2010 Ronald P. Hutchcraft Distributed by Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. hutchcraft.com Winning the Battle for Native America by Ronald P.

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2 2010 Ronald P. Hutchcraft Distributed by Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. hutchcraft.com Winning the Battle for Native America by Ronald P. Hutchcraft is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. You are free to share, copy, and distribute this work to others. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. To view a copy of this license, visit

3 Winning the Battle for Native America By Ron Hutchcraft Pass the Food Please Years ago we went to a Pennsylvania Dutch buffet that they have in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They serve family style, where they bring out all kinds of food. There are about 10 people at the table, and they bring out platters of fried chicken, roast beef, potatoes, buttered noodles, and fresh homemade bread. It s just an incredible feast! It has worked out for us pretty well most times we ve been there, except for the last time. You starve yourself before you go so you can justify pigging out. I went very ready for what they were going to do. The problem was the couple who was near the far end of the table from us. They would get the platter of fried chicken, and they would pile it up on their plate. Then they d just set the platter down never did anything with it. Then they d get the beef, the potatoes, and the noodles. Every dish that was brought out, they would just pile it on their plate and set the platter down. There were a couple of people at the end of the table who were stuffing themselves, and then we had people at our end of the table holding up their empty plates, going, Hello! We were down at the other end of the table starving. I thought, This is not right that these people should just pile it all up at their end of the table, especially with people starving down at the other end especially since I was one of them. I want to talk about an American church who has more spiritual resource and blessing piled up at their end of the table than any generation of Christians has ever had in the history of the church. We have some folks at the other end of the table who happen to have been here first, who are the original people of this continent. They are desperately in need of the stuff we already have. This is going to be a day of discovery. I guess my day of discovery in many ways started almost 20 years ago, when I was invited to a reservation to speak. I ve been in cross-cultural youth ministry my whole life, and I thought I knew the young people of this country. What I didn t count on was the largest report ever on

4 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 2 Native young people to come out that week. It talked about them being the most devastated adolescence in America. What I didn t count on was leaving with a broken heart, and that broken heart is why I m here today. It s obviously not because I m Native. I m a very blessed man because of what God did by bringing Native American brothers and sisters into my life people who have the most amazing hearts, the most amazing spiritual radar that I wish I had, a warrior spirit, a tremendous history, and amazing gifts to give to the Kingdom of God. Today is about changing all of that and beginning to distribute the resources of the body of Christ where they are needed most. I found the most broken young people I had ever worked with in my life, having worked in the inner city and worked with all kinds of young people. The first time I ever met kids without dreams was on a reservation. Now, 60 or 70 reservations later, it still breaks my heart. The orders that Jesus gave 2,000 years ago remain the same. He said that the Gospel must be preached to all nations. The great commission says to go and make disciples of all what? Make disciples of all nations. The word there in the Bible in the original Greek doesn t mean something like France, Italy, or the United States. It s the word for people groups ethnois. We actually get ethnic from it. Jesus was saying, I want you to go make disciples in every nation. There were 500 nations here before my folks ever got here, and among those nations there are so few disciples. While we go around the world to India, Latin America, China, and Europe, and there s much work to be done there, we have gone right past the original people of this continent where there are so few disciples among those nations. We need to help change that. The orders are still in place. The tragedy is that the first mission field on this continent the Native people remain the greatest mission frontier on this continent 500 years later. The good news is that the first light of a breakthrough is beginning to dawn in this generation. There are some ministries who are in the forefront of empowering Native American people to step up and take leadership, in partnership with folks like us to begin to change things.

5 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 3 I ve had the privilege of seeing what God can do through Native American and First Nations young people. When they become the primary messengers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, thousands of Native young people will come to Christ. It is amazing! We are in the generation that has the possibility of being the first Jesus generation among the first people of this continent. We will do what the Bible says, To make known to the nations what the Lord has done for you, and to declare His glory among the nations. The story is told, though it s not in the Bible, that when Jesus returned to heaven He was greeted by Gabriel. Gabriel looked at Jesus scars and said, Lord, I cannot believe what You did for those people. Gabriel said, Lord, could I ask you a question? What are you going to do? What have you done to help get this message out that you died for people, then you walked out of your grave, and you are the only hope? Jesus looked back at that little tennis ball called earth, and He said, Well, I ve got a little group of fishermen, some folks that don t have a lot of money, and a tax collector there just some average folks. I m leaving it to them. Gabriel said, Well, Lord, aren t you going to send some big organization or something? Jesus looked back and said, No. Gabriel said, Well, what if they don t get it done? What s your plan then? Jesus took one more wistful look down at that little group of people back on earth and He said, I have no other plan. What is the plan for the breakthrough? We are part of the answer. You have the heart. He has no other plan. Today we re going to start passing the food down the table and get this job done in this generation to the glory of Christ. This Is Your Time I want to take you to 1980 at the Olympic Games. The United States hockey team is going to go up against the Soviet hockey team in what will be known as The Miracle on Ice. The Soviet hockey team has dominated the world in hockey for many years. The movie that portrayed this takes us to the locker room where the coach, Herb Brooks, is meeting with his team on the eve of the decisive game against the Soviet Union. What will happen is the United States team in the middle of the cold war will stun

6 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 4 the world by defeating the allpowerful Soviet team. Before that happens, the coach has this to say to his team: Tonight we are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players, every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done it s over. I m sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviet s have. This is your time! Now, go out there and take it! The United States had a victory that nobody thought was possible and that stunned the world. Coach said, Their time is done... This is your time! I believe as the Lord Jesus looks at the world of the first people of this continent in this generation He is saying, The other team has had their way among Native people long enough. Their time is over, and now Jesus time has come. Now, what it s going to take to do that is the same thing it took back in the 1980 Olympics. This was a team that had never played together before, but a coach, for a greater cause, brought them together to win a stunning victory. That s exactly what it s going to take to win a victory in this generation that has eluded the church of Jesus Christ and the Native people of this continent for 500 years. It will take a team of people, Native and non-native, from all backgrounds who will decide to play together for this greater cause, and who will do this thing and win this thing together. I will thank God for all eternity for inviting my wife and me to join Him in taking the ice in this generation not for a game, but for this battle, and to be able to watch God work through Native young people to break through where nothing has broken through before. It s almost as if all the grief and all the loss of all those generations has fallen on this generation of young people. They bear the grief, the despair, and the brokenness that results in their suicide rate being four times that of the rest of the kids in America. Their alcohol and drug abuse rates are off the charts as they run from their pain. Forty percent of them drop out of school. One out of four Native Americans lives below the poverty line. The meth gangs of Mexico have cynically targeted this generation of Native young people and said, This is an addiction-prone generation. We ll own them! They ve made tremendous inroads

7 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 5 on the reservations. The gangs have found them to be prime recruiting grounds. For anyone who knows Native people, suicide is not a statistic. It s people we knew. It s names. So many Native young people have buried many of their friends before they ever get out of their teenage years. These are real people, and these are real lives, who decide much too soon that life is not worth living. Today is not about hopelessness. This day is about a hope invasion led by our Coach who has never lost a battle. This is Team Jesus going in for a different outcome. I want to take you to an incredible picture in the Old Testament that gives us a picture of a generational miracle that took place, and what one day will win this battle. We re in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. I want to invite you to walk with me on a journey that will show us a blueprint for a breakthrough where there s never been one. While you re finding the book of Nehemiah, let me suggest to you that the story goes like this. The city of God the city of Jerusalem has been broken down. Its walls, its gates, and the once glorious city of God is leveled and now a pile of rubble. It appears that the enemies have surround and are thrilled that Jerusalem is history and the city of God is no more. It appears to them that it will never rise again. It appears to the Jews, who are living there, it will never rise again. They pretty much accepted the fact that it s always going to be this way, until a man named Nehemiah comes along. In 52 days (less than two months), the gates and the walls of the city of Jerusalem are rebuilt; defying enemies who are threatening to kill them every day, they try to put more bricks in the wall. What a fabulous picture! This is the blueprint for a breakthrough where one is desperately needed. The Tragedy of a Broken Generation In Nehemiah chapter 1, Nehemiah is not even in Israel where the need is. He s nowhere close. He s over in Persia working for the most powerful man in the world. He gets word from people who have visited Jerusalem, and it says, Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and

8 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 6 disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire. When he eventually returns to Israel, he says to the people in chapter 2 verse 17, You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. When the walls or the gates are down, anything can get in, and everything does. That is what is happening to this generation of Native people. The walls are down, the gates are down, and everything is getting in to destroy them. It is the tragedy of a broken generation. Part of the great tragedy here is that the people who are there are accepting the unacceptable. They re not even doing anything about it. They re sitting there going, Yeah, it s hopeless. It s been this way. It s going to stay this way. There s an enemy who loves this. If you read Nehemiah for yourself, you ll see the enemies. Those who tried to rebuild the city were mocked and ridiculed. The enemies were like, How dare anyone try to rebuild this. It s going to be this way. This is just the way it s going to be. There are people Native and non-native alike who are saying, It s just hopeless! This despair, this hopelessness has broken us. This grief of decades and generations is irreversible. There s no way to find hope in all of that. God decided where everyone would live so that men would seek Him; that part of the key to the redemptive plan of God on this continent is the people He put here first. If that s true, and you were the Devil, wouldn t you want to get rid of those people? First, annihilation was tried, and annihilation didn t work. If we can t kill them, we ll just kill the Indian in them and take the Indian out of them. That didn t work. The most cynical plot of all was to get this generation to destroy themselves. What annihilation could not do, what assimilation could not do, we ll get them to destroy themselves out of despair and hopelessness. That s the tragedy of a broken generation. Satan has a very simple strategy for holding onto a stronghold. When he has a stronghold, here s what he does according to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, The god of this age has blinded the eyes of

9 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 7 unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Follow me on this. I believe that Satan has birthed a double blindness that is keeping the brokenness broken. First of all, he has blinded Native people to Jesus, causing them to think that He is the white man s god. They have already prerejected Him, so the people with the need can t see the answer. That answer is Jesus. Satan has successfully blinded them. Jesus is a brown-skinned man from a tribe. He grew up in a village, He was poor, told stories, loved nature, and died a violent death. It sounds like the rez. He s been rejected as a white man s god because of all that was done in His name to take their land, and their language, and their lives. The people with the answer, who would be the people who know Jesus, can t see the need. Satan has blinded North American Christians to Native people they re invisible. They re off the chart. They re off the radar. Consequently, the people who could take some resources and make possible the empowerment of Native leaders and the spread of the Gospel, don t see the need. People with the need don t see the answer. A double blindness! It s time for that to change. Late in the afternoon on September 11th, 2001 hope was pretty much gone. They had started to dig into the rubble of the World Trade Center, and they had decided they weren t going to find many more survivors at all. Another building was about to collapse. They were calling for more evacuation, and three fire fighters happened to see a flag on a yacht and went and got that flag and brought it back to Ground Zero. You remember the scene. They raised that flag at about five o clock in the afternoon on September 11th. The newspaper said, People were grasping for hope, and suddenly there it was. That is what I call defiant hope, and that s what this day is about. You can be a part of an act of defiant hope that says, We will not leave things broken. We will not tolerate the unacceptable. We will mobilize everything we have. When a person is ill and an organ in their body is suffering, it is a medical fact that the blood in the human body rushes to where

10 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 8 the need is. Where do you think the blood of the body of Christ in New York, in this country, and in this continent should be rushing? It should rush to Native America. That s where it ought to go the tragedy of a broken generation. A Face of Hope I want you to see the face of hope, because hope does have a face. It s exciting to see a generation of Native young people who are from that hopeless generation. Wouldn t it be just like God to raise them up to become some of the most powerful ambassadors of hope to their own people? They ve walked it and they ve lived it, except they now have a Savior. Emmy Dahozy is one of those. She is a tremendous leader who graduated with a communications major from Colorado Christian University. She is an example of the next generation and what hope looks like and sounds like. Here is her story: I am Navajo, the Folded Arms Clan, born to the Yucca Fruit people. My maternal grandparents are of the Black Sheep Clan. My paternal grandparents are the Salt People Clan. My father was an alcoholic, and I was raised by a single parent mother, who dragged me to church because she said I had to go. Essentially, in the long run, I m glad she did that. In my family, you see the suicide, you see the alcohol, and you see the reality of life. Even when I went to a Christian college, I was treated as a novelty because I was the Indian. They treated me as a person who didn t want to pursue Christ. They treated me as the Indian that was saved the Indian who was assimilated in that community. That s what I was treated as. A lot of this hopelessness comes from the families and the backgrounds that you are from. As Ron gave that illustration about the food, I really challenge you as part of the body of Christ, to kind of push the food this way where Native people can understand it. I challenge you to go into these Native communities, these Native villages and start teaching and discipling, because

11 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 9 that is what we need as young people. That s what On Eagles Wings has done for me. I was in school, essentially, and I went out with this team. I didn t know what I was doing. They discipled me as a young person, and they taught me who God created me to be as a young Native woman. That is what On Eagles Wings does. We travel to reservations, we talk about who Jesus is, and we present the relationship that they can have. That is who I am. That s the face, and that s the heart of hope. The Power of the Broken Heart There are three steps to a breakthrough, and the first is to see the tragedy of a broken generation. Now let s look at Nehemiah 1:3-4: Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire. When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. I want you to consider with me the power of one broken heart. There is one man who s not even near the need; he s not even in the land where the problem is. One man allows God to break his heart and let him feel how God feels about it. That man, weeping by his bed in his room, could never dream that he will be the key to the answer. He is an unlikely candidate. He s not even there, but he s the one man with the broken heart. I would suggest to you that the greatest action step any of us could take today is to pray this prayer, Go ahead, God, and break my heart. I see the need, but I see the potential. I see what could happen in this generation through my Native brothers and sisters, in partnership perhaps with people like us. One man or one woman with a broken heart is the key to the breakthrough. Those broken hearts are already on the reservations, in the urban neighborhood. You don t hear Native American s pray for their people without weeping. I ve never been in so many prayer meetings where you can almost count on the tears. Their hearts

12 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 10 are broken. They need some other people to ask for that same broken heart, and to join them in the fellowship of the broken heart. What do you do with a broken heart? Do what Nehemiah did. Give that broken heart back to the One who just gave it to you. All you ve really done is ask Jesus to give you a piece of His heart and plant it in yours, so that you feel how He feels and see what He sees. Pray your broken heart back to God, then make yourself available to Him. Do something about it. That s what Nehemiah did. I don t think when he was weeping in his room he had any idea he was going to go rebuild the city; the orders came after the broken heart. Offer to God whatever He s given to you. Nehemiah s like, Well, let s see. What do I have? I work for the king. That turned out to be the key, because Nehemiah was able to take the risk of his job, maybe even his life, and go to the king and say, You know what? We re going to need your permission to rebuild this city. We re going to need your resources. God had put him in a position he never would have dreamed. He was perfectly positioned to help make this thing happen. You might be better positioned to make a difference than you realize. It starts with seeing the tragedy of a broken generation. The Choices That Change Things You have to make some choices that will change things. Yes, there s the tragedy. Yes, there s the power of the broken heart. The broken heart alone won t do it, unless you say, Lord, what do You want me to do with this broken heart? Chapter 2, verse 17 says, Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be a disgrace. I (Nehemiah) also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, Let us start rebuilding. So they began this good work. A broken heart is contagious. Programs are not contagious, but passion is. Here was a man who came with a broken heart. He said, Folks, we don t have to accept this. It doesn t have to

13 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 11 be this way. That s the power of that broken heart. They made a choice that would change things. They said, We will rebuild. All these years, we never even thought about it being rebuilt. We had accepted this hopelessness, but we aren t accepting it any more. We re going to do something about it. What God is waiting to hear from you are two things. Number one, Go ahead, break my heart. Number two, I m in. I don t even know what that means, but I m in. When Team Jesus takes the ice to take back what the enemy has stolen, I m in. Now, what might that mean? Let me suggest to you some choices for you to consider, and you pick one. I will be a voice in my church for the voiceless. I can guarantee you that in most churches, if your church is like most churches, there is no voice for the Native people of this continent. You know the need, and with knowledge comes responsibility. Will you say, In my youth group, in my Sunday school class, in my Bible study group, in my church, Lord, I will be a voice. No longer will they be voiceless. They have me. I will be theadvocate for the Native people of this continent where I am. I am going to help empower some Native Christian leaders to do what they do not parenting, but partnering. Both Native Christians and non-native Christians are going to have to leave their comfort zone, because non-native believers are used to stepping up and Native believers are used to stepping back. It s going to mean that the Native believers are going to be willing to say, I ll step up, when I ve been used to stepping back. Both would be out of their comfort zones, but it could change the tide of the battle. It isn t so much what you re going to do. It s what someone you partner with is going to do, who is Native, to reach their own people. I will become a faithful, informed prayer warrior. Believe me, these battles can only be won by prayer, because they are against century-old strongholds and can only be won in the throne room of the most high God. They can be won there.

14 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 12 Behind every victory we have seen with an On Eagles Wings team, I know somewhere there s a kneeling Christian making it happen. It s like in war when you have the air cover that goes in before the ground troops. They soften up the enemy. Then the ground troops go in and pick up the victory that was prepared by the air cover. You are the air cover for the people fighting the battle. Prayer means so much in this battle. What choice will you make? You have an unusual opportunity to ask God to lead you to a ministry that might be an extension of your heart. Will you use your reservation missions trips, not just to reach Native people, but to equip the local people to do what you do? There s a lot of non-native teams who go with great hearts to run VBSs on reservations and reserves. Meanwhile, there are Native young people who are sitting there watching it happen going, Yeah, we ll never do anything important. They just come and watch white folks do it. What if we went in there with the intention to say, We re not going to keep coming here forever, because we re going to equip you to do it and then we ll get out of the way. Who will say, Count me in. I will investigate how my gifts and skills could be part of the answer to this battle. Now let me give you the most radical choice of all: I will offer myself to God to use my life any way He chooses in this battle. Maybe that s exactly what God s asking you to do, and you know it. Is something happening in your heart today? However old or young you are, if He s calling you to this, the plan will follow. The surrender comes first. God s Liberator I will warn you that, as in Nehemiah s day, the enemy will do everything possible to stop you. You become an enemy target when you dare to challenge him when he has been so unchallenged for so long. I love what Nehemiah said back in his day to the people who laughed at them, mocked them, and said, You ll never rebuild it. Here s what Nehemiah said in chapter 2 verse 20: The God of heaven will give us success. We his

15 Winning the Battle for Native America by Ron Hutchcraft Page 13 servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it. Satan has no right to people that God created, and no right to people for which Jesus shed His blood. By the time it was over, that wall had been rebuilt in 52 days. Nehemiah 6:16 says, When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. Satan s a loser crushed by the Son of God at Calvary. He s had his way long enough. His time is done. Team Jesus has taken the ice. Many years ago, a shepherd named Moses was at a burning bush and God announced, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them...so now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt (Exodus 3:7-8,10). That conversation changed Moses life, and made him into God s liberator. I would suggest that s a conversation maybe God is having in your heart today. There s no burning bush, but God is saying, I have heard their cries, and I am coming down to rescue them. So, now go. I am sending you. Today we need a breakthrough in this generation. Let s win the battle for Native America.

16 At Warrior Leadership Summit attendees have the opportunity to: Be part of large group praise and teaching sessions called Warrior Circles Attend seminars and workshops on specific issues related to Native American and First Nations people called Battle Councils Build relationships and network in a Christian environment with other Native American and First Nations young people Participate in various athletic tournaments for basketball, skateboarding, volleyball, water games and floor hockey during daily recreation times Spend time with trained counselors (for those dealing with various life issues) Hear respected, Native Christian elders and learn from their stories of hope and faith in Jesus Christ Immediately following WLS, On Eagles Wings takes ministry teams of Native American and First Nations young people onto reservations across North America during the month of July. This outreach ministry is called Seasons of Hope and has been used by God to bring healing and hope to many people. During these unique outreach experiences, the young Native American and First Nations people use various sports, Christian music, games, and food to attract a crowd and then share how Jesus Christ has changed their life and the hope they have found in Him. They invite people to make a public commitment to Jesus Christ, and many personal decisions for Jesus Christ are made through the Seasons of Hope outreaches. On Eagles Wings works alongside local ministries to follow-up with those who make these life-changing personal decisions On Eagles Wings is a ministry division of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries. Learn more about On Eagles Wings at

17 On Eagles Wings In 1991, God placed a burden in Ron Hutchcraft s heart for Native American and First Nations people. As a result of this burden, the On Eagles Wings ministry was birthed. The ministry has grown tremendously over the years with many coming to faith in Jesus and many lives transformed by God s power. God is raising up a generation of Native American and First Nations people that will minister to their own people and others around the world. On Eagles Wings utilizes a variety of methods in order to minister to their people. Each year, On Eagles Wings hosts a conference called Warrior Leadership Summit (WLS). The mission of the conference is to equip and empower Native American and First Nations young people to make a difference for Jesus Christ. Conference attendance has grown to over 600 young people each year.

18 About Ron Hutchcraft Ron Hutchcraft is committed to communicating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost in their language and to motivating and equipping believers to communicate Christ to the lost in their world. In all he does, he seeks to reach the lost and the young with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. A veteran of over 47 years of youth and family work, Mr. Hutchcraft has presented the Gospel across North America and around the world. Through city-wide evangelistic outreach events, Ron presents Christ to various people groups through parenting seminars, singles events, youth outreaches, and business/ professional dinners. Mr. Hutchcraft is also involved in ongoing ministry outreach to and with Native Americans, and is founder of the On Eagles Wings Native ministry. He has also spoken at NFL and Major League Baseball chapels. To contact Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. visit hutchcraft.com or call (870) To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit ANewStory.com or call

19 Online Resources We invite you to browse through our online store at hutchcraft.com/store where you will find resources to encourage you in your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, as well as resources to help you encourage others who do not know Him. You will find books, audio CDs, DVDs, downloadable media, and other resources that provide answers to today s real life issues. Download this free e-book at: hutchcraft.com/winning-thebattle-for-native-america 2010 Ronald P. Hutchcraft Distributed by Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. hutchcraft.com Winning the Battle for Native America by Ronald P. Hutchcraft is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. You are free to share, copy, and distribute this work to others. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. To view a copy of this license, visit

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