A Bible Themed Escape Room

Bible Themed Escape Room

     I like to sneak faith formation into fun youth group activities, so when my group started talking about the new Escape Room places at the local mall, I began to wonder if I could create one at church with a Bible theme.  Here is what I learned along the way.

     Escape rooms often have a setting or theme, so I chose the arrest stories in Acts – particularly Acts 16 when Paul and Silas are arrested – broken out by an earthquake – but stick around so the jailer won’t get in trouble and ultimately baptize him.

     I scouted around the internet and pinterest to find ideas for “puzzles” and problems to solve.  I also went to the hardware store to see what sort of locks I could find that would let me set my own code.  I found some with letters so I could make the combo “PRAY”, for instance.    I also considered the space I was going to be using to see if it lent itself to any particular puzzles.    For instance, the first place I did this had a piano in the room, so I made a puzzle about “too many keys” and taped a padlock key on the piano in a place it wouldn’t be seen but could be found.   I assembled my list of things I wanted the group to do to get free from the room.  (Since Paul and Silas were singing hymns, I decided that would be the ultimate escape trick they had to do to get the door to open.) 

     A teacher writing about DIY escape rooms suggested having multiple starting places around the room so groups of kids could work on multiple tracks and “discover” different things.  I chose to have 4 tracks that ultimately culminated into discovering the answer.    I drew out a map for myself to keep track of what clue led to what.  Ultimately, all 4 paths had to be discovered and followed to get the final clue.  So I took my list of puzzles, clues, and ideas and tried to fit them into these four paths – sort of a fun puzzle for myself.  (Don’t bother trying to read my handwriting.  It is all explained below.) 

     Once I set all the “clues” in place, I also tried to set up some “non-clues” so it wouldn’t be too easy.  I tried to make these theme based – paper chains, handcuffs, prison outfits and such.  I also put on the walls pictures and quotes from Christians imprisoned for their faith – MLK, Bonhoeffer, etc.  I figured while they were searching the room for clues, they would find these things and think about them. 

     The first time I did this program, I stayed in the room to observe.  It was hard not to give too much away to them, but it was fun watching them.   The second church where I offered this program (as an interim pastor, you can take your bag of tricks with you and repeat your favorites), I couldn’t be present, but I had another adult in the room who could text me if they got stuck for hints.

    

So here were my paths to escape:

Both Path 1 and Path 2 began with jigsaw puzzles I left scattered on the table.  I was mean and mixed the pieces together – but they were 20 piece puzzles and I didn’t want to bore the high school students too much.  You can buy blank white puzzles in craft stores.  I wrote clues on them.

Path one puzzle to assemble that says “Too many keys”.  There was both a computer keyboard and piano in the room, so they had to search and discover a padlock key hidden on the piano.  That key opened a locked box and in the box was a computer memory stick.  On the memory stick was video footage of earthquakes I downloaded from you tube.  I left a computer operational in the room and set up a password protected user called “Escape Room”.  (My user account on the computer was also password protected.)  So they only way they could look at what was on the memory stick was to find the computer password on another path.   Once they discovered the computer password, they could look at the video file with the earthquakes.  On one door in the room I had left a sign saying “this door will only open in an earthquake”, so when they saw the video footage of the earthquake, they could open the door to the next room.  I set it up so they couldn’t enter the room, but could see across it to a bucket and pulley contraption.  They had to get enough into the bucket to pull up a banner that said “PRAY” – which was the combination for one of the padlocks on the box to the closing clue – direction to sing a hymn to escape.  (This final box had more than one lock they had to open, though.)

Path 2 also began with a jigsaw puzzle.  This puzzle had the clue:  “Paul got shipwrecked on this island.”  Of course I had scattered Bibles around the room as well as some bible maps of the journeys of Paul.    The name of the island became the password for the computer user account needed to continue on path one.

Path 3 began with a QR code on the wall.  (Those funny boxes that you scan with your phone.  I let them bring their phones into the room.)  You can find QR creator programs on the internet for free where you type in what you want to code to say.  The clue I had was “Turn out lights”.    One of the lamps that I had placed in the room had a cheap plastic shade.  One the shade I had used “glow in the dark paint” to paint the next clue.  When the lights were turned off, they could see the clue.  (Obviously this has to happen in a room that gets completely dark.)  The clue was a scripture verse in Acts about angels caring for the apostles in prison.  With that clue, they could begin looking around the room at various angels I had scattered around.  On the bottom of one of the angels was taped the clue:  “Paul didn’t break either the doors or these to escape” – referencing the bars.  I created window bars out of pool noodles in one church.  Since it was off season, at another church I used foam pipe insulation tubes for the same effect.    Inside one of the bars, I hid a ribbon with letters on it.  That ribbon had to be wrapped around the prison bar for the clue to emerge – otherwise the letters just looked like jibberish.  That clue said “Use on page…” and then had a particular page number for the bible in the room.  They needed that page number to use with a clue from the final track. 

Path 4 had the most devious start.  I placed a sealed jar of sand near an electronic food scale.  On the Jar it simply said ACTS.  They had to figure out to weigh the jar and to use the weight -  in pounds and ounces – to point them to a particular verse in Acts.  The verse was sentence about how Paul and Silas baptized the jailor.  I placed a small male doll in another part of the room.  He was wearing a sheriff badge and black tshirt I had made.  I took black cotton fabric and used a bleach pen to write a lock combination.  I then painted the shirt with black washable finger paint so that the combination couldn’t be seen.  I also placed in the room an empty bowl and a pitcher of water.  They had to figure out to “baptize” the sheriff and in so doing to wash away the paint to reveal to combination.    That combination opened a lock box.  In the box was a piece of paper with carefully cut out holes.  It read something like:  “turn the dial right to (hole).  Then turn the dial left to (hole). “ And so forth.  This piece of paper had to be placed over a particular page in their bible so that the holes would line up over the combination for the final lock.  They found the page number at the end of path 3.   This was the second lock on the box with the final clue telling them they had to sing a hymn to escape. 

So that was my escape room.  I have done it with 3 groups of youth and they were all very positive about it.  It took around an hour for them to get all the way through it. 

Feel free to use or adapt.  I don’t know what I would do if people didn’t share such ideas!

Blessings!

Rev Paige Besse-Rankin

PS  Couldn't get the photos where I wanted no matter how I tried, but trust you will figure it out!