Greetings from Ottawa!

Against all odds of the flu season that is among us, the Ottawa team is continuing to spread the love of Jesus (not germs) to the youth of the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall. As we approach Confirmation this spring, our team has had the pleasure of visiting many classrooms to help prepare the youth for this life changing sacrament. We are also progressing with our bi-weekly junior youth group at St. Maurice every other Wednesday. Additionally on Fridays, whenever we are free, we join the bible study at Lester B. Pearson to engage with the high school students exploring God’s word. Along with these things in the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall, we are continuing all our youth groups at Annunciation of Our Lord Parish. Tuesday nights we have been journeying through the Kerygma with our high schoolers at the Lighthouse. On Thursday nights we have continued exploring different questions about the faith with the Youth Alpha series. Lastly on Fridays we have continued having fun and formation with our grades 6-8 at the house, including their Youth Alpha Holy Spirit retreat earlier this February. We have also started helping with Confirmation prep at Annunciation of the Lord parish in conjunction with our usual Friday night youth group.

It’s beautiful to be able to help prepare so many youth throughout the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall for the sacrament of Confirmation. And we have been so privileged to be able to journey with the youth of Annunciation of the Lord parish for about 6 months now. It’s such a blessing to be able to accompany them for such a long time and to be able to watch them grow in their faith and in their desire to live for Christ. One particular youth night, after hearing a testimony about the Holy Spirit, a boy in JP’s small group said that he’s “always prayed to God the Father and God the Son, but I never thought about praying to God the Holy Spirit, and him being a person to pray to.” But after that night he was excited to include the Holy Spirit in his prayer life from then on.

It’s truly awesome to get to witness God at work in the lives of so many youth in the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall. We are honoured and humbled whenever the Lord chooses to use us to spread his love and have his will be done on Earth. Please keep us in your prayers!

God Bless you,
JP, Bernadette, Zacheriah, and Claire