It’s hard to believe that we have been in the beautiful Yellowknife for two weeks already, and how amazing of a two weeks it has been.
Greetings fellow inhabitants of the World Wide Web! This is April Fogle here, your official “blogger” for iNFUSE Team 1 a.k.a Yellowknife. On behalf of the team, I hopefully will be your inside information on what is the latest happenings with our team and our ministry.
So the big question that everyone has for us is “What is Yellowknife like?” Well, I can most certainly tell you it is very beautiful. The only way I can describe it to you is that there is a lot of rock, and a lot of lakes, not so different from the beautiful northern Ontario. Also, as of the 14th of October...there is lots of snow! Not to fret all of you concerned readers, our team has been enjoying the snow quite a bit, partaking in multiple snowball fights a day. The parish has also so graciously donated us parkas that we will soon be pulling out, but although there is lots of white fluffy stuff on the ground, the temperature has not been so bad.
Speaking of the parish, let me tell you that they have been the most welcoming, hospitable community I have ever seen. They have welcomed us into their parish with open arms, ready at our every move to help us out and make sure we have everything we need. Fr. Ben, our parish pastor, has opened the basement of the rectory for us to use whenever we want, as well as we have our main office in the Diocesan Centre down the street from the church.
We were also welcomed the first Saturday night at the Parish Spaghetti dinner with cards and a gigantic banner. We were able to tell them a little bit about who we were, as well as play some music, and do a little skit for them. The night was a great opportunity for us all to meet each other, and all the fun and laughter we shared will hopefully reflect the rest of our year here.
We were also welcomed by Bishop Murray whose office is actually down the hallway from us. He gave us lots of great words of encouragement, and advice for our time here this year: “When coming to a new culture... watch, and try to learn instead of trying to fix things.” He explained to us that the people here are deeply spiritual, and that there is a lot we can learn from them. “Come with an empty cup... you are here to be filled up; to receive as well to give.”
Even though we have come to Yellowknife to serve and give of ourselves, the Bishop reminded us that the community has so much to offer as well, and that we should be open to not only want to fill them with Christ’s love, but also be filled by them. It is quite evident that our year here in Yellowknife is going to be very exciting, filled with great fellowship and community, and we look forward to taking the bishop’s advice to “pray hard and love the people.”
There is much more to talk about, but there are many more blogs to be written so I will leave you with that for now. This week the team is planning lots of school outreach at St. Patrick's Catholic High School; we already had a Popcorn Survey on Tuesday which was very successful and filled out over 150 surveys, and as well, we are all preparing for our first Grades 7 & 8 youth group (Ignite) next Friday. We are very excited for it, and can’t wait to start.
We look forward to telling you more about everything that’s happening, and until next time thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers, they are greatly appreciated.
God Bless!
-April Fogle
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