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 sleig
h 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
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