Neighborly Game

Let’s say our SuperTruth together: “I will love my neighbor as myself.”

Jesus’ parable taught that our neighbors are everyone around us, not just our “inner circle” of family, friends, and people like us. In this game, you will need to interact with all the other teams who are your neighbors to accomplish your goal.

Divide the children into six teams of 2–5 children depending on class size. Teams do not need to be equal.

Assign each team a number from 1–6. It is important for each player to know their team number! Be prepared to help children with special needs.

Have each team sit in their own circle in the four corners of the room, in the middle, etc.

The game is played like “Go Fish.”

Shuffle all the sets of cards together, then give each team six random cards.

Each team places any cards with their own team number face-up near the middle of their circle. Cards with other numbers are turned over and placed in a pile near the center of the circle. (For example, if Team 1 has two cards with the number 1, the team places those two cards face-up, in the order they would be spoken in the SuperTruth; then turns all the extra cards with different numbers face-down.)

The goal is for each team to build the complete SuperTruth using only cards that have their team’s number.

Start the game. One player from each team will go to a neighbor team and ask, “Do you have any team number __ cards?”

The neighbor team checks their extra cards without revealing the card numbers. If they have a card with the requested number, they must give it to the asking player. If they have more than one card with that number, they should not say so, and they should only give one card to the asking player.

The asking player then returns with the card to their team and the next player goes to ask for a card from a neighbor team—either the same team as before or a different team.

Once a team has built the SuperTruth with their numbered cards, they stand up and shout it together.

Continue until all teams have built the SuperTruth.

Conclusion: In this game you couldn’t complete the task within your team. You needed to go outside your circle not only to your close neighbors but also those further away. Jesus said to treat others as you want to be treated. You needed cards and you gave cards to others to help them. You weren’t focused on just yourself; you helped each other, too!