A division of Hutchcraft Ministries, On Eagles’ Wings equips Native American Christians to reach their peers for Jesus. More about that here.

Hutchcraft Ministries founder Ron Hutchcraft says, “There were 36 Native American and First Nations people on the team, and they represented about 20 different Indian nations.”

(Photo courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries)

Native American youth at each reservation share similar experiences and trials, from substance abuse to violence and suicide. They also share a similar mistrust of Jesus, often calling Him “the white man’s God.”

“They don’t know anybody who is young, Native, and Christian, so He doesn’t even seem to be an option for them.”

Local Christians invite the On Eagles’ Wings team to their community to spark change.

Previous efforts to introduce the Gospel go unheeded until one summer day, Hutchcraft says, “Here comes a busload of young, Native Christians from 20 different tribes who have life stories like their own, except they have hope, and they all found it when they found Jesus.”

Read individual impact reports here. Below, Hutchcraft shares three reasons why hearts change during the Summer of Hope.

“Breakthroughs happen on each reservation, and there’s an unprecedented interest in Jesus,” Hutchcraft says.

3 Drivers of Change

Transformation begins when Native youth hear something they can relate to. “People are most likely to listen to a Gospel messenger with a shared life experience,” Hutchcraft says.

Because On Eagles’ Wings team members “bring the Gospel wrapped in their own hope story,” Native young people can relate to “how it was before Jesus,” Hutchcraft says.

“Those are sad stories. There has been a lot of abuse and family violence, addiction, depression, self-harm, and, all too often, thoughts of suicide. As they tell that story, the young people on the reservation are going, ‘Well, that’s my story, too.’”

(Photo courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries)

Noise fades as all attention turns to the Native Gospel worker in the middle of a basketball court.

“What was perhaps a rowdy and loud situation when we got there becomes strangely quiet,” Hutchcraft shares, “as these young men and women talk about what Jesus has done for them and they share the Gospel, the message that changed everything.”

Prayer is a second factor influencing heart change. “Before they go, there’s a time when they each hold their (written) hope story up to the Lord and I ask them to pray out loud [that it would be] something God would use to bring hope to people who are where they used to be,” Hutchcraft says.

“It’s powerful to hear them all praying simultaneously for God to use that hope story, and the rest of the month is God answering that prayer.”

Finally, Native youth experience the peace of Jesus through On Eagles’ Wings team members and Summer of Hope activities, opening hearts to the Holy Spirit’s leading.

“They’re feeling the presence of Jesus without knowing it initially because there’s joy and safety in those events,” Hutchcraft says.

Keep praying for the On Eagles’ Wings team. “They don’t just need it in the summer, they need it all year long,” Hutchcraft says. Ask the Lord to help them live in continued supernatural boldness.

Header and story images courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries/On Eagles’ Wings. 

Brad Hutchcraft with Hutchcraft Ministries says, “These are young people who remember what it’s like to be lost, to remember what it’s like to not have Jesus part of their lives. And they want their peers, they want other Native people to find the hope of Jesus they have.”

The 2025 Summer of Hope will begin with the Warrior Leadership Summit for youth. The team expects 500 warriors to attend, representing dozens of tribes. The youth will spend five days learning from God’s word, hearing from great Native Bible teachers, participating in amazing worship, and learn how to live for God on a daily basis.

These conference leaders will then spend the month of July visiting tribes and proclaiming the gospel to their peers and Native American youth. 

Hutchcraft says, “It’s important for these local young people to learn that there is hope, there are answers, and there is healing that can take place. For that message to come from someone that looks like them and who has walked a similar road as they have is just an amazing time where walls come down and people are set free.” 

Many of the issues rural communities face are magnified in Native America. These messengers of hope, however, can touch hopelessness with their own stories and can say, “We were in the same place. We’ve been the abuse victims, we’ve been the suicide attempts. We’ve been the gang members, the drug dealers. We’ve been these things, but we found hope, and his name is Jesus.”

These Native leaders reach youth with the truth– that Jesus is for everyone. They can paint the picture of a Jesus who is more like these Native young people than they ever realized.

After 400 years of mission history with Native Americans, only 4% know Jesus. Hutchcraft believes this is changing and walls are coming down. 

Please pray that God’s hand will be in the logistics and for provision for the team. Pray for ready churches and ministries who will continue to pour into youth after the team has left. 

Pray also for the “three opens.” Open doors, so that there will be open doors to receive the team. Open hearts, so that people come to these events to be ready to hear about the hope of Jesus. Open mouths, so team members will boldly share how their life has changed and how to have a relationship with Jesus. 

Photo courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries

Every new grad, whether finishing college or high school, is closing one chapter and starting a new one. However, the story looks slightly different at the On Eagles’ Wings Leadership Center.

Hutchcraft Ministries’ Ron Hutchcraft says, “Graduation Day is ‘launch day’ here, and we call this a launching pad for leaders.”

This year’s graduates completed 245 hours of coursework in a nine-month gap year program. “They represent 10 major tribes in North America, everything from Apache to Lakota, Sioux, Mohawk, Ojibwe, Hopi, and others,” Hutchcraft says.

“They have just completed a very intensive year of discipling and equipping for ministry and living for Christ in difficult circumstances.”

From new believer to leader

Graduation is the latest step in a longer journey. “This launch day is a celebration of a journey that begins for Native American young people in something we call the Warrior Leadership Summit,” Hutchcraft says.

“It is a Native discipleship conference, although I will say that often a quarter to one-third of the young people who attend there begin a relationship with Christ.”

Following the conference, an On Eagles’ Wings team will bring the Gospel to several Native American communities during the Summer of Hope.

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings via Facebook)

“This team is usually made up of about 30 to 40 young Native Americans, maybe 20 tribes represented. When they go to the reservation, they see young people coming to Christ. That has usually never happened before on that reservation in anybody’s memory,” Hutchcraft says.

“When the messengers are young, Native, and their message begins with their hope story, it’s very hard to argue with the Jesus that they will tell you has become their hope.”

The Summer of Hope leads to a new class of students at the On Eagles’ Wings Leadership Center.

“Out of those team members come young men and women who aspire to be leaders for their people and to be strengthened in their faith. They are considered to be students here at the Leadership Center,” Hutchcraft says.

A new season

According to recent studies, many college alumnae work in fields unrelated to their major. Will the same be true for these Gospel grads?

“This has Great Commission implications because every one of them is now planning on ministry life,” Hutchcraft says.

“They will be messengers and models of hope planted in a Native community, in a Native ministry.”

Follow the On Eagles’ Wings page on Facebook for more updates.

“We appreciate the prayers of Mission Network News listeners for these young men and women. They are God’s warriors and the enemy’s target,” Hutchcraft says.

“Every warrior in Christ’s army is another proof of His power to save and His victory over death and hell.”

Header and story images courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings.

Ethan Joe first connected with On Eagles Wings, a division of Hutchcraft Ministries, in 2018 as a student. Then, “coming out of high school last year, I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’” Joe says.

Friends at OEW encouraged Joe to check out the Leadership Center and its nine-month gap year program. He hesitated at first, with family responsibilities heavy on his mind.

“I was scared for my mom; I didn’t want her and my family to be alone because they relied so much on me,” Joe says. “But then Seth [my mentor] told me, ‘When you go somewhere, God doesn’t forget about your family.’”

MNN’s Ruth Kramer and Ethan Joe pose for a photo at the On Eagles Wings Leadership Center.
(Photo courtesy MNN/Ruth Kramer)

Joe submitted his application and was accepted. “When I got accepted, I was dancing everywhere [and my] mom was laughing and seeing how happy I was. I was just so overjoyed to see that the Lord had provided this,” he says.

Joe completed the Leadership Center program this spring and now has a new direction and purpose for his life. “It’s taught me to understand the role of leadership, where I’m meant to be, and how I’m supposed to act as a man of God and as an adult,” he says.

“It’s also revealed a lot of baggage that I’m still chipping away at and a lot of things that I still need to work on.”

Joe is attending the On Eagles Wings Warrior Leadership Summit this week in preparation for Summer of Hope 2024. More about that here. The week-long youth conference serves as a launchpad for “hope teams” sharing their testimonies during a month of outreach events.

“We have hardly any Native men who are willing to stand up and take that role of leadership,” Joe says.

“I want to teach the young generation that looks up to me what it truly means to seek God with your whole heart and put Him first over anything else, and not seek after the pleasures of the world.”

Support from people like you helps Native young people like Joe discover God’s purpose for their lives at the OEW Leadership Center or Warrior Leadership Summit.

Pray for continued growth and focus as young believers attend this week’s events and share their hope stories throughout the summer. “[Pray] for peace of mind, to stay focused on the task and be consistent, and, above all, to keep seeking God first,” Joe requests.

“I feel like nothing can satisfy me except for God. Nothing pleases me more than being in His presence and doing His will.”

Header image depicts the 2024 graduating class of the On Eagles’ Wings Leadership Center; Ethan Joe in the center with a blue shirt. (Photo courtesy MNN/Ruth Kramer)

The Center sits on 75 acres in North Western Arkansas and provides a nine-month ‘gap’ year program, exclusively for Native young people. The experience equips these young people for a future that makes a difference as a messenger of Hope to Native people.

Tracking the journey to the unveiling of the center is a path that took 30 years to trek. Leadership at Hutchcraft Ministries, the parent ministry of On Eagles’ Wings, noticed a pattern among the Native Youth participating in the OEW movement.

OEW’s mission is to disciple and equip committed Native leaders to be lifetime Jesus-followers, prepared with the skills and strategies needed to be messengers of hope to Indigenous and worldwide communities. The mission was being carried out, but frequently, these young leaders didn’t feel equipped for the next stage of life: adulthood.

The backgrounds of many Native youth didn’t include life skills. Many Native youth working in the On Eagles’ Wings ministry could share their Hope stories but were inexperienced in other avenues of ministry, evangelism, and discipleship. Many didn’t know how to budget their money; others felt unready for college.

They needed a launch pad. Statistics on the reservations for Native young people are grim. Substance abuse, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, and suicide all exist at epidemic rates. It’s so desperate among the First Nation Youth that they are ‘young people with no dreams’, says Ron Hutchcraft, founder of Hutchcraft Ministries. The challenges they face to survive to adulthood are unlike any other people group in North America. They are deep-rooted and endemic.

On Eagles Wings Leadership Center
(Photo courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries)

Add to that the lack of resources among First Nation communities, and not only do people feel isolated and ignored, they feel voiceless. OEW restores that voice as each team member found HOPE through a personal relationship with Jesus. They then share that hope with others as they visit reservations and share their life experiences and new identities in Christ with others.

The student body at the OEW Leadership Center is developing community with others who share their likeness, stories, and background. They are taught how to ‘life’ with others who share their history. The Center is filled with rustic elements that are subtle reminders of that, from the giant stone fireplace in a gathering place to the 50s-styled coffee shop, Suzie Q, named after Hutchcraft’s wife, it’s more than an aesthetic.

Every room has a function in the holistic approach. There’s a studio for the creative arts: music, beading, painting. Students often work on their life maps, artistic reminders of their past, present, and future selves. There’s a gym and regular workout schedules to keep their bodies as healthy as their hearts and minds. Each class helps them build rhythms of life that can be replicated elsewhere…and that’s how hope spreads.

Ron Hutchcraft defines hope this way: “Hope is a defiant confidence beyond what is seen that redemptive change is on the way.” From despair to discipleship, hope has a name, and its name is Jesus.

Header and story images courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries/On Eagles’ Wings.

In 1621, more than 400 years ago, European pilgrims shared a harvest feast with some Wampanoag Native Americans.

“The initial relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans was relatively workable,” Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says.

“They had a peace treaty that lasted 50 years; there was mutual respect between the primary chief [of the Wampanoag] and the primary chief of the pilgrims, Governor Bradford. [Those men] died, and it started to seriously go downhill after that.”

(Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

Today, after centuries of loss, some Native communities approach Thanksgiving with mixed emotions.

“If you think about history [from a Native perspective,] Thanksgiving Day is the first chapter of what became a tragic story that costs you your land, culture, language; in many cases, your lives,” Hutchcraft says.

“Some Native Americans call Thanksgiving the Day of Mourning.”

Native American Christians offer a slightly different perspective.

“I have some Native American brothers and sisters who put it this way: ‘I am always sad about what the coming of the Europeans meant, ultimately, that our people lost. But I am forever grateful that, with them, came the Good News of God’s Son,’” Hutchcraft says.

“[A Native pastor says,] ‘Were it not for the coming of those people, that message (the Gospel) might never have reached us.’”

Like the cross, Thanksgiving is a powerful symbol.

“It brought death on the one hand, but on the other hand, it brought life – an interesting mixture that Thanksgiving represents to a Native American who loves Jesus,” Hutchcraft says.

Want to know more? “There is a blog available [on our website] that would be a wonderful next step for you,” Hutchcraft says.”

Or, “If you’d like to hear young Native Americans tell the story of what God’s doing these days among their people, then you want to go to [OnEagesWings.com]”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Pro Church Media/Unsplash.

Jesus was “a brown-skinned man from a tribe living on land that others occupied,” Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says.

“[He] loved nature, told stories, was homeless, and died a violent death.”

Hutchcraft began On Eagles’ Wings 30 years ago to reach Native America for Christ. “I don’t think I could have anticipated the kinds of responses that happened on many reservations” through the years, he says.

Each summer, an On Eagles’ Wings outreach team visits Native communities throughout the U.S. and Canada. At each location, the group meets “hardened eyes and countenances of Native American young people; hearts hardened by a lot of pain and bad choices,” Hutchcraft says.

On Eagles’ Wings equips Native American believers to bring the hope of Christ to their communities.
(Screenshot)

These “young men and women are convinced that Jesus is ‘the white man’s God,’” he adds.

As team members tell their hope stories and describe a Savior who understands each struggle, “I watch the hard countenances turn soft. As they (team members) extend the invitation for their generation to come to Christ, I see walls come down [and] hearts open.”

Every pain carries purpose

Through intentional discipleship, On Eagles’ Wings equips Native American believers to be Christ’s ambassadors to their people. More about that here.

Unique cultural traits are ideally suited for ministry. “When they’re quiet, a Native person is ‘reading’ a heart because their spirituality is about your whole life, not a compartment in your life. When all of that comes under the Lordship of Christ, fasten your seat belt!” Hutchcraft says.

These believers perfectly understand the pain and dreams of their peers, he adds, describing broken lives redeemed by Christ.

“The thing about a broken vessel is there are more places for the light to shine through.”

Sponsor a year of discipleship here.

“The American Church has no idea [how powerful] for the Gospel the first people of our land could be if given a chance to know the real Jesus,” Hutchcraft says.

“Billy Graham pointed out [that fact] 40 years ago when he said Native Americans are the sleeping giant. ‘If ever there will be a revival or spiritual awakening among them,’ Billy said, ‘they might become the evangelists who would reach America for Christ.’ I believe that. He concluded by saying, ‘Remember these forgotten people.’ We are doing that right now.”

Header and story images courtesy of On Eagles Wings/Ron Hutchcraft Ministries.

“Every summer, we know there’s going to be some intense spiritual warfare,” Brad Hutchcraft says. Hutchcraft oversees On Eagles’ Wings, a division of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries.

“The enemy does not like what is going on.”

On Eagles’ Wings’ Summer of Hope outreach follows a five-day, Jesus-focused retreat for Native American young people called Warrior Leadership Summit. See how God moved during Warrior Leadership Summit 2022.

As soon as the summit ends, “we take a team of 30 to 50 Native young people to tell others about the hope of Jesus,” Hutchcraft says.

“These are young leaders from all across the country who hop on a bus together, travel thousands of miles [in] a few short weeks, visit multiple Native communities, all with one goal: to share this hope.”

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)

Summer of Hope 2022

The Summer of Hope team plans to visit between seven and ten reservations in the U.S. and Canada during July. MNN is withholding location names and details for security purposes.

“We only bring the team where a local church or parachurch organization has invited us in. We want to make sure there’s consistent, effective follow-up,” Hutchcraft says.

The Holy Spirit moves as Native American Christians tell their “hope stories.” See examples from last year here and here.

“These are some of the bravest Christians I know. These are young people who stand on basketball courts in the middle of hundreds of local Native people and say, ‘we have been the suicide attempts,’” Hutchcraft says.

“‘We’ve been the abuse victims, gang members, drug dealers, but we have found hope, and His name is Jesus. He is not the white man’s God.’”

Ask the Lord to move powerfully in Native American and First Nation communities. Watch for updates from the team here.

“Pray for us these next few weeks,” Hutchcraft requests.

“These are life-changing weeks for hundreds of Native young people.”

Header and story images courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings.

On Eagles’ Wings hosts the annual summer conference for Native young people from 15 to 30 years old. It’s a week of fun games, fantastic music, and much more.

“It’s a chance for Native young people to come together, find hope, find healing, and a lot of them even choose Jesus for the first time that week,” On Eagles’ Wings Director Brad Hutchcraft says.

On Eagles’ Wings, a division of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, empowers Native Christians to reach their peers for Christ. “We want them (Native youth) to see they’re not alone in trying to stand for the right things, for Jesus,” Hutchcraft says.

“The comment we hear more than anything is ‘When I came to Warrior Leadership Summit, I realized I’m not alone.’”

Help a young person attend Warrior Leadership Summit here.

(Screenshot via On Eagles’ Wings / Warrior Leadership Summit 2018)

“Donate to On Eagle’s Wings, any gift amount, and we will send you the audio CD Stronger by Warrior Worship. It features some Native voices; Native people have been involved in writing the songs,” Hutchcraft says.

“They (Native youth) helped write some of the worship songs we sing at Warrior Leadership Summit. They’re learning how to use their talents to serve and praise Jesus.”

Five days, forever changed

Next week, Native American and First Nations youth will come to Illinois for the five-day conference; some hail from places as far as Alaska or Newfoundland. The experience is worth the effort to get there.

“We work with Native ministry leaders across the country, and we get some deep teaching from the Word of God,” Hutchcraft says.

“We get to see a lot of Native teachers pour into the next generation.”

Pray Native young people who do not know Christ will meet Him in a personal way. Pray they will find the strength and hope they need to overcome difficult circumstances.

“As a whole, Native America has the highest rates of some of the harsher statistics, as far as suicide, abuse, and everything else,” Hutchcraft says.

Ask the Lord to encourage Native Christians who attend Warrior Leadership Summit and give them a new sense of calling.

Header image courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings/Ron Hutchcraft Ministries.

On Eagles’ Wings, a division of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, turns 30 years old this summer. Founder Ron Hutchcraft says the outreach grew from one speaking tour.

“I have in front of me my ‘Jesus journal,’ and this (entry) is from March 25, 1992: ‘Karen and I are going to Arizona today. We are leaving for the reservation’,” Hutchcraft says.

“To me, it was a week of speaking on the Navajo reservation. That’s all I knew. God had other plans; He’s the God of surprises.”

That week, Hutchcraft discovered a new calling. “Not only did I learn a lot, but God gave me an unscheduled broken heart,” he says. See a detailed timeline here.

“Native Americans – who were the first mission field in America – after 400 years of mission work, only four percent knew Christ.”

A few months after speaking in Arizona, Hutchcraft and his team began the first annual Summer of Hope outreach. “That summer, we took a few Native young people out to share Christ with other Native young people. That had never been done before,” Hutchcraft says.

“Little did we know, that would be the first of 100 reservations we’ve been to with teams of Native Americans.”

The first “Make a Difference” summer camp in 1992, later called Summer of Hope.
(Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

The future looks bright

As time went on, the ministry grew, and so did the number of believers. Native American Christians soon stepped into leadership, and On Eagles’ Wings started the first annual leadership conference exclusively for Native American young people.

“Then, 30 years later to the day, on March 25, 2022, the framing of the first structure of the On Eagles’ Wings Leadership Center was completed,” Hutchcraft says.

“I never could have dreamed how big and extensive the will of God would be.”

The center’s “gap year” program focuses on holistic discipleship. “Not just classes and teaching, but a whole life experience together with other Native young men and women who also want to pursue their love for Jesus and their passion for their people. Everything spiritually significant that needs to happen in Native America, and among the First Nations people of Canada, depends on Native leaders,” Hutchcraft says.

“That’s the key: [empowering] Native young men and women to go and be the agents of hope to their people.”

Find your place in the story here.

“The Trail of Tears of the Cherokee people, one branch went literally across this land in 1838. Where once there was a Trail of Tears, there will now be a trail of hope,” Hutchcraft says.

“There will be more leaders for more teams to go out to more reservations; a youth ministry on reservations that have none. There will be more Native pastors, workers, and nurses who love Christ and are representing Christ as they care for the physical needs of people.”

Header image courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings.