Teaching the Bible to preteens can be challenging.
Today’s kids live in a world of constant distraction. Games, videos, social media, streaming, notifications, and endless entertainment are competing for their attention.
That doesn’t mean the Bible needs to compete by becoming entertainment.
Instead, teachers can use Paul’s First Missionary Journey activities to give preteens a reason to open the Bible, search Scripture, solve problems, work together, and discover the story for themselves.
Paul’s journey in Acts 13–14 is particularly well suited to interactive teaching. There are maps, cities, people, miracles, opposition, travel, cultural differences, and unexpected events.
Here are 10 activities you can use to bring Paul’s journey to life.
1. Create a Paul’s First Missionary Journey Map
Give each student or team a blank map of the Mediterranean region.
Challenge them to follow Paul’s journey through Acts 13–14 and mark the places they discover.
Start with:
Antioch → Seleucia → Salamis → Paphos → Perga → Antioch in Pisidia → Iconium → Lystra → Derbe
Then have students trace the return journey.
Don’t simply give them the answers.
Give them Bible references and make them find each location in Scripture.
For example:
📖 Acts 13:1–4 — Where does the journey begin?
📖 Acts 13:5 — Where do Paul and Barnabas go next?
📖 Acts 13:6 — Where do they travel across Cyprus?
The map becomes a Bible investigation.
2. Paul’s Journey Bible Scavenger Hunt
Give each team a list of questions based on Acts 13–14.
For example:
Who traveled with Paul and Barnabas?
Where did John leave the group?
Who was the Roman official Paul met at Paphos?
What happened at Lystra?
What did the crowd call Paul?
Where did Paul and Barnabas go after Lystra?
Students must search Acts to find each answer.
Turn the answers into points, a code, or a final message.
The key is that students aren’t guessing.
The Bible provides the answers.
3. Reconstruct Paul’s Journey
Write the major locations from Acts 13–14 on separate cards.
Mix them up.
Give each team the cards and challenge them to put the journey in the correct order.
Then make it more difficult.
Students must find the Bible passages that prove their order is correct.
For example:
Paphos → Perga → Antioch in Pisidia → Iconium
Students need to find the relevant passages in Acts and explain why they chose that sequence.
This turns a simple ordering activity into a Scripture-reading challenge.
4. Paul in Lystra Investigation
Read Acts 14:8–20.
Give students a series of questions:
Who couldn’t walk?
What did Paul tell him to do?
What happened?
What did the crowd call Barnabas?
What did they call Paul?
Why did Paul and Barnabas tear their clothes?
What happened to Paul later?
What did Paul do afterward?
Turn the answers into a team challenge.
This is one of the strongest Paul’s First Missionary Journey activities because students have to read the passage carefully to solve it.
5. Who’s Who in Paul’s Journey?
Create character cards for people Paul encountered.
Include:
- Paul
- Barnabas
- John Mark
- Sergius Paulus
- Elymas
- The man healed at Lystra
Give students clues and ask them to identify the person.
For example:
“I was a Roman official who wanted to hear God’s Word.”
Who am I?
Sergius Paulus.
Or:
“I traveled with Paul and Barnabas but left them at Perga.”
Who am I?
John Mark.
This works particularly well for preteens because it combines Bible reading with deduction.
6. Bible Verse Treasure Hunt
Choose important verses from Acts 13–14.
Print them and hide them around the classroom.
Students must find the verses and put them in the correct order.
You can make this more challenging by removing the references.
Students then have to identify where each verse belongs by reading the surrounding passage.
For example, a verse about the journey beginning belongs near Acts 13:1–3, while a verse describing the return journey belongs near Acts 14:21–28.
The activity gets students physically moving while still requiring them to use Scripture.
7. Paul’s Journey Word Scramble
Create scrambled words from Acts 13–14.
For example:
PHOPAS → PAPHOS
RPEG A → PERGA
MUIICON → ICONIUM
RYTASL → LYSTRA
ERBED → DERBE
You can also include people and important terms.
Once students solve the words, give them a second challenge:
“Find each answer in the Bible.”
That second step is important.
The activity isn’t just a vocabulary game.
It becomes a Bible search.
8. What Happened Next?
Read a section of Acts 13–14 and give students three or four possible events that happened next.
For example:
Paul and Barnabas arrived in Lystra. What happened next?
A. They sailed back to Antioch.
B. Paul healed a man who couldn’t walk.
C. John Mark returned to Jerusalem.
D. They went back to Cyprus.
Students must choose their answer and then prove it using Scripture.
You can make this a team competition, but the real objective is teaching students to check the Bible rather than rely on memory.
9. Paul’s Journey Escape Room
An escape room combines many of the activities above into one larger challenge.
Students can:
- Follow a map
- Search Scripture
- Solve word puzzles
- Identify people
- Decode hidden messages
- Reconstruct Bible passages
- Work as a team
The important difference between a Bible escape room and a normal escape room is that Scripture is part of the solving process.
Students don’t simply answer Bible trivia questions.
They use the Bible to uncover the clues.
This is particularly useful for preteens who enjoy puzzles and problem-solving.
10. Paul’s Journey Team Challenge
Finish the lesson with a multi-stage team challenge.
Give students four questions:
WHERE did Paul travel?
WHAT did Paul do?
WHO did Paul encounter?
WORLD what was the world around Paul like?
Give each team a Bible and a series of smaller challenges that lead them to the answers.
Once they’ve completed all four, have them use their discoveries to retell Paul’s journey.
This combines geography, Bible investigation, people, events, and historical context.
It also provides a natural transition into a final discussion:
“What did you discover about Paul that you didn’t know before?”
Why Use Games to Teach the Bible?
Games aren’t automatically good Bible teaching.
A game can be fun without teaching anything.
The goal is to use an activity that leads students into Scripture.
A simple model is:
READ → SEARCH → SOLVE → DISCOVER → VERIFY → DISCUSS
Students read the Bible. They search for information. They solve a challenge. They discover an answer. They verify it in Scripture. Then the teacher helps them understand what it means. This approach can be particularly useful for preteens because they aren’t simply sitting and receiving information. They’re actively involved
A Ready-to-Use Paul’s First Missionary Journey Escape Room
If you want to combine several of these Paul’s First Missionary Journey activities into one complete experience, Paul’s Journey #1 — Escape Room Adventure turns Acts 13–14 into a Scripture-based team challenge.
The adventure contains four connected puzzles:
WHERE — Discover where Paul traveled.
WHAT — Discover what Paul did in Lystra.
WHO — Discover who Paul encountered.
WORLD — Explore the world Paul lived and ministered in.
Students use the Bible, maps, clues, word puzzles, Scripture passages, and teamwork to complete the journey. At the end, they complete a Mission Summary and receive a Mission Complete Certificate. It is designed to be low-prep and printable, so teachers don’t need expensive locks or complicated equipment.
Make Paul’s Journey an Adventure
The story of Paul’s First Missionary Journey already contains everything needed for an engaging Bible lesson.
There are ships. There are unfamiliar cities. There are crowds. There are miracles. There are difficult journeys. There are unexpected people. There is opposition. There is perseverance.
And throughout it all, there is the message of Jesus being shared.
So rather than simply telling preteens about Paul’s journey, give them something to discover.
Give them a map. Give them a Bible. Give them a mystery. Give them a challenge.
And let them explore Acts 13–14 for themselves.
The goal isn’t to make the Bible compete with the distractions around your students. The goal is to use engaging activities to get them into the Bible.
You can also go to our Etsy store and purchase the Escape Room Puzzle on Paul’s First Journey directly.