This is a great game that we have done a few times with our youth group. It is called Persecution Night. It is like a big game of tag, here’s how it works out. First off, we set the stage with a newsletter that went out, explaining that they were Christians who were being persecuted, but they did not want to give up meeting, so they each have cell groups, they go around and meet together. We also had a video that we had made to try and get the kids excited about it. Make sure you give each kid a bunch of flyers to hand out to their friends. Tell the kids to dress in dark, black clothes.
You will need many adults to help pull this game off. Once the adults get there meet with them and tell them their roles, while someone else is in the other room explaining it to the kids. The kids goals are to get around to each “safe house” without being caught by the police and the double agents. Another trick to this game is that they are not given the exact location of the next “safe house” just a clue and a password. They have to know the password to get into the “safe house”(they can’t be caught when in a safe house) At the end there is a big celebration that they are trying to get to!! Have chips and food and a devotion then. The kids will have a great time. Make it an event which lasts about 4 hours, maybe longer (it needs to be dark to play)!
Romans 8:28
Isaiah 41:10
The First Shall be Last and The Last Shall be First
Roles needed
1) Safe house attendents- adults who sit in the woods and give out clues and passwords to kids. They will need to mark a piece of paper to prove that the kids actually came there. The kids have to go in order to the different safe houses.
2) Jailer- This is where kids can be taken if they are caught. The jailer can “torture” them as much as you want (have the jailer dress up and look scary, make a scary jail, use black lights, whatever you want) They jailer can make the kids hold up books in their hands while squirting water in their face, he can do pretty much whatever he wants. We play that once the kids are in jail, they can try and escape (but if they are caught, then the torture will be much much worse).
3) Secret Police- They go around and try and capture kids. Once the kids are captured, they can torture the kids (make them do push ups, whatever they can think up). The police can be as mean as they want (they can scream at the kids, ask them if they believe in God, etc…) Adults are the secret police
4) Double Agents- Each time there is a few double agents. The are kids within the group who are on the “bad” side. They have a little card in their hand. They can capture kids, by showing them their card, but a double agent cannot capture a whole group, they have to get someone alone to capture them. Allow the kids who you choose to be double agents to make the choice on if they want to capture people or not. What I mean by that is, if someone is a double agent they don’t have to capture people.
5) Christians- Most of the kids will be Christians who are trying to get to the end celebration.
6) Also have some adults just walking around to ensure everything is going ok. They aren’t police or anything.
More rules
– Capture of the Christians is your own choice. Meaning if you want the police to actually tag them, then it can be that way. We told the kids that they had to listen to the police if they said they had captured them (the police were told a certain distance 5 feet, 10 feet, whatever that they had to be within to consider them captured.)
– The secret police may have flashlights, the safe houses may have flashlights. But NONE of the kids may have flashlights!
– A kids must have all check marks checked from each safe house to get into the last destination
– You can make the clues and passwords whatever you want. Though it is cool to make the passwords a verse or something like that.
– You can do a devotion about fear or persecution and ask them how they felt when they were playing the game.
– This game is best played in the dark, over a big area (we use about 20 acres probably, give or take a little).