Family Honor’s Ohio Affiliate Celebrates!

In keeping with Family Honor’s ongoing celebration in 2018 of 30 years of service to families, chastity presenters from our Ohio affiliate team, their spouses, and friends held a banquet on February 10 in their local area to mark this special year, plan for the future, and extend a warm ‘thank you’ to the families who have participated in Family Honor programs in the midlands area of Ohio.

The 45 people who attended the Ohio banquet were treated to a wonderful talk by Greg Schutte of Marriage Works!, who gave the keynote address.  Schutte’s talk focused on the Eucharistic understanding of marriage and how it can build an understanding of the human person.

Father Jonathan Wilson, pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish in Newark, Ohio, gave a blessing over the Ohio affiliate team at the end and spoke for a brief time as well.

The Ohio affiliate was started by Jon Yerian and Rebecca (Krakora) Gjostein, who attended the very first Family Honor National Conference on the Theology of the Body, which was held in 2002 in Charleston, South Carolina. Family Honor Executive Director Brenda Cerkez remembers Jon and Rebecca coming up to her midway through the conference and stating simply: ‘We want to start a Family Honor chapter in Ohio.’

Brenda recalls that, as a result, they were the ones that started the very first Family Honor affiliate. “It took a while to pull everything together, and to get the affiliate up and running, but Jon and Rebecca’s perseverance paid off and the result has been many families in Ohio who now understand and can speak more openly with their children about chastity, dating, marriage, and God’s gift of sexuality. What’s even more remarkable is the fact that, at the time, neither Jon or Rebecca was married or had children. They just instinctively recognized how important and how needed this work is for families in today’s culture,” Brenda stated. [Jon and Rebecca are each married and have several children now.]

As a result of the recent banquet, two more individuals will be finishing their training and joining the Ohio team as Presenters.  Current members of the Ohio team include Jon and Rebecca, along with Tim Madrid, Erin Yerian, and Mike Fagge, who was with the Columbia, South Carolina team many years ago.

With regard to plans for the future, Blessed Sacrament parish in Newark has agreed to host a Family Honor Changes & Challenges program in the next year, and they would like to rotate between that program and Family Honor’s Real Love & Real Life program.  The team is also reaching out to new parish contacts as they continue to book programs.

In addition, there appears to be growing interest in Family Honor’s online course from Ohio-based individuals.

For those in the Columbus, Ohio area who would like more information about bringing Family Honor of Ohio to their parish to deliver a parent-child chastity program, or would like more information about training to become a Presenter, please contact: familyhonorohio@gmail.com for details.