A Journey to Faith with Helping Hands

Hello! It's Shayla from Team 5. Life in Perth and Smiths Falls is getting extremely busy; we are starting to spend more time in the High School as we near the end. We are also starting to pass our ministries over to the different Core Teams that we have set up.

As we get close to the end of our time on NET, we have been posting up testimonies from our teens because they really show exactly what God has been doing in this community the past 8 months. This week we have another testimony given by one of our teens. Her name is Chelsea and she's in Gr. 12. She has been involved with most of our ministries like Lifeteen and Edge, and this is her testimony about how God and NET have influenced her this year.

"When the NET Team first came to the little town of Smiths Falls, Ontario, I had no faith. I did not believe in anything and I did not want to. I went to church all my life, but it never meant anything to me and to be honest I did not care about God or anything to do with him. Little did I know that within eight months my life would drastically change forever.

I started going to Life Teen so that I could stay overnight at my friend's house afterward. It seemed like a good enough deal - play some games, sit through some stuff, and then get to hang out with my friend. After a while of going to Life Teen, I began to listen and understand what the NET Team was trying to teach me. Even though I was listening I didn’t really believe what they were telling me because I did not believe in God. Eventually I got to know the NET Team as people and they were always happy, and welcoming. So I started going just to hang out with the NET Team, rather than to learn about God and become closer to Him.

Then the NET Team asked me if I would come to a retreat so I could be a part of EDGE Crew. I didn’t have any other plans and I liked the NET Team, so I decided to go. I spent the entire retreat just watching the way the NET Team acted, prayed, and carried out their faith. By the end of the weekend I was so confused with myself because how can a group of people love God this much, give everything they possibly can to Him, and believe in Him with this type of passion when I don’t believe at all? That’s when everything changed. I began to question my beliefs and discover my relationship with God. Everything we did during EDGE Training just made me question myself more and more. This retreat and the NET Team were the foundation I used to build my relationship with God.

It started by me just praying when I was with them and exploring my faith with one of them by my side. After a while I was able to start praying by myself and finding God’s love and beauty in every single thing. The NET Team has done so many things for me in both a group of people and individually. No matter what you need to talk about they are always there and so excited to talk to you. They make you feel so important because they always have a huge smile just for you when you enter the same room. They are so easy to talk to and relate with because they are so understanding and all around amazing people.

If it weren’t for the NET Team I would still be living a life of ignorance and selfishness. I would not be able to experience God’s love the way I do now. My life has become so much better since they have come to my town because I have people I can talk to no matter what and who support me in everything I do. They have also made my life better because they have brought God into it, if it were not for their belief and love in God that shines through them in everything they do, I would not be as happy with myself or with my relationship with God. They are by far the most amazing people I have ever met because they have let God in and experienced His divine love every day.

I am both thankful to God and to NET for bringing these six amazing people into my life so they could speak the words of God and get Him through to me. They truly saved my life because you are not truly living until you have personally experienced God’s love, and the NET Team has brought that to me. I now enjoy so many things I use to despise doing, for example, Mass, adoration, praying, and basically anything to do with religion. Now I cannot wait to take time to reflect and give back to God for everything he has done for me.

No matter where life leads me, where I go, and what I do, I know that God will always be with me and He will always love me. There is no way I could possibly thank the Perth-Smiths Falls NET Team enough for everything they have done for me, and all the joy they have brought to my life in the past eight months. I only have a short time left with the NET Team and it breaks my heart to know they are leaving, but I know that the difference they have made in my life, and so many more around me will be forever changed because of them. I was always told that one person can’t change the world, but after the past eight months, I know that these six people and the love of God can do absolutely anything, you just have to let them in."

[The top left picture is Chelsea (left) with her best friend at our Advent Lifenight. The bottom right is of Chelsea (left) and another one of our teens at our Wedding Lifenight...they were the bride and groom]

May God Bless and protect you,

Chelsea and Team Five-Alive

La fin se voit déjà à l’horizon!

Eh bien re-bonjour!

C’est Kevin Prada, ici, de retour, après quelques semaines de répit de l’écriture du blog. Je m’excuse du grand manque dans la fréquence des messages, mais avec un ordi qui marche à peine, ça rend les choses un peu plus difficiles que d'habitude…ha ha…mais avec une grande période de temps depuis mon dernier message, on trouve aussi plusieurs choses, plusieurs histoires de ce qui s’est produit dans la continuité de notre ministère.

Depuis notre séjour à Cornwall, on a continué nos voyages vers la grande ville de Toronto, dans laquelle est situé le conseil scolaire catholique francophone où se passera le reste de notre ministère. Depuis le début de notre séjour ici, on a visité les villes de Welland, Hamilton, Peterborough, Toronto, Barrie et Aurora. En à peine deux semaines, cela fait beaucoup de voyages. Mais ces voyages nous rapellent toujours les premiers disciples, desquels on parle beaucoup depuis Pâques. Et aussi, ces voyages nous permettent de visiter plusieurs places très spéciales. Premièrement, lors de notre séjour à Welland, qui se trouve à 30 minutes des chutes Niagara, certains d’entre nous ont eu le privilège de visiter les chutes. C’est vraiment quelque chose d’exceptionnelle. On a beau entendre de tout le monde que ce sont les plus grosses chutes du monde, qu’elles sont magnifiques, ce n’est rien jusqu’à ce qu’on ait la chance de les voir pour vrai. Et en plus, nous avons eu la chance de les visiter en soirée, donc elles étaient toutes éclairées de rayons de lumières de toutes sortes de différentes couleurs, qui leur donnaient une allure toute spéciale. C’est lorsqu’on voit des monuments naturels comme celui-là qu’on s’apercoit vraiment de la majesté de notre Dieu, qui a façonné toutes ces merveilleuses choses.

Mais vraiment, les choses les plus incroyables qui pourraient se produire pour nous sur la route, c’est un jeune qui rencontre Dieu. Je le dis dans chacun de mes messages, mais je vais encore le répéter, parce que ça en vaut tellement la peine. Le Seigneur est si présent dans notre ministère. Tout ce qu’on fait est fait dans la prière. On commence tout et termine tout en prière, avec la confiance qu’en abandonnant tout à sa grâce, on Lui permet d’effectuer des miracles dans le cœur des jeunes qui sont présents. On a animé une retraite dernièrement au cours de laquelle on s’attendait à ce que les jeunes soient pas mal fermés à ce qu’on avait à leur dire, mais au courant de la journée, on s’est rendu compte que ce n’était pas du tout le cas. Aussitôt qu’on a commencé à chanter, comme on fait à toutes nos retraites, avec des chants de louange, l’esprit des jeunes est rapidement ressorti, et ils se sont très rapidement ouverts à nous. J’ai vraiment confiance que des expériences comme celles-ci se font entièrement grâce à Dieu, et à Son Esprit qui se fait connaitre à ces jeunes.

Je vous remercie encore pour vos prières continues pour notre ministère. On tient bien le coup, comme il nous reste juste un peu plus de deux semaines sur la route. C’est incroyable comment les choses se sont passées vites pour nous cette année! Il me semble que c’était hier qu’on était sur la route, en train d’entamer notre premier voyage vers l’Alberta, et nous voici maintenant, ayant voyagé jusque dans les maritimes, et presqu’à la fin de notre mission avec NET. Mais on a confiance que le Seigneur restera à l’œuvre jusqu’à la dernière seconde de notre ministère et qu’Il continuera à faire germer la graine qu’Il a semée dans le cœur des jeunes, ainsi que dans nos cœurs.

Merci encore pour tout votre soutien et vos prières!

Kevin

If you say "11 more days", I'm gunna twist your knuckles and give you a snake bite

So there is this horrific countdown going on around Sacred Heart Church that sounds something like:

1 more host home change
1 more stipend
2 more edge nights
2 more Lifenights
11 more days until we start our drive back to Ottawa

Pretty crazy hey? Every time I hear it, I get sad. I have definately fit my little Australian self into the community of Wetaskiwin and into the parish of Sacred Heart.
I’m gunna miss Edge nights, Lifenights, playing music at Mass, going to Mass everyday with my team, meeting new people from the parish and hearing about their experiences with God.

I am currently staying with a family whose father is searching for his faith at the moment.
Last night I stayed up talking to him for a couple of hours about the Catholic faith in comparison to other faiths and that big question we all have in life: “why am I here?”
It was one of the most intriguing conversations I have ever had. Of course people are curious, and if you say you’re not then you’re lying.
This universe is massive, and there is such a thing as truth. Talking to this host dad about where he is at in his faith reminded me a lot of myself and where I have been.

I used to be an atheist; I tried to find meaning in the fact that there was no meaning, and needless to say I failed at this. The universe is just too bloody beautiful to have no Creator, so I started my search. After 3 months in Ireland, a week in Medjugorje and 2 weeks in Canada, (and a lot of help from Mumma Mary through prayer) I met God which thus in turn led me to NET.
But I love the curiosity of those people who aren’t necessarily Catholic. I was surprised to hear him say that he had no idea that when we go to Mass every Sunday, we don’t consume bread and wine as a symbol of Christ’s death and love for us, but we as Catholics believe that the priest consecrates bread and wine and it turns into Christ’s Body and Blood, so we actually consume Jesus.

If you’re waiting for the punch line of this blog, I guess it’s that I’m glad to be a Catholic. I’m so flippin’ lucky that God chose to reveal His Massive and Incredible mystery to a little 18-year old girl from Port Pirie, South Australia; I’m glad that I get “it” and that I have the answer to that question “Why am I here?”. Part of that answer MUST be to have great conversations like mine with this host father, spreading the Word of God.
So please pray for him. He believes in God, but not quite sure as to which one that is. He needs to personally experience God, so join with me and Mumma Mary that he may find the God who is endlessly seeking him.

God Bless ya
Emma
Team 4 - Wetaskiwin

Back In Ontario!!!

Team 1: Week 1

Team 1: Week 2

Hello beautiful readers! This is Claire and Adele reporting from Team 2. This past week we had a very full schedule, we had six Encounter Days. They were all very successful, and though it was a long week, it was very grace-filled as well.

On Wednesday and Thursday we were in Whitby, Ontario and had confessions available both days. The priest requested extra time for confessions so we had them for about an hour; almost every student was in line and we unfortunately didn't have time for them all to go. Most of the girls in my small group hadn't gone since their first confession. It was so amazing to me to think of all the souls that were made new those days!

The students were also very responsive to us the whole day. Even right at the beginning, several of the girls got right into the music. During lunch, many of them were playing guitar and piano. Overall, they were pretty excited to be there and that is always a plus!

The next day we traveled to Etobicoke where we did Encounter Days at Nativity of Our Lord parish. Since they hosted a NET parish team last year, the community was very familiar with NET and very excited to have us there. Several of the students attend the EDGE program, which is still going strong. Lorne, the youth minister, was involved with the Encounter Days and he really helped to get the youth involved. He is awesome and it's apparent that he really loves working with them. The youth, in turn, seem to like him a lot as well. We were also able to see the Hennessys, the family of Christiana [editor's note: Christiana Hennessy is on Team 3, the french traveling team]. They are an amazing family; some of us stayed with them the last time we were in Etobicoke, so it was great to see them again.

This is Adele writing to tell you about our Team Day on Sunday, which turned out to be my unbirthday. We traveled to Ajax, Ontario to meet up with one of my host families from last year, the Grant family. It was such an amazing surprise! We spent the beautiful sunny day in the park catching up on old times and playing ultimate frisbee. I was really happy to see the Grants but I was also so excited for the rest of the team to meet them as well. They are such a beautiful and loving family - you instantly feel welcomed when you are with them. After a really great afternoon, we went out for dinner at Jack Astor's. The food was delicious and just spending time relaxing with the team was a lot of fun. Overall my unbirthday was a huge success!!

Monday we did an Encounter Day for grade 9 students. The students were a little chatty but they were all really affirming towards each other. At the end of the Encounter Day one of the students, without being asked by the teacher, thanked us for the day. We were really touched by his initiative.

It has been a busy week but really rewarding. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

God bless always,

In Christ,

Claire and Adele