Momentum Leadership Retreat 2012

Momentum Leadership Retreat is an annual retreat put on by Anchored Warriors. It is a weekend for the leaders and potential leaders from the different Aboriginal communities we have been connected with to come and be challenged, encouraged and built up in their faith and understanding of God as well as in their call to leadership. This year we focused on discipleship, team building and focused on unity within and between Aboriginal communities. We were able to equip everyone who attended with resource binders that we as an Anchored Warriors team put together, which included things such as game ideas, devotion ideas, “how to’s” (read your bible, give your testimony, find out your spiritual gifts and use them etc), and as much “stuff” to help them on their journey both with God and as a leader. We also gave them a devotional book and an awesome version of the gospel of John. 

One of our main aims with this retreat is to help the leaders “go deeper” in their own personal walk with God, as many of them have a hard time in their communities because of a lack of support. We want to create a community, a family, where there is support and encouragement even if we are all spread out across Canada. This is the second retreat we have put on, and just as last year it was amazing to see God’s faithfulness at work with each and every youth and young adult that attended. We had a total of 32 people attend and the retreat was held at Camp Nakamun about 1 ½ hours north of Edmonton. The youth participated in icebreaker games, team building initiatives, we got to have two awesome sessions lead by Dan Woodard which helped us to learn about our God given team roles and how that could potentially play out in ministry. The youth loved learning about how God has wired them and one group in particular came up to us after and said that they were missing two key team roles in their youth group. This was awesome because they now know they need to pray for God to fill the gaps in their team so the ministry God has called them to can be more effective.

Along with these team building and leadership building times throughout the weekend, there was also a big focus on prayer, worship and connecting with God in a real way. The first night Amy talked about what being a Christian really means and the cost of saying yes to an all powerful God. Tristan also shared that evening about his own experience in saying yes and performed a spoken word poem that he wrote for the retreat. Saturday night was focused on having a real encounter with a living God. After we say yes to Him, we need to get to know Him, trust Him and give everything to Him. Cassie shared her heart and her own story of encountering God on her trip on the World Race. It was a powerful evening as Kim had set up many different ways and opportunities for the youth and young adults to share their hearts with God. There was a cross with post it notes to write a name on and pray for that person and surrender them to God, as well as a prayer wall and paint station where people could write or draw their worship and prayers to God. There was also a map station where you could pray for a specific country or person you know in another country and pin you prayer to the map. As well there was a station to write a sin or struggle on a rock and drop it in a water basin to symbolize God taking that sin away and it being gone. It was so amazing to see God working in the hearts of every single person that was there. People were praying for each other and singing and praising God in such a real and honest way it was overwhelming. God is so faithful. The last day Kim shared about unity and the importance of staying connected and supporting each other, as well as finding a church community or bible study to attend back home. She gave opportunity for anyone to share and then we all took communion together, prayed together and went upstairs to share lunch and say our goodbyes.

God is faithful and He continues to show His faithfulness through Anchored Warriors attempts to do what God has laid on our hearts. We are thankful for the support and encouragement we always find from both those we know and strangers. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement! 

Hebrews 6:19a – Now we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

It has been awhile since we have given any sort of update about what has been going on with Anchored Warriors! Life has been extremely busy, especially since Kim has started a part time job and Tristan and Lesley have moved back to Eden Valley as Tristan has gotten a job working on his reserve. We are all juggling our jobs and life and Anchored Warriors. It has been a challenge but God is good and He is so faithful to us in everything that we do! He has continued to open doors and brought new connections for us in our personal lives and in our work with Anchored Warriors. We have been able to share at a couple new churches about what God is doing through Anchored Warriors. It has been so encouraging to see more churches and people wanting to partner with us and pray for us! We appreciate all the support. 

One of the newest developments, and a very exciting one is a new member of the Anchored Warriors team! She is going to introduce herself as she has written up a bio for everyone to read to get to know her and her heart better. We have been so blessed by her positive attitude, her excitement for life and her love for Jesus! So here she is - Cassie Flett! :) 

Well First of all! My name is Cassie Flett I was born and raised in a small community Gift Lake Metis Settlement in the Northern Alberta. you can google map it but all you will see is mainly trees =) and I can honestly say I am and big DREAMER, I always have all these big plans and ideas to do this and do that… and most the time i just don't do it! . So I had this one dream =) it was to travel the world and live of the land and the live like the people… I even had the thought to live off of rice because I just loved rice that much and just leave with the clothes on my back… I was at a point in my life where I just wanted to be away everyone I knew, everything i knew life was and just live my life… I wanted it to just be me and God… where i didn't have to listen to what other people thought of this and that  and what the world was telling me, I just wanted to hear from God himself. This dream that I was dreaming i didn't think it would really happen i thought it was just something that was gonna stay in my mind and never happen. BUT God definitely had other plans. 

During my 1st year of bible school, I always knew there was way more to God then what I knew like there was something more that I wasn't finding… it was always like this constant whisper being like there is so much more than you think… so after my first year of bible school I was like okay what is this something more… i started praying seeking trying to find and THEN God took me on this crazy adventure called the World Race you go to 11 countries in 11months and live with the people and learn how they do life and sharing the love of christ with the people and for the whole 11 months you were only aloud 1 backpack to fit everything whatever you can carry you can take … at first I was like Whoa seriously? but secretly inside I was like OH YEA this is gonna be awesome I am going to change the world help all these people, when really God was like no no no Im going to change your world… which I didn't know till after… So God provided every single penny that I need to go on the World race and I left Canada in September 2010 going from month to month to each country, learning way to much about myself and God constantly molding me and changing me inside and out. Literally reaching into my heart and stirring it up I don't think I have ever been so broken in my life, but the awesome thing was that in the middle of my brokeness I was able to lean and depend on God. 

Each country was unique in its own way, the people the food the atmosphere everything was always changing. Our lives were constantly changing our thoughts about life were always shifting, the things I was seeing in other countries began to move me. The countries were beautiful in itself but there was just something about the people that I was met, the people that I became friends with, I think they made the most impact on my life. Its crazy that it wasn't at all about the places but the people….  I had the opportunity to travel with 33 crazy Americans… and they became my family, the people in each country we lived with became my family, we looked out for eachother, they held my hand in the good and bad times. The 33 americans and then me the 1 aboriginal, the crazy thing was that for the whole entire 11 months I did not see one native person at all… I didn't get the good native belly laugh, seemed like no one got my humour and they said my accent was really different which was not even =) . I didn't realized that it was going to be that hard to not people around my culture my people, I didn't realize till about half way through the race how much I loved native my own people. Being away from native people made me realized how much of passion I have for our culture and our people. So travelling the world seeing all these different cultures getting culture shock was pretty much normal the funny thing was I got native culture shock which was seriously the strangest thing ever. Its just weird

I have always had such a passion for youth even when I was a youth, I was super involved with all these different youth programs in the community basically was always trying to get involved. I started to get this idea to have a youth ministry and just have young people ministering to young people. So this all came up while on the World Race and towards the end of the world race being God just really started to put this burning passion in my heart for aboriginal youth… not only just to minister to young people but loving them and letting God walk them in true freedom… showing them that God is just not this God who is not involved but the God who is interacting in our daily lives. The one thing that has really been on my heart is Creating a Safe Place… meaning a place where youth can come and feel welcome and wanted. a place where you can just be you… A place of worship where we can just come and Be before God.

I have been back from the Race for 3 months still can't believe it and God has just been doing crazy things in my life and the life of others breaking me down and building me back up. Coming back home I had been praying into what God had for me next and seeking out His will in my life, where my next steps were. Somewhere along the way I connected with Kim and Amy and the rest its just history =) all I can say that it was definitely was a God thing, God crossed our paths and just been going in the same direction. 

So being up here and the North and Anchored Warriors in the south 

God has place these 8 passion driven people in my life, they have such passion for God and a passion for youth. The 8 of us just started to get together we started talking about wanting to work with you and really wanting to seek God and it was so crazy how it happen it was like our hearts were all in the same place our passions all lined up together. So our team is Rebuilding Nations working to rebuild what the enemy has destroyed, represent Christ and to serve…

Watch this video about what Rebuilding Nations thinks about "Passion"