Let Thy Kingdom Come

Greetings friends!

Welcome to the blog of Encounter Team Two, a NET team on fire with the Holy Spirit and committed to serving God this year. Our team is currently in the final week of training, and our excitement to start the year is rising. As part of this final week of training, our team puts on two retreats under the supervision and guidance of the NET staff. We had our first retreat today in Russell, ON, a short drive from Ottawa, and are busy preparing for a confirmation retreat later this week.

Praise God for such a beautiful first retreat. We had approximately one hundred grade seven's from St. Thomas Aquinas School in Russell, and delivered the "Who Are You?" theme, which focuses on taking our identity in Christ. Through the talk, drama, testimonies, and small groups, the students experienced this theme and learned that God made them, knows them, loves them, and has a plan for them. In the afternoon the students had an opportunity for prayer, and many of them were found flipping through Bibles during this time.

Our team found the students to be such a blessing. We were inspired by the witness of some of them, and moved by the openess of others. In small groups, some of the youth shared with us how they turn to prayer throughout the day, seeking God's help when times are difficult, and thanking God when times are good. Other students also shared with us their struggles and triumphs in seeing the good qualities in themselves. Related to that, some students came to the realization that when they look at themselves and see only things that they don't like and wish were different, they are reflecting that ingratitude back to the God who created them. Overall, our team found that the Catholic faith was alive and present in the group, with a few students already full out embracing their Catholic faith. Groups like today's really reflect the beauty of the school's staff in building a community of faith and really passing on the seeds of faith to their students.

In conclusion, our first retreat was amazing. While there is still room to grow, our team has passion and love for this ministry, and will only continue to improve from here. We are super excited to start out on the road and begin this great task of evangelization, and we look forward to seeing how God will work in our lives and in the lives of those we encounter. We ask for your prayers as we conclude our training and are commissioned on Saturday by the Archbishop of Ottawa. Our work would be for nothing if the power of God was not behind it, and so we rely fully on His grace.

God Bless!

Encounter Team Two

(Top picture- The Encounter Team after their first retreat. L-R: Mariah Fortune, Colin Hay, Katie Foster, Matthew Scott, Sarah Masters, Matthew Sullivan, Melissa Yaceyko, Eoin Ginty, Julia Lannon, and Emily Craig Penner)

So Long, Farwell, Asvie Desain, Goodbye!

Greetings fellow inhabitants of the world wide web!

This is April Fogle from Yellowknife iNFUSE, with a few last words. We made a year end video to summarize our time in Yellowknife and we thought we would share it with all of you faithful blog and vlog viewers. Below you can find the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL2DAR1n_84

I just wanted to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and for taking the time to check up on us up in the north, and it has been a pleasure being able to update you throughout this year.

This year has been and incredible, unique experience, that I know my entire team would not trade for anything. God is wonderful and glorious God, and we were so fortunate and blessed to be able to serve Him this year.

Please continue to keep the youth and parish of St. Patricks Parish in Yellowknife in your prayers, and also all of the members of our team!

Thank you very much, and God bless!

April Fogle

iNFUSE Team 1, Yellowknife

Last words from Encounter Team One.

Greetings for the last time from Maria Kalin and Encounter Team One! This year has been such an amazing experience for all of us, and so with this last blog I would like to take the opportunity to share with you some of the experiences of my teammates. I hope you have enjoyed hearing about the adventures of Encounter Team One as much as I have enjoyed sharing them with you! God bless! Maria Kalin

Hey friends! Judith here and I just want to say that you guys are great! It’s been such a blast here on NET and I’ve learned a lot about this world. Before NET I didn’t realize just how much this world needed Jesus but through my time on NET God has really showed me how much He needs us to reach out to those in need. I’ve come to fully know that I need to be His hands and feet, His name needs to be known in the hearts of this world, and that He will shine his light to the broken hearted through those who truly believe in his love and mercy. I thank God for revealing this to me and I pray that I can truly live my life for Him and others. Later days! From Team Awesome!

Hello faithful blog readers! This is Claire and there is so much that I’ve learned and experienced this year. I have to say that what stands out to me most is the generosity and love shown to us when on the road. It is easy to take for granted some of the host homes that we go to, because we have had over fifty. I have been blown away by the willingness of people to take random strangers into their home. And I have been so touched by the beauty of family, which has definitely inspired me to make relationships with my own family stronger. At one host home, the family had a handicapped daughter who could not do anything for herself, and the love and patience her parents had with her was so amazing. I stayed in another home for a few weeks where there were several small children. The parents talked to their children in such a calm and patient way and rarely did I hear them have to raise their voice. I thought to myself, “Wow, I hope I can be like that someday with my kids.” I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to serve on NET and not only do ministry, but be ministered to as well.

Yo yo yo whats up t-cat Tom Russell here! Well what can I say about this year, it has been such an amazing experience I have been blessed to have served two years with NET and have loved every minute of it! Being on NET has allowed me not only to spread the gospel message to many young people but grow leaps and bounds in my own faith and journey with God. I have been shown how much God provides and his immense love. I have been asked to think of my favorite team memory and that has proved to be a tough task but I think that my favorite team memory would have to be sitting around a fire after Easter vigil mass at Maria’s home in Armstrong till 4:30 in the morning just hanging out and chilling! I don’t think just one paragraph can sum up the amount of love I have for NET and the mission I have been blessed enough to be a part of! For anyone reading this all I can say is that NET has changed my life and I would not be the man I am this day without this journey.

Hello everyone! Carissa here. I would like to share with you all about something I have learned this year through the amazing examples of beautiful Catholic families. I have met and stayed with so many wonderful people who exemplify the Holy Family and the Trinity in the way God designed marriage and family life to be. I have realized and come to desire a holy family, not for myself, but to be able to glorify God through this great vocation. My ideas about the sacrament of marriage have been greatly blessed by meeting these wonderful families and by the love of God and my teammates. To be able to get along with both women and men in the same, friendly way this year has been extremely healing and life-changing for me. I am excited to live out Gods will in my life, not for me, but for HIM!

Hello, family, friends and people I don’t know! It’s Marky Marc and the funky bunch here and this is sadly the last time will be signing in. But there is some good news. I’m here to share with you what I’ve learnt on this amazing experience. God is everywhere, Jesus is present and the Holy Spirit will ignite us if we only give him the opportunity. I realize God does has a brilliant plan for me, but I’m human, I’m going to make mistakes, I’m going to fall and I’m going to struggle, and Jesus isn’t going to be there for me holding my hand through the tough times in my life… It’s because He will be carrying me through these times, He’s my savior, my passion and my friend. I’ve made a bond with Him that will never be relinquished, and that keeps growing stronger, and through Him joy, happiness and true love has entered my heart and will never vanish!

Greetings to all blog readers! Katie Foster here… On NET, we missionaries are called to evangelize at all times, on and off retreats. While many are familiar with our retreat ministry, an equally important aspect of a travelling team is host home ministry. When we stay in a host home, we invest in our host family, getting to know them, and at the end of the day, we invite them to pray with us before retiring to bed. On more than one occasion I have seen host homes touched by this very important act. Once, two of us were staying with a family that did not pray together, not even at meal times. We stayed there for three nights. The first two nights, we invited them to join us for night prayer, and they were eager to join us. On the third night, however, we didn’t have to ask – they asked us first! After praying together once again, one of the young girls looks up to her mother and says, “Can we do this every night?” Much to our surprise and pleasure, the mother agreed, and the family made plans to pray together every evening! Praise God! This is only one example of several host homes which have told me that they were really inspired by the night prayer that we have done with them, and that they desired to continue to pray as a family.

Hello from Mike McPherson. Our second last retreat in Belleville was pretty rowdy. The kids seemed really excited for us to be there but you could tell they just wanted to have fun. They enjoyed the games and the skits but when it came to talking about God they seemed to check out. In my small group I was trying to get them to talk about confirmation and try kept trying to change the subject. Finally I asked one grade 8 boy what he thought about confirmation and he said he thought it was a waste of time. We ended up talking more about God and why bad things happen. After telling them about how my Mom had died and how God saved me in my darkest hour we had some good discussion. After attempting to answer their difficult questions as best I could (pretty poorly I thought) small group came to an end. The same grade 8 boy spoke up. He said "When this small group started I didn't want to get confirmed, bit now I kind of do." I think telling him that if he wanted to be Catholic then this was his chance to make that choice, was what really rung true for him.

"Any Final Words?"

Time is slowly running out for us here in Steinbach and we are getting things ready for when we leave next week. It will definitely be very hard for us to leave here, but with applicants for the youth minister job lined up, I know that God will provide for the youth of this parish so that they may continue to have a strong, thriving ministry after we are gone. But before I get too emotional about our departure, I should probably tell you about all that has happened this past week.

Ok, so I think I experienced my favourite youth night of the year! Our first combined night, which was entitled “The Egg-mazing Race”, was absolutely egg-cellent! We were able to hand everything over to our adult leaders and they ran all the egg-mazing activities. There was a relay race with various activities involving eggs, such as rolling an egg along the ground with your face and an egg-toss to name a few. There was also a blind, egg-tasting contest in which a secret ingredient was added some scrambled eggs and the teens would have to taste and guess what they thought it was. My favourite of the night was our egg-trivia! If they got the question wrong they would get a water balloon thrown at them…which was not a bad thing as it was so warm out. The night was a huge success. I am really looking forward to our next combined night – our last night of the year unfortunately.

Our parish decided to do a farewell potluck dinner for us – it was really strange being there and not running anything, but our contact people were adamant that we should not do anything. As a team we were a little worried that it would be a sad event focused on how we were leaving but it turned out to be a fun night with face-painting, balloon art, family feud, and of course incredible food. There was also a cake with a picture of our team on the front – one of the youth was determined to eat Brenden’s face. Our contact ladies did an incredible job of highlighting the changes they had seen in the parish and how proud they were of the work we had done. They also gave an outline of how the parish had gotten to the point of actually getting a NET team – it is an incredible story of perseverance that’s for sure! I cannot talk about this event without mentioning two skits that were put on for us. The first was a silly skit by our three contact ladies. They all came out with brooms and work-clothes and mimed a skit in which the one found a conductor’s stick and was orchestrating the music – absolutely hilarious. The second skit was one organized by our teens and one of our adult leaders. It was “I wish to be a NETter” – a new version of our own “I’m glad to be a NETter” skit. They took an aspect of each of us on the team and included it in the skit. I could not stop laughing!

One of my highlights of the past week (although I am a little biased on this one) was going to see Starfield in concert. What is the reason I am biased? Because it was my un-birthday!!! I had completely forgotten that Starfield was coming to Winnipeg as I did not think we would be able to go, but on the evening of the concert (which was also our host home switch) the team told me that I had 15min to eat dinner as we would be going to the concert! And to add to it all, there was a special on our tickets so that we were able to bring some members of our host families! It was a beautiful night of music and praise and worship. Could I have asked for a better un-birthday? I don’t think so.

To end off this blog, I must acknowledge our youth band. Last Sunday they lead worship at Mass without any of our team playing with them! Isn’t that wonderful?!?! They sounded incredible and have grown so much from when they started. Plus they have come up with a name for themselves, “Great Expectations”. They figured this was appropriate as each of the members started out ‘small’ in the band – the bass player learning as she went, the drummer having had only a few lessons before joining, the keyboardist also having had little experience and our leader having English as a second language. But despite all these things, they came together and were able to grow and learn to lead the parish in worship.

Our last event before we leave is another combined youth night entitled “Any Final Words?” Let’s just say there will be some “Mafia” going on. I am really excited to see all the teens one more time before we leave.

Well, it is time to say good-bye as this may very well be my last blog for the year. Thank you all for reading this blog all year. Your prayers and support have been wonderful and we greatly appreciate the interest you have taken in our year here in Steinbach.

God bless
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
iNFUSE team 2

Country Folk!

Hello again to all our AMAZING blog followers! I hope this day finds you doing WONDERFULLY! I have a lot to tell you about, so I'd better get started.
On May 4, for our team day, we spent the day at Peace Hills Park. We had a picnic, played on the jungle gym (oh to be a kid again!), went for a long walk, and even had a water balloon fight!

On May 6, we went to Sacred Heart School for a special event! The school gave us the privilege of leading the living rosary that they do every year with their students. The students held the candles that were being lit at the start of each prayer. I was so pleasantly surprised at how respectful the students were during this time of prayer!

On May 7 we had the oppertunity to go to the Confirmation Mass celebration. We have journeyed for a couple of months with the candidates, and I was so blessed to be a part of the final part of their confirmation journey. I know that the candidates have definitely changed during this journey, and I am excited for them to continue to change through the Holy Spirit! After the Mass, I had the privilege to direct a drama. Some of our youth and Marcus and Cecile from our team took part in the Everything Drama. It is to the song 'Everything' by Lifehouse. I know it is a drama that has changed my life in a number of ways, so I was really excited to direct it and to have them show it with the parish on this weekend.

On May 8 we had our highschool youth group meet and play Ultimate Frisbee for the afternoon! It was a hit during NET training for a lot of netters, and it was a hit here in Wetaskiwin! We had so much fun playing!

Us girls have been having a blast at our host home! We are staying on a farm with lots of fields to play in and horses to hang out with! So fun! For our day off on May 9, we took a four wheeler and went mudding in the fields. We got covered in mud! Oh yes, we are country folk!

On May 10 we celebrated DJ's unbirthday. We went to the beach and played frisbee and football. Somehow in the mix of things, we got a little silly and started to throw each other in the water! WE GOT SOAKED TO THE BONE! But it was all in good fun!

On May 13 for our EDGE night, we called it "Little Hands, Little Feet." It was an issue night focusing on abortion. It fit right in because on May 12, we joined in the March for Life in Edmonton. The night went incredibly well. One of our crew did the talk, and it seriously blew me away! I could tell that he was really convicted that abortion is wrong, and he showed that to the youth he gave the talk to. For prayer time, we got the youth to light a candle and put in on the altar to show that they are praying for all babies in the womb. It was really powerful!

Earlier that Friday, we went to Lacombe (about an hour away) and put on a 'Who Are You?' retreat for grades 7-9. It was so great! The youth were so comfortable with us, and shared so openly in small group. They all loved it, and we got so much good feedback from them. One youth said this: "I enjoyed the small group experiences at the retreat. I connected with God during the prayer time. I loved the different games we played with the NET group." Praise God for all His good works He is doing!

On May 14, we put on another SUPER successful Crossroads Coffee House! This one was the biggest yet! We had three full bands play 3 songs each.

The weekend of May 13-15, iNFUSE Team 3 was so incredibly blessed to have Marcus' parents for a visit. It was really great. We all love them so much, and LOVED having them involved in our ministry for a weekend. So great!

Lifeteen on May 15 was a WATER FIGHT! We had TONS of water balloons and water guns. It was so much fun, everyone got so wet! It is so so so sad to say goodbye to our Lifeteeners, but I know they are in good hands here at Sacred Heart Parish.

This weekend will be filled with crazy emotions! We leave our beloved parish on Sunday after mass. On Friday we say goodbye to our Edgers, and on Saturday we say goodbye and thank everyone who has helped us out this year. Sunday we say goodbye to our whole parish! Even just thinking about it, I cry! We have been so blessed this year and have been surrounded by so many amazing people, and it will be really hard to goodbye to this second home of ours. THANK YOU SACRED HEART PARISH! WE LOVE YOU!
God Bless,
Katie Doyle
iNFUSE Team 3

Wetaskiwin, AB
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15: 13