Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (I’m a little late) It is hard to believe that it has been nine months since our last conference. It has been an extremely busy year with barbeque outreach doing more events than we’ve ever done before. We have barbequed for the youth in jail, high school retreats, pancake breakfasts at churches and the for the police service. 2016 does not appear to be slowing with 2 events booked for January. I will be calling on some of you to help this year as I would like to see 2 full teams to meet the demand for these catering events that continues to grow.
We have just entered into the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis. He gave us a pathway leading into Christmas to be God’s Men of Mercy for 2016, which is why we are going to use that as our theme for this year’s conference. The conference will be held at St. Bonaventure Church on March 4th & 5th, 2016. We are blessed to have Tom Peterson from Catholics Come Home and Ben Akers from the St. Augustine institute as our keynote speakers this year. Fr. Myles Gaffney, our spiritual director, will also share with us what it means to be a man in this year of mercy. Music and a youth talk will be delivered by Joe Zambon, a Canadian recording artist. These talks will help us grow as men of God in the world for our families, for our faith, and for our community. Please register early at our website www.godsquad.ca where you will have the option to order a God Squad belt buckle as well. They will only be available as a pre-ordered item until Feb 25th, 2016.
In 2016, as stated, our hopes are to get a second barbecue team set up, which I need your help to make happen. It’s not much of a commitment. If we could create a pool of men who will be trained on pulling the trailer and setting up to cook for the events, that would be extremely helpful.
Another exciting endeavor this year will be attempting a men’s motorcycle ride with our good friend Jeff Cavins. We will be starting at a point in southern Saskatchewan, making our way up to mile zero of the Alaska Highway. The current plan is that we will be returning south through Jasper, Lake Louise, and Banff down through Waterton to Whitefish and then over to Yellowstone. I invite as many men as are able to join us for the whole trip or on specific legs. We are still working out exact details and costs. The hope is to have the barbecue trailer join us on this trip so that we can stop at parishes along the way and spread the gospel message of being men of faith.
In closing, the God Squad would like to thank you for your continued support of our ministry. We ask that you continue to pray for us as we work to call men to lead their families growing in holiness.
Keeping The Faith
Sean Lynn