Greetings from the road!!

We, Retreat Team 1, are so excited to share our adventures and glory stories with you. We have been on the road for almost a month now and we have had so many amazing moments already! We have been slowly making our way into the North and West of Ontario. We went from Ottawa, to Sudbury, to Sault Sainte Marie, to Thunder Bay, and pretty much every where else in between. By the end of this month, we will have done 20 retreats and ministered to about 1500 youth already. What an incredible opportunity we have to share the gospel with so many youth! 

We’ve just begun our journey and we have already celebrated our first team member’s birthday! As we have been travelling, we have also had the chance to explore the cities of northern Ontario like Sudbury, Sault Sainte Marie, New Liskeard, and Timmins.  We’ve been able to unwind a little as a team by doing things like going on a picnic at the beach and saying the rosary together. We’ve also watched a couple of movies together as a team and it’s been great to get to know each other in our first month of working together as a team. We are all from different backgrounds but one thing that really unites us is our love for Christ and our desire to share that with the youth of Canada.

That desire and passion for mission is what we are all called to from the moment of our baptism: to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). So many of the youth we encounter are carrying so much baggage and are weighed down by heavy burdens. So many of them are going through different kinds of struggles and difficulties. Our job is to tell them that they are not alone and that they can lay down their burdens at the foot of the cross. In the book of Matthew, Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). We are there to tell them that they can lay down and surrender their hurt, their hardships, and their heartache in the arms of Christ and that He will take care of it. During one of our retreats, Marie-Anne was praying with the youth in her small group during the prayer time. In the small group right after, she asked how prayer went for all of them and one girl said that after Marie-Anne had prayed with her, she felt like a weight came off of her shoulders. It’s always amazing when we see the movement of the Holy Spirit in our ministry. Often, we only get to journey with youth for a short amount of time, but in moments like these, we are reminded that they are in the most capable hands: in the hands of Christ the King.

God Bless,

Retreat Team 1 (Benedict, Serena, Ange, Marie-Anne, Moses, Peter, Rachel, Veronica)