Easter Egg Treasure Hunt with a Holy Week Walk-Through

by member Terry K

Providentially, we knew we were going to have storms the day of our Egg Hunt, so we made plans to move it indoors and simplify. Truly, the rain crisis was the mother of invention, and we may just do it again indoors next year!

Our original plan was to have an involved treasure hunt of sorts, with clues were tucked into the bible, and with each new egg you had the verse to turn to and read - and that's the page the clue was in. It was going to take a ton of adults though, and time to hide the eggs on Easter morning, etc... so honestly I was a bit relieved when they predicted rain. LOL.

Luckily, in the weeks leading up to the Hunt, our Middle School Sunday School class had designed a Holy Week Walk Through for Easter morning. They had studied the story and planned the "stations" --so we simply sped up finalizing their stations and made them part of the "hunt" on Saturday instead of just keeping it to Easter morning.  

Here are the Walk Through Stations:

1. Path from outdoor worship area to the back door covered in palm leaves, and a child in costume saying how she saw Jesus pass by a week earlier. (this was changed last minute, to be a path from the main door of the fellowship hall to the back door, and we had guides w/ umbrellas!)
2. The first room you walked in was decorated for the last supper. One plate still had the bread & drink left. crumbs everywhere (they enjoyed this! LOL!). And a girl telling folks how Jesus and his disciples had shared a meal there, and one stomped off angry.
3. The hallway was decorated as a garden, with a child telling people how Jesus had come and prayed while his friends slept... and about the arrest & Judas' betrayal.
4. At the bend of the hall, a child cried by a rooster ... crying that he'd betrayed Jesus, just as he'd been warned
5. Around the bend, you found three huge crosses propped up, with red cloth hanging from the ceiling and someone witnessing about the crucifixion.
6. From here you turned into another room, where at the door a child dressed as a guard said he'd been stationed there to guard against thieves, and he could attest that no one had been inside for 3 days.
7. Pass into the "tomb" (really, our nursery with lots of black sheets hanging everywhere) and find a jubilant angel proclaiming the good news by an empty "shroud"
8. The second door of this room led into our fellowship hall, where hundreds of handmade butterflies were hanging from the ceiling, on the tables (set for sunrise breakfast), and on the windows. Two children told about how Jesus had risen, and the relation to butterflies.

Each station's "storyteller" had an egg and an item to present to each child to remember the story. The students carried their egg cartons from station to station to get the "whole" story.

Our eggs were a bit different, too:

• (Lt. Blue) Matthew 26:14 Judas asked the priests, “What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?” They paid him 30 pieces of silver. --- 3 plastic silver coins
• (Purple) Matthew 26:17-29 Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. He said this would me his last meal with them on earth. --- a communion cup
• (Green) Matthew 26: 36-45 Jesus became upset and prayed in the garden at Gethsemane --- a silk flower
• (Orange) Matthew 26:75 When the cock crowed, Peter realized he had denied Jesus three times, just as he’d been warned. He cried bitterly. --- a chicken feather
• (Lt. Pink) Matthew 27: 26 Pontius Pilate flogged Jesus and released him to the crowd. -- a couple inches of leather thong
• (Lt. Green) Matthew 27:28 The governor’s soldiers teased Jesus and placed a crown of thorns on his head. --- a thorn (from a tree in our yard)
• (Blue) John 19:18 Jesus was crucified, with a criminal also crucified on each side of him. --- a cross - we used metal pocket crosses you buy in a christian store
• (Med. Blue) Matthew 27:59 Joseph wrapped Jesus’ body in clean linens and placed him in a tomb. He rolled a large stone over the opening. --- a piece of gauze and a stone
• (Lt. Purple) Matthew 27: 64 Pilate commanded the tomb sealed and guarded for three days, to make sure Jesus’ body was not stolen --- three calendar days, cut from an old calendar
• (Yellow) Matthew 28:5 Mary and Mary Magdalene worried because the tomb was empty. An angel said “He has been raised!” --- empty egg
• (Pink) John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that we can have eternal life! CELEBRATE! --- a butterfly
• (Lt. Yellow) What symbol can you find to represent Easter? Use this last egg to find something special to you. --- empty, can be filled in class or as "homework" for the family
  
  
• At the END of the Walk Through, we had a traditional but scaled down "egg hunt" in the Sanctuary and adjoining hallway. It was a great opportunity to get visitors into the worship space.
  
  
• Next time we're going to have our worship band playing during the hunt to let families know we're not the same old church.

Posted by member Terri K, Columbus, GA

Editor Adds: Check out these Easter Walk Through Stations for more decorating ideas, like this one for Palm Sunday.