"What an adventure!" -- TOS Magazine

When my children, David and Sarah, and I played The Journeys of Paul game, we traveled to a time when the Roman soldiers persecuted Christians, churches struggled to stay together, travel was difficult at best, catastrophe was just a playing turn away, and opportunity was "just around the bend." What an adventure!

We began the playing session by reading the rulebook and deciding to play the beginner's version rather than the more involved advanced version of the game. The advanced version involves more strategy and players playing against each other in a race to build more churches, etc. We will definitely play the advanced version another time. We had to read the directions several times before we understood the how-tos of the game, but found that simply beginning to play and learning as we played was the best way to start. The fun began. At the beginning of his/her turn, each player states whether he/she would like to travel on the playing map of Rome by land or sea or whether he/she would like to build a church in a city. The player then draws an event card (which are normally realistic catastrophic situations) and must carry out the action described on the card. He/she then draws an opportunity card and reaps the reward of that card. Players have the opportunity to build a church by accumulating cell groups on a given city and may keep that church together under many adverse conditions if the church has but one deacon. Players travel around Rome, building churches, dodging persecuting Romans, weathering storms on sea and floods on land, and witnessing to people who need to know the Lord.

As we played the game, David and Sarah began to make comments like, "I wish this game wouldn't end," "This is so cool," "I didn't know that the Romans were so mean to the Christians," "I'm glad we don't get treated like that," and "You mean a church can stay together with just one deacon and nothing else?" I began to hear that my children were learning history that I had thought I taught them when we had recently done a unit study on Rome. Oh, to have had this game then! It was a great way to learn the geography of Rome and the peril that the geography brought to Paul as he carried out God's plan on his many missionary journeys. The game requires no previous Bible knowledge, so teachers who are unsure about Biblical details need not avoid this game, but would gain much by playing it with their students. As we finished playing, my children were saddened that it ended so soon - it had taken us a little over an hour to play and they didn't think it lasted long enough! As a mother and teacher, any game that educates us on Biblical concepts, entertains us without the need for modern electronic devices, and brings us together for a good time and plenty of laughs gets five stars! Thanks, Prismatech.