Team 8: Introducing Each Team Member
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Hello everyone! We are so very excited to have started our ministry here in Hastings, Minnesota, where we will be staying at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish for the next eight months of our NET ministry time. The community is so charitable and generous; we are so blessed to be here for our year of ministry. Within the next week we will be starting and helping with the Launch middle school youth group, Hastings high school youth group, and Friday Afternoon Club. We will also be attending lunches at Hastings High School and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School every Wednesday and Friday.
Starting with being involved in the community we attended Hastings High School Homecoming; we dressed in our finest blue and gold and enjoyed the food, football and fun!
Among our team of twelve Netters who will be serving at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, there are four out of the twelve that will also be serving as a sub team called the Deanery Team. The Deanery Team travels to serve five other small parishes in the Hastings area.
I know exactly what you’re thinking, “Who are these 12 random young people invading the town of Hastings?” Well, you’re in luck because we are going to tell you all who we are and some things about us.
- Cameron O’Hearn is our male team leader this year. He is 22 years old and from Lincoln, Nebraska, and this is his second year serving on the St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Parish Team. Cameron likes the smell of newborn babies, playing games with words such as Scrabble and other words games, and can lick his elbows. (IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE.)
- Sarah Dirkes is our female team leader this year; she is 21 years old and from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Sarah is the second youngest of seven kids. One time she kissed a sting ray (WOAH!), and she loves being barefoot as often as possible.
- Emily Runstedler is the team leader of the sub Deanery Team this year. She is 22 years old and from St. Clements, Ontario, Canada. Emily’s birthday is on Christmas Day. She lived in Indonesia for three months, and last year she was a nanny for 4 children.
- Brandon Benke is serving with the Deanery Team this year. He is 18 years old and from San Antonio, Texas. Brandon played varsity baseball for three years in high school. He loves to hunt and fish, has a really cool Texan accent, and loves his mom very much.
- Ethan Kaste is 20 years old from Grafton, North Dakota. This is also Ethan’s second year serving on the St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Parish Team. He loves liverworst, his favorite color is blue, and he creates great words or overuses words that others create such as: Quibble, Jank, Blunker, Finiggle and many other nonexistent words.
- Christopher Masangkay is serving with the sub Deanery Team this year; he is 18 years old and from Lake Jackson, Texas. Christopher loves his mom with all of his heart. He thoroughly enjoys poetry. Abraham Lincoln is his favorite president because of his beard, he likes to wear his jorts (jean shorts), he loves dancing like crazy in public, and his toes are not webbed.
- Catherine Speltz is serving with the sub Deanery Team this year; she is 20 years old originally from Iowa but recently moved to Marshall, Minnesota. This is Catherine’s second year serving with NET Ministries but served on a traveling team last year. She is the eldest of nine children. She likes to play guitar and write praise and worship songs, autumn is her favorite season, and she loves Mexican food.
- Josh Travis is 18 years old and from Alexandria, Louisiana. He played football in high school. He has done foreign mission trips where he traveled to Mexico and Ghana, Africa. He was a Boy Scout for seven years and achieved the ranking of Eagle Scout.
- Julia Mancuso is 18 years old from Houston, Texas. She is the eldest of three children. Her father is a deacon. Julia was a cheerleader for eight years and was a part of a competitive cheer team, and she also attended World Youth Day this past summer in Spain.
- Christopher Warren is 20 years old and from Gulf Breeze, Florida. This is his second year serving with NET Ministries as well but served on a traveling last year. Christopher was a kicker on the varsity football team in high school. He absolutely loves Blessed John Paul II, wants to be a middle school or high school history teacher one day, and played Edna Turnblad in the musical “Hairspray.”
- Katerina Spencer is 18 years old from O’Neals, California. She is the ninth of eleven children. One time her cousin ran her over with a bike! She thoroughly enjoys spontaneously busting out her cool dance moves, and she loves singing and playing music with the guitar and piano.
- Kayla Avila is 19 years old from Turlock, California. She played soccer for 13 years and played college soccer last year. She is full blooded Portuguese, Jesus is her best friend, her favorite color is pink (and she will buy things just because they are pink), she loves her two cats Mama and Sami, and her favorite movie of all time is Alice in Wonderland.
This is our team for the year, and as you can see, we are all very different. However, we have the commonality of loving God, wanting a deeper relationship with Him and wanting to spread His word and joy to the community of Hastings. We had an extremely eventful and fun filled first week here at Hastings and are so excited for the next eight months of ministry here at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish.
Team 8