Hello everyone!! Marc-André Veselovsky here for our first blog entry for our summer mission project, Revive: Espanola 2013! For those of you who don’t know, Revive is a summer-long mission happening at St. Jude parish in Espanola, Ontario. There are three students running this mission: Angèle Sweeney, Mary-Claire Hoffman, and myself (our bios will be up soon!). We will be leading the CCO Discovery Faith Study, running youth and adult retreats, and starting a youth group!

The mission began Friday, May 3, and boy, have we ever had a heck of a weekend! Friday afternoon, we had our job interviews to work at the garden centre at the local Your Independent Grocer. All three of us got hired! After that, we all settled in at Angèle’s family’s house, the place we will be staying for the whole mission. Her parents welcomed Mary and me with open arms to their beautiful log home. We are so blessed to have such wonderful hosts for the summer!

Saturday, we had a day retreat for the three of us at the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre, a five minute drive outside of Espanola. The retreat was to give us time to plan our first weekend at St. Jude as well as prepare our hearts to be open to the Holy Spirit throughout the mission. God filled our hearts and showed us His wisdom at the retreat.

Right after our retreat, we went to our first mass at St. Jude. Angèle made our announcement at the end of mass to introduce our mission to the parishioners! We asked them to leave their contact information with us so that we can let them know about our faith studies and other events. We did the same at the two masses on Sunday, and by the end of the weekend, we had received 40 parishioners’ contact information!! Praise God!!

After the eleven o’clock mass, the parish hosted a coffee social so that we could meet and chat with parishioners. So many of them were so happy to have this mission at their parish! The hall was vibrant with spiritual conversation; one lady told me how great things seemed to be falling into place everywhere for this mission! Our pastor is very supportive of the mission, and so is the Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, Msgr. Jean-Louis Plouffe.

As if that wasn’t already enough, the 41 confirmation candidates for the parish were meeting Sunday evening to prepare for their confirmation, happening this coming Friday, May 10. The lady in charge invited us to come to the meeting to give a presentation on our own personal witness as to how our faith has made an Impact on our lives. We knew that many of them were getting confirmed because their parents were forcing them to. I shared my testimony with them, to show them that I too once thought church and faith were boring, unfulfilling, but because I stuck with my faith, I was able to make a personal commitment to Christ to keep my faith. Now, faith is far from boring and unfulfilling.

We then shared with the candidates the four-point basic gospel message: we are created for a relationship with God; sin separates from God; only through Christ can this separation be overcome; and it is up to us to choose Christ. We asked the candidates that if they wanted to make a commitment to Christ, similar to the commitment they are making Friday, to stand and recite this prayer:

Father, I believe that you know me and love me. I have not always chosen to love you, and have broken my relationship with you through my sins. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus who proved your love for me on the cross.

Lord Jesus, I open the door of my heart and I invite you to be at the centre of my life – to be my Saviour and my Lord. Direct me by your Holy Spirit and help me to live the Gospel with my whole life.

Many of the children said this prayer. Who knows how many graces will enter their hearts because of it! Please pray for these children and their confirmation happening this week.

Well, that was our first weekend! You will hear many more updates from all three of us as the mission moves along. Who knows what great things have yet to come for Espanola!

Please comment and let us know if you have any questions about the mission! I would be more than happy to answer them! Thank you for all of your support and prayers!

May God bless you and keep His Holy Spirit burning within you,

Marc-André