One changed life. That may be the best way to understand the mighty work God is doing through the indigenous work of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries. You are helping make possible a powerful tool kit for outreach to the first people of this continent - Warrior Leadership Summit, On Eagles' Wings teams, The Path, and Warrior Generation...but nothing reveals how this full-circle strategy works more than one changed life.
During the Native American outreaches of our On Eagles' Wings® Team on eleven reservations one summer, I met a man with an amazing story. I'll call him Chad. Here is his story as he explained it to me. Chad was raised to be the last traditional chief in his tribe and a spiritual shaman. Like many Native Americans over the years, he was sent to a religious boarding school, where in Christ's name he was forced to dress, look and speak as a white man - and punished if he accidentally spoke a word of his own language. The anger that built up in him made him a most unlikely candidate to ever give his heart to this one he thought to be "the white man's God."
Chad wanted to die, so he went to Vietnam, hoping someone would kill him. He became one of the few good enough to be called a Navy Seal and then he went through the horrors of being a prisoner of war. When he returned from the war, he became a gang leader in a major city with some 10,000 people in his organization. He was stabbed twice, shot three times, and one night he found himself on an operating table with surgeons fighting long odds to save his life.
There's a stretch of nights in the fall when you can see this huge, brilliant, yellowish moon rising in the eastern sky. It just makes you stop and almost catch your breath. I think it was in the days before electricity that farmers started calling it a "harvest moon." With so much depending on the harvest and so little time to bring it in, every hour had to count. And the days never seemed quite long enough to get it all in. So, a bright full moon was more than just a beautiful view...it meant something much more important. With that extra light, God was giving them a little more time to harvest!
The worldwide economic valley has impacted plans for individuals, businesses, and ministries in ways that are unprecedented for many of us. Everyone is seeking ways to make sense of their current financial situation and put together plans that allow them to feel some stability for the next few months. RHM is wrestling with these same issues.
