Holy smokes! Can you believe that it is less than 2 months until ministry is done for the NET year of 2010-2011? I sure can't! This year is flying by! God is still pouring out His grazes like crazy though, that's for sure! Wow, God is speaking to my heart so much lately, and I am so thankful for that. This is my second year on NET. Last year I was on a traveling team. So when team announcements were made at training, and I was put on a parish team, I was really unsure of how it would go. It was really hard at first to get used to the smaller team and different ministry, but God has showed me lately just how blessed I am to be here. The min
istry is going amazing! I know so many youth and so many parishioners hearts are changing, and I just have to step back for a minute and give God so much praise for that. I really really love everyone here with all my heart, and God has really showed me this in a powerful way lately.
This past weekend, we put on a Confirmation retreat for the candidates here at Sacred Heart. There were about 55 retreatants all weekend. It was absolutely beautiful to see the transformation happen along the whole weekend. When they arrived on Friday night, they were asked to raise their hands if they were excited to be at the retreat; if they were excited for confirmation. Only a couple of them raised their hands. We were extremely blessed to have many amazing speakers come to share their stories with the youth and to teach them about different things. I had a small group of ten Grade 9 girls. It was a blessing to me, because they were so open with me. Every single one of them had doubts about God, and they shared their questions with me. I felt so honoured that they would trust me like that. They told me how they doubted Jesus' presense in the Eucharist. So I fully explained the Eucharist to them, and told them personal stories of how I was touched by the Eucharist, and I also told them many miracles that have happened with the Eucharist, and by the Eucharist. I could totally see their hearts go from doubt to belief in one S
HORT small group. Honestly, it was amazing! That night, we had prayer ministry and Eucharistic Adoration, so it was really cool to be able to pray over the youth and to see them in their prayer. WOW! Is all I can say.
istry is going amazing! I know so many youth and so many parishioners hearts are changing, and I just have to step back for a minute and give God so much praise for that. I really really love everyone here with all my heart, and God has really showed me this in a powerful way lately. So let me just tell you about our weekend of March 18-20. We had our EDGE night entitled "How Did It Begin?" It was on Evolution vs. Creation. We did a longer drama that was set in a court room. There was a judge (Cecile), a guard (Candace; a CREW member), and the prosecutor and defendant (myself and Marcus). I was the one that was saying that creation is solely from God, while Marcus took the evolution side, saying that it is only from science. We ended up in a big argument, and the judge (who represented the Catholic church) ended up making a decision that both of our arguments had truths and had flaws. We really stressed to the youth what the Church teaches; that God DID create everything, so science and God can co-relate. So that was our Friday night. Saturday, we had to wake up early and go to a town about a half an hour away from Wetaskiwin to put on an Initiation Complete (Confirmation) retreat. Oh man, it was awesome! I loved doing Confirmation retreats last year on the road, so I was blessed enough to do the talk for the youth! YES!!! We really bonded with the youth at this retreat, and we are excited to see them again when they come to visit us at an EDGE night!
After this BUSY retreat, we had to race back to Wetaskiwin to get dressed up for our final Glass Alabaster night. We had so many surprises for the girls, it was really great! We brought in some of the young men from our youth groups to come dressed up and to serve the girls dinner. The girls didn't know the boys were there, so when we opened the door (where we had dinner), and a boy came to escort a girl to the table, the girls were HAPPILY surprised! I then gave them a talk on commitment, particularly on commi
tment to chastity. Later, we had an affirmation session, writing a special note to each girl. We headed to the Church (which was only lit by candles), where we prayed over each girl, and gave them each their own personal prayer time with Jesus. I was touched by this, and I know all of our girls were as well. Look at all of us! I just really love them so much!
tment to chastity. Later, we had an affirmation session, writing a special note to each girl. We headed to the Church (which was only lit by candles), where we prayed over each girl, and gave them each their own personal prayer time with Jesus. I was touched by this, and I know all of our girls were as well. Look at all of us! I just really love them so much! Sunday we started our training for new CREW members. We had 6 people there! I did a talk on living a Christ-centered life, and then we went to the Church to write commitment letters to Christ. Other sessions included learning about relational ministry, about working as a team and dealing with conflict, and about the general flow of EGDE nights. I am so excited that the Holy Spirit is working through EDGE nights and through our volunteers.
Our team day on March 24 was of epic proportions! We re-took the temperment test that all netters took at training, to see how much we have learned about ourself over the past few months. It actually made a lot of sense, because we all have learned so much about ourselves. We then did the test for each other. That was interesting! Later in the evening, we went to Beaumont for Mary Beth's Coffee House. There was so much talent there, and the coffee shop was so quaint and cute!
This past weekend, we put on a Confirmation retreat for the candidates here at Sacred Heart. There were about 55 retreatants all weekend. It was absolutely beautiful to see the transformation happen along the whole weekend. When they arrived on Friday night, they were asked to raise their hands if they were excited to be at the retreat; if they were excited for confirmation. Only a couple of them raised their hands. We were extremely blessed to have many amazing speakers come to share their stories with the youth and to teach them about different things. I had a small group of ten Grade 9 girls. It was a blessing to me, because they were so open with me. Every single one of them had doubts about God, and they shared their questions with me. I felt so honoured that they would trust me like that. They told me how they doubted Jesus' presense in the Eucharist. So I fully explained the Eucharist to them, and told them personal stories of how I was touched by the Eucharist, and I also told them many miracles that have happened with the Eucharist, and by the Eucharist. I could totally see their hearts go from doubt to belief in one S
HORT small group. Honestly, it was amazing! That night, we had prayer ministry and Eucharistic Adoration, so it was really cool to be able to pray over the youth and to see them in their prayer. WOW! Is all I can say. At the end, the youth came up to the area before the altar and everyone knelt before Jesus. We sang the Benediction and a closing song together before our Saviour. My small group the next day was absolutely awesome! They all talked about how they individually were changed throughout the weekend. The Holy Spirit is great! At the end of the weekend, we asked the same question as we did at the beginning. We got them to close their eyes, and asked them to raise their hands if they NOW were excited about Jesus and about being confirmed. Almost EVERYONE raised their hands this time. We got them to open their eyes to see that almost everyone else was raising their hands. Now if that isn't a glory story, I don't know what is! Praise God!
So that is a little bit of what is going on here in Wetaskiwin! We hope that you enjoyed our little update! Stay tuned for more!
God Bless,
Katie Doyle
iNFUSE Team 3
Wetaskiwin, AB
"Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:5-8
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