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YOU'RE THE BEST

Celebrations and Thank Yous

We celebrate our parish community believers who put their faith in action
with their gifts of time, talent and treasure as disciples of Christ.
- Ludger Dauphine
  
  Congratulations to this week's Highlight Volunteer, Ludger Dauphine! Ludger has been part of our parish since 1970 originally from Louisiana. For the past 18 years he has been volunteering at St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry and has been President for 12 years. St. Vincent de Paul members go to Walmart on Fridays to pick up food, wait for a food truck unload it and stock the shelves at SVDP by 10am. On Saturday mornings Ludger opens SVDP at 6am, meets with the people at the door and starts getting ready to hand food at 8:30am. Ludger and his wife Mary are also the coordinators of the Thanksgiving Baskets that are gifted to about 160-170 families each year during Thanksgiving at the SVDP office. They also coordinate the Christmas Angel tree that provides about 200 toys and gifts to the children of our community.
  During the pandemic lockdown Ludger continued serving St. Vincent De Paul's mission; Father Clint and the Parish staff would call him if someone was in need and he would deliver nonperishable food on people's doorsteps.
  Before the pandemic St. Vincent de Paul not only helped providing food for the community but also spiritual food as they would visit the sick providing Communion and praying the Divine Mercy with them.
  Ludger is also one of our Eucharistic Ministers during our Saturday 4:30pm Mass. For the past 10 years He and Mary coordinated our 24 hour Adoration chapel. Ludger was faithful to this ministry by waking up at anytime of the night to take care of the Adoration chapel, whether someone had to leave or the fire alarm went off.
  He and Mary also coordinated some of our parish pilgrimages. They have taken our parishioners to Medjugorje twice, traveled to The Divine Mercy Headcounters in Massachusetts, EWTN in Alabama, The Miraculous Staircase in New Mexico and to the Lady of Good Health in Wisconsin.
  Ludger has also been a part of the Guatemala's Mission Trips for 12 years where they spiritually feed our Guatemalan sisters and brothers.
  Ludger has also adopted a landscaping area at our parish. Every Wednesday we can see him taking care of the grass and plants behind the Ponzini Family Life Center, Father's rectory, and the back street of Our Lady of Fatima. He and his wife Mary also take care of the Grotto where the Statue of Mary is located in front of Our Lady of Fatima School.
  Our Lady of Fatima students can't wait for the Thursday's school lunches where he volunteers cooking burgers as a member of Friends of Fatima.
  Thank you for taking care of our Parish and Community's needs Ludger!
Debra Maneau
- Our Ministry Highlight of the week is Debra Maneau who has been serving our community after hurricane Katrina. Debra felt part of our family after she lost her home and moved to Texas. She felt welcomed by the whole church with open arms as they helped her transition here. Debra was an active member of the Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Louisiana and wanted to continue her mission of helping her community here. Debra is our upbeat and radiant usher at the 9am Mass and greets you from the moment she lays eyes on you. Debra also runs 3 food banks in our community, on Cedar, Willow St. and Mainland Seven Day Adventist. Her love for our community is enormous and for that we are grateful.
Mr. Mike & Mrs. Nancy Chambers
- NANCY
  
  This week's vacation bible school will be #24 for Nancy! She's been leading and organizing VBS for 24 years! That's amazing! Anyone who knows Nancy knows the love and hard work she pours in to everything she does. She goes BIG all the time and the kids love it. In addition to volunteering with VBS, for 23 years Nancy worked as our parish's religious education secretary. For the past 4 years, she has been an RE volunteer, always going above and beyond to make sure the kids grow in their love and knowledge of Jesus. Thank you Mrs. Nancy for your love and service to our community! All you do is greatly appreciated.
- This week's ministry highlight is this awesome dynamic duo- Mr. Mike & Mrs. Nancy Chambers. What a testament to service and love of community these two are!
  
  Mr. Mike and Mrs. Nancy- what a beautiful love story! Not just love for each other, but love of their neighbors as well! Thanks to both of you for being a beautiful example of service for the rest of us.
- MIKE
  
  Nancy's husband Mike has also been very active in ministry here at St. Mary's. He has been a volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul since 1993. With the exception of a few "days off", Mike spends every Friday and Saturday at St. Vincent de Paul. That's every Friday & Saturday for 28 years! Wow! He and other volunteers pick up food donations from Walmart, unload Galveston County food truck and stock shelves at St.VP. During Thanksgiving, Mike helps put together turkey baskets for our community to ensure that all families are able to enjoy thanksgiving dinner around their table. (And I'm sure Mrs. Nancy is right by his side helping) At Christmas, Mike also helps with St. VP toy drive. Mr. Mike is also an active member of Boys Scouts here at St. Mary's. He has been involved in scouting for over 14 years and been a Scoutmaster for 5 years! Thank you Mr. Mike for all your service and for being such an awesome example for our youth, especially the young men in our community.
- Pam Villarreal
  
  Happy Birthday to Pam Villarreal! Pam has been volunteering at the Parish Office since 2012 starting as one of our bilingual front desk receptionist but her gifts stated to shine through. We noticed her good sense of style and organization and soon she became the Parish's Bulletin Editor, Facilities Coordinator and our to-go person for baking cakes. Pam also became the President of St. Anthony's Altar Group. Before the Pandemic she helped at our Religious Article Store and will continue once we open. During the Pandemic she has taken other tasks; helping enter the collections, using her decorating skills by creating our latest vibrant altar flower arrangements and has been a key person with the scheduling of our Quinceañeras. Thank you for all that you do Pam!
CELEBRATING JOSE BOIX
- Jose Boix’s faith journey at St. Mary's began in 1965 when he came to Texas City having accepted a job with Monsanto. During those 56 years Jose has been a very active parish member through several ministries, committees, boards and work groups. In recent times, and prior to the COVID Pandemic, his activities have been directed to serving as an Usher, Vice President of the Men’s Club, a Money Counter and Vice President of the Fatima Foundation (FEF) Board. With the times becoming more “normal,” his efforts will include helping with the Our Lady of Fatima Development Team and the developing parish communication effort. Look for Jose Boix and his friendly smile at the 4:30pm Mass and thank him for going the extra mile.
- A Round of Applause for Mr. David Sandberg
  
  All of us at the St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal & Our Lady of Fatima Campus would like to recognize and thank one of our most dedicated volunteers, Mr. David Sandberg. David has used his diverse skill to help revitalize our campus in various ways. He has been vital to the beauty and growth of our community. Pre-Covid, David brought Friends of Fatima to life, where he led very successful weekly & monthly fundraising events for OLOF. David has installed new energy-efficient LED lighting in Our Lady of Fatima and is currently replacing and updating lighting in Ponzini as well. The new lighting is longer lasting and much more cost efficient! And Thank you Mary for letting him be away from home for so many hours.
- Celebrate the people and groups that have helped make church possible during COVID
  
  Here is a "Shout-Out" to the parish volunteers who developed our Covid-19 guidelines and to those who continue to carry out the processes that have allowed us to attend Mass in a minimal risk environment.
  
  What began with our Pandemic Response Team emerged into a huge group of volunteers from the Ushers, the Altar Society and many other individual volunteers who responded to the need to implement capacity and safe distancing guidelines and to conduct cleaning and sanitizing the Church space.
  
  Should you see someone who provided these tasks or catch them in action take a moment to say "thank you."
  
  Aquí hay un "agradecimiento" a los voluntarios de la parroquia que desarrollaron nuestras guías del Covid-19 y aquellos que continúan llevando a cabo los procesos que nos han permitido asistir a Misa en un ambiente de mínimo riesgo.
  Lo que comenzó con nuestro Equipo de Respuesta a la Pandemia surgió en un gran grupo de voluntarios de los Ujieres, la Sociedad del Altar y muchos otros voluntarios individuales que respondieron a la necesidad de implementar las guías de capacidad y distanciamiento seguro y llevar a cabo la limpieza y desinfección del espacio de la Iglesia.
  
  Si ve a alguien que proporcionó estas tareas o lo pilla en acción, tómese un momento para decir "gracias".
- WE WILL MISS YOU PRIMUS!
  
  Having Primus at the Parish has been a pleasure since day one. We will miss his greeting smile and positive attitude. Primus was always willing to help at the ECC, attend an OLOF or Parish meeting without a doubt. We wish you well in your next adventure in Puerto Rico!
  
  Thank you for saying yes to God’s call.
  
  Tener a Primus en la parroquia ha sido un placer desde el primer día. Extrañaremos su sonrisa de saludo y actitud positiva. Primus siempre estuvo dispuesto a ayudar en el ECC, asistir a una reunión parroquial o escolar sin duda alguna. ¡Te deseamos lo mejor en tu próxima aventura en Puerto Rico!
  
  Gracias por decir que sí al llamado de Dios.
Sewing Ministry/ECC Thank You
- The ECC littles delivered thank you gifts to our Sewing Ministry! These ladies hand made all our littles' costumes for the Last Supper. We appreciate all the love and support they have shown our ministry through the years, from sewing slip covers for our nap mats, to creating stuffed ABC letters and sewing other costumes for us as well. What a blessing they have been to us!
- Get to know Adan Lozano, Our Young Choir Volunteer
  
  Hello everyone my name is Adan Lozano my Passion for music started when my parents signed me up for piano lessons. It first started out as a hobby but then I decided I wanted to make a career of it one day. I always sang the songs when I went to church as kid and I knew one day I wanted to serve god through music. It has been a true joy playing for St. Mary Of The Miraculous Medal. I love the community and working with our various music ministers and parish staff and clergy, it has been a true joy! I first started by singing in the 9:00am Choir and then I eventually started playing at all masses and assisting in planning music for all of our liturgies. I would not be able to do any of this without some people. Thanks to Harold Fattig for introducing me to and getting involved in music ministry at St. Mary’s. A very Special thanks to our Parish Music Coordinator, Deb Lewis who has mentored and trained me in my piano playing and liturgy planning throughout the past few years and continues to do so today.