On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

A New Generation of Warriors

Let me welcome you to Day One of Warrior Leadership Summit (WLS). I’m living the answers to your prayers. We prayed that this might be the largest gathering at a Warrior Leadership Summit we’ve ever had. It was only a few years ago that fifty Native young people came together, and then there were a hundred, and then there were a couple of hundred. I’m excited to tell you that there are over six hundred people at this Warrior Leadership Summit. There are also seventy nations represented here. What a day it has been!

We’ve had vans, cars, and planes. Vehicles have come from all over. We’ve had people come from an Eskimo Village right next to the Bering Sea, all the way across Northern Canada—people who left two and a half days ago to start driving here. It’s almost like there has been a magnet at this conference center drawing Native young people from all over the continent. They have literally come from the four corners of the United States and Canada.

This year, we even have for the first time, representatives from the largest Indian tribe in the world from South America. We have our first Native leaders from there here at WLS. This thing is literally almost spanning the hemisphere in terms of the people that are participating.

Thank you so much! It is such a miracle. It has been a battle, because Satan really hates to have these young people come to this conference because he knows it’s life-changing. So many of our warriors who are on On Eagles’ Wings teams surrendered to Christ at a previous Warrior Leadership Summit. They have gone out and made missions history on reservations, so the enemy knows very well that this is territory that represents danger to his cause. It’s amazing to hear the stories of how Satan tried to keep people from coming.

I just sat with a young man who told me he wasn’t going to come because of the hurt, the pain, and the set-backs in his life. He ended up at the very last minute catching the last boat out from the reservation island that he lives on, and having to literally run a couple of miles to catch up with the vehicle that was leaving to get here. God wasn’t going to leave him behind. I think those kinds of stories are part of the answers to your prayer. I can’t wait to see what happens in the life of this young man.

Last night there was a lot of energy in the room. The fast start was just so exciting! It all began with the first notes of praise and worship, led by a Native worship band. They had everybody singing, "Oh happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away." It was like a rocket taking off. It was high energy stuff! It was almost immediate that these young men and women, most of whom had never met each other, were gathered together as one to sing praise to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Here’s an exciting footnote to Warrior Leadership Summit that you wouldn’t know just by looking at these hundreds of faces: the largest delegation here came from one of the states we've visited the past couple of summers. Many of you may have received reports from us talking about a corner of the country where the resistance to Christ is so strong that older brothers would come and cover the ears of their little brothers and say, “They said Jesus. You can’t listen.” There is that much of a hatred for Jesus among those people. God sent On Eagles’ Wings to those very hard hearts, and the only pastor on one of those major reservations said, “You’ve been able to reach more of my people in three days than I’ve been able to reach in 30 years."

Now where does the largest Native delegation come from? They come from that very state—one of the hardest places we have ever been. The miraculous after-math and harvest that came from the work of On Eagles’ Wings, that you may have very well helped make possible those two summers, has come back now in the form of a major group of young people coming to this Christian conference. It was something unheard of and unthinkable only a couple of years ago.

There are some great victories here, but there are also some great victories to be won. Tomorrow morning the pastor from that very difficult reservation, who’s brought the largest delegation here, will be speaking for the first time at Warrior Leadership Summit.

Our theme this year is The Warrior Way. There’s nobody more honored in Native history than the warrior. What did warriors do that was different from other people? They were willing to do the hard things no one else would do. They were willing to make the sacrifices no one else would make. They were willing to take the risks no one else would take. Now there are new battles to be fought, and the battles now for Native people are against self-destruction, addiction, wounding, and violence—the highest rates on the continent.

There’s a new generation of young warriors needed to fight those battles. It will come out of this very generation that bears all the wounds, all the pain, and all of the addictions that have come from trying to deal with that pain. We see the possibility of them being warriors for Christ and will choose to do the hard thing in order to fight for their people and choose to make the sacrifices and take the risks no one else will take. We’re taking them down a path called The Warrior Way to follow the warrior of all warriors, God's own Son, who He sent from heaven to fight the ultimate battle on a hill outside of Jerusalem for us. Tomorrow night it will be my privilege to preach that message and to invite these young men and women to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So many who are on an On Eagles’ Wings team began their life with Jesus at that cross at this event on a night like tomorrow night.

There is so much going on, and so much to pray for. I’m excited to continue to bring you reports, because I am not just reporting on what I’m doing or what our team is doing. I am reporting on what we are doing—you and our team.

There is no way we could be here, there is no way we could be doing this, and there is no way we could have financially empowered all of these young people to be together for a singular experience in America, but for the gifts of friends like you. As we are in the Summer of Hope right now, my last report showed that about 60% of the needed funds have come in, with the other 40% left to go. Did we stop? Did we call things off? Did we ask people not to come? No. We’ve proceeded by faith that God will honor this. When you have something that is singular and unique, how can you retreat? When there are lives at stake, how can you retreat? There are lives at stake.

One delegation from a very remote, depressed reservation in Northern Canada, had about twenty-five young people signed up to come. Twenty-four came, because of the one who committed suicide two weeks ago. We didn’t get to him in time, but the rest are here. There’s probably very few here who haven’t buried somebody who died that way, so we’re fighting for lives.

Yes, there are lives at stake, and we are here on the front-lines because you’ve given to send us here and to bring these young people here to a place of hope. You are also praying for the victories that cannot be won any other way. We are fighting strong, deeply entrenched spiritual forces that can only be overcome by the power of Christ prayed down by friends who have a heart like you.

I look forward to reporting to you tomorrow as we once again will get to live the answers to your prayers. You’re a warrior in your own right; you’re a prayer warrior. You, too, are walking The Warrior Way with us at Warrior Leadership Summit. Thank you. God bless you!