This year, we did a whole missions month in children’s church– we learn what missionaries are, talked about modern day missionaries and missionaries in the Bible, we even had a money raising competition complete with the winners being able to pie a pastor in the face. Because we love games, I wanted to have a game that taught about missionaries– enter the Blindfold Game. 

This church game is so much fun that your students will want to play it again and again. AND it actually connects to the lesson so… win win! 

We used it as an introduction, and I’ll explain the connection at the bottom. 

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How to Play the Missionary Game

First, have students get into pairs. Each pair is a team. 

Next, pick the first group of students to play. One person is blindfolded. The other person is not. All of the other students lay down on the floor. They are providing extra barriers. 

To play, the non-blindfolded teammate must navigate the blindfolded teammate from one part of the room to the other, making sure that they do not run into any chairs, furniture, or people! They have to TALK to the student to navigate them. They may also turn the student to a different direction, but they must NOT push them or pull them. (Note: The groups that had the most success had the non-blindfolded students stand where they wanted the other one to go and say “This way, this way!” so the student could follow their voice.)

Write down how long it takes each group to finish the course. The fastest group wins!

How the Blindfolded Game Teaches about Missionaries

Missionaries are people who spread the Word of God. They do this by helping people, meeting people, praying for people, building houses, teaching kids, providing medical care, and more. 

The one thing that missionaries can’t do is MAKE someone believe in Jesus. They can guide people to Jesus, but they cannot force it. 

Ask the students questions about the game, such as:

• What was hard about this challenge? 
• Did your partner always go where you wanted them to go?
• Was it hard to communicate where you wanted them to go? 
• What made it easier?
• Could you MAKE your teammate go the way you wanted them to?

Chances are, they’ll say no, they couldn’t make their teammate go where they wanted them to go. 

Tell them, “It’s the same way for a missionary. Missionaries tell people about Jesus, they show them the path to go down, but they can’t make a person follow them.” 

After this, you can go into a story about a missionary. You can choose a modern day missionary, or you can tell them about John the Baptist, Paul, or even Jesus. 

Other ideas:

There are other connections that you could make with this game as well. If you focus more on the blindfolded student, then you can talk a lot about trust– trusting in God. You know, lean not on your own understanding. You can also tie in any Biblical person, because they all had to lean on God. The one that comes to mind first is Peter walking on water (Matthew 14). 

You could also talk about any of the following figures that had to trust God:

• Joseph
• The disciples
• Esther
• David
• Moses
• Literally anyone else in the Bible

How would you use this game? I’d love to know! Send me a DM or tag me in your photos of this game on Instagram @beccasbibleclass I can’t wait to see!

Need more game ideas? Click here for My Kids’ Favorite Game ideas.

Happy teaching!