NET Canada

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!