(God says): “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy;

Psalm 82

It’s hard to get a sense of a country in just a few hours, but we gave it a good try here in Jamaica.

The best place to start is always with history, so Rebekah and I joined a tour heading out to the Greenwood Great House outside the port town of Falmouth.

The rambling manor-house, which dates from the late 1700s, was built on the backs of slavery, and financed via thousands of acres of sugar cane plantations. It is one of the few Jamaican great houses to have survived the 1831 insurrection.

Our bus broke down on the way there and – like in Costa Rica – the obvious poverty and the crumbling infrastructure told its own story.

I was especially saddened to see the state of the old Anglican St. Peter’s parish church. The once grand 1790 building is leaking through the roof, structurally compromised, and decaying in every way (other than its active worshipping community).

We are so incredibly blessed in the United States. Roads, schools, clean drinking water, reliable utilities, healthcare, grocery stores, and so many government support services – all these basics we take for granted while so much of the world struggles without hope of change.

I don’t believe it is possible to maintain an isolationist or compassionless world view if you travel much, and especially if you keep your eyes open.

Let’s do everything we can to share this good Earth 🌍 and its resources in every possible way.

And, if you don’t do so already, I recommend as much travel as possible. But when you do, don’t just keep your eyes open, keep your heart open too.

This is Derek Maul: dateline Jamaica.