"This years NYC was so, so amazing! God is so good to us! Thanks to all the staff for your hard work and all the youth who came and were stellar to the max! Go make a difference, it's your time to be who God has called you to be!" - NYC Chaperone/leader

"Well i can say i miss everyone from NYC it was the time of my life everyone i met this year and everyone i met it the past years u all mean the world to me.... i got to say it was well ran by the NYC committee..." - NYC attendee

"Best NYC ever!!" - said by more than one NYC attendee


Every year I am so encouraged and exhausted by the end of NYC. This year was no different. The weekend was amazing! We had more youth than ever before and the whole weekend was a constant buzz of activity, laughter and the sound of 350 youth/young adults and leaders having fun! The love of God was shown and taught over the weekend and many 115 youth/leaders came forward to accept and start living in the Hope and Love of God. Here is an account of the weekend from two of the key leaders/missionaries that have been involved in NYC for the last 18 years!

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God,

that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:9-10

The line-up for registration snaked out the door and down the sidewalk. Full of anticipation and nervous energy the Native Youth Conference (NYC) leadership team put approximately 350 people through in about 2 hrs.

Sitting in the prayer room before the main speaker session started, I listened as over a dozen First Nation adults/youth cried out to God to draw their youth to Himself and bind the enemy.

Through tears I headed to the prayer counsellor room where 115 youth/young adults were being directed after stepping forward for first time decisions to follow Jesus Christ.

We praise God for His work in the lives of so many this past week-end! It was so obvious that people were praying. We did not experience the same ‘darkness’ as usual the first night and sensed that these young people had come the NYC with expectant hearts that the Lord had prepared for ‘such a time as this’.

NOW THE HARD WORK BEGINS!!

We praise God for:

· 55 native and non-native volunteers on the ground that worked long hours to make NYC run smoothly

· Native adult leaders leading the way in both prayer sessions and counselling of youth at NYC

· 330 native youth that attended and no major behavioural issues

· Safely and great weather

· Unity on the leadership team despite differences of opinion and exhaustion

We pray for:

· ***The follow-up of all the new believers. (we’ve got contact info and material in their hands) Anchored Warriors have a big job ahead of them!

· Milly’s mom who still has no diagnoses but is losing weight alarmingly fast

· Wisdom for the NYC team as we evaluate the wk-end and start to make plans for next year.

 

It’s hard to believe how quickly an event can pass after planning for it for so long. Both Dan & I are wonderfully tired and thankful that God has allowed us to be a part of what He is doing through NYC. And we are also thankful that He has given us many prayer warriors to partner with us. We can’t thank you enough.

God is good!"

We are so thankful for all the prayers that were prayed and all the encouragement that was sent our way before and since NYC this year! The whole NYC committee is so excited about where God is taking this conference and how He is going to use all these Aboriginal youth in their homes and communities. Please continue to pray for them as they are back in the same situations and for all the struggles and battles they may be facing over the next several months.

These are the next generation and they are the ones that can and will change things if they want to! We belive in these youth/young adults and all the passions and dreams they have and want to pursue. We believe that when they live in the Hope and Love of God and begin to move towards their dreams and passions using their giftings and abilities, they will make a huge impact in their communities and in the world around them! 

Ephesians 1:10-12 (The Message)

^7-10Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

^11-12It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

"Like" Our Page!

Hey All!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are officially in the two week countdown to Native Youth Conference! We are posting new prayer requests daily on our facebook page! If you would like to see these prayer requests and stay more updated with what Anchored Warriors is doing all you have to do is press the "Like" button to the right of this page. (You also have to have an account on facebook to "like" it).

If you are already a member of our facebook page, you can access the daily prayer requests by looking at our discussion board!

Thanks again to everyone praying for us!

Our Awesome Leaders!

I am so excited to start a new regular part of our blog! We are going to start introducing you all to some of our up and coming leaders and current leaders connected to Anchored Warriors. This is going to be a time to give some of our leaders a chance to express themselves and for all of our Anchored Warriors supporters to join together to pray for these amazing young leaders as they strive to live out their dreams.

Our first leader in the spotlight is Valerie! Val was a participant at the Momentum Leadership Retreat in January and has a heart to live our her faith in a real way in her community. She is so full of joy...here's some of what Val wanted you all to know about her!

Age: I am 20 years old

Tribe: I am Cree, Treaty Status

Home:  I come from Loon River First Nations Reserve

Favorite color: purple

Favorite things to do:  Read, go for walks, go running, play volleyball, (even though im not exactly 'pro' but I love to play it lol). I also love to play other sports. Another soon to be favorite is teaching myself how to play guitar because my older brother had bought me one which I need to start playing! He just recently bought me a strap for it and its really cool (it has flames on it! ) and after I strapped the guitar on and saw how 'awesome' I looked it made me REALLY want to start playing now! There are a lot of things I love to do, too much to name them all (including travelling)! Basically I just love trying new things!

My all-time favorite movie is A Walk To Remember ♥ and it will always be my favorite.


What does it mean to you to be a leader?
It means a lot to me to be a leader. It makes me feel important in a way. I know as a younger girl I looked up to people who were leaders (Christian leaders), who were older than me, and I used to want to be like them when I grew up. Now that I am older I hope to be someone younger kids can look up to and I hope to set an example for them and to be a light to them I guess you can say.

How has God been changing you and working in your life this past year?
God has been doing alot of work in my life not only this year, but a WHOLE lot last year also. He is really breaking me down, showing me the kind of person I need to be for Him. He is really teaching me to let go of things I shouldn't be holding onto, and He is also teaching me to forgive myself, which is something I struggle with. It seems its way easier for me to forgive others, but just not myself.

Not only is the Lord teaching me these things, He is also granting me cool stuff; things like patience and strength, which I lack but I know I am getting better at it with His loving help♥.  I find I am getting stronger everyday, and it's all thanks to God.


What is it that you want to see change in your own community?
What I really want to see change in my community is the lack of fear for God. People seem to just not fear God anymore, and are giving into their worldy desires way too much. They are going the way of the world, and not the way of the Lord. It is really sad for me to see older and younger people in my community giving into all these things that they think is giving them 'pleasure' when really it just drives them more and more away from God. It is also sad because they all know about Him, and who He is, but its almost like the Word of God falls on deaf ears, and they just ignore it. So thats what I really would like people to pray for, for my community.


What direction do you think God is calling you for your life?
At this point in my life I have no idea where God wants me to be, however I know that He wants me to go to a Bible school somewhere, because it's just always on my heart to go and learn more about my Savior and about how I can be a stronger disciple for Him. I do have two Bible schools that I have really been wanting to go to, but I am just waiting for an answer from God, because it's all up to Him and His will for my life, and where to go, I just need patience! haha.
I guess another thing thats really on my heart is to do something with youth. Since I am still a kid at heart, I can get along easy with youngins and I love having fun with them! I have also been trying to put on a youth event in my community, but am still waiting to hear back from some people and I'm hoping to maybe get that up and running sometime either during summer or next year.


How can people be praying for you?
They can pray that God shows His will for my life, and that He would answer my prayers (He's already answered a few :) )

Another thing people can pray for is for Gods strength and patience, even though He is already helping with that, it is still nice to have people praying for you, prayer never hurt anyone!

So yah, just for God's plan for my life, I am always nervous about the future, I guess I'm a worry wart, which is bad, im going to get worry lines soon!! haha just joking! :)

So yah I guess people can pray for that too, that I would quit being a worry worm!
PS -  I forgot to mention that I love animals! I currently have just a kitten, and I hope to maybe get a few fish soon. But yes, I love pets! When I'm older and married and have kids, our home will be full of all kinds of pets! lol just kidding .. kinda. Lol.


We are so encouraged and hope you are encouraged by the amazing person Val is and how she is striving even during hard times to live out her faith in a real way. She is an amazing example to everyone in her community of what it means to be a leader and someone who is themselves 100% of the time. Please pray for Val and she continues on this journey and as she continues to see who she is and what her passions and dreams are and how to live those out!