On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

"The dirty rez."

That's what some people call the "Red Rock"* Reservation. It's the "looked down on" place. Like the town Jesus came from.

If Jesus came "to preach good news to the poor," then Red Rock is His kind of place. Eighty-five percent unemployment. Nearly two-thirds of the people living under the poverty level. A reservation with drugs everywhere. The cartels know it's a place ripe for their deadly products. So do the gangs. We later learned that our outreach location was right on the battle line between two major well-known gangs.

Our team members come from many reservations, but even those from some very impoverished places were moved by the Third World-like feel of Red Rock. It's clearly a place where people resort to every possible escape from their painful existence - including suicide. It is clearly a place where the Hope of Jesus is desperately needed.

Ironically, the basketball court our local inviters lined up for us is known as Hallelujah Square. It seems like anything but that. Two weeks ago, a young man was shot to death on this court in a gang shooting.

The violence, the suicides, and the despair are indicators of a place where the enemy is used to having his way. We should not have been surprised that this rez turned into a difficult and even dangerous battlefield. One target has been the vehicles on which this army depends. One by one, they've developed problems that have complicated the challenges we already had. The RV generators that provide power for our outreaches have been failing, even after they've been fixed. The power went out where we were having our events, thus closing a grocery store we were depending on for outreach supplies. A backup generator remained silent because it didn't have gas - because the power outage forced the rez gas station to close.

Night One was cut short because a lightning storm moved in across the area. Night Two - those same clouds were again moving our way. We cried out to the Lord of the weather (who's also the Lord of the harvest) to send the ominous lightning another direction. For the rest of the night, we were surrounded by a giant horseshoe of storms - that stopped short of Hallelujah Square. But the biggest threat didn't come from the weather. It came as our team got caught in the violent cross-currents at Red Rock.

We noticed a white car cruising the block over and over. Eventually, they parked and some gang members emerged with their top leader, who was drunk and belligerent. He was shouting obscenities, grabbing girls as they walked by, and threatening to start a fight. Containing and defusing him and his friends took some of our key guys out of rescuing for a while. We asked any of our girls who weren't engaged in a conversation to go to the bus immediately, escorted by one of our guys.

Minutes later, one of those girls spotted some young men trying to put what she described as a "fire bomb" in the exhaust of the vehicle where my son Brad and I were praying for our team. She flashed her cell phone light their direction and it seemed to scare them away. In that moment of danger, I believe your prayer for our protection was answered dramatically. And even with the vehicle, power and danger issues, these young warriors continued to faithfully lead Red Rock young people to Christ.

It was a powerful moment when "Amy" stood to give her Hope Story in front of her own people. She's intensely quiet. It seems almost unthinkable for her to stand in front of a group of people - let alone her own people - and talk with a microphone. But she did it for Jesus. Amy stood mid-court at Hallelujah Square and told about how both her mom and dad died, leaving her alone...how her buried grief led to anger, drugs, cutting and ultimately, attempted suicide.

Then, at a conference, she heard about the love of Jesus - and trusted Him as her Savior. Amy said, "Life without my mom and dad is hard, but I've got Jesus who loves me and takes care of me. He's taken away my pain." That night, 39 more Red Rock young people trusted Amy's Savior.

With equipment, weather and potential violence issues on our first two nights, we prayed as a team for the peace of Christ and a mighty work of God at the court on Night Three. And after two nights with chaos and confusion, warrior after warrior said, "It's so peaceful here tonight." As one of the warriors challenged the crowd to step out and choose Jesus publicly at center court, there was a thick silence - followed by a dramatic surge to center court from all directions. For the second time in four days, God showed these young warriors - and hundreds of reservation young people - His undeniable power and glory. One-fourth of the people at that court gave themselves to Jesus Christ that night!

Among those who came was a group of 10-11 year old girls. That night, after "Mandy" (Eskimo) told her Hope Story of the Savior who healed her from sexual abuse and feelings of worthlessness, those young girls came and pressed close to her. They told her that her story was their story. As Mandy shared this with the team, she said through her tears, "I've never had so many young girls hold me so tight." Later, I told Mandy that I thought a calling on her life may have been born that night - to use the wounds of her life to help other girls find life in Christ.

On this reservation so starved for some hope, one person wrote, "This is the best thing that's ever happened on this reservation." Three lone missionaries - apparently the only believers here who care about reaching Red Rock's desperate young people - told us, "We've talked to a lot of people here tonight. When they saw all those people coming forward, they said nothing like this has ever happened on this reservation." The victories did not come cheap here. But again these amazing young warriors stepped it up to do whatever the battle required. And God again showed Himself stronger than anything the enemy could throw at them.

Again, your prayers have been decisive. And for three glorious nights in this Summer of Hope, a dusty basketball court on a forgotten reservation really was Hallelujah Square.

*Names and locations changed for privacy