Putting our "Hats" back on for departure

This is it. All is said and done. Complete. Finished. The End... 

These are not the words I want to be hearing but unfortunately all good things must come to an end at some point in our lives and this is one of those situations. We, Infuse 2 are departing from Medicine Hat, Alberta this week leaving behind a lot of amazing people and a community truly in love with our Lord Jesus Christ. This year we as a team gave it all that we had for all our events, our friendships, and our parishes but yet I feel like we received so much more in the end. It's just a true example of how much God loves us with absolutely no conditions what so ever! 

We were able to have our final Unchained and Equip this past weekend with nothing but craziness and laughter! Friday night at Equip we had a Blast from the Past games night where we played some of their favourite games from the year along with some new ones. Secret Dancer, Sharks and Minnows, and Pancake Flipping were some of the games we got to play and man nothing but smilies were present! All of the Equip youth are going to be greatly missed and in a few years I'm sure a few there will be a few more Netters coming out of that group! So excited! 

Then for Unchained we had a bit of a food fight challenge which only included lots of runny Chocolate Pudding. Now you have to be wondering what we got up to right? Let me tell you: Chocolate Pudding - Slip and Slide - Egg on a spoon Challenge!!! Yeah that was pretty crazy and extremely dirty. Then we had more chocolate pudding and sponges… You guessed it they got to throw these sponges at us on the Net Team. It was defiantly "sweet" revenge for the youth after we had made them do some crazy things this year. We finished the activities with the classic school yard game of Tug of War. It was a great fight to watch! Thanks to all our youth for coming out and being so dedicated to your faith! 

With all this said we say Thank you. It was been an absolute pleasure being able to blog for the world about our happenings in Medicine Hat, AB as Infuse 2 of NET Ministries of Canada. We are excited to know that the youth and community will continue to grow in their faith as life goes on. This is our Thank You video to Medicine Hat but I hope all who read this and watch the movie just see how amazing this year has been. With that said… ok don't cry… Thank you and God bless. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LptsOMsQSXY

With lots of Love and Prayers, 

Matthew ten-Bohmer

Infuse 2, Medicine Hat, AB

From the World's Largest Teepee 

The End Is Near

Hi Everyone!
I can not believe that the end of this year has approached so fast!
It has been such an amazing year, both for the community of Lethbridge and for our team!

This last week here has beautiful.
This past Sunday we had a goodbye party after the 6pm Youth Mass we go to every week at St Basil's Church here in Lethbridge. During the homily during the Mass, our priest, Fr. Kevin, asked our team to stand up, and he talked about how we are just normal people, but are spending this year taking time from our busy lives to serve God, and God is using us to touch other people's lives this year. This was both humbling and affirming. We are all given the same gifts of the Holy Spirit. You don't have to be a priest, nun, or missionary to evangelize. It is the call of all people united under the Catholic faith. After we got to sit back down, he asked the congregation to stand up if they had been impacted in any way from our team being in their community for the past year. It was so beautiful seeing almost everyone in the full church stand up! Sometimes you don't realize you are touching people by the work you are doing, but even just by being a witness as someone who loves Christ, you can touch people's lives. One guy I got to know this year pretty well told me how much we had impacted him and helped him grow in his faith and change him in a good way! Sometimes I think that I only impact the lives of the youth we encounter at our youth groups and school visits, so I was caught off guard when people I was just friends with outside of our ministry work had been affected by us being here.

We also had our last PULSE Jr high youth group night this week. We had a huge game of capture the flag in the park across the street from the church, and we ended the night with Sundae the Netter. Basically, we supplied the needed materials to create the perfect sundae, and then let the youth dump it all over us. We were a mess, but a sweet tasting mess. It was a grand way to end our awesome year here!

God gave us such an amazing year! May God Bless you this year and many to come!

Love
Amy ten-Bohmer
iNFUSE ONE
Lethbridge, Alberta

Count Down...

We are down to our last week of ministry here way down south in Medicine Hat, AB which is really sad to think about! It's hard to think about how much we've put into this community, our programs, and just our year in general and just in a blink of an eye we pack our stuff up and are gone. This is what we came to do though, to build up the parishes to the point of where they can easily support themselves with a transition of a full time youth minister (please pray for whoever God is calling to this position).

Our retreats are officially done as well! The confirmation retreat was our final one with 90 youth that showed up for the day. Obviously starting at 9am in the morning on a Saturday not to many kids were to excited for that which meant high energy was a must right off the bat! We started with a high energy game of Principle of the School which requires a lot of team work. At first it was slow going but once they grasped the game things got intense! Afterwards we had a classic skit called "Pick Pocket" where we inform the youth of the high rise in the crime of pick pocketing through fast and slow-mo reenactments (It was all just for a fun and a big joke to get the youth laughing)! As the day went on things got more fun and the youth had a blast. As the day went on we got to the Prayer segment of the day. Many of the youth were effected by this time to just sit and pray with Jesus and prepare their hearts truly for the great sacrament they are soon to receive. Just want to thank all the youth that came out and may you have a most blessed Confirmation!

With only two events left, Unchained and Equip and then we are gone next Thursday, May 23rd from Calgary, things are crazy. So many mixed emotions are defiantly floating around the office of dreading the leave but also excitement to see what God has in store for us next. God will truly provide just as he has done this past year through us and the community of Medicine Hat. 

Stay tuned for next week's final blog. God bless!

Matthew ten-Bohmer

Infuse 2

Medicine Hat, AB

From the World's Largest Teepee

Just to prove we do have it ;-) 

Updates Of Joy from Drayton, AB!

This past week we have been busy welcoming the beautiful weather here in Drayton! The days are longer, the sun is brighter, the heat… so nice!

           

             At Reach, the Junior High youth night, last week we played Catholic FAQ Jeopardy. The youth had lots of fun trying to grab the buzzer (squeaky toy) once they knew the answer to the question(s). It was filled with both simple and learning questions; some that I didn't even know the answers to, which was awesome!

            At Revive, the high school youth night, last week we had a night on our awesome Mother Mary. A series of talks were broken up throughout the night on different topics, such as Mary’s life, the importance of the rosary, apparitions, and the story behind the miraculous medal.

This week, being our second last week of events, we decided to have both Reach and Revive nights focus on the ‘Call to Evangelize.’ We talked about our Call as Catholics, and how it is very challenging at times to have the courage to share and be a witness to other people, but also how we can learn more, by asking questions, satisfying our curiosity about the faith.

Our volunteers have been trained and are raring to go!!! We have some really great volunteers who have now been fully trained to lead games, give testimonies and talks, etc.! They are doing really well in their new leadership positions and are always up for the challenge to try different tasks! In being trained to evangelize youth, these volunteers are growing so much spiritually in their own lives, and we can see it. It is so exciting, and it is really great knowing that these volunteers will be here to help next years team out.

God Bless,

Monique Pelland & iNFUSE 3

Drayton Valley, AB

REAL LOVE

Hard to believe there is only 3 weeks left of ministry work. As we prepare for the end of our year, let me share about this past weekend.

We’ve put on a variety of events for our youth throughout the year, one of the last being an overnight retreat for high school students, which not only included skits and games, but talks and prayer time as well. To our surprise, over 35 youth attended this retreat, which is awesome considering the high school has just over 100 students.  My favorite part of the retreat was the very end, and not because they had to leave, but because you could see the bonds they made among themselves and with our teammates. Not all of the students came from the same school, but all were included on this retreat, and our last small group showed the impact of these relationships when we all took turns affirming each other. The theme of the retreat was REAL LOVE, and I really think a lot of them really "got it". One young woman even had the courage to pray on her knees in the gymnasium during prayer ministry.

Throughout the year, we have grown close to many of the youth, and we’ve even seen some of them mature into faith filled leaders. One of our youth really started taking our faith conversations to heart and now shares these topics with his friends. He says he now strives for more depth in his friendships and he also plans to become a volunteer for the junior high youth group!

Drayton Valley has decided to start warming up! We were able to play outside for sports night this week and we're hoping to enjoy the fresh air this weekend for Young Adults Group with a BBQ.

I pray your days are just as sunny!

Stephanie & iNFUSE3
Drayton Valley, AB

Crunch Time!

2 weeks left. This fact of life is a very hard pill to swallow knowing how much the whole team is going to miss this place of Medicine Hat, AB. Many of us know what God has up his sleeve for us this coming academic year, others don't have a clue. The thing is is this is when we really get to trust in the Lord's will being done in our lives outside of Net. 

With only 2 weeks left though we are jammed packed to the brim with events, retreats, and get together a with our friends! This past weekend we had an amazing time at the Equip Retreat. The theme of the weekend had the youth think about how they can connect with God in different ways   The options we went over were Prayer, Fellowship, Sacraments, and Service. It was defiantly drilled into their brains at the end of the weekend but we could clearly tell it made a huge impact in their spiritual lives. Often when we ask youth how they enjoyed a retreat lots of the time they respond with "I loved having lunch and playing games" but that was not the case this time. So many of them said they experienced God in a new way and were beyond excited to get to know Him even better with the new found tools of faith they had discovered over the weekend. 

We also had a really interesting night on Vocations for Unchained. We had 2 priests, a deacon, married couple, and one of us sitting in for the single life. It was so beautiful seeing how Christ is bringing so much joy and love to every vocation that we get called to in life. It gave us all an opportunity to really think about where God is truly calling us after our time on Net. 

Confirmation Retreat this coming weekend with an estimated 100 youth showing up so there are defiantly some nerves going into this ( given that we only have about 40 youth at our biggest events) so prayers are always appreciated! God bless! 

Matthew ten-Bohmer
Infuse 2 
Medicine Hat, AB

When We Say UNITE, You Say RETREAT!



Camp Columbus in Waterton

Hi Everyone! We just had an amazing weekend retreat for 19 high school students held in beautiful Waterton National Park at Camp Columbus, located about an hour and a half away from Lethbridge. It was so wonderful spending the weekend in the mountains and marveling at God's creation. The theme of our retreat was real love, so we decided to name it UNITE!

Retreat T-shirts!

The retreat contained several talks, skits, dramas, and games! We had a lot of fun while leading the teens who attended closer to God. At the end of the 3 day retreat, we had an open mic session and invited anyone up to share their experience of the weekend. One girl spoke about how she experienced God in a new way, and has a new desire to focus on her relationship with God!

It was a solid weekend, and it is crazy to think we only have 2 short weeks left in Lethbridge for this year! It was been wonderful getting to know so many awesome people here, and they will be missed!


God Bless!
Love Amy ten-Bohmer
iNFUSE ONE
Lethbridge, Alberta

What Are You Living For?

Let the retreats begin! Coming down to the final couple of weeks here it's time to start wrapping things up with the year end retreats. It's such a great time spending extended periods of time with the youth, getting to know them and leading them closer to Christ in a different way then just our regular 2 hour nights every week. This past weekend we got to hang out with the First Communion and our Unchained youth for some excellent time growing closer to God. In the First Communion retreat we had time to reflect on the sacrament of receiving the Holy Eucharist for the first time, high energy activities for them to get to know each other better and praying with all 110 of them was definitely really moving and special.

Over the course of the Unchained retreat we started with a talk challenging them  about what are you truly living for? This weekend was made to make the youth think and really focus on how we can truly open the doors to greatness in living with God at the centre of all that we do. Sure we may have only had 4 of our youth able to stay for the whole weekend but they were the ones that God called. It was made very evident as to why they came in just the ways they came to love Christ and grow in a relationship with him. Absolutely beautiful. 

We also had a really cool opportunity to meet with Bishop Fredrick Henry of the Calgary Dioceses last weekend as well! It was great to show him just the presence of Net in our community. Unfortunately it was for our Nuns that are leaving our community. They are Carmelite Sisters with such a love and passion for our Lord Jesus Christ and his most Sacred Heart. A huge thank you to their time spent here in Medicine Hat and may God bless them on their journeys. 

Stayed tuned for this next weekend full of retreats! God bless!

Matthew ten-Bohmer

Infuse 2

Medicine Hat, AB