North America (MNN) — The On Eagles’ Wings Summer of Hope missions to Native American reservations may be over. But Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says they’re still getting stories of young people who came to Christ this summer and are now witnessing to others.
Hutchcraft shares one young man’s story:
Lost friends to death, now bringing friends to Christ
“He talked about a lifetime of depression. His dad was murdered in cold blood. Two weeks later, he lost two of his best friends who were like brothers to him in a traffic accident. He has been to more funerals of more of his friends than he could ever count.
(Photo courtesy of RHM)
“He said he just became numb, and he said, ‘I became a person that I hated.’ But he went to our Warrior Leadership conference sometime ago and he gave his heart to Christ.
Hutchcraft says now, “He has been amazingly transformed, and he was instrumental in many people who have drug issues coming to Christ this summer. He has gone home back to his drug-wracked, violence-wracked reservation and we keep getting reports back of his brother coming to Christ and friends coming to Christ. He’s being asked to speak to groups of young people now!”
No longer ‘felon’, but ‘freed’
Another story of a changed life now reaching others, shares Hutchcraft:
“A young lady who, because of the terrible violence in her home, started cutting. That led to her ultimately taking a whole box of Tylenol trying to die, and then trying to numb herself with alcohol, then cocaine, then meth, then dealing those drugs to other people.
“She ended up being beaten by her boyfriend violently when they were both drunk. Then when her dad died, nothing was working for her. She went to her traditional Indian religion and it just didn’t give her any hope, it didn’t help at all.
“Then in an incident of road rage, she pulled a cocked gun on somebody. Now she becomes a felony before the law.
“Amazingly, she came to the point where she just said, ‘I was tired of being high. My body and soul were tired of feeling hopeless. I turned to Jesus, He gave me life and purpose, He died for me. And when He looks at me, He doesn’t see felon. He sees a beautiful Indian woman.’”
The On Eagles’ Wings team praying over the mission field (Photo courtesy of RHM via Facebook)
While ministering in the Summer of Hope outreach, Hutchcraft says this young woman shared from her heart, and it touched the youth she spoke to.
“She said, ‘I should be in prison, but God sent me a long way from home to tell you He is the hope you’re looking for. He’ll light up every dark place in your life. And the Jesus that resurrected me can resurrect you.’ And that night, He did [resurrect] so many of the young people on that reservation.”
Year-round discipleship
These are just two stories of lives transformed for Christ this summer who, in turn, reached others for Jesus and will continue to do so.
“Those are the kinds of incredible young warriors God is raising up.”
Now, Hutchcraft says several of the Native young adults are looking ahead. “Realizing how God can use them, now many of them with scholarship help from On Eagles’ Wings are going to Bible college or Christian school as a result to train to become leaders for their people.”
The discipleship and faith-building relationships with On Eagles’ Wings aren’t confined to the summer; they’re year-round.
“What we’re going to do during the year, we’ll continue to disciple the team members, make it possible for them to get a Christian education, to help the reservations follow-up in the places where we have been and conserve the harvest and train reservation leaders on how to reach young people, as On Eagles’ Wings has learned to do. All that’s going to continue to go on.”
Support for the unsupported
Many of these young teens and adults need outside support to pursue continued education or biblical training. Ron Hutchcraft Ministries works with them, but the greater support of the Church in this mission is critical.
The On Eagles’ Wings team for Summer of Hope 2016 (Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries via Facebook)
“There are always those who say, ‘I didn’t know about this. What can I do?’ And I can tell you, for almost everything we do in Native America, it takes a lot of funds that have to be raised because the young people themselves don’t have anywhere to raise it. They can’t write missionary support letters to somebody, there’s nobody to write to back home. So this is a year-round program.”
This is how you can help!
“If God moves you to say, ‘Could I give to something like this?’ go to Hutchcraft.com and if you specify your gift for On Eagles’ Wings, every dollar of it will go to continue this amazing, historic breakthrough to Native America all during the year.”
