[00:00:00] Jim: Hey everybody. Okay, I sit down with Charlie Petro today. We have an amazing conversation about solidarity, like building relationships with people that last, that change us, that change them. We talk about it in the context of short-term mission trips. Charlie is the executive director of the Sheen Catholic Ministries here in the archdiocese of Omaha, but even more, we talk about like what it looks like in everyday life. You're going to love today's conversation. Take a listen. 

[00:00:32] Intro: Hey everybody, welcome to the EquipCast, a weekly podcast for the Archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host, Jim Jansen. Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission. Let's go.

[00:00:50] Jim: Charlie Petro, welcome to the EquipCast. How are you doing? 

[00:00:53] Charlie: Thank you, doing well, thanks. 

[00:00:54] Jim: Good. Okay. So, we've already been like classic Jim, like having a really cool conversation. And then it's like, Oh crap, we should turn on the mics and actually record this. Charlie, we've known each other, I don't know, maybe, maybe like six months.
It was, I'm embarrassed to say the beautiful work that you do. You're the executive director of Ixim, beautiful mission partnership between the Archdiocese of Omaha, Guatemala. I didn't know anything about it until you came. To my parish. So, we want to dive into that. We want to talk a little bit about mission and solidarity and all sorts of kind of beautifully universal things, even if somebody never takes a trip to Guatemala.
But Charlie, first off, introduce yourself. Who are you? What's your story? 

[00:01:40] Charlie: Yeah, I've been involved in mission through a lot of part of my life and yeah. It's kind of funny. My, my confirmation saint was saying, for instance, Xavier, who's the patron saint of missions. Yeah. Um, and I was a kid who grew up in Florida without a lot of money.
My family's originally from Pittsburgh. And so, we went north to Pittsburgh for holidays. And I'd never been north of Pittsburgh or west of Pittsburgh. Um, but I had priest Kiltigan father who's like a missionary Irish missionary priest. And there was a Polish missionary priest in my parish when I was growing up.
And then, um, There are these teachers who are Peace Corps volunteers and things like that. And I think it just kind of set this idea of mission in going out into the world into my heart. And, um, yeah, eventually that took me to doing long term mission in Peru for several years. And my wife is Ruby, and I met her there.
And then. After a little period doing some other things, I did long term mission again with Mary Nole missioners in Tanzania with my wife and children for three years and kind of we decided we would return to the United States as my kids were entering kind of secondary school age and there was this opportunity to do mission but live in the United States here in Omaha to help lead this, this mission.
And so, I was able to continue that path of being a missionary and having, living out the missionary spirit that was put in my heart, who knows how long ago, while also being able to be kind of a part of the church here and get people on fire for mission here in Omaha. 

[00:03:13] Jim: Charlie, you, you mentioned you, you're married, you've got children now, kind of secondary age.
Like, what is the experience of mission? I mean, you did, you were in Tanzania with your family. What has that done for your family life? 

[00:03:27] Charlie: It's made us really close. We moved kind of even besides that, but just those kinds of huge moves. And we sold everything we had. We lived in Madison, Wisconsin at the time, sold everything, two cars, a house.
We put what we had into four bags. My kids were five and seven at the time, and we moved overseas that we might live there a long time. And I think that just made us. Rely on each other in a really unique way. And I think one thing I wanted my children to get from it was that it's okay to be different.
You can't avoid being different in Tanzania if you are, uh, Americans. And so, it, it, it really, and I see that in the, in them now, um, as they're in that kind of teenage years when it's awkward sometimes to be different, that they have a confidence in themselves. And in their faith and the values that they have, uh, although they still struggle as teenagers do with being unique in some ways, but I just think that it helped our family really focused and just focus on what it means to live simply.
Yeah, um, that's never been an issue with my children. They are our goal to kind of live as simply as we can, even though we're back in this kind of. Middle class, uh, Midwestern city context. Yeah. 

[00:04:42] Jim: Gosh, I mean, I, yeah, I couldn't help but think as you're saying, you're like, Oh my goodness. I wish I could have gone on like a mission trip like that because the insecurity that many of us have being different.
I love the way you said that you can't avoid being different, being able to become comfortable with being different, being able to like. Live a real training in simplicity, like good grief, those two things alone are such huge gifts and often crosses for us who don't, you know, have that the gift of an experience like that, that helps train us how to embrace our uniqueness and embrace simplicity.
That's, that's fantastic. Okay, so tell us a little bit about you. You're the executive director of Ixim. It's a mission organization that connects the archdiocese of Omaha and the Diocese of Huehuetenango, which is in Guatemala because all of you are like, Oh, Huehuetenango, I know that place. Where is that?
That's in, that's in Guatemala. For those of you who don't know where Guatemala is, uh, Google it. The organization is about 20 years old. How did Ixim get started? And, and how's, how's the relationship grown? 

[00:05:51] Charlie: There is a priest named Father Damien Zuerlein here in the Archdiocese, um, at the time he was working in one of our major Hispanic parishes in South Omaha, where a lot of the Hispanic population is particularly at that time.
And he wanted a way to connect the reality that many of the parishioners that he had, where they had come from, the reality that they lived. Two people here in Omaha, they're, they're brothers and sisters in faith. And so, he wanted to do some kind of mission and he happened to know a seminarian or a former seminarian from Huehuetenango, who had moved here.
And that, that person, uh, Sergio Sosa hooked Father Damien up with the diocese. Father Damien went down there thinking, we'll do a parish-to-parish thing, maybe with one of the kind of middle-class parishes here, uh, St. Vincent of Paul, for those of you who, uh, know, are the Archdiocese of Omaha, with a parish down there.
And when he went down there and talked to the bishop, the bishop said, no, no, no, not parish to parish, diocese to diocese. The bishop did not want one parish receiving all the benefits while the other parishes received no benefits because this one parish has a connection. Wow. Um, and Father Damien said, okay, that's above my pay grade.
Let me check. And even to that point, he was thinking, you know, it's easy to control a parish. You cannot control an archdiocese. Like, how can you have a diocese? But he said, you know, we'll just figure it out. And he came back and talked to the archbishop here, um, which is archbishop Curtis at the time.
And Archbishop Curtis got on board and, and it moved forward from there without a lot of real, you know, thought about it's going to be this, it was more, we're going to build relationships and figure it out. And that's how the organization has continued to grow is really the board is 50, 50 Guatemalan.
And American, it is focused on lady-to-lady relationships more than, you know, a lot of some of these diocesan relationships tend to be, there's a diocesan mission director. He's connected with the diocese there and right. And so, it's really about lay people in the parishes and in the archdiocese connecting with lay people.
In Huehuetenango, and so, our board is lay people and Huehuetenango and lay people here in the archdiocese, along with the archbishop and priests and things like that. But that's really been the main focus. And from that, those relationships have developed into ongoing projects and support for women, religious.
In Huehuetenango, who served, they are indigenous women who serve as pastoral workers and teachers and nurses and water filtration projects to bring clean water into homes, health programs, things like that have all come from this relationship and getting to know one another over the past 20 years.

[00:08:42] Jim: It's beautiful. It's, it strikes me as sadly too unique. In that oftentimes, you know, things get kind of institutionalized, and we try and, you know, script the Lord or the Holy Spirit into like, okay, you're going to bless us this way and we're going to do it this way. And yeah, I love the freedom as you talk about the way it was developed.
I want to give you a chance. You've, you've used the word relationship a lot. And I know some of the writings of John Paul II is his kind of like his call for solidarity was also a a part. I don't know if charism is the right word, but just an inspiration for, uh, for Ixim at the start. Can you say a little bit more about solidarity?

[00:09:23] Charlie: Solidary is a really difficult concept. I think it's, it's a newer concept in the church. You know, when, when we think about things like preferential option for the poor, we're like, okay, well that I know how to do that. Okay. That's easy. Uh, well not maybe easy, but it's clear. It's not as it's concrete and solidarity.
It's like, well, what? What is that? It, you know, one of the things I do, we have sister schools that connect Catholic schools here in the, in the archdiocese of Omaha to Catholic schools and the diocese of Waiwai Tanongo. And so, I'll go into these schools, and I'll talk to the kids. And one thing I'll say is what's a word, what's a part of solidarity that you recognize?
And they say solid. And then I ask, who's, who's a good science student. I asked that science student. What's the difference between a liquid and a solid states of matter? And they're like, well, you know, if, if I had liquid in a jar and I poured it out, it goes everywhere, but if I had a solid in a jar and I tip it over, it falls out of the jar and it stays together.
And so, the focus is. On that togetherness, and I would say Christian solidarity is about a radical togetherness where we are really one John Paul the second, right? We are one body, one body of Christ. If you were in the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver, right? So that's That was a message that he had in this value of, of connecting us beyond the divisions that we create amongst each other.
And so that's really this idea of radical togetherness is what we're focused on. And this togetherness. Specifically, with the Ixim spirit of solidarity, and that's the full name of our Michigan is she means corn in Mayan and where the corn Husker states, that's what links us together and that's their staple crop.
And that's where the corn has her state, but then the spirit of solidarity. Is the second part of our name. And it's really all about this radical togetherness with this people who are very different from us. They speak a different language, have a different culture. It's not Spanish. So, in, in Huehuetenango, um, there are 12 different languages spoken.
Only one of them is Spanish. The other 11 are different Mayan dialects. Yeah. Um, so right now we've had a five-year relationship with one particular area in Huehuetenango, where they speak a language called. Uh, a lot of the Guatemalan, uh, migrants here in Omaha speak or, um, so, so it's, it's amazing the cultural diversity within this small area, reaching across a border, reaching across a culture.
Reaching across an expression of faith, they share the Catholic faith, but the way that they express it is often very different when we go to, to pray there, people go, there's a lot of kneeling and a lot of incense and, uh, people get, you know, not that we don't have incense here and we don't kneel, but it's like 10 times the amount of kneeling and 10 times the amount of incense, right?
Um, that kind of different experience of the faith and reaching across that to say, we are still together to the point where. Together when we pray together, when we work on the mission projects, we always work alongside our brothers and sisters there, uh, on projects that they choose for our mission time.
When we're, when we're in Huehuetenango to living together. We live in the houses. There aren't hotels in the farther villages where we go. So, we're living alongside them. In their houses, they open their doors to us and have we have meals in their houses, and that's a form of radical togetherness.
That solidarity that is really the foundation of a relationship. If you don't have that togetherness, the relationship becomes one sided one way or the other. And I think that's what Pope John Paul II was trying to preach and be prophetic about was in some ways. Other images of mission that still go on today are wonderful, but they tended to have kind of a one sidedness to them.
And he was looking at it as, you know, the church as we grow, for instance, in Huehuetenango. The diocese was started by Mary knoll missioners from the United States. It's cool. It's now entirely run by people from Huehuetenango priest. All the priests are from Huehuetenango. Most of the religious are from Huehuetenango.
And so that kind of change involves a change in how we relate to one another. 

[00:13:42] Jim: Yeah. I mean, I just want to emphasize you're like, uh, the point is not to dig a well or build a house or frame something. I mean, you are doing things. I want to give you a chance to talk about the water purification project because that's.
Really exciting and impressive, but you're saying that the whole point is relationship. We're eating together. We're working together. Yes, but we're living together. There's, there's, we're trying to develop this solid, real relationship, which sounds. I mean, really hard. I mean, hard is like, gosh, the distance and the language.
How do you overcome the distance and the language, all the various dialects and all that? Like, I mean, it's hard enough sometimes to build relationships with people who, at least at the Superficial level seem to be exactly the same as you and I, how do you develop those relationships? 

[00:14:33] Charlie: I think we really benefit from happening to visit a culture that really understands hospitality as a sacred value.
And when we enter into their space, their town with the town comes out and greets us as we get off the bus, their parish, as they give us the best seats up front during mass. You know, invite us to come up and talk after mass and introduce ourselves when they give us the best bed, one of our missionaries has talked to me about how, you know, he went into this house.
That's, you know, not much bigger than than Jim's office here that we're sitting in right now. Um, and, you know, there was kind of a sleeping area. Uh, Where there were, you know, there's four children and two adults in this house and the sleeping area was entirely given to these two big six foot over 200 pound men, uh, while the children had to sleep on the floor, you know, and the parents slept in a corner on kind of a table that generosity of spirit and heart of, of opening up.
Their lives so easily to the strangers I think makes it really easy for us to break our hearts open ourselves and let them in and start to form that relationship and that's all the culture that we go into specifically this. The indigenous Mayan culture within Guatemala, where a guest is really a sacred person, you know, and unfortunately, sometimes in our culture, we look at a guest as, you know, what's they stay a little too long sometimes, or, you know, it's, it's, we, we have all the sayings about guests.
And our ideas and our cultures and our, our house is sometimes a fortress, right? From, from the world, uh, where their houses are, are open to, to us. And so, I think that really, that's the first starting point that helps build that relationship. When you see someone. With that smile and that generosity toward you, the stranger, uh, you immediately, all of those fears that the missionaries have about where am I going to sleep or how am I going to do this?
Or what's it going to be like? I don't speak this language and it all starts to melt away. It all starts to melt away. And then that kind of. Faith jumps in and you start to extend your hand back when such open arms have been given to you, you start to extend a hand outward. Maybe even you open your arms as well to have that embrace and then that starts those relationships across the language barrier, across the cultural barrier.

[00:17:18] Jim: Yeah. Charlie, I mean, the way you talk about it is so beautiful. I mean, it sounds healing. I mean, to be honest, how did the lay missionaries that come on these trips, how do they experience that? Like, what does it do in their hearts and minds? 

[00:17:34] Charlie: Everyone has a really unique experience. I don't have a hard sell for going on a trip because I really believe you're called to it.
And so, we just, we plant the information and if you're hearing that call. We're helping you discern through the process, but you're being called to join us. And so, what everybody's being called for and why is very unique to each individual person. Even I just got done with end of year one on ones with our board and it just surprises me why each person on that board is involved in our mission for a different reason.
They're called to it for a very unique angle to what we do, and it's the same way what people are being called to might be to jumpstart their faith that might have been a little bit on cruise control or to be grateful for what they have or to what they have. Receive, you know, a college student who's now finishing her medical school.
She went when she was an undergrad and it was a call for her not only to enter the medical field, but to go into rural medicine in the United States because she saw the rural necessities in Guatemala and realized that we have the same necessities here. So, each individual person is being called for a unique message.
And each individual person hears that message in a different way. And the truth is some people, they go on the trip, uh, and there's always a couple of people who come back and they're like, that was too much, like, wow, I need to step away from whatever that just was because they're being confronted with poverty and, and difficulty and, and struggle in a way that's very unique and different from what they've experienced.
And so maybe they're not even going to hear that, what they were. being called to hear for years. Maybe it's something they hear much later on. So, it really is very unique to each person because they're responding to a call to mission that they've received from the Lord. And so, yeah, that's, that's really a special thing about being, about my job is I get to witness that.
That's why I have my job to be a part of that transformative experience of each of these individuals that I get to know. You know, over a six-month formation period, sometimes even before that. And then during the trip for that intense, like 11, 12 days. And then after that, 

[00:19:51] Jim: Charlie, maybe talk a little bit about the formation period, because I, I mean, thank you for acknowledging that sometimes, you know, people go on a mission trip.
And usually, the people who tell stories about their trips, they're like, Oh my gosh, it changed my life, and it was so beautiful. And, you know, and then, but that's not a universal experience. There's some people like, it's not that the Lord isn't there and it's not that they weren't called, but what they're being offered takes a little bit more time for them to receive.
I suspect the formation is designed to kind of prepare people to receive those gifts. How do you prepare people for these experiences? 

[00:20:27] Charlie: We have a great group of volunteers and board members who have a wonderful wealth of experience to equip people for what they're going to go through. Another missionary likes to say when he talks about the mission, it's not a trip, we say mission trip, and that's just the term we use, but it's not a trip.
It's not a vacation. It's a, it's a real experience because it's not, it's like it's physically, emotionally, spiritually demanding. Yeah. And so, in order for people to get through it. And to get something from it, they really need to be equipped. It's the equip cast, right? They need to be equipped. And so, um, you know, for, for instance, Creighton university with one of our board members is the senior director of Ignatian formation.
And so, we, we have a discernment meeting coming up and she's going to give discernment really big with the Jesuits, right? So, she's going to give a whole session on discernment for people. As we start the formation process so they can continue to discern their call. Why was I called to this? Am I called to this?
Yeah. What am I getting? Why, what do I need right now? So just that starting point. And then to talk a little bit about the value of solidarity, brother Damien Zuerlein’s there to talk about mission, to talk about culture, to talk about all of these little pieces that go into understanding what you're entering into.
Yeah. So that when you're there and a lot of people, you know, they, they go through some people go twice or more than that. And so, we always ask everybody goes through the formation process. So even if you're part of the trip leadership team, you're going to be in those formation because we build our group there too.
And part of how we. Right. We live as we depend on each other. So, some people who go through the second time they're like, Oh, I am hearing that now. I know I heard it last year, but hearing it now, it makes so much more sense because I've lived it out, you know? So, it's just not necessarily that they're going to retain all this information, but to set a context for what they're entering into helps people process.
And of course, we pray and reflect every day. Mm hmm. And we share and reflect every day. And so equipping people to be ready for that, because not everybody is. I think it's becoming a more common tool that Catholics have in their bag, but it's not as maybe common as it needs to be. Yeah. Giving people those tools as well when we have this formation process so that when we sit and reflect, and people are having these experiences, and they don't know what to do with them right there that day.
We have a moment and we've prepared people for that sharing moment. 

[00:22:58] Jim: You know, as you're talking about all this, I'm reminded I have taken some, you know, been part of several mission trips to Alaska, Mexico city, working with street kids and families in the dump. I'm actually reminded of kind of the, the work domestically.
On college campuses to accompany people that are first learning how to pray and first stepping into mission because it's not hard in the sense that there's not, you know, like, it's safe to drink the water, you know, in, you know, on most college campuses, I'm not aware of any where it's not, but, you know, it's like, it's safe to drink the water and it's, you know, there's not like this cultural language barrier and yet learning how to pray, learning how to share your faith, When it can be an accompanied experience, when you have someone who's, who's been there before, who's able to help you make sense of discouragement, you know, nobody showed up for my small group and I feel like a loser.
And there's like, well, Jesus showed up, you know, and just, just being able to help people with that is huge and makes all the difference, I think, in people persevering as missionaries. Charlie, what do you see in terms of lasting fruit? Both those folks from Nebraska that have gone, and then, uh, fruit within the lives and the community in, uh, Huehuetenango?

[00:24:23] Charlie: For people here, it's, it's the transformation that so many of them go through, and to the point that the, the people that they meet in Guatemala become their family, uh, an extension of their family, a part of their family, and the depth of That spiritual experience stays with them and they, they maintain that depth here and spread it amongst their parishes and their communities and the people that they know, uh, that's such a powerful fruit.
And it's something that I mean, I've experienced on my own mission experiences. That's, that's what I, uh, why I still want to be a part of that. Because. Watching the transformation that happens and watching people go out and make a difference because of that transformation is so huge for Huehuetenango these ongoing projects that we help support.
They make a huge difference. The water filtration project with which you mentioned that provides clean water to about 40, 000 families right now, such a huge economic and health impact with that. But above all, it's. And I say this to people, I put like, what do we do? And one of the things we do, I say is presence.
The one that ends in C E, not T S, uh, for presence and being in the community. And I say the work that we do, because we'll work in a medical clinic or in a school painting all day. And then. They will bring out the marimbas and we'll be, we'll be asked to dance for two to three hours at night. And I tell people that's your work too.
That's your work. In fact, that's probably more important than the painting of the school or the medical, because where we go, people feel left out and forgotten. What's, what's the result of the migration here for the places that people leave when you go to one of these small towns and the men aren't there, or there are these houses that are just empty.
And I asked, well, what about that house? Oh, well, they left. They went to the United States. There's a feeling of loss, and it's a feeling that a lot of rural communities here in the United States have to, um, but they're in Guatemala, especially. And so, imagine what it's like to have we were 100 guests go and just spend time there and say, you're important.
And we love you and we want to hear from you and stay connected to you. That's really important. That's that's probably a bigger impact than any of the individual projects that we do, and we continue to work on is that moment of recognition for people who feel like they've been left behind by. Those who've had to leave because of economic or just the general global economy that exists.
That means that these folks are working as sustenance farmers, or maybe they raise a little bit of coffee and they, you know, kill themselves doing it and receive very little, not enough to raise their families. You know, you hear those stories from people and just listening to those stories is such an important thing for people to to feel like they're loved.

[00:27:37] Jim: Charlie, you're, you're blowing my mind here because you're, you're just kind of casual like, yeah, I mean, you know, water filtration. I mean, 40, 000. It was like, but the real thing is listening, which I know is true. I mean, you were really accurately, I think, giving people a picture here. 

[00:27:50] Charlie: Well, I mean, Jim, you know, we're, we're not, I'm not.
Nor the diocesan staff, nor any of anybody here in Omaha is going to change the global economic system. That's going to get rid of extreme poverty. I mean, that's, that's the reality. And so as much as we want to do that, you know, and, and this is, this is big in, in Catholicism with Pope Francis and Pope Benedict as well, talking about You know, real holistic development and what that means.
And, and it's not just about digging a well or having a water filtration system or having a school and teachers. It's also about people feeling fed spiritually, feeling like there's hope and a reason to go on. And so, we are bringing that hope in some ways is more powerful than bringing the clean water. 

[00:28:36] Jim: Yeah.
And you do bring clean water, but it's so much deeper than that. Which is really beautiful, because I don't know if you would say this, you've been involved in missions far, far longer than I have, but I feel like there's a maturing, or at least a growing awareness of the depth on my part. So maybe it's, maybe I'm just the only one who's maturing.
The, let's go there and fix it. Let's go help them. It seems like that mentality, maybe it's not going away, but there's another layer, there's a depth to say, no, no, no, no, no. What's, what's really at the root of this? What are we really called to do? What are we really capable of doing? And, and again, gosh, praise God for, for clean water and the, the cool innovations.
simple techniques that have made that possible. But when you really get down to it, like, what am I being called to do? I'm being called to love them, that they are my neighbor. I'm being called to be in relationship and in solidarity with them. And that I can always do. I mean, we're in deep water here.
This is, this is good stuff. Charlie, maybe this is a place where we can kind of pivot because I think, you Huehuetenango, Guatemala, and clean water. But, I mean, when you said, like, listening, That is, you know, so much of my career has been trying to teach busy suburban Americans, college students, whatever, how to actually listen to the people in front of them, neighbors, friends, as the first step to being able to share the hope and joy and love and peace that they found in Christ.
Um, it all starts with, with listening. You've done long term missions. You've been, of course, with these short term. How do you see the experience of these missions translating everyday life here in the United States? 

[00:30:32] Charlie: You know, when we think about solidarity, and I use that to radical togetherness, and unfortunately, we're developing into a culture, and this is where I think that there was such a prophetic concept coming from Pope John Paul, the second, because I mean, the eighties was just the beginning of a culture in which we can totally shut ourselves off.
We can totally get into a space where we've got, I mean, I was just going through O'Hare airport a week or so ago and just walking and seeing all the people and almost somebody walking into me as they're looking down at their phone, walking, I mean, there's tons of people. I'm 

[00:31:13] Jim: surrounded and all alone, right?

[00:31:15] Charlie: And the, the walling off and I thought about. This image of solidarity that that's real kind of simple or radical togetherness. It's kind of simple. It's, it's not just about being together with our family and friends but expanding that. I think that's what the mission gets to. It's about expanding that togetherness to really include everyone.
You know, something that happened in my life, we've moved a lot and been in new places. And I think about, you know, you, you go into maybe you and your spouse and your child have a basketball parent meeting or something like that. And, and you walk in and there are these tables and they've got eight chairs, right.
And, and there's two couples with two kids, you know, so that's six people. And. That's your kids’ friends and it's couples that you know, and you like, and, and you go over there. Well, there's three of you and there's only two chairs and you turn, and you look to the right of you. And there's one couple with one kid and you don't really know them and there's five open chairs and you, you know, you look over and you grab one of the open chairs and you pull it over to the table.
So that there's nine chairs at this table and you get to sit with your friends. Yeah. And you leave that couple that you don't know to only have seven chairs. 

[00:32:34] Jim: You were watching me last night, which this is like, it's like Charlie, you've been spying on me. 

[00:32:39] Charlie: And I think about what does that say about us? And, and you know, it's subconscious.
You just do it. Cause you know what? You want to be with your friends. But. Solidarity calls us to maybe sit down at that other table with someone we don't know or someone we don't, maybe we don't even like them that much or who knows. Maybe we do know them and that's the problem. And sit down and try to open up a bit.
Yeah. You know, and, and live that in your life. I mean, if, if we can go into the houses of strangers and sleep in their one bed while they sleep on the floor when we're in Guatemala. Perhaps we could sit at this table with these strange people for, you know, all of five minutes that we might be talking before the meeting starts and get to know someone else, get a window into something different, even if it's something that is so different, that it's maybe something that's turned us off in the past.
And, you know, when you make that move to grab that chair and move over, what does that say to your kids? About that moment. These moments happen in our work lives. These moments happen in our parishes on that donut Sunday, you know, and, and people just kind of cluster together with the folks that they know.
And, and so I'm hoping that our missionaries see the hospitality that they receive and the sacredness of that hospitality, and they maybe utilize it in their own lives To sit down at the table with people that they don't know to welcome somebody that they don't see to start a conversation in their parish to reach across a work divide that might exist and to connect to take out the earbuds to put down the phone in the pocket and look around and see who might.
Need something who might want to be heard, who might want to be witnessed because that's what we're doing in Guatemala. When we go on mission, we're hearing people who want to be heard and feel like they're not being heard. Well, that's all around us here in the United States. It's not, it's not a unique thing to Huehuetenango in Guatemala.
And so, I hope that our missionaries, when they come back, they are attuned. And I hope that Catholics in general, and as a church, we are attuned to those moments and those precious times when we might be called to step out of that, sit down with our friends and just stay in that bubble to move out to the side and think about how we make that bubble bigger or how we pop it all together so that we are really living as one church, as one school, as one community.
Loving one another one body in Christ as the song says. 

[00:35:29] Jim: Yeah, Charlie, I love what you're sharing here and I'm again reminded a little bit of my own experience, you know, I'm I'm an extrovert I naturally meet people there have been occasions very recently, you know in in my life where I found myself feeling like an outsider and Not eager to reach out and connect right with someone else, and I can't, I can't help but be inspired by those who feel, you know, forgotten in the mountains of Guatemala.
Some from their village have left, you know, leaving to come to the United States. And yet, When someone new comes, they receive them, and they welcome them. And it, again, it reminds me, you know, as I experience it myself, loneliness, not feeling like I'm maybe connecting, you know, thinking about my own words coming back to me from my, my teenagers, it's like, well, honey, sometimes the best way to make a friend is to be a friend.
This is all amazing stuff. So, if people who are like, Oh my gosh, I have to go to Guatemala, Guatemala. I've got it. You know, I need this. I need this healing. I need this like new perspective to see my neighbors to see new people again. First, let's talk about, okay, if somebody's starting to feel called to the trip, how do they connect?
And then let's talk a little bit about, you know, how you live this out more. So, so first off, if somebody wants to, how do they, how do they find you? How do they get involved? 

[00:36:55] Charlie: The easiest way, uh, ixim.org is our website. I X I M that's how you spell it. Ixim, I X I M dot O R G. There's a contact us like all websites and that's going to get straight to me.
And that's, that's going to be the quickest way. I'm also Charlie Petro. So, C Petro, C P E T R O at arch Omaha. org is my email address. So, you can reach me by email or, or there on, on ixim.org. And that's a way to really, uh, start a conversation, you know, to, to hear a little bit more, to dig a little bit deeper into these projects that we've kind of mentioned here, or discern what.
What it means to join us, and discerning is really a huge part of our formation process and everything. And it's, and it's again, what I love about the job. You know, my, my wife is Peruvian. So, I have a part of my heart lives in Peru, always from a mission experience there. And then that time with my family in Tanzania and Guatemala is also important to me.
And, and I love, I have a passion for that, but my biggest passion about it, Ishim, Spirit of Solidarity is being with the missionaries, getting to know them, help them discern. Help them process the experience and help them through that transformation. So, I would love to help you if you're thinking, Hey, you know, this is something that I've always had on my heart.
And I hear that a lot. I've always had going on mission on my heart. You know, this, this is, this is for you go to shame. org and fill out the contact or send me an email at C P E T R O at Arjun Mahan. org C Petro, uh, Arjun Mahan. org and, and let's start that process. 

[00:38:30] Jim: Awesome. We're going to link to all those in the show notes, the website, Charlie's email.
Charlie, I just want to give you a chance. I mean, I hope, I hope a lot of you really do like, Hey, this is for you, right? You know, if you're looking for a sign, I don't know, thinking about a mission trip, this is your sign, you know, no, and no asking for a sign. If this was the sign, like this is, this was the sign, like, you know, it's time to start to investigate this.
Knowing that perhaps not every single person who's listening to this is going to be called, Charlie, what advice do you have for those who want to begin to live a spirit of solidarity? In their lives, like here and now, where should they begin? 

[00:39:09] Charlie: I think the first place to begin always is some prayer and reflection about, you know, who's at that other table in your life.
I love that. Who's around you right now that you probably could approach and you know, you haven't. And I'm not saying to like approach to give some kind of testimony. I mean, just, just to have a conversation, just to say, Hey, we're not, we're not to the point of, of talking about, you know, preaching the gospel to this person at all.
Be normal. Be a friend. Be a friend first. Who's, who is that person or those people, if you can pray about it, who are around you that you're like, you know, maybe I should say hi to them. Or take that moment when you are in a, in a larger group setting in your parish and look around and see who's around you.
Cause they're there. I have said many times, as I said, we've moved a lot, both internationally and throughout the United States and our lives. And you can stand in the back of a parish of the United States. You can stand in the back of that parish for three years and no one will say anything to you. You can walk into mass and walk out of mass.
Unfortunately, that's the way most parishes operate. Not all of them, but a lot of them do. And so. If you're standing in your parish, let's take a look around and see who's there. And maybe they have been going there and you're like, Hey, are you new? And like, Oh no, I've been going here for five years. I'm a founding member.
But Hey, you know, it's that you've still started a conversation. You still started that conversation there. And so that's another way to start to build that radical togetherness where you are right now, um, because that prophetic value that. You know, started to get preached 40 years ago has only become more and more important.
And that's what just amazes me. When I think about it, it's like the 80s seems so simple compared to where we are now, as far as the needing to build community and connect with one another, um, in genuine ways. So. Now's the time to start to think about how you can do that. And, and, you know, part of that is also stripping away anything that stops you from doing that, whether that's putting the phone down for a moment, taking the earbuds out here, there, um, that's also important, you know, not, not rushing out because, oh man, I got this to do after mass.
So, we got a hair head here. We got to do that. Not. Taking a moment to look around and say, you know what, anything else is not important right now I'm here. I'm gonna look around and see who else is here. 

[00:41:33] Jim: I love that because I was gonna, I was gonna ask a follow up question. I was like, all right, Charlie, but what about those who aren't extroverts?
I mean, I am an extrovert, but you know, here's the dark side for all the introverts who are thinking like, I just can't meet people. I'm an extrovert. Extroverts are easily distracted. The kind of setting the phone down, paying attention to the people and things and moments that they're in, that's kind of a home game for the introvert.
And, and yeah, I get it. It might be a little harder for you to start the conversation for the introvert who might struggle to start the conversation. You're already halfway there because you're present to the situation. And some of us extroverts, our first step is to figure out how to actually be present where we are.
Uh, so I appreciate the way you talked about that because this isn't about temperament and introvert extrovert so much as it is about just being a person who, who notices and engages others. Charlie, thank you. Our time is totally flown. This has been fantastic. Uh, we're going to link in the show notes to, uh, ixim.
org and we'll put your, your email on there. Charlie, thank you for being with us. Thanks for having us. All right, everybody. You know, somebody who needs to hear this, uh, maybe you need to re listen to this one yourself. There was a lot, a lot of little gold nuggets in, in this, and maybe if, if you're getting a little tug either to explore, Mission yourself or just to just to engage somebody who's at that that table next to you.
This is your opportunity. Thanks for listening. Everybody. Thanks for listening to the equip cast. We hope this episode has inspired you to live your faith and equip you to be fruitful in your mission. Stay connected with us by going to equip dot arch Omaha dot o RG. God bless and see you next time.