Unusual Game Equipment Spotlight: Pumpkins

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! Pumpkin decorations, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes, muffins, and cookies, and pumpkin-scented candles. Here are a couple games to bring these seasonal squashes into your Game Time. Have any other pumpkin games? Share them in the comments!

Game One: Pumpkin Partners

Materials Needed:

• 2 players per team
• 1 medium-sized pumpkin per team (players must be able to lift it together)
• 4 circle pins
• Scoring pin and beanbag, or 4 scoring pins
• Game Circle

Players start by holding their pumpkin between them at their color teams’ diagonals. At the whistle, all pairs must work together to carry their pumpkin around the Game Circle and cross their colored diagonals. Once a pair crosses their diagonal, they gently set the pumpkin down and run in to the middle. Sparks must run one lap, and the first team to grab the scoring pin wins while the team to grab the beanbag gets second. T&T, Trek, and Journey clubbers must run two laps, and the first team to knock over their scoring pin with their hands wins. Both players must be touching the pumpkin as they carry it around the circle.

Game Two: Pumpkin Bowling

Materials Needed:

• 1 player per team
• 1 medium-sized pumpkin per team
• 4 circle pins
• Scoring pin
• Game Circle

Players start at their color teams’ diagonals. At the whistle, players carry their pumpkins around the outside of the circle pins to the bowling zone (the space between their colored diagonal and the colored diagonal immediately clockwise). When players enter their bowling zone, they try and knock down the scoring pin in the center of the circle by rolling their pumpkin from outside the white circle toward the middle. First team to knock down the scoring pin wins. Players must stay outside the white circle when bowling, but may bowl from anywhere along the circle in their bowling zone. If players miss, they must go get their pumpkin and return to their bowling zone before bowling again.

*With any food game, please be conscious of the allergies of the participants and the possibility of staining clothes or carpets.

For more information about Awana, visit the Awana Homepage.
To find a club in your area visit the Club Locator.

A living painting

“O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions” – Psalm 104:24

This past week, I had the chance to revel in awe at some of the Lord’s creation. My husband and I took a trip to upstate New York to visit family. While we were there, we went to the summit of Whiteface Mountain. Along the road was a palette of tree colors I had never witnessed all in one place before. Leaves with hues of gold, ruby, amber, and emerald quivered in the wind.

As we ascended the mountain and the temperature declined, another kind of tree revealed God’s handiwork. Pine trees rose from the mountain’s crest, with the sun only reaching one side of their trunks and branches. On the opposite sides, the frigid wind turned the branches white and fuzzy with frost crystals.

The trees weren’t the only natural wonders touched by the cold— icicles cascaded down the faces of the roadside cliffs, forming frozen waterfalls. Even more mesmerizing were droplets of water trickling down between the rock and the ice, creating the illusion of a moving wall.

But the scene that really took my breath away was at the crown of the mountain. We emerged at the summit to see a panorama of color, like God made a living painting. Lakes became shimmering islands in a sea of rainbow trees. Mountains rose out of a faint mist along the horizon as the afternoon sun provided a golden glow.

I can’t help but proclaim how great our God is when I see the world He has made. What a blessing it is to witness the beauty of the things created by His hands for His pleasure. This week, may you too have the chance to be awed by the work of God’s hands in the world around you.

A little oil and trust

Scripture: Acts 16:31, 2 Kings 4:1-7
Materials needed: Bottle of oil

Have clubbers look up Acts 16:31: “So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’” Have a clubber read it, then repeat Acts 16:31b a couple times, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (this is a Sparks memory verse).

Pull out the bottle of oil and show the kids. Place it where they can see it through the lesson.

Ask Clubbers:
What do we normally use oil for?
- Baking (cooking)

Tell Clubbers:
Raise your hand if you’ve ever helped your mom or dad bake cookies. Yum! Like us, people in Bible times used oil for baking and cooking.

They also used oil for other things, like lighting their homes after dark. You see, they didn’t have electricity, so they would pour oil into a special container and light it, much like a candle.

Another common use of oil was personal cleaning. Oil was used in soap and as a perfume. If you can’t tell, oil was important to people in Bible times.

Now I want to tell you a story in 2 Kings about a woman. This woman had two sons and was married to a prophet (a man who told people things that God said). Every day, the prophet worked hard to earn enough money to pay what he owed and take care of his family. But one day, the man died.

Without her husband working, the woman had no money to pay off what they owed. To make things worse, the person she owed was coming soon to get his money. If she didn’t have the money to give him, then he would take her two sons and make them his slaves!

Ask Clubbers:
How do you think the woman felt?
- Allow responses. Examples: Scared, worried, afraid

Tell Clubbers:
It just so happened that another of God’s prophets, Elisha, was in town. Elisha had known the woman’s dead husband, so the woman came to Elisha for help. This is what Elisha told her to do.

First, he asked her what she had in her house.

Ask Clubbers:
What do you think she had?
- Oil

Tell Clubbers:
That’s right. In fact, that was the only thing she had left — one single jar of oil.

In 2 Kings 4:3-4, Elisha gave her instructions for using her oil. He told her (in NIV):

“Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

Ask Clubbers:
How many jars of oil did the woman say she had?
- One

Tell Clubbers:
And Elisha’s telling her to fill up as many jars as she can get with that one jar of oil.

Ask Clubbers:

How many of you would think Elisha was crazy? How many would think, “That will work!”

Tell Clubbers:
Well, the woman decided to try, trusting that God would provide. So she gathered the jars, went into the house with her sons, and started pouring. Soon a jar was full, and there was still some oil left in her original jar, so she asked her sons, “bring me another.” Then that jar filled. It was working! “Bring me another!” “Another!” She kept pouring and pouring as her sons kept bringing empty jars until finally, “Bring me another!”

“There are no more!”

Every jar in her house was filled with oil. Elisha then told her to sell the oil and use the money to pay their debt, then she and her sons could live on what was left. Because she trusted God and followed His instructions through Elisha, she and her two sons were saved.

Maybe there’s someone here tonight who has never trusted Jesus before. If that’s you, then you’re just like the woman with no money, and the collector’s coming. You’re stuck with a debt of sin (anything you think, say, or do that breaks God’s laws). You’re stuck with a debt of sin, and there’s nothing you can do on your own to pay it off. Without God, her price would have been her sons. Without Jesus, the price of your sin is death — separation from God forever.

But just like God provided oil for the woman to give her family enough to live on, He also provided His Son Jesus Christ to give you life. Just like the oil took the place of her sons, Jesus Christ died in our place for our sins. All you have to do is trust that He paid your debt. I encourage you to talk to one of your leaders, your pastor, your parents, or your friends here at club about trusting Jesus.

For those here tonight who have already trusted Jesus, trusting God doesn’t stop after you’re saved from sin. Even after we’re saved, sometimes we face things that make us afraid, just like the woman with the oil. She was afraid of losing her two sons.

Raise your hand if there’s something you’re afraid of, like spiders, or the dark, or going to a new school. I bet we’re all afraid of something.

But when the woman trusted the Lord and followed His instructions, God took care of her. And just like we read in Acts 16:31, when we “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” He will take care of us, too.

All Things

Have you ever had a moment where you suddenly gain a deeper understanding of a well-known verse? A time of difficulty or struggle, either mentally or physically, preceding a dawning of clarity? My other favorite verse comes from a moment like that.

In high school, I was part of the school’s tennis team and participated in a club called Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The nationwide club hosted a variety of sports camps during the summer, and I attended one for tennis in Santa Barbara, Calif.

The camp had athletes from multiple sports attending, and it focused on a balance between both spiritual and physical health, along with providing training and practice for each specific sport. A normal day began with quiet time with God followed by a camp-wide warm-up session of stretches and simple exercises on the football field. From there, we went to breakfast, and after, we broke into our different sports and practiced sport-specific drills and trainings. We then took a break for lunch and returned to trainings until dinner. In the evening, we met with our “huddles” – small groups of mixed sports but the same gender—and went to the evening chapel. From there, we had a discussion session with our huddles and went to bed.

The second-to-last day of camp, the routine was slightly different. Instead of going to breakfast after the warm-up, we went to the gym for a grind workout — a series of extreme exercise stations which we rotated through with our huddle. It was during this series of exercises that I had my moment of understanding.

I remember the moment clearly. We had done most of the stations, completing repetitions of box jumps, crunches, dashes, push-ups, and many others. We now came to wall-sits. My legs burned as I struggled to maintain the chair-like position with my back flat against the wall. Sweat mixed with tears on my face to where I couldn’t tell the difference between them. I wanted to quit. I was sore and hungry, and I wanted to be done. So close to the end, and I wanted to give up. And yet, as I sat there, the pain screaming through my body, a small voice echoed in my mind the words of Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Louder and louder it became, “all things. All things. ALL THINGS!”

It clicked. The meaning of “all.” I could do it. With Christ, I can do anything, from the little things, such as this momentary physical challenge, to the big things, such as the life-long spiritual battle with Satan. I can stay one second longer on this wall. I can say “no” one more time to Satan’s temptations. I can trust that Jesus Christ will get me through.

Last week, I spoke about my first favorite verses, Hebrews 13:5-6. In those, God tells us what He will do when we trust Him: be with us, provide for us, and help us, so that we do not have to be afraid. In Philippians 4:13, God tells us what we can do when we trust Him. Together, these verses show that when we trust God, we can overcome any obstacle and accomplish any task without fear because we have His divine strength, help, provision, and presence.

For more information about Fellowship of Christian Athletes, visit fca.org.