CAN YOU BUILD IT BETTER?
– the brick-building contest results!
We had another wonderful response to our brick-building contest. We asked whether entrants could think of “things that aren’t but should be” – we wanted to see if they could “build it better” and more than 200 entrants said that yes, they could. We had all sorts of cars and trucks and motorhomes and tractors that could drive, and fly or float, turn garbage into tires or rocket right across the ocean at 28,000 km/hr (and, if you weren’t careful, they might even sting you!). In a “great minds think alike” moment, two entrants designed creative alarm clocks that used a teapot and a coffee pot to motivate a sleepy sort to get up now! And if you don’t like coffee or tea? There was a hot chocolate machine too!
Some of the submissions were enormous like a plane that was 6 feet, 7 inches long, and a robot that people can go inside of. There were also a number of major appliances reinvented – dishwashers, dryers, and washing machines that had been upgraded to be even more automatic. And let’s not forget some fantastic homes – an apartment building that includes a smooth bar, a house on wheels, one that flies, and who wouldn’t want to live in a castle?
There were also some entries that were powered and functional – like a tractor that could distribute Mentos, and a bulldozer of sorts that can collect all the LEGO that gets kicked under your couches. It was clear once again that our readers are a creative lot.
While a picture can be worth a thousand words, in this case you have to check out the videos. Be sure to check out our YouTube playlist to go see the winners and the honorees give you a tour of their creation. The inventiveness on display is sure to spawn even more. Do you want to encourage your kids’ creativity? Watch these videos with the whole family and you won’t be able to stop your littles (and maybe your bigs too) from pulling out your LEGOs.
That family fun is a big part of the reason we’ve enjoyed this contest. Our kids are growing up with screens all around them, and we need to help them fight the pull to distraction. And when hundreds of parents and kids do something constructive and creative instead, we’re experiencing the joy of doing what God made us to do – we are glorifying Him in time spent in communion, and glorifying Him too, by reflecting just a bit of His creativity.
*****
Adults 18+
WINNER
Colin Van Manen – Samurai sword mech
Built entirely out of extra grey pieces, complete with a sword, a jetpack, a face mask, fully-functioning and posable parts… and with a pilot seat for the driver because it’s a better commute than a car, right?
HONORABLE MENTION
Felicity Tamminga – Washer/dryer one-basket system
Imagine if you had a special laundry basket that could just be dropped right into your washing machine, and then, when the wash is done, lifted out and slotted right into your dryer – no hauling each piece out one by one!
14-17-years-old
WINNER
Jeremy, 15 – Tea pot alarm clock
Have you ever slept through your alarm? That won’t happen with this upgrade – instead of just a sound, this one tips a teapot over to pour water on sleeping you. To add to the cleverness, the interior of the clock is a model bedroom, complete with bed, sleeper, and tiny teapot alarm clock!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Everett, 14 – Technic crane
This is a functional, motorized crane that works via a remote control. It’s just downright impressive!
Charlotte, 14 – The ultimate motorhome!
It’s got 3, count them, 3 bumpouts, a cat condo, bathtub, fireplace, solar panels, and all the storage you’d ever need.
Gerred, 17 – Avro Arrow CF-105
This is what should have been – but wasn’t – if Canada, under Prime Minister Diefenbaker, hadn’t scrapped the Avro Arrow. Everyone loves a good history lesson with their build, right? It includes air defense systems with nuclear-armed missiles and functional landing gear and is just a really cleanly built plane.
10-13-years-old
WINNER
Quinten, 13 - A self-sustainable floating island
This is a detailed build! It includes dams, wind turbines, rooftop gardens, and solar panels. There’s space for camping, for farms and rural areas, plus a city equipped with a hospital, police station, fire station, and a church. There’s even a lighthouse to guide the boats from the ocean/lake. To add to the detail, there are even layers of rock underneath the build where the island was ripped from the ground.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Austin, 13 – Self-cleaning LEGO machine
LEGO should clean itself up, but it doesn’t. Introducing the self-cleaning LEGO machine! An entirely motorized vehicle with two drive wheels – each with its own motor – and a spinning blade connected by gears to its own motor. It collects the LEGO into the hopper for you to simply empty and start again. Problem solved!
Evan, 13 – Plane and tank
A plane…and a tank? With stabilizers, shooting missiles, a tank turret under each wheel, wing flaps, and landing gear where the tank wheels are hidden while flying and deployed while driving, and extendable wings for added armor – who’s the engineer up for building this?
Eden, 12 – The mall with more
There are some things we can all agree on, and this is one of them: “I think that all malls should have a waterpark and a petting zoo.”
9 and under
WINNER
Oscar, 9 - Jurassic World abandoned jungle
Join 7 explorers as they brave Jurassic World with all its predators, erupting volcanoes, caves with hidden animals, fighting dinosaurs, and a dino-capturing helicopter. Let your imagination run wild!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Eliza, 8 – Bumble car
It’s a bee car that can drive, park, and fly. And watch out, it can also sting!
Adam, 6 – Hygiene helper
“It has everything you need to go to school” – a toothbrush to brush your teeth, comb and scissors to style your hair, gets you dressed, helps you eat breakfast, and will walk right up to you to get things started!
Carina, 9 – Walk-in picture frame
“I thought it would be really cool if you could walk into a picture frame because then you could paint or draw your own world and walk right in.”
Some of our other favorites!
There were so many great entries that we just had to share at least a few more – here are some of our other finalists! Be sure to check out even more videos on our YouTube playlist.
News
Saturday Selections – Mar. 7, 2026
CNN's upcoming hit piece on Christian Nationalism
"Christian Nationalism" is defined all sorts of different ways. Some claim it's just white nationalism wearing a Christian face. Others insist it is a badly mistaken, top-down form of evangelism that wants to use the State to somehow force people to become Christian. And others identifying with the term argue it's about advocating for our nation to submit to the Lord.
These are radically different definitions... so what is it then?
There is more consistency when we listen to the way non-Christians are describing it – Christian Nationalists are those who think God is Sovereign over His people and all people, and His Word is authoritative to Christians but should be so for everyone else too. And if that's the definition then, as Allie Beth Stuckey notes in this video, we're all Christian Nationalists now.
Brace yourself for the AI Tsunami
They're replacing AI programmers with AI – it's writing its own updates! So what kind of work will remain?
“Lean into what’s hardest to replace. . . . Relationships and trust built over years. Work that requires physical presence. Roles with licensed accountability: roles where someone still has to sign off, take legal responsibility, stand in a courtroom.”
This 16-year-old doesn't think Australia's social-media ban for 15 and under will work
He has three reasons and I'll share two:
- The government blew it, banning social media accounts for kids, but that doesn't really limit their access.
- This is a parent's job, not the government's.
The second is an explanation for the first – any government action is going to be a big brute force swing at things, and when you have millions of kids looking for a way around it, they'll find a way, and already have. What's needed here is for parents to take up the very responsibility that God has entrusted to them in raising up their children.
But does that mean there is no role for the government? How can parents stand, as individual pairings, against the pull of the algorithms? Especially when their children's friends are under the influence already? As a fellow who thinks that government is most often arrogantly inserting itself where God never intended for it to go, I have to say I have sympathies here for government involvement. Parents do need help.
But as this article highlights, the Australian government tried, and largely muffed it. Might that be because it is indeed a parenting role, and the government is ill suited for it? So whence comes help? God did also give us the Church, and there is certainly room for more involvement in parenting – in the nurturing of it and accountability for it (Titus 2) – on that front.
The 12 Holocausts of 2025
Abortion, the leading cause of death in 2025, killed 10 million more than all causes of death combined. And the dehumanization of the unborn is built on 4 deadly forms of discrimination we all need to know.
We're drinking a lot less?
In Ps. 104:15, the psalmist speak to how God makes the wine that gladdens the heart. In moderation, a cold beer or a brown cow on ice can be a wonderful thing. But with the general lack of moderation in our culture, it's probably very good news that the world's top alcohol companies have lost almost a trillion dollars in stock valuation over the last 4 years.
A tree becomes a cross
This 12-minute Oscar-nominated short film took 200 volunteers six years to make. Why all that work and devotion? Because they had something to say – this was a specifically Christian effort to tell a story of undeserved love that has more than an echo of the Gospel in it.
John MacArthur picture by IslandsEnd and used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Today's Devotional
March 7 - Finding rest in the Lord Jesus Christ
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” - Matthew 11:28
Scripture reading: Hebrews 3:7-19; 4:11
Wednesday, we noticed that God commanded Adam and Eve to enter the fullness of God’s Sabbath rest by extending the borders of the Garden of Eden over the whole earth through having an extended family that would spread the glorious presence of >
Today's Manna Podcast
Jesus Christ has power over death
Serving #1138 of Manna, prepared by Carl VanDam, is called "Jesus Christ has power over death".
