Haunted Houses, 4 wheeling and hospitality!

Hello world!

Dominique Lanthier here from team 1! I’m here to update you on the exciting lives of me and my team! So when you last heard from us we were starting in the Ottawa diocese. For all of the team it was nice to get back, to see some familiar faces at the NET office and to cause a ruckus in their schedule by filling it up with 12 extra people! The Encounter Days went very well throughout the week! We ended off this diocese with a party, celebrating Cynthia’s birthday; we had a great feast, complete with an amazing cake! The next day we hit the road to gain new territory!

We left the province I call home, and headed to Edmunston, NB! The trip was lots of fun, it was great to see a change of scenery and allow the foreigners of the team (Alexes, Richard, and Rachel) to see more of Canada! We were traveling to Tobique First Nation, (near Perth-Andover.) Now before I go further I need to tell you how awesome this place is! I have had the great honour of traveling here last year and it almost felt too good to be true coming back! This place is where my heart finds great joy! They welcomed us into their homes, their parish, and their community! We are all in awe with this community, they are so loving and open to us, so God-filled! It was such a privilege meeting everyone! The ministry we have done here has been awesome! We started out on the Encounter Days knowing that not to many students would come, but got swept away at how many showed! Throughout the day they were texting their friends to come out and the numbers grew a lot by the next day! They truly invested everything during the two days we were there and it felt at times that they were ministering to us more then we were to them! God has truly blessed all of us! By the end many youth came up to us asking how they can join NET, most of them from high school, but some from grade 5 are already counting down the years for there turn! It blew our minds! Praise God!

All of us have had a blast! We all, excluding me, got to go through the haunted house that the youth set up at the Rec Center on Halloween. They all said they weren’t scared, but really, I’m pretty sure those screams I heard were not like ones that would come from a petting zoo!! We all got to tour the beautiful countryside! The girls were able to go 4-wheeling, or quadding, or whatever you would like to call it! April, Brandi, and Terin were all in their element, while Rachel on the other hand was... let's just say it wasn’t quite her forte! We all had a great time! The boys in all their wildness, adventurousness hiked and scaled near the Tobique Dam! The youth came out to see us a much as they could to hang out at the Rec Center swimming, long boarding, ripstik-ing, etc! But we ended our time here with a bang! One of the youth’s parents set up karaoke! Booyahaha! Everybody was there, we sang our hearts out till late! Sean and Don graced us with their rendition of Yellow Submarine, there was some Backstreet Boys, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson, Village people, and many more classics!!
So now I will end off with a story of how great God is! The parent that set up the karaoke for us came up and told us how grateful he was; his kids came to the Encounter Day and were touched, they came home and asked him if they could receive First Communion and be confirmed! Praise God!

Now we are heading out to our next diocese in Charlottown, PEI! It will be so hard to leave, its like leaving home! But our time has come, and we know there will be many more joys to come as we travel along! To everyone back home, we miss you and love you dearly!


God Bless you all,

Dominique
Team 1