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