On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

A last-minute addition to our schedule. A broken down basketball court in gang territory. In the middle of a reservation that's a hotbed of centuries-old spiritual practices and beliefs. This one could be tough.

Nearby - the village, the stronghold of the "Mendava"* religion. Close by - our team of young spiritual warriors, coming to proclaim that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Our On Eagles' Wings team members talked of sensing the intense spiritual battle.

As the On Eagles' Wings team entered our fourth reservation of this Summer of Hope, we prayed our way in. There were little prayer triplets throughout the team bus, praying fervently for God to show Himself "mighty to save" among the hard-to-reach Mendava Indians. As I told the team, commitments to Christ on this reservation truly come "only by prayer" (Mark 9:29 ). This is a tribe whose leaders boast about the fact that, unlike other tribes, they have resisted Christianity for 500 years. They literally drove out the early missionaries who came there to reach them.

There are 4,500 people on the "Grant Pass"* Reservation. And 40 gangs.

It couldn't be more starkly different from our last reservation - "Red Rock," where you feel like you've been transported to heartbreaking Third World poverty. Grant Pass, on the other hand, is near a major city and generates great income from a casino. If you're a tribal member, you receive an allotment check of several thousand dollars each quarter. Have their sudden riches brought them happiness? Forty gangs tell the story, along with pervasive, high-end drugs and all-too many suicides.

"The dirty rez."

That's what some people call the "Red Rock"* Reservation. It's the "looked down on" place. Like the town Jesus came from.

If Jesus came "to preach good news to the poor," then Red Rock is His kind of place. Eighty-five percent unemployment. Nearly two-thirds of the people living under the poverty level. A reservation with drugs everywhere. The cartels know it's a place ripe for their deadly products. So do the gangs. We later learned that our outreach location was right on the battle line between two major well-known gangs.