When Life Throws A Disaster At Your LEGO Island, Figure Out How To Fix It!

We’ve been covering also many deep spiritual topics in our youth group as we read through the book of John verse by verse. And for kids in 8th-10th grade, who are either new Christians or don’t have a relationship with Jesus yet, it can be pretty daunting. So we regularly plan an activity that isn’t necessarily spiritual to begin with, but still has a message in it.

One of my favorites is pulling out the LEGOs from the dollar store and piling them up in the middle of the table. They love that surprise when they walk through the door.

One week it was about building bridges, and they had to work together to connect their two creations. Another time it was about designing houses and comparing it to how God designs our earthly and heavenly homes. However we plan to circle back to the Lord with the lesson, it’s fun to see their imaginations run wild for a little while.

This week we gave them each a base and told them it was their own personal island. They had seven minutes to build and decorate their island any way they wanted. What I learned immediately is that we don’t have enough blocks … dollar store run this weekend!

But what surprised me was how many of them hesitated before they started building. “But what do I build?” “I don’t understand.” “For seven whole minutes?” They didn’t seem to understand that they were free to do whatever they wanted - no right or wrong or grade at the end. So we very quickly broke down that wall and threw some bricks at them. Just have fun!

When the seven minutes were up, we had each person describe their island. Some of them had complex back stories about families and airplanes and not painting all of the grass orange because that just seems excessive. It was interesting that some of them didn’t know why they built what they did - they just built and this is what happened.

So then… dum, dum, dum … the twist! Danny told them that a disaster had befallen their perfect little island. He went around the table and explained the situation: one of the islands was sinking and the builder had to create something to keep it from going under. Another was in a zombie apocalypse and they had to save themselves. And then there was the one who was tired of walking so he had to create some type of transportation to get around the island. It was pretty much a free-for-all at that point.

In the end, we wanted them to have fun but also understand that disasters are going to happen in your life. The twist will come out of nowhere and probably blind side you. But in the end, God protects us from the disaster and shows us how to rebuild stronger than before. All that from a little LEGO island. Pretty cool.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland Creme - That Amazing White Stuff In Donuts

Image
I remember going to the grocery store every Saturday morning when I was growing up, and my favorite place in the entire store was the donut case. All the glazed, powdered and filled baked goods drew me like a magnet. My favorites, far and away, were the ones filled with that beautiful white, fluffy creme. At the time I didn't know it was called Holland Creme - I just knew it was the most amazing concoction ever. Ever. Here is my version of this sweet treat. You can make your own fried donuts and fill them, or like I did here, you can cut a crevice into store-bought donuts with a knife and fill them with creme in a piping bag. Either way, you're going to love it. Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup shortening 1 cup butter 1 Tbsp vanilla 7 cups powdered sugar 1. Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool complet...
Read more

Recovering An Old Card Table And Making It Usable Again

Image
This card table recover project has been on my to-do list for months. I've been using it as my workspace in the craft room for quite some time, and it sees a lot of abuse. Here it is now, with a neutral cover on it so I can take better pictures for my tutorials. There were dents and dings in the old blue covering from metal tools. And yes, I've used my embossing heat tool on it several times, leaving pretty good scars. The padding underneath the blue cover also made it difficult to keep paper crafts flat when adhering them together, so it was time for something new. That's where a simple vinyl tablecloth comes in handy. The process to recover the table is pretty simple, but I learned a couple of lessons the hard way. I share them with you now. First, don't do this on any surface but a carpet. I tried it on the deck int he sunshine to get better pictures, but all it did was tear up the cover. Second, get a second pair of hands to help you kee...
Read more

Crafts For Teen Girls To Make

Image
In our teen girls Bible study, we're studying our way through the Proverbs 31 woman and it's been such a blessing to me, as I hope it's been to them. Every month we spend an afternoon or an evening together studying Scripture, making something amazing in the kitchen and creating something that corresponds to the verse we're in. Choosing the crafts each time can be a challenge for several reasons. It needs to be something they can completely finish (or do most of) because once they leave they're probably not going to work on it themselves - that's just the nature of teenagers. Remember? It also needs to be a project that keeps they're attention, is age-appropriate and is cool enough that they'll want to keep it or give it to someone special. But hey, no pressure on the Bible study leader, right? Here are just a few of the projects we've done together in the year we've been meeting. * This month's craft will be the adorable cross stit...
Read more