Building friendships

A glory story for this weeks blog :)

Just before we were about to start a youth night I went to check in the hallway to see if there was anybody waiting around and I noticed a young man and his mom. He was just standing looking at the exit doors and his mom was sitting on a bench looking helpless. I introduced myself and started talking to them. I learnt that Jimmy (not his real name) had come expecting some of his friends to be there as well and he was upset because none of them showed up. So I just invited him in personally and said that if he didn’t like it he could go to a different room and I would just let him use my laptop to kill the rest of the time. He seemed interested and said that he would come in at the end of the opening prayer. I figured that this was just a way for him to get me to leave so I agreed and went in to begin the night. To my surprise, a few minutes after the opening prayer he came in and took a seat at the back. As the night kept on enfolding, it seemed as if Jimmy was as well. He slowly started to get more involved. He wasn’t in my small group so I didn’t see what happened there, but as the night was being closed off I noticed him smiling, and laughing with friends he hadn’t even met before that night. Jimmy had gone from looking at the exit door longing for freedom, to shaking my hand and saying he had a great night. It was boss supreme.

- Josh B

iNFUSE 2 - Edmonton

Alberta

Stuck In The Soo

Sara at Niagara Falls

Hey there! Tim reporting in here from the beautiful town of Sault Saint Marie, Ontario! So, we left Grimsby, Ontario on Thursday to head to Regina. How it was supposed to happen was we leave Grimsby and spend one night in Sault Saint Marie, then Thunder Bay, then Winnipeg, then arrive in Regina. How it actually happened was we left Grimsby, spent a night in Sault Saint Marie, tried to go to Thunder Bay but had to turn around and come back and now we're still in Sault Saint Marie for another day. We've been here so long, we get to call Sault Saint Marie "The Soo" (the local name for the town).

On a better note, we had a retreat Monday morning in Stoney Creek, Ontario and what an amazing day that was! They were quite the energetic group, so excited to learn about the day. When we went into the church for prayer ministry, so many of them went to confession that we had activities happening in the other room to keep those who already went entertained! Almost all of the 75 youth at the retreat went to confession! Isn't that brilliant? They were all so excited about the chance to get to repent in front of God that they were practically glowing by the time they left.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll make it out to Thunder Bay. Please keep us in your prayers and we'll keep you in ours!

God bless,

Tim Elliott

Encounter 1

.......And we're BACK!

Greeting friends and family,

We hope you all had a great and blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
Since getting back mid January, we have gotten back into the full swing of Youth Ministry.

Last Sunday we did a High School youth night on Relativism, which was super awesome, we had youth asking so many questions and just wanting to know more about why the Catholic Faith is the one true Faith, we could see them trying to process everything in their minds.
Last Friday Night we had a Junior High youth night on the Christian Symbols in The Chronicles of Narnia, we talked about how Edmund represent our fallen humanity and how Aslan the figure of Christ took our place as a sacrifice for our sins and then we finished the night with a Snowball fight.(Even though for some odd reason the snow here is already melting, we got creative and used paper instead.)

Also one day we heard that some of our youth were taking on an opposing school so we decided to go and cheer them on it was a lot of fun.


So as always thank you for reading and praying for us,
Until next time,
Jonathon, iNFUSE 3, Drayton Valley,AB

Great Mercy

A little while ago we had a High School Youth Group called “The Greater Mercy.” It seemed throughout the day that anything that could go wrong did. Two of our team members were sick and had to leave, another had to write a talk last minute and overall we were feeling very stressed. We sat together and prayed for the night, but I was still nervous about the whole thing. However, when we started everything began to go smoothly and the youth were really enthusiastic. During the evening we had adoration and the youth had a chance to go to Confession. 

At first only the boys in the group went, but then one girl got in line and soon the other ladies followed her. The evening went on beautifully, but soon it was time to leave. However, before leaving the church I noticed one girl was still in line for confession. I went over sat ahead of her and began to pray while I waited for her to go in. As I sat down she asked me if I had ever been nervous to go to confession before. I told her yes and shared with her some of my experiences of confession. She told me that she hadn’t been to confession in years and that she was very nervous. I reassured her and told her to ask the priest for help if she needed and said I would pray for her. Now it was her turn to go in and she left. I waited in the pew for her to come out and when she did she came right over to me. She had tears running down her face as she said “I feel so good, I feel SO good.” She sat beside me and I asked her if she was okay. She said yes, and then asked “does God really forgive me? For everything?” I told her that God really did forgive her, that her soul was as white as the piece of paper in her hand and that God loved more than she knows! She smiled and said “wow.” After that we got up and went to the main hall and as we walked I was almost crying.

What for me had started out as a really hard night became a beautiful witness of God’s love. Not only did He give the youth a chance to experience His love, but through them also made me realize just how close He is to us. Despite the odds being against us, He made the night one of the best Youth Groups we have ever had and I am truly able to say that God was with us.

- Jessica, iNFUSE 2
Edmonton

Back In Beauce

The ladies warming up with some hot chocolate on Team Day .

Hello everyone! Julie here with the first blog of 2014 for Les Equipes.

We arrived back in La Beauce last week after spending sometime in Ottawa with three other teams to receive some more training. We’re thrilled to be back, and have gotten right back into the swing of things.

For our weekly sports night we decided to switch things up a bit, and instead of a sport we played cards and board games with the youth at our office! It was a fun way to spend the evening, and everyone had a great time. The weekend featured our first youth group of the new year with a night for the younger high school students where the theme was “Jesus as a Friend”. We played some team-building games, heard a talk from Matt, wrote letters to Jesus during prayer time, and finished off the night with trivia and snacks. It was beautiful to see them so concentrated sitting in the church writing their letters, and really using the opportunity to deepen their relationship with Christ. Lots of our older youth were also able to come and help as volunteers, and it was awesome to have them getting involved!

This weekend we also had a Youth Mass on Sunday evening. Many families and members of the community came to take part, and the readings, serving and offering were all done by the youth.

God has already done amazing things in Beauce this year, and we can’t wait to see the fruit the next few months will bring!

God bless,

Julie

2014, here we come!

 Hello again! It’s Tim with the first Encounter One blog of 2014! Where has the time gone? Things have been amazing here in Ontario. We’ve been going around the Diocese of Hamilton the past week, getting back into the swing of things. Right now we’re in Deemerton, Ontario doing a weekend retreat for some students from the University of Guelph. God’s been doing some amazing things for sure. Here’s a glory story from our own Miss Amy ten-Bohmer.

“We had a retreat today and I was at the sign in table, greeting people at the door. I met this one girl who came by herself, who didn’t know anybody else. I talked with her for a bit but once everyone else arrived I kind of forgot about her until small group time.

God definitely placed her in my small group. I was so happy to have her in our small group. She brought so much life into our small group with her eagerness to learn about God and all He has in store for us.

Later, we had a snack time, where I saw her standing by herself so I joined her and she told me how she didn't know anybody there so I told her I’d hang out with her for the day. When her face lit up into a huge smile, I knew I said the right thing. We spent the rest of the day together; lunch, the talk, small group, and games.

At one point during the day, she told me how she was involved with her church in many of the ways I had been when I was her age, and were able to bond over that!

At lunch, she told me that she wanted to join NET when she was older, and I told her I had been on a NET retreat when I was in grade 9 and now look, here I am at 21 on NET!

At the end of the day, she told me how she had loved the prayer time we had in the church, and said she was looking even more forward to her confirmation after today. As I was saying goodbye to everyone on retreat, she came up to me and gave me a huge hug and thanked me for the day and for being with her. I told her I would pray for her, and I will never forget the pure look of joy that shined on her face. She thanked me and left with her mom smiling.

            At the beginning of a retreat, you have no idea who God will place in your life that day, but it’s amazing at the end of the day looking back at all the goodness God does every day on every retreat, whether we see it or not, God is with us always and guiding us where we need to be.”

-Amy ten-Bohmer

We’re spending the next few days here in Ontario, then we floor it all the way to Regina, Saskatchewan! We’re all so excited to visit Western Canada next week.

God bless,
Tim Elliott
Encounter One

Foosball Evangelization

Hello and Happy New year!

This past week we returned to ministry after our Christmas break, our first activity was a Cornerstone youth night for high school students last Sunday evening. We had a pretty simple night planned: a foosball tournament with a couple small prizes, and ice cream all in two hours after the six pm mass to just hang out with the youth.

Lots of youth came out and it was a fantastic time catching up over christmas and getting really competitive in the tournament. It was so cool just hanging out with these youths that we will spend the next 4 months ministering to, getting to know them and just being ourselves, laughing and playing a simple game with them.

It was amazing how in this small way we were able to minister to them, sometimes all you need is a foosball table!

Josh Hickman,
iNFUSE 2 - Edmonton,
Alberta