At the Creek

Wednesday, ~6:30AM
It’s morning. The sun’s up and the birds are calling to each other. I find myself sitting at the edge of Jaguar Creek, a place and time of day I occupied almost exactly three years ago. Some things have changed. The deck now extends to the water’s edge. I could dangle my feet in the creek if I wasn’t wearing shoes. Some things are eternally the same. The crystal clear water burbles over the small waterfall upstream, surrounded by lush jungle growth. I’m reminded of the journal entry I wrote three years ago, and again of the contrasts between the natural beauty and the human degradation one sees in Belize. I’m not sure how the jungle view from where I sit could be much more beautiful. And I don’t understand the psychology and culture that permits the rampant trashing of this beauty with plastic bags and bottles and junk of all sorts. Not much different, I guess, from many of the ‘hollers’ I’ve seen in the hills of East Tennessee.
I spent yesterday in Orange Walk in the northern part of the country. Four and a half hours of driving punctuated by a four hour meeting with the principal of a Christian elementary school and her husband. Their dedication to and vision for their community and school was inspiring. The conditions in which they worked out that vision were appalling to these American eyes: unsafe wiring; open sewer lines; construction materials in hallways, classrooms and playgrounds.
But even in these conditions they immediately grasped the idea of providing clean water to their students and families as a way to powerfully minister to their community.
God is at work in us and through us amid the contrasts that define Belize.
- dan terpstra