The All-Nighter at Church, Lock-Down Style

Last year I participated in my youth group's all-nighter at church. It was around forty girls and boys in grades seven to twelve (plus around five youth group leaders), running around wild, locked in a church, intent upon staying up all night. It was fabulous! First we went bowling and had dinner, then after picking up some coffee, engergy drinks, and sugary snacks, we arrived at the church and were locked in.
My favorite thing we did that night was play the game "Underground Church". If you've never played it, I'll explain the game.
Our church's setting was a "foreign country". All of the youth group students were "persecuted Christians". The youth leaders were "the bad guys that catch the Christians". We had a jail located at the center of the church. The sanctuary was off-limits (actually, if you were too tired to stay up all night, they let you sleep in the sanctuary). The game started by giving everyone ten minutes to hide wherever they wanted to in the church, except room that were previously locked. When the lights went off, the "bad guys" searched through the complete darkness to find the "persecuted Christians". If you got caught you were taken to jail. You could be freed if no "bad guys" were watching the jail and a friend tagged you to escape.
Let me tell you... it was intense! I had very close calls to being captured, and some heart pumping moments when I attempted escape. I even was the last one to be caught once, which meant that I won! It was scary, running around in the dark, not knowing who you would bump into or if they were the "bad guys" or "fellow Christians".
After the game, which lasted at least four hours, many of us collapsed in a long hallway with blankets to tell stories. Some people watched movies or played video games upstairs. I played Apples to Apples with a bunch of friends. When our parents arrived the next morning, they met some very tired, blurry eyed, loopy teenagers.
It was one of my most favorite experiences being "locked in"!