Browsing Tag

Belize

The Founding of Jaguar Creek

The folks at Jaguar Creek recently asked for my reflections on the early days, so I drafted this for their blog. Seems worthwhile to share it here as well.

It was nearly 25-years ago when the phone call came. I answered with a simple, “Hello?” and the crackly voice on the other side said without any preamble, “I found it.” The voice was my friend Kirk calling from Belize. He and his wife had been searching for a unique property in the Belize rainforest so we could build an environmentally friendly research and education center. The goal was to have …

Belize, Junkyard Wisdom Book,

JW Belize

Tomorrow I fly to Belize and the amazing Junkyard Wisdom: Belize begins. There are twenty-two brave and adventurous folks on the trip! It’s going to be an incredible time of discovery, conversation, and (hopefully) spiritual growth.

We will be staying at Jaguar Creek, one of my favorite places on the planet (picture below). It has fully recovered from last summer’s hurricane and looks amazing. You really should visit someday!

D’Aun and I would appreciate your prayers. The book Junkyard Wisdom has opened so many doors of possibilities. Just today I received an email from somebody who read the book …

Family, PathLight,

My 58th Birthday

I was born in 1958 and it’s my 58th birthday today. Lots of 58’s ringing around in my brain, so here’s an idea. Give $58 to PathLight, and I’ll send you a free signed copy of my book Junkyard Wisdom. It’s a good way to support the amazing work PathLight does for children — education, mentoring, discipleship, and all the rest. And you get a halfway decent book!

Don’t have time to do this today? ~~Why you lazy…~~ Sure, I understand. We’re all busy this season. So I’ll keep this offer open till the end of the year.…

PathLight,

Back from Belize

I returned from Belize a week ago and I’m still excited about the amazing things happening there. PathLight is doing something special and the team is up to something big!

The trip began with a staff retreat on the coast, and it was fun to hang out with such great people. We had productive meetings of course, but we also had delicious meals together, sang karaoke songs on the pier (well, okay, the others sang as I laughed with them), and enjoyed the beautiful Caribbean.

Conversations ranged from forward looking ideas about expansion to basic housekeeping topics like the staff …

Belize,

Christmas Letter

A letter from my friend and spiritual mentor Bishop Philip Wright of Belize. I hope it blesses you the way it has blessed me.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that …

Belize, PathLight,

God Sneezed, It Went Viral

My friend Pete Greig is the visionary leader of 24-7 Prayer. He visited this past summer and Mark Parcher and I talked with Pete about the importance of global prayer. The three videos below are (slightly) edited versions of our conversation. It was filmed in our back yard, basically done in one take, and isn’t meant to be a fancy video presentation. It’s just the sharing of stories of how God can sneeze and, beyond our wild expectations, something goes viral. Hope you enjoy them.

As a follow-up, D’Aun and I had dinner with Pete and his wife Sammy …

Belize, PathLight,

Congratulations Rubi, the Latest PathLight Valedictorian!

Greetings from Belize. I’m here to attend the graduation ceremonies for the PathLight students, but most importantly you need to read about Rubi. She is an amazing young woman and we are proud to have her in the program.

Rubi continues the tradition of a PathLight student being at the top of the class academically. She is this year’s Valedictorian at Belmopan Baptist High School, which is one of the schools PathLight works with. Top academic honors is an amazing accomplishment for a young woman from the rural area of Belize, one of the poorest in all of Central America. …

Belize, Goble Properties, PathLight,

Social Enterprise Stories

Even after 33-years at Goble Properties, it is still fun to see others bewildered when I value people over profits, communities over growth, or the environment over margins. Of course I’ve failed many times on all counts. But when I do get it right, it often stands out as counter-cultural in the business world.

Which in turn triggers conversations about why I made a decision, which allows me to share how faith is central to my values.

Last week I wrote about social enterprise being a gateway to spiritual conversations with the wealthy. Within a few hours of posting those …