Praying with Games: Hungry Hippo Prayers, Story Links and Talking Points

This Summer we are experimenting with a 'board games cafe' once a week at the local community centre. It's probably wrongly named because none of the games need a board, but they are all popular and readily available children's games!

It got me thinking about how we could use the games as a church activity as well, so this is the first instalment of some prayers and activity ideas based on games...

You will need: A Hungry Hippos game (or more than one!)

Play the game and get your hippo to collect as many of the balls as possible.

Prayer Idea 1:Count the number of balls you have and, for each ball, say thank you to God for something or someone.

Prayer Idea 2: Count the number of balls you have and, for each one, say thank you for a food you like

Story Link: The parable of the rich fool (Luke  12: 13-21)

The hippos are greedy and try to get as many balls as they can. What things in life are worth having? What does the story say about storing our riches up?

Story Link: Matthew 25, The parable of the sheep and the goats

The hippos are hungry. What does Jesus say about feeding the hungry in this parable? How could we do that?

Talk about: What does it mean to be greedy?

How does it feel if someone else is greedy?

Where do you see greed around you?

How could we help people who don't have enough?

Pray for those who don't have enough food to eat.

Make a plan to collect items for the local food bank