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May - June 1994 The Editorial Comments of Ralph D. Winter Native Americans Seek their True Creator Through the language of their hearts AD2000 News and Updates: Global In-Country Survey Update and Report from Regional Coordinators Meeting, February 1-5 1994.
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MF Behind the Scenes by Rick Wood Managing Editor for Mission Frontiers The Forgotten Unreached Peoples In Our Midst
This may be one of the most controversial topics that we have ever covered in MF simply because the issues surrounding the history and future of Native Americans is such a personal one for Christians in the US. These people are right here in our midst, they are not going away and they still need to be reached. Those of us who are Americans bear the prime share of the responsibility for the 370 years of suffering, prejudice and neglect that Native Americans have experienced. We started out so wonderfully with missionaries like John Eliott who translated the Bible into one of the Algonquin languages in 1620. But even then much of his work was destroyed by white men who did not want to see these tribal people saved but only to see them eliminated from their land. If we are to have any part in reaching them with the gospel, we must work to overcome the pain that Native Americans have experienced from white Americans. These forgotten unreached peoples must also be penetrated with the gospel in order for the goal of a church for every people by the year 2000 to be accomplished. We, who have been so successful in planting churches in hundreds of tribal groups around the world, must also reach out to those in our midst, even though the hurts of the past have built up many added barriers to be overcome. Now is the time for Christians to begin fresh efforts to reach out to them as servants with love, repentance and reconciliation. While we are encouraging the Amercan and world-wide church to reach out to Native Americans, we are also wanting to discourage in the strongest possible terms the kind of "Lone Ranger" mission efforts that have been so typical of the past and have caused more harm than good. Art Everett mentions this problem in the introduction to his article on page 19. If you or your church wants to minister to Native Americans, please contact one of the agencies listed in this magazine on page 18 first. They are experienced in this work and can help you develop a thoughtful and strategic approach to ministry to Native Americans. Pray for Navajo Gospel Mission As we focus on Native Americans in this issue we would like to take this opportunity to ask you to pray for the family of Tom Dolaghan and the ministry of Navajo Gospel Mission. Tom Dolaghan was the director of Navajo Gospel Mission until he was diagnosed recently with a cancerous brain tumor. He subsequently underwent surgery and radiation treatments. On Sunday March 27, 1994, Tom went to be with his Lord. All of us at the US Center extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of this dear man of God. Please keep Tom's family in your prayers. Also pray for the work of Navajo Gospel Mission as they adjust to this loss. Navajo Gospel Mission is now working among many different tribes and is especially focusing on unreached people groups. They have recently taken responsibility for a number of related tribes which have probably been the most resistant peoples in North America. A Bold New Thrust As I mentioned in the last issue, I have some wonderful news to report. We are in the process of printing and mailing Mission Frontiers from India for those on our overseas mailing list. We are printing the Jan-Feb 94 and Mar-Apr 94 issues as one and mailing them from India to the 17,500 people on our overseas list. The wonderful thing is that we are now paying just 26 cents a piece to mail from India rather than over $1 a piece from the US. While this is still over twice as expensive as mailing to a US address, nevertheless, this will save us over $11,000 an issue or $67,000 a year. Included in these savings is the price of a wonderful new opportunity in India itself. Beginning with this May-June 94 issue of MF we have added 15,000 Christian leaders from India to our list. This brings our total overseas list to almost 33,000. The great thing about this expansion is that the postage for mailing MF inside India is only 4 cents each--an incredible bargain! With this expansion, no other country outside of the US will have been so comprehensively covered with the message of reaching the unreached peoples. And, perhaps no other single geographical area contains as many unreached groups. We trust and pray that it will be a great blessing to their mission efforts already underway. As you can see from the map on the next page, the number of $136.50 gifts continues to grow and we are thankful for that. I do want to let you know that we appreciate your help. We can't move forward in places like India without your continued help. Thanks again. For His Glory Rick Wood
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We are dedicating the lion's share of this issue of Mission Frontiers to the largely forgotten and neglected Native American unreached peoples. By some counts, 2 million live here in the US alone, residing in over 300 people groups. I want to publically thank Art and Dot Everett of the Institute of Native Americans studies for all of their work in helping to produce this issue. Their insights were invaluable. You can learn more about their work on page 23 of this issue.
