Go British Columbia Go!!!

Hello Enchiladas,

Dominique from team 1 here reporting from Vancouver, BC., North Vancouver to be exact! We have finally arrived to the beautiful, extreme west coast!! It is absolutely gorgeous! Once again, so much has happened in such little time! I will tell you all about our week starting now:

We travelled through the mountains from Banff, AB, making a pit stop in Salmon Arm, BC. Our next destination was the Vancouver airport to pick up our awesome supervisors, then we jumped on a ferry to the Sunshine Coast! We drove into Gibsons and to St. Mary's Parish. We are really excited to be here! The ocean, mountain, rainforest scenery is blowing our minds! For some of the team it is a first seeing the mountains, and also for some the Pacific ocean.

We are in awe of God's ausgezeichnet creation! (For the non German world, including me, that means outstanding. I just learned it!) We were all very excited to take on the new challenge of our first overnight retreat! It started at 9am on Saturday and ended at 1pm the following day, and we loved every minute of it. We had 18 girls and 2 boys on the retreat! All of the youth brought a lot of energy to the day, making it go well. They truly invested in everything we lead them, and we had many opportunities to put our supes to work! Pat and Caitlyn lead a riveting round of River Crossing, which is an Experiential Learning Activity. Thanks, guys, for being so open! The community in Gibsons was amazing! There were so many adults during the retreat that were ready to help and serve at any moment! They truly helped make the days go smoothly! We said a hard goodbye to the youth and community, but our stay wasn't complete! Or at least by Fr. Matthew's standards, right before we left he took us down to the harbour for gelato! The best you'll taste in all of Canada!! Then off on the ferry once again to North Vancouver!

Now I forgot a major story about the ferry! So we were quite high up from the water on the ferry and Caitlyn was wondering how long it would take for "unknown object" to fall to the water. Now what she did not take into consideration was the speed of the boat and the wind and the fact that Brandi was standing beside her, downwind. So, said "object" flew down and back up and landed right in the side of Brandi's head! It was hilarious! If you care to know what the "object" was, ask Caitlyn!!

The supes are still here, they leave us tomorrow, but the time we had with them went very well. Today was a team day, and we were able to go for a hike on some of the beautiful rainforest trails of British Columbia! Our goal was to reach the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. We hiked and explored for what seemed like hours, but didn't come across it! We later found out that we had walked right passed it! No regrets, we had an amazing time!

So that is it, in a nut shell! We are back to retreat tomorrow at St. Thomas Aquinas high school for the grade 9's. We are all doing great, the weather is great, and God is great! Continue to keep us in your prayers and may God bless you always!

In Christ,

Dominique Lanthier

ps. The olympic hype is over, but the streets are still showered with Canadian colours!! Some of us got to see the flame lit, but it was just turned off before we all could go see!!!