Lessons In Flexibility

After a long overnight bus ride we arrived in Creel last Monday, it is absolutely beautiful here. Hills covered in pine trees, giant rocks perfect for climbing, horses grazing in meadows of corn and flowers, streams running through the countryside. It is really picturesque.

Total we will be in Creel three and a half weeks, so we have been here about a week and a half so far. We spent our first week at a boarding school, and are now at the YWAM Creel base where we will be the remainder of our time here.

Creel is a city near the Copper Canyon in the state of Chihuahua. Throughout this area the Tarahumara people live. They are an indigenous tribe descendent from the Mayans. Creel was actually built by the Mexican government in order to mix the Tarahumarans into the rest of Mexican culture, which left them quite resentful towards outsiders. Here, the couple who started the YWAM base have been working here twenty years and have just recently started forming real relationships and making progress with the Tarahumarans. Our leaders were telling us that the progress many YWAM bases see in two or three years is what this base has seen in the twenty years it has been established. That said, it is exciting being able to come in and work with the foundation that has been laid.

At the boarding school our plan was to run a VBS with the kids and help with various work projects around the property. One of the first things we learned though was flexibility. In this culture time isn’t a priority. They are incredibly patient and take their time coming and going, meeting and greeting along the way. Our first day there ran smoothly, fixing the road, tilling the garden, picking up trash, with the VBS in the afternoon. The kids were shy but opened up when we played duck, duck, goose, or as they play, pato, pato, gonzo. Then the second day in the afternoon, when we were ready to start the VBS, the head of the school told us they were going to walk to one of the girl’s homes. That then started what we thought would be a quick walk, to almost a four hour adventure. We then found out that the kids all went home Friday after their morning classes, so we were only able to do the VBS with them one day instead of the four days we thought, because we were leaving on Saturday.

It was a good lesson in flexibility and respecting other’s plans above our own in such a different culture. While there though we were able to do so much, fixing a large part of the road, doing a lot of work on their garden, making a fire pit, and painting a mural on the side of one of their sheds near the playground. So even though we didn’t really do what we planned while there it was still a huge blessing to them.

Working at the YWAM base has been quite different. While we have only been here a few days, it has been very structured and each day has been quite similar. Breakfast, work projects, lunch, VBS in a nearby village in the afternoons, dinner, free time.

The contrast in how the boarding school and the YWAM base are run is interesting. Where the leader of the school was Mexican the leaders at the base are American, and it is so evident in how they communicate and structure our days. For where every day at the school we had to be incredibly flexible, here our days are fairly predictable.

This should be a good next few weeks. The Tarahumarans are beautiful people, and I am so honored to be able to partner with the ministries here working with them.