Something at church sparked a lot of memories for me. When I was 20, I got to spend the month of January in what was then the USSR. It was the coldest winter on record and they were having great difficulties. Not enough power, not enough heat, and lots and lots of religious persecution. Our guide was a small, kind Jewish man named Sergei, who was very sad because of being persecuted. He grew close to our professor, and a plan was hatched to get Sergei out of the country. I don't remember all the details, but eventually Sergei got to come to the US and from what I was told, has a happy life.
Fast forward to yesterday, when I got this email from the kids' youth pastor at church. Now, I can tell the boys about religious persecution, how blessed we are to have freedom, but I am fairly certain they don't "get it". Here is their activity for tomorrow night:
"This Wednesday, August 10, we will play Secret Church at Reality Check. We
will NOT be meeting at our normal time of 6:30 - 7:30PM. We will instead meet
from 8:00 - 10:00PM. Darkness is required to make this game more fun and
challenging. Adults will be assigned to the three groups that will participate
in the game. They will only be allowed to use the buildings on our campus to
hide in. Some of the buildings and a few areas of some buildings are off limits.
There are three groups, the persecuted church, the free church, and the
police. The persecuted will find a hiding place to try to meet for worship.
Since it's a game, it will be near impossible to have a genuine time of worship,
so I will have an assignment for them that will require some research from the
Bible. The persecuted church will not have Bibles at the beginning, but it is the free
church's job to get Bibles to them. The police will be after the persecuted church and might
nab a free church member while they're at it.
Things needed: running shoes, flashlight, dark clothing, Bible"
I hope Sol and Elliot enjoy this activity very much, and come away with a new appreciation of the freedoms that we take for granted!
1 comment:
Such a great idea. I am sure they will get it after role playing. Great lesson learned. I did not know you went to Russia. What a trip that must have been.
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