On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

It was the summer of broken chains!

The participants at the Warrior Leadership Summit conference all wore them. Paper chains that symbolized the real bondages of young Native lives - the sins, the addictions, the pain.

As I stepped out on the stage the final night, I walked through broken “chains” everywhere. Throughout the week, these once-hopeless young people had torn them off and left them at Jesus' cross. They came enslaved. They left free! And now they would help set others free.

From the conference, two On Eagles' Wings teams were launched to eleven hurting reservations. And God chose to do something amazing through them - among probably the hardest-to-reach young people on the continent.

God used them to lead 856 Native young people to their Savior!

Nearly 1/3 more than last year's wonderful harvest!

I so want you to share in the joy of the saving work God did this summer. It's the answer to your prayers. It's the eternal fruit of your giving! You need to know some of the amazing breakthroughs you've been a part of among possibly the hardest-to-reach young people on the continent.

You've helped raise up spiritual warriors from 76 Native nations and dozens of reservations!

It was the largest Warrior Leadership Summit in On Eagles' Wings history - 630 participants representing an unprecedented 76 nations. But much more than the numbers, it's the impact that really matters.

• One-fourth of those young people gave their lives to Jesus Christ many of them virtually rushing to the cross.
• At least a third stayed behind another night to abandon the sins and addictions that have enslaved them.
• After Doug Hutchcraft's powerful message on being a rescuer for your people, many young people, from dozens of reservations, streamed to a microphone to proclaim: “I will obey God…I will be a rescuer…I want to shake gates of hell!” One of our young On Eagles' Wings leaders asked, “Did you ever in your life think you'd see something like this happen with Native young people?”

You've helped hope break through in some very desperate places.

You prayed for young warriors who brought Jesus to a reservation that has 11,000 people and 17 violent gangs. One recent victim was a little two-year-old girl. On the night of the public Gospel invitation, young people came from all over the court to come to Christ. You also helped enable a team to accept the invitation of the tribal council who wrote and said: “We welcome you with open arms to our native homelands … We have buried many of our youth. We truly believe your message of hope will affect the lives of many.” And it really did.

You sent a team to another reservation where ten 13-year old girls had recently decided to die together. Not all went through with the suicide pact, but three girls died by hanging and others were injured. In that same community - in a junior high of only 58 students - 17 babies were born to young girls. Hope is very hard to find there. But not as hard as it used to be. In three nights, there was a total attendance at our outreaches of over 900, and a stunning response to the Gospel. An inter-ministry committee has already begun the follow-up events we've laid out for our local partners - and up to 200 are coming!

The rescues in this Summer of Hope took place on basketball courts, in gymnasiums, at a juvenile detention center, in a jail, and at the Native “Olympics” known as the Indigenous Games. We went where they were to bring them to the Cross. And when “He was lifted up” ((bible}John 12:32{/bible}), many wanted Him as their Savior.

On reservation after reservation, it was as if the Holy Spirit was literally sweeping young people into the arms of Jesus. Often it was the “big boys,” the hardest and most influential young men on the rez, who were the first to step out. I prayed on the bus during each outreach, and on invitation night, the bus driver and I found ourselves emotionally overwhelmed by the response. No one who was there will be able to forget how Jesus showed up in the middle of their reservation.

You've had a part in birthing reservation youth ministries where there's never been any.

On one reservation, we were told that a group of men have met together weekly to pray for a spiritual breakthrough there. They believe the On Eagles' Wings harvest is part of the answer to all those years of praying. And they, like local leaders on many of this summer's reservations, are seizing the OEW momentum to launch an ongoing youth ministry. From day one, we've prepared our partners to use the moment to launch a movement of spiritual rescue!

You've invested in young Native leaders who can write a new chapter for their people.

I wish you could see the young warriors of On Eagles' Wings in action. They're amazing. They're so transparent about the sin and pain that once enslaved them … so bold in telling people about the Savior who rescued them … so focused every night on rescuing, no matter what the conditions … so believing God for things only God could do. They have a lot to teach all of us.

I recently spoke with one of our team members whom God has rescued from a dark past, and then used mightily to reach young women this summer. She had packed up all she could fit in her car, and was driving across the country to start Bible school - because God called her to serve Him during this Summer of Hope. She's one of many warriors whose plans were changed by God this summer. They are on their way to being part of the answer to a 500-year old tragedy in Indian missions - the lack of Native leaders to reach Native people. And you helped them be where they could hear the call of God.

The trail of broken chains.

The trail of broken chains began at Warrior Leadership Summit. It now stretches across eleven reservations where young warriors who were once enslaved have been used to set others free. It will grow as those warriors - and many who were set free at Warrior Leadership Summit - live the rest of their lives as liberators for their people. “He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains” (Psalm 107:14 ).

It was an eternally memorable Summer of Hope, because of an amazing God who will stop at nothing to rescue the dying. Our battle cry verse for this summer of rescue says: “The Lord your God is with you; He is mighty to save” (Zephaniah 3:17 ). He really is.

Deeply grateful for your part in these miracles,

Ron Hutchcraft