Minute-to-win-it!

Hey Peoples!

This is Infuse 2 here to tell you about how great our ministry is going so far.

We’re off to a great start. We’ve been visiting the high school and junior highs once a week. We show up just before lunch starts and we just kind of hang out with the students. At Notre Dame, the first junior high we visited, I met an awesome group of grade six guys and we hung out in the cafeteria playing an epic game of “ninja”. When their lunch is over we head over to the other junior high, St. Mary’s, and I got to join in a game of football, which was awesome! At the high school, McCoy, the team put on a popcorn survey. So, basically, we cooked up a bunch of popcorn in the front foyer and then we wandered around inviting everyone to help themselves because it was free. We also handed a little survey full of nonsensical, useless questions about their favorite colour, tv series, and stuff like that, and then (very very sneakily) snuck one innocent looking question in about what they do Sundays 6-9pm....(that’s when we have our high school youth night...Sneaky! ).

Our supervisors came down for four days, and they planned our team day and it was awesome!!!(We went CURLING!).

We’ve also been able to start our youth groups off with awesome first weeks. We’ll be running three youth groups this year. “Equip, St. Pats”,“Equip, Holy Family”, and, “Unchained”. Equip, which will be run as two separate youth groups at the two parishes, is for the junior high students, namely, Grade 6 to Grade 9. Unchained is for high school age students and is being mainly run through Holy Family Parish. (The reason for the name is Acts 12:6-17, where Peter is arrested, but then through the awesome power of God, his chains are broken and he is free to evangelize, and tell how he was set free).

We had the same awesome theme for all three opening nights.

MINUTE-TO-WIN-IT!!!!!!

We played some intense games like “A bit dicey” and “paper dragon”, as well as being able to finish the nights off (thanks to some volunteers from the parishes) with snacks. Overall our introductory nights went over really well and we’re absolutely STOKED for next weeks themes. Unchained is going to be based on the lives of the saints, and "what is the communion of saints?".. and Equip is going to be a “Mythbusters” theme. It’s going to be awesome.

God Bless!

LOVE(!!!) - Isaac Sullivan

P.s. We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials - St. Teresa of Avila (so don't lose hope)

A BANJO-IN' YOUTH RALLY!

Hello people!
These past few weeks have been filled with much music... I mean lots of music. Music practice, band practice, more music practice...etc. There is a well known saying "practice makes perfect". Although we practiced a lot I wouldn't say that our first Youth Rally this past week in Ottawa wasn't completely perfect, perhaps better, however, i am giving it the title of 'epic' and as a result I have decided to change that well known saying.
So for future reference... "practice makes EPIC".


The evening consisted of; praise and worship, a talk, drama and testimony as well as a fun musical moment highlighting a fiddle, a melodian, and a banjo. Yup, you read right, a BANJO... how EPIC is that. Not only was the music fantastic, the crowd of grade 7's 8's and 9's loved the different instruments and the evening itself. It was a great evening of music, praise and most importantly Jesus. I spoke to several teens after and they expressed that they were so glad that they had come!

The following morning we packed all of our belongings, instruments and gear into a trailer and we hit the road. It's really interesting traveling in a seven passenger van with seven fully grown people and multiple backpacks. I guess you could compare it to cramming the seven dwarfs into one of those red wagons you see kids pulling down the street. People look at it and wonder "how did you ever fit all of that in there"? The answer is simple. Only by the grace of God. :)

Well, it's late here in Saskatchewan where we are right now and my body thinks that we are in Ottawa, so I should probably hit the hay.

Many Blessings,

Erin

P.S. PRACTICE MAKES EPIC!

Scarborough!

Hello from Encounter 1!

We have been all over the Southern part of Ontario recently, now when someone tells me something about a place in Southern Ontario, I will not stare at them blankly! Hurray!

Last week our whole team got to stay at DJ's house in Essex, ON. It was a great experience and his family made all of us feel right at home. While we were there we did a couple Confirmation retreats in Tecumseh, then headed back up to Chatham for a Spirit Day on Saturday. Spirit Day is basically a rally for all the youth receiving the sacrament of Confirmation this year. Although our team wasn't running it, we did the skit to start off the day, then our team was divided into two groups to do three prayer sessions throughout the day, each with a different group of youth. We got pretty good feedback for our work.

On Sunday we headed to Scarborough, where we did four Gr. 11 retreats in a row. The students were so thirsty for God's message, so it was a blessing the at we got the opportunity to bring it to them. The retreatants got a lot out of everything we presented them. Their teachers were really impressed with how much their students invested in the day. They couldn't thank us enough for showing Jesus' love to these youth, many of which come from broken families, or just hard lives in general. I know God worked through us each day and I believe He will continue to work in their lives in the future. We got a picture taken of our team, and we were told it would be put in their yearbook! How exciting! We even got a tour of the school, then a bunch of the teachers and the principle took all of us out for lunch. Our team felt so loved by all the students who attended our retreats, and we really didn't want to leave Scarborough. The ministry has been going really well, but please keep us in your prayers!

In Christ,

Silken Neutelings
Encounter Team 1

A Massive Year of Worship

Yo peeps!
Erin here from Massive Worship. This year is going to be massive and full of Worship! Our team of seven can hardly wait to cram into the van and begin traveling across the country proclaiming Christ and his kingdom through music. We are still in the midst of Massive worship training and will have our first official youth rally in the next couple of weeks. So pumped!
Last week we did our first practice retreat. It went well! We had a full band setup in a church basement  for the retreat and as a result the church janitor, secretary and a bunch of random repair men had quite the musical day. The retreatants also enjoyed the prayerful tunes, they were singing and dancing along and by the end of the day they were Congo lining it up.
Prayer time with the grade six students was particularly moving. When we entered into the church they were reverent, respectful and prayerful. Many of the students wanted prayer and some of them were praying the rosary and reading the bible during prayer time. All in all, the day went really well and our team is looking forward to starting ministry full time.
For now, we are still training in Ottawa. More updates to come.
Many melodies,
Erin

heres what they had to say...

Greetings from Encounter Team Two! We are currently in

Alberta, enjoying our team day with our supervisors. Retreats have been going well over the last two weeks. Rather than tell you how retreats have been, I would like to share with you what the youth say about retreats.
At the end of the day, we asked them how their day was, and ask them to share their experience. Here’s what they had to say:

“Favorite part: Church, chapel. AMAZING!” – 14 year old
male, Kenora, ON

“It was really fun, I loved that they told us about how
Jesus frees us, not holds us down. By learning that, it was really easy to be
honest and to be myself in prayer time.” – 14 year old female, Kenora, ON

“It was an amazing rollercoaster ride into Christianity
filled with fun, excitement and learning.” – 13 year old male, Cold Lake, AB

“I had a lot of fun! Today really helped me get closer to
God. I thought what you guys did was amazing and nothing was wrong. Keep it
up!!!” – 13 year old female, Cold Lake, AB

“My experience with NET was quite interesting. This
experience made me interested in the NET program. NET made me think about the
real things in life and things we’re surrounded by. I liked the experience… I
enjoyed myself.” – 14 year old male, Kenora, ON

“I liked everything in the retreat especially the prayer
times and games. I now know how I can talk to God on my own as a friend. The
NET people are friendly and entertaining, they have showed me a lot. I had the
best small group leader… I would like to go to more of these so I can get
closer to God in my own way. Thank you NET!” – 14 year old female, Cold Lake,
AB

“I think it was a lot
of fun. It was a good way to learn about God while having fun with your
friends. I liked how they used humour to soften up the serious stuff. I really
liked all the group activities (all the games). It was an awesome experience,
bringing us closer together and to God. Thank you for your help and support,
and thank you for helping us open our eyes and see God in a new perspective.” –14 year old female, Kenora, ON

“Loved the games, especially the penny one. I liked how open
everyone was, it made me feel trusted and that I could trust in return. Loved
the skits before and after prayer time, the one about Jesus on the cross really
struck somewhere inside of me which is harder to do than you’d think. I felt
connected to God, myself, and everyone else when we were praying in the church.
Thanks so much for praying with me. Keep being awesome!” – 14 year old female,
Kenora, ON

“The NET encounter day was a great experience. It’s good to
get youth to reflect on and develop their relationship with God. If you haven’t
guessed, my favourite part was prayer time. It’s not that I didn’t like the
rest of the day (it was amazing), but it was not as personal and eye-opening as
prayer time. The skits were hilarious and entertaining… and the song that Matt
Sullivan same in the top part of the church – well, I LOVED it!!! That and the
skit up there was absolutely fantastic! Thank you, NET team for sharing that
with me, as well as the rest of the school. I certainly won’t be forgetting
this day anytime soon! Thanks again!” – 13 year old female, Dryden, ON

“Today was a very exciting day, I did have an encounter with
God, even though I already believe and already go to youth group. You guys
today made me believe even stronger, and today, I realized that there is more
to live for, that God is always there for you, to be with you and to help you.
Today, I dedicated my life to God.” – 14 year old female, Kenora, ON

God Bless!

Katie
Encounter Team 2

Terrebonne :)

Hello to all!
We are so happy to be able to share our experiences with you :) We are still in Terrebonne, Quebec, for the next few days. After that, we`re heading to Thetford Mines in the Amiante region to put on out first weekend retreat!
In the past couple weeks we`ve done several classroom presentations with grade 8 and grade 10 students (secondaire 2 and 4.) During the presentation, we have a question period during which the students can ask us anything they want about NET, the church, and our faith in God. It`s a joy to see their expressions change as the presentation progresses and as we answer their questions. Those who seem uninterested in the beginning often change their attitudes as they hear our testimonies and they start asking some very deep questions. Others listen with great attention :) It`s moving to see how much the youth are thirsting for the truth of Christ. At the end of each presentation, there is almost always someone who comes up and thanks us for we what do. It`s very encouraging for us in our mission!
Last Saturday, we played sports all morning with a group of young people from the parish. It was a really good opportuniy to build relationships with them and get to know each other. Afterwards, we shared lunch with them and watched an awesome movie about the life of Pope John Paul II. It was a powerful afternoon for us since he`s the patron saint of our team. We are very blessed to have such an amazing man as our model of holiness!
Please continue to pray for us as we continue our mission in Terrebonne and Thetford Mines! Until next time, God Bless!

Julie Godin
Les Équipes NET

Behold, He makes all things new!

Greetings from iNFUSE Team 3's blogger, Lauren!

We've been in Halifax now for a full two weeks and I have to say, it has been amazing so far! Our office has becomes more our own each day as something new is put up on our door or our board. Being more acquainted with the staff (including Father's dog, Monsi and one of the other staff member's dog, Biff), Saint Benedict is feeling more and more like home!

The first weekend in Halifax, Saint Benedict hosted a workshop on the New Evangelization with a guest speaker Tom Quinlan. The first half of the day was really wonderful because Tom referred to Archbishop Mancini's pastoral letter that focuses upon the New Evangelization. When we read this letter as a team, we were all so excited for how on fire Archbishop Mancini is about the topic and how hopeful he is for the future of the Church. The second half of the day, we sat down with the rest of the parish leadership committee and again, we were just blow away with the desire everyone seemed to have to work towards strengthening the ministries they have already established in the parish, but knowing that there is so much more to work towards, and being such a new parish, they know that these steps will be difficult, but necessary, and certainly fruit-bearing in the near future! It was really great to see where the parish is at and knowing that everyone is so willing to work towards a great future in the Church!

This past weekend, after a good bit of planning, we had our first youth nights here at the parish. They were all social nights, so we could meet the youth and have a bit of fun, so the nights' theme was Idol Chef. They got to make their own pizzas in teams and come up with a song and I have to say, some of the pizzas were very inventive! After our high school night, which was a Confirmation Reunion, was over, we got to talking with the Confirmation Coordinator and she mentioned how most of the youth that came to that night really went through incredible transformation during their confirmation year. Many went from a place where they doubted God's existence to a place where their faith was truly growing and forming. I truly look forward to getting to know the youth better and seeing them grow even more in their faith this year.

We look forward to getting more and more into ministry and seeing God work in this parish day after day!

God Bless!

Lauren

(iNFUSE Team 3's Blogger)

iNFUSE Team 3: Back Row (L-R) Kyley Drach, Brandon Grimard, Katie Troutman, Braeden Mann, Adam Desjardinis; Front Row (L-R) Liane Beaulac, Lauren Jones, Erin Lindoff

And so it begins...

October 2nd, 2011
Bonjour from Les Équipes NET!
We have now completed all our english training in Ontario and our team has moved to Terrebonne, Quebec to complete our french training, ministry practice and put on retreats and classroom presentations at the local school.
While we were in Ottawa for the last few weeks of training, God absolutely showered his blessings on us! For starters, we stayed with an amazing host family that had the generosity, courage and space to take in our whole team. What an adventure! Supper was always so much fun, with our 9 team members and our 2 hosts all around one big table. Their love was beyond compare. They payed attention to the needs of each person on the team, made us fabulous meals, and even made us a cd for all our long van rides. We hope to be staying with them again later on this year.

Our first Encounter Day and our first two classroom presentations were last week, both went well. We were excited and nervous but we know God worked through us even with our insecurities. During the Encounter Day, we had many students who arrived not wanting to be there, and by the end of the day they said they didn`t want to leave. Prayer time went amazingly and afterwards many people asked for rosaries and how to pray them.
The classroom presentations also went well. The students were open to us and asked lots of good questions concerning the Church and NET. One of the students took aside one of our team members and told him how much his talk and testimony meant to him. We were all so thankful that God was able to work through us in our ministry.

On October 1st we had our beautiful Commissioning mass at Notre Dame Basilica in Sussex, Ottawa. Surrounded by our family, friends and fellow Netters, we gave our year to God in servicce of His church as missionaries to the youth of Canada. It was a bittersweet moment, being excited to start our mission, but sad to leave all the friends we made during training. We trust God to work through every team and keep us all safe.

Now, from October 2nd until the 20th, we will be in Terrebonne. St. Louis` parish has welcomed us with open arms and we already feel very loved and welcome in this beautiful french community. It`s wonderful to see God working in our own lives through other people, always giving us examples of holiness to follow. We are surrounded by generous and caring people and we are constantly humbled by their great love for God. Please pray for us and all the other NET teams as we take the first few steps of our journey :) May God bless you!

Julie Godin - Les Équipes NET

And our Adventure Continues...

Greetings from Woodstock, Ontario!

So last week we were in Scarborough to do a retreat for an all guys school. We were warned beforehand that the boys had to be approached a certain way, and learn to trust us before they would open up or participate at all, but we were up for the challenge. Though, it was a little bit nerve-racking for the girls, considering we had never had boys small groups before, but we were all pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The boys were so respectful, and they all took part in the activities throughout the day. Our team had such a good time with them! It was one of my favorite retreats thus far. Some of the boys even told us they want to apply for NET when they are of age. Hurray for a successful encounter day!

Shortly after the retreat ended, we went to the all girls school nearby to talk to the students involved in putting on retreats for younger grades. We just told them about NET, what we do and where we come from. Then we presented a skit for them and had some question and answer time. We got a really good response from them too, perhaps they'll be netters one day!

Our Thanksgiving weekend was super awesome too. On Saturday we went to Niagara Falls for our team day. Most of us hadn't been there, so it was quite the experience! I was in awe of how beautiful God's creation is. Coming from BC, Niagara Falls is a really big deal! It's one of those places you hear a lot about, but never imagine that you'll get to see it in person!

That's all for now!

God bless,

-Silken Neutelings
Encounter Team 1

Getting Settled In Yellowknife!

Hello everyone, iNFUSE Team One here,

For the first blog I have decided to talk about our first few days in the awesome city of Yellowknife! After all of the plane switching and plane rides we made it to Yellowknife with no problems at all. Once we arrived we received a very warm welcome from Fr. Ben, Susan, Gerry and some other members of the incredible staff at the Diocesan Centre. We spent most of the first day getting to know our office, parish, and some of the people we will be working with this year which was very fun!

A few days later we were welcomed by James, Christine, and Phoepe, though some call it - pranked. They decided to welcome the new NET team with dish soap on our van, which was

forgotten after they fed us some fantastic spring rolls. James, Christine, and Phoepe are just some of the amazing youth in Yellowknife. We were privileged to visit all three schools, and meet a ton of the youth! It has been a blast laughing and simply getting to know them. The ladies of St. Patrick’s CWL also welcome us on Saturday night with a delicious pasta dinner and cake (insert picture). We spent the rest of the night just talking, laughing, sharing stories, and getting to know the incredible people of Yellowknife.

Another cool thing I just have to mention is that for the first couple of weeks the whole team was privileged to stay in the same host home! Our host family is amazing, they are extremely hospitable, loving and just down right amazing! Our host mom would say “We’re nothing to write home about” but I beg to differ. I have to say we are truly blessed to be place in such a welcoming community. We are ecstatic to be here and can’t wait for what’s to comes. Well that’s it for now, but keep your eyes out for our next blog. We are sure to have even more amazing stories to share with you next time!

So for now, farewell and God bless!

iNFUSE Team One

( Yellowknife )

Bolton!

Hey Everyone!

This is Encounter One's official blogger, Silken Neutelings.
Last Saturday before the Commissioning Mass one of our vans broke down, and therefore was sent to the shop for repairs. We were set to depart on Sunday morning, but without our second van in working condition, this proved to be impossible. Fortunately for us, we were able to kidnap Massive Worship's brand new van! Thus, after gathering our team, grabbing a few things at Canadian Tire and crashing at one of the host homes for an extravagant lunch and snacks (we were all blown away by their hospitality!) - we were off!
We had our first four retreats in Bolton, Ontario, for Gr. 8 students and they were all really awesome. Some of our retreatants felt really touched in different ways, it was so awesome to see God work through our words and actions. I can't wait to see what else God has in store for us and all the youth we meet this year!
God bless!
-Silken
Encounter One: Cristy, Daniel, Alex, DJ, Matthew, Sarah, John, Sydney, Tyler, Mary and Me

In the beginning....

Hey Everybody

This is Infuse 2, Medicine Hat, checking in to inform everyone about our recent progress as a team and as a ministry. We left Ottawa, Ontario at seven o’clock on Sunday, October 2nd. It was a pleasant four hour flight on which Joel and I finished a four hour game of monopoly(I won), and Kyle and I watched “Inception”. Lauren experienced her first flight in a plane, and we spent twenty minutes in the middle of the flight with our seat belts fastened on account of “severe turbulence”. Needless to say, it was an interesting flight. We arrived in Calgary around a quarter after nine, also October 2nd. For all those out there as confused as I was about a flight that took us four hours to fly, but which we landed two hours after we took off, I just want to clarify that the time difference between Ottawa and Calgary is two hours and that, yes, it is possible.

We spent our first Albertan night in Calgary, and drove to Medicine Hat the following morning where we received a tour of one of our parishes, Holy Family Parish. We were hosted by one of our contact persons who had agreed to host the whole team. It was a great experience to be able to be together as a team, especially during our first week here. We’ve spent most of the first week here settling in. We’ve had tours of the city, and we had a tour of Saint Patricks parish, which is the other parish we will be ministering to over the next eight months. We've managed to rearrange our office at Holy Family in order to better accommodate eight people. There’s also a lot of other rooms around our office (ei. conference rooms, staff rooms) which the staff here at Holy Family has been very gracious in letting us use whenever we’ve had a need.

Random Interesting really cool fact, One of our parishes is a consolidation of three parishes, St. Joseph Parish, Christ the King Parish, and St. Mary's Parish. They consecrated it as Holy Family Parish for this reason. How awesome is that?

On Saturday and Sunday we went to all the masses at Holy Family Parish, and introduced ourselves and explained NET a little bit, the we hung out in the foyer and talked to people after the masses. So we've gotten to know a little bit more about the community at Holy Family Parish. Next weekend we'll be doing the same thing at St. Patricks parish, and then we'll be fully integrated into Medicine Hat.

We've finished planning for our high school youth night, which will be at Holy Family, and our junior high youth night which alternate between St. Patricks and Holy Family so that each parish has two youth nights per month. We're planning to start visiting the schools next week and that's when we'll be starting our youth groups.

So, please, keep us in your prayers.

God Bless

Isaac Sullivan

p.s. To love God is something greater than to know him. -- St. Thomas Aquinas

Way Hey and Away We Go!

Greetings from the East Coast and welcome to iNFUSE Team 3's blog! After our beautiful Commissioning Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa, we said our goodbyes to our fellow Netters and got a good night's rest before setting out for Halifax. We drove to Nackawic, NB and stayed the night with some wonderful host homes and the next day finished our trip to Halifax!

We will be spending the next eight months here in Halifax, doing ministry at Saint Benedict Parish. This Parish is a young one, having been built just a year ago! It is the culmination of three separate parishes that have come together to form Saint Benedict. Our first day at the parish, we went to 9:00 am Mass and afterwards there was a Coffee Social. It was so wonderful to be able to talk to some of the parishioners and it was truly a blessing to see how welcoming they were! After only being here for a few days we've received such a warm welcome from the parish community.

Yesterday, we had our first Team Day in Nova Scotia and we went to Lunenburg, where the Fisheries Museum is located. We spent the day there, looking at all the historical fishing equipment, including two ships! On the way back, we stopped in a quaint little town called Mahone's Bay, where a scarecrow festival was happening. Scarecrows covered the whole town! It was all in all a great day for us to bond as a team!

We ask that you keep us in your prayers, especially our ministry, and we will keep you in our prayers as well. We look forward into this year desiring to rely on God's grace and to bring him glory in everything we do!

God Bless!

iNFUSE Team 3

I Will Go

Greetings from your faithful Team Two blogger, Katie Foster.

Our last day of training was completed on Friday, and on Saturday we were commissioned by the Archbishop of Ottawa along with the other NET teams in the Commissioning Mass. While most teams left on Sunday, our team has remained in Ottawa for a few days to rest and prepare for ministry. We head out Wednesday morning for a couple days journey to the Thunder Bay diocese.

I would like to share with you a story from Commissioning Mass. In the afternoon, while we were getting ready, my teammate Mariah Fortune called her mom. In this conversation, Mariah made the discovery that her mom had flown with a friend to Ottawa from Nova Scotia to suprise Mariah on this special night. It was a very special reunion for all parties. What I would like to share specifically was a comment that her mom's friend made upon observing the Netters at Commissioning Mass. She was suprised at the amount of confidence and joy that exuded from a group of young adults. Upon hearing this story, it really made me realize just how much we, as Netters, witness to others not only through our words and actions, but just by our very lifestyle. When people see us, they see that we are different, and in this way we live out the quote from Paul Claudel when he says, "Speak about Christ only when you are asked. But live so that people ask about Christ!"

And with that, I shall depart with words from the Christian band Starfield, " I will go". Tomorrow our team begins the journey. I ask that you pray for our safe travels, and pray that we may all be faithful and effective witnesses of the Gospel.

In Christ,

Katie Foster

Encounter Team Two Blogger

(Top picture - The Net teams sing "God Be Praised" at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa;

Bottom picture - The reserved sign for Encounter Team Two at the Commisioning Mass)