Relationships Changing Lives

Relationships Changing Lives

 By Maddie Orsinger

Over four hundred guests, sponsors, and students gathered on Thursday, October 24th, to support and learn more about how to change the world. SPO hosted their annual Ohio Banquet, stressing the importance and necessity of living lives full of deep relationships.

Founder of the organization, Gordon DeMarais, spoke of the heartbreaking news of the dropping number of practicing Catholics in today’s society and displayed his great passion for young people and their desire to be loved deeply and unconditionally. Bishop Robert Brennan joined the evening, blessing the meal and expressing the joy he has found in SPO and in young adult communities here in Ohio.

“I saw men there who were eager to live," said OH Regional Director, Andrew Kebe, as he shared an SPO alumnus’s reflection on his first encounters with the ministry. Kebe continued by sharing the alumnus's story and by conveying his enthusiasm in seeing great opportunity in the loneliness of the students on campus and how students of SPO are actively inviting those lonely souls into a community.

Matthew Gnatowski and Genevieve Thanh were the student advocates of the night. The two students offered their own personal journeys in coming to know the Lord through their experiences at college and through SPO. Together, they shared how easy it is to get wrapped up in the party culture and in pouring one’s entire self into academia in hopes of building a solid career. Both students expressed how grateful they were to be a part of a people genuinely interested in their lives and actively running together in pursuit of deeper relationship with the Lord.

With motivating statistics and real testimonies to the work of the Lord in the lives of those who now work for or participate in the organization, the night was delightfully encouraging and a great success.