Creator Incarnate...

Hey Peoples

It's Isaac from iNFUSE two. I just wanted to let everybody know that the Olympics came to Medicine Hat. Not actually. We had an Equip(gr.6-9) night called Crazy Olympics. Tanya and I led the crazy Olympics, which consisted of a sort of relay race, followed by the two teams competing to see who could build the tallest structure that could stand on its own using just marshmallows and toothpicks. There was another game involving a hula hoop, but it's kind of complicated to explain. It was really fun though. The best part was the fact that we had a whole bunch of new students come. And we have just started a thing where, if it is your first time, or if you bring someone and it's their first time then you get a chocolate bar. It's awesome. The only bad part is that there is absolutely no way that I'm ever allowed to get one of those chocolate bars....

On Sunday, for Unchained(gr. 10-12), our night was about the Eucharist. Basically we heard an awesome talk about how awesome God is, and how cool it is that he's willing to be physically present, then we went into the chapel and actually spent time with him.

I love it! Eucharistic Adoration. It is definitely one of the highlights of our faith. Who else besides Catholics can be like, "yeah, I just knelt in the presence of God for an hour"? AWESOME!

Speaking of the Lord of the universe incarnate(nbd), we did our first citywide adoration on Thursday. We're going to be doing it once a month from now on. It was really cool. At the end, one lady came up to us and talked about how perfect the music was, and how it had really helped her enter in. I'm pretty sure normally they just have silent adoration so I'm really glad that our addition of music was appreciated. There weren't as many youth as adults, but hopefully now that we've really dived deep into what the Eucharist is, they'll be more open to it in February....

Okey, dokey. I don't think I have anything else interesting for you, other than the fact that a couple of weeks ago it was Kyle's Unbirthday and we celebrated by going to Ralph's Texas Steakhouse. He said, "I'm so glad I got to spend my unbirthday with good Canadians and great Texas barbecue."

God Bless

Isaac Sullivan

p.s. To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it. -- Mother Teresa

An Eventful Trek out West...

So after an amazing week in Peterborough, ON we started heading to Timmins where three retreats awaited us. On our way up north we encounted more snow than our vans could handle. After 4 hours on the road, visibility became so bad that we were forced to spend the night in North Bay, As if the weather didn't cause us enough trouble, along the way one of our vans ended up in a snowbank on the side of the road. Thanks to a random stranger who allowed us to use their phone, we called the tow-truck to pull us out. No real damage was done, thank God. Also, the generosity of our unexpected host homes in North Bay was unbelievable! Within a couple hours of knowing we were coming, they had a huge dinner prepared for us, and all of our accomidations set up! The next day, we tried to continue our journey to the Timmins diocese, but due to an accident on the highway we were forced to go back to North Bay for the night. (Above: Mary paying the tow-truck driver) Finally, on our third attempt, we made it to Timmins and we were able to do one of our three retreats planned.

Then our trek to Saskatchewan then began! We spend 4 days in the van, spending the night in Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Regina. After over 30 hours of being in the van, we were very eager to arrive. We were very warmly welcomed in Prince Albert, and are very excited to get back to doing retreats!!

We would like to extend a special thank-you to all those who generously helped us along the way, whether it be housing us, feeding us, or allowing us to use their phone along the way. We realized how blessed we truly are, and that God is definitely taking care of us.

God bless and keep you!

-Silken Neutelings and Alex Sibiga

Encounter Team 1

Back into the swing of things..

Hello again! It's Lauren from iNFUSE Team 3! We're back in Halifax after January training in Ottawa, and have been greeted by a good bit of snow and some -15 weather, which for me as the poor little Texan, is AWESOME. I love the snow and the cold, but my Canadian teammates beg to differ. I wonder why I'm not Canadian....Moving on!

It's been fantastic being back at Saint Benedict! Everyone was excited for us to be back and we've settled back in! This past weekend, Saint Benedict hosted their Stewardship of Talent Fair after all the Masses, and I honestly was astounded by how many ministries there are in the parish! I think the total number was in the mid-60s! It was a really busy weekend, and it was also a perfect time to let people know that Massive Worship is coming to Saint Benedict in a few weeks, and people are really excited for what Massive Worship's music ministry will bring!

We're also having a parish fun night at the Oval, the snazzy and FREE outdoor ice rink that Halifax has (they even have free skates!) We're looking forward to some parish bonding time, complete with hot chocolate!!

I can't wait to see what this second half of this year in Halifax has in store for our team and for Saint Benedict Parish!

"My God, You are good, You are great, You are love, and I am loved." - "I Am" by The City Harmonic

-Lauren

iNFUSE Team 3

The Confessions of St. Isacc

Yo peeps!
After our crazy weekend in Montreal we headed to Pickering, Ontario where we did a confirmation retreat for grade eight students at St. Isacc Joges Parish.

The entire retreat was a success, but what really stood out was the prayer time. Normally during prayer time we offer to pray with each student individually. At this retreat not only did we offer to pray with each student, but two priests were also present to hear confessions. We have had several other retreats where confession was offered and as a result we were only expecting a few of the kids to go. To our surprise over three quarters of the class sat quietly at the back waiting to go to confession. The line was so long that we had to extend prayer time by ten minutes and even then about ten students weren't able to go because the end of the school day was approaching. It was so beautiful to see so many young people choose to go to confession and take it seriously.

At the end of the retreat I spoke with one student who expressed how much he enjoyed the day. His eyes were blood shot and watery and he expressed how thankful he was that we had come. We will never know how many lives God is touching through prayer and the sacraments. What matters is that he IS touching hearts and changing lives whether we see it or not.

Confession is an act of honesty and courage - an act of entrusting ourselves, beyond sin, to the mercy of a loving and forgiving God.
-Pope John Paul II

May you always be aware of the gift that you have in confession.
Erin
Massive Worship

Love follows us around...

Happy New Year everyone!!
I hope you all had a great Christmas. Our team had an amazing time getting to see our families again :) It`s been a long time since I`ve given you news so I`ll do my best to catch up on everyhting that's happened.
Right before Christmas, we got the chance to head into Jean-Francois`s region, La Beauce, Quebec, on a parish mission and retreat that lasted ten days. He was so happy to be able to evangelize in his own hometown! It was our first parish mission, which is a retreat consisting of several evenings. We developed some awesome relationships with the people there. We were able to touch on several topics, which is difficult to do in a regular day-long retreat.
One crazy thing that happened while we where in St. Georges, La Beauce, was that we got invited into a public school to do class room presentations for the 7th and 8th graders. There are currently no Catholic schools in Quebec, so it was an excellent opportuniy to introduce God to people who have heard very little about Him. We got a very good response from them and they were very curious. We could see how much they were thirsting for Him, showing us that God puts the desire to know Him in each and every person.
After our time in La Beauce, we had the chance to see most of the other Netters at our Christmas retreat outside of Ottawa. It was wonderful seeing all our good friends again and sharing our experiences with each other before returning home for Christmas :)
Coming back from Christmas break, we had another week of training to freshen us up and improve our ministry skills. Our team stayed in Ottawa for several days, doing the music for the parish JF went to while he lived there. It`s been his parish for the 3 years he was going to U of Ottawa and he told us it felt like he was back home just for an instant, it was really cool!
Our next destination was Rouny-Noranda, which was a long but nice drive up in northern Quebec. It`s good practice for our drive all the way out to Alberta next month, my home province!! Everyone there made us feel super welcome, they were all so happy to see us we felt very loved. The retreat we had there was not only a gift for those who attended, but we grew alot as a team. God helped us all to rediscover the beauty in prayer. One boy in particular went up in front of the whole group and told us how some people forget about prayer, including himself, and that he had truly prayed this weekend. He told us how important he realized it is, and that he felt so welcomed by God. Praise God who works in our lives :) The retreat really brought the youth and families together, as well as our team. At mass on the last day, the Bishop of Rouyn-Noranda gave us his personal blessing, with the sign of the cross on each of our foreheads. What a blessing...God is so good!
We've had many joyful moments this past month, I hope you all did too. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We know this mission is important, and sometimes it's difficult. It's only by the grace of God that we can succeed. We love you all, God bless you abundantly :) You are in our prayers every day.

Julie Godin
Les Équipes Net