This is IT!!

Nicole here! That’s right folks, things in Athenry are coming to a close. It’s been a fantastic year, but it isn’t over yet and we still are finding ourselves with plenty to do.

This last weekend we held our final 3-day retreat at Esker Monastery and had our highest turnout with twenty-one students who attended. The theme of the weekend was Real Love. The retreat was filled with games, dramas, talks from the Netters and a few testimonies from students. The highlight of the weekend was during our prayer ministry when a majority of students received the sacrament of confession. After a long and successful retreat, we finished the weekend off with a dodgeball tournament after Mass on Sunday night. The students said that this was the best retreat ever...really...the STUDENTS actually said that not us.

While we all returned from the weekend absolutely wrecked, it was totally worth it to spend some quality time with the youth and hear how much work God has done in them this year. After a few good nights of sleep, we got back to working hard in the office for our last week of ministry. Last night we took a trip to the cinema to see the much anticipated Iron Man 2 with the youth who participated in the Passion play. Let me tell you it did not disappoint. The movie was great, and definitely lived up to all its hype. So if you haven’t checked it out yet I highly suggest that you do.

As for the rest of the weekend, we’ve got a diocesan trip planned with the youth to climb Croagh Patrick tomorrow as well as our last and final LifeNight, entitled This Is IT. Yay for doing God’s work.

I know! I love doing God’s work. (This is Dynae now) I just wanted to tell everyone about our previous trip to Croagh Patrick, as a team about two weeks ago. I hope you don’t mind. We were on a bit of a tight schedule because we had to be back for a Thanksgiving Mass for Confirmation students at the Church in Athenry, so we had to climb the mountain, and come back down in about 4 hours at the most. We were all set to go in our gear, and multiple coloured layers (Yes, Nicole this does include you). We had some pretty fun experiences climbing up the mountain because the last stretch to get to the top is SO STEEP!! No lies! Some of it I spent on my hands and knees going up. Diana found out it was her un-birthday at the top, I just about broke my camera diving for my camera case, but the best part was going down.

I don’t know if you would agree with me Nicole, but your crab crawl on that top part was something to behold. The boys took off because we were taking “so long,” but overall it was a pretty unique experience. Get excited because we get to recreate it all again tomorrow!! Crab-crawl-Nicole here we come!

Nicole’s turn at team day was on Monday after the retreat, where we FINALLY got to go to Knock, which may I mention we’ve been talking about going all year. Excellent choice Nicole! You rock my socks. Diana was keeping a huge secret from me all day on Sunday, but telling everybody else because she figured I would be the only one really excited about it, which turned out to be true. The relics of St. Therese of Lisieux and her parents were at the Basilica at Knock! It was so cool to be able to say hello to one of my favourite saints like that. We got to meet one of Alex’s old teammates and visit the School of Evangelization. They only have about 7 students each year! I got to meet a guy named Thomas who is taking a year off from the seminary to go to the school which he says is great to be able to work with young people because he is usually working with the older generations in the seminary. He plans to go back next year and continue on to become a priest. Go Thomas Go!

We walked around Knock a bit, had the quickest Confession of my life, and then went to a pub called Kilkenny’s for team sharing where Kilkenny beer is not on tap...(the keg just ran out, but I thought that was a bit ironic). Back to you Nicole!

Thanks Dynae, I highly enjoyed the fact that you just came out of nowhere and took over my blog...typical. You are quite the shyster, but one of my favourite shysters on the team. J Still, I can’t argue with the truth and if it must be said I did reach a point of desperation on our way down Croagh Patrick (the Croah as I like to call it) and in that moment of break-down I did conclude it would be best to give crab-crawling a try, which believe it or not did work quite well for me. So don’t knock it until you try it Dynae.

Anyway, other than that there isn’t much else to report on. We’ve all really enjoyed our stay here in Athenry. Who knew that a tiny, little town like this could find its way into each of our hearts? A little sappy I know, but if you ask me the world needs a little bit of sap. Seriously though, this year has been fabulous. We’ve gone through some tough times and had some great victories. We’ve grown as individuals, as team mates and as children of God. It’s truly amazing what God has done through six ordinary people, who were complete strangers to each other and everyone in this town just nine months ago. May all glory be to Him who is and was and will be forever our Lord. So this is it! Can’t wait to see what God has in store for us next.

JESUS IS GOOD!

What is up?! Diana back in action just in time for all of YOUS!! Well, where shall I begin? We just celebrated Easter, and let me tell you, what an amazing Holy Week it's been! Some of the oh-so talented youth put on a great Passion Play on Good Friday, there was a beautiful candle-lit prayer service on Saturday, and we got to be a part of a crispy dawn mass on Easter Sunday, not to mention a delicious late lunch feast at a local parish family's home!! Thanks Gannons!!!
Last week we had a really SWEET Lifenight entitled "Word Up", where we focused on the importance of reading the Bible, and how doing so can really jazz up your relationship with Christ.
And this coming Sunday we will have a night called "What Have You Got to Lose?, where we'll be touching on really choosing your faith and all the choices that go with that. It's gonna be fabulous!
You guys it's gettin' down the wire now, and we are leaving Athenry in about a month! I wish we had more time, and it's moving so fast I can't keep up! But I praise God for the opportunities He's given us here in A-town, and I only pray that more will come from what's been done here.
Well, God bless you all and take care!
-Diana

And so it continues.....

We are now finishing up our last week in Lent and my goodness has time flown by. It doesn't seem like just last week we were in Inishbofin, however God continues to send His blessings down upon us. On Saturday 20 March the lads went to go paintballing, and I have to say, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't need me to chaperone...it would have been hilarious to watch!! They all came back with some lovely battle wounds, though Alex and Reed came back nearly free of any wounds even though all the youth were planning to gang up on them. We have some mighty warriors that's for sure =)
Sunday brought about much craziness as we scurried to get ready for our Life Night on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Nicole dressed up for the occasion featuring all black with matching black circles around her eyes for her talk on Hell. The whole room was devoid of light and covered floor to ceiling in bin bags. We were praying the whole time that "hell" wouldn't fall down...slightly ironic I know.
I did the talk on Purgatory in a stairwell which was fairly uneventful. Alex was dressed in a white alb with the key to Heaven's Gates...yup, St. Peter was in the building. We were going to make him a big white beard, but it didn't really work out.
We had a couple helpers out from Saturday until Tuesday morning from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as well!!!! Beth Brown from NET last year and her cousin Hannah Brown were travelling around Ireland and were luckily able to stop by for a few days to visit. It was so good to see Beth and even though we hadn't seen eachother since June of last year, it was like we hadn't missed a day. They had a bit of an adventure with their luggage since they forgot it on the tour bus in Galway, but they were able to get it back on Monday.I pray the remainder of their trip goes smoothly!
Reed and us girls went to Galway on our No OB day, at which Nicole, Diana and I tried to get our Claddagh rings, but unfortunately they were out of any sizes but 5 so we couldn't get them =( We did get to see the world's smallest Claddagh ring though!!!
The rest of week has been fairly busy and Nicole and I are in a Host Home once again across from a sheep field! The Gannon's are so wonderful and we are so blessed to be staying with them for a while. I finally got to learn how to play hurling yesterday as well! It was a year long goal that has finally been fulfilled. (Go Dynae Go)
Our supervisors are arriving today so that is sure to bring much excitement (especially with the "wee-ins"). Our supervisor's are superstars! Please continue to keep us and this ministry in your prayers. God is fantastic. I pray that God pours His blessings down upon you today. Ciao!!!
Dynae
Athenry Parish Team

Inishbofin, St. Paddy's Day, and a Wee Birthday Celebration!

Happy St. Paddy’s Day from Athenry! It’s been a full on week here with lots of good craic and a Paddy’s Day parade to top it all off. With Alex finally feeling better this week we were able to enjoy a team day and celebrate the belated 21st birthday of our very own, Veronica.
Early Saturday morning, our team met up with Fr. Charlie, loaded into the van and headed out for a fun filled day in Inishbofin, a beautiful island off the coast of Connemara. After about a two hour drive on the infamous Irish roads, we caught the ferry in Cleggan and off we went to Inishbofin. While the other passengers may have found the ferry ride to be dull and monotonous ride, we of course enjoyed every minute of it taking pictures at the bow. With such great weather how could we not?
Once we arrived on the island, we headed off to Mass with Fr. Chaz. After Mass, we quickly ate some lunch and then out we went to explore the island. We began walking with no particular direction in mind, but God of course had plans for us. After trekking through the countryside for a bit and taking some up close and personal pictures of the baby lambs and their mamas, we stumbled upon this awesome beach.
While Veronica and I rolled up our jeans and played in the water, the rest of the team spent some time gathering up sea shells and enjoying the sunshine. Once we all had our fun, we decided that it would be fitting with Alex finally joining us to take some sweet team pictures on the beach. After returning to Athenry that evening, we surprised Veronica a belated birthday cake and then took her out for a customary birthday pint at the local pub.
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God blessed us with such a wonderful team day, it probably ranks up there in one of my favorite days in Ireland. God is so good and I am so thankful for the opportunity to bond with my team and Alex. But here we are back in the office, working hard on our upcoming LifeNight, and running out of time in the office. So I better go, but until next time I hope you enjoy your St. Paddy’s Day and may God continue to bless you. Peace.

Nicole
Athenry Parish Team

Who's Your Patron Saint??

Lets start of this blog with a big praise the Lord for the beautiful weather we've experienced here in Athenry this past week. FOUR full days of sun!! That's a record for consecutive sunny days. As I write this, it's a bit dark and cloudy outside but hey we'll take what we can get. This week has been a typical one in the office yet, as for an update with Alex he's been able to join us and be a part of a few more meetings! It's good to have him around and he is determined that our team will be converted to loving his choices of music. These usually include hard rock/screamo...which, I'm not going to lie, he does have a decent array of music and some of the songs are not that bad. With each day he is feeling better and awake during more hours in the day. Keep your prayers coming for him, he's not out of the woods yet!

Last Sunday we had an intriguing Lifenight entitled Night at the Museum. This was a night like none before as Dynae, Diana, Reed, and Veronica dressed up as saints and posed as statues in a museum. Nicole was our lovely museum guide and led the students around to each exhibit at which point the saints came alive and began speaking to the audience. St.Therese(Dynae) and St. Brigid(Veronica) were placed in one exhibit room and they shared their stories of being religious sisters. At one point, while being St. Brigid, I mentioned I had been on the internet earlier in the day and had to save myself by saying Nicole taught me how to use the new technology of computers. In the other room St. Michael(Reed) and St. Lucy(Diana) were big hits with their costumes. Reed was covered in silver from head to toe and Diana had hard-boiled some eggs to make eyeballs on a plate with red paint as blood. After the exhibits gave their presentations the students were invited to pick a patron saint from a list or search for something more specific, with the help of St. Brigid, on the internet. Thanks to the help of Catholic.org we found out that St. Adjutor is the patron saint of swimmers and St. Erin is the patron saint of gingers(also known as red-heads). Nicole wrote down the saints the students chose and later that night we sang a litany of Saints which everyone seemed to enjoy.






Other events in the life of the Athenry Parish team include receiving the key to our van!! We now have transportation, although our own two legs have been managable and sufficient up to now. We will now be able to be even more efficient. Also we have been entertained by Diana's singing as she works diligently on whatever task is at hand. She often has her ipod on fairly loud while we're working independently and with that she often is belting out a tune of some sort. Diana continues to provide the team with smiles and laughter with her wonderful presence.
Praying you all have a wonderful weekend. Please keep our next lifenight in your prayers as well. "Whodunnit!" Cluedo style.
God bless,
Veronica. -Athenry Parish Team

O Brother Where Art Thou? He's here!

As you know we've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new brother, Alex Manderson. Well...the wait is finally over! Just over a week ago Alex joined us. We all very excited to get to know Alex better and have him be part of our team for the remainder of the year.
While it has been great to have Alex here, unfortunately we haven't seen too much of him as he is fighting hard to overcome mono. He is a trooper though, joining us for anything that he can and continually trying to convince the team that he is "better" and ready to get to work in the office. Nobody really believes him, but it's nice to know that he is eager to be here and get to work. We love you, Alex! Aside from our new brother trying to regain his health, we been keeping busy with minstry as usual. A few weeks ago we were able to have two Franciscan brothers from the Christian Friars of the Renewal in Limerick join us for a LifeNight entitled "O Brother Where Art Thou?" Brother Martin De Porres and Brother Thomas were the honored guests of the evening. We all really enjoyed having them. Br. Martin was kind enough to share a bit of his story with us and how God has worked in His life. The students had lots of questions for both of the brothers about their lives, and how they become part of the Franciscan order.
Now I know what you might be thinking...awww that's sounds really nice Nicole, I wish I could have been there. Well just wait, not only did Br. Martin share his story with us, but he also finished off the night with some rapping. That's right a super-cool, rapping, man who has dedicated his life to God. Be jealous now!

Nicole
Athenry Parish Team

Victorious Voyage Retreat a Success (with Dodgeball for dessert)

The parish team in Athenry held its second overnight retreat for
third years to leaving certs this past weekend (Feb 19-21) and it was a great success. There were 16 youth who attended at the nearby Esker Monastery Youth Village. The theme Victorious Voyage: Ransomed and Restored focused on the journeys and challenges that we face every day. The winds may come and push the sails around but if we let Christ lead our lives we will certainly have a good and meaningful course to follow.

The young men of Athenry continue to surprise the team as two-thirds of the participants was male. Athenry’s parish team had no choice but to call in the veterans to help out: Hugh McGloin and Tim Jackson, both NET Ireland Alumni came to the rescue.

Each day had amazing high energy activities, inspiring small group sessions, a main talk and presenter, and tonnes of fun! Despite an early morning on Saturday, some of the boys didn’t even go to sleep Saturday night (until 10 minutes before breakfast Sunday morning, that is!).

My favorite memory would have to come from Saturday night as the NET Team dressed up and served the youth a nice, fancy dinner. Okay, maybe it wasn’t even that fancy considering it was garlic bread, bagged salad and spaghetti Bolognese AND apple tarte! But we felt it important to let them know that they are important and special, not only to us, but to God as well. That’s why afterwards we moved into a blessed time of prayer.

The youth really seemed to enjoy themselves and we had great feedback from them (well… most would have liked to sleep more – including myself!).

We went ahead and had our Sunday LifeNight despite the three-day retreat ending that day. And let me tell you, it was so much fun! We played dodgeball with about 12 youth and it was awesome! The night had so much enthusiasm and energy that it made it even easier to sleep that night, not that we needed it! Everyone was enjoying it so much that we stopped only for a Powerade break halfway into the dodgeball mayhem. The NET Team decided to take on the youth towards the end. There was a fierce competition between the two sides and in God’s infinite wisdom and mercy, it was decided that it was better to let the youth win. Through this we could show them that we were truly humble and desired great things for them.

… or we just aren’t that good at a sport that none of the youth had even heard of before that night. So much for the cultural advantage.

Donegal to Kerry. Rinse Repeat.

After our long and exciting drive to Kerry last weekend we've come all the way back to Donegal and tomorrow just 9 days after the first time we are making our way again on the same road to Kerry. I feel slightly like I am having a severe case of deja vu, but nonetheless the team is glad to be going back to a familiar place so soon.
This past week in Killarney, Co. Kerry simply flew by for our team. We were staying all together in a hostel and it was exciting to get to get to cook for ourselves. All the brothers on our team are terrific cooks, and make sure to cook our food with plenty of garlic to make sure we get the vitamins and minerals necessary to live our busy lifestyle. Of course the sisters help out wherever we can, but most often we get the task of simply enjoying the food. We always feel so honored when our brothers cook for us, but next week we will be changing things up and cooking for them.
Our retreats were in both Co. Cork and Co. Kerry. The countryside there, like all of Ireland, is just breathtaking. It was much different to the rugged hills of Donegal, a lot less wild and more of a well groomed beauty. On Sunday we had a team day and were able to spend it in Killarney National Park. The girls went rambling around on a millions different paths and climbed huge trees. The brothers had their own adventure which involved a waterfall and also climbing trees. We were blessed with beautiful weather and much sunshine. In our wanderings we came to a cliff from which there was a beautiful view of lakes and mountains and it was just impossible for us not to sing, so all the sisters got together and sang "Praise God from whom all blessings flow". We may or may not have been exactly on tune, but it was still beautiful and perfectly fitting for the moment.
We also were able to attend Mass just down the road from where we are staying for the feast day of St. Blaise and got our throats blessed. With all the talking and singing we do, it never hurts to get an extra blessing on our throats.
On Thursday we made the long journey all the way up to Donegal, Matthew and Patrick were able to entertain themselves by creating a game in which we had to think of different countries and cities in the world corresponding with a certain letter. At first it was easy but after all the obvious ones had been used up it became quite a brain teaser. On our way we stopped for a quick visit in Athenry to drop Tim off with the parish team. Tim is temporarily joining the parish team because one of their brothers, Jacob, has decided to go home for personal reasons. Because we all love Tim so much and know how much of a blessing he is to our team, we are happy to get to share him with them for a little bit until their new brother, Alex Manderson, who served with NET Ireland in 2007-08, arrives from Canada. Although we do miss Tim already, we are getting by somehow and with the grace of God he will be back with us soon.
Since being back in Donegal, we've been staying in our home away from home Ballybofey/Stranorlar and we did a confirmation retreat in Dooish National School on Friday. As part of the retreat we asked students to act out one of the parables from the Bible; like the sower and the seed, the prodigal son, or the lost sheep. It was fun to see their imaginations come alive and to witness the certain dramatic flare that they added to the stories that we can become so used to hearing.
Yesterday we had a day to work on our ministry and get ready for another busy week next week.Tomorrow morning we make the drive back to Kerry, it will be a long drive, but we are fortunate that this is our longest drive. Often on our long days we think and pray for the teams in Canada who make drives that are twice as long, so there is a silver lining, and maybe we'll even be able to create a new game to test our minds and pass the time.
Until next time I remain your faithful blogger,

Kelsie
Team 1

(The photos are all from Killarney National Park. We had a beautiful day with loads of sunshine and took advantage of it by getting as many pictures as possible.)

New brothers, new ministries and more....

Hello. Nicole from the parish team here today. It has been busy for us in Athenry lately, a good busy of course but busy just the same. So much has happened that I hardly know where to start.

Ministry has been going great! Things really seem to be taking off this semester. It's hard to keep up sometimes. I can't believe that it is already February. Just last Monday we had our second Edge night for the first and second years and seven students came out to join us. I know what you are thinking seven students isn't that great of a turn-out, but this was a big jump from the last Edge night we had when only three turned out. Keep in mind though that numbers aren't everything. Plus, the students that came were truly amazing and seemed to be really excited about out program. They even requested that we have Edge nights weekly, instead of bi-weekly! Like I said, it's great to be busy and we still have plans to start up a few new ministries.

Aside from ministry, things have been changing a lot for our team lately. Unfortunately, our beloved brother, Jacob has decided to return home for personal reasons and will not be finishing out the year with us. While this has been very hard for our team, God blessed us greatly and carried us through this time.

Just this week we heard from our supervisors that we will have a new brother arriving in the next few weeks. His name is Alex Manderson. He served on the NET Ireland road team in 2007-08. I'll be honest I don't know too much about him, but am very excited to welcome him to our team. He is from Ottawa and was serving with the army. He recently turned in his resignation and is currently waiting on the army to release him of his services.
Not to worry though, Timmy has come to save the day. That's right...Tim Darwent from the road team has offered to come to Athenry for a few weeks and help us out until Alex arrives. In the meantime, we've all been having a great time with Tim. Just yesterday we enjoyed a team day together and finger painting was involved...need I say more.

God has been so good to us lately! Even so, we would really appreciate some hard core prayers from everyone for our team, our ministry and Alex. Until next time may the Lord continue to bless you and we'll be praying for you too!

Nicole
Athenry Parish Team

We survived the drives & ferryboat rides through middle earth (northern Donegal)

Even though we are the road team, our team got a taste of the life of a parish team last Sunday when we got to run a lifenite in Sligo! It was fun to see another side of ministry and also to see where last years (2008-2009) parish team spent their year. The night went well, there were 5 teens there, so our team actually doubled the number of them, but it isn't always about the quanity its about the quality. Even from just being there one night we could tell that these teens were really committed to trying to keep the youth program alive in Sligo, so we had a great night with them and are praying for their parish.

On Monday morning we moved to Letterkenny, Donegal and did one retreat in Letterkenny, but most of our retreats last week were in northern Donegal, so each morning bright and early we piled into the van to make the drive through the mountains to the northern coastal towns of Fallcarragh and Dungloe. Since we had to leave so early is was too dark to really see the scenery in the morning, but on our return trips our eyes were fixed on the windows as we tried to take it all in. The road was long and winding through the rugged mountains and segmented fields which were, of course, dotted with sheep and cattle. We even had to stop once to let a bunch of sheep cross the road and had to pause our rosary to laugh about it. The latest trend on our team is to read either the Lord of the Rings Trilogy of the Chronicles of Narnia, and I'd say this would have been the perfect week to start since as we drove on those remote winding roads it was easy to imagine we were in Middle Earth or Narnia itself. I kept expecting to be chased down by orcs, but luckily we made it to and from all our retreats without the van coming under siege.

On NET I've learned that every day has it's own small excitements, but this past Friday was especially exciting for our team because we got to do a retreat on the small island of Arranmore of the coast of Donegal. We were all excited to take the ferry there and back (and some of us were secretly hoping that we'd get stuck there overnight). Fortunately we were all sea-worthy and no one got sick. The island is only about 3 miles in diameter so it is a very small community, but as I said before it's not about quantity, but quality. Our retreat, which was for the entire secondary school, was about 54 students, but they were such a great group and we found it easy to get along with them and to chat with them. We were so well looked after too, some of the students even made us homemade bread and soup for our lunch. The generosity of people continually amazes me. Say what you want about society being egocentric, but there are good people too and it's important not to forget them.

On Saturday we made the 8 hour drive down to Killarney, Co. Kerry which was our longest drive yet, but we were well prepared with snacks and a Mo-Town soundtrack made by Patrick so we all made it through in one piece.
So far in Kerry we've been enjoying good weather and beautiful scenery and look forward to more great retreats! Until next time God bless!

Kels & Team 1

(The first photo is us fighting the wind on the ferryboat to Arranmore. The second is all the sisters enjoying a bit of sunshine in Killarney National Park. The third is more of us enjoying the ferry ride.)

Going Bananas over Bananagrams!

Ever heard of the game Bananagrams?! Well it just so happens that this simple game has brought our team to new levels of love, laughter, and communication; who would have guessed? Cameron Fradd, one of our supervisors, forgot the game at our house last week and it's going to be a difficult thing to part with as we have become quite attached...you could even say too attached. It's as addicting, if not more, than facebook. Bananagrams, similar to Scrabble in some ways, comes in a banana-shaped bag which sits in the middle of our dining table. At nearly every chance we get someone is sitting at the table either practicing up for the next team game or playing a friendly competition with a fellow brother or sister. Whether it be at breakfast before heading off to the office or getting a quick game in during our lunch break, we are continually discussing new words we discovered. For example, this morning Nicole created "disassemble." Cheers of congratulations on her accomplishment were shared with excitement. Yeah, our team finds joy in the small things of life. Last Saturday we had the opportunity to go bowling in Galway as a team and show off our skills or lack thereof and have a little fun with some more friendly competition.

With all of this fun going on among the team, we've been pouring that into the teens as well. Last Sunday our Lifenight, The Island Getaway, involved bringing the pinata back again and playing volleyball with the hopes that we might actually get some warm weather around here. The teens try to convince us that warmth and sun don't really exist in Ireland but we do our best to believe it could. There were a few new faces that showed up and it was fun to further get to know some of those teens who had attended the retreats we've been doing in the schools.


We are looking forward to an overnight retreat that will be happening Feb. 19th-21st titled, "Victorious Voyage - Ransomed and Restored" Please keep the retreat and the teens who will be joining us in your prayers. There are many who are excited and looking forward to the weekend.

There are plenty more adventures to be had by the parish team and you never know what crazy and exciting things we'll be up to next. Until next time, take care and stay warm!

-Veronica (Athenry Parish Team)

Donegal Town; home to castles, the four masters, and our very own Tanya!

Hello again from the road team! This blog is a joint effort brought to you by Kelsie & Tanya!! This has been an exciting week for sure! We travelled to Athenry and back, Tim led his first retreat, we had two parties, did four retreats, saw two castles, and got to spend the whole week in Tanya's hometown of Donegal Town, Co. Donegal.

The girls have all been staying at Tanya's house this week, so to get a new perspective she joined me in blogging this week... She says, "It was cool to be home and cool for my family to get to meet my team. We even did a retreat in the secondary school I attended for the 4th year students. Before the retreat I was sort of scared because it's a lot easier to get up in front of people you don't know, and I had been at school last year with all the students on the retreat. But once we got started I felt fine, I shared with them about my own experience on my NET retreat last year and how I really came to realize God's love for me." Speaking as Kelsie now, I must say that Tanya did an amazing job and was so brave to get up in front of those young people. The most powerful witness is one that you know personally and Tanya was a great witness of God's love to the people of her town. She was also a great host and took all the girls on a walk through some fields near her house, on which Laura narrowly escaped a tragic encounter with barbed wire. But luckily she had her sisters with her and with just a bit of skill and lots of laughter we were able to successfully untangle her.


This week our team celebrated the "unbirthday" of both Matthew and Tanya. Because everyone's birthday doesn't fall during our NET year, we celebrate "unbirthdays" to make sure each person on the team feels appreciated and honoured. For Matthew's we headed for Rossnowlagh on the Donegal coast where some of the more adventurous ones walked on the beach and explored caves, while others were content to stay and admire the beach from above on the lookout hill. For Tanya's unbirthday we gave her the reins and she showed us around her hometown and all the touristy spots. Among the sites we visited were Donegal Castle, where we learned about the four masters and their manuscripts, and Lough Eske, where it was so foggy that we couldn't see the lake. Tanya said we probably thought she was making up that there was a lake since we could see no trace of it through all the fog. We also visited the old Abbey graveyard, where Tim & I decided to climb the ruins and Meg (our fabulous team photographer) couldn't resist the chance for a good picture. Matthew and Patrick are missing from the picture because they were back at Tanya's house busy cooking us a delicious unbirthday feast.


All in all this has been a brilliant week. All the groups we've had on retreat have been really respectful and we've loved spending time in Donegal. We're looking forward to Letterkenny next week and a full week of retreats all over the Raphoe diocese. Hope yous all are keeping well. God bless until next time,

Kels, Tan & Team One

Mind the Gap!!

How y'all doing? This is Jacob Ortega by the way. Our team just had our 8th Lifenight cleverly titled, "Mind the Gap". We played a pretty awesome game called river crossing, but we decided to make it even more EXTREME and called it LAVA CROSSING!!!! The whole object of the game is to get to heaven by crossing the burning lava while holding onto some rope that connects you to your team. But if you let go of the rope, you get swept away and you and your team have to start all over!!!) You have to use the stones to get across, but there is only a limited amount of stones and if anyone loses contact with a stone, it can be grabbed and taken away by the LAVA MONSTERS!!!! (aka my teammate, Reed Miller, and I) Sound hard enough?!?! Well, there's more! If anyone is caught with there foot off the stone, the team has to start over, and we also decided to add a few obstacles!! Man! That was intense! It was a battle of the sexes, and... well... you know... the boys won!! But the girls did have them scared!

After the game, Reed gave a great talk on how Jesus came down to the earth and bridged the gap between us and God! By conquering sin and death, Jesus showed us the way back to our Father! We ended out night the same way we started it, with a prayer! Then we whipped out the Subway sandwiches!!! Which were delicious! Now we are looking to our next Lifenight, titled "Island Getaway", it's gonna be a lot of fun on the beach! Well, I'm gonna head on out, so take care and God Bless always! Peace!

Lookout 2010!

Diana in da HOUSE!
Shout out to all my peeps all around the world....May God bless your hearts in this new year! We are back and hitting the ground running for sure!
After a SWEET holiday break we are all back in the lovely fields of Athenry and really happy to be back.Us ladies all got to see some amazing sites in Paris, Lourdes, London, and Rome, WOW!
While the fellas went back to North America and visited their families and caught up with friends...SO good!
Then both our team and the retreat team joined forces to take in Januray Training in Ballybofey!!
How exciting! It was a wonderful time to reconnect and see our progress and really "compare notes" on ministry, seeing what works and what could be better, and what is needed...
Then it was back to business here in Athenry with our first Lifenight this past Sunday, aptly called "Craic Night:Part Deux"!
We had loads of fun and games with a French twist...Très Magnifique!!
There was Le Jeopardy, and Charades, and who could forget make your own french baguette people?!?!
Then we got to meet up and join forces again with the lovely retreat team to put on a one-day retreat for all the first years at the Tech School!! So exciting!!! We had a blast!!
And now today we are preparing for our next Lifenight tonight called "Mind The Gap"!!! It's gonna be so SWEET!
Tomorrow marks the first day of 'The EDGE', a brand new program we are beginning for all first and second years!! It's gonna be OFF THE HOOK!
And stay tuned and please pray for us as we begin a new young adult ministry for ages 18-35 called CaFe, for Catholic Fellowship...I am SO PUMPED!! That should be in the next couple weeks!
I think that's all I've got for now but please know it's only just the beginning here in A-Town!! I cannot WAIT to see what develops in this gorgeous little town....And we shall keep you all posted..

Thanks for all your prayers and GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!-Diana

Winter weather in Ireland!

Hello again from the road team! This time I am writing to you from Ballybofey, Co. Donegal where we have been kicking off the new year with a bit of training with the Athenry team before we go out on the road again.

Being back home in America for the past few weeks for Christmas break, the question I was asked most often about Ireland was, “What's the weather like there?” to which I would respond “It gets cold, but not enough to snow...” However, as my plane touched down at Dublin airport, I realized that I had mistakenly been lying to everyone at home because there was snow on the ground in Ireland! The family I am staying with this week has an amazing view and I’ve found it interesting to see the familiar Irish landscape that I’ve come to love covered in the snow that will always remind me of my New England home. It’s almost a fusion of two worlds and although it makes driving conditions less than ideal I still find it simply beautiful. To ward off the extra chill I just make sure to have a few more cups of tea and put on another sweater.

Aside from the weather, our team has really enjoyed coming together again and sharing stories from home, London, and Lourdes where we spent our Christmas breaks. This week during our training we’ve had the great chance to come together in prayer as well. Last night we heard Fr. Rory Brady, Youth Director of the Raphoe Diocese and a NET Ministries of Ireland board of directors member, speak to us about St. Therese of Lisieux’s “Little Way”, and I was especially touched by the thought that God continuously calls the little and seemingly insignificant to do the greateat things. Afterwards we had adoration and confession and much praise and worhsip music. It was good to really come together as a unit and to start off our ministry in 2010 on the right foot.

In addition to the spiritual kickoff for the year, we spent some time having fun together. The women on the teams all went bowling and the men on the teams were able to go enjoy a bit of paintball. I don’t know who won the paintball war, but I know they loved the competition and the chance to shoot each other in a loving and brotherly way. As far as the bowling, it was a surprise to everyone, including myself, that I excelled at bowling and gained the top score of 116.

We were scheduled to go to Lurgan in Co. Armagh this week, but due to the weather we’ve had to stay put in Ballybofey. We are slightly disappointed that our scheduled retreats for this week won’t be happening, but we’re happy to get to spend more time with the wonderful community of families in Ballybofey/Stranorlar. This community is really our “home away from home” in Ireland and each time we come back we just feel so welcomed and accepted.

Well that's it from me for now, I hope you’re all staying warm, happy, and healthy.

God bless!
Kelsie & Team 1