The Companions of St. Francis Xavier program conducts several trips every year for Xavier students to serve in areas of the world that need their help. All class years have the opportunity to attend, and locations range from Mexico to Camden, NJ. Xavier alumni volunteer Thomas Nugent '09 shares his experience on CFX Alabama, on which he served with 17 seniors and 3 other faculty members during Holy Week. For more information on the CFX program, see the Campus Ministry website.

It is a little bit crazy, the concept of the Companions of St. Francis Xavier program. Students must go through the difficult process of fundraising to come up with no small amount to pay for the trip. They willingly travel to far-away places to do manual labor over what would be relaxing vacation days. They trade in their computers, friends, families and creature comforts for crusty work boots, blistered hands and layers of sunscreen and bug spray that, by the end of the week, they feel might never wash out. Add to all of this the fact that 90% of the them have never really handled a nail gun, let alone a hammer, or have known what an eight-hour workday in the sun feels like, and Xavier’s CFX program seems like a real head-scratcher.

So why has it become such a prominent program at 16th Street? Why is CFX such a rich expression of the Xavier mission statement? Why does it make such an impact on the countless number of students who attend? I'm not completely sure, but I can share a small story. When we arrived at the Hemley Road Church of Christ in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, we were greeted with warm smiles and warmer dinner by our hosts, people who dedicate their lives to providing food, shelter and opportunities for the poor and in-need in an area ravaged by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, 2010’s BP oil spill and perpetual, systemic poverty. While we enjoyed the barbecue and marshmallows, we wondered at these peoples’ generosity, their kindness. We were just here for a week and knew it would be tough work; these people, doing the gritty, heavy work of God year-round, they must be saints.

“We just wanted to thank all y’all tonight for being here this week,” said Miss Daphne German, founder of the Bayou Recovery Project. “You don’t know much it means to us, how much we truly appreciate y’all takin’ the time out of your busy lives to come down here. You truly recharge our batteries – it gives us such life to have a group like yourselves down here helping us all out. Thank you, so much.” They were grateful to us for our willingness to work - it should have certainly been the reverse!

Don't mistake me, the students did a lot of hard work in Alabama – installed two decks, put roofs up above them, applied a lot of paint – but digging up dirt and painting wood aren't the point, I don’t think. Instead, what makes CFX so essential to the Xavier mission is what we were for Miss Daphne, for her friends and all those contributing the Recovery Project or the church’s food pantry – we were a battery recharging others. We helped them to know they weren’t alone in doing the work of Christ, the hardest of the work – that directly with and for the poor. We were building a center for the children of the Bayou La Batre community, but we were also fueling the flames of people whose hearts were truly on fire.

Indeed, the CFX program is a little crazy, but not because Xavier students aren’t great at hammering in nails. It’s because they expect the hammers and the nails to be the point, the most important thing, but what they end up learning what  is truly at the heart of the CFX program, and at the heart of the Xavier mission. They learn that to walk in Jesus’ footsteps is difficult, yes, but it is one hundred times easier with a community that you can rely on each and every day.