Game / Bible / Life Connection:  Game Winner Chose to Help Everyone in the Game / Esther Chose to Help Everyone in the Bible / You can Choose to Help     Everyone in your Life

1. Note: You need enough prizes for every player.
   2. Show Players the starting line and finish line for the game.
   3. Direct all the Players to stand in line behind the starting line.
   4. Explain that when the Game Zone Leader shouts “Green Light,” Players can run towards the finish line. When the Game Zone Leader shouts “Red Light,” Players should stop immediately. Players who do not stop at “Red Light” return to the starting line to restart.
   5. Have the Game Zone Leader alternate between shouting “Green Light” and “Red Light.” The first Player to reach where the Game Zone Leader is standing wins.
   6. Play several rounds.
   7. Note: After a few rounds, announce that there will be a special prize for the winner, whoever crosses the line first.  The player who crosses the line first is given a choice –
       1) get the original prize or,  2) allow everyone to be set free and also cross the line and everyone wins a prize.

 Game / Bible / Life Connection:    Game Winner Chose to Help Everyone in the Game / Esther Chose to Help Everyone in the Bible / You can Choose to Help     Everyone in your Life

Enemy’s Plot: King Xerxes had a special assistant named Haman. He gained favor with the king so much so that the royal officials were ordered by the king to bow to Haman when he passed. But Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, refused to bow. This made Haman so angry that he began to plot to kill not only Mordecai but also all of the Jews of the kingdom. That included Queen Esther, even though the king didn’t know yet that she was also a Jew.  He manipulated the king to send out a decree that all Jews should be destroyed.  Not knowing that his own queen was a Jew, the king passed a law that the Jews could be attacked.

Esther’s Daring Step: Mordecai heard of the plan and went straight to Esther. He asked her to use her position to save the Jews. Esther might not have forgotten what had happened to queen Vasthi who had displeased King Xerxes yet she took a courageous step. So she urged all of the Jews to fast and pray for deliverance. Then Esther risked her own life.  She bravely approached the king with a plan. Fortunately, the King did not reject her.  In fact, he told her he would give her anything she requested. Esther
could not ask him to change his own law (which would have killed the Jews) but she made a plan and left the discussion to him.  The king granted her request to give Haman a banquet the next day. 

Haman was thrilled to be invited to a banquet with the king but he was filled with rage when he noticed that Mordecai still refused to bow to him. Before coming to the banquet, Haman ordered a gallows (pole) built on which to hang Mordecai.  

Finally, in the banquet Esther shared the secret that she herself was a Jew. She begged the king to spare her people. The king came to know that Haman had built gallows to have Mordecai hanged. The king was furious with Haman and ordered that he be hanged on those gallows. Haman’s pride and cruelty had led to his own destruction and the brave, young Esther saved her people.

Celebration: There was great rejoicing, and an annual festival was celebrated in the honor of Esther’s courage and the deliverance of the Jews.  This festival is called Purim.

 Game / Bible / Life Connection:    Game Winner Chose to Help Everyone in the Game / Esther Chose to Help Everyone in the Bible / You can Choose to Help     Everyone in your Life

Memory Verse:  “If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die.  Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?“  Esther 4:14