Anna Cover

Coming from California, Anna graduated School of Discipleship, then joined on staff in 2023. Anna runs the Horsemanship program, oversees herd management, helps with the training of the horses, as well as investing in the lives of the girls who come through the barn. She loves seeing God work in the hearts of those around her and desires to be used by Him for His glory.

Anna Cover’s Newsletter

August 28, 2026

Hello Friends!

It has been a minute since I have written an update! So much has happened and God has been at work!

Leading up to summer, we had quite a busy spring! We had retreats just about every weekend in April and May. We were very blessed to have a couple farriers volunteer their time to come and help our Equine Director with the shoeing before summer.

Two of my sisters, Amy and Mary, came on two separate trips to visit me. It was a great time of catching up, being able to show them around, and have a time of relaxing with them.

June began our official summer camp season. First a week of camp for an online school, then two weeks of summer staff training preparing for the next seven weeks of summer camp. We had about 55 outside young folks, as well as our 34 Discipleship students, that gave their time to come serve at MMR for the summer as counselors, barn staff, photographers, maintenance guys, housekeepers, and kitchen volunteers. We had 1110 kids come to camp this summer, and around 40 of them became saved while here! Each Thursday night after chapel there was a campfire with some singing and testimony time, it is wonderful to hear the kids stand up and give testimony to what they were learning, or how they saw God that week.

Because we had a large student group this year, we did not need to hire a lot of outside summer staff in the barn. This was a blessing because they had a foundation from having spent the last several months in the barn, which helped the summer program run quite smoothly overall. This summer, my role consisted of overseeing the Barn In-Training program, the riding program, and the Critter Corral barn. Each of those areas had quite capable people handling the daily operations, which enabled me up to be able to work with some of the younger horses and ride some of the lesson horses when they needed tune-ups. Having a more flexible schedule that previous years, I was more easily available to have conversations with the girls in the barn to encourage and challenge them towards Christ. I really enjoyed this summer, and the opportunities God gave!

Throughout the summer, I also had the opportunity to mentor three of the girls in the barn. While I hope to have been an encouragement to them, I was very thankful for the encouragement they were to myself! I loved seeing how they were earnestly seeking God and striving to do what is right; coming to the end of themselves and realize their personal weakness and need for God’s strength to simply get through that day; realizing the importance and need of preaching the gospel to their own life and daily situations and fight the battle in their thoughts; deciding to make their faith their own, instead of just saying words they knew to be correct; and believing at a heart level. Having a front row seat to see God work in their hearts and lives was a huge blessing and encouragement to me throughout the summer.

Each summer there is the question of will we have enough horses, that are far enough along in their training to work for summer camp. We have a herd of 80 horses, and that seems like a lot. However, many of them are getting old and not able to handle as much work, and then we have a big group of young ones who are not old enough to ride, or are not reliable enough yet to use for summer camp. We were very thankful to have enough horses to make the program work, although tight. This fall we are moving on five of our older horses, and are needing to replace each of them with younger, reliable horses. Please be praying that God would provide funds to purchase new horses, and that we would be able to find ones that would be a good fit for what we do here! Good horses are not cheap, and cheap horses are not often good, but God has always provided for our needs and I have faith that He will continue to do so.

August 15th was graduation for the School of Discipleship. While it can be sad to say goodbye, it is exciting to hear of what they plan to do next, and to send them out to apply what they have learned, and to build new communities!

This September we will be beginning a new school year. It looks to be a much smaller year! We have three girls staying a Second Year in the barn. I am looking forward to seeing them grow in their leadership abilities, in their knowledge and work with the horses, and in their walk with God.

We have four weeks between Graduation and Orientation with the new students. I am so thankful for this time to be able to rest and reflect. It can be easy to get tunnel focused on the things right in front of me, and forget the big picture, the why behind what we do, and even lose sight of the reason and purpose in life. That is why this time of in between has been so precious to me, because it is a great opportunity to sit with God, to devote more time to seeking Him than our summer schedule allows, and to refresh and renew my heart in Him as we approach this next year with the students and guests that will come through MMR.

I would love to hear from you and how the Lord is working in your own life! My email is [email protected], and my phone number is (209) 990-6038.

God bless,
Anna Cover

I deeply appreciate your prayers as I continue to serve God in this capacity. I would also ask that you prayerfully consider supporting me financially. The staff at MMR are only able to do what we do because of the support of others. If you feel called to do so, you may give online at mmrm.org, click on the “Support Staff” link and be sure to put my name in the memo line.