"Any Final Words?"

Time is slowly running out for us here in Steinbach and we are getting things ready for when we leave next week. It will definitely be very hard for us to leave here, but with applicants for the youth minister job lined up, I know that God will provide for the youth of this parish so that they may continue to have a strong, thriving ministry after we are gone. But before I get too emotional about our departure, I should probably tell you about all that has happened this past week.

Ok, so I think I experienced my favourite youth night of the year! Our first combined night, which was entitled “The Egg-mazing Race”, was absolutely egg-cellent! We were able to hand everything over to our adult leaders and they ran all the egg-mazing activities. There was a relay race with various activities involving eggs, such as rolling an egg along the ground with your face and an egg-toss to name a few. There was also a blind, egg-tasting contest in which a secret ingredient was added some scrambled eggs and the teens would have to taste and guess what they thought it was. My favourite of the night was our egg-trivia! If they got the question wrong they would get a water balloon thrown at them…which was not a bad thing as it was so warm out. The night was a huge success. I am really looking forward to our next combined night – our last night of the year unfortunately.

Our parish decided to do a farewell potluck dinner for us – it was really strange being there and not running anything, but our contact people were adamant that we should not do anything. As a team we were a little worried that it would be a sad event focused on how we were leaving but it turned out to be a fun night with face-painting, balloon art, family feud, and of course incredible food. There was also a cake with a picture of our team on the front – one of the youth was determined to eat Brenden’s face. Our contact ladies did an incredible job of highlighting the changes they had seen in the parish and how proud they were of the work we had done. They also gave an outline of how the parish had gotten to the point of actually getting a NET team – it is an incredible story of perseverance that’s for sure! I cannot talk about this event without mentioning two skits that were put on for us. The first was a silly skit by our three contact ladies. They all came out with brooms and work-clothes and mimed a skit in which the one found a conductor’s stick and was orchestrating the music – absolutely hilarious. The second skit was one organized by our teens and one of our adult leaders. It was “I wish to be a NETter” – a new version of our own “I’m glad to be a NETter” skit. They took an aspect of each of us on the team and included it in the skit. I could not stop laughing!

One of my highlights of the past week (although I am a little biased on this one) was going to see Starfield in concert. What is the reason I am biased? Because it was my un-birthday!!! I had completely forgotten that Starfield was coming to Winnipeg as I did not think we would be able to go, but on the evening of the concert (which was also our host home switch) the team told me that I had 15min to eat dinner as we would be going to the concert! And to add to it all, there was a special on our tickets so that we were able to bring some members of our host families! It was a beautiful night of music and praise and worship. Could I have asked for a better un-birthday? I don’t think so.

To end off this blog, I must acknowledge our youth band. Last Sunday they lead worship at Mass without any of our team playing with them! Isn’t that wonderful?!?! They sounded incredible and have grown so much from when they started. Plus they have come up with a name for themselves, “Great Expectations”. They figured this was appropriate as each of the members started out ‘small’ in the band – the bass player learning as she went, the drummer having had only a few lessons before joining, the keyboardist also having had little experience and our leader having English as a second language. But despite all these things, they came together and were able to grow and learn to lead the parish in worship.

Our last event before we leave is another combined youth night entitled “Any Final Words?” Let’s just say there will be some “Mafia” going on. I am really excited to see all the teens one more time before we leave.

Well, it is time to say good-bye as this may very well be my last blog for the year. Thank you all for reading this blog all year. Your prayers and support have been wonderful and we greatly appreciate the interest you have taken in our year here in Steinbach.

God bless
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
iNFUSE team 2

Country Folk!

Hello again to all our AMAZING blog followers! I hope this day finds you doing WONDERFULLY! I have a lot to tell you about, so I'd better get started.
On May 4, for our team day, we spent the day at Peace Hills Park. We had a picnic, played on the jungle gym (oh to be a kid again!), went for a long walk, and even had a water balloon fight!

On May 6, we went to Sacred Heart School for a special event! The school gave us the privilege of leading the living rosary that they do every year with their students. The students held the candles that were being lit at the start of each prayer. I was so pleasantly surprised at how respectful the students were during this time of prayer!

On May 7 we had the oppertunity to go to the Confirmation Mass celebration. We have journeyed for a couple of months with the candidates, and I was so blessed to be a part of the final part of their confirmation journey. I know that the candidates have definitely changed during this journey, and I am excited for them to continue to change through the Holy Spirit! After the Mass, I had the privilege to direct a drama. Some of our youth and Marcus and Cecile from our team took part in the Everything Drama. It is to the song 'Everything' by Lifehouse. I know it is a drama that has changed my life in a number of ways, so I was really excited to direct it and to have them show it with the parish on this weekend.

On May 8 we had our highschool youth group meet and play Ultimate Frisbee for the afternoon! It was a hit during NET training for a lot of netters, and it was a hit here in Wetaskiwin! We had so much fun playing!

Us girls have been having a blast at our host home! We are staying on a farm with lots of fields to play in and horses to hang out with! So fun! For our day off on May 9, we took a four wheeler and went mudding in the fields. We got covered in mud! Oh yes, we are country folk!

On May 10 we celebrated DJ's unbirthday. We went to the beach and played frisbee and football. Somehow in the mix of things, we got a little silly and started to throw each other in the water! WE GOT SOAKED TO THE BONE! But it was all in good fun!

On May 13 for our EDGE night, we called it "Little Hands, Little Feet." It was an issue night focusing on abortion. It fit right in because on May 12, we joined in the March for Life in Edmonton. The night went incredibly well. One of our crew did the talk, and it seriously blew me away! I could tell that he was really convicted that abortion is wrong, and he showed that to the youth he gave the talk to. For prayer time, we got the youth to light a candle and put in on the altar to show that they are praying for all babies in the womb. It was really powerful!

Earlier that Friday, we went to Lacombe (about an hour away) and put on a 'Who Are You?' retreat for grades 7-9. It was so great! The youth were so comfortable with us, and shared so openly in small group. They all loved it, and we got so much good feedback from them. One youth said this: "I enjoyed the small group experiences at the retreat. I connected with God during the prayer time. I loved the different games we played with the NET group." Praise God for all His good works He is doing!

On May 14, we put on another SUPER successful Crossroads Coffee House! This one was the biggest yet! We had three full bands play 3 songs each.

The weekend of May 13-15, iNFUSE Team 3 was so incredibly blessed to have Marcus' parents for a visit. It was really great. We all love them so much, and LOVED having them involved in our ministry for a weekend. So great!

Lifeteen on May 15 was a WATER FIGHT! We had TONS of water balloons and water guns. It was so much fun, everyone got so wet! It is so so so sad to say goodbye to our Lifeteeners, but I know they are in good hands here at Sacred Heart Parish.

This weekend will be filled with crazy emotions! We leave our beloved parish on Sunday after mass. On Friday we say goodbye to our Edgers, and on Saturday we say goodbye and thank everyone who has helped us out this year. Sunday we say goodbye to our whole parish! Even just thinking about it, I cry! We have been so blessed this year and have been surrounded by so many amazing people, and it will be really hard to goodbye to this second home of ours. THANK YOU SACRED HEART PARISH! WE LOVE YOU!
God Bless,
Katie Doyle
iNFUSE Team 3

Wetaskiwin, AB
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15: 13

What has ten colours and jiggles?

What a busy two weeks it has been! Easter left us pumped up for all the activities that we had coming up – the first of which was our REACT retreat for our grade 6-8 youth. We had a great group of youth come out for this overnight retreat and I cannot say who had more fun…us or them! Throughout the retreat we looked at our identity as children of God and how we can find our true worth in God. Prayer ministry was incredibly beautiful with our high school leaders participating in our drama. I am so proud of our high school leaders and what they have done so far in this ministry. As a part of the retreat we put the teens in teams to present skits about five different movies – movies that they would vote on for the next day’s REACT night. It was great having the teens keep asking us which movie had won the vote. In the end, the movie Megamind won by one vote!

One of my favourite team days of the year took place during these past two weeks! We drove into Winnipeg, with only Amanda and Brenden knowing what was going to happen, and arrived at one of the malls. It turns out they had planned a photo-scavenger hunt for us! It was great running around the mall trying to find all these different things. Plus we were in teams, Andrew and Amanda versus Brenden, Phylicia and I, which made it a race to find everything on the list. In the end we tied as our team had found everything, but Andrew and Amanda had gotten bonus points in others. We ended off with some well-deserved ice-cream...man had it been warm that day!

Our last LifeLine for the year (the last couple of youth group nights are going to be combined LifeLine and REACT), was one on communication entitled “Like”, and yes, the poster had the classic Facebook “like” button. We started out the night with some telephone-charades, followed by an excellent skit featuring our adult leaders about incorrect ways to communicate, such as not listening, talking too much, and bad body language to name a few. I am so proud of our one leader who from the start said she was not comfortable being in skits, but gladly took a role in this one! I then gave a talk about the different ways we can communicate with each other and how we have to use these tools to uplift others and be affirming. We all know how big social media is, but are we using it to glorify God? That was our question for them. I gave them a challenge to affirm one person every day using whatever form of communication they want. Let’s see what happens…

We continue to train and form leaders in the parish to help our program continue. In our last few weeks here we have a couple of workshops for our adult leaders. Plus we had a giant training session with our high school leaders. I am still so amazed by how much all of our leaders have grown since they started volunteering. We are seeing real connections that I believe will last. It makes me happy to know that we a forming a family and not just a team of volunteers. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare for us to leave and wait in anticipation for a youth minister.

As a way to thank our wonderful host families, we put on a dinner in their honour. Phylicia orchestrated the cooking of some incredible chili…one regular, one with pineapple, and one vegetarian (all of which tasted amazing by the way). We got to share some photos of our year with the families in a slideshow Brenden had put together and Phylicia gave a moving thank you speech…I was tearing up it was so beautiful! One of my favourite parts of the event was the dessert…also prepared by Phylicia. It was a rainbow jello dish with ten layers of colour awesomeness and yumminess!!!! And to top the evening off we told our guests that they were not allowed to do any dishes…easier said than done. It just goes to show how much these families love to serve others. It will be difficult leaving such loving people.

And to end off this week’s blog, we celebrated both Brenden’s and Amanda’s un-birthdays during these past two weeks. For Brenden, we made a cake – cat shaped in honour of his favourite animal – and presented it to him after our work day. We then took him off on a ride to a barn-turned-restaurant for a great dinner together. After that we headed off to Mass and then surprised him again with a bunch of teens from the parish ready to play some soccer. We had been worried most of the day as it was super cloudy and had started raining, but it cleared up beautifully during dinner which made us super happy. For Amanda’s un-birthday we took her to one of our parishioners' farms for a wiener roast lunch and horseback riding. It was a great experience for all of us as most of us have not done much horseback riding before. All in all it was great to celebrate our fearless team-leaders!

Thank you again for staying connected to us through our blog! Your prayers and support mean so much to us.

God bless!
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice

Never Eat Tuna? Well, that's one acronym for NET, I suppose....

Hello there, Maria here! Greetings from Encounter Team One! We have spent a busy, but incredibly awesome last few weeks in British Columbia. Of course, I may be biased because I’m from this province, but it is so beautiful here! Springtime in BC is glorious and I am so glad to be here at this time with my team.

We spent two weeks in the Vancouver Diocese where we had some amazing retreats. That’s not to say that we didn’t have our tough crowds there, but every time there was one, the prayer times were always amazing. It’s awesome to see time and time again how quiet and reverent a usually loud group can be. We didn’t have a lot of down time while in the diocese, doing almost a dozen retreats in as many days, but we did get to see some of the sites of the beautiful city.

While we were in Vancouver we celebrated Marc’s 20th Birthday. We had a crazy Olympics-type thing set up. We went to Stanley Park, and were split into teams there. The first event was a crabwalk/wheelbarrow race which was won by Marc’s team (Mike, Carissa, and I). The next won was a Jello eating contest, where each team had to eat a whole container of Jello. That was insane. Marc’s team won that one as well. The next event to see who could spit the most water from a 4L container into a bowl placed about 6 feet away on the ground. Hilarious. That was won by Claire, Mark, Tom, Jacob and Katie’s team. The last event, my personal favourite was a worm eating contest. Gummy worms, to be exact. And they were covered in whipped cream. Attached are some pictures from the day. We also went down to the ocean that day and Claire, Marc and Tom jumped in!

The six days before Easter, we were lucky enough to stay at my house and put on a retreat at my younger siblings school! Easter was beautiful and it was so special to have my team and my family together during Holy week and Easter. My siblings (on team and biological) had some great times together.

We are in Williams Lake right now and have just put on two retreats for the Grade 4-7’s at Sacred Heart Catholic School. It was so cool being able to have two days to get to know the youth and hang out with them for so long. The first day we had Confession and I had one Gr. 7 girl in my small group come up to me during prayer time and ask me how to go to Confession because she hadn’t been since Grade 1 and wanted to. There were a couple girls, I found out later, that went to Confession who hadn’t been for years.

Hello! Judith here from Team Awesome! I want to tell you about a host sister/retreatant we met the other day. While we were staying with her family she was really struggling with her beauty. She didn’t believe that she had any beauty, so we (Encounter Team One) made it our mission to convince her that God had blessed her with true beauty inside and out. Every time we saw this girl we would tell her that she was beautiful, and I had the opportunity to sit down with her and talk about why she felt she wasn’t beautiful. After spending a week with her and her family it was time for Team One to hit the road again, but before we left she wrote me a letter. Here is how it started…
“Dear Judith, You are so beautiful (just like me)! You can tell Katie, Carissa, Claire, Maria, and the boys that they have talked me into it! I finally realize that I am beautiful in every way. And so are you! I have sinned, because I was thinking negative of myself. God created each and every one of us in a unique way…” Not only did she find her worth in God’s eyes, but through her God showed me my worth. I was struggling with my beauty until God placed this girl right in front of me. I guess God meant for me and this girl to meet up and fall more in love with him. God is using us to touch the hearts of people all across Canada, but He is also using everyone across Canada to bring me and my team’s hearts closer to his. So that’s my story with ministry and I hope that there are more to come. Later Days!

Maria again. We are sadly leaving BC in a few days, but are looking forward to the time that we will be spending at Carissa’s house this week, and in the Saskatoon Diocese coming up! Till next time, God bless and Happy Easter to you!

In Christ,
Maria Kalin
Encounter Team Uno.

Excellent, exceptional, extraordinary, eager, enjoyable, enthusiastic, epic, enchanting, engaging...

You might be wondering what all the E words mean. Well they all describe a extra-wonderful place that starts with an E. Etobicoke, Ontario!

We were unbelievably blessed throughout our time here. After arriving on Friday, we started the weekend off with doing a Youth Rally for the EDGE (Grades 6-8 youth group). There were about 40 people that came out and Paul gave a talk on the person of Jesus. The youth were really great and respectful and we had a lot of fun.

On Saturday we had a Massive Worship Encounter Day. We worked pretty much one on one with each member of the youth band. There was 9 of them and 7 of us. Throughout the day there were talks about confidence in leading, taking your identity in Christ, and how to effectively lead music for liturgy. The band was very receptive to everything and were applying all of the concepts to their band. Near the end of the retreat we give them a chance to take all that they learned in the talks and in the individual workshops and to actually play together as a band. We were blown away by this band. They were so skilled and they all, I personally believe that they have the true heart of worship. Even though they are a group of exceptional musicians, their main focus is to lead others in worship, especially during the Mass. Like I said before we were blown away by this group. We had to play for Mass that night so the group had an hour off (because they were attending the youth Mass the next morning). During this hour they had a band meeting to discuss all that they had learned, on their own initiative. They are so awesome!

We finished the night off with adoration and there was a great response. Someone told us that they were truly lead into worship and that they hadn't felt that way in a very long time.

The next day we had a Youth Rally for the Lifeteen (high school) group. Riane gave a talk called Catholics Empowering Others. We could tell the group had a very good Faith foundation, so even though the Rally was high energy, it was very powerful worship, especially throughout the time of prayer. After the Youth Rally the group prayed for us. We were truly blessed by our whole time here. The parish's Youth Minister, Shaun, had a few words to share with us:

"We were so blessed to have the Massive Worship team over at Nativity of Our Lord Parish. Our teens who experienced the retreat were beaming on Sunday morning, the mass was rocking and the youth rally was teeming with grace, praise and spirit filled worship. We loved every minute of it.

Mother Theresa once said "we can't all do great things, but we can each do small things with great love," the whole team, embodied this message - from the incredible music, the well prepared and excellently delivered talk, hilarious skits and a real eye-opening, soul stirring drama- each of the members of Massive Worship delivered and contributed their small part to leaving a profound and lasting impact on the youth and myself. Someone once said, it is not important to be a great speaker- but a great person who speaks well. The Massive Worship team are not simply great musicians- but great people, who play music- really well! Humility, service and LOVE reign in their ministry and overflows from their presence. This weekend, in Etobicoke, ON, a parish and its young people were changed, transformed and brought that much closer to Christ by these wonderful people- James, Paul, Christian, Brandi, Riane, Emma, and Rebecca. THANK YOU!"

God Bless YOU!

Shaun Jansen

God did bless us this weekend. Thank you Etobicoke!

Also Blessed John Paul II, pray for us.

Sincerely,

Brandi Olson

Massive Worship