Shine Like the SUN!

Hello fellow friends on the world wide web!

Encounter Team One here in beautiful British Columbia! We are currently here in the Okanogan and the weather here is absolutely GORGEOUS. It was +27C yesterday! Feels like summer.

The other day we had a family retreat and I was leading a Gr. 4 and under small group. I had a 7 year old boy in my group and he was sitting beside me during the talk. He leaned over to me and asked if I wanted to pray a rosary with him, I was kinda stunned at first, but I agreed to after the talk. After the talk was over, it was announced that we were going back into small group, so I tried to explain to him that we had to go join the others in our group and maybe we could pray a decade with everyone. But he replied saying “I want to pray a couple whole rosaries, and a divine mercy chaplet for all the souls in purgatory and I don’t want to spend time with the group, I want to spend time with God.” I was blown away! I didn’t know how to respond! Such a young child, so on fire with love for God and for others. Later on he pulled John aside and said “C’mon, we have to go say bye to Jesus!” So he ran off to the church. I felt really inspired by his how in love with Jesus he is, it was to beautiful to witness.

Host families continue to amaze me. Over and over I have the privilege to stay with really beautiful, holy families. For the last 4 days, me and 2 of the other girls got to stay with an especially awesome family in Armstrong, BC. Every night, no matter how late it was, and no matter who might be over at their house, they always prayed a rosary. It made me realize that there really should be no excuse for missing prayer. If it's important, then nothing else matters. This family was just so fulfilled with Jesus' love, you could tell by how vibrant and happy they were.

May God bless you continually everyday!

-Silken Neutelings
Encounter Team One's Official Blogger

Do You Love Me?

Hello faithful blog readers!

Encounter Two here, officially back in Ontario and doing ministry full time. We just had our last supervisor visit, right in Ottawa, and we took the weekend to reflect on the past year and offer thanksgiving for how God has been working in our lives. One thing I’ve realized is that I’ve had a difficult time really seeing the fruits of our ministry this year. It is common, being on a traveling team, to not see many fruits at all, since we are, as the cliché goes, “here today and gone tomorrow”. I was thinking about it though, and I was tempted to despair and started asking God, “What’s the point of this? Are we even making a difference? Is all our efforts to bring the Gospel across Canada even worth it?”

I took these questions to prayer this past weekend, and God gave me some insight. I was consoled by the knowledge that NET really does make a difference in the lives of so many, even when I cannot see it. I was filled with a deep trust that God knew what He was doing, and though He was keeping my eyes veiled to His glory, He was still using us to bring about His kingdom on earth. I also realized that at the core of all we do as missionaries should be a deep love for Jesus. While it’s amazing to be driven by a zeal for ministry and evangelization, it is even better to be driven by a love for Jesus (though often this is the fount from which the zeal for ministry flows). I was journaling about all this, and here’s what I pictured Jesus saying to me:

Keep your eyes focused on Me. As you look into My eyes, I ask you, “Do you love Me?” Is your answer yes? Good. Let it be your love for Me that fuels you through the remainder of the year. Don’t worry about the big picture, about whether it is making a difference or not. It is, but I don’t want to show that just yet. If you knew the difference you were making you would want to do this mission for that reason. But I don’t want that to be your reason. I want your love for Me to be your reason. You may not see the big picture, but just keep your gaze on Me, and I will do the rest. Do you love Me?

Signing out with eyes focused on Christ,

Katie Foster

Encounter Team Two

(Top photo - Julia, Colin, Eoin, Melissa, Matt Scott, Mariah, and Matthew Sullivan perform a skit on retreat; Bottom photo - Emily praying in Nackawic, NB)

When one door closes another one opens!

Hello to all you wonderful people that follow NET Ministries of Canada! It's been a great past few weeks here in Nova Scotia! We had a very busy but beautiful Easter week! We went to the Easter Vigil, It was truly beautiful. Fr. James sang the Exultet and it was just one of the many parts of the Easter Vigil that I love! My favorite part of the Easter Vigil is going all the way through salvation history and seeing all of the prophecies that are fulfilled through Christ!

Just this past weekend our supervisor Caitlyn came out to Halifax to put on the Interview Weekend for NET at Saint Benedict. It was so awesome meeting the people who may be coming on NET next year and seeing their fire for their faith. Leading a time of praise and worship for them was my favorite part of the weekend because I got to see them experience God through music, which is something I'm really passionate about. It was really beautiful to see them encounter God by praising him through music. It's always a beautiful experience and I am blessed to be a part of it.

I hope this finds you well and as our ministry is winding down in this last month, we ask you to pray for our team and for our volunteers as we tie up loose ends and hand over our ministry to the parish. Please keep us in your prayers and know that you are in ours.

God bless you all!
Lauren (iNFUSE Team 3)

Volunteer TAKE OVER!

Hey everyone! This is Rianne reporting from Yellowknife

to put a little daily dose of hope into your life.

Our iGNITE high school volunteers with 

Fr. Ben after a successful night!

This past weekend, we had our regular double-whammy of both iGNITE (gr. 7/8) and Awaken (high school) youth groups. However, these youth nights were almost foreign to me because I am being slowly and smoothly weaned out while our volunteers are slowly and smoothly taking over!

Our past iGNITE was led by one of our most devoted high school youth, Kleinberg. He did a FANTASTIC job! He led with confidence, remembered all of his training, and I even learned some tips from him. The night was based on having a Heart of Worship. An adult volunteer led music, while two other high school volunteers led two games, and another even gave her testimony! I didn't even have to be there!

 Erwin Sumcad (iGNITE volunteer) leading the 

Gr. 7/8s with a “Heart of Worship” through song.

At our Awaken, a volunteer gave a talk on the importance of community, and another volunteer led a song, and another a game! Our NET Team is being replaced, and this is very exciting. It is a bit hard, having to let others take the reigns of a ministry that we've put so much of ourselves into. However, it puts me at peace knowing that the more we let go, the more God can sustain.

May God bless your hearts,

- Rianne Rops

p.s. Just an update from me, Natalie - Today it's 5 whole degrees! :D Just wanted to let everyone know, it's finally spring! I even went out and got myself a slushy yesterday!

Livin' it Up in Vancouver!

Hey Everyone!

Spring has definitely sprung in Vancouver! Everything is as green as ever and the Japanese cherry blossom trees are in full bloom! They are gorgeous.

Last Tuesday our team had the privileged of having dinner with the Archbishop of Vancouver, His Excellency Michael Miller, as well as all the other youth orientated staff from the archdiocesan center. Meeting the Archbishop was awesome, he was quite eager to meet us and get to know us. He was also very interested in hearing about the work we had been going is his diocese, and the response we got from the youth at the retreats. It made him and us feel more connected. We felt so welcomed by his Excellency and everyone else at the office, we had a blast!

A bunch of us girls stayed with a Korean family recently. They were so cute and super awesome, they just moved to Canada two years ago. The Mom didn't speak too much English (well, so she said, but I thought she could speak English really well...), so after dinner we her and the kids teaching us different phrases in Korean! It was so epic!

We had our last supervisor visit of the year this week as well! It made us realize we only have 6 weeks left on the road, so we might as well make the best of them!

May God bless you muchly!

-Silken Neutelings
Encounter Team #1

"Smile! Jesus LOVES you!!"

Beautiful!

Hello from iNFUSE #1,

CHRIST IS RISEN! :D Can I get an Alleluia! Wow, so this past week in the Knife, has been SO beautiful and so refreshing. Holy Week may possibly be my favorite week of the year when it comes to being Catholic. First, it started with Holy Thursday, where Young and Charles got their feet washed, and we celebrated the Last Supper… It still blows my mind. On Friday, the team got to spend the day at Trappers Lake Retreat Center where we had a silent retreat. It was such a great opportunity to just be in the presence of God – Trappers Lake is one of the most beautiful places in Yellowknife. The 3 o’clock service was beautiful, and venerating the cross was exceptionally beautiful also. The reverence of the church blew me away, almost everyone knelt down to kiss the cross.

Holy Saturday was our Team Day, and the best part of it was watching The Passion of The Christ all together with the team right before Easter Vigil. The final scene where you see the shroud fall slowly, where Jesus is sitting there glowing with holiness… BAM. What a beautiful scene to be left with before celebrating His resurrection with the whole church community. The Easter vigil was incredible. I feel like I can’t help but describe this whole weekend as beautiful, and my computer dictionary says that there is no word more beautiful than the word beautiful… Well, when the lights came on and the words Alleluia started filling the room – it was BEAUTIFUL.

One of the best parts of the night was the moment our team was walking to our van from mass singing Christ Is Risen at the top of our lungs. It was a late night, but chocolate ice cream at midnight definitely made it more worth it! :) Easter Sunday itself was a really great day! We had a NoOb (No Obligation Day), which meant we did whatever our host family did – it was all-in-all a pretty solid weekend, and I pray all of you had a beautiful Triduum as well!

May God bless your hearts,

~ Natalie (iNFUSE 1's Blogger)

HALLELUJAH /ALLELUIA!!!

Hey Everybody

Medicine Hat here with the big scoop of all that's been happening lately. First of all, I LOVE being on a parish team. Especially this time of year. The fruits of our labour are starting to bloom.Beautiful.

"This time of year is my absolute favourite part of being on a parish team! Going to the Easter vigil was really beautiful. Sitting in the church in the dark waiting for the service to start, I felt like I was waiting for THE most exciting show of my life to start! I felt super loved and surrounded by family and friends. We knew SO many people there, and even had one of our youth come and sit with us! I love having so much family and so many people that love us here. We definitely have another home here, and will continue to even after we leave. ALLELUIA!"(Rachel Hargrave, iNFUSE 2)

We also helped out with the music, and it turned out beautifully if I do say so myself.

Also, we recently had our Unchained (Gr 10-12) Retreat on Real Love. It was really good. We had (I think) 15 youth, and around four of them had never been to our events before. One girl in particular I was just informed had never been to any of our events, and came to our retreat by herself. The next week she spent all of our lunch visit telling her friends about us, and the retreat, and she has come every weekend since then.

We're only here for six more weeks so please pray extra hard for our ministry. And pray really REALLY hard on May 22, because that is the day when we have to say all of our good-byes, and it's going to be really hard. Thanks :) and God Bless.

Isaac

ps. Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.- Martin Luther King Jr

A New Beginning

Hey everyone!

Our team is currently in Nova Scotia, traveling through the beautiful Cape Breton area. Last night we were in Sydney Mines, doing a confirmation retreat. All of us girls were staying with a couple of the catechists who prepare the youth for their confirmation, and we got chatting about how they had seen God working that night. They were telling us about this one young man who was being confirmed, and how when he came to his first confirmation class, the excuses people were using to get him to be confirmed were busted and he wasn't sure anymore why he should be confirmed. He stuck with the classes, however, though he sometimes would get out of doing some of the required prep activities. He did end up coming to our NET retreat, and apparently really enjoyed it. We had confession on retreat during prayer ministry, and he was the first one in line, not even waiting to be prayed with. Several of the other boys followed him to confession, and overall many of the youth took advantage of this great sacrament. It was very touching and inspiring to our host family, and they could tell that the Holy Spirit was moving!

Have a Happy Easter!

Katie Foster
Encounter Team Two

(Top photo - Our team at Cape Spear, Newfoundland; Bottom - Hanging out around a campfire in Cape Breton)

Happy Easter!

Hello Everyone! This is Silken, from Encounter Team one!

Happy Easter! Christ is RISEN! Praise the Lord! Enjoy the Easter season, and all the promise it brings!

We were blessed enough to spend Holy week at my house, in Kamloops, BC. The whole team spend the weekend, yup, we had quite a full house. It was awesome to get to celebrate Jesus' passion and resurrection at my home parish, with my family. We also had the opportunity to watch 'The Passion of the Christ'. A few of us had never seen it before, but all of us agreed that Jesus' sacrifice was truly an act of love. I felt so distressed seeing it. You hear about the passion all the time, but it doesn't actually hit you until you see how brutal the Way of the Cross really is. It was really eye opening.

Last week in North Vancouver we had a group of Confirmation Candidates at our retreat and they all took advantage of the opportunity to go to Confession. One of the girls on retreat mentioned

that her experience with Confession was really refreshing, she felt relieved. It was so beautiful that she had such a great time that she wanted to share with our team. Everyone on retreat seemed to be genuinely interested in what we had to say, so when it

came time for prayer, you could tell that many of them had had an encounter with God. What a beautiful thing to witness.

That's all for now! May God bless you abundantly!

-Silken Neutelings

Encounter Team #1's Official Blogger

John 10:10

Happy Easter everyone! Isn't it moving to celebrate the passion, death and glorious resurection of our Lord? I hope the Triduum was a beautiful weekend for you, as it was for us.
We have spent the past week and a half in Terrebonne, QC, which has somewhat been our "homebase" for french ministry during this year and the past few as well. Our team was there for thanksgiving, then again in January, and again now for Easter. During our stay here this time around, we had so many amazing experiences surrounding the Easter season. We had lot's of ministry (Classroom presentations at a great school in St.Jerome and a few confirmation retreats,) but we also got the chance to deepen our own faith through several activities with the parish. We attended the Diocese's Chrism mass, went to the diocesan World Youth Day on Palm Sunday, attended adoration on Holy Thursday, and watched the "Passion of Christ" on Good Friday. We were also given the opportunity to all serve mass at the Easter Vigil mass, and we did the music, shared a personal story and performed a drama on Easter Sunday.


Through all this, we were able to witness a spiritual renewal in each other as a team, as well as a beautiful, growing love for God in the young people of this community. We have been able to see the change in them over the course of the year. To see the way that they support and encourage each other is truly inspiring. We are really going to miss the friends we have made in Terrebonne, as this was our last stay there as a NET team this year.
After watching "The Passion" film as a team,one part that really touched all of us was when Jesus fell for the 2nd time and Mary runs to him We see his pain, and as he gets back up, he looks at her and says, "See Mother, I make all things new." We saw that Christ suffered so much, so that we could be freed from our sin, and given new life. His love for us is so intense, so perfect. Without Jesus's love we would have no life, and so the lives we have, we give to Him.



We are on the last stretch of our year with NET Ministries, only 7 weeks left. Please pray for our team as we spend the next few weeks in Kapuskasing, ON, and for all the youth we will be encountering. May God bless you as we continue this joyful Easter season. We'll be praying for you!!


Julie Godin
Les Equipes NET

"I came so that you might have life, and have it in abundance." - John 10:10

God has a Great Sense of Humor

It’s great to see situations unfold where you see how the Holy Spirit works in this ministry. About a month back we planned to have a night on the Eucharist with our High School youth group. But we later decided that it was too heavy of a topic for the youth we currently had coming out. We wanted to keep more on the level of the lowest person in the group, so we decided instead to do a night on whether or not God exists. When the night finally came, something sort of funny and amazing happened. A man wandered into our night looking for and AA meeting and instead found our group. We invited him to stay and he played a bit of ping pong with us and even participated in our group game. Most of us didn't know who he was at that point, but he also agreed to stay and listen to the talk. It’s funny, because the first thing he said to one of the Franciscan sisters that help at our nights was that he didn't believe in God’s existence. (Thank goodness we never did a night on the Eucharist!)

So on our night went. The talk was very philosophical and structured on Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Five Proofs of God’s Existence. About five minutes into the talk this man began to interrupt and at first we were afraid he was going to start an argument. He was very curious and had a lot of questions. So his hand shot up every few minutes to discuss more. After the talk was over he had so many more questions that what would have been time for an ELA (experiential learning activity) became a big group discussion. I was worried at first that the youth at our night would be uncomfortable with this because they were so quiet for a lot of the discussion. But I was very surprised that eventually even some of the youth and young volunteers we’re training began to defend the faith and explain things to this man, who was very accepting of their answers. This man decided afterwards to join the boys small group as well.

Later in the night we wrote letters to burn after. Either written to God or yourself, with your thoughts or offering up to God your problems or asking him to show you his existence. This man was the first to begin writing and even helped us to light the letters. We spoke with him afterwards and he told us that he walks by our parish all the time and this time he felt as though he should come in, so he did. He said it was God messing with him, but it was amazing to see, and he admitted to believing in some form of God later on and in a historical Jesus, he just has a problem with believing in parts of the Bible and a “physical God”. But at least a few of his misconceptions of Catholics were shown to be wrong by the end of the night, and he said he felt very loved by all of us. He told us he would love to come back. We also had a teens mom there to help us that night, and she gave him more resources and information about programs going on in the Church in case he was interested.

It was a strange turn of events where nothing at all went according to plan for our youth night, but it turned out to be so much more beneficial. The youth were talking a lot in their small groups and were able to see firsthand what they need to be witnesses to in the world.

It was a cool experience!

Kyley,

Infuse Team 3

MORE Here's What They Had To Say...

Here's some more feedback from youth that our team has encountered since Christmas...

“I liked…prayer time because it really changed my perspective on how to live life. Eoin and Matt really made me feel that I can change and really take my faith to a way higher level”.

“I liked how people actually experienced these things in the talks. It’s not, ‘Yeah, you don’t even know’. They actually do know”.

“Today I definitely came closer to God. I was not anywhere as close to Him as I came today. I realized how much He did for me, and how amazing someone would have to be to do that!”

“Today, during prayer time, I felt really close with God and I was a lot more focused during prayer time then when I’m at church or praying before bed or meals. I felt very relaxed afterwards and good because I asked for forgiveness. Today I also realized that my life is going way too fast and God is not always part of my life every second of the day and He should be. I feel very VERY different after prayer time, and all of the talks that we had together”.

“I LOVED the retreat! I really want to do NET when I’m old enough….I really enjoyed prayer time because it’s a time where I can just connect with God”.

“Today after prayer time I felt God in my heart and I felt lighter because I told God my sins and I feel like I had a fresh start…. Thanks NET for coming out to us and opening our hearts to let God and Jesus in”.

“During the day I had an encounter with God. I had my encounter when we had the prayer time. It was nice to have a big chunk of time just to sit and pray or talk to God. I found it very soothing just to relax and talk to God”.

“On the encounter day I learned how to enjoy Mass and learning about Christ by immersing yourself in the Catholic faith, which we did in our encounter in fun ways like skits and games”.

“I found today very exciting. There was a balance between entertainment and learning about God. Some of the things I learned were how easy it is to put other things before God, how God and the priest try to show us the right path in life, and I enjoyed how the games we played also had something to do with life”.

“I loved it when we were in the church praying”.

“I learned that you need to trust for things you can’t see. I learned that God is patient and is there for all of us. I learned that you have to put God first”.

“I also enjoyed the prayer session because I have a lot on my mind, so it was nice being able to just sit and think, and ask God for what I should do. They made me realize how important my faith is”.

“I really enjoyed my experience today, and I think it will bring my relationship closer to God. I’ve learned a lot, and I am very grateful for it. I liked how everything that we did had God and everything tied with it. I had an awesome day! Thank you very much for such a great experience”.

“My experience today changed the way I look at things. I realized that what people do daily can relate to God in so many ways. I really enjoyed prayer time the most because I got to talk to God on my own....To be able to have the time to talk to God about everything that I’m feeling what a great experience for me. I had a great dayJ”

“During prayer, I had a feeling in my heart that God and Jesus were with me the whole time. It was the greatest experience I have ever had”.

“The prayer time was a great experience. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed the Rosary on my own before. It was a good experience and I plan on doing it again. Before, I wasn’t sure how ready I was for confirmation, but now I know I’m ready”.

“I felt really connected with God when all of us had our moment of silence with Him. It was nice to see all your friends and classmates feeling the same way you do with God”.

“This was a great experience, I am so glad I came. This really helped me with some questions I had…. Today I felt really connected with God, and after this, I think I’m going to be going to church more often! Thank you guys!”

(Top photo - Typical retreat setup; Bottom photo - The greeting we received in Rothesay, NB)

Katie, Team 2

Here's What They Had To Say.... Confirmation Edition

Hello from the East Coast of Canada!

Quick update: Our team has been on the East Coast of Canada for a few weeks now, and are just leaving Newfoundland and heading to the Antigonish, NS area for Easter!

Since Christmas, our team has been doing many confirmation retreats for schools and parishes. For about two months, Initiation Complete (aka the Confirmation talk), was the main theme booked. Even though we haven't been doing as many confirmation retreats in the last few weeks, I would like to update our faithful blog readers about how this nation's youth are preparing for their confirmation. On many of our retreats, we give the youth an opportunity to provided feedback and let us know how they encountered God during the day and how the day has affected their lives. Here's what they had to say...

“The prayer time was a great experience. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed the Rosary on my own before. It was a good experience and I plan on doing it again. Before, I wasn’t sure how ready I was for confirmation, but now I know I’m ready”.

“Today was really a day that changed my life. It really made me realize that confirmation is not just about praying all day and doing boring stuff. This day made me realize that confirmation is a really amazing thing. I want to thank Sarah, our small group leader, because she helped me really understand what confirmation means, so thank you!! This day was really fun and I feel like I’m so much closer to God than I was before. They taught me so many things, but the one that I liked the most is that no matter how bad things are, if we trust in God, there is always a way to fix this. I have prayed and laughed sooo much on this day. It has been a life changing experience!!”

“I believed that today was an awesome day. I got to learn about God and Jesus. This got me prepared for confirmation because I got to learn how to pray on my own in silence. It helped me get stronger and closer to my faith than I was before. It helped me realize what it means to be responsible, mature, caring and loving, and to have faith in myself, that I will be able to talk to God, Jesus, and my parents about the day. Also, I’m proud of myself to become a great younger adult. I will remember this day forever- great experience, can’t wait to tell my friends, family, and everyone. I will always share this and remember it forever”.

(Top photo - Matthew Sullivan loving the wireless microphone in Whitby, ON; Middle photo - Eoin and Matthew Scott playing the defeat of Satan at the hands of St. Michael; Bottom photo - Our team in Bradford, ON)