My Daily 5:15 Reminder
The alarm on my Timex Ironman wrist watch goes off every day at 5:15 PM. Many times this happens when I’m on my way home from work or when I should be packing up my desk at the end of the work day. Sometimes it happens on the weekends when I should be finishing up projects in the yard or when I’m simply relaxing with a good book.
The alarm has been going off every day since the middle of July last summer. Every time I hear the alarm I think of a place and a people I know and love. The place is Santo Domingo Xenacoj in the country of Guatemala, and the people are the many I have connected with the past three summers when I visited Xenacoj. It’s also the people I have yet to meet.
Last summer while our family was in Xenacoj, my daughter, Hannah, was trying to keep up her cross-country training schedule despite being thousands of miles from her teammates and familiar running trails. Understanding Hannah may not be safe running by herself on the streets of Xenacoj, I agreed to get up early with her to complete these training runs before our days started. This meant waking up before everyone else – at 5:15 AM.
We nearly missed the first day of running, because I didn’t hear my alarm. Thankfully, my body clock woke me up, and we were on our way for a run up and down the streets of Xenacoj.
During our morning workouts, we saw sites and sounds that most late risers miss.
We saw ladies cleaning the streets – sweeping up dirt and debris and shoveling trash into wheel barrels When they finished one section of road, they would move a little further down the road until they reached another area needing attention.
We saw men who worked in the fields coming out of their homes with a long-handled mattock over their shoulders. These men work from sun up to sun down caring for local farm lands owned by more wealthy people. The faces of these men were wrinkled from the sun. This is the life they have come to know. It’s the way they live. It’s the way their families’ have lived for generations.
We saw store owners slowly emerging to open the doors on their shops. In Xenacoj, it seems like there is a tienda (a convenience store) at every corner.
We saw other townspeople waking up and getting ready for their day ahead. Most people visiting Xenacoj would miss this experience, but our morning workouts gave us a different perspective.
Everyone looked at Hannah and me a little strangely as we ran by them in the streets. We waved and said “Buenos Dias.” And we were typically returned with a wave and “Bueno.” or “Dias.”
The morning workouts in Xenacoj gave Hannah and I a chance to connect. She’s a faster runner than I am now, but she had to run at my pace to help us stay together. Initially, there were very few words exchanged as we were both waking up. As we moved into the middle of our workouts, we shared reflections on the events from the day before, on the upcoming cross-country season, and of our hopes for Xenacoj. The last bit of our workouts again became quiet as I was out of breath and Hannah was preparing for the next part of the day.
When we arrived back at our home in Xenacoj, we assimilated ourselves back into our team as we prepared for our day. These early morning moments with Hannah on the streets of Xenacoj were a special part of my time in Xenacoj.
At 5:15 the evening after our first run, my alarm went off, and I realized I had set my alarm for PM instead of AM. I haven’t changed the alarm since this first day in Xenacoj last summer. Call me crazy, but I like the daily reminder that comes at 5:15 PM to beckon me back to a time and a place I want to hold onto forever.
What are you doing at 5:15 PM every day?
Consider setting your alarm for 5:15 PM as a reminder to pray for the people of Xenacoj.
If you are looking for more ways to help out in Xenacoj, we are currently raising funds to provide a new van for GO! Ministries (an organization serving the people in and around Xenacoj). Click here for more information.