A Journey We Never Expected
T.J. and Ellen Holt, TransOceanic Zone Couple – ERI
We never imagined that a move to Texas would lead us on a path that would stretch across oceans and continents. In 2000, after relocating from the Midwest for work, we found ourselves in Kingwood, Texas—far from family, far from friends, and in search of connection. That’s when we discovered Teams of Our Lady.
We joined Kingwood, Texas Team #6, at St. Martha Catholic Church in Kingwood, and what we found was more than a small group of couples—we found a family. Our Team became the place where we could share joys, shoulder sorrows, and grow in faith and love alongside other Christian couples. In a city of strangers, we found our love and support.
Over the years, as we said “yes” to roles of service—from Prayer Couple to Sector, Region, Province, and eventually Super-Regional Couple for the USA—we came to understand something beautiful: that every “yes” leads to a deeper blessing. With each new opportunity to serve, God revealed more of His plan, and more of the incredible couples that makes up our Movement.
We encourage all couples: when you’re invited into service—whether it’s helping pilot a new Team, organizing an event, or taking on a role as Sector, Regional, or Super Regional Couple—take time to prayerfully discern. Ask God where He is leading you, and if He is calling, trust Him and walk forward in faith. You will be amazed at how He equips you and blesses you through the people you meet and the lives you touch and touch you.
Today, we have the great privilege of serving as the TransOceanic Zone Couple on the ERI (Équipes Responsables Internationales), the international leadership team of Teams of Our Lady. Our zone is broad and beautifully diverse, including the Super Regions of USA & Trinidad/Tobago, Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Timor), and TransAtlantic (Great Britain, Ireland, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, and South Africa), as well as the Regions of Canada and India.
The role of the Zone Liaison is to foster a closer connection between the international leadership and the local realities of the Movement. We listen. We accompany. We encourage. And through this, we help each Region and Super Region feel part of something bigger—something unified in mission, rooted in love, and open to the Spirit.
Serving in the ERI has shown us that while we come from different languages, customs, and cultures, we are united in our desire to strengthen marriages and grow closer to Christ. Whether we are working with couples in various parts of the world – the heart of Teams remains the same—friendship, prayer, Scripture, the Eucharist, and mutual support in our marriages.
We hope each Team member knows that the ERI exists to support you. To listen to your experiences. To walk with your leaders. To build bridges across the globe so that no matter where you are, you are not alone. Teams is a worldwide family, and your faithfulness, your prayers, and your presence matter deeply.
Our three daughters—Samantha (post-doctoral researcher at MIT), Ashley (PhD/MD student at the University of Wisconsin), and Hannah (cosmetologist in Houston)—have grown up witnessing our journey in Teams. It’s our hope that they, too, will carry the seeds of this mission into the world: that marriage is worth nurturing, and that love rooted in Christ changes lives.
We are humbled to serve, and grateful to walk this journey with all of you. Let us continue to say “yes”—to unity, to mission, and to the everyday blessings that come when we trust God’s call.
Letter to ENS
Dear Married Couples, Counselors and Spiritual Companions,
Since the International Meeting in Turin last July, the Responsible Couple of the new ERI invited me to accompany them as Spiritual Counselor. I am Father Augusto García, Colombian, priest for 41 years, member of the Company of the Fathers of Saint Sulpice and currently priest of the Archdiocese of Edmonton, in the Province of Alberta, Canada. I was sent to this Archdiocese by my Sulpician community twenty-five years ago. Here I am part of the formation team of St. Joseph Seminary, Pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish that serves the Hispanic community of the City and also Counselor of some Teams.
Encouraged by ERI, I want to briefly share with you in this letter my experience with the Teams in three stages.
1st Stage: Knowledge and deepening of the Teams Charism
My first contact with Teams was in Brasilia, Brazil. As happens with many counselors, there for the first time I learned of the existence of Teams because a couple invited me to be counselor of their Team. I accepted precisely because they promised me that they and the Team would teach me what it means to be a counselor. Indeed they did so for almost ten years. I emphasize this because in the teams: Married couples and Counselors we are in permanent formation and mutual growth. I remember they gave me some books and brochures about Teams that I read attentively. I found in these a rich spiritual and theological reflection that immediately enthused me, but they would have been dead letter without the spirit of the charism lived by the couples. I was much more enthused to see how the reflections on the charism and spirit of Teams acquired face, names and hearts in the couples who daily strived to live their conjugal spirituality. Without doubt my knowledge and deepening about Teams I obtained in my personal relationship with the couples and with the teams I accompanied. With the marriages I experienced in the daily life of the shared table with them and their families, and in the monthly meeting what in the Guide of Counselors is known as the “complementarity of priests and marriages.” This continues to be one of the many intuitions that Father Caffarel had and that continues to be true in the heart of each team. In this first stage of my life with the teams, the Spirit of God was preparing the next through the affection, care and testimony of the couples I accompanied in Brasilia. I will never be able to thank each of them enough, but the beautiful thing about Teams is that they have faces and names that we keep in the depths of our heart.
2nd Stage: Foundation and expansion of the movement
This stage began twenty-four years ago in 2001. With the experience and enthusiasm accumulated in Brazil, my first objective was to start Teams in the parish. In May of next year we will be celebrating the 25 years of its foundation in Edmonton and in Western Canada. Without many resources, even basic orientation materials, we began with confidence placed in the Lord. We thank the Super Region of the United States that offered us their logistical and even economic support in those first years. The missionary spirit germinated in the couples as a response to their matrimonial vocation now enlivened and enriched with the charism of Teams. From Edmonton the team couples founded teams in other cities of the province of Alberta like Calgary, Fort McMurray, Saint Paul and even outside Alberta in the city of Winnipeg in the province of Manitoba. The mission and service in Teams is always fruit of the vocation nourished and strengthened daily with the practice of the Concrete Points of Effort not as its end but as its tools. With the growth and expansion of Teams in this part of Canada I have experienced what Saint Paul writes: “I planted and Apollo watered, but the one who has made it grow is God” (I Cor 3,6). My gratitude to those founding couples of Teams in Edmonton, to all those who with generous spirit set out to create teams here and in other cities. Together from now let us give thanks to God for these first twenty-five years of Teams in this Western region of Canada.
3rd Stage: Service to communion and collegial discernment in the Movement
This stage has to do with my service as spiritual counselor of the ERI. We all know well that the presence and company of the priest is an essential characteristic of the Teams of Our Lady from the base Team to the international responsible Team. During this year together with the couples of the ERI I have discovered that my task as counselor is fundamentally a service to communion and collegial discernment of the ERI. Of communion, first of all, with the person of Jesus Christ. For this reason, every time we meet, the morning prayer in team is prepared in advance and oriented with great devotion. The celebration of the Eucharist at the end of each day is an action of thanksgiving for the task accomplished and an event of communion where we present before the altar all the teams of the world. It is also prepared the months prior to our meeting. The homily is never missing. I am glad to know that through the sacrament of ministerial priesthood, Christ becomes present, sanctifies each couple and unites us in his love. From the Eucharistic celebration is born the communion between the couples of the ERI, fraternity is strengthened and they mutually encourage each other in the mission. The service in the collegial discernment of the ERI is that permanent reminder to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit in the exercise of mutual listening, of respectful freedom in exposing our differences, in discovering together the signs of the Kingdom of God in the achievements and difficulties in each place where the team couples are found. As counselor I do not think of myself as director of the ERI, the couples are responsible for all orientation and decisions, but I confess to you that all of them listen attentively to their counselor and on many occasions ask for his opinion. I believe I do not violate confidentiality if I tell you that the responsible couple also discusses with their counselor previously different topics that they must present to the other couples of the International Team. In short, during this time in the ERI, much more than being a counselor, it has been each of the couples personally and as a team who have made me feel their counselor with all that this term means in Teams. Upon finishing these quick notes I want to ask all marriages, counselors and companions that we pray much for the teams in the world and particularly for the current ERI that with much love and generosity dedicate their time to discern in the Spirit of the Lord what is best for each couple and for the Movement in the world and in the current Church.
