NATIONAL Evangelisation Team (NET Ministries) Australia members wrapped up their year with a thanksgiving Mass and banquet at St Joseph’s Church and Hall, Corinda on November 13.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Oudeman of Brisbane led the Mass, which focused on the theme, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:9).
The theme had echoed through each team member’s experience during the year.
This year NET had five teams working in dioceses across Australia and one national team which visited schools, parishes and youth groups spreading the word of the Gospel.
NET supervisor Mark Lysaght said team members shared the Gospel with more than 30,000 students and young people during the year.
Before the banquet, teams spent a week on the Sunshine Coast to close their year of service with NET.
Mark said it was a profound experience for all volunteers as they shared with their team mates and staff how God had worked through them and changed them throughout the year.
Warwick team member Tim Fransen said he had grown in confidence in standing up for his faith and ‘just living it out in everyday life’.
Tim said God had taught him so many things on his journey.
‘Also my confidence in getting up in front of large crowds and sharing my life has grown to the stage where I actually volunteer to talk up the front,’ he said.
NET Ministries also welcomed back the first team to go to Africa.
This team spent almost three months of ministry in Masaka diocese in Uganda.
Although tired and jetlagged, the eight team members were full of joy and shared amazing stories of their mission in the ‘Pearl of Africa’.
A sense that this was only the beginning of a lifetime of relationship and ministry with God was apparent to all the volunteers during the week.
After the celebrations, members returned to their families and parishes full of the joy from the year they have completed and in anticipation of the life that God has planned for them.
Next year NET will welcome a new group of volunteers from around Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Malaysia and, for the first time, Ghana.
For more information about NET phone (07) 3397 9666 or visit www.netministries.com.au.
