Un coeur de gratitude

Bonjour!!!


Les dernières quelques semaines étaient très occupées pour nous! On avait quelques soirées jeunesse, une retraite familiale, une soirée d'adoration, deux messes jeunesse, une visite de superviseurs, et plein de rencontres! Chacun de ces événements demandait beaucoup de préparation et c'est vrai que notre horaire est toujours plein. Notre temps ici avant Noël est presque fini et lorsqu'on regarde les événements qu'on a déjà eus, c'est vrai que notre travail avance rapidement. Comme responsable de la musique, je suis toujours en train de former des musiciens et musiciennes.

 Jusqu'à maintenant, ils ont déjà joué avec nous pour une messe jeunesse et une soirée d'adoration!Une chose qu'on a faite plus récemment dans l'esprit de l'Avent a été une levée de fonds pour l'apostolat jeunesse. On a chanté des chansons de Noël au IGA ici à St Georges, avec des seaux pour que les gens puissent y déposer de l’argent. L’événement a été organisé par quelques bénévoles et beaucoup de nos jeunes sont venus et ont joué de la musique. On était là pour représenter NET, mais on n'était pas les organisateurs comme d'habitude.

Une chose qui me frappe est à quel point nous sommes bénis ici en Beauce. La communauté est incroyablement chaleureuse et belle. Depuis notre arrivée, chaque prêtre, personne-ressource, secrétaire, sacristain et jeune a été tellement accueillant et présent pour nous. C'est vrai qu'on travaille fort comme équipe, mais ces personnes font des tâches dont on n'est même pas au courant. Je suis reconnaissante pour ces personnes et aussi pour mon équipe. Jusqu’ici, notre équipe a rencontré beaucoup de difficultés, mais Dieu m'a donné une équipe très forte et sainte.

 

C'est incroyable comme le monde peut prendre leurs dons et la bonté de la vie pour acquis. Je suis coupable de ça. Je remercie les gens, sans vraiment penser au travail qu’ils font. Peut-être que, dans l'esprit de l'Avent, on pourrait prendre le temps de remercier les personnes qui travaillent fort, même si le monde ne le voit pas autant. Peut-être qu’en plus, on pourrait remercier Dieu pour le cadeau de son Fils et se souvenir de son amour pour nous.

Joyeux Noël!

Rebecca & Les équipes NET (Josée, Lisa, Andrée-Anne, Sara, Matt & Zak)

The Home Stretch!

With Christmas just around the corner, iNFUSE 2 has been scrambling to wrap up all of our events before we head to Edmonton for December retreat and then Christmas break. It seems that just as our ministry has started to get busy we are headed home. It's definitely hard to leave, especially such a wonderful community like Weyburn.

As I mentioned before, the past few weeks have been wonderfully busy. We've finished all our Encounter days, started up small groups, and also had our usual ministry including our high school and middle school youth groups, sports night, youth liturgies, lunch visits, and so much more! We are all feeling pretty worn out and are very ready for a break, but the ministry keeps us fueled. It's so powerful to see the impact that we are having in the community.

Having our Encounter days has been an especially powerful experience for all of us. After each day we read the "experience sheets (X-Sheets)" of all of the youth and we are always amazed by how many youth say that their favourite part of the day was prayer time. Sometimes we would have a group that was especially unfocused and it seemed like prayer time was just going to be a boring 30 minutes of sitting. However, God works in w
onderful ways, and no matter the attitude of the group, prayer is incredibly impacting and beautiful. God is working in hearts here!

As we go home for Christmas, we feel a little bittersweet. It's hard to leave the community just as we feel like our ministry is taking off, but on the other hand we need a good long rest so that we can do all that we need before we leave for good in spring.

Pray for us! God is working miracles here! 

God Bless,

iNFUSE 2 

Sometimes He Make us Swim

One night at our high school youth group, we talked about prayer. We were asking the youth what prayer means to them; what it looks like in their lives. One girl spoke up and said, “I was struggling with a few things and I was at this event, and I looked up at the wall. On the wall I saw a picture of a quote that said, ‘Sometimes God calms the storm, sometimes God calms the sailor, but sometimes He makes us swim’.” She said that she felt that God was speaking to her through this.

This was a great reminder for our team. We recognize that sometimes God is really good to us, makes it easy for us, and other times, He just wants us to work and grow. To strive for what we want to accomplish.She wrote that quote on the board for us, and it's been there ever since.

And then at our most recent high school youth group she pulled two of my teammates aside and said, “I really just feel like I need to talk to you. I can feel God’s presence with me for the first time in my life. I can literally feel God with me”

These are the moments that make all that we do worth it. These are the moments that we can see the fruits of our work and we can smile because we know that we made a difference in this young woman’s life.

We are heading off now for our Christmas break, and we will be back in January. We will miss our home that we have made here, and we are very excited to come back to the youth of Swift Current to help and watch them grow in their faith and relationship with God. 

Merry Christmas Everyone!

- Hunter - iNFUSE 1, Swift Current, SK

The Coming of Christ

What is this season that we celebrate? The Latin word Adventus actually means coming. This coming is the coming of Christ, and in the readings at this time of the year we hear how we must prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. Advent is a season of joyfully awaiting the coming of Christ and what Christmas truly means.

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." -John 3:17

The true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of this incredible act of love. The real Christmas story is the story of God's becoming a human being in the Person of Jesus Christ!  

In other news, our team is doing well, though ministry is slow here in the North. While it grows, we are building really good relationships with the youth here in Yellowknife. So far we have held two iGNITE youth groups, a CLT (Christian Leadership Team) retreat, and a Confirmation retreat.

Living at Trapper’s Lake Retreat Centre is both rewarding and difficult due to the men's responsibility of overseeing the maintenance of the retreat centre.  Even though it can be tough, we have many reasons to find joy in the midst of the frustrations:  we have made a hockey rink on the lake and have also had the opportunity to go snowshoeing there, which gives us just one more reason to love the work we do. 

Until next time, thanks for reading and God bless!

Ben from iNFUSE NORTH 

I Will Triumph

“So I will triumph over my enemies around me. With shouts of joy I will offer sacrifices in his Temple; I will sing, I will praise the Lord.”

 -Psalm 27:6 

This morning I sat on the couch watching out the window for the men to pick us up, as my teammate sat in the kitchen talking to our host mom. As I sat there I was thinking about how much I didn't want to have a conversation with them, and I’d rather sit alone in silence.

Dennen and Joy being joyful!

I’m supposed to be investing in my host family, even at 8:00 in the morning. However I wasn't doing that because I wasn't choosing to sacrifice how I was feeling to choose to love. Instead, I chose to sit in silence and let my grumpiness take over. I realized that I wasn't making an effort or a choice to be a light in the darkness, or for Christ.

Our team has been praying for the gift of Joy these last few weeks. During team prayer on Sunday, we were nearing the end of our hour and we were singing ‘Multiplied’ by Needtobreathe. Something made me laugh, and once I started, I couldn't stop. And before I knew it, we were all laughing. We were laughing at each other, and laughing at ourselves. I think that day was a time when the Lord really wanted to bring some joy into our day. Joy and laughter is so contagious when it comes from God. Joy is truly a gift to have, especially in times of struggle.

Joy is a decision and a sacrifice. Choosing joy goes much deeper than just having a happy day because things are going well. Choosing joy is deeply rooted in our faith, hope and trust in God.

As I go through this day and the rest of this year, I am trying to make a conscious effort to make a sacrifice and choose joy. Not only should I do this for myself, but also for those around me so they can see the joy of the Lord in me and be joyful themselves.

Every time I think about seeing Christ in someone, I go back to the story in the Bible about Mary going to visit Elizabeth. Elizabeth immediately knew that Christ was within Mary, filled with so much love and joy. I am always trying to strive to be just like that, and so should we all.

I challenge you to seek and strive to radiate with Christ's joy and goodness!  

Spread joy and Christmas cheer!

God bless,

Hunter

iNFUSE 1 - Swift Current, SK

Planting Seeds of Faith

Over the past week, life for our team has been a bit different than what we are used to. Rather than our office being home base, we have been very scarcely in our office but busy running retreats for the students in the community. Over the past four days we have had five major events, and three of those events have been Encounter days. Encounter days are day-long retreats which really challenge retreatants to make a personal commitment to love Christ.

The retreats have been an incredibly powerful experience for everyone on team. A few times we have started the day feeling really unsure about if the material we have planned will be effective and touch the hearts of the students we will be ministering to. Each day, however, our doubts have been pushed aside. On our first retreat, we had several students share with the whole group that after their time in prayer they had started to believe in God for the first time and believe that God had a plan for their lives. Some students sharing were even moved to tears in front of the whole group because of the powerful experience they had in prayer. The next retreat we had students who were eager to ask tough questions and really looked for answers and how they applied to their lives. The last retreat that we had yesterday was especially amazing. While we felt uneasy about it all morning, and weren't sure how effective it was even after the retreat was over, we received an email from one of the staff members thanking us and telling us that several of her students were given the courage to really change their lives and live for Christ, all because of what they had learned at the retreat. Praise God!

Rachel prays with one of the girls in her small group during
the prayer ministry portion of the day

While retreats have fun and games, we had the opportunity to see lives change during the prayer ministry portion of the afternoon. Many students who were rambunctious all day quieted down and really concentrated during prayer ministry. Each team member was given the opportunity to pray with the members of their small group individually. For many of the retreatants, it was the first time anyone had ever asked to pray with them! We felt privileged to share the love of Christ in this way. We pray that the days might plant seeds of faith in each of their lives!

Pray for us as we continue our ministry here in Weyburn!

God bless,
Jillian and iNFUSE 2

The Holy Door : More Than Just a Celebration of History

“If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.” (Pope Benedict XVI)

Every week, our team has the opportunity to spend a whole day together. These team days always consist of different adventures and conversations, and last week was no exception to this. We drove about an hour and a half to Québec City, in hopes of walking through the Holy Door at Notre-Dame de Québec there. This year marks the 350^th anniversary of the church, making it the oldest North American parish north of Mexico. In celebration of this anniversary, the Holy Door will be kept open until December 27^th, 2014. The door has an engraved image of Jesus on the outside and you can even place your hand in His as you go through the door. On the other side of the door, there is an image of Mary. Before entering the door, there are a series of reflections and scripture verses you can pray, to prepare your heart for entering. 

We arrived in Québec City, ate lunch and made our way to the church. We each took turns walking through the door, praying and meditating inside the church and chapel, and had a very positive experience. One of the biggest things that kept hitting me while we were there was how blessed we were to be able to experience such an incredible grace. The door hasn’t been opened in years and once it’s closed, it will be closed for another 25 years. Inside the church, the tomb of St François de Laval is present. St François de Laval is one of our patron saints and his canonization, as well as the canonization of our other patron saint (St Marie de l’Incarnation) are being celebrated and honored during this 350^th anniversary.

How blessed are we to have had the opportunity to enter through the Holy Door, see the tomb of one of our patron saints and had to drive only an hour and a half to experience it! I can’t speak for the whole team, but I personally experienced a lot of healing and peace in my heart during our visit. It was a gift and a blessing to be filled and touched in such a way.

God bless!

Rebecca & Les équipes NET (Rebecca, Sara, Andrée-Anne, Lisa, Josée, Matt, Zak)

Joy Volcano

We have ventured all the way from Ontario to the East Coast of Canada. Having spent five nights on Prince Edward Island, I realised how varied the landscape can be across this vast nation. In the same respect each school’s vibe is drastically different from another. Returning from a retreat one evening, we received a card from a girl who had attended one of the events our team facilitated. Directed towards our team it stated , “The way you are joyful with one another in your team and the way you shared your joy with us, made me think I just have to become a Netter one day.” Praise God for joy!

Pope Francis in his encyclical Evangelii Gaudium notions that, “An evangeliser must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!” We have been blessed on our team to have many opportunities to be filled with joy. This is not limited to a myriad of humorous encounters along the journey. Permission to divulge some upon you? Brace yourselves, the story onslaught is coming.

1- On one occasion after prayer ministry, I asked what the young men in my small group had experienced or were feeling. Various responses were given; a sense of peace, relief, even excitement. The very last retreatant responded by stating that he felt “prayeralicious”.

2- At the commencement of an encounter day the retreat leader allows for others to guess what the acronym NET stands for. Although National Entertainment Team is the most frequent stab in the dark, the most surprising attempt was National Evangelisation Terrorists!?! Let’s hope that we aren’t seen as being so forceful with spreading the Good News.

3- So preoccupied with the excitement of a supervisor visit there came a time when our mighty Tahoe truck ran out of fuel. Amidst the acknowledgement that this would set us backward in time, we found it necessary to lighten the situation via a game of chess on the hood of our vehicle on the side of the highway, followed by a spontaneous team photoshoot. (Fabulous)

4- While on the road, we try as a team to save money in numerous manners. At one point, our team leader Nico desired a haircut. As a brotherhood we presumed it appropriate to proceed over a garbage can in a function centre bathroom. I tried to use a pair of clippers donated to us by a NET alumnus, but was unable to trim any of his hair. As time dripped past we decided to trim the top before the sides. Suddenly, pressing harder than usual, a tuft of hair fell down exposing scalp. Belly wrenching laughter and tears were followed by the realisation that Nico would have to be shaved completely bald now Oh, by the way, drastic haircuts are not encouraged during NET.

5- The written description of a student’s experience at one of the retreats, “I had a good time at the retreat, but I didn’t get to see Pop (sic) Francis. This made me really sad.”

Whether it’s falling asleep during the concluding talk of an encounter day (the Go Forth), participating in MAT (Male Acapella Time), a parish priest spontaneously telling us that it's “All about that bass”, youth confusing death as a sacrament rather than the anointing of the sick, there are so many moments of fun and humour that add to our joy. 

But it is at this avenue that I ask a question; Is joy a choice or a gift? After all, I have heard it notioned many times that you can choose joy, and at the same time I am aware that it is taught as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Collectively, our team has discussed about the times when it is simply difficult to summon joy. In these times, we realised that regardless of whether joy comes from the will or directly from God, it is always possible to choose love first. When this choice is made, our soul gives permission to experience the joy of God, not an imitation joy that emanates from selfishness. I leave with you further beautiful words from Pope Francis that are comforting when joy is hard to recognise:

“Joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.”

God Bless!

Francis Encounter Team 1

iNFUSE meets Encounter

Over the past few days, the office has been in chaos as we prepare to have our day-long retreats with the grade 6-9 students! We are all preparing talks, games, funny skits, and so much more. We are so excited to see what kind of influence we will have at these day long retreats, and more importantly how the Lord will work in the hearts of all the youth we encounter.

NET has three different kinds of teams: iNFUSE, Les Equipes (our French ministry), and Encounter. We are an iNFUSE team who works in an office and helps to establish youth ministry programs at our parish. The other team is an Encounter team which travels the country and does day-long retreats at schools and parishes. We feel incredibly privileged to be able to act as an iNFUSE team but put on Encounter retreats for the youth to whom we have already been ministering.

The most exciting part about putting on our Encounter retreats is that once the retreat is over, and the youth are filled with fire for the Lord, we are able to continue to help them grow in their faith through the youth groups we lead, praying with them, and continuing to check up on them.

Please say some extra prayers for us in the next few weeks as we minister to several hundred youth and continue our regular ministry here at the parish!

God Bless,

Jill and iNFUSE 2

A People of Hope

"The one who hopes lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted a new life." - Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope), second encyclical by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Hands down, the number one thing that strikes retreatants during their time with us on retreat are the few testimonies that are shared. A testimony is when one of us NET members get up and share about a difficult trial they have endured in their life, or their conversion story. Recently, we had an extremely energetic group of youth. All throughout the main talk of the day, they were distracted and chatting with each other, but they quieted down upon hearing the first word of one of our team member's testimony. I asked my small group later what they thought about her story, and their initial thoughts were that it was, "sad" and "depressing", until one girl commented, "But, really, it kind of helped me see that even when there are difficult times in life, you can get through them. God can get you through them."

What a message of hope, that we "can do all things through Christ who strengthens us" (Philippians 4:13)! No wonder hope is considered one of the three cardinal virtues, when it is something that can keep people going when they've apparently lost all else. We should not be miserable, because, as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once said, "the one who hopes has been granted a new life". That is what evangelization is about, sharing the hope that is within you and that sustains you. Hope is what we breathe when we lead retreat after difficult, seemingly fruitless, retreat. That is one of the many reasons why Jesus came to earth. Jesus came to give us a hope that would sustain us, to give us a new life and a reason to keep moving, despite all the difficulties. And the great thing about the gifts that God gives us is that they refuse to be solitary. As God's people, we have a hope so amazing that we cannot help but share it, and by sharing our stories of how God gave us grace to overcome our difficulties, the youth we encounter cannot help but catch that hope themselves. What a beautiful job we have, to be bearers of hope.

Our testimonies all have that one same theme: new life, and the hope that got us there.

God bless,

Encounter 2

Conversation with God

Prayer, what a gift!

I am going to share what prayer means to me, and some things from my prayer journal. 

Sometimes I ask myself, why do I spend my life thinking about Someone that I cannot see? That Someone is God. But really I should be asking myself, why not? For God is the only reason that we live and the only reason that we have a chance at eternal life. God is the most beautiful, all-powerful, and mightiest being ever. God has the power to give us to eternal life in heaven or to condemn us to eternal damnation in hell. The choice is ours; we are the ones who decide by the things that we do in our lives. We decide whether we want to spend our future with or without God.

Through our prayer we are able to become closer to God and to let God speak to us. Prayer is literally conversation with God. And in that conversation with God we are able to reveal our innermost desires, thoughts, and problems to the One who is all loving.

Olivia shares, “Prayer is an opportunity to talk to God and to listen. Prayer is an important way to build your relationship with God and to make it stronger. It is a time in your day that is for God and for God alone. It is a chance to tell God what is going on even though He already knows it. We are able to have the comfort that He totally understands and that He is going through whatever struggles and whatever joys that you have with you.” With God we are able to lay our burdens down at His feet and know that He carries them with us. 

During prayer ministry in a Christian Leadership Training retreat, I was able to pray for one of the boys. I asked him what he wanted me to pray for and he replied in a long answer: he said that he had ignored God for far too long and that this retreat that we were holding really meant a lot to him. He shared how even though he knew God was there he was just putting Him aside and brushing Him off. He said that he wants to grow closer to God through his prayer. He asked me to pray for this and for the strength to follow God even when it is really hard.

So now I ask you:  how long has it been since you asked God to show Himself to you? When was the last time you offered your own life to God and asked Him for strength in following His will?  Consider joining this young man I prayed with, and renew your commitment to God's plan for your lives! 

Thank you for reading,

God bless,

Ben and the team from iNFUSE 3/ NET in the North.