August 13, 2009
"Burning with the fire and love of the Holy Spirit, go forth to proclaim the Risen Christ and to draw every heart to him!" -Benedict XVI
This is our FINAL IMPACT UPDATE... I'm a little sad. Here are some last pictures and words for you from the various parish teams!
Left to right: Chantal Castelino, Nathan Drew, Daniel Pettipas, Marissa Martin... ST. ANNE
Chantal writes:
I can think of two very pivotal points that happened in the summer to the St. Anne's parish team.
The first is in regards to our team unity. One weekend, the women on our team decided to honour the men on our team. We cooked lunch for them and then we all spent the day at Cranberry Flats. It brought us so much closer together as friends and team-mates, and I can honestly say that it was one of the best days of mission for me.
The second was during a formation, where we decided that we were going to share the gospel by investing in individuals. Establishing that level of trust in our relationships with parishioners could help us to see where they were at in their faith. This would enable us to give them a realistic challenge to respond to and grow from. A middle-aged man whom one of us invested in began to pray the Rosary daily, bring his family to mass, and wants to lead the Discovery study with some friends. This is only one of the many glory stories our team has.
Looking back, I have learned so much from each one of them, and I thank God every day for blessing me with such wonderful, dedicated, and driven (and ridiculously good-looking) team-mates. I love them!!
God bless,
Chantal Castelino
Jeremiah Webster, Courtney Koch, Anthony Churko, and Whitney Murphy... ST. FRANCIS XAVIER
Adam Regier, Jacquelyn Spicer, Charlotte Kerssens, Adam Mann... ST. JOHN BOSCO
Katie Lebrun, Emeka Nzekwu, Kathleen Boskill, Kevin Darwent... ST. PAUL'S
Rachael Northcott, Anthony Flory, Abbey Deschner, Beth Pettigrew, Michael Hudec... ST. PHILIP
Alana Beddoe, Kathleen Wolfe, Kevin O'Byrne, Laura Endrizzi, Sam Flynn... ST. AUGUSTINESam Writes:
We were very blessed from the start with team unity that has lasted all summer. We have had many wonderful experiences together; times in prayer in particular. There have been tears shed with and for one another, and God has spoken to us powerfully in prayer. We experienced what it means to rally around one another and learn from each other and our own leadership styles. We had great responses in our faith studies and were blessed to receive much wisdom from our participants and growth in our own journeys. We enjoyed lots and lots of carefree timelessness and grew together through such times. We had a lot of random fun, dancing in the car, singing, laughing (our team word from prayer was 'laugh'), and some slips into the river!
The biggest glory story overall for us is generally the overall experience of the summer. The community and spirit of St. Augustine's is so welcoming and we felt it from the start. Fr. Mike Bedard accepted out task with open arms and was so supportive in everything we had to do. We had a great response to our retreat on community in which we challenged each participant to become involved in the parish next year. Afterward we had a powerful Praise and Worship/Prayer Ministry session with everyone (there were 14 parishioners). After our final Faith Study we were praying in front of the Tabernacle together as a team and we were listening for God's words. We began to speak what we felt God was telling us in that moment and it was extremely powerful how the Lord moved. God spoke in powerful ways of love and affirmation of the mission that was completed in His name this summer.
Jesus had a mission for St. Augustine's this summer: A mission of hope, laughter, and love. As a team, we are very humbled to have seen what He has done through our own best efforts and how He has moved so powerfully beyond what we have done. It has been wonderful, challenging, and ultimately fulfilling to be at St. Augustine's this summer!
Praise Be Jesus Christ!
-Sam
Chris O'Hara, Michelle Walsh, Theresa Kosterman, Joshua Hrynchyshn... TRINITÉ PARISHES
Reid Sonntag, Hailey Brown, Elisha Ramstad, Liz Stilwell, Daniel Carreiro... HOLY FAMILY
Matt Vaughn, Emily Lautsch, Meghan Farnand, Teanna Lobo, Conor George... HOLY SPIRIT
Andrew Nobauer, Larissa Nelson, Alana Hodge, Eloisa Tamondong, Ian Anderson... APOSTLE TEAMLarissa Writes:
Just last week, the Apostle team led Vacation Bible School in Allan, SK. On the first day, a little girl walked into the church where the faith station was held, and she looked up at the leader with a terrified look on her face. She said, "I CANNOT be in a church!" The leader asked the girl why and her response was that the last time she was in a church was at her grandmother's funeral, and she was now too scared to be in a church. By the end of the week, after many blessed faith sessions, there was an opportunity to take the children to Mass. Before Mass, the girl came up to the leader and said, "You know, this is going to be really special for me . . ." The leader smiled and immediately realized the change that had taken place in the girl's heart. The girl admitted that she now felt joyful when entering a church and was filled with excitement at the thought of attending Mass for the first time since her grandmother passed away.
(Missing team: St. Patrick's...Jon Mann, Jennifer Rospad, Valerie Christie, Josh Nadeau, Esa Sluzar)
Well, that's all folks! See you in Calgary in 2010!!
Peace!
Hanging out by the South Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
Esa Sluzar enjoying a prairie sunset
Jeremiah Webster enjoying coffee at Starbucks, and a, um... leaf. A BIG leaf for Saskatchewan!
Rachael Northcott on Canada Day
Mr. Andrew Nobauer: Zip line king! Blue Mountain is in the Thickwood Hills near Battleford
A group went to Goodsoil, SK for their weekend off.... Here, a cool looking Kathleen Wolfe
