Vlog Encounter 2 EAST COAST!

Finishing Strong

Hello all!

            Encounter two here, and we’re finally back in the Ottawa area! The east coast was amazing. It was so nice to be near the ocean for so long. We were able to hit New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. It was a really cool experience, for most of us it was our first time being to Newfoundland! We didn’t get all of the way to St. John’s, but we were able to go to Mary’s Town, Corner Brook, and Stevenville. Newfoundland is such a beautiful province!

            This Holy week we did a fair amount of driving, as we celebrated Palm Sunday in Halifax, Nova Scotia with Archbishop Mancini, and Easter Sunday in Deep River Ontario! It was really cool to experience Easter with other families and take part in other traditions. The families and the parish in Deep River really made us feel at home!

            Just recently we had the opportunity to run an overnight Encounter Event at Centre de L’Amour in Rockland, Ontario. It was really awesome being able to run an event at the place where some of our NET training was held.  We got to watch the youth grow in their faith throughout the event, at the place where all of us grew a lot in our faith. There was one gentleman in my small group that really wasn’t sure about his faith, coming into the event. He was really awesome, and very real with me. He was a very genuine guy and he wasn’t afraid to tell me exactly where he was at, which was really cool.

            At the end of the second day there was a time of prayer and adoration, and all of the guys in my small group were very engaged in it. After the adoration we met as a small group, and he couldn’t help but share his experience. He told us about how during that prayer time and adoration he realized that Jesus IS his best friend, and that he wanted a relationship with Him. It was amazing because he didn’t come to this realization through what we did or said, he came to it by sitting in the presence of God and being open to Him. It was incredible to witness!

            As our year of ministry is coming to a close, or schedule is busy as ever! Currently we are in the Pembroke diocese, and our last events take place in the Toronto diocese. Keep us in your prayers!

God bless

Mike McCallum

Encounter 2

The Beginning of the End

The youth here never cease to amaze me! For our junior high youth group a couple weeks ago we had a time of Adoration, during which we invited the youth to approach the Blessed Sacrament on the altar and sign cards as a physical sign of their commitment to living their lives for Christ. As soon as the invitation was made, the first person got up and started walking towards Jesus, and before she made it all the way there, about 7 other youth rushed from their spots and started running towards Jesus, eager to commit themselves to Christ! It was absolutely beautiful. Many youth also received the Sacrament of Reconciliation that night too. I am so thankful for all that God has been doing in the lives of these youth this year!

For Easter we spent the entire day with one of the families in the area. It was beautiful out and we spent the afternoon outside walking to their cabane à sucre (sugar shack) and we spent some time exploring. We all had supper together and then we spent some time doing music together before heading back to our host families.

Last night was our last senior high school youth group and we spent the night empowering the youth to continue their faith journey even after we leave. We had an obstacle course that encouraged teamwork among them. We talked a little bit about the way society views youth these days and the way that we’re called to rise above those stereotypes and dare to do great things and make the world a better place. Paul shared a bit of Pope Saint John Paul IIs love for youth and then we invited the youth to join us in the Church and choose one of his quotes off the wall that inspire them and reflect on it during prayer time. The youth were so responsive to the message and it was a great way to end the year with this group of youth.  

God bless,

Katelyn Sutton

Les Équipes NET

The Hero Within

“What is a hero? What makes someone a hero? Why do you look up to them? ” These are some of the questions we asked the students at our last Lifeline (grade 5/6 youth group) night. We discovered together that most of us like superheroes because they are willing to do hard things for the benefit of others. Heroes are selfless. Jesus was selfless when he died on the cross for us. 

Why do we look up to heroes? Because we see in them something that we admire, something that we want to be. 

So along with showing the students commonly known superheroes, like Batman, Spiderman, and Superman, we showed them some real-life heroes that they could also be inspired by, such as Bethany Hamilton, Iqbal Masih, and Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati.

HUGS!

We gave the students the opportunity to be heroes this night by making Easter cards and “hugs” for children at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and for some of the older people in our parish. They really enjoyed making things that would bring joy to other members in their community. At the end of the night we had a prayer service where we prayed for the people that would receive the cards and hugs! 

God Bless,
Shaina Wreede 
iNFUSE1 Montreal

What a month!

Wow! The month of March has been a crazy month full of fun events, but before I get to that I should mention that on February 28^th we had the honour of attending the celebration for newly created Cardinal Lacroix in Québec! It was an evening filled with the Gospel, some music, some speeches, and we even got to perform the flashmob with our youth again! It was definitely an evening that I will remember for a long time to come.

We kicked of the month of March with a weekend retreat for our junior high school youth group students. It was a super fun weekend and a great opportunity to build fellowship within the group, as many of them don’t see each other much outside of youth group. The weekend focused a lot on the different ways that God calls us and the importance of answering His call. It was such a great chance to get them talking and opening up more with each other, and to see them really become a group of friends was amazing!

A few weeks later, we went out to see ‘The Son of God’ with our senior high school youth group followed by a short discussion and prayer time. It was really cool to be able to share the experience with them and be out in the world doing normal things and see them outside of the typical youth group setting, to and be able to discuss how we felt about the movie.  

Last weekend we had our weekend retreat for our senior high school students! It fell on a really good weekend because many of our youth who are often less available to come to our youth group nights were able to make it to the retreat! The retreat theme was ‘Open Wide the Doors to Christ’ and we spent a lot of time talking about prayer, sacraments, fellowship, and service and how they help us to open the doors of our hearts to God and really let Him into our lives.

God bless,

Katelyn Sutton

La Beauce