The elements described below offer different ways to engage with the topic of this session. It’s up to you whether you use all of them or just one. They are tools for you; you decide how to use them. What matters:

  • Be flexible and adapt the activities to the group dynamic and your time budget. You won’t be able to fit all the elements into one session.
  • Make sure all participants are included and feel comfortable.
  • Offer enough room for personal reflection and stress the importance of honest and open feedback.
  • Be sensitive to emotional reactions, especially when it comes to personal topics.
🎯
Main idea of the devotional: Life sometimes feels like a storm: we’re afraid, overwhelmed or don’t know what to do next. Jesus doesn’t promise us there will be no storms, but he is right there in the middle of them. He doesn’t leave us alone, even when we doubt or sink. The key isn’t that the storm disappears, but that we learn to fix our eyes on Jesus, because he holds us tight.

Icebreaker “Would you rather … Fear Factor edition”

⏱ 5 minutes

👉
Read the questions out loud and ask the participants to position themselves according to their answer.
❓
Would you rather …
👉🏼 let a big fat spider crawl over your body or wear a snake around your neck?
👉🏼 be trapped in a whale’s mouth for an hour or be on an island with a T. rex?
👉🏼 give up your phone for a week or spend a week with no contact with your friends at all?
👉🏼 do a solo performance in front of the whole school or film an embarrassing TikTok video that goes viral?
👉🏼 spend a night alone in a dark forest or sleep in an abandoned house with strange noises?
👉🏼 chase a tornado or camp alone for a night in an active volcanic area?
👉🏼 experience a violent storm alone on land or drift alone in the open sea in the middle of the night?

Those decisions weren’t easy for you. Whether spider, volcanic eruption or open sea, all these scenarios have something in common: they’re unpleasant, and they may trigger disgust or fear. Not exactly nice.

We’re now going to watch a video in which Jesus’ friends find themselves in an unpleasant situation.

Video: Peter in the storm

⏱ 3 minutes

🎬 Watch the video “Matthew 14:22-36” from the Lumo Project together (2:23). If you have more time, the scene from The Chosen, “Jesus Walks On Water and Saves Peter” (9:40), works well too.

Lumo Project: Gospel of Matthew 14:22-36

Going deeper

⏱ 12 minutes

Now let’s look at this event more closely in the Bible.

📖 Read Matthew 14:22-33

💡
Tip: Have it read in roles (narrator, Jesus, Peter, disciples).

I don’t know about you, but sometimes my life feels exactly like this moment with Peter in the storm.

Everything is calm, and suddenly a wave comes. Unexpected. Maybe it’s stress at school, a fight with friends, parents who don’t understand you, other people’s expectations you can’t meet, or maybe the feeling that you’re not enough.

We all have our storms in life. And sometimes we are really brave, like Peter, who gets out of the boat and starts walking despite the storm: I can do this, Jesus is right there.

But then all of a sudden he sinks. Why?

He’s no longer looking at Jesus, but at the waves. And bam, down he goes.

Think for a moment about the last situation in which you went under.

👉
At this point, tell the participants about a situation in which you were in a storm, and replace my story with yours. What did you experience? How did Jesus meet you in it?

I know situations like that, where I think, yep, I’ve got this. Jesus is right there. But then I go under. Recently I had an argument with a person who is very close to me, and suddenly I was standing in this storm thinking, what is going on here. And I noticed my feelings rolling over me like a tsunami wave.

And like Peter, I said, Jesus, help me. Help me to see this person and to look at what you want to do here right now. Help me not to look at myself or at the waves right now. The conversation was still challenging, but it was as if Jesus had pulled me out of the water and set me on my feet. I was able to stay calm and simply hand it over to Jesus.

Jesus pulled me up, just like Peter. The storm was still there, but he changed my heart, my perspective in this storm.

And that’s often how it is. Jesus doesn’t always take the storm away. It keeps raging.
But: Jesus stands with us in the storm.

He doesn’t say, “Come back when you have more faith.”
He says, “I am here, even in your doubting.”

Maybe Jesus won’t change your situation right away. But he changes you in the situation.

The question is: What are you looking at when the waves come?
At the storm, or at the one who holds you?

And that’s what we’re going to explore now. What is it like to set out step by step, and to trust that others will carry you?

Not staying in the boat. Out onto the waves.

We’re going to try an activity now that really makes this tangible.

Experiential activity “The Wanderer”

⏱ 20 minutes

🧰
Materials: 10 sturdy wooden poles (about 5 feet long, 3 to 4 inches in diameter). Enough space for the whole group.
  • The group lines up in two rows facing each other so that they form a kind of “bridge” or “boardwalk” with the wooden poles.
  • Everyone holds a wooden pole firmly with both hands. With younger participants, it’s best if they don’t stand but crouch, one knee on the ground, the other leg bent, to support the pole additionally with their thigh.
  • Space the poles so that someone can walk carefully across them.
  • A volunteer, the “wanderer,” slowly walks across the “bridge.” You can also let all participants walk across the “bridge.”
  • The others hold the poles steady.
  • If the “wanderer” hesitates or feels unsure, a leader can offer a hand. That leader should walk alongside at the same level so the participant can grab the hand at any time.
  • To symbolize the storm, have the participants move the poles while the “wanderer” walks across the “bridge.”
  • Afterward, reflect on the following questions with the group:
❓
How was it for you to walk across this bridge? How did it feel?
❓
What was challenging, and why?
❓
What made you feel secure?

Small groups

⏱ 15 minutes

👉
Have the small-group leaders choose questions from this list for the small-group time. They won’t have time to discuss all of them.
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Peter boldly asked, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Why do you think he dared to do that?
❓
What suddenly unsettled him so much that he started to sink?
❓
Have you ever set out boldly at first but then started to doubt? What kind of situation was that?
❓
What are your “storms,” situations in which you’re afraid or feel overwhelmed?
❓
How do you feel in moments like that? More like the disciples who are struggling, or like Peter, who dares to try?
❓
Which “waves” sometimes distract you from Jesus?
❓
Peter began to sink when he looked at the waves more than at Jesus. What could help you look at Jesus in hard times?
❓
In which storms have you already experienced that Jesus was there? What changed because of it?

Next step

⏱ 5 minutes

In the large group

👉
Have small slips of paper and pens ready (ideally already on the seats or at a station before the session). Afterward the participants can take the slips home or bring them to a prepared place, for example a cross, a “wave box,” a candle corner, a trust box. Play quiet music in the background.

The question running through today is: What are you looking at when the waves come? At the storm, or at the one who holds you? And if you’re in a “storm” right now, what could be your next step to trust Jesus in it?

There are slips of paper and pens on your seats. I’m going to play some background music, and I want to invite you to talk to Jesus, and if you like, you can also write down what you want to entrust to him. It’s completely up to you how you spend this time. This is between you and Jesus.

👉
Pray to close.

English version: September 2026