Peace Purveyor:
Alum helps college students care for creation

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.