From the Road: Team 2

Hey everyone it's Claire from team 2 reporting in today. On Sunday we had our first long van trip as a team! In the evening we arrived safely in Sudbury and settled in with our host families.

Then on Monday we had our first Encounter Day for grade 8 students . The theme was "Who are You?" They were a pretty rowdy group but they really settled down for prayer ministry. We all thought that prayer time went well. A lot of the youth said that the dramas were their favorite part of the day. Over all, things went pretty smoothly.

On Tuesday we had a C.E.O. Encounter Day (Catholics Empowering Others) for grade 12. We were expecting about 50 youth, and so we were really surprised when only 11 came! Other than making a couple changes in our game choices, we went on with the day as usual. They were a really good group. Since there were as many team members as youth, we were able to talk personally with all of them. Prayer ministry went well; the teens were very respectful and a lot of them seemed to be moved.

Brendan talked with one boy who said he was an atheist. Whether or not he changed his belief, we don't know but we have hope that the seed we planted will grow. Katie, our recruiter, was very happy that she got our first female recruit! Hopefully the first of many! Again, the youth really liked the dramas and the skits.

We are off to a good start and looking forward to the rest of the week!

God Bless,

Claire Labish
Team 2

Fire in the market

Hi my name is Kevin Prada and I'm serving on NET's French team this year. As our NET training has now come to an end, I was reminiscing on some of my highlights. One thing that stands out for me is a night called "Fire in the Market". When this was announced by the staff my first thoughts were, "Is this some sort of arson or Fire Fighter intervention?" no, that wasn't it at all! We were going to be lighting fire in people's hearts. We were sent on a spontaneous mission of evangelization for the night, by going up to strangers, randomly in the market or on the street. We evangelized by simply giving a smile or striking up a conversation with someone we bumped into and sharing our personal testimony.

To be quite honest, this seemed quite intimidating at first. On NET, we evangelize in a very structured environment, on a retreat (now called Encounter Day), where youth are expecting us to share our faith. But here, where people were just continuing with their day-to-day activities, we had to get out of ourselves, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to the right people, and to inspire our actions.

I had the privilege of meeting a man named Paul who now lives on the streets. Through a series of unfortunate events he had lost a successful career and was now left to a life on the streets of Ottawa. To be honest, when I first saw this man my first reaction was to think he was just too lazy to get a job. But as he started sharing his life with me, I was stunned at the true dignity he had in himself, and I was reminded of this true and inherent dignity that we all have as sons and daughters of God.

Each and every person around us was created in the image and likeness of God Himself. Wow! I think it's easy to often dismiss the homeless, or put a blind eye to those commercials on TV of orphaned child in far away lands. I know my own reaction when I see them is to flip the channel. But this experience has really pushed me to see God in everyone I meet. Jesus did say that whatever we do to these little children of His, we also do unto Him. He is in them. He loves them just as he loves us and in return we should love others as well.

This experience challenged me, and so I challenge you, when you see one of God's children, smile at them, pray for them, show them love, and the inherent dignity that is in them. For when you do this to them, it is to Jesus that you are doing it.

God Bless,

Kevin Prada
Team 3 Les Équipe NET

The Heart of Worship

What can we five young adults teach about music ministry to people who've been singing in choirs since before they were born? Apparently a lot, Massive Worship led an Encounter Day for the music ministries of Annunciation of Our Lord parish in Ottawa on September 26. Some of those in attendance had over 30 years experience singing in the choir. Still, they opened their ears and hearts to us and our message.

As musicians, we tend to place value on ourselves based on our relative musical abilities, being confident when we're the best at what we do, and thinking we're useless when someone else sings or plays better. It is a lie, but commonly believed without investigation. This lie leads only to pride and despair, and many people go through life not knowing there is another option.

Heather and April showed the music ministers the peace found in knowing your value comes from God alone. When you take your identity as God's child, through the adoption of Jesus' redeeming love, music, like any talent, is simply a gift to be accepted, exercised, and given back to others. Suzi explained true worship, that it is our response to who God is. And Jesse gave some practical tips for different ministry situations, i.e. Mass, youth events, Eucharistic Adoration.

The people at Annunciation responded graciously, sharing what they soaked in from the encounter with us. Rob felt rejuvenated, and joyful at the possibilities of a musical shift in the Church. Jeanette, a choir director, was pleasantly surprised that we were in line with the Bishops' liturgical Summer School she went to recently. And a high school student named Andrew, said he was filled with hope for his own ministry in Peterborough. He was inspired to find more musicians to join him in his band for Mass. I honestly didn't know what kind of change we would see in people over the course of seven hours, but I was blown away by their honesty, their hope, and their new spark.

God Bless

Sean Flynn
Massive Worship Band

NET at 40 days for life

Hey everyone! I'm Shayla Doucette (I'm on the left), I'm 18 and I'm on NET this year. I come from a small town called Alfred in Ontario, and this year I'm going to be on a parish team serving in the Smith Falls/ Perth Area in central Ontario.

Training so far has been amazing! It's been really intense, especially the first two weeks, I've learned so much about myself, bassicly that I am, a beautiful child of God. This brings me to what happened last week at the kick-off night for the 40 Days for Life in Ottawa, on parliment hill.

When the night started I wasn't really excited because I was tired and I felt like I had to be there. Then a few people went up to the stage to give some speeches, they all spoke to my heart. Everything happening that night challenged me to take the Pro-Life movement more seriously. After the talks there was a candle-lit procession to the Abortion clinic. The atmosphere the whole way was prayerful and peaceful. It was during this time that the Holy Spirit really flowed through me. I fell to my kneses, eyes closed, and I began praying the rosary. When I was done the rosary I couldn't bring myself to stop praying so I sang the hail mary to myself until I had to leave for my host home.

That night the Lord really showed me the unborn need our prayers. We have to fight for them even if all we do is pray. I just want to challenge all of you who read this to take an hour to pray for the unborn and to try to get involved with the 40 days for life. The children need your
prayers.

God bless,

Shayla Doucette
Team 5 Smith Falls/Perth

Massive Worship's First Gig!

Hello everyone, my name is Sean Flynn (second from the left,) and I am a NET Canada alumni from Arizona. I now work with Massive Worship band. Well, as long as you consider drummers musicians, that is. Our Massive Worship Band played publicly for the first time last Sunday at Divine Infant Catholic Church in Ottawa. For Mass and Eucharistic Adoration we led the people in about 15 songs, including the old favorite "Here I am, Lord" and new classics like "Your Grace is Enough."

We were advised that the church produces a serious echo, so using the full drum kit would have been an acoustic nightmare. Instead, I chose to play percussion with a combination of a snare drum, using brushes that produce a softer sound than regular sticks, and a djembe, an African-style drum played with the hands. I never practiced with that set-up before, so I let the Holy Spirit move me, just improvising while praying along with the congregation the whole night.

It went better than I could have imagined. The sound blended better than I expected, nothing echoed out of control, and the younger people in the Church really liked the sound of it. One young man active in the parish youth ministry came up to me after the prayer with a huge smile saying, "SNARE DRUM! AWESOME!" and gave me a high-five. An older woman we'd never met also came up to us as we were cleaning up, to thank us all with a big hug. That night definitely taught me not to be afraid of being unprepared when it comes to prayer, because God is always there, and he has a plan for each person's prayer experience. So I challenge all of you in turn to be open to the holy spirit especially when your leading whorship, you never know what the Lord has planned when you do.


God Bless

Sean Flynn
Massive Worship Band