Where is Our Hope?

Found out some disturbing facts about the Lakota reservation…85% unemployment rate…80% of the adult males are alcoholics…gangs are norm here for young adults…and most shocking, the adolescence suicide rate is seven time the national rate! It was reported to us last night that last year eleven youth in the surrounding area took their lives…how disturbing. To me all of these figures emphasize the need for Jesus Christ. I understand the desire for Native Americans to cling to their traditions. I also realize that the past and current efforts of the federal government have been counterproductive, at least for the Native Americans. This place (this rez and from what I understand many, many others) is a place of despair. Most here have no hope of a descent future, let alone a bright future. The answer for these people…for all peoples? “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you…” (1 Peter 1:3-4). Fact is this place is just a reflection of a larger hurting world where pouring money and regulations into a situation will not overcome the sins of the past nor offer hope for the future…only a new birth can do that…and that new birth comes only from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! That is why so many of us come here year round…to offer hope in a dead and dying world.

Here's the painting that greeted us on the wall of the entrance of the Oglala Re*Creation Center.