September 8, 2012
From: Nampa Idaho
(Email: warriorcamp1@yahoo.com)
> 5 Year Anniversary Update!
Inside this Special Anniversary Update...
1. 5 Year Anniversary
2. Update from Chosen
3. Update from Warrior Camp
4. Chosen 2012 Pictures
5. Warrior Camp 2012 Pictures
6. Now & Later
7. Deo Gloria, Gratias Multas, and Carpe Diem
8. Summer 2012 Highlight Pics!
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1. 5 Year Anniversary!
Hello Warrior Nation! I hope you're doing well and having a great day. For me, today is a special mix of the nostalgic, humbling, sacred, grateful, and exciting. That's because 5 years ago today never should have happened...from the world's perspective. And without God and the doors He opened, it never would have. It was 5 years ago today when God opened up an unexpected door, and Warrior Camp went from dream to reality! I love how God inspires a vision, and I'm so excited to share our recent summer of ministry with you on this special 5 year Anniversary of the 1st Warrior Camp. Thanks for all your enduring prayer, support and encouragement! Ready? Here we go...
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2. Update from Chosen!
Remember in our last update how Warrior Camp's new sister ministry for girls was about to launch this Summer? I got some good news...things went differently than expected, but God blessed it and did big things in girl's lives. Here's a quick Summer update from one of the Chosen leaders:
Chosen Update
From: Natalie Lopez, Chosen Leader
"2012 marks the first summer for an all girls day camp. We had an eventful time connecting our team not knowing our individual duties and pressing on toward a camp that we only imagined and dreamed of. God placed each member of the girls camp team together on His timing for sure and He continued to change our ideas and plans. We sought His direction in preparing for a girl's camp for one year and discovered God's calling to use us older gals to help the younger learn what a beautiful woman sold out for the Lord really is by an in depth study of a woman in the Bible, character traits, and values that God tells us is true beauty. In the beginning our vision was to have a day that the girls wouldn't forget and then the Lord reprioritzed for us that we can invest into these young ladies by sharing with them the things He's taught us as we have followed Him. The main priority was then to create a great day to provide opportunities to share and show Christ to them through friendship, challenging games, encouragement, and deep Bible study. We found that God wanted to use our raw real life happenings to connect with others to show them that if they did surrender their all to the Lord that He would make beauty out of the ashes of the sin in lives. The Chosen team changed strict plans in curriculum and made them more flexible so that God's Word of Truth could really soak in. Our crazy games came together wonderfully and we had opportunities to speak and listen to gals one on one. Best of all, we had the opportunity to present Christ to them! God used the Chosen team to help identify the lies we all are surrounded by, break them down, and find the truth in God's word that will and can replace that lie in our lives!
I'm not going to lie it was an exhausting day and we were so sore after but we had a great time decorating for our Esther theme this last summer. It was a privilege to get to know those amazing young ladies and have one day to share with them what the Good Lord has been teaching us. God really is good and we are so grateful for Him!"
Thanks for sharing Natalie! We're cheering you on and praying for you and the Chosen Team.
Chosen Info:
Online: http://www.chosen4girls.com/
Email: chosen4girls@gmail.com
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3. Update from WARRIOR CAMP
As you might remember from last summer, Chris Pope is our Warrior Camp Discipleship and Chapel Speaker. He's one of my friends from Liberty University where he was my ministry team leader, and he now serves as a youth pastor in Spokane, Washington. He's got a huge heart for boldly and effectively communicating God's Truth to students, (and he can also crush your hand and towel-whip like one one else!) Here's what he said about Warrior Camp this summer:
"This summer was a great time of growth and fun! Students were given the opportunity to be apart of one mission, one brotherhood, serving one king. This is a message that is being neglected in today's society. We saw students become broken to become men of God. Several made this commitment and demonstrated it by laying down the barriers that hindered them.
It was encouraging to see these students love for God and for one another. In the midst of games, where competition runs wild, we heard nothing but encouragement and support. There is no denying God's hand in this ministry in this part of the country. Please continue to pray for more summers to come."
So Others May Live,
Christopher Pope
(Thanks Chris for serving as our Discipleship Speaker!)
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4. Chosen 2012 Pictures
Here's the Chosen pictures from this summer. Hope you like them!
Chosen #1
Friday, July 27, 2012
Venue: Grandview Church of the Nazarene
Grandview, Washington
Grades: 3-6
Attendance: 14+ girls (approx).
Manual View (Pictures):
Slideshow View (Pictures):
Chosen #2
Friday, August 10, 2012
Venue: Bethel Church of the Nazarene
Nampa, Idaho
Grades: Jr. High and Highschool
Attendance: 12 girls
Manual View (Pictures):
Slideshow View (Pictures):
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5. Warrior Camp 2012 Pictures
Here's the pictures from Warrior Camp this summer. Hope you like them!
Summer Event #1
WARRIOR GAMES WEEKEND 2012
(First weekend ever...so stoked...Praise God!)
June 1-3, 2012
Venue: Trinity Pines Camp, Cascade, Idaho
Grades: Jr. High - Highschool
Attendance: 27-28 (from Nampa, Wendell, & Spokane)
Attending Youth Groups:
Bethel Church of the Nazarene, Nampa Idaho
New Life Community Church, Wendell, Idaho
Manual View (Pictures):
Slideshow View (Pictures):
Summer Event #2
WARRIOR CAMP
Friday, June 22, 2012
Venue: Bethel Church of the Nazarene
Nampa, Idaho
Grades: 2-6
Attendance: 10 Warriors
Manual View (Pictures):
Slideshow View (Pictures):
Summer Event #3
WARRIOR CAMP
Friday, July 13, 2012
Venue: Grandview Church of the Nazarene
Grandview, Washington
Grades: 3-6
Attendance: 28 Warriors
Manual View (Pictures):
Slideshow View (Pictures):
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6. Now & Later
Recently, we received a donation towards camp scholarships for next summer. This will help kids and students who may not have much be able to come to Warrior Camp. Thanks for all your encouragement, prayer, and support! We'll prayerfully be good stewards and use everything to the maximum impact for His glory.
Moving forward, we aim to secure our own legal, non-profit status for Warrior Camp, and continue to do the Warrior Camp Weekend, which we did for the first time this past summer. This marks our arrival at Phase 2 of Warrior Camp, and we're so excited about what God did here. A full "Warrior Games Weekend" opens up the door for so much more than a full-day youth camp does, both with the games, and activities, and spiritually with the chapels, worship music, and small group devotional time. Even though we'll continue to offer the full day camp for interested churches, we're so amped up and grateful to God for our first Warrior Camp Weekend, and how He's impacting young men to be real men after His own heart through this new phase of Warrior Camp. We plan to do WARRIOR CAMP Weekends again moving forward. More on this and other developments later!
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7. Deo Gloria, Gratias Multas, and Carpe Diem
("God gets the glory, much thanks, and seize the day". Yeah, there's just something about the sound of Latin!)
On this special 5 year Anniversary of Warrior Camp, I'm humbled and excited to say that none of these last 5 years of Warrior Camp would have happened without God, without you, and without our team. First of all, God gets 100% of the glory. This was His vision that he planted in our chests. Thank you God for who you are! You're epic, and you do big things. You have a vision for real manhood and an adventure we're made to live and a battle we're made to fight. Thank you for lighting this exciting, epic fire in our chests, and let it become contagious in a young generation of boys.
To all of you in Warrior Nation...thank you so much for your prayers, your encouragement, and as God leads, your donations to things like camp scholarships. We have a bit of a motto at Warrior Camp that we don't believe in playing duck-duck-goose. Instead, we aim for the best games and game equipment we can find. Obviously this "philosophy of fun" costs more than chasing each other around in a circle, but it's who we are, and so far, the boys who come to Warrior Camp don't seem to want it any other way. One of my heroes would often say, "If it's Christian, it should be better," and, "Nothing of eternal importance is ever accomplished apart from prayer." Thanks for praying for us as leaders, and for the boys who come to Warrior Camp. Young men are breaking down walls of sin with God's strength, publicly making a stand for Jesus Christ with their peers and friends, opening up and asking for prayer for changes that need to be made and freedom that awaits, being encouraged and challenged by the manly stuff from God's Word, and planting a flag in their growing relationship with God. God is doing exciting things. Thank you so much for praying!
And to our Summer 2012 Camp Team...Chris, Dave, Braden, Lynn-Steven, Rodney, Jaden, John, Douglas S., Rod, Douglas H., Craig, and everyone else who helped out with camp ministry this summer, Jeremy and Andy...you heart for glorifying God is encouraging and strong, and I'm so glad and grateful to have you on the team. Some of you have been doing this for awhile. For others, this was your first summer, and you jumped in without holding back. You do it for Him, and thank you so much. Thank you for your sweat, your passion, your sacrifice, your heart for kids, and your zeal for Jesus Christ! You're a great team and this doesn't happen without you. I couldn't ask for a better team.
That's all for now, but more later! Please feel free to keep in touch, either via email or text. I'd love to hear what God is doing in your own life and ministry. Take heart and be encouraged. God is alive and ever-awesome. As Scripture teaches, His wisdom and power are infinite. If He's given you a vision for ministry, don't feel like small beginnings are devoid of Him. Share your vision with a like-minded Christian friend or friends. Spread the word. Start a blog. Share it at your church and with your family. Build a team of sold-out Christians around you who support and encourage and maybe even partner with you in what God is calling you to do. Build a team where each person's strengths come together almost like magic. If God is in it, step out in faith and do it even when your comfort zone screams at you to do the opposite. Let the momentum build. Pray. Work hard. Break a sweat. Don't lose sight of your first love and the core of what God wants to do in you and through you. Own that, feast on God's Word, and be obedient. Shun distractions and go for the bulls-eye. Nothing good happens when you hold back. God is big! Let your dreams be big, and chase em.
Cheering you on!
Derek
Psalm 18
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Summer 2012 Highlight Pics!
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| New 2012 Shirt |
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| WARRIOR GAMES WEEKEND . June 1-3, 2012 . @ Trinity Pines Camp . Cascade, Idaho. |
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| WARRIOR CAMP . June 22, 2012 . Bethel Church . Nampa, Idaho. |
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| WARRIOR CAMP . July 13, 2012 . Grandview Church . Grandview, Washington |
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| CHOSEN . July 27-28, 2012 . Grandview Church . Grandview, Washington |
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| CHOSEN . July 27-28, 2012 . Grandview Church . Grandview, Washington |
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| CHOSEN . August 10, 2012 . Bethel Church . Nampa, Idaho |
