Night of Hope

ST. MARYS - It takes faith and a united community to fight opioid addiction, a crowd of more than 80 people learned at Sunday's Night of Hope: A Concert against Heroin.

Rain and gloomy weather gave way to partly cloudy skies as people gathered at Memorial Park to enjoy live music and speeches given by those who have gone through addiction and those who are trying to fight it.

Addiction takes a terrible toll on the user, his or her family and the entire community, said St. Marys Mayor Patrick McGowan, but it's important to be patient.

"Sometimes it takes many attempts to break the habit," he said.

The opioid epidemic is difficult for both law enforcement and firefighters, McGowan said, thanking them for their services to the community.

To fight back, he said the city of St. Marys is joining others in Ohio in suing drug companies for pushing opioid pain medications, leading to over-prescribing.

Auglaize County Sheriff Al Solomon also served as a guest speaker, saying this is not a problem "we can arrest our way out of."

As a more effective solution, he said Auglaize County has many people who are ready and willing to help, like Coleman Services, which offers counseling, crisis intervention and job coaching and placement.

In a small community like St. Marys, people who have this addiction "are our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers," he said, becoming emotional.

"I've seen people I've known a long time become addicted," he told the newspaper. "It's hard to see them go through this."

Those who are successful in becoming sober have a strong church connection and a strong belief in God, he said.

Guest speaker Jennifer Lloyd, director of Statewide Outreach and Substance Abuse for Ohio Attorney Mike DeWine, agreed with Solomon.

"What we see across the state has been devastating, but we also see hope," she said.

Lloyd works with many religious leaders to incorporate faith into all aspects of addiction recovery. She said after having seen a spike in indictments in Pickaway County, officials there realized simply arresting them wouldn't solve anything. She helped them launch a program that transitions recently released inmates into treatment centers and assigns them a faith family to help with their journey.

These efforts have paid off, she said, emphasizing death rates from opioids have since dropped.

"We peaked in 2016 going into 2017, but then they dropped and are continuing to drop in 2018," she said.

Faith helped former drug users Josh and Nikki Meeker, St. Marys, break free from their addiction.

"We used to do drugs together," Nikki said. "The life we were living started to disgust me, but I was OK with it. Then we started going to church just to get that transformation."  

Josh Meeker said he had been inspired by Jesus Christ to found Make Me Whole Ministries out of the trunk of his car, providing food and hygiene products and the message of Jesus Christ to those who are suffering. The two encouraged people in the audience who are suffering to come and talk to them.

Ben Budde, St. Marys, said he was broken and suffered from addiction for many years.
  "I was afraid of failing, afraid of not being accepted," he said. "My motto was, 'I don't care' even though I did."

Feeling insecure, Budde said he turned to music for happiness, but that didn't work, so he looked to drugs and alcohol.

"Music got me high, but it left me low. Just like smoking and weed and other drugs, all that stuff, it got me high, but left me low," he said.

When his mom died, he blamed God for taking her away from him.

"She was an awesome woman. I said, 'I don't want anything to do with religion,' " he recalled.

Then one day he decided to call his friend and future wife, Missy Budde, and told her he was sick. She shared the gospel with him and inspired him to let Jesus into his life.

"I asked him for forgiveness," he said. "It's amazing how powerful forgiveness is. Give him your addictions and he will set you free."

Inspired by Budde's words, an audience member emerged, weeping and saying he wanted help. Ben and Missy Budde, along with Josh and Nikki Meeker and several others, huddled around him and said a prayer to help start him on his path to rehabilitation.

Ben Budde said he organized Night of Hope three years ago for moments like that, to share hope and let people know others are going through this and help is out there.

Crowd members danced and sang along to live music between speakers. Brother and sister duo Howie Spencer, 17, and Lucy Spencer, 15, played music that expresses their love of Jesus. To close the concert, Indiana group Turnaround electrified audiences with their energy on stage and their unique blend of hip-hop, electronic, funk and pop.

Auglaize County Commissioner Doug Spencer said the event was a success.

"I'm so proud of the St. Marys community for coming together to bring recognition to this epidemic," he said. "It's easy to talk about it with others, but it takes everyone coming together to combat this."