Footsteps of Service Game

Friday:	Footsteps of Service
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Footsteps of Service: we should serve God by serving others.
Memory Verse:	Philippians 2:4

Age Groups:

• elementary
• teens

Equipment Needed:

• clothesline
• clothespins
• 3x5 cards with service activities written on them, in two categories
• buckets (labeled)
• chairs
• blindfolds
• extra shoes (decoys)

Preparation:

Hang the service cards on a line with clothespins, near where the kids will be. Set up two sets of buckets or containers for them to sort the cards into, with the labels facing the kids. These can be arbitrarily far apart, depending on how far you want to make the kids run. Set up the chairs in a circle, with one chair for each pair of kids, with the chairs facing inward. Place some decoy shoes in the middle. Place a blindfold on each chair.

Instructions:

Explain that the goal of this game is to get service cards for your team, and sort them into the correct bucket. Show each team their pair of buckets, and explain the sorting criteria. (There are two options here: you can either have them sort activities that are services from activities that are not services; or you can have them sort services that involve donating your time from services that involve donating money and goods.)

Then tell them how to get the cards: each team will be split up into pairs, and from each pair one person will sit on a chair, and the partner will be blindfolded and stand in front of their partner inside the circle. The seated partner will remove one shoe and toss it into the middle of the circle. The leader then scrambles the shoes.

When the whistle is blown, the blindfolded partners must attempt to locate the seated partners' shoes and replace them on their feet. (Tying is not required, unless you want to make things hard for the teens.) The seated partner can give instructions and suggestions to help the blindfolded partner locate the shoe, but the seated partner must remain in the chair at all times and may not use their hands to help. (Blindfolded people are not permitted to throw any shoes outside the circle.)

As soon as each pair of kids has finished putting the shoe back on, the blindfold may be removed, and they may choose a service card from the line and proceed to decide which bucket it goes in, run to that bucket, and drop it in. While running, they must both hold on to the card the whole time. When they finish, they return to the circle and switch places, and put on the blindfold. Once the first person is back and has the blindfold on, the whistle is blown and everyone who doesn't have a card yet must stop, so that you can go to the next round. (Those who have a card can finish sorting it.) Once everyone has the blindfolds on, the new seated partners take off a shoe and the next round starts. When time is nearly up, check the sorted buckets, and discard any that are sorted incorrectly. The team with the most correctly-sorted cards wins.