Hello everyone! Sean Roche here from Encounter Team 2! I'm so glad that
God permitted me to rejoin my team despite my knee injury before
Christmas. Ministry has been wonderful as usual! Each time our team gets
to put on an Encounter event I strive to constantly remember why our
team has traveled all across Canada this year. It's for the youth. Plain
and simple! Our team gets to invite so many young people to discover
the personal relationship Christ has in store for them. I want to share
with you a unique experience for myself. I can confidently say that
recently I have experienced the toughest retest of my first year on NET.
Almost two weeks ago my team and I put on an Encounter Day for
almost 140 youth at a high school. On this day we had one team mate with
the day off due to sickness. So there were eight of us and 140 youth to
minister to that day. During the beginning of the day most of the youth
in attendance seemed to be happy to be there. It was as the next few
events of the day occurred that it was tougher and tougher to keep them
fully involved. I was most challenged when it came to the part of the Encounter Day in which
we invite the youth to pray and seek out their personal relationship
with Christ. Despite the fact that we
couldn't keep the gym quiet for our time if prayer, I still made the
effort to pray with the 27 guys in my small group. Normally a small
group has about 8-10 youth in it, so that day was a little different. 26
of the guys in my group let me pray with then! So awesome! I can
honestly say I've never been more completely drained from a retreat.
This year my team and I have out on over 100 Encounter Days so far and
we've still got a few weeks left on the road. After that day the only
thing I could think of doing was to go and spend some time in the high
school's chapel. So I cried for a bit, then thanked God for the day and
by then all of the gear was ready to go.
I still felt empty but next up on the days schedule was team prayer.
It's basically a time for the whole team to be together and praise God.
It's a wonderful gift. Today's team prayer took place in the vans as we
drove to our next town. So we sang a couple songs and then prayed a
Rosary. For some reason that day I felt truly recharged from that van
team prayer. Usually it's tough for me to fully enter in to prayer while
riding in the van but as we prayed that Rosary I honestly felt like our
Blessed Mother was riding in the van right beside me :) It was so nice!
God has continually been helping me see the joy in so many places. Yes
that day was really tough, but if one youth encountered Christ in any
way during that day then it was all completely worth it!
Currently our team is in Barry's Bay, Ontario and its lovely here! Thank
you everyone for your reading and for supporting all of us here at NET
Canada through prayers and it donation. I am truly blessed to be a part
of this beautiful ministry.
Sincerely,
Sean Roche
Encounter Team 2 Massive Worship
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