NETworks Issue 1, 2011 - 1 NET Ministries Australia PO Box 889 Paddington QLD 4064 Ph: +61 7 3217 5299 Fax: +61 7 3217 5288 www.netministries.com.au [email protected]From the Director’s Desk: Inside This Issue: NET teams 2011 - Commissioned Reflections from Training NET and the QLD Disasters Think about how exhausted but satisfied you are when you finish that all important physical workout. Your muscles are tired, every part of you wants to fall on the ground and rest but WOW! ….you’re feelin’ good. That’s how it feels when you make it to the NET Ministries Commissioning Mass each year. It’s an amazing feeling of fulfillment, peace, joy, exhaustion and satisfaction. It is the knowledge that 54 young people from all over Australia and other parts of the world, have come together, bringing their gifts and talents, and are now the well formed Net Teams of 2011. The commissioning mass on the 19th February was celebrated by the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Rev. John Bathersby, and is one of the highlights of the NET year. Archbishop John spoke to the teams of his love for them, and that he believed they represented great hope for the future of the church. These are very encouraging words for our teams from such a wonderful spiritual father. While I sat at this beautiful Eucharistic celebration, the thought crossed my mind, I wonder what training is like seen through the eyes of a NET team member. I decided to ask. I went to one of our staff members, who himself, has been on a team and asked him about his experience. These were his thoughts: Called and Sent Forth... (Continued inside on page 2) Issue 1, 2011 filled with faith... with joy commissioned truth graced loved support peace community hope
Inside This Issue:NET teams 2011 - CommissionedReflections from TrainingNET and the QLD Disasters
Think about how exhausted but satisfied you are when you finish that all important physical workout. Your muscles are tired, every part of you wants to fall on the ground and rest but WOW! ….you’re feelin’ good. That’s how it feels when you make it to the NET Ministries Commissioning Mass each year. It’s an amazing feeling of fulfillment, peace, joy, exhaustion and satisfaction. It is the knowledge that 54 young people from all over Australia and other parts of the world, have come together, bringing their gifts and talents, and are now the well formed Net Teams of 2011. The commissioning mass on the 19th February was celebrated by the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Rev. John Bathersby, and is one of the highlights of the NET year. Archbishop John spoke to the teams of his love for them, and that he believed they represented great hope for the future of the church. These are very encouraging words for our teams from such a wonderful spiritual father.
While I sat at this beautiful Eucharistic celebration, the thought crossed my mind, I wonder what training is like seen through the eyes of a NET team member. I decided to ask. I went to one of our staff members, who himself, has been on a team and asked him about his experience. These were his thoughts:
Cal led and Sent Forth. . .
(Continued inside on page 2)
Issue 1, 2011
NETworks
filled with faith. . .
withjoy
commissionedt r u t h
graced
loved
support
peace
communityhope
Cal led and Sent Forth. . .(Continued from front page)
Shanelle BennettExecutive Director
“...we will live this
gospel as we proclaim
it”
In the light of his experience, I pondered what we do every year. This is my 23rd year of training and I thought to myself, how different it is from the staff point of view. The facilitating of training is something that we live and give each year, its like second nature to us and it is such a joy to see God work in lives forming and transforming. I say to the ‘Netters,’ like Mother Teresa said to her nuns, “I will never do you the dishonor of asking less than 100% Christianity from you, we will live this Gospel as we proclaim it.” Welcome to a new year, to all of our supporters. Your love, support, prayers and financial assistance goes into making up teams who will give 100% to the living and proclaiming of the Gospel of Jesus Christ amongst the young Catholics of this nation.
God Bless
Q. What is the first day like for you?A. I arrived with no clue what to expect.
I had never experienced a NET team in action. The only experience I had was at a Discipleship weekend facilitated by NET Staff, so it was all a bit overwhelming. However, I was really excited. I did have the thought a couple of times “what the heck have I got myself into,” I felt a bit unsure but I was very excited.
Q. What were the next few days like at Camp?
A. I was in a small group and got to know my small group leader and a few other people so I felt more settled. I also began to get more involved in the “family or community” of NET. There was such a great feeling of community.
Q. What were the prayer experiences like for you?
A. They were amazing. I was very focused on myself and my own spiritual journey and that was a good thing, it was necessary I found out, so that I could be equipped for the year ahead. There were so many experiences of prayer (daily Eucharist, Adoration, Rosary, Personal Quiet Prayer and Corporate Worship) which was wonderful. The days learning about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were so good, and the night we prayed for a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives was particularly significant for me. The talks were so formative, and I found myself learning something new every hour, every talk. I also loved the fact that such competent people were giving the talks and every question that was asked helped me understand more. The other days that made a great impact, were the men’s spirituality days. Note: There are also women’s spirituality days run in parallel to the men’s days. No one ever talks to you about masculine identity, people presume you already know, or you can figure it out for yourself. During these days, Christian men spoke to us about this, and it had a huge effect on my life. The brotherhood and closeness that came out of those days was just incredible.
Q. What about the busyness of those weeks, did you find it tiring?
A. It was tiring but not excessive. I got to the end and felt physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted but in a really good way. I felt cared for and supported in it all. I trusted God and the staff not to push us past what we were capable of and I felt we were not pushed to that point. It was a fantastic experience!
NATTASHA PENNINGTON is 21 years old and is a local girl from Brisbane. She served on the National team in 2009 and then the Port Macquarie team in 2010. This year she is supervising the St Andrews team and the Emerald team as well as taking on the role of Netter processing officer and Drama co-ordinator.
REBECCA WILSON is 29 years old and comes from Towoomba in QLD. Rebecca served on the Melbourne team in 2009 and the Lismore team in 2010. She is now on staff supervising the National team. This year Rebecca will also be working in the Music and host home departments
NET welcomes the exciting infusion of new staff that have come on board
this year.
ADAM BURNS is 20 and hails from Beenleigh in Brisbane QLD. He first did NET in 2008 (National) and then on St Augustine’s team in 2009. Adam started this year as a new staff member, however when the need for an extra team member arose he bravely stepped forward to serve as leader on the Sydney NET team.
JEREMY GREAR is 23 years old and comes from Black Springs in NSW. Jeremy served on NET in 2010 on the St Augustine’s school team in Cairns. This year he is supervising the Melbourne diocese team, Mazenod School team and Emerald Parish team and is part of the newly extended recruiting team.
JILLIAN PEARCE is 20 years old and is originally from Coffs Harbour. On her first year serving with NET she served on the 2009 Melbourne team and her second year she served on the 2010 Tablelands team. Jillian will be supervising the Townsville and Sydney NET Teams along with assisting in the recruiting team.
The ongoing NET staff members are:
(top to bottom)
The NET staff work in wide variety of pastoral and administrative roles – management, supervising teams, training (both delivering training and the remarkable logistics effort), finance, fund raising, recruiting, developing and choosing new ministry material, liaising with local areas and many more tasks. To get all this work done we need a multi-talented team, with a mixture of staff fresh out of the ministry, staff who have had a couple of years to learn the ropes in the office and management staff (including a few grey hairs).
We present the dynamic, multi-talented NET Staff for 2011!
Shanelle Bennett, Teresa Delsorte, Michael Forbes, Robert Schroeders,
Mark Doyle, Tina Smith, Laura Otto, Michael Otto,
Michael Whitney, Sarah Tyler, Kym Keady, Emma Plant.
The NET staff want to thank Mary Garrahy for her great work on
the design and layout for NETworks. Mary has now finished up as a staff member, but will continue to produce the newsletter as a contractor. We wish her all the best in her new business!
This year’s NET Commissioning Mass built upon the success of previous years and was another celebration of the life that young people can bring to our church. We were once again blessed by the presence of the archbishop and several concelebrating priests, including Fr Bavin Clarke, the QUT chaplain and spiritual mentor to our Freedom University team. Highlights included the afternoon tea where the families of the Netters were able to meet the team members of their sons and daughters. A collection was taken up for NET’s work in Uganda and raised $1,215.
The Netters of 20 1 1
Diocesan Teams
University
Team
National Team
Local
Teams
Local Teams
Andrew Gleeson, Tim Silver Nicole Digal, Jessie Smith, Ellen Hales
EM
ER
AL
D
Taidhg Redford, Sean McGrath, Michael Tanuvasa; Megan Janic, Annette Giang
Ma
ze
no
d - M
EL
BO
UR
NE
Bradley Davies, Chris DaSilvaTara Cianter, Joanna Madden
James Millar, Adrian DyerKim Iligan, Sarah Gray, Ruth Ransom
PO
RT
MA
CQ
UA
RIE
Laurent Dubois, Paul Shakhovskoy; Justine Cumbo, Laura Partridge, Megan Schick
MS
B - T
AB
LE
LA
ND
S
Sam Stanford, Keiran Henfling; Michelle Pyke, Sarah O’Dougherty, Lindsay Richey
ME
LB
OU
RN
E
Ben Walsh, Adam Burns, Justin Mourits, Olivia Dowling, Emily Pryz, Bernadette Walsh
(The core team is also made up of several others / uni students... more to be shared soon)
FR
EE
DO
M
St A
nd
rew
s - C
AIR
NS
Commiss i
oned !
Stephanie Parkin, Lucy Taueber, Kalen Grondin, Frederick Munbode, Daniel Shaw, Odyn McInnes, Jonathon Vigor, Karla Hood,
Melinda Henry, Christine Morana, Jen Colmer, Caryn Tennant
NA
TIO
NA
L2 011 S c r i p t u r e : L u ke 4 :18 -19
“ S i g ht to t h e b l i n d . . .”
“...show me how much
you love me so I will not be afraid!”
“...Jesus has given me a
peace and a confidence that I had
never known before”
Truth
Peaceand
NET and the Queensland Floods
Jessie Smith
I have always felt that I was different. I saw the guys on TV and in movies that were ripped and had muscles, and I looked at myself and saw that I wasn’t like that. To make matters worse, I was regularly teased about my body. I grew up comparing myself to other guys and became uncomfortable in my own skin to the point where I refused to take off my shirt in front of anyone. I did not accept myself for who I was.
During men’s days at NET training, I found out that we were going into the lake and I would have to take my shirt off. This was a terrifying prospect for me – I broke down and cried. With the help of my small group leader I composed myself and joined the men at the lake. The time came when all the other guys were taking their shirts off and jumping into the water and I just couldn’t. I stood on the shore and couldn’t bring myself to take the step and join them. I broke down again and cried so much.
Jeremy, my small group leader, and Shayne came over to me and started praying with me. As they
M e n ’ s D a y s . . .
I N A C T I O N
Images (ftop to bottom): Many netters were involved in the flooding clean up at their host families homes; Pink gloved and ready to clean;
NET staff member Teresa standing in front of her flooded home.
Had you asked me at the start of last year what I would be doing right now in 2011 my answer, without hesitation, would have been something along the lines of ‘Probably study, this year is only a gap year…..’ Well that train of thought didn’t last long as I very quickly found myself coming to the realisation that a second NET year was definitely not out of the question for me. So it was that after one full on, amazing, challenging, exciting and rewarding year on the Port Macquarie NET Team of 2010, I found myself once again at the little haven of Glendalough Lodge in Peregian for a second round of NET training.
Last year I came onto training with no idea what to expect but looking back I can see that my attitude of ‘this is only a gap year…’ really shaped my experience of training – I was not open to what God might have wanted me to experience. After training experience #1 and a year of NET I learned that although NET may be what I do in a gap year being a Christian and living every moment for God is not a gap year thing but a whole life thing.
So this year I came back to training with a completely
The year so far...
new outlook, I wanted to be completely open to God this time round – no pre-conceived ideas or attitudes.
So what happened for me at training experience #2? Again the message that seemed to resonate from every angle – through talks given, testimonies shared, daily readings, homilies – was that this is not a one year thing, my Baptism includes me in the mission of the Church which is to evangelise. I was in a much better place to receive it this time with that one favourite saying of JPII firmly ingrained – “Do not be afraid to throw open the doors of your heart to Christ!”.
That became my prayer for training which I have carried through to now – show me how much you love me so I will not be afraid!
So I guess you could say that training – both experiences combined - have taught me to start letting God take the steering wheel and not to worry that He will drive the wrong way because He won’t!
prayed, I began to feel a stirring in my stomach, a feeling which grew and took over my body completely. For the first time in my life I felt confident – confident because I realised that Jesus loves me for who I am. I thought: “Just because I’m not like
those other guys on TV doesn’t mean I’m not special. Jesus loves me and He does not make rubbish!” So I took off my shirt and joined the other men in the lake.
Since this experience Jesus has given me a peace and confidence that I had never known before – and it’s awesome! I went to the beach with my team and didn’t care what anyone thought. I just threw off my shirt and jumped into the water. And I have written a self-image talk that comes from my heart which this year will hopefully touch the hearts of many young people with similar issues.
Now I know that there will still be people who will judge me and maybe even reject me, but that is OK. Jesus loves and accepts me, and because of that I now love and accept myself.
A S e c o n d Ye a r . . .
D i s c o v e r i n g
f l o od recoveryefforts
p r e parat i o n . . .
t o g e t h e r
Jess i e 201 1
The natural disasters which hit in January disrupted the lives of many Queenslanders in many ways. For NET staff and team members, the disasters were (mainly) not life threatening, but they did disrupt the start to training, and for some staff members caused considerable damage to their houses. Here are some of the highlights:
• The Beat School of Music, which incorporates NET music training, finished early on Tuesday 11th January, just in time to allow our teams to get home before the flood waters rose.
• Due to loss of power and flood waters limiting movement around Brisbane, the office was empty from Tuesday onwards.
• Training was due to start on Friday 14th January with orientation in Brisbane. We eventually got underway on Sunday 16th. The big change here was that the amount of staff preparation time at our camp site in Peregian dropped from around 50 staff hours to 8. There was a lot of scrambling at the beginning of training!
• While they were cut off by the flood waters, many Netters had extended stays in host homes and helped with the cleanup. In one house, one of our Netters was up all night moving possessions out of a house in the line of fire. When he got back home his fellow house mate, an international Netter who had been jet lagged the night before, got up and spent all day helping out at other houses that were flooding.
• Long time staff member Teresa Delsorte had her parent’s house completely flooded. Fortunately staff and Emmanuel Community members were able to empty the house first. Teresa was due to move in with other staff members after training, into a house in Beck St near the office. But that house flooded too! Once again staff members, Netters and community members came to the rescue to move everything out and help with the clean up.
• Executive Director Shanelle Bennett was evacuated, but thankfully the flood waters stopped short of her house.
• Last year’s leader of the National Team, Adam Gilbert, had his family’s banana farm in Tully destroyed by cyclone Yasi. Together with fellow 2010 Netter Matthias Falzon, they bunkered down as the eye of the storm passed over them.
• Most of the schools we minister to in North Queensland evacuated as the storm approached and schools in Central Queensland were also hit by flooding.
• The victims of the disasters were a major focus of our prayers at training.
Thanks to everyone who helped out in all the recovery efforts. Our prayers are still with all the victims and the victims of the later disasters to hit New Zealand and Japan.
Jess i e 20 10
. . . t o the streets
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