Activity “Blind Mathematician”

⏱ 10 minutes

🧰
Materials: a long rope, a blindfold for every participant

Preparation

  • Choose a large room (indoors or outdoors) with enough space.
  • Make sure all obstacles are removed before the game starts.

How it works

  • The participants spread out evenly along the rope. Everyone has to hold the rope with both hands.
  • Make sure the blindfolds are put on so that nobody can see anything.
  • Then give them this task: form an isosceles triangle with the rope.
  • To do that, the participants may move along the rope without letting go. They are allowed to talk to each other.
  • As soon as the group believes it has formed the desired shape with the rope, it carefully lays the rope on the floor. Only then may the blindfolds come off and the result be looked at together.
  • Participants who feel uncomfortable during the activity can drop out at any time.

Variations

  • To make the game more challenging, other geometric shapes can be formed, for example squares.
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How was it for you to work together blindfolded?
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What was especially challenging?

Story

⏱ 3 minutes

Now imagine what it would be like to be blind not just for a game, but for your whole life.

👉
Ask your participants to close their eyes, then start into the following story.

Imagine you were born blind. You have never seen the faces of your parents, your siblings, your friends, your teachers. You don’t know what trees look like, what the sky looks like. You don’t know what color is. You only know darkness. You know what warmth is, and you have often felt the sun on your skin. You know what water sounds like and feels like. Your sense of hearing is very sharp. You hear the smallest movements around you. You can pick up footsteps from far away and instantly recognize the voices of the people you know. You know your way around your immediate surroundings really well. At home you know exactly where everything is, where the doors are, where the furniture is, your table, your chair, your bed, without seeing anything, and you move around as quickly and confidently as a sighted person does. But as soon as you leave your familiar surroundings, you need the help of others to guide you. When your friends go rollerblading, or ride their scooters, or play soccer, you can’t join in. Sometimes you go along and just sit there and listen. Sometimes you have really cool conversations when you’re together, but you miss being part of it. Even when your friends are gaming on their phones or a console, all you can do is sit there and listen.

And today, today you went into town with your friends, and because they wanted to run into the mall to buy a few things, you decided it would be better if you waited outside so it would go faster. So now you’re standing outside the mall, leaning against the wall, waiting.

There’s a lot going on around you. For some reason there are a lot of people out right now, on the square and in the mall. And suddenly lots of people stream out of the mall onto the square. It gets louder and louder around you, and from the snatches of conversation you catch, you realize that the man is here, the one you heard has healed many people, blind people too. Your thoughts are racing in your head, and you feel your heart pounding in your chest with excitement. Your hands get sweaty and your body starts to tremble. And all you can think about is being able to see now, and you know the chance is only a few steps away. What if the man healed you right now? And you can’t help it, and you shout, “Jesus, please, please, help me.” (Now everyone shout out loud: “Jesus, please, help me!”) And the people around you snap at you. “Be quiet, don’t shout like that.” Their talk gets you even more worked up, and you shout even louder, “Jesus, help, please help me.” (Everyone shout louder: “Jesus, please, help me!”) And suddenly you feel people grabbing your arm and saying, “Hey, Jesus wants you to come to him, you don’t have to shout anymore. We’ll lead you to him.” Now you’re standing in front of Jesus, and he asks you, “What do you want me to do for you?” And you say to him, “I want to see. Can you heal me?” And Jesus says to you, “Because you trusted me, I heal you.” And just as Jesus says that to you, you can see him. You see Jesus standing in front of you and the crowd around him. You can see. You can actually see.

Now open your eyes again.

👉
Split the participants into small groups and start the small-group time.

Small groups

⏱ 15 minutes

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What did you think or feel during the story?

Now we’re going to read what happened to Bartimaeus when he met Jesus. We can read his story in the Bible, in the Gospel of Mark.

📖 Read Mark 10:46-52

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What do you think went through Bartimaeus’ mind when he was told to be quiet and stop shouting? Can you think of situations where we humans tend to want to silence others?
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Bartimaeus had great faith that Jesus could heal him. Where is it easy for you to trust Jesus? Where is it hard for you right now to have great faith?
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Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” If Jesus asked you the same question today, what would you answer?

You know what’s really wild? We can’t see Jesus, but he is here. He is here in this moment, and he is here all the time, and he is just waiting for us to call out to him. He is glad when we trust him, like Bartimaeus. And when we tell him honestly what’s on our hearts, what scares us, what is hard for us.

🙏🏼 Close with prayer

English version: September 2026