GO CANADA GO!!!....We're Alberta bound!

Hello Everyone! Dominique from team 1 here, reporting from Estevan, SK.

So much has happened since we last checked in. It's crazy how much stuff can happen on the road in what seems like a short amount of time! We have been cruising the beautiful prairies of Saskatchewan for the past month starting in the Prince Albert Diocese. Our visit there was great, and it was an honour to end off our visit by hanging out with Bishop Albert of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers).

Our next destination was the Archdiocese of Regina, and we started out our time here with a visit from our amazing supervisors and a visit to Archbishop Bohan. For the past week we set up home base in Regina, and travelled throughout the Archdiocese. We visited so many communities; one I would like to mention especially is Wilcox. We went to Notre Dame, which is a Catholic hockey boarding school with students attending from all over the world! I personally missed this amazing experience due to swine flu and spent my time there locked in a dorm room in complete darkness, but the stories I heard were pretty awesome! We all stayed in dorm rooms, ate in the cafeteria, played in the gym, watched the many hockey games, and truly felt like part of the community for the 4 days spent there. The retreats were in the church which was on site, and were a neat experience. It's not often that you can ask a crowd of youth in Canada where they are from and have a kid raise his hand and say "I am Nikita from Russia!", or others from Australia and the USA. It was very exciting! Some of us visited the set of Corner Gas, and then we returned to Regina in time to pick up Pat and Caitlyn . The time spent with them was short and fast, but awesome! It felt like we were just picking them up from the airport when we were dropping them off for their journey back to Ottawa!

Since the beginning our team has been filled with Olympic spirit - following as much of the games as we could, but most importantly our Canadian hockey teams! If we weren't near a TV you would find some of us huddled around a radio, or in the van during travel days, catching what we could of the game. We listened to and cheered during the gold medal game on the journey here from Regina and went crazy when Crosby scored the winning goal in overtime! I myself am a hardcore Canada fan and am so stoked that Canada has done so well! I couldn't think of a better way to put out the flame then to a performance by Neil Young, but could think of many other people to introduce Canada than William Shatner. It would have been nice to see Tragically Hip, Sam Roberts, or City and Colour there, but all in all it was a good presentation! The closing ceremonies were a lot of fun and definately summed up many Canadian stereotypes! It was new to experience the Olympics with other countries on the team. Alexes cheered for USA, Richard had 1 patriotic speed skater representing his nation, and Rachel was an honorary Canadian for the games!

We will miss this province as our time here is coming to a close. In a province where the sky meets the horizon, where you can fall asleep for an entire van ride and wake up, look outside and feel like you haven't moved an inch, where you can look to the sky and see true blue, then look again and see a grain combine soaring in the sea of blue!! Only in Saskatchewan! Now we are Alberta bound! Destination: Brooks!

We miss you all back home and wherever you are! Keep us in your prayers and may God bless you and may you find hope in this beautiful season of Lent!

In Christ,

Dominique Lanthier

"Because of the Transfiguration, we are filled with hope that will not leave us disappointed. The roughest Lent will result in the most glorious Easter. The transfigured Christ is the hope and promise of the risen Christ. Praise Jesus!"

Some Snow Injuries, a Movie, and a Mission!

Hello, it's Shayla from Team 5. This weeks blog has a different spin to it. You will be reading the account of our very own, James Richmond, on his snow adventure. Enjoy!

Snowballs
James Richmond, D.H.D (Doesn’t Have a Degree)

So, Shayla asked me to write about my adventures on Wednesday with the wet and wonderful substance we call snow. Here in Smiths Falls and Perth, it appeared like snow had forsaken us but God saw fit to dump several inches of the heavenly dandruff these past couple of days.

Now, I would just like to maintain that normally I am not hit by snowballs – I’m Jet Li. No explanation necessary. In any case, Wednesday night we were invited to a Knights of Columbus supper at their hall. As with all tragic conflicts, this war was merely the culminating point of several previous skirmishes.

This all started around 17:39 hours as we were exiting our office building (minus Alyssa and Danica – they went to their host home for supper and we were picking them up afterward for a movie). The supper was at 17:30 hours but we were a bit late because I was defeating the Dungeon Master of Soul Calibre II. As I was exiting, there were a few volleys of snowballs – one of which caught me on the right knee. Now, as this was an unprovoked attack from a Ms. Rebecca Bilodeau I had to follow up with a couple rounds of my own. Tom and Shayla soon joined in but since we had to leave due to our lateness, we made a temporary truce.

Arriving at the Knights of Columbus Hall, I quickly tucked and rolled out of the van and attempted a few ill-aimed shots but they splashed futilely against the window pane of the back door. Slightly miffed at the cowardice of my three opponents I vowed to not miss again. The supper was delicious and due to my ‘fullness’, I was lulled into a sense of security. It wasn’t until I saw Tom, Rebecca, and Shayla descending the stairs three at a time towards the door that I realized I was in trouble. I attempted to catch up by taking an entire flight of stairs in one great bound but I misjudged and almost went through the wall head first. I veered to the left once out the door attempting to draft behind Shayla and gain some time. Unfortunately as I rounded the corner I saw Tom wind up and let fly a 105mm round of wetness at me. Little did I know that simultaneously at my 6:00 position Rebecca had done the same. It was Pvt. James’ last stand. Being Jet Li I let my feet slide out from under me (the uneducated attribute it to mere ice) so the two snowballs passed over my head.

A vicious battle soon ensued and I found myself attempting to shove Rebecca in the snow on the opposite side of the battlefield. Hit by a snowball in the back by Shayla I attempted to maintain my balance but Rebecca managed to manoeuvre herself around and push me towards the snow bank. The treachery and betrayal of the moment weighed heavy on my heart and I never saw the incoming round that contacted my left temple and blasted me into oblivion.

My captors held me prisoner in the van as we drove to pick up Danica and Alyssa at their host home. Upon arrival I thought my ordeal was over but Rebecca quickly exited the driver seat, grabbed a chunk of snow, and whipped it at my face striking me in the left eye while I was still seated and belted in. She then retreated to the temporary safety of the home. Of course this indignity revived my manly instincts and I rallied Shayla and Tom to my cause. We set our ambush well and I locked the car so that no coward would be able to retreat the field. It was the Revenge of the Soaking Wet.

We waited for a good 10 minutes and nothing was happening. Tom and I were standing behind the van and I leaned closer to the back window and attempted see through the window. That was a stupid idea as I was beamed in the face by the windshield wiper. A couple of minutes later, Rebecca and Alyssa sped out of the home firing snowballs as they ran, and Danica followed them playing the neutral civilian. Despite their vicious attack, our ambush succeeded and the two girls were caught in a cross-fire of epic proportions. Seeing my chance I once again attempted to toss Ms. Bilodeau into the freezing embrace of the nearest snow bank. Realizing her imminent doom, Rebecca bashed my left eye brow with her forehead attempting to dislodge my hold. Moment gone we all piled into our van and went to the movies. Now, this would be the end of this tale but you forget one thing – I’m Jet Li and I don’t accept failure. After the movie Rebecca was fleeing towards the safety of the vehicle but my aim proved to be true and I struck her on the left cheek with the remnants of the snowball dripping down her coat to soak her innards. Victory!

I hope you all enjoyed reading this.
Keeping you all in our prayers,

Shayla Doucette, James Rishmond, Rebecca Bilodeau, Alyssa Gabrielson, Thomas Russell, and Danica O'Neill

God Bless!!!

busy as a bee with a bum full of honey!

Hello faithful blog reader! This is Hannah, your vivacious blog- napper from Team 4 in Wetaskiwin, Alberta.

The past week has gone by in a whirl as is only possible when you are in full swing with Edge, Lifeteen, school presentations, band jams and supe visits (when our delightful supervisors come to see us in action)! Sometimes it is so easy to get caught up with everything that is going on and we forget to see the little blessings God gives us each day. When I take the time to be silent and think about how God is present in each day, I see these little reminders of how much He loves us and takes joy in our love for Him.

Our Lifenight this weekend was “How far is too far?” and dealt with the exciting issue of chastity! One of our Core members and his wife gave an excellent talk on the importance of living out our call of purity, respecting the gift God gave us of sex and the sacredness of our bodies. The most beautiful part of our evening was when the men and women had a chance to pray over each other. The ladies honoured the men by writing letters encouraging the men to pursue purity, and the men gave each of the women a rose as a sign of their value as a beautiful daughter of God.

I was so blessed when one of our new teens approached me with a rose. He isn’t Catholic, but has become a regular member of our Lifeteen program. He handed me the rose and thanked me for the prayer and song (Hail Mary) we as women gave him, and also thanked me for making him feel welcome in the community. It is moments like these that remind me why God has called each one of us to this ministry, for building a community of faith and for allowing those who haven’t had the chance to meet Christ to encounter Him through us. Please continue to pray for our teens, especially the ones who are just experiencing Christ that we may continue to let God use us as instruments in shepherding His flock.

Tune in next week for updates on our Edge Retreat: The Seuss is Loose, which we are busily preparing for this weekend!

God bless you from here to there!

In Christ, Hannah

Tout un parcours...sur video!!

Voici finalement le blog de toutes nos activités depuis la semaine dernière! J'ai oublié de mentionner une chose: j'ai eu la chance de manger de l'orignal pour la première fois de ma vie, hier soir, après la pêche sur glace!! C'est excitant! En tous cas, à la semaine prochaine!
-Kevin

Olympics, Eggs, and Weddings!

Hello all of you wonderful people! It’s Shayla from Team Five-Alive. This week has been pretty busy for us here in Smiths Falls and Perth. We had a 5-day Supervisor visit, and two big socials to plan for Edge and Lifeteen.

Caitlyn and Ian arrived at our office on Thursday night, just before we had to leave for Edge. The social we did for Edge was the Olympics. I was almost afraid that it would be hard to get the young teens under control talking wise, but they were so into it, and really wanted to get through the games. What really helped out was that we had Tom, me, and some crew as police, and basically we kept an eye on everyone. That helped a lot with crowd control. One thing that we did with the Olympics was that we gave each team an egg that they had to babysit the whole time. Basically, in the end, the teams with their egg still whole got extra points. One team was lucky because I broke their egg by accident, so they got the extra points anyway. The whole night was bubbling with energy. As hard as it may seem to have an Edge with 90 young teens, it always lifts up my spirit for the rest of the week. They’re such a wonderful group! (To the top right is a picture of an egg that Tom, himself, is babysitting…)

Sunday was our Valentines Day Lifenight. We had a wedding reception with the speeches, flower toss, and dance. The set-up was extremely well done. We kept it simple, but nice. The cutest part was that Danica and I made bowties for the men and veils for the women. They all wore them to symbolize that we are all brides and grooms of Christ. I had a lot of fun with the dance part of the night. At one point we played the limbo song, and everybody was doing the limbo. A few people got extremely into it…a.k.a. my brother Kyle, Tom, and James. The night was just full of so much energy and it was a great time to bond with every one. (Alyssa is to the left doing her Maid of Honour speech)

On Monday night, we had to say goodbye to Ian and Caitlyn. It was really sad. I felt like I was losing part of my family…well, I was. They’re great Supervisors. Couldn’t ask for better!

Well, that’s all that’s been happening with Team Five-Alive. We’re praying for you.

God Bless,
Shayla Doucette

Banana's giving birth

Not really, I just wanted to catch your eye with an intriguing title. What I mean is, the fruits of our labour...It is an easy thing to be hard on yourself when after countless number of Edge nights, Life nights and youth events in the Parish, to not hear about or visibly see any change in then teens with their walk with Christ, or a change in anyone for that matter. Yes we are here for a reason and God IS working through us, but according to other parishes that have had NET, changes tend to occur drastically after a period of 5 years. But good old God showed us now how our team has positively affected this parish in leading it closer to God.

This weekend we had our Sunday night youth Mass, we aren’t getting truck loads of people out, on average 30 – 40 people a night, which is still amazing. Anyhow, after Mass this lady came up to me, she looked familiar but I have honestly met like 1000 people in the last 5 months and it’s hard to remember names. But as we got to talking I realized that I had invited her out to this particular youth Mass the weekend before when we were have our Perogie supper for the parish. She shared with me that her experience during Mass was amazing; she commented how she never intended to come but how she felt a pull on her heart from the Lord. She explained to me how the music really helped her enter into a prayerful state and that she really enjoyed seeing the youth involved. Praise God, He is so good, Amen.

On a more exciting note, the team and I went to the zoo yesterday! This was my first zoo experience; we saw FAT snakes, an Elephant, frogs, monkeys, giant hamsters, even little Australian wallabies which I thought was pretty neat. The highlight, though, would have to be this camel that we saw. It was kind of walking around slowly, not doing much, and it looked kind of snooty. So just as we were about to leave the boring snooty Camel, it randomly jumped up and had like a little spasm. RANDOM, everyone was just like WHAT? Like, why would it do that? We later realized that it had bumped itself on an electric fence and was actually being shocked...hahaha, not that we take delight in animal cruelty or anything...
Anyway, here are some photos for you - my lovely team in Olympic rings, and a sign that no longer makes sense.

God Bless ya,

Emma
Team 4, Wetaskiwin

Team 2 is pretty hardcore.

Yo people!

Meghan here with yet another wonderful update from team two! So after some great retreats in Bolton at the YMCA camp and a long and painful goodbye to our host families in Bolton, we realized what had to be done; one big travel day. Well, it wasn't really that big, like 45 minutes, but that 45 minutes took us to a very wonderful little town called Etobicoke. There we met some great host families including the Pugimartis and the Hennessys! So basically I'm saying it's been a very exciting week for us.

Our supervisors arrived on Wedensday afternoon in Bolton. Our whole team was very excited to see them again! On Saturday we had a team day in Etobicoke led by none other than Patrick Sullivan and Meaghan Boyd. It was a lot of fun, but the fun didn't stop there! On Saturday night all the girls went to the Hennessys house for a bridal shower for Ms. Natalie Senko. We told Natalie we were all invited to their house for supper. So after we finished at the church we went to the house. Shortly after we arrived Meaghan took Natalie downstairs for a "serious chat". While they were downstairs all the girls and the Hennessys put all the decorations up and finished preparing supper. Natalie was so surprised when she entered the living room to find decorations and heart-shaped balloons! All in all, the night was really fun; we had games, bridal magazines (one of the magazines was even made by Pat Sullivan!) and toilet paper dresses! Everyone enjoyed themselves!

Sunday was a very exciting, yet sad day! We had to say goodbye to our wonderful host families in Etobicoke; but all the girls got red roses and valentines from the boys and we got to go roller skating! We went to a roller skating rink in Mississauga called Scooters. It was amazing! The whole team had on old school roller skates, the ones with four wheels - 2 in the front and 2 in the back. It was difficult at first to learn how to move, but after awhile we all got the hang of it. Some of us even got so comfortable we could do spins! I don't know how many of you have ever been roller skating, but I strongly suggest it! After skating we had to say good bye to our lovely team supervisors. It was tough saying good bye, but we all look forward to seeing them again in March!

Oh and we had one other surprise on Sunday, the arrival of Tom Caza, Natalie's fiance! We were all excited to have him join us for a few days!

So to wrap up we had a great week seeing our supervisors, throwing bridal showers and going roller skating! We're all excited to see what great surprises this week will bring! Happy Lent everybody!

Meghan Hall peacing out.

PS: Team 2's quote of the week: "Pools are perfect for holding water." - Hot Rod.

Une Saint-Valentin spéciale!

Salut à tous les Canadiens français! C’est votre bloggeur fidèle de l’équipe 3, l’équipe bilingue. Je vous écris de quelque part entre Espanola et Blind River, puisque nous voyageons actuellement entre ces deux villages du nord de l’Ontario. Le ministère nous garde dernièrement très occupés, et on aime tellement ça! C’est bien et important d’avoir du temps pour se reposer et pour se recueillir, mais lorsqu’on retourne à la routine, on se sent bien chez nous.

On vient de terminer une semaine remplie dans la ville du Grand Sudbury, animant cinq retraites pour toutes les écoles catholiques francophones de la ville. C’était vraiment super! Les jeunes de chacune des écoles ont formé de très bons groupes. Comme équipe itinérante, on n'entend que rarement les réactions des jeunes qui participent à nos retraites. Donc souvent, on est juste appelé à semer la graine, en ayant confiance que le Seigneur fait des miracles dans le cœur de ces jeunes, sans nécessairement se baser sur des résultats concrets. Mais parfois, il y a certains jeunes qui choisissent de nous envoyer un courriel, à l’adresse d’équipe qu’on leur donne à la fin de leur journée. Il nous racontent justement quel impact le Seigneur a eu dans leur vie à travers leur journée de rencontre. Justement, la semaine passée, il y a une fille qui a participé à l’une de nos retraites qui nous a envoyé un message nous exprimant jusqu’à quel point elle était reconnaissante de ce qu’elle avait vécue. Elle nous disait qu’elle n’avait jamais vraiment cru au Seigneur, mais que grâce à la journée, toute sa vie a changé, parce qu’elle a finalement pu rencontrer le vrai Dieu : Jésus. Elle nous disait comment elle avait prié pour que le Seigneur lui montre qui Il était, mais qu’elle avait perdu confiance en Lui parce qu’elle n’avait pas eu de réponse. Mais finalement, le Seigneur lui a donné sa réponse dans cette journée. Le Seigneur est tellement bon pour nous ici sur la route. Il est si présent dans chaque chose que nous faisons.

Puis, comme on le sait tous, dimanche passé, c’était la fête des amoureux, la fête de la Saint-Valentin. Et quelle journée ce fut pour notre équipe! La journée a commencé avec les gars qui se sont réveillés pour se rendre à la messe, avec la porte de leur chambre qui était couverte de cœurs découpés en carton et des petites douceurs qui couvraient le plancher devant leur porte. Les filles de l’équipe nous avait surpris en nous achetant toutes sortes de confiseries pour nous fêter lors de cette fête toute spéciale. Et la meilleure partie (de la perspective d’un gars), c’était que toutes les traites qu’elles nous avaient achetées étaient emballées avec un papier de supers héros. Le super héros qui couvrait mes affaires, c’était Batman. Inoubliable!

Ensuite, on a continué la journée avec la célébration de la messe, puis une fête spéciale pour Katy. Chaque membre de l’équipe a une fête surprise, lors de laquelle on l’honore et on le fête. C’était vraiment amusant. On est sorti ensemble pour le souper qui a été suivi d’un film, The Blind Side, en soirée. Puis finalement, en retournant à notre foyer d’acceuil, c’était le tour des gars de fêter les filles pour la Saint-Valentin. Comme la sainte patronne de notre équipe est Sainte-Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus, on a acheté une douzaine de roses, et on a imprimé des citations et des prières de Sainte-Thérèse en consacrant les filles de l’équipe à son intercession. C’était vraiment une journée remplie de joie, de spécial et de kilos de fun!

Ça en fait déjà beaucoup à dire pour le blog et il y en aurait encore beaucoup à dire. Mais je vous laisse avec ça. Les choses vont vraiment super bien pour nous. La semaine prochaine, on prend la route pour Winnipeg! J’ai particulièrement hâte parce que c’est mon chez-moi! Mais comme toujours, on a besoin de vos prières, que le Seigneur continue à faire des miracles dans les vies des jeunes qu’on rencontre. Bonne semaine!

Kevin Prada

P.S. En haut, c’est l’équipe qui entoure Katy lors de sa fête dimanche passé; et, aussi ce dimanche-là , ci-bas, c’est la surprise que les gars ont donnée aux filles, en les consacrant à Sainte-Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus.

Un-Birthday and Youthfest!

Hello to all the readers of the NET blog from Team Five. Well, I've had quite the eventful week. Saturday was my un-birthday! It was so much fun. It was so unexpected because we switched host home. It was also our team day, and we were heading into Ottawa for Youthfest. So, after our host home switch we loaded ourselves up into the van to head to Ottawa for team day. As soon as we were all buckled in, Rebecca handed me an envelope saying that she thinks I left this at our previous host home. I was really confused because I never bought a card or was in possession of a card at our last host home, but she insisted I check just in case. I opened it, and it was a Hoops and Yoyo card. On the front where it says Happy Birthday they wrote an ‘un’ in front of birthday. I was so surprised. I did not expect it. I specifically told the team to do an un-birthday for me last because I’m going to have my real birthday while on NET anyways. So, they put me first instead…the little buggers!

Their first surprise for me was they rented the movie ‘Up’ for me to watch on our way into Ottawa. I’m always talking about that movie saying how awesome it is. I also quote it quite often. I was really excited to get watching it. Now the whole team can share in my love for the movie because now we all understand the jokes that I used to laugh at with myself. As soon as we got into Ottawa, we headed down to the Rideau Canal. Yup, that’s right! We went skating. It was so nice to walk down to the ice. On our way there we passed through the ice sculpture park. There weren’t many sculptures, but the ones that were there were still pretty awesome. It was quite the adventure once we started to skate. I think we all felt pretty rusty on the ice. I knew I was especially rusty because my feet started to really hurt, and we weren’t even on the ice for a long time. Poor Rebecca fell on the ice, and Danica was so cute because she’s not used to skating so we held her hand.

After skating we hit the Rideau mall to play some picture scavenger hunt. We took many pictures of us doing random things. We posed like a manikin, posed for an i-pod picture, took a picture with an i-pod seller dude, and wore Olympic clothes. There were other things we had to pose like, but when we were done, we were ready to eat. We went to the food court and my team bought me my food. That was nice of them.

This brings me now to Youthfest. After the mall we headed to Tudor Hall. I already knew that my family was going to be there so I was really excited to see them. As soon as I got there I was bombarded with people I knew from Ottawa. Funny thing…they all knew about my un-birthday. That surprised me because everyone was coming up to me wishing me a happy birthday. To top it off, my family knew! They made me a card and left me little notes. That whole day was just really special to me. I really felt loved. I love my team! (That's Tom on the right on our adventures to the Rideau Canal)

Youthfest itself was extremely powerful, and the Adoration was a bonus. It was about vocations. The Holy Spirit was just so alive, and we had a group of our teens that wanted to come, so they got there on their own. If they wanted to experience God…that was the night, so powerful. The whole night felt like a breath of fresh air spending time with just me and God. The whole day I felt so overwhelmed with love. Truly a gift.

Until next week,
God Bless,
Shayla Doucette

Team 4 Look Out Lifenight

So Listen...

Hey everyone! This is Adele Costanza and Riane McCallum reporting from team two!

We on team two have enjoyed a great week! It began in Kitchener, ON. After a very restful day spent at Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows in downtown Kitchener, we moved on to Victoria Harbour to do a retreat for grade eight students. They were a great group, and the day was awesome! That night, we made our way to Stratford, ON, home of Katie Doyle! All of us girls went to Katie's home for dinner, followed by a night with a local evangelization team. It was really cool to be a part of what Katie used to do.

We had one more retreat this week, in Whitby, ON. The entire day was great, but the prayer ministry was really powerful. The Holy Spirit was definitely on the move. Praise God! That night we moved to Bolton, ON, and participated in their "Edge" program! It was awesome! The night was filled with excellent music, a great talk, small groups, and prayer. The best part was that the night ended with an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament! It was really sweet to see grade 6, 7 & 8's so involved with their faith!

Saturday was spent with the team! We started off with mens and womens session, and for our womens session we exercised to a work-out video. We learned some sweet moves, such as "The Grapevine" and we were able to add our own dance flair! While we were working out, the men went for a scenic walk on the local river. Later, we met up and praised God in team prayer! We finished off the day with the parish youth group, and joined them in their Life Teen Mass and activities after wards. We were able to hear a great talk on Lent, and had some time to reflect on the upcoming season.

Sunday was our favorite day of the week! We are very close to Paul's hometown of Aurora, ON. We thought it would be fun to surprise Paul with a visit to his home for lunch! Paul had absolutely no idea that this was occurring, and as we drew closer to his house, he began saying things like, "We are literally ten minutes from my house," and "If you turn left here, you will be at my house." He finally asked Trevor "Where are we going, anyways?" Trevor replied, "I know of this really great place for lunch!" When we arrived at his house, Paul had a great reunion, and we all enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with the Taylor family!

Last, but certainly not least....HAPPY UN-BIRTHDAY JACOB AULTMAN! We celebrated Jacob's unbirthday ( for peoples birthdays that don't fall within the NET year,) by watching his favorite game - football! We all piled into the parish rectory, ordered a few pizzas, had some wings, and watched the Superbowl! Although both of us had pretty much no idea what was going on, it was still fun to watch and experience. Go Saints Go!

That's all from this week! God bless you all! We luh yu!

Adele & Riane

Le pays du gros cinq cents!

Bonjour! Hello! Buongiorno! Guten Tag! C’est moi, Kevin Prada, de retour cette semaine comme fidèle bloggeur de l’équipe 3.

Hmmmmm…voyons, depuis la dernière semaine, on a quitté Embrun, là où on a animé des retraites pour plus de 200 jeunes de l’école Saint-Jean. On a pu ensuite passer un court séjour au bureau central de NET, à Ottawa, de jeudi à dimanche passé, et depuis, on se trouve ici, à Sudbury, avec les jeunes de plusieurs écoles des environs. On se garde très occupé, en animant plusieurs retraites. C’est super de pouvoir se donner à ce point, toujours en train de bouger, toujours en train d’animer, parce que c’est dans ce temps-là, lorsqu’on se fait étirer, qu’on a vraiment la chance de s’abandonner au Seigneur.

Jeudi passé, lorsqu’on est arrivé au bureau de NET, j’ai eu une surprise toute spéciale. Comme Marise et moi sommes chefs d’équipe, l’équipe a choisi de faire une fête surprise pour nous deux. Toute une surprise! On a joué à des jeux, fait des folies, c’était pas mal amusant! Et ça m’a vraiment fait chaud au cœur de voir toute l’équipe ensemble nous honorer comme ça.

Puis vendredi, c’était l’ouverture de la Fête des Neiges, festival d’hiver de la région Ottawa-Gatineau. Malgré le froid, on a pu se tenir juste à côté du Parlement, là où on a participé à une animation spéciale. Puis, quelle meilleure façon de terminer une telle soirée qu’avec un spectacle de feux d’artifices! Je n’ai jamais vu un spectacle de feux d’artifices aussi beau et élaboré que ça. Vingt minutes de toute beauté, synchronisées à de la super musique, sur la Rivière des Outaouais. C’était une super belle façon de lancer ce festival. Natif du Manitoba, j’ai la tradition de côtoyer le Festival du Voyageur, là où, je dois l'admettre, j’ai subi quelques engelures mineures… Mais le froid du Manitoba, c’est quand même un extrême… des moins trente c’est commun à ce temps-ci de l’année, donc pour moi, le quinze en bas de zéro de vendredi passé, c’était quasi tropical. Et en plus, aucune engelure!

Samedi, on a eu une journée assez relaxante. Quelques fois durant l’année, lorsque notre horaire se dégage, on peut de permettre de prendre une journée de congé. On appelle ça une journée sans obligation. Mais en soirée, une communauté de prêtres d’Ottawa, les Compagnons de la Croix, ont animée la soirée Youth Fest, qui, cette année, était axée sur les vocations. Des centaines de jeunes de toute la région des Outaouais étaient présents pour les enseignements, les témoignages et le temps d’adoration qui ont eu lieu. Pour l’équipe, bien qu’on aime naturellement animer les retraites et le ministère qu’on fait, c’est aussi bien, à l’occasion, de pouvoir tout simplement participer, sans assister à l’animation. Toute l’équipe, moi inclus, avons franchement apprécié cette soirée.

Maintenant, on se prépare à ntammer un séjour dans le nord de l’Ontario. Je suis déjà en train d’anticiper une arrivée dans les quelques semaines prochaines à Winnipeg. Mais pour l’instant, nous sommes bien heureux ici, bien occupés. Le Seigneur fait, comme toujours, des merveilles à travers notre ministère. C’est toujours incroyable que de témoigner du Christ en train de travailler à travers de nous! Passez une bonne semaine

Kevin Prada!




P.S. Ci-bas, c’est une photo de Carie et moi, lors d’une des retraites qu’on a animées à Embrun; et en haut, c’est tout le groupe, jeudi passé, lors de la fête qu’on a organisée pour les deux chefs d’équipe (je suis au courant que c'est écrit Happy Birthday, mais on ignore, c’était pour l’ambiance…)

Pranks, Pizza, and Bracelets!

Hello! It’s Shayla. So, like the NET office, James and I pulled a prank on Rebecca, Alyssa and Danica. It was a very simple prank, but man did they ever find it hard to figure out. What James and I did was a simple ‘tape over the mouse sensor’ prank. To make it just slightly complicated we attached Alyssa’s wireless mouse to Danica’s computer. It was so funny because in the morning James was moving around Alyssa’s mouse, which was moving the cursor on Danica’s computer, and she was so convinced there was something wrong with her computer. It’s nice to pull small pranks like that every now and then to lighten the mood in the office. It’s also just entertaining to the people who get to watch.

So, last Thursday was our third Edge night. It went pretty well. The night was on peer pressure and temptation. Once again I played music and the young teens loved it and sang along. They also made posters with different forms of peer pressure and temptation that they face. Most of them took it really seriously and put a lot of effort into making their posters. Like always, we had fun with the energy that the teens have. It really helps us to keep up our own energy.

On Friday our team went out to Pizza Hut with a gift card that we received from doing the Confirmation Retreat. We had a good time, and there was lots of food for us to eat. Being on NET so far, our team hasn’t had the chance to really go out together and just eat. It was a real blessing and it was a nice opportunity for us to bond.

Sunday was the Lifenight on Mary. This Lifenight went really well. It had a feel of balance to it. It wasn’t too high energy or too low, just perfect. So the teens had an opportunity to learn about Mary, and the Rosary. I think my favourite point of the night was when the teens had to write a letter to their mothers. I personally took it as a time to write a letter to my own mother. I really started thinking and realized how often we forget to tell our mothers that we love them, or even just thank them for all they’ve done.

The last really interesting thing that happened to us this week was Rebecca’s idea of making bracelets for our Edgers for our Edge night this week. The bracelets came from the idea that Team 4 did with their night. Basically, you make a bracelet that has ten colors and it represents the Ten Commandments. If you haven’t caught on, our Edge night was on the Ten Commandments. Anyway, this task left us all with sore fingers because we had to make at least 70 bracelets for the average of young teens that attend Edge. It was worth the pain though because it was for our teens.

So, that is about all that has happened with Team 5 this week. We’re praying for all the other NET teams.

God Bless you all
Shayla Doucette

La grand-mère de Jésus, l'Europe et une maladie contagieuse

Allo tout le monde!!! C'est Déneige Loiselle, la fransaskoise, qui écrit cette fois. Je suis tellement heureuse d'avoir l'opportunité de représenter notre belle équipe numéro 3! Et puisque Kevin n'écrit pas sur le blog cette semaine, j'aimerais lui souhaiter un extraordinaire anniversaire de 20 ans!!!! Wahoo!

Alors, notre semaine au royaume de neige, la province de Québec... Les grosses buttes brillantes au soleil, les chemins glissants, les tuques et les foulards, les vieilles églises, l'Europe... l'Europe!?! Ok, pas exactement, mais je me sentais vraiment en Europe lorsqu’on a visité le Vieux-Québec. C'était vraiment bien d'avoir la chance de se retrouver en équipe dans un endroit si beau. On s'est promené, on s'est amusé et on a aussi décidé de se séparer entre gars et filles pour le souper. C'est vraiment incroyable, avoir des amis avec lesquels on peut partager et s'encourager mutuellement dans nos cheminements avec Dieu. En priant et en partageant en équipe à chaque jour, Dieu nous fortifie de plus en plus pour être ses missionnaires.

La semaine passée, nous avons été chaleureusement accueillis dans la région de la Beauce. Malgré le temps froid, nous avons trouvé une belle chaleur auprès des gens de cette communauté. Nous avons animé une petite soirée de rencontre avec un petit nombre de jeunes agés de 12 à 49 ans. C’était une soirée remplie de rires et de partage. La présence de l’Esprit saint était forte. En partant, plusieurs personnes disaient qu’elles avaient attrapé la bonne maladie contagieuse que NET apporte.

Finalement, nous avons été gâtés une fois de plus. À St-Étienne, nous avons été hébergés avec des religieuses... et Jésus! Elles avaient une petite chapelle chez elles et je peux vous dire qu’il y a quelque chose de très spécial et mystérieux quand on demeure avec la Sainte Présence. Nous avons aussi eu l’opportunité de visiter la basilique de St-Anne-de-Beaupré. Wow, wow et wow! Cette immense église consacrée à la mère de la mère de Jésus est, avec les fameux mots de Kevin Prada, «un peu beaucoup» incroyable! On a eu la chance de célébrer la Messe et de faire le chemin de croix. On a découvert l’art sacré qui est partout partout et aussi acheté des beaux articles religieux qu'un prêtre a pu bénir, et bien d'autres choses encore.

Le Centre Agapè était une belle bénédiction! On a visité cette école/communauté de jeunes adultes catholiques jeudi dernier. On a mangé le souper ensemble tout en écoutant leurs témoignages et en partageant nos expériences de mission. Nous avons aussi célébré une belle Messe avec eux. Leur année de formation de foi est vraiment inspirante.

Alors avant d’arriver à Embrun, en Ontario, là où nous sommes actuellement, nous avons passé la fin de semaine au centre de Versant de la Noël à Pontbriand. Nous étions invités à participer à une retraite qui portait le thème «La foi au présent.» Nous avons rencontré et échangé avec beaucoup de merveilleuses personnes et nous avons aussi animé durant une heure qui a inclu, entre autres, des témoignages, des chansons, une saynette, etc.

Maintenant, on se prépare pour une grosse retraite d’environ 140 jeunes! Wahoo!

Avec amour, vérité et paix de Dieu,

Déneige Loiselle de l’équipe #3

"Le Seigneur prend plaisir à ton bonheur." (Deutéronome 30:9)

P.S.: En haut, c'est Connor, chez les soeurs de St-Étienne, en train de jouer dans la chapelle; et en-bas, c'est l'équipe lors de notre visite à la Basilique Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, vendredi passé.

Birthdays and Edgers...

Happy unbirthday Erica MacLean!

That’s right, we celebrated Erica’s unbirthday this weekend, and it was an epic day indeed. We decorated our van with balloons, streamers and other birthday related decorations, so that when we picked her up in the morning, she would get a MASSIVE surprise indeed!

First we went to the church for some Team Prayer, then we arranged a scavenger hunt for her, basically at each station, one of us would be there with a game or challenge for her to do to collect each present that collectively made up her gift! It was EPIC amounts of fun I tell ya!
We then went to Maria's, one of our host mum’s house for an intense hour of MAFIA!!!

For those of you who don’t know, mafia is a fun game you can play with 6 or more people, involving the mafia, a doctor, a sheriff, citizens and a race to find out who the mafia is to eliminate them! Or if you’re a mafia, the aim is to eliminate everyone else from the game.
Then we watched a movie, drove to the University of Alberta for 2 great basketball games and went home to our little beds for a sleepful night of rest.

On a side note, our Edge nights are going great! This past night was called “Massive” which was our night on the mass, Hannah and Marc gave a great talk on Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist and everything that goes on, on a Sunday night at the church. A few of the teens really enjoyed the night, one teen came up to us after and thanked us for small group time, and they explained how they felt they were able to speak openly of their faith for the first time! Incredible hey?

Besides that, our office is running nice and smooth at the moment, we are as busy as bees with bums full of honey, but it's a good type of busy, our whole team is a wee bit in love with ministry, and God is giving us the graces to soldier on through the busyness.

God Bless you all!
Emma.

Team 4
P.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARC PUIGMARTI

Manichewan = Freezing Cold!

Hey y'all! Sean Milan dropping in for another blog update on team 1!

This past week we dove head-first into the Winnipeg Diocese. It was quite an adventurous week, with lots of sightseeing and meeting lot of new people. After three days of traveling we were pretty exhausted, which is funny to say because its not that tiring to travel, it's just time consuming! But lucky we had a couple half days of rest, and we took advantage of that. On Wednesday night we were invited to a prayer group meeting open to anyone. It was lots of fun, and about 30 to 40 people showed up. We spent time doing some good ol' Praise and Worship, and then read the readings for the day. After that, we took over and spent the rest of the night doing a mini net retreat. Afterward we mingled and ate, enjoying the fellowship. It was super awesome to see so many young people into their faith. The majority of them were university students, but we did meet a few people who were still in high school. A little recruiting was going on as well! We then ended the week with two retreats, one was our first 12-hour retreat, it was lots of fun and lots of work, but we pulled through and made it an awesome day. On Sunday we went to Mass at a retirement home for religious orders, we spent about three hours there, enjoying their company and hearing their stories. We met a nun, Sister Yvonne, and to say the least she was the funniest woman I had ever met. She gave us a tour of the retirement home and gave us a history lesson on how the Grey Nuns came to Winnipeg; it was such an awesome time to to get to know who these these people really were behind the habits and collars.

After saying our goodbyes, we left Manitoba behind, and crossed over into Saskatchewan. We are crossing borders like a bunch of fugitives at large. Its seems like a soon as we arrive somewhere, we are already leaving it. Oh well, something else to get used to I guess!

Anywho hope you all enjoyed reading this, I would personally like to affirm you on your reading skills, also putting p with any of my grammar mistakes!

God Speed

Sean Milan Net Team 1

Hello all blog readers! Yes, once again it's time for another exciting update from Team 2!!

This has been a pretty relaxed week, but none of us are complaining! We did three Encounter Days, which were full of energy and went really well! All the youth were very appreciative and thankful. One boy went to each of us and thanked us personally! Our "movie skit" also went over well; our team recently learned this one and have performed it a lot lately. Sometimes I think our team laughs more than the students! I guess we're a pretty funny bunch of actors.

On Wednesday we had the awesome privilege of having adoration during our prayer ministry! I think Jesus really worked in the hearts of the youth that day. Most of them were emotional, it was a very beautiful time. I always enjoy prayer ministry, but this time was even more special!

In Guelph, we had the privilege of visiting Our Lady Immaculate Church, which was very beautiful. Unfortunately we weren't able to take any indoor pictures, but Christian and Brenden took this great outside shot.

This weekend was a bit of a switch and our team got to go on a retreat! It was held in a small town called Deemerton, which apparently not many people know about. It's basically in the middle of nowhere! The retreat was attended by about 50 university students from local schools. We provided music for the retreat, but other than that we got to participate in everything. It was a great weekend! On Friday, we had adoration in the evening and then all night as well! Kudos to all those who adored during the wee hours of the morning. I wasn't one of them, I didn't go until 8. The next day we had adoration again, as well as many inspiring talks. It was also great getting to know the students.

After the retreat, we traveled to Kitchener where we are staying as a team at a rectory. On Sunday night, we participated in a parish prayer and adoration time for the people of Haiti. The rest of the weekend we have spent time sleeping, relaxing, and enjoying time hanging out all together. It has been pretty chill, we are recharging our batteries for our next week of retreats!

That's all for now! God Bless!

I remain your faithful blogger,

Claire

Team 2

Office Organization!

Well, everyone, I'm apologizing in advance because I think this week's blog post is going to be somewhat shorter than the norm. Oh well. That's ok, I think.

This year, the staff of NET Canada have decided that it's time to clean up and organize our "living space"! Finally! If you've ever been to the office, specifically our basement, you've probably noticed the clutter that often finds itself in corners around the building. The basement was an especially cluttered world. With instruments, sound equipment, and training and other supplies, it's often been tough trying to walk around down there. But last week, I was on "basement shelving" duty with a few of the other staff members. Our mission was to build shelves and organize one of the areas of the basement. Unfortunately, on the day that we were to build the shelves, I found myself with a whole heap of office work to do, so I wasn't able to help. So Liam, Sarah, and Pat had to fend for themselves; they were fantastic. I took a couple of pictures for your viewing entertainment.

So the three of them went ahead and built a whole lot of shelves. And about half of our basement has been organized since last week, which I have to say is a pretty big deal. Next up, a new-and-improved reception area! Pray for Claire, Melodie, and I as we attempt to clean, organize, and rearrange our work areas!

God bless!
+Jocelyn

Oh, also, on Friday night, someone played a little prank on our staff prankster, Matthew, and put his desk into the parish supervisors' office closet... the second picture shows the desk in the closet but won't give away the culprit.....muah-ha-ha-ha!!