Xenacoj Christmas 2013

Our family is planning to return to Xenacoj in Guatemala this summer. Here’s a video clip to help you get a taste for where we’ll be serving and the people we’ll be interacting with on this trip. More details to follow!

Red Shirt Steve

When I decided to go to Guatemala, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.  Sure, I knew that I’d be working hard in a foreign land.  I figured that the sleeping conditions would be uncomfortable.  And the people of Guatemala would be poor.  Most of my thoughts and preconceived ideas were focused on Guatemala and its people.  For the most part, I felt prepared for this new experience.

What I didn’t expect or consider was the interaction that I would have with the teenagers who came on this trip.  When we left for our trip, I barely knew the 20+ teenagers who went on the trip.  I remember gathering for our team building meetings before the trip started and for our bus trip to the airport.  I wondered how in the world I would relate to these kids who were all born after I graduated from college.  And I wondered how they would relate to me a relative stranger and an “old guy” to boot.

When we flew from Houston to Guatemala city, I sat between a window and one of the teens – Steve.  On this two and a half hour flight, Steve hardly said two sentences to me.  My pre-trip wonderings were being confirmed.  We got off the plane after our minimal conversation, and I didn’t interact with Steve much until the next afternoon.

I did my best to learn the names of the teens as quickly as possible.  There were three different guys named Steve on the trip which made my learning process extra challenging.  On our first work day, Steve from the plane was wearing a red shirt, so he soon became “Red Shirt Steve.”  I ended up calling him “Red Shirt Steve” for the rest of the trip even when he wasn’t wearing a red shirt.  On the job site, Red Shirt Steve and I worked together to pour the concrete floor and to install the wood siding on the sides of the house.  I learned that Steve is a soccer player, a senior in high school, and a hard worker.

Red Shirt Steve is on the left waiting to get the day started the first day of the trip.

Our interaction increased as the week went along.  Red Shirt Steve slept on the roof with a few of the leaders and a couple of other guys three of the nights.  As the lights were turned off in the compound and the overall noise level decreased, it was interesting to hear more about these kids.  I learned that Red Shirt Steve was interested in becoming a youth pastor.  I learned a little bit about his family.

I ran with Red Shirt Steve one morning, and I watched him play games with the other kids.  He’s clearly a great athlete and a fun guy to be around.  I couldn’t believe that this was the same guy who said two sentences to me on the plane ride at the start of the week.

Red Shirt Steve (Photo by Adam Flora)

Getting to know teenagers is kind of like peeling an onion.  There are so many layers.  It takes time and commitment to get to the center.  I had similar experiences with many of the other students on the trip.  I learned that each of these teenagers have a story that needs to be heard.  I discovered that most of the teenagers need adults like me in their lives – to listen to them, to interject into their lives, and to model for them what it means to follow Christ.

Since returning from the trip, I have started to help out with the weekly youth group gatherings.  It’s not quite the same as being with the same smaller group of kids for 9 straight days around the clock, but it’s been pretty interesting to see these kids on a different level.  I still see Red Shirt Steve from time to time.  When we see each other, there are more than two sentences exchanged.  I find out about school and soccer.  He asks about my family.  It’s pretty amazing!

Do you rub shoulders with any teenagers?  How are you investing in relationships with students?  Who invested in you when you were a teenager?

Pint Size Dreams Or Ocean Size Dreams

Over the course of this year, God has definitely been working on my understanding of faith.  Back in the spring, I posted about taking a leap of faith.  That message is still working on me.  This weekend, we had the honor and pleasure of hosting Dave Sgro and his son, Luke, at our house on Saturday night and to our church on Sunday morning.  Dave and his family are missionaries in the town of Xenacoj in Guatemala.  Our team worked with his organization (Guatemala Outreach (Go!) Ministries) while we were in Guatemala this summer.

Dave and Luke arrived at our house late around 10PM on Saturday night.  I’m sure he was tired from driving and we were tired from a busy day, but we stayed up for a couple of hours to hear more about Dave’s ministry.  It’s exciting to hear how God is providing ideas and resources for things that are having a huge impact on the town of Xenacoj.  Dave also shared his families’ story about their decision to sell everything they owned in North Carolina including their home and business and to move their entire family to Guatemala two years ago.

As we talked, Dave talked about our expectations for God.  He says that we often limit God through our expectations and dreams.  We expect God to fill our pint size hopes and dreams when God is actually capable of filling ocean size hopes and dreams.  It was a reminder that we need to dream big.  I wrote about this earlier when I talked about building a house in Guatemala.  This gave me a taste of this.  I could have just sought out enough money to go on the trip, but I decided to see if we could build a house through The Stretched Community.  I wonder even in that thought if I my expectations were too limited.

What would happen if we really dreamed bigger – if we realized that God is able to do far more than we could ever imagine?

Here are some of the ideas that come to mind for me:

• A family missions trip this summer to Xenacoj with other families.  No, a lifetime of Kingdom Journeys that change families both here in America and around the world.
• Another house built by and through the Stretched Community.  No, a real Stretched Community built by and through The Stretched Blog and The Stretched Community.
• A book.  No, ten books!

It’s my prayer that you and I would wake up to the vast love and power of a God who is able to do far more that we could imagine.  Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 makes more sense to me now than ever:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

(Ephesians 3:14-21)

Seriously, how are you putting limits on your dreams?  How can you enlarge your dreams?  What is one area where you need to grasp how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is for you?  What’s your dream – is it pint-sized or ocean-sized?

Take Time To Reflect

Last night, our Guatemala missions team got together at our house for a reunion. It was fun to have “Guatemalan” cuisine, to watch some of the video footage from our trip, and to hang out with these teenagers who changed my life just over a month ago.

I think it was appropriate for our team to have five or six weeks to gain perspective on our trip. And I think it was important that we reunited for an opportunity to reflect and reminisce on the nine days we spent together in a foreign land this summer.

Since returning home, I have definitely fallen back into the rat race of “normal” life at home with a job, two active kids, two dogs, and a generally non-stop schedule. I get to reflect a little each day through my blog – which is certainly a place to start. Yet it often feels like I have little time to stop and think. It’s so important that we take time to reflect.

Eastern University professor and notes sociologist, Tony Campolo, did a study several years ago. The study asked several elderly people a question like this: If you could live your life differently knowing what you know now, what would it look like? Nearly all of them responded the same way. They would risk more, and they would reflect more.

This is something I want to learn from. I’m certainly not a big risk taker. I’m very methodical in how I approach most of my life. Maybe the first risky move for me is to learn to take a risk. Taking a leap of faith is part of this, and my trip to Guatemala was certainly a leap of faith for me.

The other part of this answer involves reflection. Part of me posting over and over again about my trip to Guatemala is an exercise in reflection. I don’t want to forget the things God showed me through this experience. I certainly don’t want to stop living, but I think it’s a good practice to stop long enough to reflect.

So where does one start? I think there are a few places to begin the process of reflection.

1. Keep a journal. Keep it by your bed at night and with you during the day. Write down thoughts that come to mind as you go throughout your day or as you struggle to sleep.
2. Start a blog. Blogging provides another platform for sharing your reflections. For me, I get to share my stretch marks right here for e world to read.
3. Schedule time to get away from the busyness of life. This could be an afternoon in the park or a weekend camping. Make it a point to remove distractions.
4. Get away from the electronic toys and gadgets. I’ll admit that this can be a struggle for me at times, but I have found freedom and refreshment from times of detox from the digital world.
5. Meet up with a friend or two on a regular basis. Share with each other. Expressing in words the life going on around us can be a major part of processing – of reflection. This morning, I’m excited to meet up with two friends of mine for breakfast. This will give us a great opportunity to reflect on how God has blessed us with great friendships and on life since we last met together.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Philippians 4:8

What would you add to this list? How do you foster reflection in your own life?

Don’t Take It For Granted

On Saturday, I spent quite a bit of time cleaning our oven and stove top.  I cleaned the oven using the self-clean function on the stove.  This meant that I simply had to wipe out the oven after the cleaning cycle was complete.  The stove top took a little more elbow grease. I used Easy-Off first to loosen up the built up grease and baked in food deposits.  Then I scrubbed and polished until the stove top sparkled.  When it was all done, it looked great.

During my summer missions trip to Guatemala, our team installed 40 stoves in the homes of widows in the town of Xenacoj.  The materials for these stoves was donated through a grant from Rotary International.  Each stove weighed 450 pounds and cost $125 US.  The stoves are made with 11 cinder blocks, 5 prefabricated cement pieces, 7 clay brick pieces, a few sheet metal pieces, pummus stone, and two flat metal squares.  Once we got the hang of it, we could put a stove together in under an hour.  This included leveling out the ground under the stove, installing all the stove pieces, and cutting a hole in the roof.

This stove was not just another appliance in the house. By far, this was the most expensive material item that the widow had in her home.  The stoves burn at least 10% wood than their normal methods of cooking over an open fire.  The stoves also provide significant opportunity for health improvement by exhaust the smoke from the fire outside of the house instead of letting it linger inside the house and in the lungs of its inhabitants.

I didn’t think about these stove until long after I was finished cleaning up our oven and stoves at our house.  But when I did think about it, I realized that I don’t want to take it for granted that I have so much.  Not only do I not have to worry about breathing in the smoke of the cooking fire, I don’t have to work to gather enough wood to cook, and I don’t have to tend the fire to make sure it stays lit and gets hot enough to cook.  I simply turn a knob and maybe press a button or two and my stove top is on or my oven is baking to the desired temperature.  These are certainly luxuries compared to what I saw in Guatemala.

I’m not looking at taking out our cooking equipment to sell just so I feel better although the thought has crossed my mind that we could prune down our belongings quite a bit.  I guess it’s just a reminder to me that I shouldn’t take for granted things like cooking equipment, other home appliances, working bathroom, running water that is safe to drink, vehicles, and other things.

While I was in Guatemala, I learned a new song.  The song still goes through my head from time to time.  I don’t know the name of the song or the chords, but it goes something like this:

There’s no place I’d rather be;

No Place I’d rather be;

No place I’d rather be;

Then here in Your love;

Here in Your love.  (Repeat)

Set a fire down in my soul

That I can’t contain

That I can’t control.

I want more of You, God.

I want more of You, God.  (Repeat)

As the song goes through my mind today, it’s a reminder that whether I’m serving in a small town in Guatemala, spending time with my family in a small town in Pennsylvania, or working at my job, I don’t want to take things for granted.  And I especially don’t want to take God for granted.  God is there right where I am, and that is where I want to be – right there in His love.

Perhaps, it’s a stretch to go from cleaning a stove to realizing the desire to have God in my life, but sometimes life works that way.  I’m thankful for the chance to clean the kitchen on Saturday.  I’m thankful for the chance to install stoves in Guatemala.  And I’m thankful for a fire in my soul that wants more of God.

What are you taking for granted today?  How’s your spiritual temperature these days?

Ice Breaker – The Last Time I Cried

Each week on The Stretched Blog, we 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’s question is an oldie but a goodie.  My answer has changed since I originally posted this Ice Breaker question back on October 19, 2011.  This is one of my favorite Ice Breaker questions to ask.  Depending on the answers, the level of community can go real deep with a question like this.

Question:  When was the last time you cried?  And why?

A family changed forever in Guatemala (Photo by Kaleigh Rank)

My Answer:  Earlier this week, I shared my Wrecked Creative Expressions.  This was created the same day I last cried.  On July 29, 2012, our team finished the house in Guatemala.  For me, this was the culmination of a lot of hard work, prayer, and team effort.  As I’ve shared here before, it took 2 1/2 days and the hard work of our team of 31 to build the house.  It took over 3 months and a generous blogging community to raise the money to pay for the materials required to build the house.  The dedication service for the family was a moving experience (as I shared before).

After the dedication service, we headed to the center where we ate lunch every day.  As I walked into the center, missionary Dave Sgro asked me how I was doing.  I could barely get my answer out.  I explained the feeling of being “wrecked” over this experience.  I was transformed by the whole experience.  I know we forever changed the lives of the family who received this house.  But my life had been changed as well.  As I grabbed my lunch, I sat off to the side.  The tears were uncontrollable as I tried to collect my thoughts and eat my lunch.  The tears were tears of joy for a feeling of accomplishment.  They were tears of sadness as I didn’t want this part of the experience to be over.  And they were tears of uncertainty not knowing when I would be able to do something like this again.  And that is the last time I cried.

There you have it – my answer.  Now, it’s your turn.  Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment.  I look forward to reading your response!

Wrecked Creative Expressions

When I was in Guatemala last month, we had evening worship every night up on the roof of the compound where we stayed.  Each night, the Adventures in Missions team would lead us in some form of creative expression.  Typically, this time revolved around prayer.  One night, we were each handed a piece of construction paper and some markers.  We were then instructed to be creative in writing down or drawing how we felt God was speaking to us at that particular moment.

I had just finished reading Wrecked by Jeff Goins along with the trip to Guatemala had me thinking a lot about getting out of my comfort zone.  Here is what came to mind as I wrote down my thoughts:

As you can see, part of it is cut off and some of it was blurred.  Here’s a recap of what I wrote on this paper.

WRECKED

• Getting out of my comfort zone was so worth it!
• I have one life.  I want to make it count.
• Never ever forget today.
• Don’t underestimate the power of one to make a difference.
• Let my heart break for the things that break the heart of God.
• Don’t strive to be comfortable.  Strive to be disturbed.
• Stop.  Listen.  Be still.  Fight distraction.
• Pursue wreckage and strive for a life of meaning.
• You are never too old or too young to make a difference.

7-29-2012  (This was the day that our team finished the house.)

These thoughts still apply today.

How is God speaking to you these days?  What’s making you uncomfortable?

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?

Building A House: The Schedule

Being part of the construction industry for over 18 years (wow, that makes me sound old), I realize that it is extremely important to have a project schedule in order to keep everyone on task and moving toward the ultimate goal of completing the project on time and under budget.  Over the years, I’ve seen projects fail when schedules didn’t exist, weren’t correct, or just weren’t followed.  I’ve also seen extremely complicated building projects come together quite smoothly thanks to a well thought out schedule that everyone followed.

When we were in Guatemala, we were told we had three days to completely build a house from the ground to the roof.  We didn’t have a written schedule, but we had a “construction manager” from Casas por Cristo who kept us informed and on task.

Josh Crabbs (the “construction manager”) travels back and forth between El Paso, TX where he lives to building sites in Mexico and Guatemala to lead teams in building houses.  On our last day together in Guatemala, I told Josh that he has one of the best jobs in the whole world – he gets to build things, he works with teams, and he helps to dramatically change the world for so many needy families.

During our home build project, one of the kids asked Josh a question that was on the minds of many of us on our team:  “Josh, are we on schedule?”  We all wanted to make sure we would complete the project on time.  In fact, we wanted to know if we’d finish it up a little early.  I love Josh’s response, “Yep!  We’re right on God’s schedule.”  Building a complicated building is one thing, but building a house for Christ (Casas por Cristo) means something else when it comes to schedule.

I think Josh was trying to remind our team that God has opportunities all around us if we just open our eyes.  The house will be completed when it needs to be completed.  When you’re building a house for someone like this, it’s not just about finishing the physical floor, walls, and roof.  It’s about bringing hope and light into a family’s life.  It’s about being open to God’s voice as He speaks to us and teaches us through the experience.

I’m sure there were moments when Josh was frustrated with our progress on certain tasks, but I also think he knew we would complete the house at some point on day 3 of our build.  He knew that it was so much more than keeping up with a schedule.  It was about changing lives – the lives of the family and the lives of our team.

As it turned out, we actually finished the house before lunch on the third day.  Our team did a fabulous job working together, following directions, and staying on God’s schedule.

When have you had to rely on God’s schedule in your life?

Building A House: The Walls

In America, we take for granted that we have solid walls in our homes that protect us from the sun, wind, rain, snow, and other elements along with intruders.  We all have windows and doors in our homes that lock and keep us safe.

In Xenacoj, Guatemala, many of the homes are built with walls that are made of cornstalks woven together.  There are no windows or closing/locking doors on homes with this wall type.  If you are more wealthy, your home might be built with cinder blocks.

The home we built was built with wood framed walls and was covered with wood tongue and groove siding.  This was definitely a rare form of construction for this neighborhood, but it will make all the difference for the family who received this house.  Along with wooden walls to protect them from the elements, the house had three windows and a front door that closed and locked.

I had the pleasure of working with a couple of teams that installed the wooden siding on the houses.  This was a fun project as we could rapidly see the house coming together through the efforts of our labor.

All the kids did a tremendous job throughout the entire project, so the story I’m about to share isn’t meant to slam their efforts or craftmanship.  I simply share the story to help me remember a valuable truth that we learned while working on one side of the house.

The back wall of the house was twenty feet long which meant we needed to install a minimum of two pieces of siding for each row of siding that made its way up the side of the house.  Before we started, a chalk line was used to mark the top of the first row of siding.  I’m not sure if the chalk line wasn’t quite correct or if we just had trouble the first row.  At any rate, a small unevenness in the first two pieces of siding made it a real challenge to complete the rest of the side of the house.  As the team continued to install pieces of siding, it was obvious with each row that something wasn’t quite right.  By the time we finished the side, we were able to make the necessary corrections to finish the side, but we learned some great lessons along the way.

First, we learned to measure twice and cut once.  I don’t think we wasted many pieces, but there were a few times where we needed to make slight adjustments to cuts because a measurement wasn’t quite right.

Second, we learned that teamwork can have an amazing impact.  Working together, I saw teams perform a task that they had never dreamed of completing before.  As I stated before, these walls went up pretty quickly – especially when everything went right.

Third, it’s important to get started on the right foot.  This is my best advice to anyone who is starting something new – like college, a new hobby, a home improvement project, a new job, and even a new year of school.  Getting started well makes things a lot easier down the road.  But we also shouldn’t lose hope if we got off on the wrong foot.  It may take a lot more work and even some rework, but things can be fixed.  It just isn’t the most efficient or effective way to get things done.

I’m so thankful for the lessons learned while building walls for the house!

What do you have coming up in your life that could benefit from a good start?  What kind of walls do you have on your house?