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 | Jonathan’s Resource Ezine |
Weekly Resources, Ideas and Articles from The Source for Youth Ministry
Tuesday, April 25, 2000
| In This Issue |
- Keep the Crowd’s Attention: A Few Cell Phone Ideas
- Reaching “Jessica”: A Phone Call From the Beach of LA
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| Keep the Crowd’s Attention: A Few Cell Phone Ideas |
April 25, 2000
Let’s face it, when you run an event with a large crowd, it’s hard to find activities that involve everyone, and don’t lose half of the audience. How do you keep an entire crowd’s attention without distracting from the purpose of the event.
I have found a few games and activities that have never failed me in this large crowd scenario (see the link below). Here’s a few of them:
Cell Phone Pizza Challenge:
Find two local pizza places that deliver. During the beginning of the evening, divide the crowd in two and bring up a representative from each side. Hand each representative a cell phone and phone # of two competing pizza places. Have them each order a large pizza, tell the delivery person the situation, and that there’s a $20 tip for the one that arrives first. Clearly announce to the crowd which pizza place is coming for each team.
As you are continuing your program, one side of the room will erupt into applause when a pizza driver comes in representing their side of the room. Interview the deliverer and give him the $20 tip in front of the crowd. (You can then have up front games lined up where winners get a piece of pizza.)
Cell Phone Challenge:
This is a cool little cell phone game idea. Have someone hidden in the crowd with a cell phone on. You have another phone up front with the number of the other cell phone programmed into it. Bring up a kid from the audience, dial the other phone, hand him the phone and tell him to find the other one as fast as he can. Have a prize ready if he finds the phone.
Hints: Test the room to make sure that cell phones work. Also, most cell phones will only ring four times and then go to voice mail . . . so get one without voice mail or tell the kid to hit END and redial again every four rings.
Check out more great up-front crowd games on Jonathan’s “Games for Large Crowds” Page:
NOW YOU CAN ADD GAMES ON ALL JONATHAN’S GAME PAGES!
JUST CLICK THE “ADD GAME” BUTTON ON THE PAGE!
| Reaching “Jessica” A Phone Call From the Beach of LA |
April 25, 2000
Lori is a woman who came on my staff at the beginning of this past school year and, since then, has poured much of her life into an 8th grade girl named “Jessica.” I never heard Lori cry until Jessica and I called her a couple of weeks ago from a beach in Southern California.
We first saw Jessica when she walked into the Center Jr. High cafeteria to our Campus Life outreach last Fall. The way she dressed, talked, and carried herself . . . she was craving attention. Lori started spending time with Jessica. Jessica came from a broken home. Her father was in and out of jail and her mother was in rehab, so Jessica and her sisters lived with their grandmother. The girls call the grandmother “Momma,” but they have never had someone to call “Daddy.”
Jessica and her seventh grade sister signed up to go on our Easter break trip to Los Angeles (Many of you remember me sharing about our crisis with the canceled charter buses for this trip- God brought us buses and did much more!) They started selling candy bars, saving money, and doing our fund-raising work days. Even though Lori couldn’t go on this trip, we were excited that both jr. high sisters would be attending because we knew it provided many opportunities to share the Gospel with them.
The trip did just that. Throughout the week I had four of my volunteer staff share their stories of how Christ had changed their lives. Every night we met in small groups and students read stories right out of the four Gospels and discussed them. Each small group gave a clear Gospel presentation, allowing students an opportunity to respond. Then I presented the Gospel to the whole group on the last night, giving an invitation for students to begin a relationship with Christ. Out of 80 students, the majority of them unchurched, 23 students made first time decisions for Christ . . . Jessica was one of them.
It was Wednesday that Jessica walked up to me on the beach with Silja, one of my volunteer staff. Silja said, “Jessica has something to tell you.”
Jessica looked down at the sand. “I gave my life to Jesus.”
I didn’t make it easy for her. Reinforcing her understanding of what she had just done, I asked, “How did you do that?”
“I prayed for him to forgive my sins and I told him I wanted a relationship with him.” I gave her a hug, dialed Lori on my cell phone (thanks to AT&T’s one rate plan), and handed the phone to Jessica. With her toes buried in wet sand and the setting sun reflecting off the ocean, Jessica told Lori the commitment she had made.
When she finished telling Lori the good news, she handed me back the phone. Lori was crying. “I just was praying for her this morning.” Then Lori said something I’ll never forget. “Now she finally has a father.”
Jessica and her sister both gave their lives to Christ last week along with 21 others. Praise God for his work in the lives of needy students and for being a father to the fatherless.
Jonathan McKee
Jonathan McKee is the author of over twenty books including the brand new The Guy's Guide to FOUR BATTLES Every Young Man Must Face; The Teen’s Guide to Social Media & Mobile Devices; If I Had a Parenting Do Over; and the Amazon Best Seller - The Guy's Guide to God, Girls and the Phone in Your Pocket. He speaks to parents and leaders worldwide, all while providing free resources for youth workers on TheSource4YM.com. Jonathan, his wife Lori, and their three kids live in California.