Thanking God for 4 new brothers and 16 new sisters!

"Into marvelous light I'm running,
Out of darkness, out of shame.
By the cross you are the truth,
You are the life, you are the way"

This weekend I had the opportunity to go on a retreat to grow closer to God and also learn about a fantastic program called NET Ministries which stands for National Evangelization Teams. This weekend is something that I can't even explain really because it was just so EPIC. If I had to describe it though, I've decided that "Spirit-filled" would be the best way to sum it up. Everywhere we went and in every session, especially prayer time, the Holy Spirit was definitely there and it didn't go unnoticed. Also the people, not just the staff, but the young men and women on retreat were so filled with the Spirit too. I can't say that I have been able to be on a retreat where I've noticed the Holy Spirit's presence as much as I have on this retreat. The young men and women on retreat were just beautiful and holy people and it showed in everything they did. They were glowing. There were 4 men and 13 women and they are my brothers and sisters. The men on retreat were so different from each other but each of them were glowing with this awesome love they had inside of them and it was really great and inspiring to see such Holy men. The women were no different-they were so accepting and open to the Lord which makes them so beautiful. (I am praying for each and everyone of you!)

After the retreat was over, some of us spent the night so we didn't have to travel at night and the fellowship was AMAZING that night (Saturday Night). We played games, the human knot being one of them, while the men were still upstairs and we did a Jesus Chain (I am pretty sure that is what it was called and Santiago will correct me if I am wrong) and just hung out. After we went to our respective area of women and men dorms, the women just sat and talked and shared in one of the rooms for awhile then some of us went to the chapel and had 1am Praise and Worship time which was BEAUTIFUL! There was dancing, shouting, clapping, singing off key, and just so much joy coming from myself and other beautiful women.

This morning(Sunday), some of us woke up around 6:15 to go downstairs before Adam (one of the men on retreat) left to go home because we wanted to sing Happy Birthday since it was his birthday today. I thought it was great. The things that we did this weekend made it feel as though all 17 of us have been friends for years but really we didn't even know each other for more than 36 hours probably. There were so many jokes, so much laughter, and amazing LOVE present among us this weekend as we were filled with knowledge, more love and the Holy Spirit.

One of the parts that I enjoyed a lot, which is actually every part of the retreat, but this was cool on a different level, was when we got to opportunity to share our 3 minute personal testimonies with the group. We were barely given an hour to write it before we were supposed to be sharing. I liked the rush though..I enjoy challenge. I found my main topic to talk about while I was praying during a few minutes we had before sharing time and I didn't write anything down because when I did try to write something down I found it wasn't where God was leading me to go with it. In the end, I prayed that the Holy Spirit would just speak through me and I would say exactly what needed to be said.

This weekend was filled with challenges and taking steps closer to God. The main place that we were challenged to go further was in Praise and Worship. We learned about expressive prayer, which I think is awesome and we kept getting told to go further and open ourselves up to the Lord. All weekend I felt so comfortable and at home during Praise and Worship. I enjoy being able to clap and raise my hands while singing and praising and that's what they challenged us to do, open up to the Lord.

On retreat it was so easy to open ourselves up because I had so much time for personal prayer and we had what would be called team prayer because we were all praying together. They taught us how to P.R.A.Y using this acronym. P=Praise.
We did this by singing praise together. R=Reflect. We had time to just BE pretty much, see where God wanted us to go and do according to His will. A=Ask. We asked God for prayers and prayed for others' intentions. Y=Yield. I thought that "YES" was more fitting for this though in my mind because we should be saying YES to God everyday and surrendering ourselves to him daily. I thought that because you praise Him, see what He wants you to do and ask for His help, but if you don't surrender to the Lord, you won't be able to do His will always because you will be thinking about what you want.

It wasn't just cool acronyms or how to give my testimony or good jokes that I learned this weekend, it's that it is COMPLETELY, TOTALLY, 110% OKAY and AMAZING to let yourself express how completely you've fallen in love with the Lord. Raising your hands and opening yourself up to God in Praise and Worship is acceptable. Shouting, Clapping, Singing off Key, Dancing..it's all acceptable even if no one else around you is doing it (at NET...everyone is so it's easy..) That is something I struggle with at home I think because I express myself in a very big way sometimes and I feel as though those things aren't accepted where I am because it isn't traditional or what the norm is, but it is, it s acceptable. Being able to express myself and knowing that there are others around me doing the same was something beautiful for me to experience.

So yes, I used the word "beautiful" and "Amazing" and many other words a lot in this, but it was. The men and women on retreat were amazing, beautiful and Holy people and I don't know that I could have been on a better retreat this weekend. Thank you God for putting these people in my life!

All I can do at this point is give God all my praise and thanks for a fantastic retreat experience with 16 other young Catholic people and continue to surrender myself daily and let His will be done in my life.

God Bless,

Erica Jean

**If you would like more information about NET Ministries, go to www.netusa.org**