By Katey Erickson

The past three weeks we have had a “summer” camp for the kids in the village as they are on vacation from school. The purpose of each activity that we planned for them during camp has been to encourage critical and creative thinking. Some of the activities also encourage teamwork. It’s been amazing to watch the kids think and learn as they are playing, cooking, or creating art.

I wanted to use camp to encourage critical and creative thinking for two reasons.

Number 1 – because these are not things that are normally taught in the public school in the village. Most of the work they do is rote memorization, copying and pasting basically, and some of the kids really struggle with thinking for themselves.

Number 2 – because when someone learns to think critically and creatively they can begin to do so in all areas of their life, including their spiritual life. If I want to encourage kids to truly interact on a deep level with God and His word but they don’t know how to think critically or creatively then it’s going to be a struggle. I don’t want their interaction with the Bible and God to be rote memorization and repetition of what their pastor says. I want them to truly think through their faith and have conversations with God and His word.

As I’ve been interacting with the kids as they learn to think more critically and creatively I’ve been challenged to think more critically and creatively myself. Not just in the camp activities but in all areas of my life. I’ve been more motivated to create art, read, analyze, etc. And it’s impacted my spiritual life too. I’ve had more of a desire to creatively connect with God, to draw my prayers, and to use photography to capture what He is teaching me. I’ve also had more of a desire to study God’s word and to really go deep and struggle through the questions I have about certain texts.

Do you think creatively and critically throughout the day? Do you have creative and critical thinking outlets in your life? Do you creatively and critically interact with God and His word?

If not, how could you start?