With thoughts of Cinderella, football players, and nerds (my three younger’s costumes) cavorting through my head with mini chocolate bars (especially the Crunch bars and Milky Ways) and State High football (still undefeated), I write today.  It’s FRIDAY!  Whee! 

I don’t know why I’m so happy about that, especially since this has been a football/cheerleading practice-free week.  I think I’m excited because tonight, while TGD stays home to pass out the candy and after I drive the older two to the football game, I get to spend the evening with my friend and go shopping for clothes and shoes and then stop at Starbuck’s for a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.  Then, Saturday night, TGD invited me out on a date–dinner at the restaurant of my choosing and a movie.  I’d like to see the new Kiera Knightley one, The Duchess of Devonshire, even though I’ve not read the biography yet.

Speaking of movies, the younger three and I headed out to see High School Musical 3. Yes, I liked it. I wanted to clap after every song because I felt like I was watching a high school musical. The song about Prom night, A Night to Remember is a real hoot. Here’s a Youtube link for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14iQM_ZrCXI. 

These
clues and rules are specific to our church, so you will have to adjust.
Each team is given the same copy of the Bible so that the cryptic clues
will work.   The verse I had the kids solve is 2 Timothy 2:15:  Study
to show yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be
ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. The verses I chose for
the clues are verses that might help in the game, verses which dealt
specifically with the temptations they were facing that evening.  But,
the verses they looked up would not give them much of a clue to the
final verse as I had them looking up the prepositions and random words
in the 2 Timothy verse.  Then, the last clue gave them a list of all
the rest of the words. (I didn’t want the game to go on forever or be
too tedious!)

I’ll let you know how the game went in a later
post, Lord willing.  And, yes. This game did take a lot of time to plan
and set up.  Those verses in baggies alone took me an hour to print,
cut, figure out the order, and hide around the church grounds!

Spiritual Warfare
Instructions

The goal of the game is to
find all the clues and solve the puzzle at the end.  There are six locations where you will find
clues to a mystery verse. The next location will also be given as a puzzle.  The team who deciphers the mystery
verse—including reference—in the shortest amount of time with the fewest
burdens will win. You are not required to get clues from all six locations to
win the game.

·       
Divide into
groups of six or so. It is fine for friends to be in groups together.  Your team will have a number. Remember your
team’s number!

·       
Each team will
get one or two flashlights and the same copy of the Bible. You may not take any
other Bible with you, nor may you take any electronic device which will allow
you to search the Bible for verses or a Bible concordance.

·       
Each team will
get a copy of the first location clue. 
Your team must work together to figure out the clue and head to the
correct location.

·       
When you get to
the location, look around for a bag containing the clues. It is a brown paper
bag.

·       
Remove from the
bag the baggie with your team’s number on it. 
Inside, you will find the clue to the next location and part of the
verse puzzle.

·       
All members of
the team MUST stay together. The only exception is a bathroom break. Then, boys
and girls may use the appropriate gender facilities while the opposite gender
waits for them right next to the water fountain.

Sound easy?

·       
While you are
searching for clues, people will be hiding in wait for you. They are the
tempters.

·       
If any member of
your team gets a flashlight shone on them or if a flashlight flashes in your
direction (blink, blink), you MUST stop and go to the tempter.

·       
The tempter will
present you with a situation. Your team needs to identify what sort of
temptation is being presented. Remember, temptations can be subtle. After
identifying the temptation, your team must work together to refute the
temptation with scripture or Christian thinking based on scripture.  (You cannot use 1 Corinthians 10:13 over and
over.)  You may use the provided Bible to
look up scriptures.

·       
If you are able
to refute the temptation, the tempter will let you go on. If you cannot refute
or argue with each other or take too long or whatnot, the tempter can give your
team a burden (or more than one burden depending on how your team responded).   We will keep track of which teams have
burdens, so don’t try to pretend you don’t have one.

·       
A tempter can
stop the same team more than once. But, they don’t have to.

·       
If you are able
to hide from the tempters and avoid them, it’s fine. But, if a light shines on
you from a tempter’s flashlight (or if they call you by name!) then you MUST
stop! The whole group MUST stop! It is possible to play the game without ever
being stopped by a tempter.

·       
If a tempter sees
a group which is not all together (some are in the parking lot, some are in the
church, for example), he or she can also give a burden to the group.

·       
The faster you
are able to refute the temptation, the sooner you will be able to move on in
the game.

How do we win?

·       
When your team
has all six puzzle clues for the verse, find a location where you can all sit
down together and figure things out.  You
are allowed to be in the church or outside for this point. Tempters can come up
to you if they want, but if you can prove to them that you have all six puzzle
clues, they will leave you alone. (Therefore, just sitting down in the middle
of the game will not grant you immunity from tempters.)  If you feel you can solve the puzzle before
you get all six clues, go for it. But, if a tempter catches you, you are NOT
immune since you can’t show all six locations were found.

·       
Once you have
solved the verse and have the reference, too, your whole team needs to come
into the nursery. You will find someone there with a piece of paper. You will
tell the person your team number, the verse, and the reference.  The verse does not need to be memorized. Only
one person from the team needs to say the verse. If you are correct, the person
in the nursery will write down the time you came into the room and the number
of burdens your team has.

·       
Each burden adds
five minutes to your score.  So, if you
did the course and solved the puzzle in 35 minutes, but you had 4 burdens, you
would have a time of 55.  (35 + (4 x 5) =
35 + 20 = 55) If someone else did the course in 50 minutes with no burdens,
that team would beat the other team.

What if I have questions
during the game?

·       
Once you have
been tempted, the tempter turns into a helper. (No, this is not scriptural at
all. We just don’t have that many people helping!)  Feel free to ask the former tempter your
questions or for help in solving the clue location riddles.  They will have the answers to the location puzzles,
but not to the final verse puzzle.

General Rules

·       
Do not go into
the road, either the Park Forest one or Valley
Vista.

·       
Do not get into
any cars, even if it seems like a great place to work out your final puzzle.

·       
Do not fall prey
to any temptations that would cause the wrath of Bastian or Sellers to fall
upon you.  Remember, REFUTE temptation.
Don’t go looking for it behind the bushes for a few minutes.

·       
Put away your
cell phones. If we see you texting, calling, or fiddling with your cell and
determine that it was not a vital reason for it, we will take your phone and
give your team a burden.  Put the phone
away for an hour. You can do it. I know you can.

·       
Don’t be
obnoxiously loud.  You are in Park Forest. There are no bears. (Well, except for that
one time…) There is no reason for shrieking.

·       
Be really
careful. Don’t twist an ankle. Don’t clothesline yourself on the volleyball
net. Be wise!

·       
Running is not a
good idea. Stealth is better. Do you want to be the cause of someone breaking
an ankle because you thought it would be a good idea to run in the dark? Huh?

The Location Clues (the kids only got the verses, of course)

Location Clue–Mailbox

Proverbs 25:25

Colossians 4:16

Location Clue—Front Porch
Light

Revelation 3:20

Revelation 18:23

Location Clue—Water Fountain

John 4:14

James 3:11

Location Clue—Volleyball Net

Exodus 27:5

John 21:6

Psalm 35:7

Location Clue—Fence by the
Merry Christmas Sign

Luke 2

Isaiah 9:6

Psalm 62:3

Location Clue–Piano

Psalm 150:4

Ephesians 5:19

To Figure Out the Verse  (there were more than just two, but you get the idea)

Puzzle Clue

152–2–31–1–B

467–1–63–2–A

As much as I enjoyed your replies, it wasn’t really a vote. You can do that on November 4th.  I know it wasn’t the stomach flu. And, I just don’t think it’s #3 either.  It was just one of those flukes. (But, I’ll let you know if something else…comes up.)

I’ve been busy all evening working on a game for tomorrow night’s Youth Group. It’s taken me a bit of work, but I hope it will be worth it.  The game is called Spiritual Warfare. The kids are divided up into teams of six or so and are given a Bible, a flashlight, and a mystery clue (several Bible verses) to find the location of their next clue. Also, they will find cryptic clues at each location for a Bible verse. To win the game, they must correctly identify the Bible verse and reference in the shortest amount of time.

But, it’s not as easy as it sounds. While they are dashing about in the dark searching for clues, there are people hidden all around, and those people are Tempters. When a group is stopped by a Tempter, they are presented with a temptation in the form of a situation or story. They have to refute the temptation using scripture or Christian reasoning based on scripture.  If they cannot refute the temptation, they are given a burden by the Tempter. 

In the original game I played at camp this summer, the burdens were backpacks full of rocks, having a team member blindfolded, etc.  However, we just played a game a few weeks ago with consequences similar to those, so I changed things.  The team just gets a paper plate hung around the neck and five minutes added to their final time. 

I get to be a Tempter. Mwah ha ha. 

As of this weekend, Gockle’s football team, the State College High School football team, and Penn State’s football team are all undefeated.  I, however, might be down for the count soon. Why?  I was innocently eating a handful of Dots (those gummy candy things I love) when I was struck with a violent wave of nausea and dashed to the bathroom with the expected results.  Now I feel fine. What does this mean?

1.  I had a strange reaction to an overdose of sugar at 11:30 in the morning.
2.  I am getting the stomach flu which has hit at least one of the girls on my cheerleading squad.
3.  I will have a very fat July.

I’m voting for option one. It’s a busy day today, and I no longer own stretch pants.

P.S.  If you don’t have any other plans for Saturday, feel free to come to the cheerleading competition at the Bellefonte High School from 10:00 to 2:00.  You are all invited to watch Little Miss, LibbyK, and more perform the routines they’ve worked so hard on.  Well, Andrew’s not invited, but everyone else is.  (grin)

So, whatcha’ doing this weekend? It’s lined up to be a good one for me.  We slept in shamefully late and did some chores. Then, Wit finally got to open his birthday presents. He always drags it out and makes such funny comments that it’s a good time.

What would you like to do today?

A) Go for a walk in the gorgeous sunshine surrounded by glorious fall leaves?

D) Watch a cat literally run under the back tires of the truck in front of you and then ask the lady who was singing as she swept her driveway if that kitty was hers? (And it was. And it was dead, poor thing. But not bloody.) 

I was not there.  I was obliviously watching Little Miss cheerleading less than one mile from the spot.  I only found out afterward when Little Miss and I were out walking the dog and one of her eight-year-old buddies came running out to us saying, “I got to shake Sarah Palin’s hand today!”

Well, it had to happen. I forgot to pick up a child. Thankfully, it was Hunter, and he can catch the bus home. But, it will make him an hour late for his job at the after school day care. So, I’m going to go fill in for him! (I found out I forgot him at 2:35, and he has to be to work at 3:00, and the trip to and from the high school is 50 minutes or so, and he can get the bus after school and be to work at 4:00, so it’s easier for me to go in his place since the day care is two minutes from my house). That’s what happens when you are too filled with joy that another activity got canceled on such a gorgeous, sunny, fall day.