A Life iNFUSEd

Hello and goodbye from iNFUSE #1,

Well, this is it.  The final blog.  Oh my gosh… I don’t even know where to start.  I guess thank you would be a good place – thank you to everyone who has read our blog!  I’ve enjoyed writing it, and I’m glad to have been able to share all the joys of our team with you. 

         It’s been an incredible year.  Although it’s been almost 9 months, it’s gone by so fast.  For me it’s been a year to learn how to love, and I think that goes for the rest of the team as well.  Learning how to love, how to be loved, and how to show love just by loving… crazy right?! 

         What attracted me so much to this ministry and NET itself was the love I saw between the Netters and how dedicated and honest they were to each other.  Just the other day, Young shared with us what one of our host sisters had said – she shared about how we’ve witnessed to her by how much we loved each other and that we had been such a culture shock for her.

         Throughout the year, it was hard to really see all the fruits of our ministry, even when it’s been right in front of us - mostly because we’d always be really focused on what we could improve on.  Coming to the end of the year has given us the chance to step back and see that what we came here to do has been a clean success.

         This week has been filled with goodbyes, tears, and so much joy.  Last week we went to the grade schools for the last time, and today was our last visit to the high school… and it’s amazing to realize how many people we’ve come to know and love.  Coming into this year, the word ‘relationships’ was drilled into our head, and our team ran with that.  Ya, maybe we came here and continued building what last year’s team started, and maybe from the outside it looks like a youth ministry – but I promise you that that house is filled with every individual that we’ve met along the way.  For me, saying goodbye to the host homes who’ve opened their homes and hearts to us all year, was one of the hardest parts.

         All of us have grown so much this year… I can’t say I’m the same person I was when I came here, but I can say that I’m more me than I used to be!  Waking up wondering how you can better love the person next to you, telling each other how important they are to you, and never forgetting why you’re here in the first place – Christ, and His love.

         At first, I’m not going to lie, part of me thought that NET would be easy, that it would be like some awesome sleepover every night, or that going to youth group all the time would be nothing but AWESOME.  Oh boy did I get a huge wake up call.  From the outside, it may seem this way, but it’s been a year filled with climbing, striving and surviving… but despite the difficulties, the beauty of it all, and the amount of growing that occurred, completely surpasses every difficult moment we encountered.  And just saying, it sometimes is like an awesome sleepover, and sometimes it is nothing but AWESOME…

         So, to end this off, thank you once again – for taking the time to share in our adventure, for every thought, and every prayer. May God bless your hearts.

Signing out for the last time,

~ Natalie (iNFUSE 1's Blogger)

Tidings of great JOY!

G'day from iNFUSE #1,

So guess what, last Saturday, not only did we not run Awaken, we participated in it!  The night was called Fellowship of the Cross, and that’s pretty much all we knew about the night, UNTIL that night!  Our volunteers planned the whole thing, wouldn’t tell us anything, and made Judy (one of the volunteers, who happens to be really close to us) swear to secrecy, otherwise if she told any of us she’d suffer the consequences – it’s not as sketchy as it sounds once I tell you her brother is also one of the volunteers!   Well, the night started off in the church, we heard a short talk on fellowship, then we set out on a great adventure through the town of Yellowknife that inevitably brought chalk, 3-legged-races, which led to 4-legged races… (That’s three people tied together… say whaaat?!), 30second-improved-songs, and water balloons.  Oh ya!  It was in tents… sorry I meant intense! 

            Now, just last night, we attended our last iGNITE (Junior High YG), where it was just as intense.  The night was called Reminisce, and we played a whole bunch of games we’d played throughout the year.  In the middle we had a beautiful prayer time where we all had a chance to write a letter to God that would be placed in a time capsule that they’ll open next year.  It was beautiful, and one of the best parts of the night was when one of the youth that had never come before, showed up!  We wrapped up the night with a lot of whipped cream.  The youth got to slam giant plates of whipped cream into the new Squad team’s faces! It was extremely epic! 

            Well, I can’t wait to update you for the last time next week, until then…

May God bless your hearts,

~ Natalie (iNFUSE 1's Blogger)

p.s. A couple days ago (when I wrote this) it started snowing dollar sized flakes…

Hello, hello, hello!

Summertime is unfolding here in Ontario, where our team is now entering into the final week of ministry. We have been super busy lately, putting on retreats and traveling to the next town, in typical Encounter team fashion. Our retreats recently have been amazing, and every day I am left with wonder and awe at how God is working in each of our retreats. .

Two in particular stand out in the past couple of weeks. Both were in Brooklin, ON, a town just north of Whitby, where our team spent a lot of time in the winter. What was unique about those retreats was that the youth attending would be confirmed that night. Basically, they went from the NET retreat right into their confirmation only hours later. Small groups that day were really amazing, as many of the youth were already quite knowledgeable about Confirmation and what to expect. Later in the day, during prayer ministry, we had confession available. Something that our team has experienced time and time again is long confession lines, and these retreats were no different. At many of the retreats, students will only begin to line up for confession after their small group leader has prayed with them, but recently we have begun to encourage youth to line up as soon as they are ready, whether their small group leader has prayed with them. At our second retreat in Brooklin, Mariah told her small group that if they really wanted to go to confession, they should line up immediately, and suddenly, her entire small group moved and got in line! After praying with my small group, I left the church to get more Rosaries from the back room, and when I returned I found that my entire small group had disappeared and was now in the confession line. Unfortunately, due to time, not everyone was able to go to confession, but the priest was generous with his time and offered to come an hour before Confirmation that night in order to hear confessions.

Here's what a couple of youth said after those retreats:

"Today I learned about my faith and where I’m going with it. I learned that I want to spend the rest of my life with God and am looking forward to it. I confessed my sins and felt great about it " -14 male, Brooklin, ON

"I really liked how I could talk to my small group leader and I felt comfortable with her. Today made me want to go out and share my faith with everyone, and to stand up for my faith. I’m even more excited than I was before to make my confirmation and take charge of my own religion. Also, today helped me remember that there are youth programs out there that aren’t all pompous and instead teach you. Thanks!" – 14 female, Brooklin, ON

"The entire NET team was so fun and funny which made the day so much better. It really helped me to enjoy my day here. The video about forgiveness and the little white ball really spoke to me and it stood out. It really made me think and realize that no matter what I do, God won’t love me less. That phrase really stuck in my head. It also made me think about how important God really is in my life and how I feel like I’ve been shutting him out for the past few months. I really want to change that and it also made me excited to get confirmed." – 14 female, Brooklin, ON

Please continue to pray for our team as we do our last few retreats and head to Ottawa for Wrap up Week! Thanks and God Bless!

Katie Foster

Encounter 2

So Long, Fare Well....

Well...It's here...

The time has come to say good-bye to Medicine Hat. To all of our youth. To our volunteers. To all of our amazing host families. To our priests. To this life that we've been living here for eight months. It's hard to believe that it's already over. I feel like I'm still just getting to know so many people. Like I'm at the point where I could really impact people's lives, and where I know that they are impacting me. And now it's time to go. Time to say good bye to our ministry, and trust that the team that comes to the Hat next year will understand, and come to love all of these amazing people we've met. All their peculiarities and all their amazing generosity. I wish there was some way to tell them how much they've impacted me this year....

It's so bittersweet, leaving....We're going to be able to see our families, whom we haven't seen since our two week break for Christmas, and at the same time, we're leaving this amazing community which has become our family in these past eight months, and this amazingly beautiful city which has become our home. I'm not going to lie, it's going to be very weird to be back in Ontario, and to see trees lining the roads that weren't planted, and to drive down a highway, and not be able to see my destination way ahead in the distance, over the fields. I'm going to miss the coulees, those weird giant trenches through the city. Most of all, I'm going to miss the people. I know I said it before, but they deserve me saying it again. The people here are amazing. Letting us into their homes, feeding us, giving up their days and evenings to help us, or to attend our events, coordinating snacks, or making them. All those people who gave up their time just to have a brief conversation with us, or maybe took so much time to get to know us closer...  So many people that have helped us in so many ways.  I know that I can honestly say this on behalf of my team. We will never be the same because of this experience. Thank you Medicine Hat.

God Bless

Isaac Sullivan

Howdy!

Howdy Blogger Readers!

This is Sarah reporting for Encounter 2! I just wanted to take some time to tell y’all about the wonderful people we’ve met in the past few months. We've been back in Ontario for nearly a month, but before that we were out on the east coast.

Because of bad weather we had numerous delayed ferries while on the way to Newfoundland. We had an amazing host family, who took our entire team in for an extra day. On our way back from Newfoundland, we had another delayed ferry, and the same family opened their doors to us when we arrived in Nova Scotia at 4am, even though they were leaving for New York that morning! We returned a few weeks later to do some retreats in that area and they asked to have our entire team stay with them for the whole week that we were in Margaree! 

Our team got to know the family really well and we all got very close with them. After we left, their daughter sent me an email thanking our team for the time we spent with her and her mother. Here's an excerpt from her email:


“NET has been staying here since I was born, but nothing has moved me like God did while you guys were here. Honestly, you will never know what you guys did to my faith. I can't even describe it... I wake up every morning and get on my knees to pray. I try to spread the word of God through everything I do, and people have been asking me why I've been so happy lately. It's awesome. I feel so much better. And it's like... I feel Him. I mean, I really feel Him. Every time I do something good, I can feel that it's right. And I want to have the amazing spirit that all of you have."

Our team has been so blessed to meet so many incredible host families, priest, and teachers. After our retreat in Brockville, Ontario, the parish priest generously offered to expose the Blessed Sacrament and hear confessions for our team for team prayer! It was an amazing way to close off a retreat and we were so blessed to have met such a thoughtful priest. God continues to send incredible people to our team to remind us why we serve Him and to give us small gifts of His love.

In Christ,

Sarah Masters

Encounter 2

(Top photo - Katie, Mariah, Matthew Sullivan, Sarah, Melissa, Eoin, and Matt Scott atop our host home's roof in Margaree, NS; Bottom photo - The team with our host family and the parish priest in Margaree, NS)

An End and a Beginning

Well, it's that time of year! We spent a good portion of today cleaning our office and setting it up for the new youth minister. That's right, Saint Benedict has hired their new youth minister and he's pretty awesome! His name is Ronnie Lunn and he's that guy in the picture to the left! He's been working with us for the past week and he's been at both of our last events for Junior High and High School and it's been really cool for us to see this transition. 

One of my favorite things about this past week was the last High School night. Normally, the group of youth that come to our high school night is a smaller one, but this time, a bunch of the confirmation class came to the night. It was really encouraging to see such a large crowd and how they still wanted to be involved in the youth programs. The future for youth ministry here at Saint Benedict looks really promising and I can safely say that Saint Benedict is in good hands with Ronnie taking over the youth ministry.

I have truly enjoyed this year and when I look back at it, I see how much we've grown as a team and how much the youth ministry has grown at Saint Benedict. This parish is so vibrant and so full of life and I can only imagine how much the youth program will grow and how great Ronnie will be as the youth minister.

Thank you all for your support and for your prayers and for journeying with us this year and we hope that you all have a blessed summer! If you can, come to the Thanksgiving Mass and celebrate this year with us! God bless you all!

Lauren (iNFUSE Team 3's Blogger)

"May peace reign in your soul... any other gift we possess in this life is vanity, just as all the things of this world are vain." - Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Steinbach was worth the trip!

Greetings from MW, Cecile here once again! It is a beautiful evening in North Battleford, where our team is situated right now, and I am sitting on the front porch of the lovely Erin McQuaid’s home. I am enjoying relatively warm temperatures, and eating a bowl of French vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce on top.  Life is good.

It has been an eventful last couple weeks, and right now I’m going to share with you the beautiful time we had in Steinbach MB. Steinbach is a relatively small town, population around 13000, or so I’m told. Steinbach was one of the places that had an iNFUSE team last year, and so it was really exciting for our team to go there and to see the fruits that are still blossoming due to the labors of last year’s iNFUSE team. We were in Steinbach for a week, and during this time we facilitated a parish mission, as well as an inter-denominational youth rally.

The parish mission proved to be a great experience both for our team, as well as for the parishioners that came out to the 3-day event.  It was a unique experience, because unfortunately the parish priest was unable to be present for the event, and so instead of having any sacramental elements to our program, we had to ad-lib with some other forms of prayer and ministry we don’t usually get to do. The first night, as part of the evening we prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet in song. It was a really striking because it combined a traditional prayer that many were familiar with, and the non-traditional elements of praise and worship in song. The second night during the time of prayer we invited everyone to dedicate or re-commit their lives to Christ, and as a visible sign, people took an unlit candle from the back of the church and walked to the front where they proceeded to light their candle  and place it on the alter. It was a moving moment as people flooded to the front of the church and boldly dedicated their lives to Christ. For some this was the first time, and for others I’m sure it was the 100^th. On the final day of the mission, we had a time of prayer ministry, and this too was a touching moment for me. For the entire duration of the time we had prayer ministry available, people steadily came forward to receive prayer.  I’m sure we could have sat there for a whole extra hour praying with people!

On the Friday following the end of the mission, we facilitated an inter-denomination youth rally at the Lutheran church in town. For me, this was one of the most beautiful memories I will hold of this year. About 150 people from nearby churches came out and as one voice sang praise and worship to God. I was at the back of the church, and from my vantage point, I could see many people deep in prayer, all worshiping our God. This is the only inter-denominational event we will do this year, so it is a gift that I will treasure and remember for years to come.

All in all, this was an amazing week. We as a team realized just how big God is, in that He is present and moving in the hearts of many all across our country, but as well, across denominations. Praise be to Him!

Cecile Richard

Massive Worship 2011-2012

In the hat!

Hello all!

Goodbye Kamloops, Hello Med Hat.

Just sending you a wee note from Medicine Hat, Alberta! We began our time here with three retreats in the local high school teaming up with the Medicine Hat parish team to put on retreats for 100+ students each time. All the retreats went well, many students were asking deep questions about faith and God.

We just finished a Massive worship encounter day, which is a day geared towards musicians in the parish, to give them the tools they need to play music in a contemporary way. It is always encouraging to see how God has blessed so many people with such beautiful abilities and it always surprises me how many people aren’t aware that their gift is to be used for Him and for his glory. Every time we do a music encounter day I become more aware of the need for a music ministry which helps people to encounter Christ more deeply and which encourages them to use their gifts without placing limitations on their abilities. Music is such a beautiful way to pray and to see people come to understand that Parish mission after parish mission, encounter day after encounter day is inspiring.

This is why we do what we do. To see musicians grow in faith and use their gifts to serve Him.

Erin

Kapuskasing

Hey Everyone!! How are you enjoying spring? Our team is doing well, having recently spent three excellent weeks in Kapuskasing, northern Ontario. During most of our stay, the whole team was given a vacant rectory to stay in. It gave us the chance to spend lots of time together in the evening, reinforcing our personal relationships and general team unity :) We were warmly welcomed by everyone in the whole area surrounding Kap that we visited. Also, ministry was great! The youth were very receptive and participated well. We really enjoyed putting retreats on and getting to know them over the course of our stay there. It was definitely a high point for us this year! Our last weekend in Kap, we put on a rally for the young people of the whole surrounding area, and all the students from the schools we visited were invited. We had around 20 youth come up and spend the 3 days with us playing "crazy Olympics", hearing talks, having small group discussions, eating together, praying together, watching skits and also performing them in a talent show...it was an intense experience for the youth and for us.

During all the retreats, the Holy Spirit worked in incredible ways. One of the students, upon arriving at a retreat, didn't want to be there at all. After talking to him for a bit he decided he'd participate a little. During the prayer time near the end, he was so intrigued by the experience that he decided to return for the weekend rally. He didn't really know what we'd be doing, but he said he came to find out more about God. The Saturday night we had a time of Eucharistic Adoration, which he'd never done before. Near the end, he came to a member of the team and told him about the amazing experience he's had while praying. In the middle of Adoration, he realized that God was really there and that He was the answer to all his questions. He said that he felt a deep peace, like God had taken care of all of his problems. What a beautiful moment! This young man touched the heart of our whole team with his testimony. God has made us realize that he can transform any life, even those we least expect. This is only one example of things that happen in the lives of young people all over the country. I invite you all to pray for those who have had a recent realization of God, that they may have joy and perseverance, and that they may not become discouraged. Please pray for us as well, in our last month together as a team with NET, that we may make it the best yet and give with all our hearts. May God bless you all!! Julie Godin Les Equipes NET

God is good… All the time!

Hello from iNFUSE #1,

Oh, by the way... it was 19 degrees yesterday! :D 

Oh my goodness!  There are so many things that have happened just this past week!  Let me start off by sharing with you about our Leadership Retreat.  Over the past few months, we have been training many volunteers to replace ourselves by the end of the year.  We are proud to say that God’s will WAS for this ministry to be successful because our volunteers have taken over!  We held a retreat for all of them because they totally deserve it, and it was an incredible weekend – God touched every heart at that retreat in some way.  It was an amazing opportunity to lead this retreat because it wasn’t like a normal youth retreat; it was with our adult volunteers who have already chosen Christ, who have already desired the fire.  I have every confidence in each one of them that they will do incredible things and flourish within this ministry.  Wow! God is good… all the time!

This is Phylicia, she wanted to see if she could
put all 7 of our Parka's on... Success!

Something else that’s brought us so much hope is our high school volunteer – aka The Squad!  Tonight we’re having our iGNITE Retreat for the Junior High youth, and the Squad is leading every bit of it! :D  You guys read from Rianne last week that the volunteers lead a whole iGNITE youth night – well this is A WHOLE OVERNIGHT RETREAT!  They have come so far in such a short amount of time, it’s been absolutely insane to watch.  All of our volunteers have so much zeal and passion… I don’t even have words!

OHHH, and I can’t finish this blog without telling you guys my newest passion… The St. Pats Youth Band! :D  Oh ya!  I have taken on a role as parent of the new youth band that pretty much fell into my hands!  This part of the ministry was something that was hoped for in the beginning, but because the parish already has three choirs, there was no need for a youth band – but after having the NET band play all year, the choirs have enjoyed having the NET Team do rotations.  It’s a beautiful hope that I carry now, and I look forward to letting you know the outcome!  Keep us in your prayers!

”You have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow.  You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.  If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.” – James 4

May God bless your hearts,

~ Natalie (iNFUSE 1's Blogger)

Go Make Difference!

Hello hello!

Encounter Team #1 here!

This past weekend we were involved with a rally in Kelowna, BC. We weren't actually in charge of the retreat, we were just there to help out with games, skits, dramas, small groups, music and adoration. It was nice to be able to sit back a little bit, and get to experience the retreat more as a retreatant than a leader. It was awesome to get to hang out with the local CORE team, as well as the youth who came from all over the Nelson Diocese (some drove 9 hours to be at this retreat!!). The theme of the rally was "Go Make a Difference",  a representative from Development and Peace came to speak, along with 4 other local people who have created organizations to help others in the area, and throughout the world. Basically they were encouraging youth to get involved in social justice. The whole weekend was super inspiring, definitely a success I would say! Also, during adoration everyone was invited to light a candle and bring it up to the front as an offering for their prayers, it was beautiful to see all the youth participate.

Yesterday we drove from Kelowna , BC to Taber, Alberta. We left at 5:00am, hoping to arrive at dinner time, but due to a closed highway and detour involving a ferry, it ended up being a 17 hour travel day. Pretty exhausting, but we were very excited to finally arrive in Taber at Tyler's house.

To my surprise, tonight the guys on our team honored the girls! They told us to get all spiffed up, while they made up dinner - fajitas! So tasty! I was impressed. After dinner they had some 'After Meal Entertainment', which including them acting out each of us and our journey on NET together. It was thoroughly entertaining! They are just great.

Anyways, may God bless and keep you always!


-Silken Neutelings

Encounter Team #1

NET in Wonderland

Howdy y'all!!!

This week's blog entry is a tag teamed mess of awesomeness, and I (meaning Kyle) will be your host for this first bit (with the help of Tanya...). Tanya is super duper excited that her latest host home is a ranch! Our host home ministry is spectacular, and we are really pumped that our host home banquet is coming up next week!!! The host home banquet is our opportunity to thank all of our host families, volunteers, and parishioners, and it will be a spectacular evening filled with fun skits, good people, and great food!

We have had a incredible past couple of weeks. One of the junior highs, St. Mary's, put on a play at the Esplanade, which is the main theater of Medicine Hat. The play was Alice in Wonderland, Jr, and it was awesome!!! All of the students performed admirably and the costumes were so creative. The best part was after the play, we went into the foyer of the theater to chat with the cast. Students came up to us, and were so excited that we came. It was difficult to tell the students apart because of the fancy costumes and loads of makeup but we were able to congratulate them by name...eventually... ;)

Hey, Isaac here! Our last week has been packed with ministry. We did retreats at McCoy High with the help of Massive Worship. A three hour retreat for each grade, and they went great! I can't say for anyone else, but personally, my small groups were amazing. Our first retreat was for the twelfth grade, and for me, it was definitely the one to be feared (I'm only six months older than some of the people there) but it went so well. Our first small groups were only fifteen minutes long, and we had enough time to basically learn each others names and one interesting fact about each other. Our second and last small group was forty-five minutes long, and it started with me asking who was catholic, and that turned into discussion on the Catholic Church. It then continued into a very in-depth, mature, theological discussion on some of the Catholic Church's beliefs on things like pornography, and pre-marital sex. In the end it boiled down to them having a full-out discussion and me mostly just sitting there with my mind blown, watching random students quote random bible verses to support their beliefs, and prove their points. WOW! Some of them in the beginning had even protested to not being Catholic, but still stood whole-heartedly behind some of the catholic beliefs....

Also, in closing, I wanted to tell you about our last Unchained night. We had a social, and part of it (the best part) involved us filling a (new) rain gutter with ice cream, surrounding it with fun ingredients like sprinkles, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. Everyone got a spoon, and as much of the rain gutter they could claim. Awesome.

Thank you for your prayers and support.
God Bless
Isaac