This is quite a physical game that requires some contact but is a lot of fun.
Numbers: groups of around 6 or over. Works best with around 20
Suitable for: older children and teens (8-18’s) although many adults enjoy this too!
Preparation time: none
Venue: suitable for a small hall or area
Safety First: this game involves people knocking into each other, so has a slight risk of injury (although we’ve never had a problem). If you have particularly aggressive individuals, you might want to think about wearing padding or sumo-style suits.
Equipment needed:
- pen and paper to write down scores
The Game:
Get everyone to pair up with a partner and stand opposite each other a few feet apart while lining up with other pairs. You should end up with two lines of people facing off against each other with a big space between. This is your arena! Now number each pair from 1 upwards and ask them to remember it.
When the game starts, the referee calls out a number and that pair steps forward into the arena - except that they have to keep hopping on one foot while keeping their arms folded! The idea is that by hopping around and knocking into each other, the opponents have to try and make the other put their second foot back on the floor.
By keeping their arms folded during the game, it stops people from grabbing each other and pulling their opponent down. Instead they must try and catch the other off balance
The person that remains hopping wins the battle and gains a point for their team before returning to the line. Then another pair has a go.
The referee continues to call out numbers until each pair has had a turn. You can then repeat and allow everyone another chance or you start to call out 2 numbers at a time to create bigger battles and tag teams!
Wow! What a crazy few days. I’ve been suffering from a nasty head cold while struggling to get this blog up and running again. It was the website equivalent of pounding it with a defibrillator, willing it to stay alive. I’m pleased to say that the operation was successful and it looks like the patient will make a full recovery. The fine folks at Dreamhost have been invaluable and it’s great to have all the Wordpress features finally working as they should.
Youth work-wise, yesterday Pippa and I went to find out about running a Romance Academy locally. It’s a great programme for dealing with sexual attitudes of teenagers and we’re pretty excited about it. We just need to find enough time to make it happen - no small task!
Anyway, as the song goes: “Hello, hello, it’s good to be back!”
I’m loving this story about a London teenager who tried to call directory enquiries to book a cab to Bristol and accidentally ordered some furniture!
She tried to book a taxi but used the cockney rhyming slang “Joe Baxi” to the confused operator who told her they were unable to find anyone by that name.
The short-tempered woman snapped back, saying: “It ain’t a person, it’s a cab, innit!”
The operator responded to the request by locating Displaysense, the nearest supplier of cabinets, and put the woman through to the company.
She then started speaking to an equally confused saleswoman and fumed: “Look love, how hard is it? All I want is your cheapest cab, innit. I need it for 10am. How much is it?”
The saleswoman responded by saying it would cost £180.
The teenager wasn’t put off by the figure and gave her address details before saying: “I wanna pay by card, ’cause I got no cash.”
The company received an enraged phone call the following morning when the woman, who was expecting a taxi, was sent one of their retail/office cabinets instead.
You’d think at some point she’d have figured out she wasn’t speaking to a taxi firm. £180 for a cab to Bristol? Wow! I’d take the train.
This post is a bit of ‘heads up’ as I’m currently writing small group teaching notes on the first twelve chapters of Acts (my favourite book in the Bible). Once finished, I’ll start posting them up here for you to use and adapt as necessary.
The reason for only working on the first twelve chapters is due to our school term being twelve weeks long. As our youth groups meet every week, they’ll be working their way through the book covering one chapter a week until the summer holidays. The plan is to get them reading each chapter in advance, ready to participate in discussion! We’ll see how well it works!
This is a great story about a social worker who while being mugged by a desperate teenager, offered the guy his coat too!
He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.
“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,’” Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”
Diaz ended up taking the teen for a meal before giving him some cash to help out. Talk about turning the other cheek!
Ht:Chewing Pixels
I just had to post a link to this fascinating story!
A MAN has been charged with assaulting a teenage boy by throwing a hedgehog at him.
Police said William Singalargh, 27, from Whakatane, in New Zealand’s North Island, allegedly picked up the hedgehog and threw it about 5m at the 15 year old.
“It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks,” Senior Sergeant Bruce Jenkins said.
“The man was arrested shortly afterwards for assault with a weapon, namely the hedgehog.”
It was not known whether the hedgehog was dead or alive when thrown on February 19, but it was dead when collected as evidence.
I’m not sure what the teenager had done to deserve the spiky assault, but I bet it’s given him a GREAT story to tell his mates at school! Maybe we could introduce this as a new youth group game?
I can’t remember the last time I was able to go out and play in the snow! We don’t normally get any down here on the south coast and when we do it doesn’t normally settle. Today while still away with the young people at Lodge Hill, the cold spell brought an amazing blanket of white which covered the south downs. From the vantage point of the house, we had beautiful views across the countryside.
Obviously, when the young people saw the snow it quickly escalated into a crazy snowball fight. When I went outside to get some photos of what was happening, I shouted “Don’t shoot! Man with camera!” Immediately everyone turned around and pummelled me! It was a great way to round off the weekend and helped to make it even more memorable.
Fuel, our youth group for 15-18 year olds is away on a residential at Lodge Hill. We’ve been doing some teaching on the Gospel (more on that topic soon), and the power of the Holy Spirit. God has been with us and we’ve already had a first time commitment to the faith!
This afternoon, we spent some time doing team building and low ropes activities which was great fun (Some more photos are available on Flickr) then tonight some of the team have set up a Labyrinth which I’m getting really excited about!
Maybe I’ll comment more when I’m home and had some sleep! Keep your prayers with us.
Just a quick post to say that we had an EXCELLENT church service this morning totally prepared and led by the young people!
As part of the World Vision 24 Hour Famine, the group fasted from 6pm Saturday night and then delivered a creatively challenging service on the theme of global poverty. As well as leading the worship, they hosted the event, gave the notices, created some short videos, did a dance and a drama, an activity for the kids, built a ’slum’ in the church, involved everyone in creative prayer, presented a short talk and hosted a cake sale! The only adults involved in the whole thing were Gareth playing guitar in the band and me doing a quick interview. David, our church elder never even picked up a mic.
Honestly, I was so impressed with them all. Each person in the group really pulled their weight and I’ve been getting amazing feedback from the congregation all day.
Also, in terms of money raised, a whopping £300 was made from the cake sale alone without any of the sponsorship money in yet! The total’s gonna be pretty high! As I’m off on holiday tomorrow, it was a great way to finish up before taking a break (although I’m pretty exhausted now).
Oh and thanks to Adam at YMX for the twitter updates that led to a whole load of Flickr image links! You gotta love the World Wide Web.
So I’ve taken up the challenge from Andy at Issues For The Christian Youthworker to think about the young people that have impacted me and my work.
There are quite a few who I could name for a number of reasons, so I’ll try and be concise.
Rosie, Anna and Emily have all taught me a lot over the years. I’ve been really blessed by the way in which they have chosen to serve others by becoming leaders and how they now give of themselves week after week. I count them a privilege to know as they’ve suffered through all the mistakes I made as I figured out how to do this youth work thing! Dan and Josh also fit into this category. I’m proud of the men they’ve become!
In a different context, there have been some young people that have taught me invaluable lessons through the horrendous circumstances they lived in. I worked with ‘PJ’ over a number of years through his drinking, smoking and thieving which started aged 10. Seeing the life he led and his home situation opened my eyes to the reality that many young people have to put up with. Nathan and Paul were other examples where I worked through issues of neglect, physical and emotional abuse with the various authorities. I rarely see any of these individuals now as they’ve moved elsewhere. I only hope that I was able to sow some positive seeds into their very difficult situations.
There are so many more that I could mention, but don’t have the space! A big thank you to all those amazing individuals who I have had the pleasure to get to know over the years and have shaped my work. You’re amazing!
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