TIME TO SAY GOODBYE (From this year’s NET team).

We can’t believe that our time here in Maroochydore has come to an end already! Firstly, thank you all so much for welcoming us into your parish community. We truly have loved spending this year with you, getting to meet so many of you and joining in the vibrant life of this parish! To end our time here, here’s a recap of everything that we’ve been up to since our last NET update, as well as a lot of thank yous!

We hit the ground running in Term 4 in Siena College with the continuation of our Monday morning pancake BBQs, giving students the opportunity to connect in community and conversation to start the week. We have also participated in a variety of classes, discussing faith, religion and ethics, as well as having the pleasure of seeing the Year 12 music students perform their last recital at the College. We also joined the Siena community at their Awards Night and the Vinnies Sleepout, where we had the opportunity to lead times of prayer at both events, as well as connect with the staff and students in attendance.

Our Years 7-9 and Years 10-12 lunchtime sessions at Siena have also been great for us to connect with students in a relaxed environment and introduce them to the idea of prayer and faith in the everyday. Finally, we’ve loved being part of the Wednesday morning Masses at St Catherine’s Church, getting to lead music for Masses with the Year 10s and Year 11s. We also have been blessed with a handful of students journeying very closely with us at Siena and have very clearly seen the Holy Spirit working in their lives and ours. We know that Jesus will bring to completion this good work that He’s started (Phil 1:6). We have felt very privileged to be a part of this school community this year and would like to thank all staff and students from Siena for welcoming us, especially to Catharine Hannan (APMI) and Sharon Collins (Principal) for their continual support of our mission.

This term has also provided us with the opportunity to lead the Year 4, 5 and 6 cohorts at Siena Primary School in Encounter Days – these are retreat days where we get to know the students, play games, do activities, share with them our stories of how Jesus has impacted our lives and pray with them. These days have been a great success and truly gave Jesus the space to be present in these students’ lives in a new way.

You might be surprised to learn that we also travelled out to St Patrick’s College, Gympie to lead music for a whole-school Youth Mass and run an Encounter Day for the Year 8s this week! And, at the beginning of October, we made the trip up to Rockhampton to lead about 20 high schoolers in a three-day retreat, where we provided the youth with chances for community, prayer, sacraments and a lot of fun. We certainly had a blast and we know they did too!

Back locally, 10:10 Maroochydore has continued weekly. We’ve loved getting to journey with the high schoolers who come to youth group each week, bringing along their friends, discovering more about our faith and spending time with others who are interested in knowing more about Jesus. We wish the Year 12 attendees all the best as they now graduate (and hopefully return as youth group leaders next year!). A special thanks goes to Chris Dickens, Carrolyn Watt, Catharine Hannan and Fr Isaac for helping us lead 10:10 each week! The final 10:10 is this Thurs 7th Nov and will resume upon the arrival of next year’s NET Team – if you’re a high schooler, come along this Thursday!

Junior Ministers has also been an enjoyable time to get to know many of the parish’s primary schoolers and share our faith with them. We’ve loved helping them learn more about how to live out their faith by serving the parish at Mass and seeing them put their learning into practice! A huge thanks to Bernie Baillie for doing such an amazing job at running these sessions each week.

The Sunday night Young Adults Group has been a weekly highlight, drawing the parish’s young adults together to enjoy each other’s company and learn more about our faith. The connections and community that has formed is amazing to be a part of. In fact, last Sunday night was the largest Young Adults Group to date, with 20 people (excluding the NET Team and Fr Isaac)! Thank you to Millie, Georgia, Alek and Fr Isaac for coming alongside us to run these nights and for continuing to do so after we’re gone. We’re hosting a final young adults (18+) open house this Wed 6th Nov – contact us on Instagram @net.maroochydore for more information. We’d love to see all the young adults for one last time!

In all of these areas too, we’ve seen the Holy Spirit moving and touching lives – not to mention how He’s been moving through Ignite Conference, the Sacramental Program, Children’s Church at St Catherine’s and the Friday night Community Meals, which we’ve also been involved with through the year!

Finally, thank you very much to the St Catherine’s 8am and Stella Maris 5pm Mass communities, who have been our “home base” – your welcome and the ways you’ve integrated us into your communities and liturgies has made us feel at home and each of us are going to miss it very much! Thank you also to Fr Isaac and Fr Peter for taking such good care of us and supporting us in all of our endeavours. Our time in Maroochydore has been a blessing to us and we hope that our ministry and presence has been valuable to you too.

God bless and goodbye,   The 2024 Maroochydore NET Team – Gabby, Nathan, Alaina, Maddie, Noah & Sam.