Hello, my name is Matthew Sanchez. I am a youth leader and I am from WIN-NJ.

My first ever youth camp was Soul Anchor 2015 and it was a national youth camp, so all the WIN churches in the country were at Oak Glen, so many people, so many faces, it was a wild thing to experience; especially as a first youth camp at 13.

I grew up in the church, born into a Pastor’s family and so naturally it was a massive part of my childhood. I went to church every Sunday, attended Sunday school, Koinonia on Friday nights. I did the whole church thing, played the Pastor’s kid role, I knew all the stories, I learned about God but I didn't know Him personally.

Earlier in the summer I started to become more curious about God and about the faith I professed. I started to pay attention to the sermons on Sunday instead o just playing Minecraft on my iPad and they actually started making sense, the Word of God started resonating with me. Unbeknownst to me, Soul Anchor was the beginning of my faith journey. In the Lord’s perfect timing, it came around when I started seeking Him.

I was super excited for Soul Anchor but I didn't have a point of reference of what a youth camp was going to be like so I was completely floored when camp started. I just thought I was going to make friends and have fun, which I did, but it was so much deeper than that. I will never forget the altar call on the first night of camp, hundreds of youth and young adults worshiping and crying out to God. The worship leader was calling for the Holy Spirit to come down and fill the room and He did. For the first time in my life I had encountered God, I truly experienced feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was so clear that God was there, you could feel it in the air. As I was singing I started thinking about the words I was saying, for once trying to understand them instead of mindlessly singing. I fell to my knees and started weeping. No one pushed me to go down, I didn't lose my balance, I would say it wasn't even my own choice to fall on my knees, it just happened. I was weeping because, for the first time in my life, I understood the gravity and the weight of my sin. I understood for the first time that Jesus died for me, that because of my sin, He was nailed to the cross, and perfect, holy, innocent blood was shed. The Holy Spirit placed a wave of conviction over me, opening my eyes to the seriousness of sin. I was silent but I was crying hysterically, crying at the top of my lungs but no sound was coming out. I felt the smallest ounce of pain felt over sin. As I was repenting and asking for forgiveness, the Holy Spirit placed another wave over me, this time a wave of love, a wave of mercy, and grace. The Holy Spirit reminded me that I was already forgiven 2000 years ago, that the work was done on the cross, and that there was mercy and grace through the blood of Jesus. My tears of pain and sorrow turned into tears of joy. Literally turned my mourning into dancing. The altar call ended, and we started walking back to the cabins and I just remember being like "What was that" and my cell leader saying "Bro that was God and it's just the first night. Be open to Him."

The next few days I was just learning and being open to what God was saying and doing. Every day I saw God's hand at work, not just at altar calls but also through the sessions. Pastor Marks spitting fire during one of his sessions and I remember making the decision to give my life to Christ because I didn't want to go down that mountain and live another day without having Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of my life. Half an hour later I even got baptized. My life was changing radically, in mere days bro my outlook on life completely changed. The lives of my friends changed. Soul Anchor is so much more than just a camp, it really is an opportunity to invite God to move in your life no matter where you are in your faith journey. It really doesn't matter what you've done, if you are open and earnestly seek the Lord, He will meet you where you are. You'll see that He was always at the doorstep of your heart and all you had to do was open the door and let Him in.