I first saw this at a conference I went to at Willow Creek church in Chicago. I changed it a little to fit our youth room. This was the conclusion to a series Chris Lassetter (youth guru) taught about The Purpose Driven Life. We took a 4' x 4' sheet of Plexiglas and hung it from the ceiling in front of a large window. We took a painting of Jesus and the crucifixion seen and projected it thru Plexiglas. It didn't show up on the wall because it was projecting out the window. I temporally hung a sheet over the Plexiglas so I could see the image. After a lot of adjustment we got the picture centered and the right size and removed the sheet. This works best at night. Outdoors at night would be even better. At the conclusion of the class we played the song "This is your life, By Switchfoot. Then one of our ballerina girls got up and slowly, very dramatically painted the back of the plexiglas glass with a brush and children's washable paint. Every stroke she made reviled another part of the painting. It was amazing. Not on purpose but her first stroke reviled the eyes. This was the first time I saw kids just drop to their knees and start crying their eyes out. If you build up to this, it is a very dramatic conclusion to a camp or retreat. What is nice about it is you can use any photo you want and any music that fits your situation. We used children's washable white paint because if you wash it off soon after you do it you can use the Plexiglas again. The Plexiglas is very expensive. I got lucky and had someone donate it.

Date submitted: March 01, 2005