Photo Challenge

Last night at youth group we began our evening with an ice breaker like normal. I picked photos from the 'what's the word' app and created a short version of the game for our teenagers. I randomly assigned teams as people walked into the room and then I projected the 4 images and had the appropriate amount of blanks listed at the bottom of the screen. Kids raised their hands and I called on them to guess the solution. It worked well, I wish I had made more than 10 images.

After our joys and concerns I asked the kids to stay in their same group while we participated in a photo challenge. Nothing too big, just a list of 20 words and a few instructions: must stay together as a group, only submit 20 photos, someone from the group should be in each photo, props must be returned unharmed after use, time limit to return in 30 minutes. Then the teams spread out across the building snapping photos.

* A quick note about cameras. I have several youth cameras. I collect them. whenever someone doesn't want a digital camera, I ask for it. And since our communications team has been through several camera transitions, and I've had a few more donated, I do have several cameras that use. they are definitely not all equal, but they work!

As we regathered I explained that our photos that we just snapped would be used to create our own version of 'what's the word' that I posted this morning on facebook and emailed links to parents. The pictures are okay, but grouped together they look great.

Then we settled into a quick Bible story where I walked the students through the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. I used lots of images and projected short snippets from the text. it was okay, but I definitely should have read through my script once more. I was a little shaky, but I think the spirit intervened and provoked our kids into really good discussions in small groups about resurrection and our resurrection at the end times.