EDGE GAMESMANUAL

Index of this Manual

Page

♦ Welcome to EdgeGames...... 2

♦ What is EdgeGames? ……………………………………………………………………... 2

- Definition and objectives

♦ EdgeGames Target Group………………………………………………………………... 3

♦ The need for EdgeGames…………………………………………………………………3

♦ EdgeGames feel and model……………………………………………………………... 4

♦ EdgeGames Curriculum…………………………………………………………………… 4

♦ Overview of a typical EdgeGames Event……………………………………………... 5

♦ Facilitators’ Guidelines…………………………………………………………………….. 6

♦ EdgeGames Curriculum

  • India – Example of a 5-Dayevent……………………………………………10
  • Malaysia – ABC (2 ½ Days) - Field Test (1) ………………………...... 40
  • C.A.U.S.E (1 Day) - Field Test (2)………………………………………………55

The Big Picture of EdgeGames

Welcome to EdgeGames

EdgeGames (EG) is about connecting single adults to Jesus through sports, creative arts, music, media and fun all integrated into an easy-to-run initiative.

This manual will introduce you to, and supply you the information needed to run an EG Event.

What is EdgeGames?

EG is a values-based / pre-evangelistic / evangelistic unifying and leadership development strategy preparing young adults for life towards community transformation.

EdgeGames Definition and Objective

EG is a gathering of single adults for a multi-day,weekend or a single day event which combines sports, creative arts, music, and media with character building, leadership training and community development.

It can be a continuity from KidsGames (KG) and TeenGames (TG).It can also be a support to the other games in the following areas:-

  1. Volunteering or providing leadership i.e.: creative capital or resource.
  2. Couldlink with KG/TG/FG in the area of:-

Prayer

Fund-raising

Missions

Training resources

The objective of EG is to prepare young adults for Life and for ‘survival’. E.g. it is the final stage of youth life before the next stage of adult responsibility. It is the first step into fulfilling their dreams,i.e. the point of launching, of flight/ exploration/ acceleration into young adulthood.

EdgeGames Target Group

The single adults can be divided into two categories:

a)18 to 21 years of age [campus students]

b)22 to 30 years [working singles & young married couples] (age category can be extended)

Understanding the Young Adult’s Culture:

We need to learn to connect with them on their terms, e.g.:-

–they want to be more involved to a wider society

–more of “go-getter” mentality

–stubborn

–more fixed in their ways

–they want serious romance

–discovering leadership

–knowing they have the means

–under pressure to succeed early in life

The need for EdgeGames

The single adults are an untapped group who has much potential to contribute to the church and community, for some of the following reasons:

  • Single (easy to move around, unattached)
  • Available time (if given a greater purpose to live for)
  • Energy
  • Influential amongst their peers
  • Capabilities of creativity and flexibility

It aims at encouraging the younger singles (Campus age) to have dreams and to work towards achieving them, in the hope that they become a strong influence and support within their circle of influence.

With the older singles, the aim is to tap on their potential and channel it to serve and support the local church in its efforts of reaching the community.To not only pursue “the things of this world” but to tie in their training and success for a larger purpose beyond themselves – therefore a need for an attitude breakthrough.

Issues: For some cultures, combining both groups would be fine in an event. While for other cultures, there is a distinct difference between the working group and studying group. Therefore the need to separate them and approach them according to their specific needs i.e. one curriculum different activities/games.

EdgeGames feel and model

EG can be run as a 2 – 3 days camp, weekend or single day event. It can involve traditional sports and games, competitive sports, experiential learning tasks or even take the feel of X-treme Games/Fear Factor/Amazing Race/ Survivor “type” of approach which includes a combination of activities like rock-climbing, wall-climbing, treasure hunts, competitive games, “Mini” Iron Man, obstacle course games, etc (much of the activities are dependent on the cultural background of the particular group that is organizing EdgeGames). Besides, it can also involve the Arts/Music and be organized as a Festival event. The attraction of EG would be the challenge/competition and fun which includes the participation of both sexes.

Note: The feel and type of games chosen depends on the culture, social & educational background of the participants.

EdgeGames Curriculum

The current available curriculum is contributed by from Bangalore, India (India model). This model is based on five attitudes and it is a values-based curriculum.

  1. Attitude towards self – self-concept
  2. Attitude towards others – love
  3. Attitude towards God/community – faith/peace
  4. Attitude towards the past – forgiveness
  5. Attitude towards the future – hope

From the field test done in Malaysia, bible discussiontopics that were covered werethe following:-

  • Character vs. Charisma
  • Cause vs. Commonness
  • Commitment vs. Cool

There were also seminar talks on the following:-

  • Preparing for disappointments/ failures
  • Boy-Girl Relationships/ Marriage
  • Purpose
  • Self-image

Overview of a Typical EdgeGames Event

The India model can be organized according to the following points:-

  1. No more than 100 participants
  2. Five facilitators (1:20)
  3. Five attitudes
  4. Done over five Saturdays

Each Saturday to include:

a) Discovery time – 1½ hours including experiential games/learning tasks

b) Competition – 1½ hours of adventure based games/obstacle course

Note: An EG event can vary in form, e.g. It can be done as a night event, half-day or full-day event, over 5 weekends etc. You can have exhibitions (booths) or even concerts as part of an EG event. Besides, EG can also be done as part of a bigger event such as a conference. The whole event can then be ended with a big ‘bang’ with a night concert.

Facilitators’ Guidelines

(From the India Model)

Introduction:

  • What is facilitation?

“Often the wrong answer to the right question can be of more value than the right answer to the wrong question.”

Socrates

Facilitation: to draw out: Proverbs 10:5 “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters. Blessed is the man who can draw him out”.

What is facilitation? Facilitation is asking the right questions. Facilitating is drawing out learning from people. It is not teaching – but it is learning. Psychologists tell us that retention of material is increased up to 80% more when activities are added to a learning experience – facilitation helps participants process activity based learning better to make an impact on their lives.

Facilitation is more an art than a science. It is caught, not taught. This manual has been written to compliment a facilitator who has already had significant training and experience as a facilitator, as with most things in life, experience is an invaluable tool while facilitating. Let me encourage you, before you think of working with a group alone, to co-facilitate with someone with experience. Catch the skills and our prayer is that God will use you powerfully as we partner in this programme.

  • Why facilitate?

Drawing learning or facilitation has some major advantages:

  1. We actively engage participants: whether physically, mentally, spiritually or emotionally, activities followed by a debrief get people involved and cater to a variety of learning styles. Facilitation allows participants to process and learn from activities while drawing on their experiences in the past to help them cope with future situations.
  1. Ownership for the learning increases tremendously in comparison to a traditional learning experience. As participants themselves are the ‘teachers’ there is a high level of buy-in for learning that is discussed.
  1. Learning is specific to participants’current situations, and not perceived as ‘pie in the sky’ theories that have no relevance to them.
  1. Experiential learning caters to participants’ needs, in relation to group objectives, neither in isolation.
  2. Facilitation aims to bridge the gap between head-level knowledge and its application. Many will acknowledge that they know the right thing to do, but don’t do it. Rather than teaching/preaching anything (which only adds what little is retained to head-level knowledge) facilitation aims to help people use knowledge more effectively, turning it to wisdom.
  • Experiential Learning

Quite simply put, experiential learning is learning from experience. To help participants (and facilitators!) effectively process an experience, it is very valuable to have a thorough understanding of the experiential learning cycle, and to explain the cycle to participants before the programme.

Experience:

The activity/ initiative/ game/ event that we use as a mental ‘hook’ that we will reflect back on during the debriefing.

What?

Before we can begin to process learning from the activity we have to make sure that we can accurately identify exactly what happened during the activity. What you were doing, what others were doing, how you were feeling, what you were thinking are all common questions at the ‘what’ stage. All activities have been designed to bring out certain learning or specific mental hooks so it’s important that participants have a common understanding of exactly what happened during the activity.

So What?

Big deal, so what if all that happened. What is its relevance to us? The fancy word for this stage of the cycle is integration. What we’re trying to do is to identify specific learning or principles centered around the theme of the activity. In other words, what we can learn from this activity. We’re not looking for fancy theories or concepts, but real, practical hands on learning that participants can plug into their personal and professional lives.

Now What?

The most important part of the cycle isapplication. Here we’re looking for specific, practical ways that participants can apply learning discussed at the ‘so what’ stage. Again, flowery statements like ‘better team work, be a better leader’ need to be broken up into specific observable behaviors or changes in thinking that give participants a concrete action plan for change and development.

  • The Full Value Contract

For an experiential programme to work, it’s important that the answers to the stages of the cycle come from the participants. The facilitator should be asking the questions and participants the answers. The more the facilitator lectures, the less participants retain (Breakthrough’s experiential learning equation). The full value contract is a valuable tool the facilitator can use to help create an environment where people are feeling safe to share their opinions and feelings – which can be very hard for many participants.

As with most things to do with experiential learning, it is a simple concept but vital to the success of the programme.

  1. Don’t discount self

Give your ideas and opinions credit. Don’t hold back thoughts or ideas thinking that there’re wrong. When dealing with people, there are often no right or wrong answers. Just different perspectives that we can learn a lot from if we learn to seethings through them.

Example: “Ok, I know this is a stupid idea, but….” This person has just discounted their idea even before the group has a chance to hear it. Or: “I CAN’T do this”

  1. Don’t discount others

Just as we give ourselves credit – we ask that you do the same for others. Lets work to create an atmosphere where people are feeling safe to share their ideas without someone rolling their eyes or laughing (it might help to role play these).

  1. Don’t discount activities

All activities, even the really silly ones have a purpose – all activities have been tried and tested on hundreds and thousands of participants around the world.

The 3 clauses of the full value contract are asking participants to come into the programme with an open mind. An open mind with regards to themselves, others and activities. If they give us an open mind at the beginning of the programme, we can work from there.

  • Do’s and Don’ts of facilitation

Facilitation DO(S)

take discussions seriously: but encourage laughter

spend time equally on discussion and activity

as far as possible, discuss immediatelynear or in activity area

allow and encourage contribution from around the circle

take notes of observations during activity

Facilitation DON’T(S)

×put words into participants mouth

×answer questions

×accept only one answer as correct

×assume what is best for participants and force them to change

×always focus on negatives / mistakes / setbacks / failures

  • The Facilitators Tool Box:

□Questions

□Observations

□Intervention

□The Brief

□The Debrief

Facilitation: Biblical Basis

Positional Leader vs. Leader of Influence (Eph 5:1-2)

Identity:

In God: Jn 1:12-13

Core Values: A firmly held conviction that consistently motivates our

behavior James 2:14 – 26

Counselor:

Paraclete – Jn 16:12-14, Rom 8:15-17

Power – Rom 8:11

Christian Facilitator:

Puts off and Put on – Col 3:1-14

Outcome:

Encourager – Rom 15:5; Phil 2:3-4

Counselor – John 14:26; Prov 20:5;

Recognize “Bubbles”

BANGALORE, INDIA – 5 Days Event

DAY ONE

SELF CONCEPT – ATTITUDE TOWARDS SELF

Outcome: Positive self-concept: “I have value”.

Interactive spark: “Children are worthless” – True or False?

Defend your answer with an explanation.

(Facilitator ignites interaction by making the above bold statement. He/she also plays “Devil’s Advocate” with every answer. The idea here is to get the group thinking and talking and being able to basically get on board the “interactive train”. This discussion can also set the tone or lead into the whole aspect of self-worth.)

Icebreaker: Toilet Tag

You need an open space for this game. The size of which depends on the size of the group. One player volunteers to be the ‘catcher’. The area is marked off so the players stay within this area all the time. When the game starts the catcher goes around touching people. Whoever is touched by the catcher gets ‘stuck’ in the ‘toilet’ position, which is half squatting with one hand on the hip and the other shoulder height straight out. The player remains in that position till another player who is not ‘stuck’ releases him/her, by pressing down on the straightened arm. At the same time the catcher is going round touching people. To add to the interest of the game the facilitator can name a 2ndor even a3rd catcherall catching at the same time.

Feel Talk: (Quick minidebrief that works for “words” or “statements” from the group that can be a lead in to the days logic

  1. How did it feel being stuck in the toilet position?
  2. How did it feel being the “catcher”/ “catchers”?
  3. Describe what was going on inside of you when you are running around.
  4. Did you feel adequate or inadequate to go and release the person who was ‘stuck’…?
  5. Why?

Intro: Maturity in life is a process. Becoming a confident, whole and mature person does not happen overnight, and is not automatic. It involves understanding yourself, personal effort and growth, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. This is slow, often painful, but always bears fruit. Largely, this whole process depends on your self-concept. What we think and feel about ourselves.

Learning Task/Game: TowerBuilding

Material

  • 12 wooden blocks roughly the same size, about the size of building blocks with slightly uneven surface – don’t use building blocks.
  • One blindfold
  • Table in front of the group (everyone should be able to see the table)

Time

Approx. 30 – 45 minutes

Instructions / Sequence

Ask for 3 volunteers, and send them away from the group so they cannot see or hear what is happening (ask them not to go too far as you will have to call them in one at a time). The rest of the group are observers and they are not allowed to make comments or talk – tell them to be silent observers and that we will hear what they observed from them at the end of the activity.

Call in one of the volunteers. Ask her to count the number of blocks on the table. Ask her with her dominant hand (right or left), how many blocks she can place one on top of the other, building a tower without it falling. Stress that she has only one chance, and there can be no “try’s”… while you get them to estimate, your task is to keep discouraging them and getting her to lower her estimate. Say things like “are you sure??” or “all these blocks are uneven” or “no one has ever done so many before, how can you?” etc… don’t make it too obvious what you are doing, subtly keep discouraging them to bring their estimate down.

Once she settles on a number, ask how many she could do with the other hand (left hand if right-handed, right hand if she’s left handed). Again keep discouraging – “ but your left hand is much weaker than your right hand” etc. Get an estimate – usually this will be lower than the previous number.

Ask now how many she could do with her left hand only and blindfolded. Again, keep discouraging…

Now ask her to blindfold herself and try with the weaker hand (left or right) only. The other hand should be behind her back.

Your role now is to encourage, help and guide her. Without physically assisting her, keep providing help as she is building the tower. Usually people would have estimated 5-7 with left hand and blindfolded but it is easily possible to do all 12.

Once she is finished, get the group to clap and ask her to join the silent volunteers. Repeat this for the other two volunteers.

Pointers / Tips

Some are concerned that the observers will get bored watching the volunteers, but a group actually enjoys watching and you will see a lot of people sitting on the edge of their seat especially as the tower gets taller!

You will, from time to time have to remind the observers that they are silent observers and they should save their comments till the end.

Debrief Points:

Draw and fill-in a table like the one below on the whiteboard / OHP sheet, asking the observers to help you with the numbers. A sample table below:

Name / Estimate / Actual
Right Hand / Left Hand / Left hand blindfold
Volunteer One / 10 / 7 / 5 / 11
Volunteer Two / 12 / 8 / 7 / 12
Volunteer Three / 10 / 10 / 7 / 11

Ask the group to remember that we are not comparing volunteers but what we are interested in seeing is the estimates of the right hand going across to the actual column. Some questions: