Native Americans – 'Greatest Desperation' of Young People

By Nathan Black, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, March 22, 2007

Young people in America are a crucial mission field, many ministries recognize. But one group draws attention to what it says is the greatest desperation among the youth population almost anywhere in the world - young Native Americans.

Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, an evangelical Christian organization, is taking a group of youth to Florida for Spring Break outreach to Native American young people.

"There is a team of young native Americans, we call them On Eagles' Wings, who are going to reach young native Americans on the reservations in the midst of what we know to be perhaps the greatest desperation among a youth population you can find almost anywhere in the world," said founder Ron Hutchcraft, according to Mission Network News.

Hutchcraft says they have been the most difficult unreached people group - a group with high rates of suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, and gang violence.

"There (are) 500 years of mission work among the first people of this continent. The estimate is that after 500 years of effort only five percent of native people know Christ," he said, reported MNN. "It is one of the great tragedies of the Great Commission right on our own door step."

The On Eagles' Wings (OEW) team goes out every year to share their faith. Some on the team are people reached by OEW outreaches. Hutchcraft indicated that Native Americans proclaiming the message to fellow peers is more effective since many in the people group believe Jesus is "the white man's God because it came to them through a white man."

For this year's spring break, about 30 young people representing some 25 different native nations will be in three reservations holding sporting events, singing Christian contemporary music and sharing testimonies.

On Eagles' Wings outreach is part of a growing Alternative Spring Break movement that students are engaging in. Both Christian and mainstream communities are offering more alternative break options to the typical partying to tap into a generation that many say is ready to change the world. For Hutchcraft Ministries, it means changing one of the most unreached people groups.

"These young people will be talking one on one leading their peers to Jesus Christ," said Hutchcraft in MNN. "And, we have seen what has never happened in 500 years happen through these young people."