On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Peru - The Final Frontier

by Ron Hutchcraft

The mountains and the jungles of Peru. That is where God chose to write the final chapter of this amazing summer of Native rescues. And where He has chosen to write the first chapter of a story that could reach from the reservations of North America around the world.

Eighteen years ago, God birthed a strategy to reach Native young people that He has used to make missions history - reaching thousands from this Gospel-hardened people group. What we did not realize was that His strategy could be for more than just the indigenous people of North America. The power of indigenous young people becoming the primary messengers of the Gospel to their people could potentially be unleashed in indigenous cultures around the world. And God chose to begin to open that door in the summer of 2009 with a series of supernatural events that led to an On Eagles' Wings team spreading their vision to Native Peruvian young people. Two different continents. Two different languages. Sharing so many of the same battles. Finding hope in the same mighty Savior.

The plan was ambitious: go to five major indigenous centers across Peru in just twelve days. Spend the morning training their Christian leaders and Christian young people in contemporary youth ministry. Spend the afternoon modeling On Eagles' Wings-style youth outreaches with a combined North American/South American indigenous youth team. Spend the evening with a community evangelistic event, featuring, as always, the Hope Stories of Native young people. The schedule was challenging, sometimes involving 10-15 hour bus trips to get to the next area - with an American team already exhausted from fighting for lives on eight U. S. reservations.

The heart and soul of this plan was the bringing together of 12 indigenous Peruvian young people with their Christian peers from the On Eagles' Wings U. S. team. Their investment, their relationship with these hand-picked Peruvian believers was the kindling to start a fire of indigenous youth ministry in Peru. A team of dedicated young translators made possible the building of these vital cross-cultural relationships.

The 12 days we just spent in Peru stand out as one of the most mind-blowing, God-glorifying experiences of my life in ministry! To be honest, it's a story that almost defies words. But as our senders, our prayer warriors, this is your story, too. I can't begin to tell it all, but I can give you a "highlight film" that captures some of the wonder of what God did. Let me begin with the amazing ending of the story...

God used the first North/South American On Eagles' Wings team to lead 904 Peruvian young people to Christ in just seven outreach days!

In 18 years of On Eagles' Wings ministry, that is the largest response ever in such a short time!

Combined with all those lives brought to Christ on this summer's American reservations...

1,485 Native young people - from across the Western Hemisphere - have come to Christ in the Summer of Hope 2009! "Gloria de Dios! Glory to God!"

Here are some of the highlights of this answer to your prayers...

The Twelve Disciples

The Peru team was made up of two indigenous warriors from six key areas of Peru, each selected by a trusted pastor. To a person, they were outstanding. It wouldn't be the first time Jesus began a great work with twelve hand-picked disciples.

Vision Transfer

It all began at our two-day training camp, offering the same training we gave our U. S. team earlier this summer - except through translators. One of my great thrills was watching North American Natives teaching what has rescued so many of their people to South American Natives who want to rescue theirs. The Peruvian warriors learned how three stories can lead a person to Jesus: their story (the lost young person they're talking with); your story (each team member learned how to tell their Hope Story); and His story (the Gospel) that changed your story forever.

Accelerated Bonding

On Wednesday morning when they met, the North and South American team members were strangers. By Thursday night, after our training camp, God had bonded them into brothers and sisters, choosing to sit and fellowship with someone who did not even speak their language.

Vision Confirmed

It took a grueling, 15-hour bus trip to transport Team Peru to their first battlefield - a distant jungle community. At several points during the week, some of the team battled the altitude sickness that can go with traveling the High Andes. Our first outreach was the first test of the effectiveness of the On Eagles' Wings strategy across cultures. The scene: a soccer field, rather than our usual basketball court. The outreach program: strangely familiar. In between sports, two Hope Stories and a Gospel wrap-up. Side-by-side, the Hope Story of a North American Native young person and the Hope Story of a Peruvian Native young person. Same kind of battles, same Savior. It was powerful. We fully expected the Peruvian team members to move tentatively into their just-learned ministry of rescue conversations. We were wrong. While translators helped our American warriors lead people to Christ, the Peruvians soon graduated from depending on their American coaches. After helping one American team member lead a person to Christ, a Peruvian team member asked, "Can I do this by myself now?" Did they ever! All around that soccer field, I could see team members introducing soccer players and soccer fans to Jesus. By the time we left, nearly a third of those attending had begun a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! In one God-filled afternoon, God had powerfully answered the question, "Can the rescue strategy He gave to reach Native Americans reach indigenous young people in other parts of the world?" On a soccer field deep in the jungles of Peru, He answered "Yes!"

Divine Matchups

In spite of being from two different continents and speaking two different languages, the indigenous young people of the Western Hemisphere have so much in common. That first day in the jungle, Cathy, one of our American team members shared her Hope Story of pain from abuse and neglect and how Jesus did for her what no man, no drug had ever been able to do. Almost immediately a young woman said to her, "Your story is my story" - just as they do so often on American reservations. Cathy was soon able to lead her to Christ. That night, the woman brought her husband to the evening event in the city plaza. When the invitation was extended, she and her husband came forward. In my message, I felt led to explain that "no one is too bad for Jesus to forgive. He forgave the men who nailed Him to the cross." This man had been involved in the 90s in a violent group responsible for much bloodshed, and he was haunted by awful things he had seen and done. That night he brought it all to the cross and claimed Jesus as his Savior. It all started with one of the many divine match-ups God engineered from across the Hemisphere.

Ready Hearts

Peru's young people are caught in powerful religious and political cross-currents. But they are so ready for Jesus. After fighting such intense battles to break through to Native American hearts in July, it was so exciting to walk into a harvest field that was so ready. Clearly, God had gone ahead of us in a powerful way - part of another answer to your prayers. When Peru's indigenous young people had Jesus explained to them by someone like them, they wanted Him.

Next Generation Eye-Opener

No matter how remote the community, Peruvian young people are, like their peers around the world, shaped by the American youth culture. The church doesn't understand them and they are often overlooked. That's why the youth ministry training each morning was so important. We began by asking "the most important people in the room" to stand up - those under 25. With the help of team members, we unfolded the powerful potential of indigenous young people as a force for Christ - and the principles for reaching that generation. In a couple of cities, it felt almost like a mini-revival as Christian young people and Christian adults discovered each other. During the training, the rest of the team was out on the street or in the park sharing Jesus with young people. At the end of the training, we were able to present irrefutable evidence of the power of young, indigenous Christians - as many as forty young people were brought to Jesus on the street while we were talking about it in the church!

The Way-Maker

Every step of our historic journey, God was our great Way-Maker. When a third of the team was leveled by sickness on one night, He answered our prayers by restoring every one of them overnight. When it looked like our badly-needed nurse was going to have to leave early in the trip for her Army duties, her superiors reversed their decision. As we traveled for hours on a narrow mountain road, only inches from a sheer drop-off - and sometimes meeting a truck coming down the mountain - God protected us every step of the way. I'm convinced there were angels lining the edge of those cliffs! And when the bus was too big to cross a remote bridge in the High Andes, our mission was on the line. We all got off, crossed the bridge on foot and began to cry out to the Lord as the bus tried to drive through the river! With angels pushing and us praying, the bus crossed our "Red Sea."

The Stronghold

My heart told me what many Peruvian Christians believe - that our final stop is the spiritual stronghold of the nation. Centuries of bloodshed and violence, the recent history of thousands of believers being murdered, the overt darkness identify this place as Peru's primary spiritual battlefield. We believe it was no coincidence that one day before we were scheduled to go there, one-third of the team was suddenly sick and a sudden violent attack in that region killed several people. After much prayer and consulting with people on the ground there, we concluded that we should not turn back. And during our two days in that area, God brought many from the world's largest Indian tribe to faith in Jesus Christ!

The Holy Ground

It's a spot made sacred by the martyrdom of a powerful indigenous Christian leader. An eyewitness of the deadly events of that day tearfully told the team the story as we stood where it had happened. It was a profound "count the cost" moment for every one of us, American and Peruvian. I prayed that God would raise up a thousand like the one who died there, even ten thousand - possibly beginning with the passionate young Peruvian rescuers standing in that circle of prayer. That prayer was so deep, so moving that our bus was totally silent for the rest of the trip back to our lodging - with the exception of the sounds of praying and weeping. In his prayer, one of our outstanding On Eagles' Wings leaders told the Lord, "I have been shaken to the core today." We all were.

The Declaration

It was a moment that crystallized the amazing vision transfer from Native American hearts to Native South American hearts. Martha, a Peruvian team member, poured out her heart for her generation in front of the youth ministry training audience. In the first two days of our mission, she had experienced the infectious joy of leading her first people to Jesus. Now, with her arm raised and her fist clenched, she boldly proclaimed, "I am a rescuer!" All those twelve Peruvian disciples are rescuers now - and hope for their generation.

The Full Circle

We had planned on lighting a fire in Peruvian hearts. We hadn't planned on them lighting a fire in ours. After our last outreach together, I told the team my take on what God had done. "God planted a seed in Native America - in English-speaking hearts. They carried it to Peru - to Spanish-speaking hearts. Those who brought the seed will be leaving - but now the On Eagles' Wings vision has been planted deeply and dramatically in Peruvian soil. We have shown you how to be rescuers of your people. Now you have shown us how to be rescuers." The passion of Peru's On Eagles' Wings warriors has done something in all our American hearts. We will carry their fire back to On Eagles' Wings in North America - and the warriors from both continents will never be the same!

The Unfinished Task

Every place the team went in Peru, the churches asked, "How can we have more teams like this?" And indigenous Christian young people were asking, "How can I be a part of a team like this?" It's clear that our good-byes at the Lima Airport were not the end of this great work of God, but a beginning. Throughout the mountains of Peru are hundreds of indigenous villages without the Gospel, where people believe a confusing mixture of spirit worship, false doctrine and Communist ideas. A team of indigenous young messengers of the Gospel is the one approach that might break through.

Considering the ready hearts in Peru, there is a massive youth harvest waiting for the workers! We don't know where this goes next, but we ask you to join us in praying for the God who started this to show us His next steps.

Summary...

Our Peruvian host and organizer summed it up this way: "As this team moved from place to place, Light was spreading across Peru!"

What God began to reach Native American young people has now been proven as a tool that could reach indigenous young people around the world. Our ministry - and prayer warriors and supporters like you - have been handed a powerful trust from God. We await further orders from the Commander of the army of the Lord. And we thank God for friends like you who have been with us every step of this miracle Summer of Hope.