Monday In Xenacoj

There is a lot to think about tonight as we close out the day. Our family did so many things today in and around Xenacoj. I was reminded that serving others is a big part of worshipping God. And I was reminded of the importance of taking time to be in the presence of God.

In between these messages which bookended the day, we received a Mayan cultural lesson and language lesson of the native tongue. We made our own tortillas and learned how to back weave – a method used to make clothing. We were invited into the home of a prominent family from Xenacoj where we enjoyed fresh fruit and dancing to a live band. We traveled to a nearby capital city where we purchased rice, beans, corn, and sugar for the widows in the community. And we spent some time breaking up these supplies into individual portions.

We’ve had a great time getting to know the Spooner family and interacting with Dave Sgro, Jesse Sgro, German, and German’s family.

A major highlight of the day involved a trip to see the house Hannah and I helped to build last summer. It was obvious that are endeavors last summer were a springboard for this family. I can’t wait to show our youth team from last year the pictures of this house (and I look forward to sharing these with you as we’ll when I have access to our photos).

Tomorrow, we will be going to a local school to share food and God’s love with 170 kids. From there, we will be journeying 3-4 hours away to a community where we will be helping GO! Ministries scout out another place of potential outreach.

It should be a great day!

Safe And Sound In Xenacoj

We made it to Xenacoj!!!

What an adventure so far. Our day started with a early morning breakfast at the Best Western in Newark, NJ. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but we knew we should appreciate it with an unknown of what may be coming in the food department. We headed to the airport in a shuttle and then everything went like clockwork until we found our seats on the plane.

Guatemala City was busy when we arrived. We quickly found Dave Sgro and his son, Jesse. And before long, we met our other partners who came from Ogdensburg, NY. The traffic was pretty bad between Guatemala City and Xenacoj, so we stopped to pick up some chicken at a trusted chicken restaurant on our way.

As we finally rode into Xenacoj, the town was buzzing with excitement as the annual town festival was getting ready to reach its pinnacle tonight. After our lunch, Dave Sgro debriefed us with information about GO! Ministries and about our week ahead.

Tonight, we met Linda and her five children. For all intensive purposes, she is a widow, and her kids are orphans. From what I understand, her husband left her. She is illiterate. She’s 27 years old. She makes the equivalent of $35 per week which leaves her 12 year old daughter to take care of the younger siblings. GO! has recently stepped in to help her get an education and to help her get on her feet. We were able to treat her kids to a fun time at the festival where they roadie rides, played games, and ate food. It’s a night they won’t soon forget, and neither will we!

And now, I try to sleep to the sounds of Xenacoj – fireworks booming, raindrops occasionally hitting the roof, the music of the festival still blaring, and dogs barking. Despite the noise, there is a peace to it all. Tomorrow is a new day, I can’t wait to see what it holds for us.

Into The Great Wide Open

As I type, I’m getting ready to head into the great wide open of Guatemala.

Our family is flying out this morning on a great adventure.

We have some ideas about what we’ll experience. We hope to make an impact on the people we encounter. The reality is we don’t completely know what we will experience and what kind of impact we will have.

Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible. I can’t wait to get back with stories of our experiences.

This week will be a little different here on the blog. I have guest posts scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. I’m planning to put an Ice Breaker up for Friday. While I’m in Guatemala, I’m not sure what kind of Internet access I will have. I’m going to leave Monday and Wednesday open for right now. It will be interesting to see what happens those days. Please check back throughout the week. You may just get a glimpse into the great wide open.

When was the last time you headed out into the unknown? Into a great adventure?

Ice Breaker – What Do You Do For A Living

Image by VerseVend (via Flickr – Creative Commons)

Each week on The Stretched Blog, I ask an ice breaker question. The questions are designed to help us get to know each other here in The Stretched Community. I’ll provide my answer to the question here in the post, and then you can leave your response in the comments. While you’re in the comments section, see how others answered the ice breaker question.

This week, I’m back to a video blog.

Question: What do you do for a living?

My Answer: See my response in the video below…

Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment. I look forward to reading your response! (As always, feel free to share links.) And keep STRETCHING!

Also don’t forget to sign up for the weekly Stretched newsletter. Check out this post to find out how to sign up.

July 2013 – Top Posts and Commenters

Here are the highlights from July 2013. Thanks to everyone who read along and commented. Your readership and participation in the daily discussions are what make The Stretched Community. Thank you! Overall, traffic was up from June (11.7%), and it was the best traffic in the six months since I stopped posting on Saturdays and Sundays. Traffic was up 46.5% compared to a year ago. The top 10 posts included two guest posts. If you missed any of these posts, I hope you’ll go and check them out now by clicking below. The post with the most engagement was Book Review: At The Crossing Of Justice And Mercy by Dan Erickson posted on July 16, 2013.

Top 10 Commenters:

- David Paul Stolpe (27)
- Steve Y (22)
- Larry Carter (16)
- Carol Peterson (12)
- Dan Erickson (12)
- David (12)
- TNeal (9)
- Catherine Daugherty (7)
- Dan Black (7)
- Joe Lalonde (6)

As promised at the beginning of the month, I have randomly chosen someone from the top 10 commenters to receive a copy of Kingdom Journeys: Rediscovering the Lost Spiritual Discipline by Seth Barnes. Your chances of winning increased the more you commented and the higher you were on the list. This winner of this book is…(drum roll)…Steve Y. Congrats to Steve!

For the month of August, I’ll be giving away a copy of The In-Between: Embracing the Tension Between Now and the Next Big Thing [A Spiritual Memoir] by Jeff Goins. This month, the winner will be chosen randomly from those who are signed up for The Stretched Newsletter. To find out more about how you can get the newsletter, click here.

Thanks to each and everyone for reading and for commenting. I’m looking forward to August with The Stretched Community! The month of August will include a few guest bloggers to help fill in the gap while I’m in Guatemala. August should be a fun month!

How was your month? If you’re a blogger share a link to your top post in the comments? What was your favorite Stretched post this month? How were you STRETCHED in July?

In case you’re interested, here are a few other interesting stats about July (based on Google Analytics):

Visits – Increased 15.31%
Unique Visitors – Increased 9.68%
Pageviews – Increased 19.70%
Pages Per Visit – Increased 4.00%
Average Visit Duration – Increased 2.94%
Bounce Rate – Decreased 4.75%
New Visits – Decreased 3.78%

Countdown To Guatemala – Some Details Of What Will Follow

Yesterday, I got an update on what we’ll be doing in Guatemala next week.

Do you want to hear about it?

We’ve been told that the missions field is a place where flexibility is critical, so these details are subject to change during our trip. I’m hoping these details will give you a better idea of what we’ll be doing and will help you pray for us next week as we serve in Guatemala.

On Sunday (the day we arrive), there is a big week-long festival starting in the town of Xenacoj where we will be spending most of our time. When we arrive, we’ll be enjoying the festival with our team, and we’ll be spending time with a young single mother and her five children. I got a little bit of her story when I spoke with Dave Sgro yesterday. You can pray that she would find hope in the midst of her personal obstacles of life.

Monday morning, we’ll be serving a meal to 100 kids at a local school. And Tuesday, we’ll be serving meals to 200 kids at two separate schools. You can pray that this meal would meet an obvious physical need and that it would also provide an opportunity to share the love of Christ in a practical way.

Wednesday and Thursday, we’ll be traveling 5 hours away to another village where we will be helping GO! Ministries explore the opportunity to expand and mirror their ministry to another village in need. Pray for safety in our travels to and from this new village and for confirmation, effectiveness, and discernment in this new venture to bring Christ to the people of Guatemala.

Thursday night, we will be back in Xenacoj to party with the 200 widows from the community. Here, we will have an opportunity to distribute baskets of goodies and necessities to each of the widows. These items were donated by our H.O.P.E. group. Pray for the practical provision and for hope for these women.

Friday, we’ll be serving meals again at a different local school. And Saturday morning, we’ll get to serve kids at the Xenacoj Center. And Saturday afternoon, we’ll visit Antigua as we finish up our final day in Guatemala.

At some point during our visit, we’re looking forward to visiting with the family we built a house for last summer. It will be great to introduce Leanne and Isaac to this family that touched our lives last year. Pray for a sweet reunion. And pray that we would be an encouragement to their family.

Finally, we’ll be traveling back home on the 11th. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for safety throughout the trip. And we pray that we would be open to God’s movement in our lives during this trip. We also pray that our trip would be an encouragement to those back home in the United States that they would find ways to serve in their local communities and around the world.

Next week, I’ll have some guest posts interspersed throughout the week, and I’m hoping to send a couple of updates from Guatemala. Stay tuned and keep stretching along with our family!

What has your experience been with short-term missions? How have you learned flexibility through missions and ministry? What would you like to know about Guatemala that we might discover while we’re there next week?

Lessons From The Weed-Whacking Incident

Friday night, I decided that it was a good time to get the weed-whacker out of the shed. I like cutting the grass and working in the yard, but there’s one thing that I don’t like about yard work. I can’t stand weed-whacking! With my kids growing up and becoming more responsible, they have taken over the bulk of the lawn mowing job. For some reason though, the weed-whacking is almost always left for me.

Everyone knows that it’s important to wear long pants, gloves, and eye protection when operating the weed-whacker. Right? You’d think I would have learned by now. For some reason, I did not put safety glasses on when I started weed-whacking. I did a great job avoiding the flying debris that was kicked up by the rapidly rotating trim line. I was making great progress when I ventured over to a small “flower bed” that is home to three forsythia bushes. As I was weed-whacking around the bushes, I suddenly poked myself in the eye with one of branches from a forsythia bush. It was so quick and painful. I was convinced I had done major damage to my eye.

I gently turned the weed-whacker off and put it down. After standing around in hopes that it would feel better after a few minutes, I decided I should try to make my way into the house to clean out my eye. I washed it out over and over again, but it still felt awful. I could see, but my vision was pretty blurry. What was I thinking? Needless to say, I was frustrated by my lack of precaution, and I was concerned that I may have caused permanent damage to my eyesight.

Saturday morning, my vision was still blurry and my eye was still pretty sore. As the day progressed, my vision and my eye seemed to be getting better. Sunday was much better, and I’m happy to say that I’m okay now a few days later.

My Friday night run in with the forsythia bush reminded me of the need for safety, and it also got me thinking about a verse from the book of Matthew:

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5

You see, I’m the one who usually gives my kids (and others) advice on being safe. And in the rest of life, I’m quick to judge others for the faults and failings. We live in a world today where so many people are quick to blame others and to point out the problems that others have.

Perhaps, we owe ourselves and others a better response. Here are a couple of ideas:

We need to look in the mirror. Before we start playing the blame game, we need to deal with our own failings. I’m not talking about beating ourselves up. I’m simply suggesting we tackle our own issues before we go pointing out the errors of others.
Respond with love. Instead of being judgmental, let’s find ways to be helpful. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul reminds us that “love keeps no record of wrongs.” Instead, it hopes and endures.
Look to Christ. I know it’s cliche to say, “What would Jesus do?”, but this gets back to my previous point. When we follow Christ, we treat others in the way we wish to be treated. We sacrifice our own interests for the interests of others. Plus, I think He’ll help us deal with our own failings.

I’m thankful for the lessons from my weed-whacking incident. And you can bet that I’ll be wearing safety glasses the next time around.

What lessons have you learned from working around your house?

Book Review: Losing The Mask by Diane Karchner

What do you fear?

For many of us, we fear failure. We simply don’t want to get it wrong. We want to be right. We don’t want to risk the possibility of letting others and ourselves down. And so, we often lead a life of paralysis. We miss out on life worth living, because we won’t take a leap of faith.

In Losing the Mask: Overcoming the Fear of Failure, Diane Karchner tackles her own fears and puts them on display for all to see. She provides valuable insights into what it takes to overcome our fears, and she encourages readers to take the next steps in removing masks in our lives.

I love this quote from the book,

At the end of my days, I don’t wish for any successes to be applauded, nor talents bragged about, as if that was all there was to me. Rather, I want my eulogy to read that I was ‘a woman who risked a lot, failed a lot, and always got back up.’

What is holding you back? What mask do you need to remove from your life? Check out Losing The Mask today. It’s a helpful and quick read that I recommend to anyone whose fear of failure is holding them back from living life to the fullest – a life worth remembering!

Losing the Mask: Overcoming the Fear of Failure is available for Kindle at Amazon.com. Go pick up your copy today!

[Note: I received Losing The Mask: Overcoming The Fear Of Failure for free in exchange for a review. I was not required to provide a favorable review.]

Ice Breaker – Where Did You Live When You Were Young

Image by VerseVend (via Flickr – Creative Commons)

This week, I’m back to a video blog.

Question: Where did you live between the ages of 9 and 12?

My Answer: Check out the video below…

Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment. I look forward to reading your response! (As always, feel free to share links.) And keep STRETCHING!

Also don’t forget to sign up for the weekly Stretched newsletter. Check out this post to find out how to sign up.

Of Bees And Bee Stings

Last night, our family dedicated a couple of hours to weeding the herb garden and the flower beds. While we were weeding in the front yard, I had an encounter with a nest of ground bees.

We were making great progress, and I was working on an area that is notorious for being hard to weed. There is an area of ground cover juniper. In this area grass grows up between the juniper branches and needles. It takes a pair of gloves to get through the needles, and I have to get down on my knees when weeding this area. I was about half way through this area, and I was excited to see that this area was getting cleaned up. As I started to get a large hand full of weeds, I felt something buzzing around my head. At first, I tried to brush it away, but I quickly stopped when I realized that there was a pinching feeling through my gloves. Suddenly, I realized that I was being stung by a bee and there were several other bees swarming around me. I quickly stood up and threw off my gloves making sure there were no other bees around me. Remarkably, I was only stung once.

I’m guessing, my hand will be hurting and itching later today.

The bee sting got me thinking some key “Be” verses from the Bible that merit some extra reflection.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. Mark 13:33
Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. I Corinthians 16:13
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I Peter 5:8-9
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12

I’m sure this is just a start. What other “Be” verses can you add to the list above? When was the last time you were stung by a bee?

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