"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