Encounter one FIRST VIDEO BLOG!!! 2013-14

Advent

We arrived in Edmonton hardly two and a half months ago. Since then we have done more than 18 school visits, hosted two junior high and seven senior high youth groups, seen hundreds of students and thousands of people. In the next few days we have another junior high and high school youth group and our final school visit for the year. We have spoken of God's love and Mercy, about prayer and our quest for ultimate happiness in God, about the Sacraments God has given his Church. We have seen lives changed.

And not a single thing would have happened had God not been with us well before NET training started nearly four months ago. God was working to bring each of us on NET, to form us during training, to put us on the right team, to guide us as we drove west here to Edmonton, to help us meet and get to know all those we needed to. And not only us, but the parish and all her members, our host homes, the youths we have met and are going to meet. The list goes on, this would not be possible without God working, so we thank and praise Him as Christmas approaches and we remember His birth, His great Love for all of us.

Have a blessed Advent and a Merry Christmas from Infuse 2

A Warm Adoption

Hey, it’s Mary from the Montreal iNFUSE team One! Just a few days ago, a few of us sisters joined a new family who we'd be staying with for a little more than a week. We have now become older sisters to 5 youngsters, who've clung to us from day one. The shy stages of meeting our host family lasted only a brief few minutes, as we were playing Piggy-in-the-middle, being climbed on, getting some great new hairdos, reading bedtime stories, and joining these little girls in saying night prayer the evening we arrived. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that they had waited for our arrival to decorate the Christmas tree, which was a very special gift to us as we are not with our own families right now. It is a beautiful privilege to say that you have been welcomed into a second home in only a few moments shared with a new family.

Coming into the Christmas season we have not only been included in host home decorating and traditions, but also events of preparation that have gotten our hearts set on the coming of Christ. One event we were invited to participate in was an advent liturgy at Queens of Angels Academy for girls. Our team prepared a drama based on what the girls have learned about receiving and giving back, and our universal calling, no matter what your religion is, to love and serve one another as a response to God's love and call for us. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet many students and connect with them in an understandable way. We were welcomed back as a team which is a huge step in our hopes to reach out to the schools in Montreal, Quebec.

Our hope continues to grow as we approach this Christmas, and our team has much to prepare for, including many new surprises to come in our ministry.

God be with you all, and have a blessed Advent season.

iNFUSE 1, Montreal, QC

The Adventures of Encounter Team 2!

Hey people,

            It’s Mike from encounter two! Hope you are all doing well! The past few months for encounter two have been awesome! We have had the opportunity to minister to people of all ages in the Thunder Bay, Kamloops, Nelson, Calgary, St.Paul, Edmonton, and Winnipeg diocese. We’ve done everything from encounter days to family retreats, weekend retreats, and youth rallies!

            It’s been so cool spending time as a team and getting to know each other! As a travelling team we end up spending A LOT of time together. Since most of the time it’s in the van, we have noticed that that much time in close quarters has resulted in us rubbing off on each other! Too many of us Canadians are saying “All Ya’ll”, which Chase is pretty proud of. But all is well, he has started to call toques “toques” and not “beanies”, and we’re all pretty proud of him for that.

            All in all it’s been a blast spending so much time together, one of the coolest things we’ve done together was skidooing, when we were in Wetaskawin. It was awesome being outside in the snow, just hanging out as a team! A few of us also had the chance to play the beautiful game of hockey with our host family in Winnipeg, which was awesome because we’ve all been dying to play hockey again. Okay, maybe it was just me, but none-the-less we all had a great time!

            Like I said before, we’ve had the opportunity to put on some overnight retreats, in Trail B.C., Edmonton Alberta, and at Our Lady of Victory Camp in Alberta. It’s been such a treat to be able to spend more than a few hours with the youth, and see how God has been able to work through these events. At the end of one of our overnight events, we were told by the youth that a lot of them originally were only there to miss a couple days of school, but by the end they shared that they really grew closer to God at the event. God is so good!

            We are currently on our way back to Ottawa for Christmas break, we are looking forward to having a couple weeks to prepare for the next half of our year! We all hope you have an awesome Advent and a blessed Christmas!

God Bless,

Michael McCallum

 

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Last weekend was our first ever overnight retreat! It was a retreat for our new leaders as a thank you for all the time they've dedicated to leadership training the last couple of weeks leading up to it. We had nine youth come out for an amazing weekend of fellowship and fun at a cozy retreat center in Pontbriand! The weekend was filled with talks, prayer times, small groups, praise and worship, Mass, and even Adoration! It was such a spirit filled weekend and it really gave us the chance to get to know the youth even better and to share more about our lives with them too.

The men surprised us ladies by preparing a Christmas lunch!

This coming week is also our last week here in La Beauce before we head home for Christmas! We have a great week packed with events so we can spend as much time with the community as possible, including a Christmas dinner, sports night, music night, a youth group Christmas party, and a Youth Mass! As much as we’re all starting to get pretty excited to see our families, we also don’t really aren’t ready to leave this community. They have done an amazing job of welcoming us here and making us feel like we belong that the thought of leaving for a month makes my heart hurt a little bit. I am so thankful that we have the opportunity to come back for another four months after Christmas!

Have an incredibly blessed Christmas!

God bless,

Katelyn Sutton, LEN blogger