Over the course of the month, 30 to 40 leadership students will bus across the country, leading outreach events and sharing their testimonies with different Native American tribes.

Weston Francis with Hutchcraft Ministries says, “Not only is it a powerful outreach, but it’s a powerful inreach.”

“At the beginning of the month, you have young people who are shy, scared, not sure if they’re even fit to share Jesus’ message,” Francis says. “But by the end of the month … we have to drag them back on the bus because they’re still out there in the middle of the night, still trying to tell people about Jesus.”

Students experience tremendous growth through the program and often realize they want more time to be intentionally discipled and poured into.

The On Eagles’ Wings Leadership Center was created to do this. The one-year gap program dives into God’s Word and builds a firm foundation in their identity in Christ before going out into the workforce, mission field, or school.

Through the leadership center, students develop their Christian worldviews and prepare for their next steps.

(Photo courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries)

Students are taught to stand firm and remember what God did for them, sharing the good news with others wherever they end up post-program.

“One thing that I personally try to remind the students is that when they’re done with this training, that doesn’t mean that their walk with Christ is done,” Francis says. “That doesn’t mean that the time for learning is done. That still continues, and what I try to communicate to the young people is that their identity is something that can’t be taken from them, the identity that Christ gives them.”

The biggest challenge students face after the program is finding support, whether that’s financial support or a community with a similar background, so they can find good situations post-program.

“Throughout the year, we help them kind of dissect and find out not only what their desires are, but where they can best fit in after,” Francis says.

Some have gone back to their communities to do ministry, while others have gone overseas to do missions, and others have gone to college or Bible college.

Please pray for these students. Pray for their faith. Pray that they will have patience and courage and that God would use them in ways they never expected.

Photo Provided by Hutchcraft Ministries

Weston Francis with Hutchcraft Ministries is a member of the Navajo tribe. He knows that cultural preservation is a sensitive topic among his people, who have faced so much mistreatment by people from other cultures. 

But Francis stands on Exodus 20:3, where the Lord says, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

“There’s the talk of syncretism, of blending of traditional practices and redeeming of a culture — ‘As long as we slap the name of Jesus on this practice or this dance, it’s okay,’” he says.

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings, Hutchcraft Ministries)

“But any culture around the world, the moment the want and need for preservation of a culture becomes more than your love for God, you have already crossed the line.”

Many things can become practical idols in a Christian’s life. Consider your own life, values, allegiances, family traditions, routines, and habits.

“We do it all the time, (with) our phones, our family, the people that we love. This (culture) is just one more thing that we put before God,” Francis says. 

“We need to be able to have the maturity and the diligence and discipline to recognize when we’re putting something more before our relationship with God.”

Every Christian on the planet faces challenges to put God first. Join in praying specifically for young Christians in Native America, that they would have discernment and discipline to follow Jesus over the traditions or values of their cultures. 

What could God do with a young person fully committed to Him? 

“I believe that when God gets a hold of a young Native American, they have an opportunity to reach people that you and I may never ever get to reach,” Francis says.  “I think that’s something that’s so beautiful, and that’s something that only God can do.”

Learn what On Eagles’ Wings does to raise up Native American Christians. 

Header photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings, Hutchcraft Ministries. 

Some of the Native Christians will also participate in Summer of Hope, an annual youth outreach on Native American reservations. Learn more about Summer of Hope here.

Weston Francis says students receive further discipleship in community at the On Eagle’s Wings Leadership Center. Read about the dedication last April of the Leadership Center here.

“We hear from the students even just this year of how they have craved for something like this, they have craved for a community of believers to walk alongside with and grow with,” says Francis.

Many of the students who come to the Leadership Center grow up feeling isolated and surrounded by brokenness. They have not experienced a healthy community before or felt so seen. After nine months, the students return home with the holistic skills they need to thrive and serve others.

Francis says, “We want to create disciples who are going to eventually create disciples.”

“And so if we can show them how to create a community, they can do that for themselves when they go back home.”

One graduate soon began a small youth group in his community and brought nine students to the Warrior Leadership Summit. He now leads a local ministry.

The Leadership Center further prepares the students by showing them their true identity in God’s eyes. When they encounter difficulties and spiritual attacks, they will be ready to counter with the truth.

Francis says, “Sometimes all you need to tell a young person is, ‘Remember what God says about you.’”

He says it is the first time many of the students see their own value and potential. With a little nudge and responsibility given to them, many go further than they thought possible when they started.

“The Leadership Center is built to help them figure out what the next steps are,” says Francis.

“A good chunk of them this year are in a gray area of figuring out, ‘Where does God want me?’”

Pray for the new leadership graduates to have confidence in God and glorify Him wherever they go. As they determine what to do next or how to do it, may they move forward in faith and lead others to Jesus.

Do you know a young adult looking for an opportunity like the On Eagles’ Wings Leadership Center? Learn how to apply at OEWLC.com.

Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings, Hutchcraft Ministries.

Weston Francis with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries is a follower of Christ and a member of the Navajo tribe. He says there is spiritual warfare behind the mistreatment his people have suffered. 

“I personally believe that the enemy knows that Native America has a voice because of our pasts. In a way, you would see that the enemy would want to take out the best of the best,” Francis says. 

(Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

“A big part of that I believe was the enemy trying to get Native America to hate who Jesus really was, by using people who didn’t know who Jesus was. Because if they knew who He really was like, and they knew His teachings — when He talks about to have love, to have mercy to have grace — that should have been more evident than what we see now.”

Instead, the things we see now include genocide, sexual assault and other evil acts, which Francis says the enemy would love Native people to dwell on. 

Today, Native men and women are more than two times as likely as white men and women are to be victims of violence in their lifetimes. (See more statistics like this in a 2023 document from the U. S. Department of Justice.)

But in the midst of the brokenness and the very real cries for justice, Francis remembers that God said that judgment belongs to Him (Romans 12:19).  

“That’s (what) my hopes rely on, to know that people are going to answer for the things that they did — in the same way that you and I are going to (answer) for the things that we do,” Francis says. 

Francis is part of a growing team of young Native Americans helping to bring the understanding of who Jesus really is into their communities. On Eagles’ Wings is a program that offers intensive discipleship and leadership development to young Native Americans, equipping them to reach out with the “hope stories” to young people just like them who desperately need Christ. 

(Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries via Facebook)

Learn more about the mission of On Eagles’ Wings here, but first and foremost join them in prayer. 

“Pray that young Native Americans would rise up to the calling that God has called them to be. Pray for the leaders that are spearheading this, because we are going to be held accountable and responsible for what we are doing,” Francis says.

He says there is much lament and forgiveness that needs to take place. 

“God says in Ephesians 4 to have compassion and be tender hearted, and to ‘forgive as I have forgiven you.’ It’s real easy to ask God for forgiveness. But it’s so hard for us to give that same mercy and that same grace to people.

“When we choose to forgive, when we choose to love and have mercy, that’s when we’re most like Jesus.”

Header photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries.

Weston Francis with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries is a follower of Christ and a member of the Navajo tribe. He is part of seeing God bring the hope of the gospel to his people.

“These are statistics that humble me, and that also sober me to the reality of my people and the tribes of Native America. We have the highest rates of suicide, alcohol abuse, and substance abuse. Even now more that has been coming more to light is the missing and murdered indigenous women and the rates that they are two to three times that than the rest of the United States,” Francis says. 

(Image courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

On Eagles’ Wings is a program founded in 1992 to raise young Christian Native Americans. They are in year two of an expanded, gap-year program.

“On Eagles’ Wings is first and foremost to reach and save the lost. Now we are in a unique position to create disciples, and therefore send them — so, having the mindset of reach, teach, and then send,” Francis says.

The best way to reach a young person growing up in deep brokenness on a reservation is with another young person who has gone through the same thing but has a life-changing relationship with God through Jesus. Francis says a person’s relationship with God is “the difference maker.”

Francis knows the barriers that exist when it comes to Christianity because he had to overcome them.

“I grew up hearing a lot of the stories about Church history from older people, older Native Americans, about how the Europeans came over to the United States — how the Bible was used as a tool to enslave but also in a way to sanction mass genocide amongst Native American people.

“It took people convincing me and spending time with me to show me in Scripture, where Jesus is vastly distinguished from the people who use the Bible for their gain,” he continues.

Watch for further news about God’s powerful work among Native Americans, and join in praying for the ministry of the growing On Eagles’ Wings team.

“When we are praying for the young people we’re going to try to reach and minister to, we pray, ‘God, would you keep them alive till we get there?'” Francis says.

“A lot of these young people that we are ministering to grow up in – you know, (in) Native America, (where) you’re already born into an uphill battle.” 

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