On Eagles' Wings® Update

On Eagles' Wings Team USA Prayer Update #5

There is probably no other tribe in America like this.

They have no hymns in their language. No Bible in their language. Because there have apparently never been enough Christians or mission work to make them necessary. And if things continue the way they have been, there never will be. No pastor or missionary is allowed to live on their land, no Christian meeting can be held outside the little churches on their reservation.

They're in a country and an area where they're surrounded by the Gospel. But many, if not most, of them have never heard it. Their children are told that Jesus is not for them. And yet their young people struggle with all the life-destroying issues of every reservation - but with little hope of ever hearing about the Life-giver, Jesus Christ. To be born "Andarka" is, in many cases, to have little or no chance of ever hearing about the Man who is your only hope.

For months, our local partners have been battling to find a place near the reservation where we might attract some Andarkas. In the sixty Native areas where On Eagles' Wings has gone all these years, there has never been a place where we could not have our outreaches on the reservation. Until Andarka. There has never been a place where the team could not go door-to-door and invite people to come. Until Andarka.

God answered your prayers and the prayers of many others by opening up a parking lot on the main drag of a nearby town - 96 hours before the team was about to arrive! As our music and sports announcing boomed out across the area, the multi-ethnic nature of the community was reflected in the turnout - black, white and Andarka. Scores of Andarkas hearing the Gospel at one time might not seem like much - until you understand how seldom, if ever, that has happened.

As our team members shared Jesus one-on-one with Andarka young people, some responded with gratitude - "I've never heard nothin' like this before!" Here the Gospel is as much news as it might be among an unreached people group in a faraway place. We've never had a gift Bible handed back to us in all these years. Here we did. "I can't take a Bible. We're very traditional." (The same traditional religion that, across this area, has closed the ears, even of children, to Jesus.)

But no religion can give you the power to change. The first young woman led to Christ here was a crack addict. Other warriors connected with some Andarka folks who just watched the events from their van. The parents were drunk, but a teenager from that vanload gave her heart to Christ. A single mom with six kids lived right across the street from the OEW events. By night three, mom and four of her kids had come to Christ. Just before our team left, mom said, "I'm going home to read my new Bible to my kids."

Amazingly, two of the top spiritual leaders of the Andarkas were there for our entire final night. They heard the Hope Stories. They heard the Gospel powerfully presented by a young Native American. They watched as black, white - and Andarka - publicly gave their lives to Jesus Christ. They went home with several copies of Native Christian literature. And they even said this was a good thing. It's hard to imagine these leaders of this centuries-old religion ever being in a Christian meeting or a Christian place. But it's so hard to be against these young lives so powerfully transformed by Jesus Christ.

God arranged some powerful heart connections between OEW team members and Andarka young people. Kenneth (Nez Perce) crossed the street to meet a young man who was watching from a distance. As Kenneth began to share his hope story about losing his dad at age ten, the Andarka boy said, "I lost my dad when I was 11 - and I can't get over it." Suddenly, the grand canyon between the Cross and the entrenched tradition was bridged by a common hurt. Kenneth had found hope and healing in Jesus Christ. And by our third night, so had this Andarka young man and his friend.

Tanya (Hopi) connected with two Andarka girls who opened up immediately when they heard her story of sexual abuse and the drugs and alcohol she used to relieve her pain. They told her that they had been abuse victims in a notorious incident that was all over the headlines. And they wanted the Savior who changed Tanya's life. They were reborn in that parking lot that night. Not only were souls saved in that victory, but maybe a life. One of those girls was so broken that she was thinking suicide.

The number of Andarka's spiritually rescued were modest, but hugely significant. Especially among a tribe where people who know Jesus are so rare.

Yes, the OEW warriors found resistant, even hostile, hearts among the Andarka. But also, surprisingly ready hearts.

No reservation we've been to in sixteen years has broken my heart more than this one. The walls keeping out Jesus are so thick, so high, and they've been there for so long. We just praise God that He has used the young warriors of On Eagles' Wings to break through with some of the light of Jesus.

I must confess we left this place celebrating the victories, but unusually sad, too. We join the believers of the tribes of this area in pleading with God for the Andarkas. Could it be that one day He will open the unprecedented door for On Eagles' Wings to actually proclaim Christ on the Andarka Reservation?

We head now for a different but daunting challenge - the largest reservation in this region. It's a place where less than 2% go to a church of any kind. A hard-core place that's a major corridor for meth and other killer drugs to flood this country.

We'll face the same centuries-old religious strongholds along with a pervasive drug stronghold. And, as always, we'll go carried, empowered and protected by your prayers. The ground troops are winning because you are winning the "air war" before we get there! Thank you!

Ron Hutchcraft for OEW Team USA