For the Ottawa Team, March has been full of surprises, adventures and blessings! For the first half of the month, JP joined Team One on the road to assist them for two weeks in their mission. While on the road, JP came across many of the same youth he encountered last year, and he was very blessed to see the growth that they’ve had in their faith journeys, and how God had used him and his teammates last year to impact these youth for the better! In his absence, the rest of the team (Zacheriah, Bernadette and Claire) kept busy continuing our work at Annunciation of the Lord Parish and in the rest of the Archdiocese of Ottawa and Cornwall. At Annunciation of the Lord Parish, on Tuesday nights with our high schoolers at the Lighthouse, we have finished journeying through the Kerygma and are exploring with our youth how to deepen their faith and live out their call to spread God’s love. On Thursday nights, we are nearing the end of our Youth Alpha series with our high schoolers, where we have been answering some of life’s biggest questions, including: Who is God, what’s my purpose, and why does it matter? We also had our Holy Spirit retreat, where we learned about who the Holy Spirit is, how to have a relationship with him, and how he can affect our lives.  On Friday nights, with our middle schoolers, we have finished the Alpha Youth series and are now continuing to learn about who God is and how that affects our lives, as well as running Confirmation preparation with our catechumens. In the Archdiocese, we put on Confirmation retreats with youth from St. Monica and St. Andrew, and Lenten retreats for St. Joseph and Holy Spirit. We also had our diocesan-wide youth night, where we focused on repentance. 

At the diocesan-wide youth night, there was a girl who came to Claire’s prayer station who said that she wanted God to be at the center of her life, but that something was stopping that from happening. She admitted that she felt like God didn’t want a relationship with her. After this, Claire asked her if she’d be willing to reject the lie that she’s not wanted by God and claim the truth that she’s a beloved daughter of God. They prayed together, and she said that she didn’t feel like she was carrying the lie anymore, but she still felt that there was something holding her back, like there was a wall around her heart. Claire asked her if she wanted to get rid of the wall, and she said yes. They prayed over and over again that the wall would be knocked down, and every time they did, she said that she felt a little bit more of it being removed. Finally, Claire led her through a prayer to commit her life to Christ, after this she said that she felt like the wall was completely gone! We are all so grateful for all the times God chooses to use us as his tools to allow his love to break through and flow into the lives of the youth that we get to meet. Keep us in your prayers!

God Bless You,

JP, Zacheriah, Bernadette, and Claire