Reading and Re-Imagining

BELIZE - There is a sequence of days in the semester that is devoted entirely to reading - reading in preparation for upcoming classes. This sounds daunting, but we know how to break up the monotony. We've found that horseback riding is one effective method for helping us process all that information we've been packing into our brains.

Elyse (Gordon '13) and Liliya (George Fox '12) traversing the Belizean trails

After some relaxed reading for a few days, we were more than ready to welcome Drew Ward as our professor for Environmental Literature (more aptly titled "Imagining The Earth"). Having designed this course and taught it to many groups of CCSP students, Drew is very passionate, engaging, and knowledgeable about the subject matter. He challenged us to consider the ways in which our world is imagined for us without our awareness, and to awaken ourselves to re-imagine this world as God sees it. Literature - specifically environmental literature, which we learned to identify - can help us with this difficult but important task.

Having class surrounded by evidence of God's extravagant imagination

One of our favorite parts of the class included an afternoon field trip to Big Rock Falls, a 150-foot waterfall up in Mount Pine Ridge.

Anna (John Brown '12) loves water

And of course we had to get the full experience of the waterfall by swimming in the refreshing pool at its base.