Foot Party - a themed youth night of icebreakers, games and talk.

Here's a fun youth night with a challenge and only using your feet! Great for smaller groups and small spaces. Advertise the event and emphasise that bare feet will be required. Don't explain too much, build the anticipation! Girls should be wearing jeans or trousers.

Remember that in some cultures this themed evening cannot be used. As always, be enthusiastic and join in yourself. Ask everyone to remove their shoes at the beginning of the evening.

FOOT SIGNING

Give each young person a felt tip marker and tell them they have one minute to get as many signatures on one foot as possible. When the time is up, go around and count them, to find the winner. Remember not to emphasise the winning but the fun. Interaction, building relationships, co-operation, working together are the goals of the themed games, leading to a linked time of teaching and discussion.

TOE WRESTLING

Divide the young people into pairs. The couples lie on their backs with feet facing each other. The couple then lock their big toes and on a signal try to pin each other's toes to the ground, similar to arm wrestling. Have a knockout competition to find the toe wrestling champion and award their foot an appropriate prize.

FOOT BEAUTY CONTEST

Award small prizes for the largest foot, the smallest foot, most beautiful foot, biggest toe nail, biggest small toe etc. Make it a crazy as you want it to be! Select one of your helpers to judge the beauty contest and participate yourself!

PASS THE LEMON

Divide your group into teams of 6-8. Each team then lines up and sits on the floor. The object of the game is to pass a lemon along the line and back again using only their feet. If the lemon touches the floor the team have to start again at the beginning. Have your camera ready!

FEET JUMBLE

Choose five young people and ask them to lie on the floor side by side with their feet in a straight line. Using a felt tip pen write one letter on each foot, which when put in the right order spells 'smelly feet'. For example, the letters in the wrong order might read LTEFELYSME. Ask one person to re-arrange the feet in the correct order to spell the word. The only rule is that everybody must remain in their original position in the line. You have to see this one to believe it!

FOOT WINE MAKING

Place some grapes in two large bowls. Have two members of your group compete to see who can make the most juice with his bare feet. After one minute pour the juice into glasses to discover the winner. To encourage active participation in this game you can announce that the loser has to drink the winner's juice! Your follow-up on this announcement depends on how well you know your group! If you're playing these games in someone's home, remember to take a large sheet of plastic to cover the floor for this game.

HUNT THE MARBLE

Place five marbles in a large bucket of ice. Before revealing the bucket, ask for three barefoot volunteers to compete in the game. Each competitor is then timed as they try to get all the marbles out of the bucket using just a bare foot. Award a suitable prize for the winner – a bag of marbles! Your large sheet of plastic comes in useful again for this game.

FOOTNOTE

After the games are finished ask the young people to sit around in a circle. Bring out a bowl of warm water and towel and, in a serious manner, wash the feet of everyone in your group. At the end someone may wash yours but let it happen naturally.

As you wash the feet ask one of the young people to read John 13:1-17. Second only to the cross, washing the disciple's feet is perhaps one of the greatest examples of Christ's servant heart and love. Explain that this particular incident may well have been the time when the disciples were arguing as to who was going to be the greatest (Luke 22:24). In washing the disciples feet Jesus provided a powerful illustration to us all of what Christian humility and a servant life really means.

This object lesson can be used to lead into a talk or discussion about serving others. Ask the group what they might do to demonstrate Jesus’ love by serving others in the church or community. If you can, create an opportunity the following week for your group to serve others.