Faith Through the Roof teaches the story of the man let down through the roof to see Jesus.
Mark 2:1-12 (Matthew 9:2-8, Luke 5:17-26)
Students begin the game aboard Peter’s sailboat on the Sea of Galilee. Peter invites the player to steer towards him hometown of Capernaum. Like all our 3D-story games, your students have to LISTEN to what the characters are saying in order to know what to do next. They must pay attention, and do things in the right order or the things won’t happen. Sneaky, huh? 🙂
Once at Capernaum, Peter tells the player to enter the twisty confines of the village. In the village, they will encounter Stephen who is looking for someone to help carry his paralyzed friend to Peter’s house in Capernaum where Jesus is teaching. (By the way, in the game if you walk up to the window where Jesus is talking , you can hear him preach.) Stephen will ask for your student’s help.
After finding the stretcher, the player and Stephen must carry Reuben on the stretcher through the town and find Peter’s house.
Students take turns, listen carefully, discuss answers, and work together.
Once inside Peter’s courtyard, of course, the door to the room where Jesus is teaching is blocked! …So the player and friend must carry the stretcher up on the roof and lower their sick friend down through a hole.
Finding your way around the village and up on the roof while carrying the stretcher is challenging, but not too hard. Young children may need some help (but they’ll think they did it all). See the GAME HELPS in the DOC BOX below on this page.
Once you lower the man down through the roof, the players see a short video of the rest of the story narrated by Peter. Players hear and see Jesus’ confrontation with the scribes. They see Jesus heal the man and speak to the crowd. Then Jesus invites the player to jump down into the room where Jesus explains his teaching and challenges the player to spread the word.
After talking to Jesus, the player is invited to go fishing with Peter.
On the lake, the player is presented with a Fishing Quiz that has several quiz questions about the story, -and about Jesus. The answer screens present additional content and discussion questions to read and respond to depending on your age group and the amount of time you have. These screens can be viewed in our Teacher’s Guide.
At the end of the Fishing Quiz your students have the option to watch the Music Video Reflection: “We’ll Follow the Son”.
View a short preview of scenes, characters and music from the program:
View a full-length compressed version of the music video.
Players “discover” the music video after they have helped let their friend down through the roof and after meeting with Jesus. Jesus calls them to be his disciples and sends them out to “go tell others what they have seen and heard here today.” When they get on their fishing boat, they encounter a quiz! …and are rewarded with the music video.
“The Captain is calling, young women, young men climb aboard!
A new wind is blowing, SET SAIL! for the distant shore!”
–from the song, “We’ll Follow the Son,” Faith Through the Roof .
This kid-friendly music video features some dolphin playing in the bow wake of a sailboat, plus reminders from the story. You can print the full lyrics in the Teacher’s Guide.
All totaled, it takes about 20-25 minutes to play the game, depending on the age of your students and how much you help them. Add 10 minutes for discussion.
Our Faith Through the Roof Teacher’s and Playing-GUIDE has all the secrets, hints, and shortcuts! Be sure to print it.
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Age Range: Optimally 9 to 18. Children younger than 9 need help navigating and reading. This game does not require any reading skill until the end of the game, but it does require the ability to navigate using the keyboard. See our game guide for game clues that help younger kids (and teachers).
Minimum: 1.4 ghz, 2 mb ram, 64 mb videoram.
Windows 8/10 users, see our Windows tweaks.
If you have an older computer, or Windows 8/10, toggle open the Additional Notes below.
View and Print the Faith Through the Roof Teacher’s and Playing-GUIDE
It includes screenshots of the 5 questions/discussion panels at end of game.
Just print the Student Guide Graphic
Important Update: If you have Windows 8 or 10, you need to download the following Video File Updates to Faith through the Roof. If you don’t replace the original videos in the installed game, two important videos will not play and the game may freeze. The zip file has 2 updated windows media file videos to replace the originals that came in the download (downloaded prior to June 2020). Unzip/extract the zip file to a folder on your computer then COPY the two video files (video1.wmv and video2.wmv) and PASTE them into the Faith Through the Roof folder on your computer where you have Faith through the Roof installed. Windows will ask you if you want to “replace” those files, select OK.
Game Secrets, Quick Playing Tips, and a Discussion Graphic for Faith Through the Roof
- Print the Faith Through the Roof Teacher’s and Playing-GUIDE. It has all the secrets and “what to do.”
- LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN! Peter, Reuben and Jesus will TELL YOU what to do next. (The red pointy arrow is just a general directional help.)
- Always preview and play the game before the kids do so you look like a genius, and can help them if they get stuck.
- When the game opens up, steer towards the dock with the X on it and follow the instructions to get out and talk to Peter. Peter will then tell you to go talk to his friend coming out of the village behind him. Ignore the red arrow at this point. The friend will tell you to go find the stretcher down on the dock then bring it to him up in the village.
- The characters in the game tell you what to do next. Listen to them! If you try to do something out of order, the various story elements will not unfold. Listen.
- Peter’s house is the brown building. The gate into Peter’s House is found by traveling outside the village back around by the sheep pen.
- Once you have carried the lame man into Peter’s courtyard, talk to Peter, then to your friend. Then take the stretcher up on the roof.
- When carrying the man in the stretcher up the roof, press the SHIFT KEY and HOME KEY as you move forwrd to jump across the holes in the roof and gaps between buildings.
- There are two holes in the roof. The first one doesn’t do anything because Jesus is NOT in the room! Move on to the second hole in the roof where Jesus can be heard below.
- To get to the building where Jesus is talking, you will need to cross a board across the top of the gate. Use your mouse to look down at your feet as you cross, otherwise you may fall off. Otherwise, we DO NOT recommend using the mouse to steer. Too confusing.
- In Windows 8, the videos won’t play during the game until you have set Windows Media Player as your default video app.
NOTE TO TEACHERS:
Faith Through the Roof is a lesson disguised as a game! Your kids will have to try and figure out how to do certain things, and they will have to listen carefully. It’s not hard, just listen to Peter and Reuben! They tell you what to do next. And if your kids get stumped, have your handy teacher’s guide ready. You will need a minimum of 20-25 minutes to play the game, maybe more. You cannot “run out of turns.” At the END of the game there’s a video that is meant to be discussed, and Discussion Panel with extra questions. Figure 10 minutes on these. You might do them as a group, or individually at each workstation. You decide.
Jesus and the characters not only give you instructions, but they give you great things to talk about.
Play the Game a Second Time for Greater Effect. If you have time after the game, start it again and go stand outside of the room where Jesus is preaching and listen to him. Discuss what he is talking about!