Saskatche-what's up?!

Hello friends from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (try saying that three times fast, eh?). The last little bit we've been going around the diocese of Regina, Prince Albert, and Saskatoon. It's been an amazing time. Such amazing experiences have been happening around Saskatchewan, it's crazy. Just when you think God has shown you the best thing you've ever seen, BAM!!! He shows you something greater!

One retreat we had in Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, I had an amazing experience. We were in middle of our Prayer Ministry during the retreat and I'd just finished praying over the guys in my small group when one of them went up and got one of our bookmarks. We have these bookmarks with readings from the gospels marked on them (so you can read about Jesus' life in chronological order) but we'd ran out of bibles, so I ran out and got my own personal bible. I gave it to him and opened it up to Luke. I said if he had any questions, just ask me and I'll help as best as I can. He read for about thirty seconds and looked at me and asked 'Why did God send an angel to Mary and not just tell her Himself?' He was reading the Annunciation. It just so happened that that morning in personal prayer, I'd read the part of Exodus where God presented Himself on Mount Sinai to Moses and the Israelites, so the answer was fresh in my mind. I got to explain to him all about it and why God sent the Angel Gabriel. Reading his Encounter Experience Sheet later, I saw he had written this:

Today I saw that there are actually young people who not only talk the talk about the church, but walk the walk and have fun doing it. I never knew that people could both have faith and have fun. I can't wait for next year's retreat.

This really brought me a lot of joy, to see that God worked through us and into him. It's the little moments like these that truly remind us of why we do what we do, to bring youth to Christ.

God bless,
Tim Elliott
Encounter One