Summer of Hope 2012
Those Miracle Days
Never before have we felt the deep need for your prayer as we did for this Summer of Hope. And never before, in the 20 supernatural years of On Eagles' Wings, have we seen such hard-fought and dramatic victories.
Thank you!
Part of the story can be told with numbers that reflect the relentless rescue efforts of some incredible young warriors...
52 young Native warriors, representing over 35 tribes
Traveling over 3,000 miles
Bringing Christ's hope to 10 communities on 9 reservations
10 Youth Ministry Roundtables to train local leaders for follow-up
26 days of rescue
29 major reservation outreaches
With a total attendance of nearly 5,000 people.
We had every human reason to expect the spiritual harvest to be less than previous years, given the unusual harshness and hardness of reservation after reservation. We knew the breakthroughs would be harder to come by, but that each commitment from environments like these would be hugely significant. But from some of the hardest, "hurtingest" reservations in America...
Over 800 Native American young people prayed to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!
That harvest, from those reservations, takes my breath away.
In some ways, though, the full story of this miracle summer can never be told. The work God did far exceeds any words I have. Just a few of the images that have left indelible impressions on my soul:
- The tremendous power of the "air war" to decide the outcome in the "ground war." Again and again, we saw the power of prayer like yours to make hard hearts softer, to overwhelm deeply-entrenched spiritual forces, to provide strength when ours was gone, to provide protection amid serious danger, and to literally change the atmosphere on a reservation.
- The weeping warriors - hearts visibly broken over death-shrouded places...over lives they'd fought for who still left lost...for people God led them to who they desperately wanted to see in heaven with them.
- The beautiful people on these reservations whose lives have become so broken, so dangerous, so enslaved because of the thief who has "come to steal, kill and destroy" - with abandon. Especially the children.
- The willingness of these precious OEW warriors to pour out the worst parts of their life to show the saving power of Jesus and open hearts to His love. Powerful and moving beyond words!
- The new militancy of the darkness, aggressively recruiting and "evangelizing" on reservations as never before.
- The day so many of our warriors - with so much abuse, abandonment, sexual assault in their pasts - chose to verbally forgive those who had sinned against them. And the spiritual power that was released as a result.
- And those highly charged moments when dusty reservation basketball courts became holy ground as Native young people - so long lied to about the "white man's god" - surged to center court to publicly give themselves to the Man who died for them.
The launch pad for this miracle summer was the largest Warrior Leadership Summit ever. With the theme that turned out to be stunningly prophetic - "Dunamis - Power Unleashed."
On some of the most devastated, most unreachable reservations in the country, that Resurrection Power of the living Christ was indeed unleashed! For all to see. For the glory of God. For the hope of these people. In answer to your prayers.