A few years ago, I had the privilege of doing ministry on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South-central South Dakota during June and July. From start to finish, this was a summer to remember. My family (of four at that time) lived with Pastor Andrew and his family (five total, plus his mother and father for awhile!). We were on the reservation during Vacation Bible School (VBS) time, and my job was to make sure we had ample activities and crafts for the kids each day, to teach the Bible stories, and to present the daily flannel graph.
Every day we would arrive in one of the communities and drive up and down all the streets letting the children know Bible School was about to start! This was a highly anticipated annual event for the children so they knew what to do: jump on the trailer and get a free ride to the VBS site! We were officially scheduled to start each day at 10am, so naturally I began to worry when 10:30 rolled around and we were still setting up. I was also concerned that we didn't have very many children. This was my introduction to what the locals called "Indian Time"! We start when everyone is here, which in many cases was about an hour later when word spread that VBS was starting!
You have to understand something about me at this point, "Corey time" and "Indian Time" are polar opposites! If I'm supposed to start teaching children about Jesus' love for them at 11 o'clock, the kids need to be seated and open to the right page in the book at 11 o'clock! Well, that just plain wasn't going to happen. Boy did I have a lot of learning to do!
My other job that summer was to lead worship each Sunday and preach a couple times. I thought that surely worship would start on time. On the contrary, as my first Sunday's experience taught me, "Indian Time" rules the day on the reservation. In fact, Pastor Andrew and I didn't even arrive at the church on time! To be quite honest, all this being late for everything was driving me crazy. It wasn't until about 45 minutes after the scheduled start time that we finally settled down for worship. Not only did I have a lot of learning to do, I was getting a hands on lesson!
It turns out, you can worship and teach people about Jesus a little later than planned and still share the same message of hope and love as if you did it right on schedule! It also turns out that if you live on the reservation you will be living on Indian Time, so a wrist watch is of little value. I placed mine on the night stand on that first Sunday night and didn't pick it back up until the end of July! It also turns out that when I stopped worshiping the clock and my schedules, I was able to concentrate more of my energy on the Lord and the work He brought me there to do!
As I look back on those wonderful summer days on the prairie of South Dakota, I reminisce with fondness. I actually grew to enjoy not wearing a watch or being bound to a schedule. The important thing is in getting together and sharing our faith! I learned you can do this any time! Now if I have those days when I feel like I'm just running from one thing to the next or that I'm spinning my wheels but not getting anywhere, it's helpful to relax and remember those summer days of starting when everyone got there. It's calming to remember Indian Time and remember "the Lord's work will get done because the Lord's in charge of it!"
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