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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

La grand-mère de Jésus, l'Europe et une maladie contagieuse


Allo tout le monde!!! C'est Déneige Loiselle, la fransaskoise, qui écrit cette fois. Je suis tellement heureuse d'avoir l'opportunité de représenter notre belle équipe numéro 3! Et puisque Kevin n'écrit pas sur le blog cette semaine, j'aimerais lui souhaiter un extraordinaire anniversaire de 20 ans!!!! Wahoo!

Alors, notre semaine au royaume de neige, la province de Québec... Les grosses buttes brillantes au soleil, les chemins glissants, les tuques et les foulards, les vieilles églises, l'Europe... l'Europe!?! Ok, pas exactement, mais je me sentais vraiment en Europe lorsqu’on a visité le Vieux-Québec. C'était vraiment bien d'avoir la chance de se retrouver en équipe dans un endroit si beau. On s'est promené, on s'est amusé et on a aussi décidé de se séparer entre gars et filles pour le souper. C'est vraiment incroyable, avoir des amis avec lesquels on peut partager et s'encourager mutuellement dans nos cheminements avec Dieu. En priant et en partageant en équipe à chaque jour, Dieu nous fortifie de plus en plus pour être ses missionnaires.

La semaine passée, nous avons été chaleureusement accueillis dans la région de la Beauce. Malgré le temps froid, nous avons trouvé une belle chaleur auprès des gens de cette communauté. Nous avons animé une petite soirée de rencontre avec un petit nombre de jeunes agés de 12 à 49 ans. C’était une soirée remplie de rires et de partage. La présence de l’Esprit saint était forte. En partant, plusieurs personnes disaient qu’elles avaient attrapé la bonne maladie contagieuse que NET apporte.

Finalement, nous avons été gâtés une fois de plus. À St-Étienne, nous avons été hébergés avec des religieuses... et Jésus! Elles avaient une petite chapelle chez elles et je peux vous dire qu’il y a quelque chose de très spécial et mystérieux quand on demeure avec la Sainte Présence. Nous avons aussi eu l’opportunité de visiter la basilique de St-Anne-de-Beaupré. Wow, wow et wow! Cette immense église consacrée à la mère de la mère de Jésus est, avec les fameux mots de Kevin Prada, «un peu beaucoup» incroyable! On a eu la chance de célébrer la Messe et de faire le chemin de croix. On a découvert l’art sacré qui est partout partout et aussi acheté des beaux articles religieux qu'un prêtre a pu bénir, et bien d'autres choses encore.

Le Centre Agapè était une belle bénédiction! On a visité cette école/communauté de jeunes adultes catholiques jeudi dernier. On a mangé le souper ensemble tout en écoutant leurs témoignages et en partageant nos expériences de mission. Nous avons aussi célébré une belle Messe avec eux. Leur année de formation de foi est vraiment inspirante.

Alors avant d’arriver à Embrun, en Ontario, là où nous sommes actuellement, nous avons passé la fin de semaine au centre de Versant de la Noël à Pontbriand. Nous étions invités à participer à une retraite qui portait le thème «La foi au présent.» Nous avons rencontré et échangé avec beaucoup de merveilleuses personnes et nous avons aussi animé durant une heure qui a inclu, entre autres, des témoignages, des chansons, une saynette, etc.

Maintenant, on se prépare pour une grosse retraite d’environ 140 jeunes! Wahoo!

Avec amour, vérité et paix de Dieu,

Déneige Loiselle de l’équipe #3

"Le Seigneur prend plaisir à ton bonheur." (Deutéronome 30:9)

P.S.: En haut, c'est Connor, chez les soeurs de St-Étienne, en train de jouer dans la chapelle; et en-bas, c'est l'équipe lors de notre visite à la Basilique Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, vendredi passé.

Birthdays and Edgers...



Happy unbirthday Erica MacLean!


That’s right, we celebrated Erica’s unbirthday this weekend, and it was an epic day indeed. We decorated our van with balloons, streamers and other birthday related decorations, so that when we picked her up in the morning, she would get a MASSIVE surprise indeed!


First we went to the church for some Team Prayer, then we arranged a scavenger hunt for her, basically at each station, one of us would be there with a game or challenge for her to do to collect each present that collectively made up her gift! It was EPIC amounts of fun I tell ya!
We then went to Maria's, one of our host mum’s house for an intense hour of MAFIA!!!

For those of you who don’t know, mafia is a fun game you can play with 6 or more people, involving the mafia, a doctor, a sheriff, citizens and a race to find out who the mafia is to eliminate them! Or if you’re a mafia, the aim is to eliminate everyone else from the game.
Then we watched a movie, drove to the University of Alberta for 2 great basketball games and went home to our little beds for a sleepful night of rest.


On a side note, our Edge nights are going great! This past night was called “Massive” which was our night on the mass, Hannah and Marc gave a great talk on Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist and everything that goes on, on a Sunday night at the church. A few of the teens really enjoyed the night, one teen came up to us after and thanked us for small group time, and they explained how they felt they were able to speak openly of their faith for the first time! Incredible hey?


Besides that, our office is running nice and smooth at the moment, we are as busy as bees with bums full of honey, but it's a good type of busy, our whole team is a wee bit in love with ministry, and God is giving us the graces to soldier on through the busyness.

God Bless you all!
Emma.

Team 4
P.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARC PUIGMARTI

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Manichewan = Freezing Cold!


Hey y'all! Sean Milan dropping in for another blog update on team 1!

This past week we dove head-first into the Winnipeg Diocese. It was quite an adventurous week, with lots of sightseeing and meeting lot of new people. After three days of traveling we were pretty exhausted, which is funny to say because its not that tiring to travel, it's just time consuming! But lucky we had a couple half days of rest, and we took advantage of that. On Wednesday night we were invited to a prayer group meeting open to anyone. It was lots of fun, and about 30 to 40 people showed up. We spent time doing some good ol' Praise and Worship, and then read the readings for the day. After that, we took over and spent the rest of the night doing a mini net retreat. Afterward we mingled and ate, enjoying the fellowship. It was super awesome to see so many young people into their faith. The majority of them were university students, but we did meet a few people who were still in high school. A little recruiting was going on as well! We then ended the week with two retreats, one was our first 12-hour retreat, it was lots of fun and lots of work, but we pulled through and made it an awesome day. On Sunday we went to Mass at a retirement home for religious orders, we spent about three hours there, enjoying their company and hearing their stories. We met a nun, Sister Yvonne, and to say the least she was the funniest woman I had ever met. She gave us a tour of the retirement home and gave us a history lesson on how the Grey Nuns came to Winnipeg; it was such an awesome time to to get to know who these these people really were behind the habits and collars.

After saying our goodbyes, we left Manitoba behind, and crossed over into Saskatchewan. We are crossing borders like a bunch of fugitives at large. Its seems like a soon as we arrive somewhere, we are already leaving it. Oh well, something else to get used to I guess!

Anywho hope you all enjoyed reading this, I would personally like to affirm you on your reading skills, also putting p with any of my grammar mistakes!

God Speed

Sean Milan Net Team 1

Monday, February 1, 2010

Hello all blog readers! Yes, once again it's time for another exciting update from Team 2!!

This has been a pretty relaxed week, but none of us are complaining! We did three Encounter Days, which were full of energy and went really well! All the youth were very appreciative and thankful. One boy went to each of us and thanked us personally! Our "movie skit" also went over well; our team recently learned this one and have performed it a lot lately. Sometimes I think our team laughs more than the students! I guess we're a pretty funny bunch of actors.


On Wednesday we had the awesome privilege of having adoration during our prayer ministry! I think Jesus really worked in the hearts of the youth that day. Most of them were emotional, it was a very beautiful time. I always enjoy prayer ministry, but this time was even more special!



In Guelph, we had the privilege of visiting Our Lady Immaculate Church, which was very beautiful. Unfortunately we weren't able to take any indoor pictures, but Christian and Brenden took this great outside shot.



This weekend was a bit of a switch and our team got to go on a retreat! It was held in a small town called Deemerton, which apparently not many people know about. It's basically in the middle of nowhere! The retreat was attended by about 50 university students from local schools. We provided music for the retreat, but other than that we got to participate in everything. It was a great weekend! On Friday, we had adoration in the evening and then all night as well! Kudos to all those who adored during the wee hours of the morning. I wasn't one of them, I didn't go until 8. The next day we had adoration again, as well as many inspiring talks. It was also great getting to know the students.


After the retreat, we traveled to Kitchener where we are staying as a team at a rectory. On Sunday night, we participated in a parish prayer and adoration time for the people of Haiti. The rest of the weekend we have spent time sleeping, relaxing, and enjoying time hanging out all together. It has been pretty chill, we are recharging our batteries for our next week of retreats!



That's all for now! God Bless!

I remain your faithful blogger,

Claire
Team 2

Office Organization!


Well, everyone, I'm apologizing in advance because I think this week's blog post is going to be somewhat shorter than the norm. Oh well. That's ok, I think.

This year, the staff of NET Canada have decided that it's time to clean up and organize our "living space"! Finally! If you've ever been to the office, specifically our basement, you've probably noticed the clutter that often finds itself in corners around the building. The basement was an especially cluttered world. With instruments, sound equipment, and training and other supplies, it's often been tough trying to walk around down there. But last week, I was on "basement shelving" duty with a few of the other staff members. Our mission was to build shelves and organize one of the areas of the basement. Unfortunately, on the day that we were to build the shelves, I found myself with a whole heap of office work to do, so I wasn't able to help. So Liam, Sarah, and Pat had to fend for themselves; they were fantastic. I took a couple of pictures for your viewing entertainment.

So the three of them went ahead and built a whole lot of shelves. And about half of our basement has been organized since last week, which I have to say is a pretty big deal. Next up, a new-and-improved reception area! Pray for Claire, Melodie, and I as we attempt to clean, organize, and rearrange our work areas!

God bless!
+Jocelyn

Oh, also, on Friday night, someone played a little prank on our staff prankster, Matthew, and put his desk into the parish supervisors' office closet... the second picture shows the desk in the closet but won't give away the culprit.....muah-ha-ha-ha!!