Where Is Your Xenacoj?

The last couple of weeks have been filled with posts recounting my trip to Guatemala where I served with a team of students and leaders in the town of Xenacoj.  I certainly don’t mean to bore you with details of my trip.  Writing about this trip has simply been a way for me to hang onto the things I saw, heard, and learned during this life changing adventure.  I’ll continue to post about this adventure from time to time, but I’ll spread it out from here on (at least for the time being).

Before I turn to other STRETCH topics, I thought it would be good to share some pictures of the people we served while we were in Xenacoj.  The people of Xenacoj are beautiful people.  They live a much simpler life than we do here in the United States.  They know how to pace themselves.  They don’t ever seem to be in a hurry.  They smile.  They say hello (our Buenos Dias!).

We came to share the love of Christ with the people of this small town in Guatemala.  I believe we did that, but we gained so much more.  We gained a new appreciation for life and for what is important in life.  We discovered that sharing Christ with others isn’t about speaking the same language.  It’s so much more about living it out in action and about humbly offering oneself to help, to pray, and to be present.

It’s been more than two weeks since our team returned home.  The students on our trip are getting ready for a new school year.  The leaders have settled back into their normal home and work routines.  How has this trip changed our lives?  I often ponder this question to myself.  I don’t want the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and memories of this trip to be a waste.  I want to use them in my own life to be a catalyst for continued transformation.

One direction that my thoughts often go back to is a simple question:  Where is my Xenacoj?  Where is God calling me?  How am I serving those around me?  How am I keeping my ears, my mind, and my heart open to God’s voice?  I have certainly been inspired to return to overseas missions in some form – maybe even to Xenacoj someday.  But I also realize that Xenacoj is right around me.  God has strategically placed me and my family in Schwenksville, PA – at Christ’s Church of the Valley – at Siemens – in the Perkiomen Valley School District – for a reason.  This is my Xenacoj!

Where is your Xenacoj?  Where is God calling you to serve?  How are you answering that calling?