Gathering activities
Activities to gather children and young people
For children
Special mission
Make sure all the children have time to play in the sand with the superhero figures. Chat with them about their imaginary stories and explain that today you are going to find out what Jesus — a real superhero — said about his special mission from God.
Mission match
Write the names of film characters and their missions on separate cards. For example
Shrek: mission — to rescue Princess Fiona;
Pongo and Perdita: mission — to save their puppies from Cruella de Vil;
Frodo the Hobbit: mission — to bring the ancient ring with which he has been entrusted to the Cracks of Doom;
Marlin the clownfish: mission — to find his son Nemo.
Tape a card to each child’s back. They should then see how quickly they can find their partner and share the story of the book or film they are from. What does their character have to do to accomplish their mission? Do they succeed? You could make it more difficult by saying they can’t speak but can only sing the theme tune to their film.
To the rescue
Place a table in the centre of the room, with a line of chairs on either side dividing the room in two. Explain that one side of the room represents safety and the other danger. The children should then stand on the danger side. Appoint one child to act as ‘a rescuer’. The idea is that the rescuer can rescue others by crawling back under the table, taking them by the hand and leading them to safety. Those rescued then become rescuers and join them in their mission. Anyone who is on the wrong side of the table (including the main rescuer) when the whistle blows is trapped and is then in need of rescue themselves. Play the game, blowing the whistle every 30 to 40 seconds. After several minutes, see how successful the rescue mission has been.
For young people
Newsweek
Ask the young people to walk around the room and pick out one story from the newspapers that talks of God and goodness. Once all have chosen a story, seat the group in a circle and ask them to close their eyes. Ask two or three volunteers to read their stories to the group. Challenge the volunteers to read the story with feeling.
Little voice
Give the young people various names of famous people. They then have to try to impersonate the voices of these people so that the others can guess their identity.