I Love Music...

... not necessarily, whatever’s on the radio, or the latest band who comes to the nearest big city to perform, but I mean writing! Experimenting! Using whatever’s in the kitchen cupboard to make a drum beat; recording so many harmonies that one voice turns into a whole choir!
I love writing words, making them sound interesting, catchy, making people want to sing those words!

But what REALLY takes the cake is playing every Sunday night at our youth mass in Wetaskiwin, assisting the mass with songs of praise to our King!

Every week I get to take the words of the psalm and put music behind it! It can be challenging writing a different tune every week, But God has given me graces to come up with something new each weekend!

Included in this part of the music ministry is – the forming of a band! Bands are GREAT! I’ve been in three, but now I get to train up 8 young talented muso’s from Wetaskiwin to play at mass. The most recent to our line up is a guy called Kyle. Kyle’s in Grade nine, and like our other drummer Zach, he’s got skill, he’s tight (he knows what he’s playing, when he has to play it and he plays it!). He has a great feel for the worship songs that we play! Zach played his first mass on Sunday, and even posed for us in a photo (to the right). In the other photo we have Christie! Christie is great! She’s the next Stevie Wonder...she’s not going blind or anything, she just has a great passion for music, she does her homework and improves every week!

In 2 months I get to plan a musicians retreat for these 8 little rascals. Dude! Is anybody else as excited as me? IF SO, here’s what you can do, you can pray for us here in Wetaskiwin, the whole music ministry that it evolves, invites and overflows with God’s graces.
Thanks for your prayers fellow reader...

God Bless ya

Emma
Team 4

What?! 90 Teens, Fruit, and Adoration!

Hello, it's Shayla from Team Five-Alive. We've had another great week of ministry. We had a successful Edge night that still attracted a large number of young teens. We also attended the Confirmation of the teens that we did the Confirmation retreat for. And finally, we had an open Lifenight on the Eucharist.

Edge was full of so much energy once again, but this time it was more controlled. Our location was changed to St. John's High School in Perth from the Elementary school. That made a huge difference for us because we were able to set up a microphone. Those things work wonders when you have 90 energetic young people. This night was on a call to holiness and Sainthood. Basically the teens learned about the saints, and how they too can all be saints. I had two highlights from that night that put a huge smile on my face. The first was when the young teens started to cheer for Jesus in a slideshow that we had. We had made a slideshow of a whole bunch of Saints and just really holy people. We showed it to them at the beginning of the night, and again at the end, but at the end we took pictures of them and added it to the slideshow. As they were intently watching the screen, Jesus's picture came up, and the teens broke out into a huge cheer! That touched my heart so much. The second highlight was when I was teaching them the songs 'Just Like You' and 'Shine Like the Son'. The teens got so into it. I've never experienced such enthusiasm for singing like they did. I remember at the end of 'Shine Like the Son', I encouraged them to sing their hearts out...and they did. They sang at the top of their lungs. What added to this was when i was done teaching, some of the teens came up to me and were asking if we could do just one more song. As music leader, those moments are so uplifting.

Sunday was another special day for us. We went to a Confirmation in Lanark. The Bishop was there and all the teens that we did a Confirmation Encounter Day for. They were so excited to see us there. It was cute because I saw a huddle of them talking and they were looking at us saying, "Look! There's the NET team!". The beauty of a Parish team is that you get to see the fruits of your ministry.

This Sunday we had an intense Lifenight. It was on the Eucharist. For this Lifenight we decided to have it open to the community. We had a pretty decent response from the adults. They came out and participated with the night. I think they really enjoyed it, and were happy that they were able to see what was being done with the youth. It was also an opportunity for the community to see the importance and beauty of the Eucharist. The best part was Adoration. There was such an air or reverence among the teens and adults during Adoratoin, and they all participated with singing...it was just beautiful. That's the only word that can really describe it. I hope that the community will be really involved once we start up XLT (monthly Adoration) because I think they loved it.

Well, that concludes Team 5's week. We're praying for all you other teams out there.

God Bless,

Shayla

De l'océan, jusqu'à la capitale des érablières, c'est tout un voyage!

Re-bonjour à tous! Encore une fois, c'est Kevin Prada, votre bloggeur amical de l'équipe 3, présentement dans la région de la capitale du sirop d'érable, la Beauce. Ici, le temps s'annonce très enneigé, mais parmi les routes couvertes de blanc, et le sol en patinoire, notre ministère va très bien.

On a continué notre route après une retraite de fin de semaine, qui a connu beaucoup de succès avec les jeunes du diocèse de Bathurst, la fin de semaine dernière. Près d'une soixantaine de jeunes y étaient, et comme je le dis toujours, comme c'est toujours vrai, le Seigneur était si présent. Il y en avait de tous les âges, de dix à dix-huit ans. Pour moi, étant donné que c'est ma deuxième année sur la route, et qu'on a animé cette même retraite pour ce même groupe l'an passé, c'était vraiment "l'fun" de pouvoir rétablir tous les liens avec les gens de là-bas. On s'est rencontré en équipe après la fin de semaine, et tous ont vu une différence chez les jeunes, du début de la session jusqu'à la fin. C'est incroyable de voir combien de jeunes sont à la recherche de la vérité, des jeunes qui ne savent pas où la trouver! Et c'est ça notre mission cette année, c'est de montrer aux jeunes de notre pays qui est leur Père, qui est leur Dieu, et qui les aime par-dessus tout. C'est ça la vérité qu'on tâche de répandre dans le pays, et spécialement comme équipe bilingue, dans la communauté francophone canadienne. Et ce qu'il y a de plus beau dans notre mission, c'est de voir des jeunes, comme on en a vus à Bathurst, qui changent visiblement la direction que prenait leur vie et qui, par la grâce de Dieu, reconnaissent l'essentiel, qu'ils sont fils ou fille de Dieu.

J'ai lu une citation dernièrement: 'Il ne faut pas seulement croire que Dieu existe, mais aussi que tu existes pour Dieu'. Et ce sont les deux messages de base que nous abordons lors des journées de rencontre: que Dieu existe, et ensuite, que nous existons pour Lui. Et lorsqu'on découvre ces deux faits, notre vie change complètement.

On est arrivé ici, en Beauce, lundi passé, avec des conditions météorologiques pas très favorables. De la pluie verglaçante, de la neige, de la glace. Mais par la prière, la grâce de Dieu, et des "méchants" bons conducteurs, on est arrivé ici sains et saufs, prêts à entamer encore un nouveau séjour au sein de notre ministère. Depuis notre arrivée, on a pu passer la journée de mardi ensemble, en équipe, en visitant le Vieux-Québec. Wow! C'est vraiment incroyable de voir ça, spécialement puisque je suis amateur d'histoire (c'est un côté de ma personalité un peu "nerd"...je l'avoue...haha). Et en plus, penser que c'est là, le berceau de l'Église en Amérique du Nord...c'est vraiment intense! Et, avec la belle petite neige qui tombait, c'était encore plus beau.

On prie beaucoup pour tous les jeunes qu'on rencontre, spécialement pour ceux qu'on va rencontrer ce soir en retraite au village de Saint-Prosper. On prie, sachant que le Seigneur va nous répondre, et sachant qu'encore plusieurs miracles sont planifiés pour nous tout au long de notre route.


Passez une bonne semaine! Union de prières!

Kevin Prada

P.S. En haut, c'est une photo de groupe de l'équipe, à la suite de la retraite cette fin de semaine à Bathurst; puis en bas, c'est (de gauche à droite) Christiana, Katelyn, puis Déneige, dans l'amphithéâtre de l'école dans laquelle on a animé la retraite.

Team 2 celebrates life and sees the Falls!

Greetings Everyone! It's Claire from Team 2; I haven't written a blog in a while so I'm excited about this one! So what has Team 2 been up to this past week? Well, let me tell you!

Last Sunday we went to Trevor's home in Woodstock before heading to our next stop in Burlington. It was great to meet his family, especially his two nieces, who are adorable!

The first half of the week we did three Confirmation retreats, which went well. On Monday, the retreatants seemed a little backward at first, but they really warmed up during the day. I was amazed at how much my small group knew about the sacrament. We had a great discussion on the saints that they picked; I learned a lot!

Tuesday was Katie's 19th birthday! Yay! On Thursday we had a team day and celebrated her birthday. In the morning, all the girls had a pajama party and watched High School Musical 3 (one of Katie's favorites). In the afternoon we had team sharing and then went to Boston Pizza. We hope Katie had a good first birthday away from home!

We had a busy day on Friday. The team split into two and went to four different schools. We did hour long sessions for grades 7 and 8. We did an opening session, the Confirmation talk, and then invited the students to the retreat that night. We didn't know how much of a response we would get, but that night several youth came from the schools! They were really excited to be there; it made me so happy! The retreat was awesome; the theme of the night was Camouflaged. Katie did the talk for only the second time and did a great job! The youth were very moved during prayer ministry. We really felt the Holy Spirit working that night. Praise Him!

On Saturday we had our second family retreat, which was a success. We had around 15 families attend, and they all seemed to have a good day. I really enjoyed getting to know the families; it's so beautiful to see them having fun and praying together!

For our team day on Monday, we went to Niagra Falls! We were all very excited, especially those who had never seen the Falls. It was a rainy day and a little misty, but we still got a good view and, as you can see, took some great pictures! We also took the "Behind the Falls" tour and walked around the gift shops. It was a great day hanging out as a team and experiencing God's awesome creation!

Well, that wraps up Team 2 new this week. We are ready to attack another week of ministry and whatever God else wants to send our way! Till next week!
God Bless!

Peacing out,

Claire

Team 2

How much for 12 Barrels?

Hey Yah Everybody!!!

So we finished our week in the St. Catherines Diocese! It was a really awesome week to say the least; we spent a couple days in Niagara Falls, which was lots of fun and it was my first time going there! Well, it was a first for most of us!

We spent a Team day at the Falls, it involved a lot of walking and wandering. We walked downtown and then made our way to the Falls; on the way we met a guy and a girl, Sarah and Jeremiah, who had both been involved with Hillsong, leading worship. They were making their way to the Falls as well, and we kept bumping into them along the way. So they decided to join us, in our random adventure to the Falls. On the way back to the downtown area we split off into groups to wander on our own and sight see. Some of us went to a Haunted House - it wasn 't scary at all............okay, I'm lying to myself, I was screaming like a little girl, hiding in the middle of everybody. It was a fun experience, and for only five bucks! At the end of the day when we went back to our vans, Sarah and Jeremiah asked if they could say a prayer for us before we left - they were very supportive of what we did and were very pleased to have met us. It was a pretty sweet day.

We had about four retreats in the diocese, it was lots of fun, each retreat just kept getting better! We then finished off our week by surprising Donny with his "unbirthday". He was very shocked, we had a couple rounds of grounders on the play structures, then had a delicious supper with the parish priest and then had adoration, followed by an intense night of volleyball. We then said good-bye to the St. Catherines diocese, and started on our long journey to Winnipeg. Saturday was spent traveling all day, we stopped by Dominique's house and got to meet her family. Although it was a short visit, it was memorable, but like all travel days we had to keep moving. So we made our way to Sault Ste. Marie. The next day we made our way to Thunder Bay, where I am currently writing this blog right now!

When you tune in next week we will be in Winnipeg, or as some people call it "Winterpeg, Manitsnowba". I hope we don't freeze to death! Anywho...............

God Speed

Sean Milan Net Team 1

God Really Provides

To be honest, I'm constantly floored by the generosity of everyone involved with NET Ministries. From Diocesan Contact People to host homes to those who donate their hard-earned money, it never fails to show me just how much God really provides when you need Him to.

There have been times in my stint on staff here at NET Canada where we get a little low on funding, and in these times God seems to miraculously provide just the amount of donations we need to get by and do what needs to be done. For the moment I'd just like to tell you about a couple of recent times where I've been completely blown away by people's generosity:

1) For the past few months, we've been asking for rosaries to give out to retreatants interested in learning how to pray this valuable prayer. Since about the beginning of August, our mailbox has been flooded with parcels varying in size from a small envelope with one rosary to a large box filled with approximately 750 of them. In a mere 5 months, NET Canada has received over 4600 rosaries!!
To all of you who've relayed the plea for rosaries and who have so generously sent in your extra rosaries, thank you! Who knows, there could be 4600 students from the ages of 14 to 18 across Canada who will be praying the rosary daily because you've provided them with the opportunity!

2) We have a few team members who haven't yet completed their fundraising. Over the Christmas holidays, we asked them all to speak at Masses when they went home, and to continue to fundraise just to give their totals a little boost. Even those who have completed their fundraising were still asked to speak at Mass, but to tell the parishioners that there were other teammates still needing help. One team member in particular, let's call her "Kyla", was having a bit of a difficult time with her total so a teammate spoke on her behalf at the Masses. I remember opening the mail one day when I arrived back in the office, and I came across a cheque for $5000, written to go toward Kyla's fundraising!! This cheque put her total well above her $6400 goal!
What astounded me more than anything was the fact that Kyla and her teammate are from almost opposite ends of the country, and this generous donor didn't know her at all, yet still realized that the ministry needed the help, and wanted to support Kyla in particular. Praise the Lord for His goodness!

There have been a few times lately where in my own personal life I've begun to falter in my trust and faith in our Lord's Divine Providence. But after seeing these two instances at work, I am becoming more and more confident that He will provide me with what I need all in His good time. It may not necessarily be in the time I'm hoping for, but I know that I'll be taken care of; just like how a father knows what's best for his impatient 3-year-old daughter.

-Jocelyn Arnott
NET Canada Office Assistant

Note: The picture at the top shows Meaghan Boyd with the rosaries we've received, not including the ones that the teams already have with them, and the picture at the bottom shows these same rosaries making the shelf sag under their weight. God is good! And so is Mary!

It's a Dream Come True...

Hey, it's Mairin speaking here for Massive Worship. 6 years ago, I attended an amazing event that powerfully changed the direction of my life, and I believe it greatly contributed to getting me to where I am now. I never dreamed that years later I would be helping to facilitate the exact event in Antigonish, Nova Scotia for over 800 youth from across eastern Canada. If you haven't guessed already, 6 years ago I went to an enormous youth conference famously know as "Steubenville", and this past weekend I played in the band that was chosen to lead hundreds of youth in worship at Steubenville Atlantic! That's right, you heard correctly, Massive Worship is leading music for Steubenville Atlantic, summer 2010! That in itself is a dream come true. Well, actually more than that, because this is so great a gift that I never even DREAMED of this happening.
Okay, so let me tell you about this past weekend where we partnered along with Bob Rice in stirring up the excitement for this summer's conference:
At approximately 6:00 Thursday morning, 4 of us band members jumped into a van and made our way to Halifax, NS. The other 4 members of our band opted to fly in the next day, lucky ducks... We arrived in town close to 1:00am, stumbled into bed, and woke up late the next morning to begin the first day of our tour from Halifax, to St. John, to Charlottetown. We met up with well-known speaker, songwriter, and expert youth evangelist, Mr. Bob Rice, as well as Halifax's Youth Coordinator and Steubie Atlantic head honcho, John Stevens. There began the most amazing time we could ask for. It went like this: wake up, drink coffee, drive numerous hours, drink coffee, eat, set-up, sound check, rock out, eat more, go to sleep, wake-up, drink coffee, drive numerous hours, drink coffee... etc.
Bob was down to earth, inspiring, affirming, and completely hilarious. He had a way of gaining the youth's attention and holding them in the palm of his hand, while smoothly ushering them into a heartful moment of intimate prayer. Massive Worship rocked out and found it entirely possible to have so much fun while running on so little sleep! Lots of coffee... John Stevens was an hilarious one as well. Dry humor coupled with passion for youth and evangelization, that's John Stevens. He too had the youth in the palm of his hands, they even had a chant for him! Over all, it was an amazing weekend, and Bob Rice shared with us that it was an unexpected fulfillment of one on his dreams too, to go on a mini tour with a band where he was the main speaker, kind of like Chris Tomlin and Louis Giglio. Done and done. www.steubenville.ca

Wetaskiwin's First Lifenight

G’day again all you blog readers out there, sooo Wetaskiwin has started up lifeteen and let me tell you! Our opening night was really Rad!

It was a games night but Casino style.

Our 6 Core members arrived early and we set up the room like a Casino! There was a lounge area, Jazz music was booming and we set up Christmas lights around the sides of the room to make the lights a little dimmer.

THEN we set up our games, there was Texas Hold ‘em, 99, Black Jack and Craps. Before the night began however, we had our first official Lifemass! We had a great turn out for a new scheduled time on Sunday nights; the congregation did a great job of singing along! And we commissioned our Core; we made them Core Shirts and Affirmation letters.

After the Mass began our lifenight, we had 11 Teens show up, which may sound low, but the night was a huge success! Everyone participated in the games and the team and Core met a couple of new teens we had never seen before! The night concluded with prizes for the teens and the majority of them said they would come again next week with friends! And thus begins the growing of the lifeteen ministry!

God has truly blessed our team! Because there are no Catholic high schools in Wetaskiwin, we have had to minister to our crew (grade 10 – 12 who help out with Edge nights) and other people we know from church, which is a small amount, so please pray for our team that through our current teens, God will reach out to all the other high school teens in Wetaskiwin.

Anyway, Hope you guys are all doing splendid out there!
Until we meet cyberly again...

Emma
Team 4

Sledding, Mayonnaise, and Beauty!

Hey, it’s Shayla from Team Five. So, once again, we have had a crazy week. From our Team Day last Thursday, to our messy Lifenight, and to an amazing lunch program, it has been an exciting week.

For our Team Day, we decided it was the perfect time to go sledding. Man, was it ever fun! We went to this hill by the High School in Perth. I had never seen the hill before, but from what we heard it was pretty decent. When we got there I could see why people liked to go to this hill. It didn’t look that tall, pretty average, but once you got to the top and saw down the hill, you could see how steep it was. We only had 4 sleds so we took turns going down the hill, but that got kind of boring after a while, so like most young people, we tried all going down together several times. Some successful, others not so much. We have a short video of us going down the hill and wiping out at the bottom. It’s at the bottom of the blog and quite entertaining. After doing that for a while, James and I found a part of the hill that lead to a jump. So, James and I decided to try out that side of the hill before trying the jump. We made it down and thought it was safe to take the jump it we so wished to do it. Just as were were about to get up the hill though, Tom went down on his sled. He had no idea what was coming because his sled turned around, and he was heading down backwards. Yup, you probably already guessed it, but Tom (only realizing it in the last second) went off the jump. I must say it was the funniest thing I have seen for a long time. Just the look on his face...utter surprise!

Sunday was loads of fun. Our Lifenight was called 'What a Mess'. Was it ever a mess. It was basically like fear factor. The teens got really into it. I believe we had 20 teens. We had many different activities that the teens had to do. There was a scrabble type of game that involved Alphaghetti, an ice cream eating contest that involved mayonnaise, eating a banana through nylon, throwing soaked Shredded Wheat (the big ones), shaving water balloons, putting jam on toast with your face, drinking Coke through your sock, and eating M&M’s with ketchup. It was really gross, but luckily no one got sick. Normally I have a strong stomach, but after the mayonnaise, I felt pretty disgusted. This Lifenight was loads of fun, and was such a great time to just hang out and get to know the teens even more. OH! Another great thing about this lifenight is that we had two of our potential core participate! It was a great night for them to join and I really think the teens had fun with them.

Merge (lunch program) went really well too. We started in prayer, as always, and then got right into a game of 'Identity Crisis'. With this game you were given a name of a famous person or character, and you had to go around asking people yes or no questions about your name, so that you could try to figure out who you were. Then I read the teens a story called 'The Cracked Jar'. This story has to do with your identity, and how God loves you as a whole with the imperfections that you see in yourself. There was also a meditation at the end of it. While reading the story, I was able to look around at the faces of the teens, and I really saw that they were taking this activity seriously, and they were actually thinking about what I was saying. In ministry you really cherish those moments because you can really see God working in the moment. It's beautiful.

Well, we will leave you this week with those fun stories, and next week there will certainly be more.

God Bless
Shayla

Lorsqu'on entend les mouettes, on sait qu'on est rendu aux maritimes...

Re-bonjour à tous! C'est Kevin Prada, votre bloggeur fidèle, maintenant arrivé à Bathurst, tout à fait au Nord du Nouveau Brunswick. Je vous l'assure, depuis mon dernier message, on en a fait du chemin! Depuis quelques jours, on a fait le chemin de Terrebonne jusqu'à Nackawic, NB, là où habite la famille de Evan. Après notre court séjour chez lui, on s'est rendu à Yarmouth, en Nouvelle-Écosse, et finalement, dimanche, on est arrivé ici, à Bathurst, après une longue journée de voyage, pour y passer la semaine.

C'est vraiment un cadeau pour nous, l'équipe, que de pouvoir passer du temps avec les familles de nos compatriotes. Comme j'ai dit, on a passé une soirée chez Evan à Nackawik (site de la plus grande hache au monde, voir la photo incluse...et disons que si elle était vraiment coupante, ça serait légèrement intimidant). On a eu la chance de célébrer la messe à sa paroisse, après un délicieux repas préparé par les dames auxiliaires de la paroisse, qui a fait danser mes papilles gustatives. En soirée, on a parlé, chanté et ri avec les parents et les soeurs d'Evan.

Ensuite, on s'est dirigé vers la pointe sud de la Nouvelle-Écosse, à environ neuf heures de Nackawic pour animer une retraite, samedi passé, pour les jeunes confirmants du diocèse de Yarmouth. Les jeunes présents, dont le nombre s'élevait à presqu'une centaine, étaient super, et ce qu'il y avait de vraiment 'colon' (comme dirait un bon acadien), c'était leur accent. Par exemple, la traduction phonétique de 'Quelle heure est-il' ressemble un peu à ça: 'Tchelle heure hé thcill'. C'était vraiment bien de pouvoir former ces liens avec cette communauté. Et de plus, en soirée le samedi, comme l'océan borde la ville, on a pu visiter le port de Yarmouth. Donc, ce qui était du déjà-vu pour les Néo-Brunswickois de l'équipe, c'était vraiment exceptionnel pour le Manitobain innocent que je suis, comme je n'ai jamais vu l'océan d'une des côtes canadiennes. C'était vraiment très beau, tous les bateaux qui y étaient garés, et l'eau qui continue et qui continue.

Ensuite, c'est le chemin vers Bathurst, là où on se trouve actuellement. Il y a deux choses qui entrent normalement dans la conversation lorsqu'on parle des Maritimes: le paysage très pittoresque et le monde sympatique. Et selon moi, ces deux faits sont très vrais. On peut marcher sur le trottoir, sachant que lorsqu'on croise une personne, elle va nous faire un sourire, et lorsqu'on dîne au Subway, la caissière prend le temps d'entamer une conversation avec nous, ce qui n'est pas toujours le cas dans le reste du pays.

Les choses se déroulent visiblement très bien de notre côté. Comme toujours, le Seigneur est vraiment présent avec nous, et on anticipe maintenant avec hâte la retraite de fin de semaine qu'on va animer samedi prochain pour les jeunes du diocèse de Bathurst. On se laisse donc maintenant en union de prières, car on a besoin de vos prières, et je vous assure qu'on prie pour vous!




Kevin

P.S. En-haut, c'est une photo de l'équipe rassemblée près de la plus grande hache du monde, à Nackawic; et ci-bas, c'est Déneige qui a bien hâte d'arriver à Yarmouth!

On the Farm and Back to Ministry

Hey guys, it's Natalie Senko here in Burlington, Ontario. It's been quite an exciting first week for me and the team.

Last week Riane and I stayed on a dairy farm in Waterford, Ontario, so we jumped into some borrowed coveralls and rubber boots and went to work. Our host sisters gave us a tour of all their barns and even let us feed the baby calves; they were so cute! As we wandered, I kept telling Riane that I wanted to take a calf with us on the road. And maybe a little lamb. And a few barn cats. We decided it might get a little tricky when they grew a bit bigger since both of us are scared of large animals, however my heart was still set on having a calf so I called my finance asked if we could buy one after we get married. He said, "We'll see."

Then we traveled on to Ridgetown and had some great retreats and were hosted by an absolutely amazing family! On one of those retreats we had some boys sitting in the back of the church that just could not sit still. One of the boys grabbed a rosary off the table and started swinging it around and hitting the boys sitting next to him with it. Christian, who had been praying with a retreatant in the pew in front of them, turned around and gently took the rosary from the boy. He started explaining to the young retreatant about praying the rosary and how powerful those prayers are. Then Christian handed the the beads back to the boy and went back to praying. The boy then held the rosary with two hands, and passed it carefully to another retreatant who lightly placed it back on the table. It was amazing for me to witness how a little care and explanation can make such a difference.

Then for team day in London, Ontario we did a Mall Scavenger Hunt. We broke off into teams of four and scoured the mall for Mary, "Canada" and all sorts of other silly things. Some of the teams got super creative and it was so fun to see all the picture documentation!

Anyway, remember it really is the small things that make all the difference.

In Christ,

Natalie

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE DOYLE!

Peterbrough + Net Team = Win!

Hello Everyone, and welcome to another issue of " Adventures of NET Team 1".

We recently spent a week of ministry in the diocese of Peterborough, and what an exciting stay it was! Peterborough was our first diocese back on the road after our Christmas break, so we pulled up our socks and got right back into gear. We had a retreat each day, Monday to Friday, and Saturday as a Ministry/team day. Our first retreat was a little weird, we had four retreats on Monday, each an hour long; it was a little hard for our first retreat back - but we pulled through and after all it was a successful day.

Tuesday to Thursday were fairly smooth, I lead my first retreat on Wednesday, it was lots of fun (and a bit stressful!). On our last retreat of the week we had 180 students from 4 different schools! To say the least, we were a little bit intimidated, but through the Divine power of God, it turned out to be the best retreat of the week. Everyone was pulling their load, the students were super respectful and attentive! We couldn't have left the diocese on a higher note.

Saturday we started our day by joining a dozen local pro-lifers to silently protest outside the Peterborough hospital, then we enjoyed lunch with the Bishop. He told us many funny and interrelating stories. He showed us a cross that he wears around his neck; its original owner was Pope John Paul II. So we got to touch something that JP II touched, I though it was pretty cool! After that we ended our night with some swing dancing! One of our host families taught us how to swing for free, and free is always good when you're on NET. We have now arrived in Niagara Falls to begin a week of ministry in the St. Catherine's Diocese. We will then head to Winnipeg - stay tuned for next week's issue to read about our adventures out West!

As always, God Speed

Sean Milan, NET Team 1

Team 5 Back in Action!

Hello, this is Shayla from team 5. It feels so good to be back in Perth and Smiths Falls. We've all had an amazing Christmas with family and friends. Tom spent some time in Vegas, Danica was in B.C., Alyssa went to Rise Up, I spent some time in Toronto, and Rebecca and James just chillaxed at home. We didn't waste one minute of our break.

Life here in Smiths Falls and Perth is getting back in running order. We have our new year kick-off Lifenight this Sunday. It's going to be a game show type of night with a fear factor twist. I can't wait!

So far this week, on Tuesday, our whole team signed up to do an hour in the Adoration chapel every week. It will be on Tuesdays at 3-4 pm. After doing our first hour together, I really felt that this hour with Jesus every week will really help the ministry and our team as a whole. Adoration is just so beautiful.

This past Wednesday we had Merge (our lunch program in the high school). We based it around leadership and being leaders of faith in school. We started with a game called 'Seven Hands'. Basically, this game challenges the teens to work together and to take leadership roles. After this game, Alyssa gave a talk/testimony about being leaders and living out your faith in school.

This Thursday we had our first Edge night. Three words to describe it are Awesome, Energetic, and Loud. I'll just say that it was a huge turnout, with 112 young teens that came out to the Edge night! It was crazy. Our team felt like a retreat team because there were so many young people.

Praying for all the other teams!

God Bless,

Shayla

50 Words you can make with "Wetaskiwin"

Les équipes NET fait son apparition sur le blog!

Why hello once more! This, once again, is your jolly French blogger from Team 3, back, refreshed, and ready to roll, after a nice break over the Christmas season, ready to embark once more in life on the road. Up until now, I was asked to blog in English, but from now, in order to fully embrace our mission in French Canada, I will blogging in the language of love. So here it goes…

Bien bonjour, me voici finalement, avec le plaisir de m’adresser à vous en français, et selon moi, c’est la meilleure des deux langues officielles (haha! ne dites pas aux anglophones que j’ai dit cela…haha). Nous voici à peine trois jours dans la deuxième moitié de la mission en français, en banlieue de Montréal, à Terrebonne. On entame une série de présentations au Collège Saint-Sacrement, dans le cadre du cours d’éthique et de culture religieuse. Cela pose un défi important : les élèves ne sont pas nécessairement catholiques, ni chrétiens, même qu’il pourrait y en avoir qui seraient contre l’Église catholique. Et on est censé les évangéliser... Une grande leçon qu’on apprend en équipe, c’est que le Seigneur est avec nous, et qu’Il peut tout faire. Nous voilà arrivés, lundi, devant ce grand collège privé, prêts à mener notre première présentation, naturellement légèrement incertains de notre coup. Mais bon, le Seigneur, comme toujours, était si présent, et les jeunes réagissaient très bien. Et ce qu’il y a de curieux, c’est que la partie la plus populaire, c’est une période de questions à la fin de l’heure de la présentation, dans laquelle les jeunes sont libres de nous poser n’importe quelle question. J’ai été vraiment étonné par la réaction très positive de ces jeunes. Et ce que ça montre c’est que les jeunes sont vraiment en quête de la vérité, et ils ont plusieurs questions par rapport à cette vérité.

À part ça, on a terminé notre semaine de formation de janvier, dans le but de reprendre la routine sur la route, et c’était vraiment un succès ! C’était vraiment bien de se retrouver avec les gens des autres équipes, de refaire les liens, et de reprendre la mission.

Comme je l’ai déjà dit, le Seigneur est vraiment présent avec nous à chaque instant de notre mission. Je vous remercie pour tout votre support envers cette mission, financièrement, et encore plus, par votre prière pour nous. Et une fois encore, je vous lance l’invitation : si vous cherchez quelqu’un pour qui prier, on apprécierait beaucoup !

À la prochaine !

Kevin Prada

Second Half, Jesus leads!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Sean Milan reporting in for Team 1.

I can't even remember the last time I blogged. Well I have to admit, I did miss quite a few weeks, but what are new years' for? Making new resolutions! Okay, so we are on the same page now, going back a couple of weeks. December retreat began; now for all the NET alumni reading this, I'm sure you can agree with me when I say DECEMBER RETREAT ROCKS! Whooa, ha ha, yes it was lots of fun - mostly seeing the other teams and knowing that we were going to be home soon. My Christmas break was very relaxing, it was so much fun sleeping in till 3:00pm and wasting half of my day; but only for the first few days. Family and friends soon control your whole schedule! Ha ha, but it was a very relaxing time, to celebrate the birth of our Lord and the birth of a new year. It's crazy to think that half of the "NET year" has already passed, it seems like we were at training yesterday.

We just finished January training - once again it was awesome to reunite with the teams. Well, most of them. I will now take this opportunity to give a big loving shout-out to the two Irish teams and Team 4 in Wetaskiwin,AB. We love you all and we are praying for you! I'm very excited for this next half of the year, as our team goes to venture out West all the way to the Pacific, spreading the good news along the way!!!

Stay tuned next week when we will be in St.Catherine's, ON!

God Speed

Sean Milan NET Team 1