What I Say To You In The Darkness, Speak In The Light!

What a crazy wonderful week this has been!

In today's blog, I will be highlighting our supervisor visit, EDGE night entitled What I Say To You In The Darkness, Speak In The Light, Lifeteen meeting, Team Day, and more!

EDGE night was awesome! The theme was on evangelization, and how we can do that in our everyday lives. Hannah and Marissa from the Wetaskiwin team last year came to visit for a few days, so they came to EDGE. We has a skit that modelled evangelization, and the reality that sometimes people may not want to hear what we have to say. We talked to the kids about how hard it is to tell people about Jesus' love, but about how necessary it is to do so.

On Saturday, we had our first ever Crossroads Coffee House! It was amazing. We changed the whole environment of the youth room into a little coffee shop. It was very warm and cozy. The musical talent of our youth and parish members is unbelievable! It was great to hang out with everyone and to appreciate together how blessed we are to live in Wetaskiwin.

After Mass on Sunday morning, in honour of family day (which was the following day), our team did the drama Two Sets of Jones'. The drama is about two different married couples, one who build their relationship on the rock of Christ Jesus, and one who laid a sandy foundation for their marriage. It is an amazing drama that makes me cry everytime, but I had no ideo how much it would impact the community. At the coffee social after Mass, almost every parishioner came and thanked us for doing the drama and told us how much it meant to them. Praise God!

That same Sunday, we had meeting for all our Lifeteeners. We mainly just wanted to ask them what they wanted to see in the high school youth group, and what themes and issues they would want to talk about. That brought about a lot of clarification for our team and for the teens, so it was a great meeting all around!

This weekend, we had our supervisors, Jesse and Sarah, here for a visit! It was so lovely to see them again! It felt like we han't seen them in years! The theme of this supe visit was to relook at our mission for this year, and to re-encourage our zeal for this ministry. It was really cool to look back at the mission statement that we wrote in September!

The supe's planned our team day that happened on Monday. It was really great. We slept in, and then came to our beloved parish. We listened to a talk on communication, and discussed a little about that. It was really good to see how we all communicate differently. It really impacted our team. And then for our fun activity, we played Just Dance on the Wii! It was so much fun! The boys were the ones that normally won, but can I just say that the girls DEFINITELY had better dance moves! Later on that team day, we broke off as men and women, and the sisterhood wrote a song for the brothers and the brotherhood wrote a song for the sisters. All in all, it was a very entertaining team day.

Until next time...

God Bless,

Katie Doyle

iNFUSE Team 3

Wetaskiwin, AB

"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6: 31-34

Jesus Christ Superstar

Hello everyone, once again, one of the sisters has hijacked the blog from Patrick. This week, it's Bernadette reporting to you from Smithville, Ontario. The past two weeks have been packed with retreats, overnight bags, road trips, team days, a no-obligation day, and a supervisor visit. All of these things added up to make 14 days of AWESOME.

Yesterday we had a team day and went down to the lovely falls of Niagara. We all bundled up with hats, scarves, mittens, mitten warmers, (and pretty much everything else we could think of to keep us warm) and went out to brave the frigid cold. For Cristy, Tanya, Danica, and Patrick, it was their first time ever seeing the falls. They were all amazed but I think Cristy was more thrilled over the fact that she could see her home land, the United States, on the other side of the falls. As a team, we all went glow-in-the-dark mini golfing. It was really neat and I wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought I would be. When we split up for men's and women's sessions, us ladies went to a wax museum. Most of us had never been to one before so it was definitely an experience we won't soon forget. The guys decided to put their manhood to the test and go into The Nightmares Fear Factory (a deathly terrifying haunted house). We have provided a few photos of their experience for your enjoyment..hah.

Pat and Meaghan came down for a supervisor visit while we were in Pickering/Ajax. While they were down, we went bowling and once again had the debate: 10 pins, or 5? I am a big believer in 10 pins. Plain and simple, it's just easier. Another debate we have is: big bowling balls vs. small bowling balls. I am also a big believer in small bowling balls. The big ones are super heavy (and I'm super weak) and you're always exhausted by the end of your excursion to the bowling alley. The East coast has it right folks, 10 pins, small bowling balls! That's the way to go.

We had a no-obligation day while we were in Pickering. We took a van out to Toronto and some people went downtown to explore, while others spent the day with family and friends. To end off the day, all of us met up and went to York University for an Adoration event going on for university students. Fr. Mark Goring gave an amazing reflection and he graciously exposed the superstar of the night, our Lord and Saviour, Mr. Jesus Christ! The night was filled with beautiful music led by Joe Zambon, and the forgiveness of many sins, through the Sacrament of Confession. There were lots of familiar faces at the event: some NET alumni, Jesse and Jocelyn from NET staff (who coincidentally happened to be in Toronto that night), and as mentioned before, Fr. Mark.

I am pleased to announce that we have successfully had our first overnight retreat (WAHOOO!). The theme was Real Love and the entire retreat was very much led by the Holy Spirit. On the first day of the retreat, it felt as though nothing was coming together. Individually, no one felt prepared but as soon as the retreatants arrived, everything just seemed to fall into place. The talks, men's and women's sessions, the small groups, and everything else went so much better then we could have ever expected. The entire thing was very anointed. We all had a really great time. The retreat was for high school students and because it was a smaller group (15 students), we had the opportunity to get to know them all better. We left the retreat feeling as though we had gained a few new friends. Also, at the end of the retreat, Tanya had the opportunity to fulfill her life's dream... to sit on a yellow school bus! Unfortunately for Tanya, they don't have yellow school buses in Ireland but I guess this is just one of the MANY reasons that she should move to Canada... :)

The next two weeks will be filled with retreats, overnight bags, road trips, team days, a second no-obligation day in two weeks (exciting!), and BRANDON'S 20th BIRTHDAY! We will also be going to Scarborough to help out with a NET Come and See Weekend. We are all very excited about it and can't wait to meet all of the potential Netters. Who knows, maybe some of us will be on team with them next year. How exciting!

God bless you all!

Bernadette Dobbelsteyn

Encounter Team Two

Massive Worship gone West

After a long 5 days of travelling, we landed in St. Paul, Alberta and were welcomed warmly with a huge dinner, which was indeed a great welcome.

The community was anticipating our arrival; we were scheduled to do a three-night Parish Youth Mission. On the first day of the mission, we went into the Junior High School to do classroom presentations, they went well and we played some music in the hallway at lunchtime. We invited them all out to the mission and just had fun with them. They seemed to enjoy themselves and the teachers also enjoyed the music.

We were very encouraged when we did our first evening of the parish mission - some teens from the school actually came out, and the youth group of the Roman Catholic Parish was all there as were a lot of families. The small Church was packed; we were actually at the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which turned out to be very intriguing. It was the first time for almost 98% of the attendees, including us, experiencing an Eastern Rite Mass. Father Mark, the Pastor, taught us the responses and traditions and it turned out to be a great learning experience. I think it also really unified the two Parishes, or at least they got to know each other a bit better. It was a huge blessing having the Mission in the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Also something that was really cool was that the contact person put posters all over town even in a few Churches around town that weren’t even Catholic, and even in A & W. It was so neat to meet the people that came and find out how they ended up coming to the Mission. I even met a girl at Tim Horton’s and invited her out and she actually came!

The whole time we were in St. Paul was such a good experience. We learned how to rely on God a lot during our time there and we realized that God can really work through any schedule, even if it’s not one that we had planned. We did a lot of last-minute things, including spontaneous ministry in classrooms and things being changed at the last minute. The thing is, though, that God had a bigger plan. Everything that "didn’t work out" turned out to be for the best because when things changed, the people that came got so much more out if it than what was previously planned.

After St. Paul we headed out to Our Lady of Victory camp for a Massive Worship Encounter weekend. The people that came out were really great and very focused on learning a lot about music, which was awesome. It was our first time doing a three-day overnight retreat. It was very exciting and we had a great facility.

On Saturday we were fortunate enough to have Mass and Adoration. It was such a beautiful addition to the weekend, and it took all that we had learned and focused on during the sessions about liturgy and a heart of worship and applied it with a great opportunity to praise God.

The weekend was very successful and we met a lot of fantastically faithful people.

It has just been great being in Alberta!

We then went to Calgary and we were able to attend a progressive supper hosted by the young Catholic community, some with CCO and some with UCCC, and some just young and Catholic! We went from house to house having appetizers, a main course and people would give their testimonies and then we went back to the Parish hall for dessert and a talk and some praise and worship by our team.

There were 70 of us! It was so encouraging to meet so many people our own age that are into their Faith and focused on leading each other closer to Christ and motivating each other. We were very blessed and made a lot of friends. I would strongly encourage everyone to go to a progressive supper if you get the chance.

God has been doing such amazing things for us and we just can’t thank Him enough for the way our ministry has been going.

Praise God!

Have a fantastic day!

Brandi Olson

Massive Worship

“It’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you…”

This week was awesome for us here in Steinbach. We had Archbishop Albert LeGatt celebrate for our Youth Mass on Sunday! His homily was amazing and I know I found it to be really relevant to myself as well as the youth. He and Fr. Isidore even stayed for our REACT night, entitled “Let’s Celebrate”. The night was all about the Mass, its parts and how blessed we are to be able to meet Christ in the Eucharist. Phylicia gave a super talk that involved testing the teens’ knowledge and giving candy for correct answers. It was great seeing what the teens knew and being able to give them more information about the Mass. One of the teens told us that he never knew when the bread and wine became the Body and Blood and that it was cool to finally know when that was. I think that, aside from seeing the Archbishop join in the discussions, games and singing, was my highlight of the night.

Most of the NET alumni that I have spoken to tell me that team life is one of their favourite parts of the ministry. I have come to agree with them (not that it took much convincing). This past team day was a lot of fun both in the planning and the execution. Phylicia, Amanda, and I decided that it was about time to honour Brenden and Andrew and show them how much we appreciate what they do for us. One of the parishioners had offered to give the team a sleigh ride on his farm, so we women decided that it would be great to surprise them with the sleigh ride. Only problem was that the guys already knew about this offer…so how do we surprise them? Here was our game plan: invite the guys over for a movie at our host home, get them seated and tell them we are going to get some snacks, sneak up behind them, blindfold them, help them into their coats, shoes and gloves, guide them to the van and drive out to the farm. The plan started out well until we realized we had forgotten to bring a camera. So we drove back…then we got lost (well we knew where we were, we just didn’t know where the farm was). But we finally made it and had a wonderful ride, complete with a bonfire near the end. It was a magnificent day and the bonding time we had together was priceless.

This week also saw the start of our men’s and women’s groups, Real Men and Glass Alabaster. Unfortunately we had to cancel the first men’s meeting as Andrew came down with the flu – please keep the team’s health in your prayers as flu season is here. Glass Alabaster went incredibly well with our first night consisting of decorating “dream envelopes”, cookies and answering random icebreaker questions Amanda had written up for the occasion. I am excited to see how this group, as well as Real Men once it starts, grows over the next few weeks.

My favourite adventure of the week had to be when Amanda, Phylicia and I rediscovered the “man-power” of women. On our way to pick up the guys from their host home, we got stuck in the snow…twice! After a few good pushes we managed to get the van free, but we knew we would not be able to make it to the guys. So it was women’s day in the office.

We continue to hear stories in the parish about how our ministry has affected the youth. One mother told us that since having us stay in her home she noticed a big difference and positive change in her daughter. Another youth is super excited about getting to play music at Mass, and is already involved with altar serving and being sacristan. We have even had a number of youth showing interest in joining NET in the future – one of whom is only 10! That just blows me away.

Goodbye for now and God bless!
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
iNFUSE Team 2

The Blog of Ultra!!

Hey everyone! This Katie again to tell you about how ULTRA our week has been! We have had EDGE movie night, Glass Alabaster, team day, and... a visit from the Massive Worship team! Let me tell you about it!

First, let me tell you about how amazing our Glass Alabaster nights have gone thus far. We have 2 nights, with 6 girls coming to it. Oh my goodness, the girls just amaze me! They are all so great, and we have an equal balance of having fun with them, but also going deep with them. Our first night was on 'Daughter of God, Bride of Christ.' Wow! The first night kind of hit them hard. We had a really great environment to get the girls to be comfortable. I gave a talk on our identity coming from being God's daughter, and the fact that no one can take that away from us. I talked about how we can relate our relationship to Christ as our husband. The girls really liked that. We watched a video to the song 'Beautiful' by 'Bethany Dillon.' The video was mainly about the struggles of attaining beauty by the world's standards. It was really powerful, and I know that it helped the girls a lot. We then had a prayer time, in which they wrote something down that they wanted God to help them love more about themselves. They took the piece of paper that they wrote on, and laid it at the foot of the crucifix that we had for the environment. After all that, we made HUSBAND BOXES! It was really awesome. We got blank boxes, and the girls were free to decorate as they please. The point of the boxes is that they can put things in it (letters to their future husbands, rosaries, prayer cards, etc.) and then give it to their future husband on their wedding day. The girls all loved that idea. We had so much fun with it. Last night's Glass Alabaster was about Friendship, and how we can be a good friend to each other, and how to love. It was really good, because the girls shared all the struggles they had with their girl friends, but how it is so good to have those relationships. Our team day, we celebrated beautiful Cecile's birthday!! Happy Birthday Cecile! We love you! For our women's session, we vegged out and watched a chick flick. It is one of our favourite things to do together, so it was really fun! Later, we blindfolded Cecile, and took her to one of our host homes. Cecile is Italian, and loves to cook... especially pasta! So that is what we did. We made delicious pasta! Then we had her favourite cake: cheesecake. So yummy. It was such a fun night! It has become a tradition to watch American Idol at this house as well, so that is how our night ended off. So great! Thanks for being born Cecile! We love you!

This past weekend, Marcus and Cecile went to OLVC for a conference put on by the Massive worship team. Emily, DJ and myself had things to do here in Wetaskiwin. Friday morning, we went to adoration and daily Mass, as always. Afterwards, there was a little bit of a social for all the daily Mass attendees, so the three of us went to that. It was really good, because we go to daily Mass every week, but never really get to know the people that go. So this gathering was the perfect way to meet and talk to them. Also on this same Friday, we had an EDGE night. It was a movie social night. We watched one of my favourite movies, 'Despicable Me.' So funny. I was probably laughing the loudest, more than the kids were.

After the Massive Worship retreat, Cecile and Marcus came back... but they came with the Massive Wroship team!! It was really good to see them and to catch up with the team. On Monday night, we had a big praise and worship night at our contact person's home. Wow. That is all I can say. It was really great to come together and to praise our God with people from Wetaskiwin and with the Massive Worship team. Thank you for being so amazing and for doing the work of God, Massive Worship. We love you and miss you so much!

I pray that you have an amazing week! We are excited this weekend for our supervisor visit! We love Sarah and Jesse! Can't wait for next's week blog!

God Bless,

Katie Doyle

iNFUSE Team 3, Wetaskiwin, AB

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him!" Colossians 3:16-17

And the Grammy for Best Conference in Music and Youth Ministry Training Goes to...

What were YOU up to last Sunday night? For me, plans were made early on in the week to spend my evening at home, settled in front of the television with a cup of tea and a handful of candy, watching my favorite awards show. Yes, above the Oscars, Emmy’s and People’s Choice, I prefer the Grammy Music Awards! Every February since I was old enough to stay up later than 9:00pm, the Grammy’s has been the most exciting and entertaining awards show out there.

With hundreds of talented musicians and music industry people gathered to honor the best and most talented of musicians in the world, the Grammy’s are one of the highest musical honors to receive.

My favorite part is not necessarily listening to the gripping speeches and “thank you’s”, or even catching the crazy commercials in between, but rather seeing and hearing so many different bands and groups play on one stage, in one night. Immediately I am inspired take my cello out of it’s case and practice for hours on end. This year I was sweetly surprised to see a cellist in one of the performing bands playing his cello while standing up, (which is a feat in itself) whipping his hair all around and looking like he was having the time of his life. It’s awesome to be inspired by such amazing and talented musicians!

Now imagine our Massive Worship Conference being as big as the Grammy Music Awards… Imagine countless musicians and youth leaders gathered from across Canada to be trained, equipped and inspired to further their ministries back home. Imagine meeting these musicians and youth leaders and discovering that you are not alone in the struggles and victories that come with serving in ministry. Imagine learning hands-on from some of our area’s finest when it comes to leadership, parish ministry, youth culture, and Catholic music. Imagine encountering Christ powerfully in this environment, with these people… I’m getting chills just thinking about it!

It’s pretty obvious that the Massive Worship Conference is not the Grammy Music Awards; I think it’s even better. That's why you should check it out this spring, March 25th-27th, here in Ottawa, ON. Get your friends, your youth leaders and coordinators, your musicians and music ministers (both newly budding and expert) and register online www.massiveworship.com for this awesome event. Register before February 24th and get a great Early Bird discount, and register with a group of 5 or more and get 5% off each registration. Sweet deal, you don't want to miss this!

UNO, Giant Dutch Blitz, and Secret Santas

Another week of fun, games and ministry here in Steinbach has gone by.

Family Fun Day this month has to be my favourite one so far! We rented the outdoor rink and invited parishioners out for a family fun skate. I am not sure how many we had come out, but it was a lot! Although we had booked the ice for our event we allowed anyone who happened to drop by to join us, which really added to our numbers. A few of the guys brought hockey sticks with them and Andrew and Brenden stayed behind for an impromptu game. What I neglected to mention in my last blog, in which I mentioned how the team had gone skating, I have only gone skating about half a dozen times in my life. I was a little nervous at first about the day, especially since there are so many figure skaters and hockey players in the community, but the environment was so welcoming that my worries disappeared almost immediately. I even did a lot better than I thought I did. I also learned how to skate backwards!

AND SO EXCITING!!! We had our first LifeLine! LifeLine is our high school youth group which alternates Sundays with our REACT night. The night, entitled “Ready, Set…” was a night of games and simply getting to know each other. We started the night off with singing the song “I Am Free” and it was great to hear the teens singing loud and proud together. Giant Dutch Blitz also made an appearance during the night and was a success yet again. We made it a little more challenging by having only three people on each team. I know my muscles were sore the next day! But it was well worth it.

The past couple of team days have been wonderful. During the one we discovered that UNO can be a rather stressful game all round. The other team day saw us finally doing our Secret Santa gift exchange which ended up being filled with duct tape, toilet paper, laughs, and a touch of mystery (especially for me as I was the only one who didn’t figure out who got my name!)

Our faith study “Discovery” has started off really well with five people coming out each week to learn more about God’s love, his sacrifice and our faith. Each week I am amazed by the insight and openness of those participating. God is truly working in these young adults and I am excited to see where this faith study takes us in the end.

That is all for now. Stay tuned for more from Steinbach, and remember to keep us and our ministry in your prayers.

God bless,

Elizabeth Fitzmaurice

Oh Saskatchewan....

Greetings to all followers of the NET blog! Katie Foster here, signing in from Encounter Team One. I was very excited this week when our regular blogger, Maria Kalin, extended an invitation to me to write this latest entry. Team One has been very busy doing the work of God since arriving in Saskatchewan. Retreats are going great, and lives are being touched.

Upon arriving in Saskatchewan, our team had reason for celebration, as our wonderful blogger Maria Kalin turned 19! The evening was marked by a Wal-Mart adventure followed by a trip to Dairy Queen, and completed with team prayer led by the birthday girl herself. That evening, our team was hosted together in a school in Weyburn, making it great for team spirit and convenient for retreat set-up. We woke up the next morning, however, to a chilling temperature of -40°C. Instead of letting this discourage us, however, many took the opportunity to attempt a new trick – throwing boiling water in the air and watching it freeze before reaching the ground, to the amazement of all those from warmer climates. Following our stay at that school, we traveled to Wilcox, where we were once again hosted in a school. This was not a regular school however, and so we stayed in dorm rooms at Notre Dame High School. While we were there, we had opportunities not only to minister to youth on retreats, but connect with them in the cafeteria and around campus, and even take in a few hockey games. From there we traveled to Regina, where our team met up with NET Ireland alumnus Reed Miller. Following a few nights stay in Regina, we hit the road once again, traveling to Yorkton, where we threw a surprise “Un-Birthday” party for Jacob Aultman. We arranged a Super Bowl party, which included dinner at our contact person’s house, and a wide screen television on which to watch the Super Bowl. The night was fun for many, with a close game and a great half-time show, however, much to the displeasure of Tom Russell, the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Green Bay Packers.

In the last three days we have been doing Confirmation retreats in Yorkton and Melville, and then traveled back to Regina for a much anticipated weekend of team days, a ministry day, a “no-obligations” day, and a travel day.

Ministry has been great as well. One aspect of our ministry that we have made recent developments in has been with regards to the rosary. Before Christmas break we gave few rosaries away, and talked about it only a little on retreats. In the past several weeks, however, we have begun to speak on the rosary before prayer ministry, and the response from the youth has been amazing. During prayer ministry over half the youth can be seen with rosary in hand, and many have taken them home. I noticed a girl in my small group today, a non-Catholic, praying the rosary during prayer ministry, and I was touched. To see the enthusiastic response of the youth to the rosary has been inspiring, and I know that the Blessed Mother will use this prayer to bring about a deeper response to the love of God in those youth and in this nation.

On a more personal note, over the last several weeks, God has been giving me a deeper awareness of the purpose of our ministry, and the importance of our ministry. All across our nation there are people who are hungering and thirsting for the love and mercy of God. Through the work of the NET team, some hear the Gospel message preached for the first time. Others, who have been told only rules and regulations from authorities in the Church, hear for the first time the mercy and compassion of God. Through listening to youth speak in small groups, I have realized that our world is broken, and through ministries such as NET, healing can begin. Some need a listening ear; others need an example from youth. I have realized the importance of relational ministry, of investing in others, and reaching them with the message of the Gospel. This is especially true on retreats, but God has been showing me that He uses the NET team to reach more than just the youth.

Recently, God has also shown to me that Netters are not limited to witnessing only on retreats and in host homes. A few days ago, Google maps gave incomplete directions to get to the church, causing some of us to stop at a gas station to get directions. Claire and I went in, and were helped by a gas station cashier, who helped us look in the phone book for the church address and phone number. While doing this, conversation flowed, with us explaining a little about NET and our ministry, and the cashier revealing that he had little experience with church in his past. After finding the church address, he bade us farewell, closing with the proposition the he “may join [us] someday”. I realized as we continued onto the church that we were meant to get lost that morning, and that perhaps God used us to bring one of His children home to Himself. God continues to use opportunities such as this to remind me that we are called to be a light in the darkness, salt to the earth, and hope to the nations. I pray that God may continue to use our team for His work and His purposes as we journey forth from here!

From Regina, Saskatchewan, signing off, Katie Foster. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all!

P.S. Copy and paste this link to see a video of our team throwing boiling water into the air, and the astonishment that follows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K83xUuXUDgs

Sharing is Caring, or is it?

Greetings from Encounter Team Two! Danica here – I’ve hijacked the blog from Patrick this week.

First of all, we apologize for the delay in an update. It’s been a while since we checked in with you all! These past few weeks have been keeping us busy and on the move. Since our last blog we have moved all over southern Ontario – Hamilton to London to Kitchener to Guelph to Deemerton to Woodstock (hometown of our very own Trevor Hendershott) to London to Forest to Alliston and that brings us to our current location: Mississauga.

One of the really cool things that we’ve had the opportunity to do in the past few weeks is attend (yes you read that right – attend, not run) a retreat for university students. The University of Guelph chaplaincy runs a retreat for university students from numerous different schools every year around this time and for the past three years, a NET team has been able to join them. We were the lucky team this year since we were in the area, and I think our entire team agrees that it was an amazing weekend. Basically, we were there to mingle, meet people, play music and do the occasional funny skit, or as we like to call them on NET – AMEs (After Meal Entertainment). The weekend was full of talks, Mass, adoration, confession, and basically time to hang out and get to know everyone more. It was really amazing to talk to people our own age and share our faith with university students. That’s something we don’t have a chance to do very often, and it was a really neat opportunity. Of course, I speak for the team in saying that, as I was stuck in bed the whole weekend with strep throat. Apparently, as a team we not only share vans, clothes, and ministry, but we also share the common cold! Three of us came down with strep throat that week but I’m happy to report that we are healthy again!

Another fun thing we’ve been able to do as a team is go bowling. It was the first time five-pin bowling for our two foreigners – Tanya and Cristy, and both thought it was a little strange. They weren’t the only ones who thought it was strange. The jury is currently out on which is better - 5 pin or 10 pin bowling. Regardless of our different opinions, we had a great time getting strikes and gutter balls together, not to mention the victory dances that came after a good shot.

Since coming back from Christmas break, all of our retreats have been confirmation retreats with the occasional family retreat thrown in. Family retreats are new for our team. We’ve done three family retreats so far and they have all been awesome! At the end of one of the family retreats, we generally have a sharing time where anyone can stand up and say something they liked about the day or something they experienced or learned – basically anything they want to share with the entire group about the day. During one of those large group sharing sessions at the end of a family retreat, a father stood up and thanked us for the day. He said it was an amazing experience for his family and he particularly enjoyed meeting other families in the parish and just having fun together. He asked what he and the parish could do so that the experience of the day could last longer than just a one day thing. Together the families who were there decided they wanted to do more family activities in their parish and are now looking at starting some sort of regular fun day for families of the parish. It was really amazing to see the impact of the retreat and to see how God moved in their hearts that day! Praise God for His amazing work! I feel very blessed to be one of His instruments this year! [That's Jon and I to the left in one of our AMEs - the Vaseline skit].

Like I said earlier, we are currently in Mississauga. We have two retreats for the same class of grade eights, and are very excited for that because it means we get to spend a longer period of with the same youth. For the next few weeks we will be in the Toronto diocese and in and around the Greater Toronto Area. Next week our lovely supervisors, Meaghan and Pat, come down to visit us. Pray that they may have a safe drive to come see us! Please keep our team in your prayers, and know that you are in ours!

It was a pleasure writing the blog for you this week!
Until next time,
God Bless,
Danica O’Neill
Encounter Team Two

Hello again from Wetaskiwin!

I hope that this blog finds everyone well! I pray that God blesses you today and always. Thanks for being faithful followers! I am here to tell you about how our past two weeks have gone. It has been blessed, for sure, as always. Thank you Cecile for writing the last blog! This is Katie reporting to you once again! Sorry for missing a blog last week!

January 28th's EDGE night was cleverly named "Worth Waiting For." The theme was Chastity. I gave a talk on how Chastity is more than abstinence. Chastity is about true love and living purely in God's love. At first the youth reacted like they didn't want to hear about it, but once they got settled in, they soaked up everything that I had to say. I really feel like the Holy Spirit worked through the EDGE night. We did two dramas and relayed them back to the topic of Chastity. The prayer time was also amazing. It really is so cool the way that everyone just quiets down to see what God has to say to them. In Emily's small group, the young Grade 8 girls decided by themselves to make a commitment to a life of Chastity! Praise God for that!

After the EDGE night, we made our way to our favourite 'ol camp, OLVC for a highschool retreat run by Face 2 Face. It was amazing! We got to know a couple of our voluteers a bit better, and we ministered to amazing teens. I know that I was impacted during this retreat, and many of the teens were as well.

After our wonderful weekend at OLVC, we had a spontaneous team day at BANFF NATIONAL PARK! It was absolutely fabulous. A little chilly, but perfect nonetheless. We went into all the shops and walked around the beautiful town. We even got to tour a little bit of the Banff Springs Hotel. We got an outsiders view of the Hotel as well, going up the other side of the mountain to view it from afar. We got to look at the Hot Springs as well. We had an amazing day! I love my team!

This past Friday's EDGE night was on our mother, Mary. Marcus gave a great talk, and the small goup was filled with lots of discussion. Our prayer time was amazing! We had a candle-lit rosary, and the kids joined with us in praying to Mary, and then offered her an intention to bring to Jesus.

Sunday, we had an "Ice Cream SundaY." It brought in a lot of donations for our youth ministry, and we got to have a lot of fun with our awesome parishioners! As a promo after mass, Emily and I danced around to 'Ice Cream' from 'Anne of Green Gables' with Ice Cream Cones in our hands! It was quite embarasing, but extremely funny!!!

Yesterday's team day finished with us going to see the local Highschool boys basketball game! It felt like we were all back in highschool just for a moment! We cheered and cheered our little hearts out! We can't wait to continue going to support our youth as they play sports! So much fun!

Tonight, we are going to have our first 'main' Glass Alabaster night! We are really excited for this one, and we would continue to ask you to pray for this!

Until next week,

Katie Doyle
iNFUSE Team 3
Wetaskiwin, AB

God's Never-ceasing Glory

Greetings fellow inhabitants of the world wide web!

This is April Fogle again here, and I am excited to tell you more about God’s never ceasing glory in the life of Yellowknife Infuse Team 1.

On Tuesday, we put on a Rally for all the grade 5/6 students in the Catholic schools of Yellowknife. There were over 200 kids, and let me tell you they were little balls of energy! We had so much fun doing with the games, skits, and music (we had the whole band set up... we felt like Massive Worship.) Even more so, it was incredible because we got to see God move yet again. They were actually very attentive during Adele’s “Who R U?” talk, and seemed to get a lot out of it. As well I heard from many of them that they loved the dramas and understood the messages behind them. And the greatest of these in my opinion is that during prayer time they all were really receptive, and when Tyler asked them all who enjoyed having the quiet time, hands shot up everywhere. It amazes me how God works even in the hearts of people so young. His work is so beautiful and glorious to be a part of.

Wednesday we had a wonderful team day in the sunny -9 degrees weather. We got tons of sun and fresh air playing ice hockey on Frame Lake for the entire afternoon. Although many of us got a few bumps and bruises, we all were thankful to get the exercise and to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Friday was our Ignite called “Yours To Discover” where we focused on showing the teens more of their own strengths. We gave a personality/temperaments test to them which classified them into 4 types: Lion, Beaver, Golden Retriever, and Otter. They seemed to really enjoy it, and the night was yet again a great success all thanks to our incredible Saviour.

We had a very new and exciting event added to our plethora of weekly occurrences; our first “Awaken.” Awaken is our high school youth group for grades 9-12 which happens on Saturday nights right after our youth mass, and let me tell you we started it off with a bang.

The night was themed after the ever so popular game show “Minute to Win It.” We set up the projector and blasted the music creating a somewhat similar scene to the real game. We all thoroughly enjoyed the night and all the games, and the victorious “Team Fistpump” triumphed after winning the majority of the games and seemed to appreciate their prizes of gift cards to Tim Hortons. We had a great turnout, and we are expecting even more next week because there was a school play that was going on, and many of the teens really wanted to come couldn’t.

Our team was very excited for the success of the night, and were so thankful for God’s work in the night. To top everything else, God blessed us even more with the most incredible northern lights I have ever seen in my life. The colors were so vibrant, and they danced like they were alive. I could not imagine anyone witnessing such a wonder and not believing there is a God. It was simply breath-taking!

As for this week coming up, we have much in store. We have lots of planning meetings, and Movie Night this Friday for Ignite. We are also doing another overnight retreat at Trappers Lake retreat facility for students from Behchoko, a community an hour outside of Yellowknife. We would greatly appreciate your continued prayers for this ministry, especially for the retreat. I look forward to next week to tell you more about the work of our glorious God!

God Bless,

April Fogle

Yellowknife iNFUSE Team 1

Encountering Team 1

Hey Y’all! This is Encounter Team One coming at you from Saskatchewan! In the last couple weeks we have traveled from the Peterborough Diocese, to Mississauga, and then to Saskatchewan!

Our time in Mississauga was great. We put on four Confirmation retreats for the four schools there. They all went well, and we’ve found that we have grown as a team in our adaptability and communication since being back on the road. Claire, Marc and Katie did fantastic jobs on the talks, and I think those youth have a good grasp of the magnitude of the sacrament they will be receiving.

We had a cool experience at one of the retreats. We were having a bit of trouble keeping the youth’s attention, being the fun-loving bunch that they were. During prayer ministry though, Judith gave a little spiel on the rosary before we started, and handed rosaries out. It was something we decided to try because we want to spread the message of the power of the rosary. Almost all the youth took one and I have never seen a quieter or more reverent prayer time. They didn’t want to leave at the end of it. It was beautiful. Fr. Peter, Fr. Vid and Miri, the youth minister, were so welcoming at Merciful Redeemer Parish and made us feel at home. We had Mass on every retreat while in Mississauga, which was wonderful. Seeing the Church filled with youth really filled me with a renewed appreciation of the importance of the Mass and an urgency to help the youth of the country realize its importance.

We spent four days traveling. Our days have been, on average, 9 hours of traveling. The trip was great and I feel our team has grown, not only closer as you only can when spending 40 hours in a van, but also in zeal for our mission because of the amazing host homes that we have stayed in. Since so much happened in those four days, I have made this video to try and capture a glimpse of our trip to Saskatchewan. Enjoy! We sure did :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Api8cMlWSM

Now we are in Regina, Saskatchewan, after spending a few days in Wilcox putting on retreats at the school, Notre Dame. We got to stay in dorms and hang out with the youth for two days which was so cool. We also celebrated my birthday on January 31st, which is also the feast day of one of our patron saints, St. John Bosco. My team created a hunt with clues in which I had to find all my team, my ‘fellowship,’ in Walmart. They kidnapped and blindfolded me and took me there. It was hilarious and so much fun. I love my team so much.

Until next time,
Stay Sweet and God bless,
Maria Kalin
NET Encounter Team One

LifeLine, here we come!

Greetings and salutations once again from Steinbach, Manitoba!

As our first month back is flying by, things are really moving along for our team. We had our first host home switch of the second half and us women of iNFUSE two have come to realize the impact of the game "Dutch Blitz" on our host homes. Almost every host home we have stayed with has joined us in this game and it has been great for our relational ministry.

We also had our first leadership training workshop for some of our volunteers. Being able to tell the leaders exactly what our plans are for youth ministry in this parish was refreshing and really helped us to re-visualize why we are doing what we are doing and how exactly we are going to do it. It also helped our leaders feel a bit more empowered about evangelizing and getting involved in this wonderful ministry.

Coming from BC I have never had to experience not having a priest for Mass due to the weather, but here in Manitoba it is a normal occurrence during the winter. Due to this fact our second youth Mass was converted into a Praise and Worship session followed by the Sunday readings and a reflection. We had quite a few people come out despite the weather. One woman I spoke with who wasn’t sure about whether or not she should be coming out to the youth Mass (she joked that maybe she was too old), but told me after that she loved what we did and she wants to keep coming back for the youth Mass.

Thankfully the weather improved enough for our team to go into Winnipeg for our team day on Tuesday. Each of us was able to obtain a pair of skates, either from parishioners or the local sports store. And although we are all at varying levels of skating ability and varying levels of affection for ice, we had a ton of fun and were able to enjoy the beautiful day on the ice. Phylicia, Amanda and I were also able to spend a bit of time at a lovely place called Baked Expectations. A number of people had recommended that we visit there for one of our women’s sessions and it definitely met, if not exceeded, our “expectations”. Brownies, cheesecake and hot drinks made our winter day in Winnipeg perfect.

One of my passions in life is books - especially books that are inspiring, insightful, and that lead people into a better understanding of their faith. Because of this I am so excited about a book fundraiser we are doing here in our parish to support the youth ministry program. We were able to obtain 250 copies of Matthew Kelly’s “Rediscover Catholicism” book which we are selling for a steal at $5 each. I have heard so many good things about this book and cannot wait to get feedback from the parishioners who have bought it so far. As a team, we think that this book will be incredibly helpful in getting people fired up about being Catholic and about the Church in general.

Our high school retreat, “Open the Door” was a great success with 11 teens and 3 adult volunteers coming out to learn more about how we can open the door of our hearts to Christ and to finally throw away the keys to that door so that Christ can come with us into the rest of our lives. Prayer ministry was especially incredible! Seeing all those teens praying in the church was beautiful.

REACT this past weekend, entitled “Propaganda”, saw grade 6, 7 and 8 teens looking at the effects of the media in our everyday lives and how we can choose what to listen to, watch and believe. And next weekend is the start of our high school youth group, “Lifeline”. I know that this is one of the ministries I have been waiting for…keep it in your prayers!

God bless! And see you next week.

Signing off. Elizabeth Fitzmaurice

Lots Going On In The YK

Greetings fellow inhabitants of the world wide web!

Do I ever have an exciting week to tell you all about in the life of Yellowknife iNFUSE Team 1. As I mentioned last week we were busy preparing for our upcoming High School weekend retreat on Friday and Saturday, as well as our Ignite night on self image. It is very safe to say our gracious and glorious God has done His works in both.

Ignite was very successful, and the team did a great job together pulling it off. We took pictures and advertisements out of magazines and plastered the walls with them, which the guys could only describe as “overwhelming,” and used it as the basis of our set up. Tyler and Adele gave a talk on self-image, which we found the youth were very receptive to from our discussion in small groups.We also had a prayer time which included a self reflection, and a drama which our team wrote. Both seemed to move the hearts of everyone. We also introduced two-on-one prayer to them which involves two of us netters praying with each person individually, praying for their intentions and so forth. The feedback from the youth was that they really appreciated and enjoyed the prayer time. Altogether everyone enjoyed the night and they want to come back for more and to bring their friends.

Sandwiched between two amazing events, we received our new Ignite shirts, and also our high school youth group “Awaken” t-shirts. If I do say so myself they look rather good, and our team was very excited to get them and try them on. It felt like a late Christmas for us all.

After a long week of preparation and slight anxiety, our team finally found ourselves at “Encounter,” our high school overnight retreat this past weekend. Let me tell you, God is so incredibly good. I was unsure of whether or not our unpracticed parish team could take on the task of a NET Encounter Team, but my uneasiness was quickly dissolved when we began the retreat Friday night.

The team did amazing all thanks to Holy Spirit, and tons of amazing volunteers, including the Catholic Women's League and members of the Knights of Columbus. We owe them a great amount of credit to the success of the weekend, and for feeding the hungry bellies of all 33 of us.

The weekend was so much fun, and we got to build many great and new relationships with all the youth who attended. All of the talks, dramas, skits, and prayer times went amazing, and the retreatants had so much positive feedback and didn’t want to leave. Prayer time especially seemed to be a very powerful experience, and many of them said that it has given them a desire to pray more.

The team is so especially excited because unlike an Encounter team, we are able to witness the continuation of their journey of faith, and continue to lead them throughout their journey. This retreat allowed this to happen and left them eager to attend our first “Awaken” night which we will be this Saturday coming up.

God is doing wondrous things in Yellowknife, and all I can do is lift my eyes to Him and thank Him. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and please continue to keep us, and this ministry, in them.

Until next time, God bless!

April Fogle

Yellowknife iNFUSE Team 1