Carnival 7:00 - 9:00 Open Gym and Music 9:00ish - 9:30 Lock-in Expectations and Limitations  Your Limitations are as follows: Do not leave the Church If the area you are in is not climate controlled you are outside the church. No "extra curricular" activities permitted For example, no sucking face with anyone No balloon blowing No cheating If you are looking for a way around a rule, you are probably about to cheat and had best not attempt any deviations until you reach saint hood. Snacks and drinks are allowed in the Youth Center and the Gym only. If you are in transit between these two locations you may not eat or drink. Do not open locked doors If you have to do anything to a door that is more than just gently opening it, you are probably attempting to open a locked door. Stay out of the rafters If you have to climb to get where you want to go and then you feel yourself having to balance on a beam high above the floor, chances are you are in the rafters. Sleep only in designated sleeping rooms. No hiding, food or drink in designated sleeping rooms   Expectations are as follows: Participate as you can Respect others Listen Clean up after your self If you would rather sit out or go to sleep, let me know where you are going and what you are doing. If you want an extra door unlocked  Take the bounce challenge The leader may randomly unlock a door from time to time. Don't beg for a door to be opened unless you have passed the bounce challenge. Have a Blast     Take away and store all food & Drinks You have to play to earn tickets to buy food & drinks. 9:30 – 10:30 Your Team Divide in to teams for 3-6. Design and start to build your carnival. Your Carnival must earn tickets so you can buy food and drinks and you’ll win more if you play games. Most of the prizes will be tickets. The following are a few ideas for your booth. Find your balance for an attractive game and where profitable play can be found. For the leader: This is the heart of the lock-in, have supplies for the following game available and allow for creativity and variations. You’ll also need lots of tickets. You can find these at party stores 500 for about $20. Don’t forget tools and such. Balloon Dart Game Required: Balloons, thin sheet of plywood, tacks and darts Blow up several large bags of balloons. Set up a board on which you will attach blown up balloons with tacks or stapler. You should consider having cardboard angled off for walls and cardboard on the floor on play area, to prevent wild throws from damaging the room. The throwing area should be about 10-12 feet from the board depending on the age and ability of participants. So different throwing areas are a good idea. You can choose to allow 2-3 three throws depending on your system for awarding this game. Be very careful not to allow anyone to throw while someone retrieves thrown darts or replaces broken balloons. Bucket Bonanza Required: Large coffee cans or small buckets (5-6), screws, 6-8ft board, ping-pong balls, and paint if desired Attach empty coffee cans about 8-10 inches evenly apart on narrow board. They can be attached by running a short screw through the can into the board. The object of this game is to toss a ping-pong ball in each can one at a time without missing. You can choose different locations for a player to toss from, depending on players’ ability. You can number and paint cans different colors prior to assembly. (Note: If you use cans be sure to take a hammer to around all the cut opened edges. Pounding down the sharp edges will prevent anyone from getting cut while reaching into take out a ball. You can also apply thick tape around the cut edge for additional protection.) Floating Duck or Boat Find a floating item that is cheap and small, possible at a dollar store and get about 15 -20 of them. Mark on the bottom of a few of them your award system. Fill a small wading pool or washtub and place them in. They get one try to pull out an object that is marked. Kids love water!! Lay down plastic to help with spills. Horse Race Required: Board, tape, dice and movable items Players: Up to six Prepare a play area on a board, desktop or table. Use removable tape or to mark off six columns on the board with a start and finish line. Each column should have 5-8 squares depending on how long you want the game to last. Next, number each column. Find 6 movable play pieces that can fit in each square as they move across the board. Fun items could be small beanie babies or any other popular item. Consider that they’ll be touched by many players if used for a carnival game. Have each player assigned to a game piece and numbered column. Now roll the dice. The player in the column that matches the number rolled, gets to move his piece one square down the track. The first player to move his piece to the finish line is the winner. Hula Toss Hang hula hoops from the ceiling by ropes and have players throw small footballs or flying discs threw the hula hoops. You can mark off throwing levels for various ages. For the older participants you can even have the hula hoop swing back and forth as a moving target. Knock Down Arcade Game Required: 2 saw horses, one 2X4 piece of lumber, hinges, Bean Bags or Baseballs, paint and blocks of wood Once you make this you’ll have a really cool game. Design 6 to 8 blocks of wood cut outs that will be mounted on one side of the narrow end of the 2X4 with light weight hinges. Use light weight wood that knocks over easily and you can shorten the length of the 2X4 if desired. Make them in different shapes, colors or design. Find a willing artist in your group that will make it look attractive. You can even have the 2X4 painted with a theme that goes with the blocks. Idea like serpent with animal knock downs. Mount the blocks with hinges at 45 degrees so that they stay on top of the board and can fall backward once hit with a ball or beanbag. Give participants three balls to knock down the blocks from a designated distance. Sucker Tree The sucker tree is a fun game, when they pull out a sucker that is marked on the bottom of the stick, they are a winner, and you win the sucker. Use some packing styrofoam (the kind that holds components in place not peanuts) to create a tree. Tic Tac Toss The play area is very easy to make and set up. Lay down tape on carpet or hard floor for the squares. Give players only 4 bags to try to complete three in a row. Tape down a throwing line for younger players about 5 feet away and for older players about 6 feet away. Bounce Bowling  Required: Bowling Set or plastic bottles Players: Small to medium groups Category: Misc. Games Set up bowling pins in a small circle near a wall. Player rolls the ball to hit the wall and then bounce back to knock down pins. One point is awarded for each pin knocked down. A roll that hits the pins first loses that many points. Set up pins for the next player to roll. The first player to reach 30 points is the winner. 10:30-12:30 Break for-Under ground church UNDERGROUND CHURCH has been a tradition for the youth of West Heights for many years.  By mixing this exciting game of tag-hide-and-go-seek-sardines-in-the-dark, a memorable experience should take place and with any luck each time they play it, from here on, it will have a deeper meaning.  The Game Players are: Underground Church, Followers, or Guards. We modified Underground Church this time and called the Church the Carnival, the Followers were the Children, and the Guards were the Barkers. So&ldots; The Children had to find the Carnival while avoiding the Barkers. Same game different names.  There is one “Church” (a group of three).  The church is given a set amount of time to go and hide.  The Church will become the Guards for the next round. There are “Guards” (number depends on the size of the “Church”).  The Guards try to keep the church from growing.  If a Guard tags a follower the Guard and the follower must go to the jail.  The follower must remain in jail until at least three others are caught.  After the third follower is caught and brought to jail the group of followers is free to leave the jail after the count of 50. The “Followers” try to find the Underground Church without being tagged by the Guards or giving away where the Church is.  If a Guard finds the Church the round is over.  But, if the Church has 7 members it take 2 Guards to end the round.  If the church has 12 members it will take all three Guards to end the round.  Guards may not yell for other Guards, they must go and find them.  During the time the out numbered guards are away gathering together, the church may move to a new hiding place.  Once the church reaches 17 the round is over and the UNDERGROUND CHURCH has survived! 12:30-1:00 Is Your Life a Carnival Carnival! Read & Discuss Carnival is many things. It can also be known as a feast, Mardi Gras etc. A carnival is a chance for fantasy. Games and rides thrill and in some carnivals we can dress up and pretend to be someone else: A pirate, a cowboy, a clown, or completely hidden behind a mask, in a costume, in a different role. You can even be goofy or braver than usual. Despite all the fun a carnival is still a deception. You are who you are. You are the person behind the table the person behind the mask and not what the carnival appears to be. You are not the strong one, but often the weak one. You are not the clown or the barker full of promis, but often sad and not fun at all. After carnival, reality quickly comes back. The jester time is over. We don’t just live a pretend life for carnival! Why? We often just pretend in our daily lives and do not show our real faces. We often play a role, or are pressured into a role; it doesn’t matter whether in school, at work, in the family or in your free time. This is often called “putting on a good face”. Some cannot manage this very well and cannot hide their feelings behind the charade. These people are often tagged as a “wimp”, a failure and said to have no “resilience”. Why do we use a fake life as protection? ·We do not want to run around as an open book. ·We prefer not to show others that we are hurt. ·We promise ourselves a bit of security. ·We can present ourselves differently to how we really are. ·We are anonymous, adapted and try to swim with the current. ·We are sacred of being rejected if our friends see our weaknesses. ·We are scared that our friends will recognize our guilt. ·We are scared of losing face. If you always live in a fantasy world you are not yourself anymore but a toy which people want to force into a specific role. Live as you should, with your Christian values. Only then will you notice that you are yourself once again: unmistakable, alive, sometimes sad, sometimes happy, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying and maybe even unprotected – yes – but real and unique. In the gospel according to Luke chapter 9, verse 24-25 it is written: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. Jesus Christ looks behind every facade. He looks at your heart. That is the difference. To do not need to pretend in front of him. With him, you do not need a mask anymore. People see what is before their eyes but the Lord sees the heart. A last ponderous thought Who am I? Am I this person today but a different one tomorrow? Am I both at the same time? In front of others, I am a hypocrite and in front of myself, a suffering contemptuous weakling? ... Who I am? Lonely questions tease me. Who I am, You know me, and I am Yours, o God! 1:00 – 2:00 Pizza 2:00 - 3:00 Carnival Win and earn tickets by playing other games and running your own! Now is also the time to buy food, drinks and prizes with your earnings. 3:00 – 3:30 The Fruits of your Labor The Fruit of Your Labor Investigating the definition and importance of “good works.” Before the devotion, write the following list of activities and corresponding points on newsprint and keep it out of sight until you begin. ·Church services attended in the last year—10 points each ·Mission trips attended in the last year—100 points each ·Memorized Bible verses—25 points each ·Knowing the books of the Bible in order—50 points for each testament ·Good deed done through church (food drives, visiting shut-ins, Christmas caroling, and so on) in the past year—40 points each ·Good deeds done outside of church or school (helping a stranded motorist, returning money when you get too much change, and so on) in the past year—45 points each ·Grace said at the dinner table in the past year—5 points each ·Prayers said before bed—5 points each Tape the newsprint to a wall at the front of your meeting room and give youth each a pencil and piece of paper. Give your youth ten minutes or so to study the list, reflect on the past year, then come up with as high a score as they can for themselves. Have teenagers call out their total scores, and then give those with the highest scores a moment to gloat. Say something like: Oh, I’m sorry, your scores aren’t high enough. In fact, no one can earn a score high enough to automatically win a relationship with God. The only way to have a real relationship with God is through His grace. Form trios and ask each group to come up with a definition of grace. After two minutes, have a spokesperson from each group read aloud the group’s definition. After you’ve heard all the definitions, give your own. Say something like: Imagine you’re caught cheating on a test. The teacher can give you an F, suspend you, and notify your parents and the principal. Or the teacher can give you the F (because you deserve it) but not tell anyone and later give you a chance for some extra credit. Or the teacher can let you take the test again, give you some extra tutoring in the mornings, bring you donuts each day, and invite you over to the house for Thanksgiving dinner. All of these are certainly biblical. One shows justice, one shows mercy, but only one shows the grace of God. Ask: Is anyone deserving of God’s grace? Why or why not? Ask a student to read aloud Luke 17:11-16. Say: God’s grace is for everybody. Jesus healed a leper even though he was from one of the most despised and hated groups of the time. Ask: Does God withhold his grace from anyone? Why or why not? Ask a student to read aloud Nehemiah 9:28-31. Say: God’s grace is limitless. Ask: Does God place conditions on his grace? Explain. Ask a student to read aloud Matthew 5:44-48. Say: God’s grace is for those who know him and those who don’t. Give trios each some tape and a marker, then have them discuss the following questions before they create a new definition of grace. Is it possible that Osama Bin Laden could be granted a place in heaven? If grace is offered to all, what’s the point of “being good” here on earth? After five minutes or so, have groups tape together their “score cards” from the opening activity to form a banner. Then have them write their new definition of grace on the unmarked side of the banner. As each group presents their new definition, tape each banner to a wall in your meeting room. Gather the youth in a circle and say something like: God’s grace is not something we can earn. It’s his gift—his ultimate, holy, incredible, unending, and totally free gift. I’d like to give each of you a chance to thank God for the way you’ve experienced his grace in your life. Let’s join hands and go around the circle now and pray. If you don’t want to say something just squeeze the hand of the person next to you. 3:30 – 5:00 Carnival 5:00-7:00 Tear Down  7:00 Go Home