Friday, January 27, 2017

All Hands On Deck

by Rayma Zugel
Lead Center Director


“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” Phil Jackson, President of the New York Knicks.

What is teamwork? The dictionary describes teamwork as “work done by several associates with each doing part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole.”

Care Net Pregnancy Services of the Treasure Coast has two centers, one in Port St Lucie and one in Stuart, both governed by our local Board of Directors. We currently have 9 staff members and over 60 volunteers. The world might look at our organization and imagine a “trickle down” order of importance, but we know the importance of everyone doing their part as part of the whole team.

At Care Net we must work as a team and that was clearly illustrated in 2016. I was out of the office for extended periods of time due to 2 major surgeries, once for 6 weeks and once for 2 weeks.  As the Lead Center Director responsible for client services and the volunteers, that could have been a disaster. However all client services and volunteer needs were taken care of by other members of the team as needed.  Those times weren't easy on any of us, but as it is said, "A successful team beats with one heart."

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “No member of a crew is praised for the individuality of his rowing”.   It must be “all hands on deck” for a rowing team to win.  It’s the same here at Care Net.  Clearly teamwork is a Biblical principle.  Consider 1 Corinthians 12:12-26:

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ…the body is not made up of one part but of many.  Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.  The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”…God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”


It truly is “All Hands on Deck” here at Care Net to be sure God’s work is accomplished.