On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Our fourth and final community in this region, which is situated close to the 60th Parallel (near the Arctic Circle), is a community called Shrub River. It is situated about one kilometer from the larger "hub" community of High Prairie, which is home to several thousand non-Native people working in the forest and oil industries that permeate the area. The Native people of this community have had the best opportunities to hear the Gospel, as the nearby hub community has several strong evangelical churches. But hardly any of the members of this First Nations group call any of these churches their home, and it seemed to me that two worlds living so close to each other had very little interaction and commonality.

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.

As the team bus and support vehicles left Winding River, I was much in prayer as our next stop was one of those communities that could prove to be a real challenge for the On Eagles' Wings team. It was a community that some of the ministry leaders who know the area said was a very tough place, and very resistant to outside influence. It is known for a history of violence and was a place where we had heard that some missionaries trying to come into the community had been chased away at gunpoint less than a decade ago.