Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Mission Network News (MNN) wrote several articles about the 2007 Native American ministries of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries. Click on the their article titles below to read what they have to say about Warrior Leadership Summit and On Eagles' Wings® outreach events

Suicide epidemic on Native American reservation calls for emergency measures

USA (MNN) - A suicide epidemic on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Todd County, South Dakota has authorities alarmed. The American Association of Suicidology says South Dakota ranked 13th in the nation in 2004 in suicides per capita, with 14.5 suicides for every 100,000 people.

But according to reports, Rosebud Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement officers have noticed a sharply marked upswing in those numbers. In 2006, officials responded to three deaths by suicide and 197 attempts. In the first three months of 2007, police had been called to three completed suicides and 51 attempts, a trend likely to exceed the grim numbers of a year ago.

Unsure if the statistics marked a cycle or a one-time event, the elders tried to address the domestic abuse, the depression, and the substance abuse problems. And still, things seemed unchanged.
One newspaper reported that tribal leaders tried to get to the heart of the despair and do some research on the situation. They distributed surveys to high school students on the reservation, trying to identify the triggers, those who are talking and those who are helping.

The responses: There's too much violence on the reservation. Parents need to take responsibility for their children. Alcohol and drugs are ruining families and communities. No one cares. No one listens to us.

The Sioux Tribal President declared a state of emergency in order to get some federal support for programs to address the growing instability.

That's when a church leader called Ron Hutchcraft Ministries' Craig Smith to ask for help from an "On Eagles' Wings" emergency rapid response team. The team began work on the reservation Friday, October 12 and just wrapped up their last meeting Monday.

The team is made up of Native young adults who serve as role models. Smith says they can get through where other non-Indian teams can't because "they've come from a lot of the pain that we see in the Native communities and yet they have found hope in Christ. We saw a very encouraging number of the folks from this community pray with our team to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ."

Smith says the response to the hope of the Gospel was overwhelming. Discipleship will now form the bulk of the ministry.

Smith explains it this way: "We're kind of like jumper cables. You can't run a car on jumper cables. The local ministry is the battery. We can come along and jump start and put a spark back into local ministries where it's needed. We've created some ongoing follow-up materials that we give to the local ministry leaders, but it's the local church that is the vehicle by which discipleship needs to continue."

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Powerful model of evangelism is essence of successful Summer of Hope

USA (MNN) - "One God-night after another" is how Ron Hutchcraft summarized their Summer of Hope.

Two On Eagle's Wings teams from Ron Hutchcraft Ministries went out after the Warrior Leadership Summit: one in the U.S. and another to northern Canada. These Native American youth are bringing the Gospel to other Native American young people who are in a culture that faces startling suicide rates and drug addiction.

In one of the Canadian tribes visited by OEW, missionaries had been chased out at gun-point in years past. However, Ron Hutchcraft said, "They had the great pleasure of leading 60 young people to Christ. That's three times the total number that ever attend church there."

In the U.S. tribe, children at one point were dragging other children out of the presentations because they been taught for so long that Jesus is the enemy. But success came there as well. "We were told by a veteran native pastor in that area that 'this team has had a greater impact in three nights than we've been able to make in 30 years."

After an OEW presentation which took place on a reservation basketball court, one young lady was aware of the spiritual struggle taking place as the Gospel was presented: "I knew the powers of darkness and the powers of righteousness were all there on that basketball court."

Today, there is "a regional network of youth ministries being born. So the miracle that began in Summer of Hope is continuing, and we believe it could change a generation and perhaps make this generation the 'Jesus generation' among their people."

Hutchcraft said they watched storms coming into the reservation, and after prayer, watched them move right around the basketball courts they presented on. "A few minutes later, many native young people would trade their hopelessness" for the hope of Jesus Christ.

This fall, 32 of the 56 native young people who were summer OEW team members are either training for Christian ministry or already working in a Christian ministry. This is hope rising in a culture that has very few Christian leaders.

The model of youth leading youth to Christ presents a basic truth about evangelism, according to Hutchcraft. "Teachers will listen to teachers. Soccer players will listen to soccer players. And the people who are in the best position, the most powerful position, to help other people go to heaven are everyday Christians. And God is using these young people in Native America to reach maybe the hardest of the hard-to-reach on this continent."

Chief responds to Gospel

Canada (MNN) - During Ron Hutchcraft Ministries' On Eagle's Wings outreach near the Arctic circle, a Native American chief came to Christ.

Craig Smith of the team was able to hear his confession of faith and pray with him. They prayed that the rest of the people he leads will come to Christ.

The chief came forward on the final day of the outreach when the OEW team gave a public invitation to accept Christ. While some had come to Christ in one-on-one encounters, some began coming forward. As soon as a few from the back began coming, more and more followed.

In this community, Shrub River, there are several nearby evangelical churches. Many First Nation members are living on the streets even though they have homes on the reserves. Those who minister to them say its safer for them on the streets.

When the OEW team found an abandoned halfway house to do their ministry, it was in bad condition. The chief who eventually came to Christ mobilized some of his people and had the halfway house cleaned up in time for the outreach.
Overall, 180 people came to know Christ during the OEW team's visit in that region of Canada.

Their next stop is the second-largest First Nations Reserve in all of Canada. Continue praying for God to soften hearts and cause many to believe.

Native American young people tell their 'Hope Stories'

It's not always easy sharing your personal testimony in front of hundreds of strangers. It can be even more difficult telling your own family. Now imagine sharing that message of hope with thousands of your own family at one time.

The Ron Hutchcraft Ministries sponsored "Warrior Leadership Summit" is over, and now it's time for action. And that's what Native American young people will be doing this summer: sharing their personal "hope story" on reservations throughout the United States and Canada.

They'll be people like "Kahse," an Ojibwa from Minnesota. "Well, I went last year and had such an incredible time witnessing to people. I really enjoyed seeing what God could do, seeing what prayer He is able to answer in miraculous ways. Just from my experiences last year, seeing how God moved and how it felt so amazing to be able to reach out to other people, that's why I want to go again - just to witness."

She helped lead two teen age girls to the Lord and says she was just amazed at how God spoke to them. She can't wait to hit the trail again.

"I thought it was so powerful because the Lord allowed me to witness to so many people and so many wonderful opportunities and chances that I never thought I would be able to have. He opened the doors just incredibly with people's hearts."

Her prayer is that people would have open their hearts to hearing the Word of God. She wants them to see Christ as more than "just a white man's god." And she can't wait to see the transformation of her team members as God's awesome power is used to proclaim the life-changing message of the Gospel to all tongues and tribes - tribes that many of the team members belong to and want to see brought into the Kingdom of God.

Native American youth transformed to share the Gospel.

USA (MNN) - Five days of intense spiritual discipleship is nearing an end, and now according to On Eagles Wings Director Craig Smith, "The picnic is over."

Native American teens from various tribes, some of whom once warred against each other and decimated their own populations, have now joined forces for an even greater battle: the fight over the souls of Native American teens across North America.

Ron Hutchcraft Ministries' Warrior Leadership Summit is over, and teams of Native youth will fan out and head to over a dozen reservations in the U.S. and Canada. They will be proclaiming freedom from the chains of alcohol, drug and sexual abuse, victory over suicide, and the hope of a new age to come.

Smith says these teens have experienced the Holy Spirit's power in a dramatic way. "We've had an amazing spiritual climate here. I believe the very presence of God has visited these Native young people in a very remarkable way." In truth, it has affected some in different ways. Some 70 teens who came gave their lives to Christ for the first time. "We had over 50 decisions last year, and this year it's gone up."

Smith says some groups come in knowing this will be a discipleship event, but the Gospel message still gets through, and lives are always changed. These teens will now head out over the next month and share their testimonies, or "hope stories," with other Native youth on reservations. These are areas of extreme poverty and sometimes hopelessness. But that doesn't stop God's truth from touching the lives of others through young people who have been changed.

"Our people are story tellers," Smith pronounces. "There can be all kinds of sports and noise and events going on, but when one of our team members picks up the microphone and says, 'I want to tell my story,' it gets quiet. Our people want to hear those stories."

But that's only the beginning. "I'll tell you, the power of the Gospel comes through in those stories." And the message of hope once again touches needy hearts.

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