March 2017
We want to be sure you continue to know what is happening at TEAM! Please feel free to share any
sections of this newsletter with your congregation in your church newsletter and/or bulletin if you so
choose. Please also help us by forwarding this email to others in your church who would be interested
and let me know if this should go to others on an ongoing basis.
Thank yous, we are grateful!!
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A huge shout out to Tomball ISD: Tomball ISD initiated and executed their first annual food
drive for TEAM and St. Anne's Catholic Church’s food pantry. The football teams from Tomball
and Tomball Memorial High Schools drove around to schools throughout the district, and to the
administration building, and picked up two 20 foot long box trailers full of food, with some
added cash on top! The football players off-loaded and neatly stacked hundreds of boxes of
food, filling our pantry to overflowing. It was a sight to behold! Several Tomball ISD staff,
including Dr. Martha Zamora, the new TISD Superintendent, were at TEAM for the delivery,
along with Billie Ann Dio, the 2016 Tomball Chamber Teacher of the Year, who planned and
coordinated the drive. Take a look at the delivery:
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To Tomball Moving Company and Mark Carter: These both provided enormous help to TEAM
in preparing for, and completing the work to achieve the new look for TEAM’s Benevolence area
(see next story). Mark Carter is a Tomball architect who drew up the plans for the improved
space and the Tomball Moving Company moved all of the old partitions, desks, and other
furniture out to enable the new partitions and built in desks to be assembled. They both
provided these wonderful services pro bono to TEAM. We are grateful!
TEAM’s Benevolence Area has a new look!
The Benevolence office area of TEAM’s center has received a major remodeling. The changes 1) provide
spaces for more caseworkers working with clients; 2) create more privacy for the conversations between
clients and caseworkers; 3)wall-mounted each caseworker’s computer monitor, freeing desk space; 4)
rewired each cubicle with more and better placed electrical connections and enabling the hard-wiring of
each computer (which improves bandwidth and computer speed); 5) improved the flow for clients when
they arrive and need to sign-in with the receptionist; and 6) provide a spot for a pastor or other prayer
support person to pray with a client. TEAM was grateful for contributions from ChristBridge Fellowship
Church and Resale with a Purpose that enabled us to proceed with this remodel. You can see below our
“before” and “after” looks:
Before:
After:
Please pay us a visit and take a look at the improved space!
The Saints:
We’re singing another verse of the song, “When the Saints Go Marching In”! Because they come
marching in every day at T.E.AM.! We call them Volunteers. And no one has taught me more about the
Body of Christ than the volunteers at TEAM. Every day I see witnessed through these saints the joy,
patience, kindness, faithfulness, and love of Christ. This month I’d like to highlight another, among the
many, who continually amaze and humble me.
Melba Miller
Melba is a Tomball icon. Her family settled here 154 years ago, being among the original settlers of
Tomball. And Melba is a bit of a TEAM icon, having volunteered with us for 29 years. She comes
faithfully every day, puts out clothes, decorates the store for every season, shows volunteers the ropes,
greets and helps customers, always makes sure that volunteer birthdays are celebrated each month,
helps price, and is in charge of giving Randall, our store manager, a hard time. I think that’s her favorite
part of the job! She also makes beautiful flower arrangements and purchases items with her own money
to decorate the store, and she plays Santa Claus all year, often giving gifts to staff and other volunteers.
But wait, there’s more…Melba does all that for TEAM on a social security disability budget. You see,
Melba only has the use of one arm, has difficulty talking, and is in constant pain due to a debilitating
muscular condition that has continued to worsen over the past 20 years. A condition that would have
anyone else bedridden. Yet she lives alone without assistance, and even walks to T.E.A.M. every day,
because she can no longer drive. She has an incredibly big heart and the strongest will I have ever seen.
What a witness of dedication, perseverance, strength, and love.
Blessings,
Becky Loving, Director
Many churches deliver to TEAM non-perishable food collected from their
congregation. Please consider doing this if you don’t currently. Here is information for your
Newsletter/Bulletin/church communication timed with your next food collection:
T.E.A.M. In-Gathering
[insert date], is our next TEAM in-gathering. Please remember to bring some non-perishable
food items for our collection in support of TEAM's (Tomball Emergency Assistance Ministry)
food pantry. Especially needed at this time are jelly and toilet paper.
Thank you for your generous support to those families in our community currently suffering food
scarcity and other hardship. Your help makes a difference!
Please let us know at TEAM if you have questions about our ministry services or if you have needs we
could support. You can contact TEAM at 281-255-6967 or visit our website at
http://www.teamtomball.com.
If you wish to be removed from future distributions of this email, please reply to me with that request.
Mary Sturdevant
TEAM Board Secretary
Cell: 713-256-3625
Email: [email protected]