On Eagles Wings - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Changing the Future

I am just thrilled about what we have experienced already here at Warrior Leadership Summit. Groups came rolling in all day long and it was neat to see these Native youth coming from places hundreds and thousands of miles away to Warrior Leadership Summit. When we had pretty much the bulk of the crowd in, we were still setting up chairs in the back of the auditorium.

There’s always awkwardness on the first day and especially for our Native people. A lot of times we’re shy and a little more reserved. Some of them might not say that about me. We observed some nervousness and shyness falling off the backs of so many of these young people.

I love the way our programming committee put together, not only the main events, but even some of the fun crowd-breaking kind of things that we did that really broke down walls of aloneness and walls of “I don’t know anybody here and I’m going to hang out in the corner.” We got some activities going that got the youth involved. Brand new friendships formed and what started out in the beginning as being real reserved and shy, by the end of the night it was

just like old friends. There were hundreds of Native youth interacting with each other and doing some fun events together. We really started strong and we started well because the climate was set well by our programming committee.

I have really been moved by the worship. There is nothing in my life that has moved me like seeing these hundreds and hundreds of Native young people standing in total worship of Jesus Christ. Worship is led by an awesome Native worship team bringing everyone into the presence of God to focus on the Lord. There is real true heartfelt and genuine worship happening.

Ron really set the stage well on opening night for our theme this year on how to break free from the chains that have brought us bondage for so long in our life. There are so many Native youth that have come to this conference over the years who this was the place where they met God in a powerful way and it has been life-changing for them. They have found direction and a work of God in their life. I think that is going to happen again this year at this Summit if our first night is any indication of the nights and the days to come.

I had the privilege of opening God’s Word to the warriors and speaking on the great quote from A.W. Tozer, one of the great Christian leaders of a generation ago, where he mentions that our view of God shapes how we view everything else in life. This morning we were able to put the searchlight on the Scriptures and just lift up God and who He is in His awesome might, power, His glory, His holiness, and His love for us. I think the youth are going to get a bucket load of God’s truth here and it’s going to, I believe, make an eternal difference in their lives.

One of the young men on our team, he’s a Nez Perce from Idaho, shared this morning about coming to WLS several years ago. He came to WLS a shy, nervous, anxious young man who didn’t know God, and found Jesus and a personal relationship with Christ right here at Warrior Leadership Summit. Since then, that young man has traveled with us on our On Eagles’ Wings teams. From there, he sensed a call of God into full-time ministry and now he is studying full-time as a Bible school student, preparing for a lifetime of service.

I’m wondering how many times that will be repeated here at WLS 2008 where a young person, maybe not even a follower of Jesus yet, will hear the truth of the Gospel and the power of God and they’re going to experience that power first hand and their life is never going to be the same. Maybe, just maybe, we will see coming out of Warrior Leadership Summit in the generations to come, new leaders for the body of Christ in Native America and among the First Nations people of Canada.

Psalm 102:18 says, “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.” I think there’s going to be a generation of Native people, not even alive right now, not even yet born, who are going to know God because of what happens here at WLS. There will be people who will come to Christ and be strengthened in their faith, who will live a lifetime of faithfulness to God and their children will be raised in a Christian home.

Generations to come will be praising God because of what’s happening here. That’s reaching out into the future and changing the future.

We’re off to a great start and I’m looking forward to see what God will do in the days to come.