The Gathering is full of time with lots of things to do. Your group (and you) will be exhausted at the end of every day. There are also “gap times.” These are times spent waiting…waiting to get into the arena…time in line at a restaurant…time in the hallway at the convention center, or in the hotel lobby…
These times can feel like time wasted. Or, it can be time that is used to build community, to engage in conversation, or to simply have fun. Connect Journal crowd sourced a question to the wider community in our Facebook group: “What are things you have done to turn these gap times into times for your community to grow together?” Here’s what you told us:
Tara Longden: During Houston, my co-leader and I sent our kids on a little scavenger hunt in the interactive learning center. They had to find people who knew either her or I and then they had to take a selfie with them. It was fun to see how excited they got to run around and find people who knew us.
Susanne R. Smith: I always have miniature cards and card games with me. We also play, I think it’s heads up, on our phones. I also use this time to check in with everybody and see how everyone is doing.
Michelle Basner-Katepa: In outdoor situations we also carried collapsible Frisbee and a small performance football.
Rick Mollenkopf-Grill: OMG…gap times are the best! What an opportunity to play a game – especially something interactive, fun and inviting – and get other groups waiting around you in on the fun…we’ve created ‘mini-gatherings’ with those gap times!
Victoria Hoppes: All different kinds of Bingo games– road trip bingo, human bingo (to help facilitate meeting other youth/groups), youth gathering bingo, etc.
Todd Buegler: We had one designated day when our group would wear our group t-shirts. Then on that day, we did a gathering t-shirt scavenger hunt: I told the group that I’d asked a stranger…someone they did not know, to wear our group t-shirt on that day. It could be anyone at the Gathering. I told them that on the bus trip home, I would buy dinner for the person who was first to find the stranger wearing the t-shirt.
One year, I had a friend who was working a booth in the interaction center who wore our shirt. (He was approached by a group of 5 and made sure they all identified him at the exact same moment…that was a little more expensive.) The next time around, it was a friend who was a musician playing in the house band.
It was a lot of fun and made the group keep their “heads up and looking around” during that day.
Stacey-Kyle Rea: I carry a Twister mat and spinner in my backpack. And a triple deck of Uno.
- Victoria Hoppes: Twister is genius! I’ve never thought of that before. I bet there’s an app somewhere that you can use for a spinner, too, if you don’t want to carry the one from the box in your bag.
- Stacey: There is!
Michelle Banner Katepa: Mad libs.
Todd Buegler: I had a “book of questions.” On the bus ride, at some point, I’d have someone pick a number corresponding with a page number in the question book. I’d then ask that question and the “seat mates” had to answer the question to each other. 60 seconds each (two minutes total) Then I’d have everyone in the aisle seats move one seat forward so there were new partners, and then ask for a new page number. They groaned at first…but after about 30 minutes, they wanted to keep going.
Holly Shipley: I brought a travel apples to apples game to the last gathering too. In Detroit I had a Zumba instructor with me, and she taught kids Zumba moves while waiting to get into mass gathering. We made some friends that evening!
Victoria Hopper: I use this deck of cards sometimes to do highs and lows during youth group; I’ll probably take them with me and use them for check ins/processing while we’re waiting somewhere. https://climercards.com/
Holly Shipley: I haven’t done this, but I might challenge our kids to try to meet gathering folks from every state—or as many as possible. Make it a game.
Andrea Myers: I created a handout with “1 minute mysteries” – the kind where you ask Y/N questions to explain what happened. Our kids loved those.
Kristin Hunsinger: My youth have loved playing heads up on their phone – I lost track of the numbers of rounds played on a bus trip to a mission site.
Todd Buegler: I had a series of Biblical stories that I’d converted into melodramas. (complete with things like the crowed cheering or booing depending on what was happening, or Jesus making the disciple do 10 push ups anytime they said something dumb…stuff like that…) We would pull them out and use them while standing in line to get into the stadium, or other places like that.
Megan Rolling: I packed a Frisbee and cards. But to be honest they just enjoyed playing on their own. One of our favorite memories was finding a splash play area and we let them play for a bit. We had time to go chill at the hotel and change before the evening event. We played a card game or heads up whenever there was a lull. They loved to exchange hugs and pins at the arena before the mass gathering. Just giving them a bit of freedom to explore on their own was the best.
Eric Haitz: Heads Up! Is a free app that requires one person to hold their phone on their forehead and guess the word on the screen based on actions or prompting by their peers. Great for waiting!
Dawn Rundman: New Orleans trivia…Learn a Joe Davis poem together by heart…Bishop Trivia…Synod Trivia… Chuck Klosterman’s Hypertheticals (only about half of them are suitable for youth ministry)
Sarah Mueller Manzanares: Comfy Chair, Would You Rather, Book of Questions. These are always a big hit.
Geoff Sinibaldo: We bought a bunch of big cupcakes – quartered them – say in circle – did highs and lows and laughed a lot.
Ingelaurie Lisher: I typically give students decks of cards, carry UNO cards with me, and things that don’t take too much space–I’ve also seen groups do Heads up on their phones while waiting in line.
Joy Heine: We split our youth into teams, and one of the teams is entertainment. The goal to help us have fun during these times.
Chris Carr: We love playing Moose-Amoeba (formerly Moose-Spaz), and Zip-Zap-Zoop.
Do you have other ideas or things you’ve done in the past? Please leave them in the comments below
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