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