On the Trail: In Search of Hope resource by Scripture Union – reviewed by Bex Jignasu, Youth Volunteer at Loughton Baptist Church
The Hope trail is an activity aimed at children aged 5-8 and their families using a series of videos to create conversation and help crack a code. Videos are accessed on a mobile phone by scanning printed QR codes that are placed around the local area. The activity is fun, interactive and engages children/families in exploring, walking and talking together. This resource was specifically developed for use under COVID restrictions. One of the great things about it is it enables families to do an activity together that does not require other leaders or the need to congregate as a bigger group.
We ran the trail at Loughton Baptist Church in Milton Keynes during October half term as a way to connect with our local community. Even with bad weather many families came out to do the trail and we had a lot of really good feedback about it, so I can really recommend this. The starting point of the trail for us was the church and we encouraged the families to return to the church for a goody bag when they had finished, so we were able to chat to the families at the beginning and the end of the activity sparking great conversations.
There are four different videos (accessed by scanning different QR codes) that take the children/families on a journey to find four letters. In each video, children are given a quick challenge, one of the letters, and something to discuss as they walk and search for the next QR code. Once children have all four letters, they can crack the code to spell the word HOPE and use that as a password to gain access to the final video, in which they hear how important hope is, and how lots of people have found hope in Jesus.
The full guide and QR scan codes can be downloaded for free from the Scripture Union website:
https://content.scriptureunion.org.uk/resource/trail-search-hope
