On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Three strongholds - a flood of drugs...a history of witchcraft...the centuries-old entrenched religion that views Christianity as their #1 enemy. Those are the challenges that faced the U.S. On Eagles' Wings team as they arrived at their sixth reservation of this Summer of Hope 2007. On this largest reservation in the region, only two percent attend a church of any kind. If there was to be a victory on this ground, it would be hard-fought.

God's work on this "Manitou" reservation had already begun before the team even arrived. Five Manitou young people and two leaders attended Warrior Leadership Summit a few weeks ago. It rocked their world. As soon as they returned, they destroyed all their "sin props" - music CDs, books, etc. They committed to stay connected to hold each other accountable. They were given five minutes in their church service to share about the Summit - they took the whole service. One of five young people wanted to be baptized - it turned into a baptism for 15 people! Christian leaders summarized what had happened to their young people this way: "They came back completely different kids."

Leaders told us that a clear move of God had begun with this group attending Warrior Leadership Summit. That was encouraging considering that this was probably the most hard core reservation of the summer. The people here have been on the hearts of several team members since we were here last summer.

Note: This prayer update is more lengthy than our normal reports, but I'd encourage you to read this amazing report of what God has done for Team Canada in the past few days!!! Craig

Psalms 33:10-11 says, "The Lord foils the plans of the nations, He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations."

These verses would come alive to our team as we made our way from our last outreach site to this new community. It would be here on this Reserve that the faith of our team would be severely tested.

We go out months in advance and meet with local ministry and tribal leaders who express interest in having our team come to their communities. From there, we are in ongoing communication as we make plans for the team's arrival. Over the months leading up to this scheduled stop, it appeared all was in place. The only challenge we would have was the main and only ministry leader would not be there during the outreaches due to previously scheduled trips. Some of the local people would be working with us upon our arrival to help get into the lodging facilities, etc.

About fourteen hours away from our last stop lies the community of Sagina. According to the local leaders, it's the second largest Reserve in Canada, and home to about 6,500 tribal members. It would be the next location for our Summer of Hope 2007.

We were excited that this Reserve had several Native churches functioning together in partnership, and a very encouraging group of young adults who have been connected with OEW over the past few years. This year we saw an excited group from this Reserve at our Warrior Leadership Summit (WLS).

The excitement was evident in both our team and the local believers as the bus and caravan pulled into town and relationships were renewed from our days at WLS. It seemed to us that the soil was ready through the prayers of many for the seed of the Gospel to be planted in this community.

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.

Our hearts were broken for the many First Nations street people who are very visible in High Prairie. Many of them have homes on the Reserves, but according to some folks who minister to them, they said that it's safer for them to live on the streets than it is for them to go back to their homes. So much pain, so much hurt, so little hope.