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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Testimony from a Teen!

Hello every one. It's Shayla again from Team 5. This week we have another teen, Zack Haime, giving a testimony about what the NET team did for him this year and how God has worked in his life. We hope you enjoy this beautiful story.

"In my eyes the Net Team represents so many things. They represent our link to God, and they represent God’s peace and love and compassion shown for us. Not only do they represent it, but they show it themselves. They show the most powerful love and compassion and peace that I have ever seen, and they tell us it is only a fragment of God’s love.

They completely amaze me. In the way they came to a strange town that they have never heard of and where there were no familiar faces wherever they looked. It seemed like they should have been completely overwhelmed by it all. But when I met them they showed me such love and they were so calm and put together that it was just overwhelming to see that people could show this level of compassion for people that they have just met. It filled me with so much joy to see them love us like that.

Throughout this year they helped me build my relationship with God. I never used to go to church. In fact, I hated it whenever my dad made me go. But now because of the Net Team I am so excited to go that I yell at my parents if they even think about making me late. The Net Team gave me the key to open the door to God and I had the choice to use it.

Because of the Net Team I have made new friends. It’s like a big family and we never degrade anybody. Everyone is equal when the Net Team is around. Lifeteen is such a familiar word to me now. I love going to the lifenights that the Net Team has organized. We play fun games and we build our relationship with God through Adoration, Prayer and through them teaching us about Him.

The Net Team are just such kind hearted and loving people and they have taught me so much. I have no idea what my life would be like if I never met them, and I never want to find out everyone should have this amazing chance to build there relationship with God and with other people."




(The top right photo is of Zach and I at our 'What a Mess' Lifenight. Bottom left is Zach and another one of our teens at our 'Hands and Feet' Edge retreat)

God Bless,
Zach and NET Team 5

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Real Men


Hello from Wetaskiwin!

This is Marc from team 4 writing to you, and I have been blessed to be able to share a bit about a few experiences that have been happening.

During the past few weeks Josh and I, with the help of a few of our Core members, have started a men's chastity group for teens in grades 9-12 called Real Men. Real Men is a six week long program that happens every Wednesday evening. It is a place where young men can come to learn more about God's call for us to imitate Christ, the real man.

Each week we learn more our role as sons of God, and how we are called to serve. Some other topics include learning about the differences between guys and girls, fighting for the dignity of women, and the beauty, value and gift of sex.

I have been very impressed with the questions and opinions that have come from our group, through talks the young men come to understand more about what the Church teaches and what society brainwashes us to believe.

Our group isn't just all talk though, we are men and we have done some great activities that have helped us grow in fellowship with one another such as ultimate Frisbee, video games, and physical endurance challenges, such as push ups.

We also established a swear jar, which also encompasses other wrongs such as sarcasm, lying and dishonouring women. When we first introduced the jar, I wasn't too sure how the guys would react, but over the weeks I have seen such an improvement in their positive speech. They are also very good at holding one another accountable, when one of the brothers makes a mistake, they are quick to correct.

Tonight is our last night for Real Men and I cannot believe how fast these six weeks have gone, I have seen God change hearts and men talk about their opinions and feelings, which doesn't happen very easily; it was truly through the grace of God. I know that these guys will continue to strive to be true sons of God, by imitating Christ and staying true to the brotherhood. I'd ask you to say a quick prayer for these young men knowing that God will continue to give them the strength they need to stand up for themselves and women around them.

May God bless you all!!
Love and prayers, Marc Puigmarti
Team 4 Hardcore


P.S. Pictured is Josh being a "real man" and our team experimenting with the Pyramid!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Team 2 jams with their host fams!

Howdy ya'll! It's once again time for another peek into the life of Team 2. It has been a great week; we cannot believe that we have less than a month of ministry left!

Last Tuesday we had a very small Encounter Day; we had only about 18 grade 8 students. Personally, I love small retreats because we get to know almost all the students. They were such a good group; we were all amazed at how loving they were to each other and to their teacher. Most of them had gone to school with each other for a long time so they were very close. They were open to everything we had to say and participated fully in the day.

On Wednesday we traveled to Stratford, home of our lovely Katie Doyle. The next day we did the Confirmation Encounter Day for Katie's parish. The prayer time was awesome because we had confession available and there was a long line of students that wanted to go. Since the students are required to go before Confirmation, we really encouraged them to receive the sacrament. Even though some of the students were nervous and unsure, a lot of them still went which was amazing to experience.

After the retreat, we traveled to Essex, ON, which is the home parish of staff member Caitlyn Bondy and NET alumni Heather Verbeek. It was great to see Heather and catch up and some of us also got to stay with her and her family. We also had the privilege of meeting another NET alumni, Martin Skipper, and got to spend some time with him. The Bondy family had the whole team over for a barbecue; we had a nice time getting to know them.

On Friday we traveled to Alliston, ON where we stayed with some really amazing host families! Once again, I was struck by the generosity of the people we meet. The girls stayed with two families who each had several young children. Even though they had very busy schedules, they welcomed us in and were so happy to have us there. They were a beautiful witness to the Faith and to family. One of the families had all of us over one evening for a jam session. We had four guitars going and played everything from oldies to worship music. It was great to share our love of music with the families and to bond as a team.

We had a team day on Sunday and celebrated Paul's unbirthday. We went to a video arcade and had some fun trying our best to win as many games as we could. At the end we combined all of our tickets, which totaled to about 2000, and bought some prizes. Happy Unbirthday Paul!

Well that's a little bit of Team 2 news, hope you enjoyed!

God Bless,
Claire



Friday, April 23, 2010

Un-Birthday, and Reatreat!

Hello! This is Shayla from Team Five.

Man, are we ever busy this week! We have a Life Teen retreat starting today, and we're all here in the office doing last minute things, and practicing talks, and everything to be prepared for this weekend. Because of the business this weeks blog consists mainly of pictures. These pictures are all from our team day last Friday: We went to Ottawa for James' Un-Birthday. We visited the NET office for team prayer and then headed to Petrie Island to have a water balloon/water gun fight. It was quite cold, and you can tell by the pained looks in our team picture...

I hope you enjoy these pictures and have a
great week. Next week You'll be able to hear about this retreat in the next blog. Pray for us!

God Bless

Shayla & the rest of Team Five-Alive






Thursday, April 22, 2010

Glass Alabaster

Hey!

This is Marissa from Team 4!

I get the honour of writing the blog this week and sharing with you some of the continued goodness that is happening in Wetaskiwin.

A few weeks ago, Erica and I began Glass Alabaster. Glass Alabaster is a women’s chastity group for girls in grades 9-12 that meets every Wednesday night. On our first night we only had one young lady show up. We were a bit discouraged, and couldn’t figure out how to get more women out. You see, in Wetaskiwin we seem to be getting more men to our Life Nights.

There is an abundance of men at our events but we are having trouble finding the beautiful ladies of the community. I am simply delighted that the men in Wetaskiwin are rising up, and choosing to follow Christ. Our hope is that the men would begin to bring out their women friends to our events.

For our second Glass Alabaster meeting it was getting late and it seemed like no one was coming. We were surprised to see two girls show up for the night. I really enjoyed the night! We had a talk on being a Bride of Christ and even made wedding dresses out of toilet paper. By the third night we were getting more confident in having a few young women out. We ended up having six young women show up! I could not believe my eyes and I was secretly dancing with joy when they weren’t looking (seriously). Last week we had a movie night and a whopping 9 girls came!!!

It seems that every time I doubt God and the work He is doing, He gently shows me that He has things under control. It’s so easy to become discouraged if things are not going the way you had planned. I’ve come to realize that God’s plan is way better and more exciting than any plan of my own.

Say a quick prayer for all the young women in Wetaskiwin that God would touch their hearts and put a desire into their hearts to come out to our Women’s Group

This past week we had our Supervisor visit with Ian and Sarah. We went to Lacombe (an hour away from Wetaskiwin) to put on a retreat for grade 7 and 8’s, spent Sunday night playing dodge ball in our 80’s get up for our Life Night, and we even had great swap lunches ( The ladies went with Ian and the men went with Sarah. We had a chance to ask our supes about anything). Our supervisors encouraged us to keep on giving our all into the ministry until the end, and we as a team are ready to give all we have, and then a bit more.


Godspeed,

Marissa
Team 4


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Tu sais que tu es sur NET lorsque tu t'es couché dans deux différentes provinces dans l'espace de 24 heures...

Eh bien voici de retour votre bloggeur fidèle, Kevin Prada, qui vous propose encore une autre mise à jour sur nos périples de la route, avec Les équipes NET!

Voilà plus d'une semaine que nous sommes à Cornwall, à l'exception d'un bref séjour dans une communauté anglophone de Montréal samedi.
Ce fut vraiment toute une semaine! Le tout a commencé lundi avec la dernière visite de nos superviseurs. Comme ils viennent nous visiter trois fois par année, ils sont revenus une dernière fois, pour nous rappeler qu'il reste à peine cinq semaines à notre année sur la route! Juste un peu plus d'un mois! C'est fou! Nous sommes tous stupéfaits de la rapidité avec laquelle cette année est passée! Tant de moments si forts qui vont sûrement marquer le restant de nos vies, et la fin de cette expérience se voit déjà à l'horizon! Mais nos superviseurs se sont aussi assurés de nous pousser à garder notre attention sur le présent, et de ne pas s'emballer sur nos plans futurs... parce que c'est le moment présent qui est un don que Dieu nous propose maintenant. Le cadeau de demain viendra, mais si on pense trop au cadeau de demain, on manque celui de maintenant. Et le Seigneur nous offre tellement de cadeaux sur la route! Cette mission qui nous est confiée est très spéciale. On se rend vraiment compte dernièrement de comment nous sommes chanceux d'être appelés à cette mission.

Ensuite, vendredi passé, je me réveille, sans rien savoir, le jour de ma non-fête. Comme j'ai expliqué dans plusieurs de mes anciens messages, on fête toutes les personnes de l'équipe, mais comme pas tout le monde a son anniversaire durant les dix mois sur la route, on leur prépare une fête surprise, et vendredi, c'était à mon tour. Comme Subway est clairement mon resto de choix, mes coéquipiers m'ont payé la traite avec mon sandwich préféré, et par la suite, comme je suis amateur de films, on a pu visionner l'un des trois films de la série du Seigneur des Anneaux. Et en soirée, c'était le départ pour Montréal, vers la paroisse anglophone Saint Thomas à Beckett, là où on a animé une retraite samedi.

Finalement, nous sommes revenus dans le coin de Cornwall, et cette semaine, nous animons des retraites partout dans la commission scolaire du coin. Comme nous animons des retraites pendant deux semaines au sein de la même commission scolaire, cette commission a décidé d'écrire un communiqué qui parlait un peu de notre séjour, donc si ça vous intéresse, voici le lien: http://www.csdceo.ca/vm/newvisual/attachments/423/Media/com19avril10equipesnetfr.pdf.
Veuillez continuer de prier pour nous, pour que notre ministère continue à avoir un impact chez les jeunes que nous rencontrons, toujours par la grâce de Dieu. Nous aussi, comme toujours, on vous garde dans nos prières, vous tous qui nous supportez! C'est en grande partie grâce à vous que ce ministère nous est possible! Union de prières!

Kevin Prada

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Team 2 sees God at work!

Hello all you blog readers! This is Claire here to give you another update on the doings of Team 2.

First I'd like to share with you an experience that I had on our Encounter Day last Monday. After I finished praying with one of my small group girls, who was also my host sister, she started crying and thanked me for helping her become better connected with Jesus. This was one of those moments in which God reminded me that He really is touching lives through us. I was so happy that God used me to be an example for this girl and lead her closer to Christ. It made me realize why I'm on NET and how much I love it! Sometimes it can be discouraging when we can't see the results of our work, but it's little reminders like this that keep us going!

Riane had a similar experience on our Encounter Day on Wednesday. They were a bit of a tough group to reach and one of the girls in Riane's small group said that she doubted if prayer was really effective. When Riane was praying with her later, the girl was a little hesitant about it but still allowed Riane to pray. Afterward the girl started crying and asked Riane if it was okay that she was so emotional. Riane assured her that it was fine. God was certainly working this girl's heart, praise Him!

After the retreat, we greeted our awesome supervisors, Pat and Meaghan, who arrived for our last supervisor visit of the year. We had a great time with them; they joined us on retreat with running small groups and participating in the skits.

On Friday, we did a Confirmation Encounter Day in Alymer and then on Saturday we had the privilege of attending their Confirmation.This was a first for us; it was a beautiful Mass and we were very glad to be a part of it. It was great to be able to connect with the students again, since most times we don't see them again after the retreat.

On Saturday we also had our final team day with Pat and Meaghan. We did a "Team Timeline" in which we discussed the highs and lows of our year. It was a good time for us to look back on our year and see how far we have come as a team and in our ministry.

So that's a little bit of the recent happenings on our team.

Have a beautiful week!

Till next time, I remain yours in Christ,

Claire


Monday, April 19, 2010

"We saw real live dinosaurs......skeletons!!"

Gooooooood morning CANADA!! It's 0600 hours. What does the "0" stand for? O my goodness, it's early. Dominique from team 1 here, reporting from Okotoks. Wow! What a week! Where to begin?

When we last left off, we were in Kamloops, BC and we had put on a retreat for the gr. 7's of OLPH. After the retreat some of us were able to meet up with some NET alumni: John Crichlow, Andrea Faliszewski, Pat O'Donovon, and, Mike Magliocchi. It was great to hang out with them and to share stories from their year(s) on the road. It was great encouragement and quite hilarious. It was a great honour to see them! Then we packed up and headed up to William's Lake. Home of the amazing Mikulasik clan! We fell in love with them all and the whole community; what an amazing place! We stayed Wednesday and Thursday and spent most of our time at Sacred Heart Parish, or at one of the Mikulasik houses! On Thursday we had a confirmation retreat for the students of Sacred Heart School. We started the day with adoration, then Mass with the youth. The whole day they were really responsive and invested in everything! They were a great group! The prayer time went well too - Fr. Andrew and Fr. Clinton were there throughout the day and had confession open for the students. We ended off the day in joy of how the Holy Spirit led the day then had some time to hang out with the priests. To start the ending of the day, we had adoration for team prayer, then had all the host families together for a final dinner. It was a lot of fun! It was a hard goodbye, but it was time to go, so with pick-ups at 6:45am we headed out for our 11 hour trek to Airdrie, AB!

We have spent our lives for the past month surrounded by giants! It became the norm, so it was very different driving away and having them only in the horizon! In Airdrie we put on a confirmation retreat. The youth here, like in William's Lake, were very responsive and open, but prayer time blew us away! Six priests were there for confession! SIX! At first no one was really going, but there was a steady stream of them going to the front for Rosaries and Bibles. We went through the Examination of Conscience, prayed with them, then shortly after the lines for confessions were full! There was no one left spread out in the church, they were all in line! Praise God!! It was amazing! The Holy Spirit truly guided the day and it was nice to end with Mass!
To end off an awesome week we headed to Drumheller, AB to the Royal Tyrrell Museum...the one with the DINOSAURS!!!!! It was a great team day, running through the museum with giants of a different variety! Dinosaurs are huge and one of the craziest of God's creations! We were all trying to imagine what it would be like if dinosaurs were walking the earth now!! It would be crazy! "Don't go out hiking alone sweetie, there have been Triceratops spotted in the area!"...the day ended perfectly with team prayer on the top of a mountain in the badlands! It was beautiful!

We are currently back in Okotoks, AB at Holy Trinity Academy and have retreats for the grade 10 students for the next couple days! We are all well and fine; continue to keep us and this ministry in your prayers and we will be in touch in a week! God Bless!

In Christ,

Dominique Lanthier
Team 1

Friday, April 16, 2010

Another Testimony

Hello! It's Shayla again from Team 5. This week we have another teen giving her testimony. Her name is Cassandra, and she participates with Life Teen and is on our crew team for Edge.

"I'm only 15 years old and I have such a great relationship with Christ and it's all thanks to the NET team!

As I was growing up I have always known about God and Jesus and things like that, but I never could really understand the whole reality of it all. For a young person it is very hard to believe in something you don't fully understand - at least that's how it was for me. I did go to church every Sunday and went to a Catholic school, but I could feel inside that I didn't completely believe in it all, it was just way too confusing and way too much to take in for me.

So although I didn't believe 100%, I kept giving it a shot. I continued to go to Mass every week, prayed every night and kept my faith going. But when I was about 12, my little cousin died. She had been very sick for most of her life so after she passed away I had a hard time trusting God. I couldn't understand why He would just take her from us and make everyone so sad. I did find it in me to forgive Him though. I knew then and now that everything that happens, God has it happen for a reason. Now my family and I are closer than we were before. We see each other almost every holiday and send the birthday cards in on time. I see now that God had this happen so our family could grow stronger together and with him.

In October of 2009, NET team 5 came to our parish and I could not hold in my excitement. NET teams have come to my school a few times before for day retreats, but to have a team for a few months, I was so pumped. They came and really opened my eyes to what God and being a Catholic is all about. So many questions I had before are now answered and so many memories have been made. I am now so close to God because of the love and energy the team gave to me and showed me. I have so many loving moments with God now and I am even more involved in my parish. My faith is so strong now, I'm praying more at night and more than I ever have, I see the values of life and of being a woman (and a sister). I know that it'll be hard after they leave, but I know my faith will still be strong and I will continue to come closer to God and his family."

(Cassie is at the top at our retreat for the Edge, and she is in the bottom picture to the right of it at out lifenight 'What a Mess')

God Bless,
Cassandra and Team Five-Alive

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Lifeteen Retreat!


Hello everyone, greetings once again from Wetaskiwin!!

It’s Josh here from Team 4 and it’s my pleasure to be writing this blog for you today!

This past week has been quite an active one, especially with our Lifeteen retreat this past weekend. Lots of planning and work went into it and God truly was able to use that and work through our team and the Core team.

So the retreat started on Friday night and that night was pretty much just a social for everyone to get comfortable. It seemed that everyone there was excited but, most of all, not really sure what the retreat would entail for them - it being their first Lifeteen retreat with us.

Saturday morning came around and my mind was mostly concerned with what would happen that night. We had planned a prayer session specifically praying for the Holy Spirit and when it came around I was still a little anxious as to how our teens would respond.
It was amazing…it blew me away how reverent and how deep into prayer and adoration of Christ they were. We had prayer stations set up and almost all of our teens went for prayers and were asking for specific things. Even when we went back into the hall to finish the night off with some down time, a few of our teens stayed back even longer to pray. Later we told them that they had been in adoration of Christ for an hour and a half and they couldn’t believe it.

They all agreed that it felt like it had passed in a simple instant.
It was very humbling to see that it wasn’t at all what we did; or what we were doing. God was the One and only One that was going to work in their hearts. It was also very moving to see, visually, where our teens were at spiritually.

Well thats all for now, I'll leave you with some photos from the retreat, Suzi and Erica doing music, and Emma, Marc, Robbie, Marissa and Suzi doing a superhero talk show


God Bless,

Josh
Team 4

Maintenant arrivé au Mur de maïs, c'est-à-dire Cornwall!

Salut à tous et à toutes!


Voici votre bloggeur fidèle de l'équipe 3, Kevin, qui est à la veille de se coucher en ce dimanche soir, venant tout juste d'arriver à Cornwall, là où nous allons passer les prochaines deux semaines.

Ce ne serait pas du tout une exagération de dire que la semaine passée a été très occupée pour nous. C'est vrai que, comme équipe itinérante, on voyage beaucoup, mais la semaine passée, on a voyagé littéralement à chaque jour. On est arrivé lundi à Barrie, ensuite mardi, on a fait le chemin vers Toronto, mercredi on s'est retrouvé à Whitby, pour ensuite faire le voyage jusqu'à Oshawa jeudi, et on est finalement retourné à Toronto pour passer la fin de semaine, dès vendredi. Seulement durant les retraites qu'on a animées au cours de cette semaine, on a rencontré presque 500 jeunes, animant des présentations particulièrement axées sur la confirmation. Et pour clore très agréablement notre séjour, on est arrivé chez Christiana, vendredi passé, pour y passer la fin de semaine. C'est toujours super de pouvoir faire un séjour dans la famille d'un des membres de l'équipe. On a pu passer du temps avec sa famille (qui, en passant, nous a préparé des repas formidables). Et comme Christiana n'était pas présente dimanche passé pour la chasse traditionnelle d'oeufs de Pâques, on nous a préparé toute une chasse dans le salon de la maison, qu'on a pu faire aujourd'hui! On a franchement été super bien gâtés.

Pendant nos retraites, on laisse toujours notre courriel d'équipe aux jeunes, les invitant à nous rejoindre si jamais ils avaient des questions, des commentaires, ou tout simplement pour nous dire allo. Parfois, il y a certains jeunes qui nous partagent ce que le Seigneur a fait dans leur coeur au long de la journée, et j'ai pensé vous faire parvenir quelques lignes d'un courriel qu'on a reçu d'un jeune du coin de Toronto qui a participé à l'une de nos retraites la semaine passée. "J'ai participé à la retraite et en premier lieu, je pensais que ce serait plate, et je ne voulais pas être là. À travers la journée, vous m'avez vraiment changé... Il y a un an, je pensais que Dieu, l'Esprit Saint et tout ça, c'était un tas de colle, mais j'ai tout de même demandé à Dieu que, s'Il existait, qu'Il me le montre... et maintenant, ce qui est arrivé aujourd'hui a changé ma vie... Quelque temps après que j'aie eu terminé de prier, j'ai souri et je ne pouvais pas m'en empêcher. Un sentiment m'a envahi et je me suis senti si content, si plein d'émotions, c'était un sentiment que je n'ai jamais senti avant, et je me suis mis à pleurer et je savais, je sentais Sa présence."

Comme je l'ai écrit dans presque tous les messages que j'ai affichés sur le blogue, le Seigneur est si présent dans notre vie de tous les jours, et voilà un exemple des résultats de la grâce du Seigneur. Je vous remercie encore pour toutes vos prières et je vous demande, si jamais vous en avez l'occasion, de persister dans vos prières pour nous... On en a besoin! Et de même, on vous garde tous, vous et vos familles, dans nos prières!

Kevin Prada

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

OH PRAISE HIM!!

Hello beautiful readers,

This is Adele from Team Two writing from Simcoe, Ontario.

This past week, as you know, we were in the beautiful city of Ottawa, Ontario celebrating Jesus' Resurrection, putting on a few Encounter Days and of course spending time as a team.
We had some really great Encounter Days this past week. One in particular that stood out was one we did for grades five to eight at Maryvale Academy. The students there were all so faithful and so knowledgeable in their faith that I learned so much from them. There was one student in particular in grade seven, who, when we asked about the rosary and if anyone knew anything about it, had said that Mary appeared to St. Dominic. We were all blown away by his mature answer. During the prayer time on that Encounter Day, most of the students, if not all, were kneeling and in deep prayer. It was so beautiful to witness such an amazing devotion. We also had the privilege of having Sean Milan, from Team One, join us for the day.

Thursday we had a relaxed team day. It started with men's and women's session. The men went to Smiths Falls to visit with Team Five. The women spend the morning sharing at my house followed by lunch and a movie - New York Minute. What better way to spend a women session with none other than our beautiful supervisor Meaghan?

On Saturday we traveled to Ingersoll, Ontario. We had an awesome Encounter Day on Monday, for grade eight students. It was a wonderful way to start out the week. They were all really receptive and enthusiastic, and really interested in learning more about NET and about God.

God has truly been working through us every day and showing us what an amazing opportunity we have to spread His word and at the same time learn from those around us.

PRAISE HIM!

In Jesus and Mary,

Adele

Monday, April 12, 2010

Hello Dear Readers!!

This is Terin Jenkins taking the blog for Miss Dominique this week. We have had quite the week seeing new parts of our lovely country and meeting more amazing people of God.

We took a ferry over to Vancouver Island and had the honour of meeting Donny's family. We hear stories of each others families but it is so thrilling to actually meet the people who are ultimately responsible for our being here. Donny took us for a tour of the place where his brother works and where he himself used to work. It's called Wild Play and it is the place to go if you want to get the old heart pumping a wee bit faster. They have a bungee jump as well as a canyon swing and also a high ropes obstacle course through the trees. We didn't get to go on any of courses but we did get the grand tour on the ground.

Unfortunately we only had 4 days on the Island but the time that we did have was wonderful. When we arrived we were welcomed with a BBQ thrown by the Life Teen crew from St.Joseph the Worker parish. A NET parish team was there last year so it was really exciting to hang out with the youth group. Our team went to the Life Teen Mass and attended the Life Night afterward and we were all thrilled to see that the ministry was going strong. The Encounter Day that we had at St. Joe's was really amazing. The teens really invested their enthusiasm and energy in to the day. We had the wonderful opportunity to have confession during the time that we spent in prayer and I was amazed to see over thirteen youth line up. Even after our time was finished six of them waited for over a half hour to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation. God is amazing and He constantly reminds us that it is He who works in the hearts of the youth and that we are merely His tools.

On the Friday we were invited to go down to the university because there was a fundraiser going on for St.Vincent de Paul. The fundraiser was called Dye for a Cause and what happens is after paying $10 for a t-shirt you get to Tie Dye it any way you would like. Our team had such a great time making totally radical tie dye shirts with all kinds of colours. We were saying that NET should have a new uniform... hehehe. While spending the afternoon on campus we came to the conclusion that the Easter Bunny and all of his family live at the university, either that or word has spread throughout the bunny population of Vancouver Island that it is a safe haven for bunnies of all shapes, colours and sizes. No kidding there were bunnies EVERYWHERE!

Please continue to pray for our ministry. May God bless you and keep you.

Team #1
**Terin** (aka T-Dawg)











Massive Worship meets Paul Baloche

What does it take to write an amazing song, sung by thousands of congregations, broadcast on hundreds of radio stations and incorporated into countless Christian gatherings around the world? It's got to be singable, it's got to be relevant to our generation, it's got to appealing, and it's got to penetrate our deepest emotions and speak soundly for our hearts, straight to God. Well, a couple of weeks ago, myself and Program Director of NET and Massive Worship, Garth Pereira, had the opportunity to meet Christian worship leader and songwriter, Paul Baloche at the sold-out concert here in Ottawa.
You may be familiar with some of Paul's genius, and I bet you didn't even realize it, because how often do we credit worship music songwriters? Many of Paul's songs are among the most-used in churches, according to CCLI (company that handles copyright licensing of Christian songs and materials for use in churches.) Among them are "Open the Eyes of My Heart" (ranked number 2) and "Above All" (ranked number 22.) Knowing that, it's not too difficult to believe that this concert in the outskirts of Ottawa was full to the brim, and that the overwhelming majority of the audience was certainly church-goers, intent on an evening of passionate worship and prayer.
I must confess, I'm not a die-hard Paul Baloche fan, but I do appreciate his relevant songwriting and even admire the success of his work. Part of the reason that Garth and I attended the concert was to study the flow of Paul's set, the way that he leads and arranges his band, and also how he interacts with his audience. All of this is valuable to the ministry of Massive Worship, as it is our mission to train and equip musicians to be as effective as worship leaders like Paul Baloche. At the venue, Garth and I met up with local drummer, Kyle Doucette, who often works with Massive Worship for our large events. It was great to experience the concert alongside one of our musicians! By the end of the night, Garth had taken note on just about everything, from the color of lighting used, to each type electric guitar pedal, to the exact song list. I pretty much just took note of how amazingly well the band worked together, and how wonderfully Paul ushered the audience into prayer and worship. When I go to concerts, I love watching how the worship leader/band leader communicates with the rest of the band and also how they show love to their audience. It was a great night. All that was missing was a cello or violin or two, to warm up the stage, if you know what I mean!

Friday, April 9, 2010

One of Our Teens

Hello! This is Shayla from Team Five and this week the blog is going to be written by one of our own Edgers, Rebecca, about her experience at the Edge retreat we had a couple of weeks ago.

"Before NET came to my town I just though that God was some guy that sat up there in heaven, doing his own thing. I knew that you could reach him by prayer and that when you died you went to heaven. And that was all I knew. So, when NET came and started the youth groups, I was curious. The thought actually never came to mind that there was more to learn than just what I knew. I had heard about the youth groups from teachers and friends, but I was not sure that I wanted to go. I thought that it would just be Mass but in a gym. Boy, was I wrong.

The first Edge night that I went to was A LOT of fun. I loved the games, talks and the dramas. I also met new friends that went to different schools. Edge nights continued to be full of action, fun and laughs. Soon I started dreading 9:00 pm on Thursday nights because I knew that it would have to end!

When I first heard that there was going to be an Edge retreat I was just sssoooo happy! I knew that if it was anything like Edge, I would really enjoy it. When they first handed me my registration form, I filled it out on the spot. Finally, after weeks of waiting, the day came. We played games, chatted, watched plays, made skits, listened to talks and more!!! The entire day was just so much fun.

The first part of the day we did the fun games and things like that. Then we went for lunch, which was really good. When we came back for the second part of the day, we were pumped! We had a Mass and went to adoration and confession. It may sound boring, but trust me, it is definitely NOT.

Adoration was uplifting. I have never felt so peaceful in my life. I think that God was really in the same room that we were in. The music that NET was playing was perfect, people were praying, the priest was doing confession at the back of the room, and it really cleared my brain. It was like prayer was pushing all the negative, unhappy thoughts out of my head and leaving new happy thoughts in their place.

Confession, how do I find words to describe it? It was amazing, the second that I was done; I could feel the weight of sin being lifted off my shoulders. I just could not stop smiling!!! I just felt so good, fresh, and new. Others were also smiling at each other and the most amazing thing of all…I had my answer! Two weeks before I had gone to the retreat I had been praying for God to give me an answer to a problem that I was having with my friends. Right after confession the answer was in my head. I knew what I had to do.

The retreat gave me new ways to look, talk, and listen to God. I now want to be more involved in the church than ever before. At the moment my friend and I are looking into going to adoration once a week together. NET has truly changed my life forever! Thank you NET!!!"

God Bless
Rebecca and Team Five

Thursday, April 8, 2010

God Stuff

One day, Team 4 took a trip to Banff, we went with the Jackson family who Erica and I are currently staying with, the day was great, we went hiking, shopping, purchased maple tea, went in the hot springs...you know how this story goes, another fun weekend story!

The day was fantastic, our team had a lot of fun with The Jacksons and I even met a couple of Australians, BUT, I have something even more intriguing to share with you guys so let’s skip the fun stuff and get down to the God stuff.

When Josh and I first started seeking people out to help at our Edge nights (middle school ministry, Grade’s 7 – 9) we found about 6 great teens who were committed to helping out, but we saw more youth out there and we sought to bring more out. So our eyes fell upon a particular man named Kevin Jackson (yes, we went to Banff with his family), who is one of the most joyful people we have ever encountered, and along with that, he is in love with God!

So my view on Kevin was great, he plays about 17 instruments so we got along well in the jamming department, but I wanted to know more so I asked Kevin, how he come to know God! (P.S. best question to ever ask someone) He started to tell me a story about an Edge night we had a while back when, during prayer ministry, we asked the teens to write letters as a form of prayer. Kevin explained that as he was writing, he felt an overwhelming sense of emotion that he couldn’t explain. I asked him to elaborate and he said that he knew it was God’s presence. Kevin said that that moment changed his life; he is attending mass more often, is part of our Lifeteen program, helps out with Edge ministry, he even says he fights with his sister a whole lot less!

What an amazing story of God’s work in our ministry! I want to encourage you, fellow readers - if you are a youth minister, talk to your teens and ask them how God’s working in them, because the answer is a lot less intimidating and a lot more inspiring than idle chatter about how the weekend was.

God Bless you, heres a photo of Kev, say a Hail Mary for him could ya?

Emma
Team 4

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Eh bien re-bonjour à tous les lecteurs fidèles du blog!

C’est Kevin Prada, de retour après une semaine de répit de composition de blog et je me rends compte, en regardant le calendrier, qu’il nous reste à peine deux mois avant la fin de notre année avec NET! Mais ces deux mois seront pleins à craquer! Actuellement, je vous écris de mon siège confortable, dans notre fourgonnette, qui part de Montréal pour se rendre à la petite ville de Barrie, en Ontario, pour entamer notre dernière semaine de ministère en anglais.

Comme je l’ai dit, on quitte maintenant Montréal, ou pour être plus précis, la ville de Terrebonne, en banlieue de l’île. On a passé la semaine dans cette ville, avec une communauté des Frères de Saint-Jean. Ce sont des prêtres et des frères qui habitent dans de petites communautés partout dans le monde! On a eu le privilège de passer cette semaine avec les cinq membres de cette communauté, au sein de la paroisse Saint-Louis de France, à Terrebonne. Traditionnellement, notre ministère consiste en l'animation de retraites. Ce sont donc des présentations, généralement d’une journée, durant lesquelles on aborde plusieurs différents thèmes par le biais de partages, de jeux, de musique, de témoignages et de prière. Mais notre ministère de la semaine passée a pris un tournant un peu différent de ce à quoi on était habitué. Ce qu’on a fait, comme on a eu le privilège de le faire en janvier lors de notre dernier séjour avec les frères, c’est d’aller visiter le Collège Saint-Sacrement, école secondaire privée du quartier, et d’animer des présentations d’une heure pour les étudiants. En tout, on a animé cinq présentations au cours desquelles on a rencontré environ 150 jeunes. Ces présentations consistaient en un partage, dont le thème était « Qui es-tu? », qui aborde le sujet de notre identité comme fils et filles de Dieu. Ce partage porte aussi sur l’amour que Dieu a pour chacun de ses enfants, sans exception, un amour inconditionnel et infini. Ensuite, on passait à un témoignage de l’un des membres de l’équipe et le tout se terminait avec une période de questions qui, pour certains, a duré plus d’une demi-heure! Bien que ces jeunes étaient un peu surpris de voir un groupe si nombreux de jeunes qui vivaient leur foi au quotidien et qui prenaient leurs croyances au sérieux, leur réaction était très positive et, comme en janvier, la période de questions a été le moment le plus fort de toute la présentation. Ces jeunes avaient tellement de questions sur un peu tout : la création, l’Église catholique, comment nous vivons notre foi, la sexualité, le péché, le bien et le mal, Jésus, bref, sur tout.

Ces périodes de questions, comme je l’ai dit, ont beaucoup apporté aux présentations. On était bien confiant que l’Esprit Saint nous inspirerait les réponses nécessaires. On a donc animé ces périodes, pour la plupart, avec une grande confiance…jusqu’à la dernière des présentations, mercredi passé. On a fait comme on avait l’habitude de faire et, tout à coup, l'un des élèves a commencé à nous poser toutes sortes de questions, au point où on s'est rendu compte qu’il voulait seulement nous piéger. Mais on a tenu le coup, fermement, mais avec amour, en restant forts dans nos convictions. On priait en silence, avec la confiance que l’Eprit saint nous inspirerait les paroles nécessaires. Une fois la présentation terminée, cet élève, qui avait voulu nous secouer un peu, est venu me voir et, sans rien dire, m’a lancé un regard qui semblait dire « bon travail » et m’a donné la main. Ce bref moment m’a beaucoup touché. Ça m’a frappé, parce que franchement, je pensais qu’on avait échoué dans ce qu’on essayait de faire, mais je me suis rendu compte que lorsque je me suis donné au Saint-Esprit et que je lui ai permis de m'inspirer, Il s’est occupé de tout. La façon dont je me sens vis-à-vis la présentation n’est pas importante. L’important, c’est d’avoir confiance que le Seigneur va prendre nos actions, nos paroles, et que c’est Lui, pas moi, qui va faire jaillir en eux la foi.

De plus, jeudi passé, on a pu fêter Evan, dans le cadre de sa fête surprise, qu’on organise pour chaque membre de l’équipe. C’est un peu notre façon de fêter chaque membre de l’équipe, puisque la date de fête de tout le monde ne tombe pas toujours durant les neuf mois de notre mission. On a commencé avec un peu de football, "touch" bien sûr…haha…, et ensuite on est allé au restaurant avec lui. C’était vraiment "le fun" de pouvoir le fêter comme ça!

Maintenant, au court de nos voyages, nous venons de traverser la ville de Cornwall, et nous espérons arriver à Barrie dans les quelques prochaines heures. On a bien hâte de continuer notre trajet. Mais il faut dire que notre séjour à Terrebonne, avec les Frères de Saint-Jean, a été particulièrement spécial. En plus, avec le Triduum Pascal merveilleux qu’on a pu vivre, ce temps qu’on a passé avec eux a été mémorable. Je sais, quant à moi, que cette ville, et particulièrement cette communauté, occupent une place très spéciale dans mon cœur.

Mais j’en profite à présent pour vous souhaiter, à tous et à toutes, de très Joyeuses Pâques, pendant ces cinquante jours du temps pascal qui est entamé. Je souhaite que vous et toute votre famille puissiez vraiment vous identifier au Christ ressuscité.

À la semaine prochaine,

Kevin Prada

P.S. En haut, c’est une photo de groupe, eh oui, vous l’avez deviné, dans la salle de bain…ne me demandez pas pourquoi, mais c'était le désir d’Evan…haha…; ensuite, c’est une photo de certains d’entre nous avec le Père Marie Élie, de la communauté de Saint-Jean, lors de notre dernière soirée avec eux; et finalement, c’est une photo du groupe sur un pont de l’île des Moulins, de Terrebonne.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Team 2 is filled with joy from the risen Lord!

Easter Greetings! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and are as joy-filled as we are! Christ is risen, Alleluia!

We are now back in Ottawa and from the amount of time we've spent here during training, it's almost like coming home. Of course, for Adele, she is actually home. As much as I loved the east coast, I am happy to be back in Ottawa and see some familiar faces. All the girls on the team had the privelege of staying with our lovely supervisor, Meaghan.

We arrived in Ottawa on Thursday and were greeted by absolutely beautiful weather. We went to the Pereiras' house and joined them for the Seder meal. For those of you who don't know, the Seder meal is a traditional Holy Thursday meal that is similar to the Jewish passover. It was very interesting, especially eating the traditional foods. Thanks Pereira family for inviting us!

The Holy Week Masses have always been my favourite, but this year they were even more special for me. I think it's because I have grown so much in my faith that I was able to enter more fully into the meaning of the Masses. On Good Friday, our team did the Stations of the Cross along with songs centered around Christ's death. This really got us into the spirit of the day and prepared us for the service later on. Again, this day had a lot more meaning to me. I focused a lot on Jesus' suffering and found myself really wanting to share in it. But I realized that even our greatest sufferings are nothing compared to what Jesus did for us.

On Saturday, we attended the vigil at St. Monica's parish; it was a beautiful Mass. Despite its length, I was able to stay focused the whole time and afterward I was filled with a deep sense of joy.

On Sunday we joined the Pereira family for an easter egg hunt and ice cream sundaes! We then tried our hand at cooking Easter dinner, which turned out delicious! After dinner, we had team prayer; we were all filled with joy and praised our hearts out to God. We also enjoyed some time at the park, on the right is a picture of Adele playing on the swings!

So we had a really wonderful Easter and are now gearing ourselves for our retreats this week. We've had a good bit of time off, so it's time to get back in the groove!

God Bless!
Happy Easter!

Claire



Team 2



Monday, April 5, 2010

Praise Be To God! Alleluia, Alleluia!!!


Hallelujah! Jesus is RISEN!!!....Hallelujah, Alleluia, Hallelujah!! What an absolutely beautiful word! It was worth the wait!

It is I, Dominique, hailing from team 1, reporting from Vancouver, BC. It has been a while since you have heard from us! I was sick of late and was unable to report to you, but we are back and all very well. Rejoicing in the joy of this season!!

We have travelled within this diocese for some time now, reaching every corner of the city...literally! Everyday we are in a new place. Surrey, North Van, West Van, Mission, Burnaby, Abbotsford, Maple Ridge, etc! The city is vast, the people are pretty cool, the rain is wet, life is good! Praise the Lord!


Retreats are going great! This diocese, like others, has a great youth ministry! I have a deepened hope for the church while being here! These youth are on fire! We have been putting on Confirmation retreats for the better part of the time. And overall the youth know or have a very good idea of what they are getting into. The diocese puts on Spirit Days for the youth in grade 7 every year and has Matt Maher there every time. We come to a retreat ready to teach them a song, but they are already excited to sing; for they have learned the song right from the man who wrote it! We have just come from Maple Ridge, BC and were excited to see the youth so involved in the parish and youth group. We spent a lot of time in their awesome youth lounge! To see that the youth have a place to go, and that so many have the desire to learn more about their faith is amazing! There is so much in this diocese for the youth and young adults. We were able to join in on one of the events, we had the opportunity to attend Freedom. The topic was confession and there was a great turnout. It started out with a time of talks, small group, then ended off with confession. There must have been 20+ priests there!! I was in awe of the great reverence and faith that surrounded me in the packed church! I love the Catholic faith! It astounds me more and more each day! There is so much joy and hope in the church! Praise the Lord again!

We as a team have been truly blessed and continually are everyday! It is very humbling! We are all filled with great joy! Easter has been, especially to remember...or at least for me it was a first. We were in Maple Ridge at St Luke church, and were able to celebrate Easter Mass in a Benedictine Abbey/Monastery/Seminary!!! We travelled to Mission to Westminster Abbey! It is a beautiful church and was an amazing mass! The place was packed and all the priests, monks, seminarians we there in a large section. The church was filled with the sound of the great organ and the choir of all the monks! What an experience! We toured the grounds and were able to hike the trails on a rosary walk, then we headed back to the youth lounge to celebrate our Lord Risen from the dead and also Terin's unbirthday.

We all helped cook our Easter feast then were assigned saints to act out for the rest of the evening for the "Martyr Mystery" (Catholic twist to Murder Mystery! Thanks to April!) On the guest list: St Peter (Richard), St Philomena (Rachel), St John the Baptist (Donny), St Therese of Lisieux (Cynthia), St Joan of Arc (Brandi), St Gianna Beretta Molla (Terin), St. Maximilian Kolbe (John), St Stephan (Mike), St Cecilia (April), St Lucy (Dominique) and our beautiful host mother, Mary (Alexes) The night was so great, everyone dove into their characters and we all had a blast! I being St Lucy, was blind for the whole time and am not able to explain the decor, but I can say the food was delicious! My super hearing and innate sense of direction were put to use and I was able to; along with St Gianna, name the murderer of St Stephan and Peter! We all had an awesome time! Happy Unbirthday Terin!

Well that is all for now! I could go on there is still so much more that has happened to us, but there is more to come! I hope you are all filled with the great joy of the Resurrection and may God Bless you all! Praise the Lord!


In Christ,


Dominique Lanthier


PS. HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!....in case I haven't said it...ALLELUIA!!