Tracy Beckman

When I was a college student at the University of Minnesota there was a group similar to SOP that a woman I knew, Ellie Hecht, was very involved with.  I built a relationship with her, a friendship, and she started inviting me to prayer meetings.  At that point, I experienced a conversion as an adult and started to learn more about my faith and about what it meant to be a Christian.

When I left a year and a half later to spend about a year in Honduras working with a foundation that served the poor, I grew in my Catholic faith.  I experienced a greater appreciation of what it meant to be Catholic and had a desire to learn more about it.  So when I came back to Minnesota, I was looking specifically for a group that would support me in my faith – my Catholic faith.

I went around and checked out different Catholic groups, both in the area and a few other states.  I took about two months doing that and ended up back in Minnesota basically because “this is home” and it wasn’t very clear to me that I was being called anyplace else.  I got involved with SPO at that point.  I saw it as a way to get more support in trying to live out my Catholic faith, but also eventually saw it as an opportunity to serve and share my faith with others.

(This year) I oversee the women’s household – the household is kind of the heart of where the student life of SPO will be taking place this year.  It will be a place where we hold a lot of activities.  One of my main responsibilities is to care for the women who are living in that house.  That will be in a women’s sharing group, in get-togethers with them one on one and in overseeing the household activities and their work with SPO.

Sometimes it’s kind of heart because there is such a great need out there.  I’m realizing, however, that this is truly the Lord’s work and we are merely instruments and that conversion happens one person at a time and it happens through love.  That is how mine happened, somebody loved me and shared Christ with me in an up front and really natural way.  So I need to keep that in mind and not be overwhelmed with all the things to do and all the people to call and all the sponsorship letters to get out and meetings to go to.

In reality it is loving people the way Jesus loved people that counts.

Tracy Beckman was involved in SPO in 1993.