Simply Start – 18 Ideas and Methods

The import ant thing is simply to start gathering experiences with looking for God’s footprints.

Here are some ideas of how to work with a group of about eight young people who are looking for God’s footprints in their lives. The suggestions mostly concern making the first two steps – remember and share – easier.

The Flyer with the Steps of Looking for God’s Footprints

It greatly simplifies looking for God’s footprints if each of the group members has a copy of the flyer with the steps to be followed.

The group leader has the task of inviting all to join in the introductory prayer and then introducing each step in turn.

Starting with an example

If the group is starting out for the first time to look for God’s footprints, it could be helpful if the group leader begins by telling the others about his or her own experiences in the last few days.

This helps the group to realize that they don’t have to think of something extraordinary. Their very simple and everyday experiences are what matter.

Ideas for Starting – Steps 1 and 2 of Looking for God’s Footprints

1. Cut out footprints or other pictures

It is often easier for young people to write down their experiences in a single word or short sentence. You could distribute pieces of paper on which the outlines of a footprint, a mobile phone (“SMS from God”), a star (which star appeared to me?), or something similar can be seen.

2. Lists of words

Lists of words can help young people to sort out their thoughts and experiences for the first step of looking for God’s footprints. For example, the following words – or something similar – can be printed on small cards.

The group members can draw a card and consider what they have experienced that relates to the word. The cards can also be exchanged.

3. Context of life  

For the first step of looking for God’s footprints we can also mention various contexts in which we live:

• “What attracted me or touched me particularly in the past weeks?”
  
• Nature, creation Picture 4
  
• Family
  
• Friendship
  
• People in need
  
• Work, school …
  

The different contexts can be written on large cards or posters. The group can choose one of them.

Or, various contexts can be presented and the group can chose one that relates to their experiences.

4. Pictures to start with  

Pictures or photos that illustrate one or more contexts of life (see point 3) can be placed in the centre of the group.

Each group member chooses a picture that helps them to recall experiences and share these experiences with the others.

5. Meditation on a picture

If the group has chosen a topic for looking for God’s footprints, the leader can look for a picture that illustrates this topic and place it in the centre of the group.

The group members share their thoughts about the picture and/or experiences connected with the picture.

6. Picture cards

In order to get the imagination and memories of the group going, a collection of pictures can be made.

Each group member can choose one of the pictures that reminds him or her of an experience in the past few days. A picture could also help them to share their experience with the others.

7. Painting their own picture

The group members are invited not only to recall an experience, but also to draw a picture about it.

Painting or drawing a picture brings the experience alive again, and it can be shared more graphically with others in Step 2, Sharing.

8. Coloured pieces of material or paper

Various coloured pieces of material or paper strips can be placed in the centre of the circle. Using the different colours, the members of the group can express and illustrate their mood or emotions.

9. Bible stories

For example, to answer the question: “When did Jesus pay attention to what others needed?” Texts from the Bible can either be printed on bits of paper, or the group members can look for suitable texts in the Bible.

Such texts could be:

• Healing lepers – Mt 8, 1-4 Picture 6
  
• Storm on the lake – Mk 4, 35-41
  
• Eating with sinners – Mt 9, 9-13
  
• The disciples quarrelling about better places – Mt 1-5
  
• Zacchaeus – Lk 19, 1-10

Now we consider:

What did Jesus notice in these people? Where have I experienced something similar?

Ideas for Step 2 of Looking for God’s Footprints – Sharing

10. Sharing with the group

In a group with about 8 members, it is quite possible for each of them to exchange their experiences in Step 2 of looking for God’s footprints.

If there are more than 8 in a group, it might be better to choose other ways of sharing, for example, each could write his or her experiences on a slip of paper, then one or more slips could be chosen and read out.

11. Journey to Emmaus – sharing in pairs

There are subjects and experiences that are better shared in pairs.

Like the two disciples on their way to Emmaus on Easter Sunday, the second step in looking for God’s footprints can take place in pairs. At the end of their conversation, they can decide what they want to share with the group as a whole.

12. Group work

If there is a larger group, it is often helpful to form smaller groups for the second step of sharing. At the end of the group discussion, the members will decide what experiences were most important, and they can share them with the group as a whole.

In this way it is possible to accommodate a larger number of participants.

13. Acting

If an experience has impressed the group members very particularly, they might want to act it out.

If experiences have been exchanged in small groups, a group could dramatize one of them and then comment on it in the plenary session

Ideas for Discovery – Step 3 of Looking for God’s Footprints

Methoden des Entdeckens - dritter Schritt der Spurensuche

14. Cards

To make this step easier, questions could be written on cards or small posters, for example:

• What struck me especially about what we have shared together?
  
• How can I discover God’s closeness and love, but also his wishes and challenges, in what was said?
  
• What does the Bible have to say about it?

The cards or small posters can be placed one after the other in the centre of the group, and then discussed.

15. New questions

For instance: “What questions occurred to me when I heard the experiences of the others?” This could encourage the group members to present their own ideas and questions.

The questions raised could be put onto cards or a poster, and then discussed in turn by the group.

Ideas for Answering God – Step 4 of Looking for God’s Footprints

16. Answers on cards

In order to start step 4 of looking for God’s footprints, cards are handed out on which the members can write their prayer – of thanksgiving, petition - or even a question they want to ask God. Each member shows his or her card to the group, reads it out and explains what is meant.

17. Choice of coloured cards

Different coloured cards stand for different answers we can give to God, e.g.,

• Red - Thank you, God, for ….
  
• Green – I praise you, God, for …
  
• Blue - I ask you, God, for … I ask God for …
  
• Grey - Dear God, I want to ask you a question …
  
• Orange – I want to answer God by doing the following …
  
• Yellow - I want to change this in myself/change this together with you all …
  

18. A jar

We usually feel helpless when confronted with difficult experiences, for example, when someone we love has died, or been in an accident, or there is a natural catastrophe … We may have many questions.

We could put a jar in the middle of the group and write down our questions or complaints, which are then placed in the jar. This is a way of presenting our needs and suffering to God in a ritual. We ask him, as at the marriage at Cana, to change the “water” of our lives into “wine”.