Rebecca's seventh birthday party was not at all a typical Central Tarahumara celebration.
Her parents, Rito and Marcelina, are believers, and they prepared food for the party, wrote missionaries Tony and Lauren Finch. The normal preparations for a party among the Central Tarahumaras of Mexico would not include food, but would include gallons of corn beer.
"Typically, as Americans, we enjoyed celebrating our birthdays as children but for a Central Tarahumara child it can be one of the worst days of the year," Tony and Lauren wrote, as everyone drinks for days.
"It could be the day that your father or mother runs off in a drunken stupor with someone else's spouse. It may be the day someone is killed at your house as a result of the drinking. Or maybe you played it safe and just stayed away from home out in the woods for a couple of days until everyone was done celebrating your birthday.
"Some birthday party, huh?"
But for Rebecca's celebration, friends and family gathered to hear a Central Tarahumara church elder share words of counsel about life and growing up.
"This was followed by everyone praying together for the birthday girl and her parents," wrote Tony and Lauren. "Then the food was served and the fellowship continued around the campfire."
One of the best parts for Tony and Lauren was that the Central Tarahumara believers decided what to do for the birthday themselves, and all the missionaries had to do was make a cake because Lauren has an oven.
"How refreshing it was to be together with a group of Central Tarahumara [people] celebrating the life that God has given them and basking in His love. What a refreshing change from the years of the other parties. How refreshing to see a little girl enjoying her birthday," the Finches wrote.
Thank God with us for the work He is doing among the Central Tarahumara people.
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