The Tarahumara Indians of north-central Mexico present a beautiful
case for the power and validity of creation evangelism in a
cross-cultural setting. To illustrate this, we must first understand
who these people are, along with an understanding of their present
day world view.

This indigenous group lives high in the mountains of the Sierra
Madre at elevations of 6,000-8,000 feet. Nestled in the valleys
and canyons, these people have managed to maintain a unity and
diversity from the Mexican settlers while speaking their own
language. Their indomitable spirit has been evidenced over the
last 400 years since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors and
Jesuit priests who sought to claim them for the Roman Catholic
church. They are proud of who they are, because they alone are
God's people. According to their traditions, God, and his older
brother, the Devil, set about to make man. God took dark clay
and formed the Tarahumara, breathing into them the breath of
life. The Devil took white clay and formed the white man (all
non-Tarahumara). However, in spite of all his efforts, the Devil
could not make his clay dolls live. He then asked his brother
to give them life. This legend explains why they have been so
mistreated by the white man. The white man cannot be trusted.
He is evil, and will be punished by God in the end. They, on
the other hand, are the true children of God to whom all mankind
is indebted.

Their witch doctors and shamans all claim to have had face-to-face
encounters with God -- an old Tarahumara spirit-being who will
demand sacrifices of goats, chickens, squirrels, or cows, as
well as plenty of their corn beer, called tesqaino. All this
is offered symbolically at the cross to their god, who comes
to eat and drink with the Tarahumara people. If these sacrifices
are not performed, the world will face destruction by either
water, snow, or drought. Since only they perform these sacrifices,
they view themselves as saviors of the world. They view their
god as a rather old god, because our sun is an old sun. Nor
is this god the only god that has existed because other suns
have come and gone, and more are coming in the future. Our sun
is therefore perceived as father god, and the moon their mother,
making them the children of these deities.

When the Jesuit priests came preaching of God, seeking to
convert the heathen to the Catholic Church, they brought the
teaching of Mary and Joseph and the virgin birth as the central
doctrine in establishing the worship of Mary. With the coming
of church teaching, their paganism and deification of celestial
bodies was given substance. The Tarahumara quickly incorporated
these Biblical names, creating a syncretism of paganism and
Christianity. Soon their sun god became Joseph, and the moon,
Mary. Mary's child, Jesus, became the first true Tarahumara.
Today, the witch doctors claim to cure by the power of the spirit
of Jesus. To complicate the matter, the early stories told by
the Jesuit priests included creation and the fall of Adam and
Eve.

One may ask, "What's wrong with that?" Interpreted
correctly, nothing. However, we must remember that all communication
is filtered through the cultural grid of the hearer and given
meaning accordingly. In the case of the Tarahumara, all evil
originates from the Devil. When told of Adam and Eve and the
subsequent introduction of all evil into the world, Adam and
Eve were assumed to be the first children of the Devil, from
whom originated all the non-Tarahumara. The forbidden fruit
that was eaten in Eden was believed to be a bitter variety of
apple that grows in the mountains where they live. Their total
lack of understanding of world geography causes them to place
the Biblical happenings within the boundaries of their known
world.

Taking all this into consideration, and this is only a skeletal
explanation of their world view, what method of evangelism would
be effective in unraveling this syncretism? How could we possibly
reinterpret for them the Biblical account? How can the church
planter reshape their view of God, and add to it all the essential
characteristics of His holiness, righteousness, mercy, and love?

First of all, as a church-planting team, we committed ourselves
to a thorough investigation of their culture and a fluent grasp
of the language before any evangelism should take place. We
felt convinced that only through the medium of their own language
would they listen -- a fact later testified to by the people
themselves. Six years after moving in with the people, we were
finally ready to begin actual evangelism.

First of all, however, we had to establish our credibility,
that we, being non-Tarahumara, could communicate to them truths
about God. Their exclusive belief system required that we first
establish common ground from which to build. That common ground
was in the creation of the world. We knew that in explaining
creation, we would thereby expand their concept of God. We cut
out dozens of quality pictures from National Geographic
and acquired a 12-volt slide projector. We carried with us an
inflatable globe of the world and explained to them, little
by little, the concepts of distance and time. Building on how
much a Tarahumara man can walk in a day, we projected this concept
over weeks, moons, and years. We took them up to the North Pole
-- to the land of ice and snow -- where the summer sun does
not set. They at first thought I had to be talking about another
sun, but because we could personally testify to the changes
of the sun over the globe, they tried to comprehend this new
truth. We took them to the ocean, a body of water so big it
would take many moons to walk across. We showed them pictures
of the many sea creatures. The black people of Africa fascinated
them. "Where could they have come from?" they asked.

Throughout these sessions we kept exclaiming about the greatness
and power of God. Through careful questioning, we caused them
to consider their own ideas regarding origins, helping them
understand that only One who has been there could accurately
tell about the creation of the world. This led to the introduction
of the Word of God. We explained that God had communicated with
men thousands of years before, who in turn wrote down His message,
and that only through hearing His message could we know the
truth.

But here our barrier was in the concept of numbers. Just by
saying "thousands" doesn't mean they will grasp its
dimension. To help explain this concept, I picked 1000 pine
needles and carried them around in a bundle as I taught. Once
they visualized 1000 years, they could understand more easily
the age with which we were dealing. I asked them, "Can
you remember the names of your great grandparents?" None
could remember. "It wasn't written down for us like they
do today." Their reply revealed the need for a written
record in order for there to be accuracy. From here we could
explain that in God's word the names of people who lived 5000
to 6000 years ago are still preserved for our knowledge. At
this point we came to appreciate in a new way the reason for
the Biblical genealogies, for in them is preserved a beautiful
link to the present -- a standard of measure easily verifiable.

This approach piqued their curiosity. When asked if they wanted
to hear what God had written, they wholeheartedly agreed. Thus
began our first phase of evangelism. Once again, where did evangelism
begin? Not with Matthew, but with Genesis. As we considered
each day of creation, we would show slides, National Geographic
pictures -- whatever helped them comprehend the immensity of
this world. We spent a lot of time explaining the fourth day
when God created the sun and the moon. Now they had to separate
God from the sun, and see the moon as just another lump of dirt
placed in the sky to serve as a light and a keeper of time.
The pictures of the lunar landings and close-ups of the moon
made these celestial deities become to them the creation of
yet a greater God than they had ever imagined.

Being a people intimately aware of nature, the explanation
of the fifth and sixth days of creation was impacting. By showing
pictures of all the different animal species found in the world,
their appreciation for the greatness and knowledge of God grew.
When we came to the creation of man on the sixth day, they became
excited, because in their own traditions God made man from the
dirt and breathed into him life, and now we were verifying this
through the written account. They had never heard of the woman
having come from the man's side, but this truth gave them understanding.
When we came to the seventh day, they finally understood why
people set aside one day a week to rest from their labors. Up
through this point, the Tarahumaras were growing in appreciation
for the greatness of God. However, when we came to the first
man and woman, we knew that great care would need to be taken
in order for them to identify themselves as children of Adam
and Eve, and not as children of Mary and Joseph and Jesus.

Once again, we felt that the key lay in the establishing of
a common ground. As we went through the account of the Fall,
they recognized the story of evil entering into the world through
the eating of a forbidden fruit. What they hadn't heard of,
were the consequences of this act. All through these lessons,
we did not use the names of Adam and Eve, but simply called
them man and woman. As we discussed the elements of the Fall,
we continually reminded them that the same consequences affected
all men -- Indian and non-Indian. They identified with the difficulty
in growing food, the constant battle against weeds, thorns,
and thistles. The women could see that the pain of child birth
affected the white woman, as well as themselves. Death was explained
as a universal consequence for disobedience. As they understood
that all the consequences of the first disobedience were universal,
they were able to agree with us that all men must have come
from the same stock.

This, however, caused them to ask the question, "Then
where did we come from?" "Why are there so many differences
in people?" To this we were able to answer, "God wrote
this down, and soon we will find out how God divided up mankind
and gave to each of us our language." It was finally, at
this point, that we gave the names of Adam and Eve. Realizing
the conflict this would create in their minds, we were quick
to explain that Joseph and Mary and Jesus are all part of the
history of mankind. "You will find out, when they enter
into the story, but you must wait," we would say. God tells
us the whole story from the foundation to the roof, but we must
build slowly, learning each story in its proper time.

This is the beauty of the revelation of God. Each precept
is built upon a preceding precept. If we fail to understand
one, the structure is weakened. The systematic, unfolding revelation
of God from Creation to the Cross becomes a powerful tool for
dispelling darkness and leading men and women to the feet of
Jesus.

* Mr. Dale Taylor is a missionary with New Tribes Missions.