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"[The
people at Huntington] have profoundly shaped my life, and I would not be
who I am without their encouragement or their
challenging words." |
From securing student
visas with the Belizean government to herding stray cattle off
campus, Jared Friesen’s many responsibilities can’t all be found
in his job description.
As a program director for
Creation Care Study Program, Jared’s day-to-day tasks are
numerous and diverse. He lives and works at Creation Care’s
campus in Nabitunich, Belize. “I wear many hats, some that I
had no idea I would wear prior to coming to Belize.” But Jared
adds, “I never get bored working and living here.”
A 1998 Huntington
psychology
graduate, Jared went on to earn a master’s degree in student
affairs from Ball State University in 2002. He then worked in
residence life at Taylor University and Calvin College, two
experiences that he found rewarding, yet humbling. He especially
enjoyed living and working with college students.
But ever since Jared could remember
he has wanted to live and travel abroad. “I am drawn to the
challenge and experience of living and working in another
country,” Jared explains. “There are different ways of doing
things, different problems, and different joys.” His desire to
live abroad was strengthened when he spent five months in
Ireland on a post-graduation trip with a college friend. Jared
and his wife, Meghan, frequently had discussed living and
working abroad, but the more he enjoyed his job working with
college students, the more unlikely that seemed.
Then, after returning from a mission
trip to Belize, Meghan told him about the work of the Creation
Care Study Program. CCSP provides an academic semester abroad
experience for Christian college students who wish to learn more
about connecting their faith to modern environmental issues.
Jared and Meghan prayed, discussed the job, and submitted their
résumés—even though no jobs were available at the time.
Six months later, the Friesens were
hired as program directors. It is a job well-suited for Jared
because it combines his passion for college students with his
interest in living abroad. He works to provide a safe and
healthy learning environment for the students, ensuring that
they get the most out of their experience. Jared spends a great
deal of time with the students, often eating meals with them,
sitting in on lectures, exploring the nearby Mayan ruins, or
playing a game of Frisbee golf.
Faced with the various challenges he
tackles on the job, Jared knows his overall experience at
Huntington prepared him well to reach out to others to form
meaningful relationships. As a freshman, Jared connected to a
group of friends to whom he grew very close. He continues to
maintain those friendships.
“These people have profoundly shaped
my life, and I would not be who I am without their encouragement
or their challenging words,” Jared says. “While we were in
college, we started to ask each other tough questions about
life, relationships and faith, and we struggled together at
times as well. We also encouraged each other and prayed for each
other, and in doing so, I became aware of a different and new
way of living—a way of life that was more rich, spirit-filled,
and sacred in many ways.”
Jared hopes that participants in the
Belize program will come away “with a sense of the concept of
Shalom (peace).” Not only does the experience challenge students
views on Christian community, but also forces them to
re-evaluate their walk with God and their assumptions about
global politics and the environment. As the program encourages
students to be stewards of God’s creation, Jared seeks to make
the campus a living example of how to better care for the earth.
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