On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

As the team bus and support vehicles left Winding River, I was much in prayer as our next stop was one of those communities that could prove to be a real challenge for the On Eagles' Wings team. It was a community that some of the ministry leaders who know the area said was a very tough place, and very resistant to outside influence. It is known for a history of violence and was a place where we had heard that some missionaries trying to come into the community had been chased away at gunpoint less than a decade ago.

Violence and tough communities are no stranger to most of the On Eagles' Wings team. Some live right in the middle of tough inner-city environments. Some live in communities that are prone to the more painful lifestyles that leave their mark on the heart and soul of its residents. It's also in communities like this where hope is needed the most. As the OEW bus rolled down those northern roads and the community of Ascension came into view, I asked the Lord one more time for His power, protection and strength for a team that spent six long days driving to get to this region, and had just completed six strenuous days of outreach in the two communities we'd already visited.

Our first night started very strong, as we set up at a huge open field that had been at one point the site of the community's school, which had been burned to the ground several years prior. The crowd grew to an impressive first night crowd, and they really got into the hope stories of our team. Native people by nature are storytellers, so the hope stories of our team are always met with great interest and wonder.

Often, when our girls share their stories which relate so closely with the lives of the girls in the community, it provides an open door to further one on one conversations on how our team has found hope and healing from abuses through our faith in Christ. That then opens the door to the Gospel being presented as the only hope for such deep wounds. When our guys share their stories, they too relate to the real life issues of the local guys. Sports, drugs, alcohol, and painful relationships mark and mar the lives of so many, but the newness of life that comes from Christ is seen by some, for the first time, as relevant to them and their lives.

The subsequent nights were filled with many youth, children and adults crowding the field as our multi-sports outreach events drew many people as close to the Cross of Jesus Christ as they've ever been in their lives.

You could see and sense some of the violent behavior that has unfortunately marked this community to the outside world, as spontaneous fights would break out among the youth in the outlying areas of our event venue. From what we were told, and from what we saw, violence often has been the way to settle issues and that pattern has become ingrained as "the way things are done here." But in the midst of that chaos, the healing and restoring message of faith in Jesus Christ rang out through the night sky.

By the time we had finished our last outreach event, over sixty youth and adults had chosen to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. An older man told me as we were preparing to leave, "Thank you so much for coming to our community. I've finally found out that Jesus Christ relates to and understands me. I want to learn how to live now the Christian way."

Pray for this dear man, and the many others who began a relationship with Christ. There is now a core group of believers who could become a local body of Christ, not just a local youth ministry. The only church in this community for years has been a Catholic Church, and they only meet about once a month, and when they meet only about 20 of the 1,200 people who call this community home attend. They need to grow in their relationships with Christ, and need the encouragement of some committed Christian workers in the region who are willing to move the follow-up forward and see fruit that remains.

We pray that will be so!

OEW Team Canada