Who's on the Good News Ministries Team?

Who's serving on the Good News Team?

+ Staff: Michael Jones + Volunteers: Richard Huggins, Carmen Montanez, Adriana Banda, Stacy Trasancos, Cookie Hill

	Terry Modica is the behind-the-scenes administrator of Good News Ministries, as well as its online teacher, webmaster, and writer. She is the author of the daily Good News Reflections and is the team member who is most available to travel to parishes as a speaker. She was certified by the Diocese of St. Petersburg for Lay Pastoral Ministry in 2003 and has a degree in Theology. For more info, read her biography. She lives in Valrico, a suburb of Tampa, Florida, with her husband Ralph.
	Ralph Modica is the President of GNM's board of directors and keeps on top of all the legal paperwork in running a non-profit organization. Occasionally, he takes vacation from his job in the corporate world to travel to speaking engagements. A lively instructor, his specialty is how to be a missionary in the workplace by imitating Christ even in the most stressful environments. A cancer survivor and the father of young adults, he also helps people (men especially) find God in the challenges of illness and parenting.
	Bob Metivier is a board member who specializes in parish team development and the call to rebuild the Church through the uniting of its members using the techniques of team management, conflict resolution, and effective leadership styles. He is Music Director and the Director of Parish Life in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. He has a Contemporary Catholic music ministry (see www.psalms.ws) to help people find an active and positive relationship with God and with each other within their faith community.
Michael Jones is the on-staff Ministry Assistant who handles bookkeeping and other clerical duties and assists in all the behind-the-scenes work of Good News Ministries. Mike was born Catholic but left as a young college student to "discover the world." He wondered through several denominations for 20 years but always felt something was missing. In 2003, he found it in the Catholic Church. When in 2009 he was laid off from work, the Lord called him to begin a new phase in life by serving God's kingdom through Good News Ministries.
Volunteers
	Richard Huggins has been compiling the Daily Blessings for Good News Ministries since 2004. He has a BA in Theology with minor studies in sociology and moral theology. He is a professed, lay Oblate of Saint Benedict. He serves on the team because he loves to research the Saints and, as a long-time member of the GNM e-group, The Emmaus Journey, he helps answer questions on scripture and church teachings. He lives in Princeton, Indiana.
	Carmen Montanez translates the Daily Blessings into Spanish. She joined the team in 2010 because, "I have received the benefits of the daily Good News Reflections as well as the Daily Blessings for about five years. I want to be of assistance so that others can also receive the Good News." Raised in Puerto Rico, she is mother to a young daughter and serves as webmaster and bulletin editor for her parish in Santa Maria, California. She is also involved in a Christian multi-denominational group called "Search" that offers spiritual retreats several times a year. "It is a wonderful way to serve others while they seek the Lord."
	Adriana Banda translates the daily Good News Reflections into Spanish. She had been a subscriber of the reflections for four years when we needed a new translator and she volunteered to help. She was an answer to our prayers, and the opportunity to join the Good News Ministries team was an answer to her prayers; she was asking God for a way to give back to the ministry that had given her so much. In 2002, she had searched the internet for a guide on how to pray the Rosary and came across the GNM daily reflections, little realizing that later become part of this ministry. She lives in Arlington, Texas.
	Stacy Trasancos is our Online Community Administrator. She servers as moderator of the e-groups Parents Who Pray and the Emmaus Journey. She also helps Cookie (see below) make and coordinate our Holy Family Rosary Ministry. She joined the team initially because she wanted to bring the gift of prayer to other parents. The mother of six and grandmother of one, she came to Good News Ministries during a 2 1/2-year process of RCIA, when she and her husband started using the daily reflections together; this remains the most unifying aspect of their relationship with each other and with God. In her ministry at GNM, she prays every day for the Lord to use her to bring others closer to Heaven. She lives in Worcester, Massachusetts.
	Donna (Cookie) Hill makes our Holy Family Rosary Beads to ship, free of charge, to anyone anywhere. She is handicapped with a crippled right hand. Seeking something to do for Jesus and His Mother, she figured out a way to make rosaries. After drifting away from her faith, she returned the Catholic Church and now serves on the Good News Team because she believes in what we stand for and how we serve others with the Word of God. She lives in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
	Prayer Network - We have over 230 people from all around the world who have joined the Good News Prayer Network to pray for those who post prayer requests in our Prayer Room.
	Priests - We collaborate with a number of priests. Father Gary Dowsey, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Dunedin, Florida, is our chaplain. We also have close associations with Mons. Joseph Kimu of the Diocese of Blantyre in Malawi, Central Africa, Bishop Vincent Kympat of Jowai, India, and Father Frank DeSiano, CSP, President of the Paulist Catholic Evangelization Association for which Terry Modica serves as a member of the Advisory Board. Many other priests are connected to us in less formal ways; read comments from some of them.
?	Help Wanted Good News Ministries is always open to the Holy Spirit-guided ideas of those who want to get involved as a team member.