One changed life. That may be the best way to understand the mighty work God is doing through the indigenous work of 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.
Jason's story is like that of so many Native young people - growing up on a hard reservation, surrounded by alcohol and drug abuse, sexual and physical abuse, and so many suicides. Jason's painful journey ended in prison - for dealing drugs. While he was there, he asked the Life-changer, Jesus Christ, to take over his life.
As Jason started to grow, he felt what most Native young people feel as a believer - alone. Where were there other young people who knew the battles he faced and the Savior he'd trusted? That's when Jason heard about Warrior Leadership Summit. There he found other Native young people from scores of Indian nations who were worshipping God together, hearing straight talk from God's Word together, and learning what it took to be a leader together.
Wanting more, Jason applied and was accepted to be a part of the On Eagles' Wings team that summer. Over many hundreds of miles, seven reservations and long days with short nights, Jason lived a ministry model that broke through to people where nothing else has. Native young people reaching Native young people - it works among some of the hardest-to-reach young people on the continent. Almost every night in July, these young warriors set up on a reservation basketball court, connect personally with the local people and put on a magnetic, high-energy program. Then come their riveting Hope Stories that silence even the hardest people there.
So, Jason got to experience what every OEW team has experienced - a history-making response to the Gospel. Like every OEW warrior, he had learned to give his Hope Story, to engage in one-on-one spiritual conversations, to present the Gospel compellingly, and to extend a public invitation to come to Christ. And like every summer, hundreds of Native young people gave their hearts to Jesus. Then the local Christian leaders had young lives and a ministry strategy to birth youth ministry on their reservation.
Again, Jason was ready for a next step. He wanted to see how On Eagles' Wings' strategy could be lived out every day in an effective reservation youth ministry. Jason and his wife spent the next two years working with another division of Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. called The Path. There Jason teamed up with workers who have, over fifteen years, built a singular model of reservation youth ministry on a Southwest reservation. For two years, he experienced what it takes to get a youth ministry going, to keep it going, and to bring it to other reservations who asked for help.
And where has Jason's journey from Warrior Leadership Summit, On Eagles' Wings, and The Path taken him? He's about to graduate from Bible school with the help of an On Eagles' Wings scholarship. He's packing in the classes to graduate quickly so he can get back to the mission field. Jason wants to take all he's experienced and help equip Christian workers on other reservations.
That's where Hutchcraft Ministries' Warrior Generation comes in. What started with The Path on one small reservation has become a template for Native youth ministry - where youth ministry has been so needed, but so often non-existent. Warrior Generation equips reservation believers, often desperate for help, with a proven strategy for effective youth ministry through a guidebook, a website, and an emerging on-site training program.
Jason's story represents many other lives that have been transformed, but there are thousands of Native young people still waiting to hear the Gospel for the first time...countless Native believers waiting to learn how to be leaders for their people...and local Christian leaders just wanting to know how to get the job done. With the prayer and involvement of friends like you, the miracle of changed lives like Jason's can spread across the Native world.
To learn more about the Native outreach visit oew.hutchcraft.com.