Leader Guide
Mismatch Game
- Whiteboard or chalkboard, marker or chalk
- 22" x 28" poster board
- Six Mismatch Cards Sheets
- Tape
- Pencil
- Marker
- Six sheets of card stock
- Scissors
- Bibles or Superbook Bible App
Make one copy of each of the six Mismatch Cards Sheets, double sided if possible, in color or black and white.
Cut out the 24 individual cards.
If using single-sided copies: write a different number from 1–24 on the back of each card in random order. The numbers should be upside-down to the pictures on reverse so when the card is flipped up along its top edge, the picture will be right-side-up.
Use a pencil to write “We Are One in Christ Jesus” in large letters on the poster board—see illustration, then trace over the penciled letters with marker.
Tape the top edge of each card on the poster board with numbered sides showing, in four rows of six cards.
Optional: instead of taping the cards onto the poster board, you may simply lay the poster board flat on a table and place the cards on it.
On the whiteboard, make two columns with the matches: Jew / Gentile, Male / Female, √ Clean / X Unclean—see illustration.
On the cards are characters from the Bible story and animals from Peter’s vision. There is also a hidden sentence underneath the cards. It will be revealed as cards are matched and removed. There is something different about this game: a correct match is actually a mismatch! Point to the whiteboard and read the mismatches.
You can refer to the board if you are unsure what a mismatch is. In this unusual game, identical cards are not a match! For instance, two Joy cards are not a match. Neither are two Gentile cards, or two “X” cards, or two check-mark cards.
Let’s say our SuperVerse together: Galatians 3:28:
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
In the vision, Peter was told there was no longer clean and unclean in God’s eyes. That is what this game illustrates.
Divide the children into two teams. Teams will alternate turns. A team’s turn consists of one child choosing two cards. Flip over each card as it is guessed to show the children, and say what it is. If the cards aren’t a “mismatch,” lay the cards back down on the board. If the cards are a “mismatch,” remove them from the board and give them to the player who chose them. On any turn, the player may also attempt to guess the hidden sentence to win a bonus point. Play until all pairs are removed from the board. The team with the most pairs / points wins.
Conclusion: Was the game confusing to you when it was first explained? Imagine how Peter felt when he received the vision and God’s instructions! What he believed about Jews and Gentiles, and clean and unclean things, was turned upside down. Peter trusted the Holy Spirit and went to Cornelius’s house even though his understanding wasn’t complete. Once there, the meaning of his vision was made clear.