Un-Birthday and Youthfest!

Hello to all the readers of the NET blog from Team Five. Well, I've had quite the eventful week. Saturday was my un-birthday! It was so much fun. It was so unexpected because we switched host home. It was also our team day, and we were heading into Ottawa for Youthfest. So, after our host home switch we loaded ourselves up into the van to head to Ottawa for team day. As soon as we were all buckled in, Rebecca handed me an envelope saying that she thinks I left this at our previous host home. I was really confused because I never bought a card or was in possession of a card at our last host home, but she insisted I check just in case. I opened it, and it was a Hoops and Yoyo card. On the front where it says Happy Birthday they wrote an ‘un’ in front of birthday. I was so surprised. I did not expect it. I specifically told the team to do an un-birthday for me last because I’m going to have my real birthday while on NET anyways. So, they put me first instead…the little buggers!

Their first surprise for me was they rented the movie ‘Up’ for me to watch on our way into Ottawa. I’m always talking about that movie saying how awesome it is. I also quote it quite often. I was really excited to get watching it. Now the whole team can share in my love for the movie because now we all understand the jokes that I used to laugh at with myself. As soon as we got into Ottawa, we headed down to the Rideau Canal. Yup, that’s right! We went skating. It was so nice to walk down to the ice. On our way there we passed through the ice sculpture park. There weren’t many sculptures, but the ones that were there were still pretty awesome. It was quite the adventure once we started to skate. I think we all felt pretty rusty on the ice. I knew I was especially rusty because my feet started to really hurt, and we weren’t even on the ice for a long time. Poor Rebecca fell on the ice, and Danica was so cute because she’s not used to skating so we held her hand.

After skating we hit the Rideau mall to play some picture scavenger hunt. We took many pictures of us doing random things. We posed like a manikin, posed for an i-pod picture, took a picture with an i-pod seller dude, and wore Olympic clothes. There were other things we had to pose like, but when we were done, we were ready to eat. We went to the food court and my team bought me my food. That was nice of them.

This brings me now to Youthfest. After the mall we headed to Tudor Hall. I already knew that my family was going to be there so I was really excited to see them. As soon as I got there I was bombarded with people I knew from Ottawa. Funny thing…they all knew about my un-birthday. That surprised me because everyone was coming up to me wishing me a happy birthday. To top it off, my family knew! They made me a card and left me little notes. That whole day was just really special to me. I really felt loved. I love my team! (That's Tom on the right on our adventures to the Rideau Canal)

Youthfest itself was extremely powerful, and the Adoration was a bonus. It was about vocations. The Holy Spirit was just so alive, and we had a group of our teens that wanted to come, so they got there on their own. If they wanted to experience God…that was the night, so powerful. The whole night felt like a breath of fresh air spending time with just me and God. The whole day I felt so overwhelmed with love. Truly a gift.

Until next week,
God Bless,
Shayla Doucette

Team 4 Look Out Lifenight

So Listen...

Hey everyone! This is Adele Costanza and Riane McCallum reporting from team two!

We on team two have enjoyed a great week! It began in Kitchener, ON. After a very restful day spent at Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows in downtown Kitchener, we moved on to Victoria Harbour to do a retreat for grade eight students. They were a great group, and the day was awesome! That night, we made our way to Stratford, ON, home of Katie Doyle! All of us girls went to Katie's home for dinner, followed by a night with a local evangelization team. It was really cool to be a part of what Katie used to do.

We had one more retreat this week, in Whitby, ON. The entire day was great, but the prayer ministry was really powerful. The Holy Spirit was definitely on the move. Praise God! That night we moved to Bolton, ON, and participated in their "Edge" program! It was awesome! The night was filled with excellent music, a great talk, small groups, and prayer. The best part was that the night ended with an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament! It was really sweet to see grade 6, 7 & 8's so involved with their faith!

Saturday was spent with the team! We started off with mens and womens session, and for our womens session we exercised to a work-out video. We learned some sweet moves, such as "The Grapevine" and we were able to add our own dance flair! While we were working out, the men went for a scenic walk on the local river. Later, we met up and praised God in team prayer! We finished off the day with the parish youth group, and joined them in their Life Teen Mass and activities after wards. We were able to hear a great talk on Lent, and had some time to reflect on the upcoming season.

Sunday was our favorite day of the week! We are very close to Paul's hometown of Aurora, ON. We thought it would be fun to surprise Paul with a visit to his home for lunch! Paul had absolutely no idea that this was occurring, and as we drew closer to his house, he began saying things like, "We are literally ten minutes from my house," and "If you turn left here, you will be at my house." He finally asked Trevor "Where are we going, anyways?" Trevor replied, "I know of this really great place for lunch!" When we arrived at his house, Paul had a great reunion, and we all enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with the Taylor family!

Last, but certainly not least....HAPPY UN-BIRTHDAY JACOB AULTMAN! We celebrated Jacob's unbirthday ( for peoples birthdays that don't fall within the NET year,) by watching his favorite game - football! We all piled into the parish rectory, ordered a few pizzas, had some wings, and watched the Superbowl! Although both of us had pretty much no idea what was going on, it was still fun to watch and experience. Go Saints Go!

That's all from this week! God bless you all! We luh yu!

Adele & Riane

Le pays du gros cinq cents!

Bonjour! Hello! Buongiorno! Guten Tag! C’est moi, Kevin Prada, de retour cette semaine comme fidèle bloggeur de l’équipe 3.

Hmmmmm…voyons, depuis la dernière semaine, on a quitté Embrun, là où on a animé des retraites pour plus de 200 jeunes de l’école Saint-Jean. On a pu ensuite passer un court séjour au bureau central de NET, à Ottawa, de jeudi à dimanche passé, et depuis, on se trouve ici, à Sudbury, avec les jeunes de plusieurs écoles des environs. On se garde très occupé, en animant plusieurs retraites. C’est super de pouvoir se donner à ce point, toujours en train de bouger, toujours en train d’animer, parce que c’est dans ce temps-là, lorsqu’on se fait étirer, qu’on a vraiment la chance de s’abandonner au Seigneur.

Jeudi passé, lorsqu’on est arrivé au bureau de NET, j’ai eu une surprise toute spéciale. Comme Marise et moi sommes chefs d’équipe, l’équipe a choisi de faire une fête surprise pour nous deux. Toute une surprise! On a joué à des jeux, fait des folies, c’était pas mal amusant! Et ça m’a vraiment fait chaud au cœur de voir toute l’équipe ensemble nous honorer comme ça.

Puis vendredi, c’était l’ouverture de la Fête des Neiges, festival d’hiver de la région Ottawa-Gatineau. Malgré le froid, on a pu se tenir juste à côté du Parlement, là où on a participé à une animation spéciale. Puis, quelle meilleure façon de terminer une telle soirée qu’avec un spectacle de feux d’artifices! Je n’ai jamais vu un spectacle de feux d’artifices aussi beau et élaboré que ça. Vingt minutes de toute beauté, synchronisées à de la super musique, sur la Rivière des Outaouais. C’était une super belle façon de lancer ce festival. Natif du Manitoba, j’ai la tradition de côtoyer le Festival du Voyageur, là où, je dois l'admettre, j’ai subi quelques engelures mineures… Mais le froid du Manitoba, c’est quand même un extrême… des moins trente c’est commun à ce temps-ci de l’année, donc pour moi, le quinze en bas de zéro de vendredi passé, c’était quasi tropical. Et en plus, aucune engelure!

Samedi, on a eu une journée assez relaxante. Quelques fois durant l’année, lorsque notre horaire se dégage, on peut de permettre de prendre une journée de congé. On appelle ça une journée sans obligation. Mais en soirée, une communauté de prêtres d’Ottawa, les Compagnons de la Croix, ont animée la soirée Youth Fest, qui, cette année, était axée sur les vocations. Des centaines de jeunes de toute la région des Outaouais étaient présents pour les enseignements, les témoignages et le temps d’adoration qui ont eu lieu. Pour l’équipe, bien qu’on aime naturellement animer les retraites et le ministère qu’on fait, c’est aussi bien, à l’occasion, de pouvoir tout simplement participer, sans assister à l’animation. Toute l’équipe, moi inclus, avons franchement apprécié cette soirée.

Maintenant, on se prépare à ntammer un séjour dans le nord de l’Ontario. Je suis déjà en train d’anticiper une arrivée dans les quelques semaines prochaines à Winnipeg. Mais pour l’instant, nous sommes bien heureux ici, bien occupés. Le Seigneur fait, comme toujours, des merveilles à travers notre ministère. C’est toujours incroyable que de témoigner du Christ en train de travailler à travers de nous! Passez une bonne semaine

Kevin Prada!




P.S. Ci-bas, c’est une photo de Carie et moi, lors d’une des retraites qu’on a animées à Embrun; et en haut, c’est tout le groupe, jeudi passé, lors de la fête qu’on a organisée pour les deux chefs d’équipe (je suis au courant que c'est écrit Happy Birthday, mais on ignore, c’était pour l’ambiance…)

Pranks, Pizza, and Bracelets!

Hello! It’s Shayla. So, like the NET office, James and I pulled a prank on Rebecca, Alyssa and Danica. It was a very simple prank, but man did they ever find it hard to figure out. What James and I did was a simple ‘tape over the mouse sensor’ prank. To make it just slightly complicated we attached Alyssa’s wireless mouse to Danica’s computer. It was so funny because in the morning James was moving around Alyssa’s mouse, which was moving the cursor on Danica’s computer, and she was so convinced there was something wrong with her computer. It’s nice to pull small pranks like that every now and then to lighten the mood in the office. It’s also just entertaining to the people who get to watch.

So, last Thursday was our third Edge night. It went pretty well. The night was on peer pressure and temptation. Once again I played music and the young teens loved it and sang along. They also made posters with different forms of peer pressure and temptation that they face. Most of them took it really seriously and put a lot of effort into making their posters. Like always, we had fun with the energy that the teens have. It really helps us to keep up our own energy.

On Friday our team went out to Pizza Hut with a gift card that we received from doing the Confirmation Retreat. We had a good time, and there was lots of food for us to eat. Being on NET so far, our team hasn’t had the chance to really go out together and just eat. It was a real blessing and it was a nice opportunity for us to bond.

Sunday was the Lifenight on Mary. This Lifenight went really well. It had a feel of balance to it. It wasn’t too high energy or too low, just perfect. So the teens had an opportunity to learn about Mary, and the Rosary. I think my favourite point of the night was when the teens had to write a letter to their mothers. I personally took it as a time to write a letter to my own mother. I really started thinking and realized how often we forget to tell our mothers that we love them, or even just thank them for all they’ve done.

The last really interesting thing that happened to us this week was Rebecca’s idea of making bracelets for our Edgers for our Edge night this week. The bracelets came from the idea that Team 4 did with their night. Basically, you make a bracelet that has ten colors and it represents the Ten Commandments. If you haven’t caught on, our Edge night was on the Ten Commandments. Anyway, this task left us all with sore fingers because we had to make at least 70 bracelets for the average of young teens that attend Edge. It was worth the pain though because it was for our teens.

So, that is about all that has happened with Team 5 this week. We’re praying for all the other NET teams.

God Bless you all
Shayla Doucette