Before coming to Puerto Rico I worked at Rosewood Assisted Living Community as the Life Enrichment Coordinator. I did my best for a year and a half to enrich the lives of 50 seniors who called Rosewood home by doing, exercise classes, reading to them, playing games with them, taking them on outings, doing crafts, studying geography and science, and just building relationships. In return my life was daily enriched by learning about their unique life stories. One of my dear friends from Rosewood is Mr. Bruce Nance.
After telling him that I was going to be moving to Puerto Rico he promptly pulled out a photo of himself from during WWII when he came through PR with the Navy. In the photo he is sitting on a beautiful Spanish fountain in Old San Juan.
Travis and I decided that we should go
in search of this mysterious fountain of youth from so man years ago.
Here is the photo journal of our attempt to find it. We wove our way through cobblestone roads
This is the gate through which all the dignitaries used to enter
San Juan during the Spanish rule.
The sun was setting and we knew dusk was not far from us but we had to stop for a few quick pictures of the mouth of the San Juan Bay.
While walking along the wall we sighted our first fountain and it was gorgeous.
But it was much too big to be Mr. Nance's fountain.
On the way back to the car we found a sweet little fountain, but it was much too small.
We then proceeded to the harbor where we thought we might find it. There we did find a fountain and a huge ship which reminded me of how Mr. Nance had come to Puerto Rico when he was here.
With the sun down and darkness falling we made our last efforts to find the special fountain of youth. We turned the corner a few blocks up and entered pigeon park and there we found yet another beautiful fountain.
The fountain wasn't on at the moment but of all the fountains it reminded me the most of Mr. Nances. Besides the statues, this fountain looked very much like the one my dear friend sat upon for a photo over 50 years ago. When he sat on the fountain he was young and eager to defend the future of his Nation, to provide for future generations a land of peace and freedom.
My Grandpa Sharp, like Mr. Nance, also joined the armed forces during WWII and during his time in Europe met a young Belgian man. When my Grandpa came back to the states he encountered His creator and began a relationship with Jesus Christ. He yearned to go back to Europe and share his new found faith and freedom with his Belgian friend. Some time later the Lord provided a way for him to go back to Europe. While there he was able to share the peace of Christ with his friend who joyfully embraced Christ and my grandpa baptized him in a local fountain.
Today I sit on a fountain in Puerto Rico, eager and hopeful that Travis and I can also be a part of something great. I hope we too can be a link in pointing people to an eternal land of peace in Heaven.
John :13-14
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but
whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of
water springing up into everlasting life.”
6 And He said to me, “It is done!
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of
the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. Revelation 21:6
New King James Version
I might not have found Mr. Nance's fountain in Puerto Rico but I know that through Christ I have access to the only water that truly quenches thirst and eternal life.
