One of our fun nights in fall 2023 for our youth group was to run an escape room. I’m sure that the youth would have been so excited to be locked in a room and told they had to escape, but there might have been some issue with that, (think safety policy) so when we hosted an escape room we focused more on the code breaking and moving through the church looking for clues and, of course, a big prize at the end. Thanks to discounted Halloween candy, we were able go the extra mile filling a piñata with great stuff.
For the night, I purchased an escape room kit from online and decided to use the support of Google forms to give the kids a little more technology and independence while checking if codes were correct. We started off the night looking for the first clue in the sanctuary. I had no idea that a wine bottle filled with the first clue could hide so well, even in plain sight. Once it was found, they were off to solve the mystery of the pirates’ quest finding their way through the “beaches and caves” throughout the rooms in the church.
There were a few challenging clues, but it was a lot of fun for the kids. One of our kids who is pretty good at solving puzzles finished before everyone else and even though he finished the whole thing, I gave him one final challenge, to find the piñata. He looked and never found it even when all the kids had caught up to him. Next time you need to hide a piñata, try wrapping it in a coat and hanging it on a coat rack. It worked wonders for us.
When all the candy was gathered up and it was time to snack, we shared a devotion together. Honestly, there are so many people in the Bible who escaped difficult situations with the help of God. We focused on how Peter was able to escape from jail with the help of an angel in Acts 12. As we talked, we were able to reflect on the things that God helps us escape and it does not have to be a big or miraculous story like some of the ones that we see in the Bible. God can show up in small and seemingly insignificant moments too. God is there to love us and meet us wherever we are and help us find something amazing with Him.
Submitted by: Tina Rae
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