Have you ever thought of creating a game of some kind? I had certainly never considered it, until I thought of Christian cards.
One afternoon, I was flipping through the Buy and Sell WhatsApp group that I belong to, and I saw some 'Mindfulness’ cards for sale. I remember feeling very emotional about this, and decided that I wanted to create some cards with Christian content.
During the next few days, I thought a great deal about the Christian cards and basically decided to get to work immediately.
The concept I decided on was to create four card games of ‘bridge pack’ size – fifty-two cards per pack: one like ‘Snap’ the game for young children, with images from some of my Christian picture books: The Rainbow Game, Modern Manna, Trees full of Treasure and Celestia’s Dancing, Prancing Doves. I carefully selected the images I wanted to use, and that was my job done, the easiest job. Feline Graphics are the creators of the books featured. I alerted them to my choice and they did the rest. My job of choosing the images didn’t take long at all, and I had fun doing it.
The next three card games are intended for any age – slightly older children, teenagers, adults, families – anyone who enjoys quiz games. My aim was to create 104 questions per pack, 52 colour-coded ‘easy’ questions, and 52 colour-coded ‘difficult’ ones.
As I set about the task, I worked my way through all 66 books of the Bible, trying to divide the questions I chose between the Old and the New Testaments. Each of the three packs has quite distinctive questions: the first mostly based on factual information from the Old Testament, but some are also from the New Testament; the second focusing mostly on Jesus and His teaching; and the third entirely composed of quotes from Scripture.
Some of the questions ask which book in the Bible the quote came from; some of them ask who said the words; and others ask quiz-lovers to complete the quote. For these packs, I asked Feline Graphics for three different icons on the cards, depending on which of the three tasks had to be performed. They didn’t disappoint: a book for which book, a speaking mouth for ‘Who Said’, and a scribbled line for ‘Complete the Quote’.
A great deal of careful thought went into the creation of these Christian cards, searching, checking and cross-checking for accuracy. I wanted to give people a range of ideas from the Bible – ideas about people, places, events and quotes, and I had to work hard to distinguish between what I thought Bible readers would find ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’.
For example, I reckoned that most people would know the answer to the question, ‘Who built the ark?’ Noah, of course. And I thought most people would find the following question more difficult: ‘Who was Samson’s father?’ Manoah, not so obvious.
To play the games, for each card, you can choose to answer an easy or a difficult question. You score one mark for the correct answer to an easy question, but three marks is awarded for the correct answer to a difficult question. The catch is that if you get a hard answer wrong, you get minus three.
The aim of the games of course, is to have fun, while at the same time to learn something about the Bible. Perhaps the questions will lead to some stimulating discussions or readings of a passage. Most answers include biblical references.
When I sent all this information off to Feline Graphics, I hadn’t yet thought about the name for each pack. I was delighted with the names they came up with, such appropriate titles for the four different games: Match It, Faith Facts, Truth & Teaching, and Scripture Says. Each pack comes with instructions on how to play the games, with the questions on one side, and the answers on the other side of each card.
The cards are colour coded blue and yellow, with my logo and name on one side, and the name of the game on the other. Beautifully packed in boxes with rainbow colours to match the colours in my logo and website, hard cards that can easily be handled, each pack individually packed in cellophane.
As testers, I decided to ask for the production of twenty packs each, i.e. eighty packs altogether.
Want to increase your knowledge of the Bible, have fun with your family or group, or test your skills? I’ve been told by people who’ve tried the games that they’re perfect for church camps or small groups.
I really hope that these Christian cards, games with substance, will give the people who play them a great deal of pleasure and a desire to get to know the bible better.
Enjoy playing your Christian card games!