On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Update from Ron Hutchcraft with Team U.S.

Ten junior high girls.  They all decided to die together.

Three of them hung themselves from clothes racks in their closets.  Others were injured in the attempt or changed their minds.  Their desperation gave undeniable witness to the spirit of death and despair on the "Red Rock" Reservation - Mission #1 for On Eagles' Wings Team U. S.  If ever a Summer of Hope was needed, it is needed here.

Take just one town on this reservation.  Of 58 students in their junior high, there were 17 babies born last year.  Across the rez, gang violence is growing as wounded young men act out their sense of powerlessness and anger.  And the spirit of suicide is claiming far too many lives.

"Angie" is one of our warriors, and this is her home reservation.  She told us about her cousin, a gifted athlete and natural leader, who had led his high school football team to a state championship.  On break from the college he attended on a scholarship, he gave up on life.  He hung himself and broke the hearts of everyone who knew him.

This spiritual battleground is the first mission - and the first test - of this On Eagles' Wings team.  They are proving themselves to be one of the strongest teams of warriors we've ever seen.  And that is an answer to your prayers.

With competition from a rodeo, a carnival and a powwow, we were encouraged by an opening night with about a hundred local young people.  In the very first minutes of the team's very first outreach, they were on a mission.  As soon as a local young person arrived, a team member was with them, establishing that connection that can later lead to rescuing a life.  As always, they found those "divine matchups" - someone whose story was just like theirs even though they lived 2,000 miles away.

When I asked a first-year team member how her first night had gone, she said, "These kids broke my heart."  "Carrie" (Hopi) is also a "rookie" this year, and our youngest team member.  Our staff on her reservation met her as a sad young woman who, like the girls on the Red Rock Reservation, the life-taker had convinced her she should end her life.  Then she met the Life-Giver.  Now she wants to help other Native girls meet Him, too.  And though she's naturally a quiet young woman, she led a girl to Christ on her first night as an OEW rescuer.

On Night 2, things exploded.  The buzz about the team spread quickly, and there were over 400 on or around that basketball court!  Basketball moves and Hope Stories were "applauded" with honking horns from the cars that surrounded the court on all sides.

It was a battle for Angie to give her Hope Story to her own people that night, but God used her in a wonderful way.  Jason, a Nez Perce team member, told his story of 14 funerals - a young life full of death and grieving - and drugs to help the pain.  Minutes later, he met a local young man who also has had his fourteen funerals.  An amazing divine matchup - where Jason got to introduce a guy like himself to his Jesus.

Brad (Nez Perce) moved from his moving Hope Story into a riveting presentation of the Gospel.  Praying on the bus, I was amazed at the total attention of an audience that was predominantly the "big boys" of this reservation.  When Brad asked the crowd to bow to pray, those tough guys were hats off, heads bowed, eyes closed.  Later, as we went through the response cards, we learned that on Night 2 of this Summer of Hope, 65 of those young people had given their hearts to Christ!

Because of the powerful impact of the first two nights, we were given an unusual opportunity - to do an "anything goes" program for the reservation's juvenile detention center.  We sent several of our more "hard-core" warriors.  There, among 12 of the hardest young people on this rez, seven gave their hearts to Jesus!   That night the detention center supervisors brought them all to our event, and who should lead one of those hard-core girls to Christ but "Carrie" (Hopi) - that quiet but passionate young rescuer.

Sensing an unusual moving of the Holy Spirit in this community, we went the next day to a hill overlooking the main reservation town.  And there, overlooking the rez as Jesus once looked over the city that broke His heart, we cried out to God for these lives and this land.  That night, our final night, over 400 came again.  Again, the audience had a lot of the big boys who are the most looked-to guys there.  They are also the hardest to reach.

The Hope Stories and Gospel wrap-up were powerful and very listened to.  Then came that decisive moment in the battle - the invitation to publicly give yourself to Jesus Christ.  That's a huge step, right on the basketball court, right in front of a lot of your community.

As we prayed fervently to the God who is "mighty to save," one junior high young man stepped out, along with two children.  Then it broke.  In the crowd was a young rap star from that reservation who is very looked to.  With head bowed in humility, he walked to center court to declare his commitment to Jesus Christ.  And the dam broke.  The big guys streamed forward from all directions, along with many others.  It felt like, as Angie said about her reservation, "a spiritual turning point for this reservation."

There's a team of some 20 local ministry people committed to following up and turning this moment into a movement.  And God has given them an amazing breakthrough to build on.

Among those who surrendered to Jesus was a young man the detention center leaders called "the hardest kid on this reservation - a leader of the gangs here."  The tattoos on his face tell the story of his life - teardrops.  That life is, as of last night, in the hands of Jesus.

It was a powerful beginning for Team U. S. in this Summer of Hope.  Over 900 Native young people reached over three nights - and 120 commitments to Jesus Christ.  That's why, at our late-night team debriefing, we sang a praise song that celebrates that "the Lord our God is mighty to save."  Yes, He is.

We move out today for our second reservation with great expectancy in our hearts and great gratitude for your decisive prayers.

Ron Hutchcraft, for OEW Team U.S.