes all day and I love it! This fall I am excited to be coaching a 12-15 year old’s volleyball team with my brother, and I also play volleyball with a church group once a week! You might be able to tell I like volleyball. 😉 I’m also hoping to be able to do a lot of studying with my siblings who qualified for NBBC this year.”
- Hobbies and interests: Besides work and serving in several capacities, Brianna also has “many hobbies that I haven’t had a lot of time for the last few months. I love volleyball, which is one of the things I have had time for. I’m creative and love hand lettering and all sorts of artsy stuff. I love cooking and finding new recipes to try. I’m an amateur photographer and have lately been posting a bunch of my photography from trips the past several years to my social media. I love music – listening to it, playing instruments, and singing! I play the piano, flute, and ukulele, and a smattering of a couple more instruments. I love spending time with my family and friends, and loving on my nephew. :)”
- How Brianna describes herself: “I’m very introverted, but I can talk a lot around the people who know me best. I hate small talk, texting, and talking on the phone. I’m a perfectionist, an all-or-nothing person who does things to the extreme or not at all, and I tend to care a little too much about what people think of me.”
- Brianna’s friends describe her as creative, easygoing, and kind-hearted.
Age: 21Hi Brianna, and welcome to the blog! Thanks for telling us about your life and the different ways God has provided for you to use your gifts and talents to serve Him. It’s especially neat that you have so many outlets for your creative passions. In addition to what you mentioned above, you also serve the National Bible Bee as a member of the Alumni Service Team – how did you first hear about NBB and become involved?
Hey y’all!! My mom first found out about NBB through World Magazine, I believe. My 2 older siblings competed in 2009 (the very first year), and then I competed for the first time in 2010, as an 8 year old Primary. I participated in the National Bible Bee for 11 years, from 2010-2020! Unfortunately, in 2009 it was all new and my mom let us choose whether we wanted to compete or not. I opted out, to my later regret, only ending up participating 11 years instead of the full 12 I otherwise could have. I competed at the National Bible Bee Competition 7 times.
Wow, what a gift to be able to participate that long, even if it wasn’t quite the full 12 years! Now that you’ve aged out of the competition, what do you miss most about being able to participate in the NBBC?
The biggest things I miss about competing are: 1) the motivation of the competition to spend that much time studying and memorizing God’s word, and 2) having the time to spend that much time studying and memorizing God’s word.
It certainly is a wonderful opportunity to spend that much time in the Word of God, especially since the stage of life where it’s possible to do so is such a short season. However, just because that stage is short doesn’t mean it isn’t impactful. How did participating back then shape your life now that you’re an alumna?
I really value just the general Bible knowledge (general for a National Bible Bee participant) and skills that I have gained over the years of being involved in NBB for so long. It’s helpful in Bible studies, at church, studying by myself, having the skills to study something and find cross references or look up the original language and meaning of a word, just in so many ways that I take for granted. Since aging out I’ve realized more and more that all of the time I spent in the National Bible Bee studying and memorizing God’s Word was by far the best thing I ever did or could have done growing up and has impacted my life and my walk with Jesus more than any other single thing I could think of.
I also really appreciate all of the ways alumni can be involved in NBB after aging out! It has been so much fun being on the AST now for the second time, and I loved being a judge at NBBC last year. I also started hosting my local group after I aged out 3 years ago, and every summer it is so special to see all the work the kids put in and how much fun they have connecting with other families and studying together.
It’s encouraging to hear how you’ve benefited from the skills you’ve learned through studying Scripture, and how they have impacted your walk with Jesus. I’m sure as you’ve gotten to dig so deeply into Scripture there have been multiple passages that have spoken to you at different times, but would you share a Bible verse or passage you’ve been thinking about lately?
A verse I’ve been meditating on for a while is Psalm 27:5 – “For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.” I imagine all of the hard things in my life. Everything that goes wrong or stresses me out is a giant thunderstorm with wind and lightning and rain and hail. I’m just standing in the middle of the storm being swept away and overwhelmed, soaking wet and injured by the hail and freezing cold. And then I hear Jesus say, ‘Come inside.’ And I realize that right next to me there’s a house, and all I have to do is go inside. So I do. The wind and rain and hail is still there, I can see it outside; it hasn’t gone away. But I’m not scared, because I’m safe inside the house. I’m safe inside his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle.
I love how you applied the imagery of that verse to your own life, drawing comfort from the Lord who gives you peace and shelter in the storms of life! Thank you for giving us a chance to get to know you better by sharing about your life and what you’ve learned through your journey with the National Bible Bee.
Absolutely! Thank you for the excellent questions and the opportunity to share about some of my experiences 🙂
Interview by NBB Alumna: Janese Hurst
