Team 2 still in Edmonton! :)

Hello and Happy Advent from Team 2!

This is Riane McCallum, writing to you from Edmonton, Alberta!
I have stolen the blog from Claire for the week, and would like to tell you about our recent adventures!

We have been in the Edmonton area for the past week, traveling in between Edmonton, Sherwood Park, and Fort Saskatchewan. Just a personal side note- I have loved being back in Alberta! Give me flat land anytime, anywhere! Our week was filled with Encounter Days, and they were so much fun. It is hard to believe that we only have six more left until Christmas break! During one Encounter Day, the school had arranged a catered meal for us and all of the students. It was so cool! We were in a fancy hall, and had a delicious meal served to us. We all felt like we were at a wedding!

On Saturday, we had an opportunity to work on our ministry. This was a great chance to practice dramas, talks, skits, and prepare for our first family retreat that is coming up! We were also excited to be able to stay the night as a team in the local high school. Later that night, after a great team prayer, the men on our team honored all of the ladies! We found our sleeping bags laid out, couches set up, delicious treats, and the movie Elf, ready for us to watch! Needless to say, we were so excited and had a wonderful movie night!

The next day, we attended Sunday Mass at the local parish, and when it was over it was revealed to me that we were celebrating my un-birthday!! For those of you who don't know, an un-birthday is for those whose birthday does not fall during the NET year, and it is a day to honor them instead of on their real birthday. I was completely shocked, and SO EXCITED! I am pretty sure that I jumped up and down and screamed! For my surprise, the team took me out to see the movie "New Moon." It was great...I loved it soo much! After that, I was treated to my favourite food in the whole world...ice cream! The day was so wonderful - it couldn't have been any better! I'm thankful for such an amazing team.

We have one week of ministry left and cannot believe it! I have to say that I absolutely love putting on Encounter Days, and I know that I'll miss it over Christmas break. We have met so many incredible people so far, and I'm excited for what lies ahead in the new year!

I hope you are all enjoying this busy season of Christmas preparations!

Until next week, God Bless!

Riane McCallum

Team 2

Hello!

Sean Milan here, updading you on recent Team 1 activity.

So, we have been in Nova Scotia for the past two weeks, and let me tell you, it has been fun, fun, fun, fun, that’s one more fun than the Beach Boys! We spent the majority of our time in Halifax and Dartmouth, we crossed the toll bridge about ten times, digging into our stipends each trip! We traveled down to Yarmouth, or as we liked to call it, Yarrrrrrrrrmouth. We also went to the city of Truro, but the majority of our Encounter Days were held in the Halifax area. We are enjoying the lovely weather, some days we wear shorts and t-shirts - well at least Dominique does! But really, we have been sooooo blessed, God has gifted us with the ability to avoid snow and freezing cold weather.

On a side note, I failed to mention that we had a supervisor visit a couple weeks ago. To say the least, it was awesome; Pat and Caitlyn are the two best "supes" I have ever had (only had). We had so much fun with them. For our team day we went bowling and bought beaver tails, but the majority of our time was with their watching us on retreats, and chatting with us in the vans. We can't wait until they come again.

In other news our team traveled out to Peggy's Cove! Peggy's Cove is a lighthouse, surrounded by rocks and big waves; you may have seen it already on a post card. I was hit by a wave, within only five minutes of being there, so I was soaked the whole time we were there. We all enjoyed it so much, we ate lunch there with several Net Alumni from Nova Scotia, fed seagulls and bought souvenirs.

Stay tuned next week when we will be in Toronto Ontario. Hopefully we will meet up with the French team!

God Speed

Sean Milan

Team 1

Team Five is Alive!

A BIG hello from Team Five-Alive!

This past Sunday was a really busy day for our team. We had to get up at 7:00 am to start our day because it was so busy. It started with environment set up for our life night, then a pancake breakfast with the Knights of Columbus, we were on a float in the Smiths Falls Christmas parade, then went for dinner at a previous host family’s house, and then finally ended our day with the life night.

While the day may have been busy, it was so much fun. The pancake breakfast was amazing, and filling! The Knights were so welcoming, giving us all big hugs, and then giving us freshly made pancakes with breakfast sausages, and there were homemade beans too. Here’s a funny story. Last week, our team went to a prayer group with one of our past host homes, and there was this Knight there, and he picked on Rebecca for not wearing any socks. So, at the breakfast he approached Rebecca while we were eating and gave her a pair of socks!

After being stuffed with pancakes, and goodness, we headed to the arena in Smiths Falls to see the float that we’ll be on. It was the Knights of Columbus float, and get this, we won ‘Most Religious Float’. As we were waiting to start the parade, it was nice to look around at other floats, and the one in front of us was playing some Christian music. One of the songs was ‘Days of Elijah’. It was so loud and catchy that our team couldn’t help but dance to it and do the actions. I was thinking, “Yeah, that’s right, cheer for Jesus!” The rest of the parade went really well, and the rest of Sunday.

On Thursday we had a retreat for the Gr. 9’s at St. Luke’s CHS. They came to our Parish at St. Francis de Sales to have mass then after mass, our retreat began. Danica and I were the ones leading the games, some of the students weren't that into it but by the end those same people shouting out how they loved it. The whole retreat was full of surprises like that. It really made my day.

Well that’s it for Team Five-Alive this week. We’re praying for all you other teams out there on the road.

God Bless,

Shayla

Team 5 – Smiths Falls/Perth

50!

G’day, G’day to all!

Well this past week has been super busy and super awesome, let me tell you why. We had our first ‘Exalt’ night in the parish on Tuesday, where we had an evening of Adoration, praise and worship and a talk on Fidelity. A large group of people attended and they loved it so much, we’re gunna do it monthly, Woohoo!

Then on Wednesday night, a couple of more people came out to band jam, and we even had our first teen play with us at mass on Saturday, he's a drummer and he did fantastic! And we can’t wait to teach him more and more songs!

On Friday night we had a record 50 TEENS show up to our night on crazy Olympics, 50! It was crazy amounts of fun; everyone had a blast, congratulations to Team Sunshine who took over in the end. We’re hoping the same amount will turn up this Friday for our night on the Ten Commandments!

On Saturday we got to spend our day with Team 2! This was epic amounts of fun also, we started the day with prayer and spent the majority of the afternoon playing Mafia, ending the day with a mass at Sacred Heart Church, it was sad to say goodbye again, but our time with them was filled with fun, laughter and reminiscing.

On Monday night, however, a lovely host dad of ours named George (Tato) shouted Marissa and I to go see an OILERS GAME! This was pretty much one of the greatest things I have ever experienced!Our seats were in a great position and we got to see people moving so fast and there was fighting, and the Oilers ended up winning 4 – 0, sweet huh? I have never been so intrigued at a sport in my life!

This coming week is the beginning of Core and Crew training. Core and Crew are the people who live in the parish who help out with our Edge and Lifenights. Crew are usually in grades 10 – 12 and Core are people who have graduated High School. So over the next 2 weekends Team 4 will be training them up on how to lead nights, small groups, games and all of the things an Edge or Lifenight will entail. We are so excited to get to know these people better and spend more time with them.

Anyway, a quick blog this week, hope you fellow readers are doing well, thanks again for your prayers/support.

God Bless ya,
Emma,
Team 4, Wetaskiwin

Team 2 bids farewell to beautiful British Columbia

Hello All! Team 2 has had a pretty exciting week! On a personal note, I experienced my first hockey game on Wednesday. Lauren and I attended a Kelowna Rockets game with our host family and I thoroughly enjoyed it. They were playing Portland, Oregon; no, I did not cheer for the American team!

On Thursday we experienced a slightly different type of ministry. We did a retreat called Freedom for young adults and high school students. We were a little nervous about it, because it was so different than our usual routine and because some of us were giving talks for the first time. It ended up being a very powerful evening. Most of the time was spent in prayer and reconciliation; our team could really feel the presence of Jesus in the church. Afterwards, we had an open mic time and several people expressed how they had been moved.

On Friday we left the mountains of British Columbia and traveled to Edmonton, Alberta. We experienced a good bit of snow in the mountains, as you can see from our picture. It was a long day; it took us nearly 14 hours to get there!

We were very excited to be able to spend Saturday with the Wetaskawin team! It was great to see them and exchange ministry stories. We prayed with them, then spent the afternoon playing games. In the evening, we attended their youth Mass; it was awesome to see their minstry in action.

Now, for the best part of all, on Sunday we had a day off! Most of us spent the afternoon at the West Edmonton mall. I was amazed at just how huge it is! Katie, Meghan, and I experienced the rollercoaster called the Mindbender, which gave us quite an adrenaline rush! It was so intense that Katie lost one of her earrings! I lost my courage as soon as I got on and closed my eyes the entire time. Katie was also very excited to see all the Christmas displays in the mall.

Well, that is our week in a nutshell. We have another busy week, and we are all starting to get excited for Christmas! We head back to Ottawa in about two weeks!




Until next week, God Bless!

Signing off,

Claire Labish

Team 2

Winnie the Pooh, Christmas ties, and team 3 spunk

Howdy y'all, it's Kevin, your spirited blogger from équipe 3, presently sitting in the home of one of our teammates, Christianna. We're currently staying in Etobicoke (as I quickly learned, this is one of the many exceptions in the English language, where the "k" it silent... who would have thunk?). Right now the women are staying together with Christianna's family, and the men with her grandmother and her friend. It's been great.

To date, on the road, we've been able to meet nearly all our teammates families. It's funny all the resemblances that can be found from parent to child, and sometimes even funnier between siblings. Christiana has a particularly spunky family of five, who welcomed us with open arms into their home. And it just so happens that this community was home, last year, to one of NET's parish-based teams. The "Nativity of Our Lord" parish, where Connor's team was based, also Christiana's home parish, is where we spent some of our time, attending the Lifeteen mass last week-end. Christiana and Connor got the opportunity to catch up with old friends. It was great. And to finish off our entire stay here with the Hennessy's, the men were given Christmas-themed ties. As you can see in the picture included, they are pretty awesome.

On a NET team, as we travel so much, we get to see some pretty interesting things along the way. The world's largest this, the world's only that.On our way to Ontario a few weeks back, we crossed the town of White River, home of Winnie the Pooh (although I'm proud to say that his name derives from my hometown, Winnipeg's name). It seemed that nearly everything in this small town was related to Winnie in some way, shape, or form. It was neat to see all the Winnie the Pooh-themed gadgets and trinkets.

On Sunday, we had what we call a Team Day, in which sharing was held, that brought the entire team so much closer. It was great! We've been facilitating many confirmation retreats lately. Sure, as a NET team member, we put on these retreats, giving the talks, leading the small groups etc, but the Lord will continually teach us through our ministry. What has really been hitting me is how amazing this sacrament really is. Even if I didn't take this sacrament seriously when I celebrated it in grade 5, today, I am really becoming so thankful for what the Holy Spirit did in me then, and is soon going to do in each of these youth's hearts.

As I say in each of my posts, the Lord is blessing us so abundantly. I keep saying it because it is always so true. We are so blessed here on the road, and once more, I am also very thankful to you, our dear supporters. Without you, it would be nearly impossible for this ministry to exist. Thank you. I have seen so many teens completely change their lives simply with one of these retreats. It's awesome what great things the Lord can do in so little time. Thank you specially for all your prayers!

May God keep blessing and keeping you! And as we approach this season of Advent, may you re-encounter in a special way this festive season, what amazing gift Christ has given us in His coming here among us.

God Bless

Kevin Prada

Team 3, Les Équipes NET

P.S. On top, there is a picture of our team enjoying the statue of Winnie the Pooh in White River, then down here, the brotherhood sporting our new Christmas ties.

Lesson 1: Cove = Fun!!

Hello Hello!

Sean Milan here, updading you on recent Team 1 activity.

So, we have been in Nova Scotia the past two weeks, and let me tell you, it has been Fun,Fun, Fun, Fun, thats one more fun than the Beach Boys! We spent the majority of our time in Halifax and Dartmouth, we crossed te toll bridge about ten times, digging into our stipens each trip! We traveled down to Yarmouth, or as we liked to call it, Yarrrrrrrrrmouth. We also went to the city of Truro, but the majority of our Encounter Days were held in the Halifax area. We are enjoing the lovly weather, some days we wear shorts and t-shirts - well atleast Dominique does! But really, we have been sooooo blessed, god has gifted us with the ability to avoid snow, and freezing cold weather, well atleast for us Canadians on the team, Rachel (Ireland), Richard (New Zealand) and Alexes (Texas), it seema they are cold where ever they go - but we give them tips to help prepare them for when Jack Frost actually arrives.

On a side note, I failed to mention that we had a Supervisior visit a couple weeks ago, to say the least, it was Awesome, Pat and Kaitlyn are the two best "supes" I have ever had ( only had). We had sooooo much fun with the, for our team day we went bowling, and bought beaver tails, the majority of out time was them watching us on reatreats, and chating with us in the vans. We can't wait until they come again, and we would like to apologize for all the purge!

In other news our team traveled out to Peggy's Cove! Peggy's Cove is a light house, surrounded by rocks and big waves, you may have seen it already on a post card. I was hit by a wave, within only five minitues of being there, so i was soaked the whole time we were there. We all enjoied it so much, we ate lunch there with several Net Alumni,( from Nova soctia), fed seagulls and and bought souviniers that we will have to purge next supe visit!( sorry Pat, sorry Kaitlyn).

Well other than invadeing the odd shoppers Durgmart, we have had excelent weather, wonderful encouter days, and lots of East Coast hospitality.

Stay tuned next week when we willl be in Toronto Ontario!!!!!!! hopefully we will meet up with the french team!!!!!!!

God Speed

Sean milan

Team 1

Olympics, Outreach, Senior Girl's B-Ball Game, and More Buffalo Soldier!

Hello to all! Man this week was full of energy for Team Five. Our Lifenight was a social so we played Crazy Olympics. On Wednesday we went to St. John’s Catholic High School and did our first official Outreach lunch program where we played Jeopardy! After that we did a bit more Outreach by attending the Senior girl’s Basketball game against Perth District Collegiate Institute. It feels like we were never in the office this week. (The picture to the left is our team and Caitlyn. We made her a birthday card and traced our faces on it).

I can’t even begin to express how much fun the Crazy Olympics was. We had twenty-two teens show up, and when we added Tom, Alyssa and I as participants, we had the perfect number of people for the teams; five teams of five. The night started with the singing of O Canada, prayer, the turning on of the flashlight Olympic torch, the splitting of teams, team flag-making, and finally the team cheer. The cheers were the best! One team was called the Pterrifying Pterodactyls. Their cheer was basically the team shouting, “We’re the pterrifying Pterodactyls!” Then they flapped their arms like wings and tried to squawk like Pterodactyls. It was extremely funny and entertaining to watch them all. The rest of the Olympics consisted of the balloon relay, mad relay, back ball relay, banana relay, and "sucking up" to the judges. I think the teens really enjoyed brownnosing. In all it was an awesome, energetic night.

Jeopardy for Outreach went really well too. We had about twelve teens show up. I was really surprised to see a few new faces; faces that were interested in checking out Lifeteen! That was exciting. Most of the questions for Jeopardy had to do with the Church, Lifeteen, or NET. These teens caught us off guard…they really knew their stuff. They would even take guesses at answers and get the right one. The best part of Jeopardy was watching the teams buzz in. We made each team choose an animal sound. One team chose a kangaroo…the sound was ‘boing!’ That whole lunch time went by so fast, but we let them know that we are going to be back next week, and they were excited to do something again. That was really encouraging.

After Jeopardy we went to Perth District Collegiate Institute (PDCI) to watch the Senior girl’s Basketball game. Was it ever intense! PDCI was up about five or six baskets in the first quarter, but then St. John’s caught up and from the second quarter to the fourth it was neck and neck. The energy was high in the gym because St. John’s sends a cheer group from the school. We had those blow-up clapper things, and we cheered and made so much noise. It was well worth the yelling when our girls won the game. Some girls who attend Lifeteen on the team were really happy to see our team there supporting them. That really ended my day with a huge smile. I realized how much I miss school games.

So, like I promised, Buffalo Soldier is back in the pictures giving a tour of the office. This picture actually doesn’t show much. It’s a corner of the room. You can see a bit of our wall length cork board, a piece of computer, and Rebecca hard at work. It’s a great picture though!

Team Five-Alive is peacing out for this week. We hope every one is doing well.

God Bless,
Shayla Doucette

Team 4's Got Talent

Team 3, still kicking, now for one month in english!

Why hello once more! This is your happy blogger from team three, reporting now from a small city just north of Toronto, by the name of Newmarket. We are just starting our first few English retreats of the year. As we are the bilingual team, our entire year on the road, save one month, is in french, and it is this one month, in English, in which we are embarking, here in the Greater Toronto Area.

The past week has been filled with good times and traveling. When I last posted, we were still staying in a small town of southern Saskatchewan, named Wilcox, where we stayed at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame. This is a boarding high school, and it was an absolute priviledge to be able to stay with them! On Wednesday, we attended a Rememberance day ceremony that was held at their church, in which a veteran of the Second World War told the story of how his arm was blown off- intense! And in the evening, we were asked to perform in what was dubbed a "Festival of Praise". The entire school (except for those who were away for hockey, as this school is very hockey oriented, and has an excellent program) attended this concert, in which we led them in praise, and shared testimonies. It was really great! And our music team did an amazing job! Those present, myself included, really enjoyed it. These studernts were aweosme! It was great getting to know them through the meals we shared, and the classroom and dorm presentations we facilitated throughout our stay there.

On NET, we celebrate what we call Un-birthdays. Seeing as not everyone on the team has their birthday on the NET year, we have these surprise celebrations to honour each member of our team. During our stay in Wilcox, we were able to celebrate Phil's, and it was great! We went out to Regina (30 minutes away) to an arcade (and, to be honest, it was great to be able to get in touch with my inner boy...), we watched a movie, and just had fun bonding as a team, honouring our brother.

And now, after 4 consecutive days of traveling from Regina to here in Newmarket (in which I was able to stay home in Winnipeg, in my nice cozy bed), we are two retreats into our english ministry. Today's went particularly well, as the students, all confirmation candidates, were very open and were excited for this retreat. The talk, testimonies, and particularly the prayer time went very well. They were offered the opportunity to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation, and there were so many who wanted to go, that we ran out of time! The Holy Spirit was very present, as He is in all of our ministry.

This is why I am so thankful to all you who support us through different means, especially through your continuing prayers. We in turn, are always keeping all of you in ours!
'Till once more!

Kevin Prada

***I do have pics, but for some reason, this computer is not uploading them. I'll try tomorrow:)

Team Two Wants to Learn Everything, and Write Down Everything They See

This past week our team met many very responsive youth at our Encounter Days in both Vernon and Osoyoos, B.C. Osoyoos is actually considered to be part of Canada's only desert; ironically, it snowed one of the days we were there!

Following Osoyoos, our team moved on to Kelowna, where we will be until Friday of this week. Sunday was a Team Day, which brought us to Summerhill Pyramid Winery, where we got a tour, and learned much about the fine art of wine making, and wine tasting! The unique thing about this particular winery is that it's cellar is in a pyramid! We learned that the pyramid has proven to yield better wines after storage. We also learned that the pyramid is a popular venue for many different celebrations - there was recently a wedding held there! More interestingly, though, in my opinion, is that we also found out Avril Lavigne hosted an event there! I was very excited to hear that she and I stepped foot on the same grounds, and in the same pyramid! (I'll proudly admit to being a big fan; my team can attest to my excitement!)

I do have one more pretty exciting story. Monday night we had an Encounter Evening for a couple of youth groups from the Kelowna area, and I shared a bit during the prayer ministry time about how my prayer life has developed . I shared about how I had difficulty with prayer in the past, because I didn't understand it. I said that I later learned that prayer is more than words, but that it is a bond between me and God. I used the analogy of a peanut butter sandwich, using myself and God as the pieces of bread, and prayer as the peanut butter that holds them together. After the prayer ministry time, a lady from the church approached me, and said she'll always remember me as 'peanut butter'. She shared with me that she could relate to my story, and that prayer was just words to her, until she realized she could just talk to God like a friend who always listens. I believe God was working through both of us to strengthen our desires to pray, and to remind us that he really is the best friend we can possibly find!

"Until next issue, I remain your faithful correspondent",

God Bless,

Lauren M. Krol

Team 2

*Credits to "Harriet the Spy" for the awesome quotes!