Voilà que prennent fin 9 mois de travail missionnaire...

Me re-voici, pour une dernière fois, Kevin Prada, votre bloggeur fidèle, de l'équipe 3, vous adressant la parole de la ville qui accueille notre dernier séjour sur la route, Whitby, une demi-heure au nord de Toronto. Je pourrais passer des heures à vous écrire les éloges des merveilles que j'ai vues le Seigneur produire à travers nous au cours de l'année (croyez-moi, je pourrais vraiment passer des heures, si vous ne me croyez pas, demandez aux autres memebres de l'équipe...), mais à la place, j'ai décidé de vous rappeler toutes nos aventures de l'année par le biais de photos, parce que vraiment, une expérience telle qu'on a eu le privilège de vivre ne se décrit pas en mots. Ma vie a changé. La vie de ceux qui sont autour de moi a changé. Tout ce qui me reste à faire maintenant c'est de remercier le Seigneur, grâce à qui tout ceci fut possible. Je tiens aussi à vous remercier, vous tous qui nous avez gardés dans vos prières. La prière est une arme tellement puissante dans la vie spirituelle et je suis sûr qu'on a reçu plusieurs grâces de votre prière constante. La semaine prochaine, on quitte la route pour retrouver toutes les autres équipes, qu'on n'a pas vues depuis notre retour au ministère en janvier, et on se quitte vendredi prochain, lorsqu'aura lieu notre messe de clôture. Quelle merveilleuse façon de clore une telle année, en louant le Seigneur! Donc je vous laisse en union de prières.

Sincèrement,
Kevin Prada

-Les filles, en train de s'amuser, étant donné que je ne suis pas dans la photo, je ne sais pas où elle a été prise...mais je suis sûr que c'est en quelque part au Canada...











-à Sault-Sainte-Marie, on a eu la chance de se défouler en jouant un match de football









-en quittant la ville de Thunder Bay, on a pu visiter le monument en l'honneur de Terry Fox...sans tomber de la falaise







-à Wawa, au nord de l'Ontario, j'ai eu le privilège, pour la première fois, de faire de la pêche sur glace. Moi je travaillais fort à essayer d'attraper un fichu de poisson, pendant qu'Evan et Marise boivent un beau pepsi...haha







-lors de la retraite de fin de semaine qu'on a animée à Bathurst











-Une autre première pour moi fut de voir l'océan, et ce fut à Yarmouth, Nouvelle-Écosse










-Encore dans les maritimes, le village de Nackawic, ville natale de Evan, est aussi la maison de la hache la plus grande au monde...on coupe du méchant bois avec celle-là...











-Terrebonne, banlieue de Montréal, lorsqu'on venait de reprendre le chemin après notre pause du temps des fêtes








-Christiana, en pleine bataille de boules de neige, légèrement intimidant...haha










-les gars, lorsqu'on a reçu nos cravates genre Noël, de la belle famille de Christiana








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Je n'ai vraiment pas grand chose à dire à propos de celle-ci. La photo le dit d'elle-même. C'est, selon moi, l'un des plus beaux coins du pays, Banff, Alberta.








-Nous voici, lors de la première visite de nos superviseurs, lors de la fête de l'Halloween, comme on a fait un concours de sculpture de citrouilles.











-Voilà l'une de mes photos préférées de l'année, à un lac près de Cold Lake, Alberta

NET Teams are Superheroes in disguise

"Holy Haircut Batman", this is our last blog of the year! Batman and Robin here, also known as Meghan and Adele writing to you live from our underground layer, also known as our host family's basement in Belleville, Ontario.

What a week it was, evangelizing youth in the Kingston, Ontario diocese. Tears were shed and lives were saved as we once again foiled the plans of the evil one. It started with a bang as we got into our bat mobile and headed to the Battawa ski hill lodge (BATawa, BATman, we knew God was calling us here for a reason). The day consisted of about 100 grade ten students eagerly waiting to see what a NET Encounter Day was and what we had to offer. They were really into the song and really respectful. They came into small group with open minds and open hearts. All in all it was a successful day.

Another Mission that stood out to us was in Trenton, Ontario. We knew as soon as we started talking with the youth that God would make His presence known, and that He did. During the prayer time I (Adele) went up to one my small group girls and asked if it was ok if I prayed with her, she told me I could but asked me if I could do HER a favour, she asked if she could pray with me, I told her that would be great so I said I silent prayer for her first and following my prayer, she held out her hand and put my hand on top of hers and said a beautiful prayer out loud for me. It was such a blessing to experience God working in her heart and at the same time reveal Himself to me through her. While this was going on, the line for confession was nonexistent until one boy stepped up to the plate and went to confession. After that, the line for confession started to grow immensely, YAY GOD! At the end of the Encounter Day one of Meghan's small group girls came up to her and said that she didn't want us to leave and that she really enjoyed the day. We really feel like God has been speaking through us to the youth and vice versa, we have been truly impacted with the way God has used the youth to impact us.

Saturday brought us the lovely city, and my home town, Ottawa,Ontario, where we put on an Encounter Day for 6 youth who were being confirmed. It was really nice because we got to know the youth a little bit deeper. They were really great to talk with and we shared many laughs with them. We traveled back to Kingston, Ontario that same night where we stayed with the Sisters of Providence. It was such a marvelous stay, we got to have great conversations with the sisters and after doing God's work and saving the world from the evil one, we celebrated Christians unbirthday! His unbirthday included lots of sunshine, the beautiful waterfront and the building of epic sand castles. Christian really enjoyed the day and we all really enjoyed getting wicked tans, or in my case, a wicked sunburn!

Happy unbirthday Natalie!! We spent a lovely evening in the park, painting with water colours and playing frisbee. It was nice to be able to relax and spend our time together enjoying God's beautiful creation.

We can't believe it's already been a year, time sure does fly. We are all very sad to be wrapping up our ministry and having to leave each other will be very hard. It's true what they say about your team being your family. Even though we will be parting, through God we will always be united.

Thank you for all your prayers. God has truly blessed us with wonderful people who are supportive of our ministry.

God bless!

Da na na na na na na na Batman and Robin. (Team 2)

Enjoying Life in its Busyness!

Hello all! It's Shayla, and as most of you know, our year on NET is coming close to an end. This week has been extremely crazy; from a crazy dodgeball lifenight to our last Glass Alabaster and Real Men, to us having like no office time because we're so busy.

I'll start with the dodgeball Lifenight. Man was that ever fun! Well, it wasn't really a Lifenight, more of a hang out because our lifenights are only every two weeks. Either way we had a bunch of teens come out to hang out. We split off into two teams, and each team had to make a team name and a team cheer. My team was pretty simple...Team Shayla. The other team was Team Boogaloo. Now, us being the NET Team, we find it impossible to keep things just fun...we have to make it intense! So, we gave everybody glowsticks to put around their necks, and we played dodgeball in the dark (more like dimmed lights for safety). We played rounds with time limits, and basically at the end of the round, the team with the most players alive wins. We did half court games, full court games, swtiched teams, and just had a ball...literally! It was just so much fun. OH! I forgot to mention that my family gave me a surprise visit for my mom for Mother's Day. Everyone showed up except my oldest brother. I guess they made dodgeball feel like there was a lot of people because it added like ten more people.

The last Glass Alabaster and Real Men was lots of fun. We started by having our men's and women's sessions. Little did the women know, but the men spent their time decorating a room and baking snacks to honor the women. The women spent time talking and being romanced by Jesus. It was pretty powerful because in our women's session, the girls shared some of their testimonies from us being here, and how God worked in their lives this year. After this, the men and women came together for snacks and "back affirmations". This is when you put a piece of paper on your back and every one goes around writing affirmations on everyone else's papers. It was tons of fun.

This week, along with the Lifenight, Glass and Real Men sessions, we've been busy with people visiting, going to the school for presentations, and things like letters and stats that we have to complete before leaving. We're also really excited for this weekend because our teens from the Edge crew are putting on a retreat for us! Actually, I think we're more like really, really, really, really excited...just to exaggerate. I know! It will be starting on Saturday evening and ending in the morning on the Sunday. Next week we also have a lot of cleaning to do in our office before we leave. Like getting rid of all the paper that randomly finds a purpose throughout the year even though it actually really serves no purpose. Not to mention all of our personal stuff that finds itself in purge in our office too. Yup, it's going to be CRAZY!

Well, we are praying that you have a great week filled with showers upon showers of God's blessings.

God Bless,

Team Five-Alive

Hein?! Une semaine?? Et c'est fini???

Ouin, je pense que je l'énonce assez clairement dans le titre de mon message: il ne reste qu'une semaine au ministère, et le temps passe toujours plus vite. C'est Kevin, de l'équipe 3, avec l'avant-dernier message sur blog de cette année sur NET. Mais que le temps a passé vite! Il me semble que c'était seulement hier qu'on quittait Ottawa, qu'on entamait un long voyage de cinq jours pour notre premier séjour, dans la belle ville de Calgary. Et maintenant, nous sommes rendus à l'autre bout du pays, avec la fin de tout ce périple à l'horizon. Mais bon, assez de mon inspiration nostalgiquement poétique pour l'instant..haha.

La région du Grand Toronto nous garde occupés comme toujours. Des retraites presqu'à chaque jour, des déménagements à tous les deux jours, mais toujours autant de coeurs touchés. Wow, je n'en reviens pas avec quelle intensité le Seigneur travaille dans le coeur des jeunes lorsqu'ils le Lui ouvrent. Cette semaine, Carrie me racontait qu'elle avait eu un petit groupe dans lequel se trouvait une fille qui, disons, ne voulait vraiment pas être là...vraiment pas...mais avec la persistance et l'amour de Carrie, la fille a commencé à s'ouvrir le coeur, tranquillement pas vite. Lorsqu'est arrivé le temps de prière en après-midi, Carrie est arrivée près de cette fille, comme elle le faisait avec toutes les autres de son petit groupe, s'est mise à prier avec elle, et tout d'un coup, cette fille est devenue tout émue. Plus tard, elle est venue dire à Carrie que ce que celle-ci avait dit durant ce moment de prière était exactement ce qu'elle avait besoin d'entendre. Quel moment d'ouverture à l'Esprit Saint!

Vendredi passé, on a eu toute une expérience...le site de notre retraite se trouvait sur la base militaire Borden... disons que je n'avais jamais pensé devoir présenter une pièce d'identité avant d'entrer pour animer une retraite. Cette expérience fut la première du genre. Ce n'est pas souvent qu'on peut voir des militaires en train de faire la file, juste en-dehors d'une église. Comme gars, disons que "j'ai ben trippé"!

Vraiment, on est tellement choyé d'avoir pu, et de toujours pouvoir faire partie d'une telle mission. S'il-vous-plaît, continuez à prier, parce que bien que ça tire à sa fin, il nous reste encore plusieurs retraites, qui ont le potentiel, par la grâce de Dieu, de produire plusieurs fruits.

WetaskiWhat?

Last week we had our last Glass Alabaster (women's chastity group) meeting. We joined up with the Real Men (Men's chastity group) group and put on a night called the "Glass Slipper Ball".

That night was a chance for the men to honour the women by preparing and serving them supper.Fifteen young men in grades 9-12 came to prepare a spaghetti supper and serve ten beautiful women in grades 9-12.

I was blown away by the whole night! The room was decorated beautifully with flowers and candles. Each young lady was lead to a seat by a dashing young man, and then given a rose. I myself got to participate in the night, and I had a huge smile on my face from the beginning until the end. The men served us supper, and catered to our every need.

I was so totally impressed with the men that night! Because of their service the women felt taken care of. They truly made us feel like princesses. Some of the girls were even surprised that there were guys out there that would even do this.

It was beautiful to see men living out there chivalrous role that night.

A couple days later, I was told an incredible story by one of our main contact people.

He told me that he had been talking to one of the dads whose son had been attending Real Men. The dad asked our contact what went on that night, because his son came home and told him that he had just had the most amazing night of his life.

The dad went on to say that ever since that night his son has been very different.

They used to butt heads a lot, but it seems to happen a lot less now. God is so incredibly awesome! I have seen so much growth in both the women and men who have been attending Real Men and Glass Alabaster. They have truly opened their hearts to God, and have allowed Him to work His wonders in their lives.

Anyway, back to that horrific survey from last week, there’s 4 days, 4 flippin’ days until our team leaves Wetaskiwin for good. It’s going to be hard and I can guarantee you 6 faces who will be bawling, but it feels complete. We have started good work and we are confident that it will be taken over well and that God will continue to work here...Please pray for the future of this ministry...

God Bless ya
Emma
Team 4
Wetaskiwin

p.s. pictured: our lovely ladies from Glass Alabaster and our team at the theatre!

God Reveals Himself Through Everything and Everyone!

Greetings to all our diligent readers out there! This is Lauren reporting to you from the small town of Marmora, Ontario. It has been a pretty eventful and busy week for us, so we have much to tell!

Our week began in Whitby, Ontario, where we spent two days in the high school putting on Encounter Days for the Grade Nine Religion classes. As mentioned in the previous blog, the Monday retreat presented a bit of a challenge for the team. Tuesday, however, was a real turn-around. The students were quite enthusiastic and responsive. Even though it seemed to be a much easier Encounter Day for our team, I can't say either was better than the other. We've definitely learned over the year that although there are times God is easy to see, it doesn't mean the Holy Spirit isn't working on those more difficult days.

Following Whitby we stepped on over to Brooklin, just next door. It was exciting, because this is the hometown of my lovely mother! It's crazy to think that just a few years ago, my kid mom was there; God works in such creative ways! We were in Brooklin for two Confirmation Encounter Days, which were quite an experience. The students were very enthusiastic and they invested into the day right away. In my small group we spoke about what would happen at the Confirmation Mass, and at the end, when I asked the girls if they had any final questions or comments, one girl said her only comment was that she was excited to be Confirmed! The students were very open to the Holy Spirit for sure. The Confirmations were held the evenings after the Encounter Days, so we were invited to attend one of them. It was really exciting to see the youth outside of the Encounter Day, and to see the Holy Spirit continue Its work.

This week was not only filled with great Encounter Days, but also great people! Our team moved on to Lakefield for a night, which is the hometown of the (sort of) famous family musical group, Leahy (you can check them out on Wikipedia!). Our team had dinner at the Leahy farm, where the oldest Leahy daughter now resides. Her son took us out to his tree fort, where we had some epic adventures ten feet up, and made a fire with cattails and a flint.

Lastly, I must share with you a story about a beloved priest from the small town of Frankford, Ontario. Fr. Stephane generously took the five boys in for four nights and had the whole team over for dinner twice! He shared many stories with us, both funny and inspirational. In the words of Claire Labish, "He gave rockstar homilies". We learned much from him in the few days we knew him, and so we were sad to leave! (I think the boys will miss playing Risk until 1 am, too!)

All in all, team 2 had a pretty good week. It was busy, but we love busy! We were also fortunate to have a no-obligation day in there as well, to refresh, and to call home!

Happy Mothers' Day to our Moms; to all of you, thanks for reading, and Happy Spring! Its warmth seems to have left us for now, but we hope it comes back soon! May God shower many blessings and nice weather upon you this week and always!

Lauren Krol

Team 2

Hey, Dominique here from team 1, reporting from the beautiful city of Sault Ste Marie, in the gorgeous province of Northern Ontario!! It's good being home! In the land of Inukshuks, rocks and trees, and rocks and lakes, and trees and moose, and bears and wildlife...and lakes disguised as the ocean!!! Ahh!! One of the hidden beauties of Canada.....

We all cannot believe we are back in Ontario. To think that this is our last diocese, our last stop; only 10 days until we head back to Ottawa!! It blows our minds and it really only sunk in yesterday during team sharing and team prayer! It is sad, but what a joy that it isn't over now. That, here in the present, we have a lot of time. A whole day, then an entire day after that, etc! So much can happen in that time and we have all come to embrace every moment with a renewed zeal and passion. There is so much gifted to us in the present and it is so exciting to see how God will use this time, how much more growth, love, fellowship, struggles, and joy we will experience! Praise God!

So our week has been pretty jam-packed and awesome! We started out with a big welcome by a moose! A MOOSE!! We are still so excited about it! After our travel days we had a team day then started ministry once again on Monday. We had grade 10's for two days with self image retreats. This has become the team's favourite theme to do. We consistently get the best response with it. For the retreat we break off into men's and women's sessions and in that time we have separate talks. The talks are on the beauty of being male and female, and the beauty of how God has made us so different. The women's talk is amazing! It goes through the truths that you are loved, worthy, enough, unique, chosen, and beautiful. It is so good to see them open up during the day; and seeing their reaction when the men return. It's like there is a new respect for each other. There are so many conversions throughout the day. Praise the Lord!

On Wednesday we had a "Team Stuff" day. That was what it was called on the two-week schedule, and that is pretty much what it was! It was perfect! Our contact, Sister Pat, was able to get one of her friends to lend us their cabin by the river for the day. It was day to relax as a team, to just be...crazy!!!! It belonged to a beautiful man named "Skip" Jones. We were in the Garden River Reserve. He gave us a tour of the whole area and shared so many amazing stories of the great work he has done for the people in his community. And he took us to a place where it was guaranteed to see bears and we did! We saw five bears!! It was soo cool!!! A lot of the team has never seen one before so it was a neat experience! The whole day was great, it was just what we needed and it was a lot of fun hanging out with Skip. Then we headed to Wawa, where we were welcomed by dinner all together at the school. We were able to meet the host families and truly get to know the beauty of the community right off the bat! The retreat went very well - there were four different schools from small rural areas. The youth were awesome and very open throughout the day!

This past weekend can definitely be renamed "Unbrithdayfest 2010". On Saturday we celebrated April's unbirthday and had a beautiful team prayer lead by the great woman of God herself and had dinner with Sister Pat. Then just yesterday we celebrated John's unbirthday by writing him a sick rap song and watching him hack down a tree! It was a lot of fun!! We all have had our fill of birthday cake. I cannot eat one more piece!! It was nice once again to have the time to be a team! There have been so many opportunities!

All of us are well and fine, praising God for his goodness and vast love for us that is blowing our minds! May God bless you all abundantly! Keep us in your prayers!

In Christ,

Dominique Lanthier

ps. Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful mothers out there!! Thank you for the great sacrifice you continue to give for your children! We love you all so much!

A Journey to Faith with Helping Hands

Hello! It's Shayla from Team 5. Life in Perth and Smiths Falls is getting extremely busy; we are starting to spend more time in the High School as we near the end. We are also starting to pass our ministries over to the different Core Teams that we have set up.

As we get close to the end of our time on NET, we have been posting up testimonies from our teens because they really show exactly what God has been doing in this community the past 8 months. This week we have another testimony given by one of our teens. Her name is Chelsea and she's in Gr. 12. She has been involved with most of our ministries like Lifeteen and Edge, and this is her testimony about how God and NET have influenced her this year.

"When the NET Team first came to the little town of Smiths Falls, Ontario, I had no faith. I did not believe in anything and I did not want to. I went to church all my life, but it never meant anything to me and to be honest I did not care about God or anything to do with him. Little did I know that within eight months my life would drastically change forever.

I started going to Life Teen so that I could stay overnight at my friend's house afterward. It seemed like a good enough deal - play some games, sit through some stuff, and then get to hang out with my friend. After a while of going to Life Teen, I began to listen and understand what the NET Team was trying to teach me. Even though I was listening I didn’t really believe what they were telling me because I did not believe in God. Eventually I got to know the NET Team as people and they were always happy, and welcoming. So I started going just to hang out with the NET Team, rather than to learn about God and become closer to Him.

Then the NET Team asked me if I would come to a retreat so I could be a part of EDGE Crew. I didn’t have any other plans and I liked the NET Team, so I decided to go. I spent the entire retreat just watching the way the NET Team acted, prayed, and carried out their faith. By the end of the weekend I was so confused with myself because how can a group of people love God this much, give everything they possibly can to Him, and believe in Him with this type of passion when I don’t believe at all? That’s when everything changed. I began to question my beliefs and discover my relationship with God. Everything we did during EDGE Training just made me question myself more and more. This retreat and the NET Team were the foundation I used to build my relationship with God.

It started by me just praying when I was with them and exploring my faith with one of them by my side. After a while I was able to start praying by myself and finding God’s love and beauty in every single thing. The NET Team has done so many things for me in both a group of people and individually. No matter what you need to talk about they are always there and so excited to talk to you. They make you feel so important because they always have a huge smile just for you when you enter the same room. They are so easy to talk to and relate with because they are so understanding and all around amazing people.

If it weren’t for the NET Team I would still be living a life of ignorance and selfishness. I would not be able to experience God’s love the way I do now. My life has become so much better since they have come to my town because I have people I can talk to no matter what and who support me in everything I do. They have also made my life better because they have brought God into it, if it were not for their belief and love in God that shines through them in everything they do, I would not be as happy with myself or with my relationship with God. They are by far the most amazing people I have ever met because they have let God in and experienced His divine love every day.

I am both thankful to God and to NET for bringing these six amazing people into my life so they could speak the words of God and get Him through to me. They truly saved my life because you are not truly living until you have personally experienced God’s love, and the NET Team has brought that to me. I now enjoy so many things I use to despise doing, for example, Mass, adoration, praying, and basically anything to do with religion. Now I cannot wait to take time to reflect and give back to God for everything he has done for me.

No matter where life leads me, where I go, and what I do, I know that God will always be with me and He will always love me. There is no way I could possibly thank the Perth-Smiths Falls NET Team enough for everything they have done for me, and all the joy they have brought to my life in the past eight months. I only have a short time left with the NET Team and it breaks my heart to know they are leaving, but I know that the difference they have made in my life, and so many more around me will be forever changed because of them. I was always told that one person can’t change the world, but after the past eight months, I know that these six people and the love of God can do absolutely anything, you just have to let them in."

[The top left picture is Chelsea (left) with her best friend at our Advent Lifenight. The bottom right is of Chelsea (left) and another one of our teens at our Wedding Lifenight...they were the bride and groom]

May God Bless and protect you,

Chelsea and Team Five-Alive

La fin se voit déjà à l’horizon!

Eh bien re-bonjour!

C’est Kevin Prada, ici, de retour, après quelques semaines de répit de l’écriture du blog. Je m’excuse du grand manque dans la fréquence des messages, mais avec un ordi qui marche à peine, ça rend les choses un peu plus difficiles que d'habitude…ha ha…mais avec une grande période de temps depuis mon dernier message, on trouve aussi plusieurs choses, plusieurs histoires de ce qui s’est produit dans la continuité de notre ministère.

Depuis notre séjour à Cornwall, on a continué nos voyages vers la grande ville de Toronto, dans laquelle est situé le conseil scolaire catholique francophone où se passera le reste de notre ministère. Depuis le début de notre séjour ici, on a visité les villes de Welland, Hamilton, Peterborough, Toronto, Barrie et Aurora. En à peine deux semaines, cela fait beaucoup de voyages. Mais ces voyages nous rapellent toujours les premiers disciples, desquels on parle beaucoup depuis Pâques. Et aussi, ces voyages nous permettent de visiter plusieurs places très spéciales. Premièrement, lors de notre séjour à Welland, qui se trouve à 30 minutes des chutes Niagara, certains d’entre nous ont eu le privilège de visiter les chutes. C’est vraiment quelque chose d’exceptionnelle. On a beau entendre de tout le monde que ce sont les plus grosses chutes du monde, qu’elles sont magnifiques, ce n’est rien jusqu’à ce qu’on ait la chance de les voir pour vrai. Et en plus, nous avons eu la chance de les visiter en soirée, donc elles étaient toutes éclairées de rayons de lumières de toutes sortes de différentes couleurs, qui leur donnaient une allure toute spéciale. C’est lorsqu’on voit des monuments naturels comme celui-là qu’on s’apercoit vraiment de la majesté de notre Dieu, qui a façonné toutes ces merveilleuses choses.

Mais vraiment, les choses les plus incroyables qui pourraient se produire pour nous sur la route, c’est un jeune qui rencontre Dieu. Je le dis dans chacun de mes messages, mais je vais encore le répéter, parce que ça en vaut tellement la peine. Le Seigneur est si présent dans notre ministère. Tout ce qu’on fait est fait dans la prière. On commence tout et termine tout en prière, avec la confiance qu’en abandonnant tout à sa grâce, on Lui permet d’effectuer des miracles dans le cœur des jeunes qui sont présents. On a animé une retraite dernièrement au cours de laquelle on s’attendait à ce que les jeunes soient pas mal fermés à ce qu’on avait à leur dire, mais au courant de la journée, on s’est rendu compte que ce n’était pas du tout le cas. Aussitôt qu’on a commencé à chanter, comme on fait à toutes nos retraites, avec des chants de louange, l’esprit des jeunes est rapidement ressorti, et ils se sont très rapidement ouverts à nous. J’ai vraiment confiance que des expériences comme celles-ci se font entièrement grâce à Dieu, et à Son Esprit qui se fait connaitre à ces jeunes.

Je vous remercie encore pour vos prières continues pour notre ministère. On tient bien le coup, comme il nous reste juste un peu plus de deux semaines sur la route. C’est incroyable comment les choses se sont passées vites pour nous cette année! Il me semble que c’était hier qu’on était sur la route, en train d’entamer notre premier voyage vers l’Alberta, et nous voici maintenant, ayant voyagé jusque dans les maritimes, et presqu’à la fin de notre mission avec NET. Mais on a confiance que le Seigneur restera à l’œuvre jusqu’à la dernière seconde de notre ministère et qu’Il continuera à faire germer la graine qu’Il a semée dans le cœur des jeunes, ainsi que dans nos cœurs.

Merci encore pour tout votre soutien et vos prières!

Kevin

If you say "11 more days", I'm gunna twist your knuckles and give you a snake bite

So there is this horrific countdown going on around Sacred Heart Church that sounds something like:

1 more host home change
1 more stipend
2 more edge nights
2 more Lifenights
11 more days until we start our drive back to Ottawa

Pretty crazy hey? Every time I hear it, I get sad. I have definately fit my little Australian self into the community of Wetaskiwin and into the parish of Sacred Heart.
I’m gunna miss Edge nights, Lifenights, playing music at Mass, going to Mass everyday with my team, meeting new people from the parish and hearing about their experiences with God.

I am currently staying with a family whose father is searching for his faith at the moment.
Last night I stayed up talking to him for a couple of hours about the Catholic faith in comparison to other faiths and that big question we all have in life: “why am I here?”
It was one of the most intriguing conversations I have ever had. Of course people are curious, and if you say you’re not then you’re lying.
This universe is massive, and there is such a thing as truth. Talking to this host dad about where he is at in his faith reminded me a lot of myself and where I have been.

I used to be an atheist; I tried to find meaning in the fact that there was no meaning, and needless to say I failed at this. The universe is just too bloody beautiful to have no Creator, so I started my search. After 3 months in Ireland, a week in Medjugorje and 2 weeks in Canada, (and a lot of help from Mumma Mary through prayer) I met God which thus in turn led me to NET.
But I love the curiosity of those people who aren’t necessarily Catholic. I was surprised to hear him say that he had no idea that when we go to Mass every Sunday, we don’t consume bread and wine as a symbol of Christ’s death and love for us, but we as Catholics believe that the priest consecrates bread and wine and it turns into Christ’s Body and Blood, so we actually consume Jesus.

If you’re waiting for the punch line of this blog, I guess it’s that I’m glad to be a Catholic. I’m so flippin’ lucky that God chose to reveal His Massive and Incredible mystery to a little 18-year old girl from Port Pirie, South Australia; I’m glad that I get “it” and that I have the answer to that question “Why am I here?”. Part of that answer MUST be to have great conversations like mine with this host father, spreading the Word of God.
So please pray for him. He believes in God, but not quite sure as to which one that is. He needs to personally experience God, so join with me and Mumma Mary that he may find the God who is endlessly seeking him.

God Bless ya
Emma
Team 4 - Wetaskiwin

Back In Ontario!!!

Team 1: Week 1

Team 1: Week 2

Hello beautiful readers! This is Claire and Adele reporting from Team 2. This past week we had a very full schedule, we had six Encounter Days. They were all very successful, and though it was a long week, it was very grace-filled as well.

On Wednesday and Thursday we were in Whitby, Ontario and had confessions available both days. The priest requested extra time for confessions so we had them for about an hour; almost every student was in line and we unfortunately didn't have time for them all to go. Most of the girls in my small group hadn't gone since their first confession. It was so amazing to me to think of all the souls that were made new those days!

The students were also very responsive to us the whole day. Even right at the beginning, several of the girls got right into the music. During lunch, many of them were playing guitar and piano. Overall, they were pretty excited to be there and that is always a plus!

The next day we traveled to Etobicoke where we did Encounter Days at Nativity of Our Lord parish. Since they hosted a NET parish team last year, the community was very familiar with NET and very excited to have us there. Several of the students attend the EDGE program, which is still going strong. Lorne, the youth minister, was involved with the Encounter Days and he really helped to get the youth involved. He is awesome and it's apparent that he really loves working with them. The youth, in turn, seem to like him a lot as well. We were also able to see the Hennessys, the family of Christiana [editor's note: Christiana Hennessy is on Team 3, the french traveling team]. They are an amazing family; some of us stayed with them the last time we were in Etobicoke, so it was great to see them again.

This is Adele writing to tell you about our Team Day on Sunday, which turned out to be my unbirthday. We traveled to Ajax, Ontario to meet up with one of my host families from last year, the Grant family. It was such an amazing surprise! We spent the beautiful sunny day in the park catching up on old times and playing ultimate frisbee. I was really happy to see the Grants but I was also so excited for the rest of the team to meet them as well. They are such a beautiful and loving family - you instantly feel welcomed when you are with them. After a really great afternoon, we went out for dinner at Jack Astor's. The food was delicious and just spending time relaxing with the team was a lot of fun. Overall my unbirthday was a huge success!!

Monday we did an Encounter Day for grade 9 students. The students were a little chatty but they were all really affirming towards each other. At the end of the Encounter Day one of the students, without being asked by the teacher, thanked us for the day. We were really touched by his initiative.

It has been a busy week but really rewarding. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

God bless always,

In Christ,

Claire and Adele