What I Say To You In The Darkness, Speak In The Light!

What a crazy wonderful week this has been!

In today's blog, I will be highlighting our supervisor visit, EDGE night entitled What I Say To You In The Darkness, Speak In The Light, Lifeteen meeting, Team Day, and more!

EDGE night was awesome! The theme was on evangelization, and how we can do that in our everyday lives. Hannah and Marissa from the Wetaskiwin team last year came to visit for a few days, so they came to EDGE. We has a skit that modelled evangelization, and the reality that sometimes people may not want to hear what we have to say. We talked to the kids about how hard it is to tell people about Jesus' love, but about how necessary it is to do so.

On Saturday, we had our first ever Crossroads Coffee House! It was amazing. We changed the whole environment of the youth room into a little coffee shop. It was very warm and cozy. The musical talent of our youth and parish members is unbelievable! It was great to hang out with everyone and to appreciate together how blessed we are to live in Wetaskiwin.

After Mass on Sunday morning, in honour of family day (which was the following day), our team did the drama Two Sets of Jones'. The drama is about two different married couples, one who build their relationship on the rock of Christ Jesus, and one who laid a sandy foundation for their marriage. It is an amazing drama that makes me cry everytime, but I had no ideo how much it would impact the community. At the coffee social after Mass, almost every parishioner came and thanked us for doing the drama and told us how much it meant to them. Praise God!

That same Sunday, we had meeting for all our Lifeteeners. We mainly just wanted to ask them what they wanted to see in the high school youth group, and what themes and issues they would want to talk about. That brought about a lot of clarification for our team and for the teens, so it was a great meeting all around!

This weekend, we had our supervisors, Jesse and Sarah, here for a visit! It was so lovely to see them again! It felt like we han't seen them in years! The theme of this supe visit was to relook at our mission for this year, and to re-encourage our zeal for this ministry. It was really cool to look back at the mission statement that we wrote in September!

The supe's planned our team day that happened on Monday. It was really great. We slept in, and then came to our beloved parish. We listened to a talk on communication, and discussed a little about that. It was really good to see how we all communicate differently. It really impacted our team. And then for our fun activity, we played Just Dance on the Wii! It was so much fun! The boys were the ones that normally won, but can I just say that the girls DEFINITELY had better dance moves! Later on that team day, we broke off as men and women, and the sisterhood wrote a song for the brothers and the brotherhood wrote a song for the sisters. All in all, it was a very entertaining team day.

Until next time...

God Bless,

Katie Doyle

iNFUSE Team 3

Wetaskiwin, AB

"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6: 31-34

Jesus Christ Superstar

Hello everyone, once again, one of the sisters has hijacked the blog from Patrick. This week, it's Bernadette reporting to you from Smithville, Ontario. The past two weeks have been packed with retreats, overnight bags, road trips, team days, a no-obligation day, and a supervisor visit. All of these things added up to make 14 days of AWESOME.

Yesterday we had a team day and went down to the lovely falls of Niagara. We all bundled up with hats, scarves, mittens, mitten warmers, (and pretty much everything else we could think of to keep us warm) and went out to brave the frigid cold. For Cristy, Tanya, Danica, and Patrick, it was their first time ever seeing the falls. They were all amazed but I think Cristy was more thrilled over the fact that she could see her home land, the United States, on the other side of the falls. As a team, we all went glow-in-the-dark mini golfing. It was really neat and I wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought I would be. When we split up for men's and women's sessions, us ladies went to a wax museum. Most of us had never been to one before so it was definitely an experience we won't soon forget. The guys decided to put their manhood to the test and go into The Nightmares Fear Factory (a deathly terrifying haunted house). We have provided a few photos of their experience for your enjoyment..hah.

Pat and Meaghan came down for a supervisor visit while we were in Pickering/Ajax. While they were down, we went bowling and once again had the debate: 10 pins, or 5? I am a big believer in 10 pins. Plain and simple, it's just easier. Another debate we have is: big bowling balls vs. small bowling balls. I am also a big believer in small bowling balls. The big ones are super heavy (and I'm super weak) and you're always exhausted by the end of your excursion to the bowling alley. The East coast has it right folks, 10 pins, small bowling balls! That's the way to go.

We had a no-obligation day while we were in Pickering. We took a van out to Toronto and some people went downtown to explore, while others spent the day with family and friends. To end off the day, all of us met up and went to York University for an Adoration event going on for university students. Fr. Mark Goring gave an amazing reflection and he graciously exposed the superstar of the night, our Lord and Saviour, Mr. Jesus Christ! The night was filled with beautiful music led by Joe Zambon, and the forgiveness of many sins, through the Sacrament of Confession. There were lots of familiar faces at the event: some NET alumni, Jesse and Jocelyn from NET staff (who coincidentally happened to be in Toronto that night), and as mentioned before, Fr. Mark.

I am pleased to announce that we have successfully had our first overnight retreat (WAHOOO!). The theme was Real Love and the entire retreat was very much led by the Holy Spirit. On the first day of the retreat, it felt as though nothing was coming together. Individually, no one felt prepared but as soon as the retreatants arrived, everything just seemed to fall into place. The talks, men's and women's sessions, the small groups, and everything else went so much better then we could have ever expected. The entire thing was very anointed. We all had a really great time. The retreat was for high school students and because it was a smaller group (15 students), we had the opportunity to get to know them all better. We left the retreat feeling as though we had gained a few new friends. Also, at the end of the retreat, Tanya had the opportunity to fulfill her life's dream... to sit on a yellow school bus! Unfortunately for Tanya, they don't have yellow school buses in Ireland but I guess this is just one of the MANY reasons that she should move to Canada... :)

The next two weeks will be filled with retreats, overnight bags, road trips, team days, a second no-obligation day in two weeks (exciting!), and BRANDON'S 20th BIRTHDAY! We will also be going to Scarborough to help out with a NET Come and See Weekend. We are all very excited about it and can't wait to meet all of the potential Netters. Who knows, maybe some of us will be on team with them next year. How exciting!

God bless you all!

Bernadette Dobbelsteyn

Encounter Team Two

Massive Worship gone West

After a long 5 days of travelling, we landed in St. Paul, Alberta and were welcomed warmly with a huge dinner, which was indeed a great welcome.

The community was anticipating our arrival; we were scheduled to do a three-night Parish Youth Mission. On the first day of the mission, we went into the Junior High School to do classroom presentations, they went well and we played some music in the hallway at lunchtime. We invited them all out to the mission and just had fun with them. They seemed to enjoy themselves and the teachers also enjoyed the music.

We were very encouraged when we did our first evening of the parish mission - some teens from the school actually came out, and the youth group of the Roman Catholic Parish was all there as were a lot of families. The small Church was packed; we were actually at the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which turned out to be very intriguing. It was the first time for almost 98% of the attendees, including us, experiencing an Eastern Rite Mass. Father Mark, the Pastor, taught us the responses and traditions and it turned out to be a great learning experience. I think it also really unified the two Parishes, or at least they got to know each other a bit better. It was a huge blessing having the Mission in the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Also something that was really cool was that the contact person put posters all over town even in a few Churches around town that weren’t even Catholic, and even in A & W. It was so neat to meet the people that came and find out how they ended up coming to the Mission. I even met a girl at Tim Horton’s and invited her out and she actually came!

The whole time we were in St. Paul was such a good experience. We learned how to rely on God a lot during our time there and we realized that God can really work through any schedule, even if it’s not one that we had planned. We did a lot of last-minute things, including spontaneous ministry in classrooms and things being changed at the last minute. The thing is, though, that God had a bigger plan. Everything that "didn’t work out" turned out to be for the best because when things changed, the people that came got so much more out if it than what was previously planned.

After St. Paul we headed out to Our Lady of Victory camp for a Massive Worship Encounter weekend. The people that came out were really great and very focused on learning a lot about music, which was awesome. It was our first time doing a three-day overnight retreat. It was very exciting and we had a great facility.

On Saturday we were fortunate enough to have Mass and Adoration. It was such a beautiful addition to the weekend, and it took all that we had learned and focused on during the sessions about liturgy and a heart of worship and applied it with a great opportunity to praise God.

The weekend was very successful and we met a lot of fantastically faithful people.

It has just been great being in Alberta!

We then went to Calgary and we were able to attend a progressive supper hosted by the young Catholic community, some with CCO and some with UCCC, and some just young and Catholic! We went from house to house having appetizers, a main course and people would give their testimonies and then we went back to the Parish hall for dessert and a talk and some praise and worship by our team.

There were 70 of us! It was so encouraging to meet so many people our own age that are into their Faith and focused on leading each other closer to Christ and motivating each other. We were very blessed and made a lot of friends. I would strongly encourage everyone to go to a progressive supper if you get the chance.

God has been doing such amazing things for us and we just can’t thank Him enough for the way our ministry has been going.

Praise God!

Have a fantastic day!

Brandi Olson

Massive Worship

“It’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you…”

This week was awesome for us here in Steinbach. We had Archbishop Albert LeGatt celebrate for our Youth Mass on Sunday! His homily was amazing and I know I found it to be really relevant to myself as well as the youth. He and Fr. Isidore even stayed for our REACT night, entitled “Let’s Celebrate”. The night was all about the Mass, its parts and how blessed we are to be able to meet Christ in the Eucharist. Phylicia gave a super talk that involved testing the teens’ knowledge and giving candy for correct answers. It was great seeing what the teens knew and being able to give them more information about the Mass. One of the teens told us that he never knew when the bread and wine became the Body and Blood and that it was cool to finally know when that was. I think that, aside from seeing the Archbishop join in the discussions, games and singing, was my highlight of the night.

Most of the NET alumni that I have spoken to tell me that team life is one of their favourite parts of the ministry. I have come to agree with them (not that it took much convincing). This past team day was a lot of fun both in the planning and the execution. Phylicia, Amanda, and I decided that it was about time to honour Brenden and Andrew and show them how much we appreciate what they do for us. One of the parishioners had offered to give the team a sleigh ride on his farm, so we women decided that it would be great to surprise them with the sleigh ride. Only problem was that the guys already knew about this offer…so how do we surprise them? Here was our game plan: invite the guys over for a movie at our host home, get them seated and tell them we are going to get some snacks, sneak up behind them, blindfold them, help them into their coats, shoes and gloves, guide them to the van and drive out to the farm. The plan started out well until we realized we had forgotten to bring a camera. So we drove back…then we got lost (well we knew where we were, we just didn’t know where the farm was). But we finally made it and had a wonderful ride, complete with a bonfire near the end. It was a magnificent day and the bonding time we had together was priceless.

This week also saw the start of our men’s and women’s groups, Real Men and Glass Alabaster. Unfortunately we had to cancel the first men’s meeting as Andrew came down with the flu – please keep the team’s health in your prayers as flu season is here. Glass Alabaster went incredibly well with our first night consisting of decorating “dream envelopes”, cookies and answering random icebreaker questions Amanda had written up for the occasion. I am excited to see how this group, as well as Real Men once it starts, grows over the next few weeks.

My favourite adventure of the week had to be when Amanda, Phylicia and I rediscovered the “man-power” of women. On our way to pick up the guys from their host home, we got stuck in the snow…twice! After a few good pushes we managed to get the van free, but we knew we would not be able to make it to the guys. So it was women’s day in the office.

We continue to hear stories in the parish about how our ministry has affected the youth. One mother told us that since having us stay in her home she noticed a big difference and positive change in her daughter. Another youth is super excited about getting to play music at Mass, and is already involved with altar serving and being sacristan. We have even had a number of youth showing interest in joining NET in the future – one of whom is only 10! That just blows me away.

Goodbye for now and God bless!
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
iNFUSE Team 2

The Blog of Ultra!!

Hey everyone! This Katie again to tell you about how ULTRA our week has been! We have had EDGE movie night, Glass Alabaster, team day, and... a visit from the Massive Worship team! Let me tell you about it!

First, let me tell you about how amazing our Glass Alabaster nights have gone thus far. We have 2 nights, with 6 girls coming to it. Oh my goodness, the girls just amaze me! They are all so great, and we have an equal balance of having fun with them, but also going deep with them. Our first night was on 'Daughter of God, Bride of Christ.' Wow! The first night kind of hit them hard. We had a really great environment to get the girls to be comfortable. I gave a talk on our identity coming from being God's daughter, and the fact that no one can take that away from us. I talked about how we can relate our relationship to Christ as our husband. The girls really liked that. We watched a video to the song 'Beautiful' by 'Bethany Dillon.' The video was mainly about the struggles of attaining beauty by the world's standards. It was really powerful, and I know that it helped the girls a lot. We then had a prayer time, in which they wrote something down that they wanted God to help them love more about themselves. They took the piece of paper that they wrote on, and laid it at the foot of the crucifix that we had for the environment. After all that, we made HUSBAND BOXES! It was really awesome. We got blank boxes, and the girls were free to decorate as they please. The point of the boxes is that they can put things in it (letters to their future husbands, rosaries, prayer cards, etc.) and then give it to their future husband on their wedding day. The girls all loved that idea. We had so much fun with it. Last night's Glass Alabaster was about Friendship, and how we can be a good friend to each other, and how to love. It was really good, because the girls shared all the struggles they had with their girl friends, but how it is so good to have those relationships. Our team day, we celebrated beautiful Cecile's birthday!! Happy Birthday Cecile! We love you! For our women's session, we vegged out and watched a chick flick. It is one of our favourite things to do together, so it was really fun! Later, we blindfolded Cecile, and took her to one of our host homes. Cecile is Italian, and loves to cook... especially pasta! So that is what we did. We made delicious pasta! Then we had her favourite cake: cheesecake. So yummy. It was such a fun night! It has become a tradition to watch American Idol at this house as well, so that is how our night ended off. So great! Thanks for being born Cecile! We love you!

This past weekend, Marcus and Cecile went to OLVC for a conference put on by the Massive worship team. Emily, DJ and myself had things to do here in Wetaskiwin. Friday morning, we went to adoration and daily Mass, as always. Afterwards, there was a little bit of a social for all the daily Mass attendees, so the three of us went to that. It was really good, because we go to daily Mass every week, but never really get to know the people that go. So this gathering was the perfect way to meet and talk to them. Also on this same Friday, we had an EDGE night. It was a movie social night. We watched one of my favourite movies, 'Despicable Me.' So funny. I was probably laughing the loudest, more than the kids were.

After the Massive Worship retreat, Cecile and Marcus came back... but they came with the Massive Wroship team!! It was really good to see them and to catch up with the team. On Monday night, we had a big praise and worship night at our contact person's home. Wow. That is all I can say. It was really great to come together and to praise our God with people from Wetaskiwin and with the Massive Worship team. Thank you for being so amazing and for doing the work of God, Massive Worship. We love you and miss you so much!

I pray that you have an amazing week! We are excited this weekend for our supervisor visit! We love Sarah and Jesse! Can't wait for next's week blog!

God Bless,

Katie Doyle

iNFUSE Team 3, Wetaskiwin, AB

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him!" Colossians 3:16-17