It started with the trials of travel; cancelled flight, lost baggage and a non-English speaking chauffeur. It quickly brought the story to me of Jesus' temptation in the desert before His ministry with the people as God's testing for the qualification of Jesus. All of these troubles worked themselves out through prayer due to the thanks of you!
We spent the first night in Juarez, Mexico at a bible college which hosts several people from the canyon as they partake in classes. The next day we drove down to the base camp of Rio Chico. There we painted both the chapel and the dining hall in fervent Mexican colours: bright orange and yellow. The following day was spent driving five hours to the village of Creel, where we stayed in a hotel, visited tourism shops and ate dinner at Pollo el Gordito (hefty chicken). The day after that was our final day of travel in which we went off-roading with a fifteen passenger van on cliff edges and hiked four and a half hours into the village of Quecivo in the Copper Canyon.
Our time in the canyon was spent carrying bags of sand and gravel down the side of a cliff to mix cement for a fish pond floor and walls as well as trucking large rocks from higher up in the canyon down to be used for a wall. We also made crafts with the children and distributed bags of food to the Tarahumarian people that had travelled as far as three days to receive it.
The work that we did for these people never seemed to have a reason behind it or a use in the near future. We would often only spend about an hour and a half in the morning working until they would break for lunch which wasn't for several hours and then return to work in the afternoon only to work another hour and a half before they called it quits. It was difficult to understand our work during this missions trip to be beneficial to the people there. What they asked us to do would end up with them telling us that what we just did would probably be unusable or a long time before it is completed (we had enough man power but there was no motivation by the Mexicans) It was only about half way through the trip when God revealed Habakkuk 3:17-19 to me through a morning devotion time. This verse helped me to realize the importance not on what we do physically for the people but rather what we do for the kingdom of God. Another bible passage that was helpful was Hebrews 11:1. To me, this trip meant being faithful to God by doing the work that was asked of me and being assured that what I did would benefit the kingdom in one way or another eventually. Even if the physical aspect of what I did does not create progress, I have hope for their future within my prayers for these people.
The return journey had some adventures of its own. I lost my passport for which God gave us a miracle in bringing it back. Then we came home and I took a retreat on the top of Maple Mountain the next day to think things out.
Please pray that I may continue to understand and process what has happened in my life these past two weeks.
Soli Deo Gloria
Mark
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