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