No one likes Mondays. The school is filled with faces of despair and everyone wants to curl up in the corner in a blanket. This is the problem that sophomore Gabe Poirot noticed that needed to change, so he made a club.

“I call it the Good News Club. When I look into the hallways and when I look into the classrooms and I look into the auditorium, I see faces of despair and faces that are hurting. I see faces that need something more than just what they learned in History class. In some cases they need more than just a counselling session that is promised to them,” Poirot said.

Poirot started this club late in his freshman year after he noticed the problems aforementioned. The club started with small attendance of Poirot’s friends. He returned next year to find the room full of 21 students.

“I wanted to change the atmosphere in our school. I wanted the God that I serve to be able to move freely through our hallways. A lot of people say that, ‘Oh, we don’t want God in our school.’ That’s fine. He doesn’t have to be pushed on people, but we just have the same amount of rights as any other club or any other group,” Poirot said.

Poirot’s club started out as a group that met occasionally but has now started meeting every week.

“[We meet] every Thursday morning in the reference room of the library; I invite people I know, and the people that come invite their friends and invite people they know. What it is is I share good news of the hope that is within me and the hope that I found in Jesus. I share how their minds and their bodies can be healed through God. I share how it’s not about religion, but it’s about relationship. I’ve seen person after person walk through the door not believing in it or thinking it’s weird. Those same people walk out the door free, healed and set,” Poirot said.

Poirot believes that the power of God can change people’s mentality.

“Just recently I was talking with a guy, and he was feeling really down and hurting. He tried to do his work, and he just could not focus and finally he just came and God touched him so much that he walked out the door, and he said ‘I feel warmth all over my heart. I feel so good.’ That’s what I live for and that’s why I do this,” Poirot said.

Poirot has changed himself through the club as well.

“I think I’ve definitely been able to be more patient by learning through this club. I didn’t change my life to start this club. Jesus changed my life and a club came out of it. I came from a life of hypocrisy in which I said that I believed it but I didn’t live up to it. My patience also developed through that transition,” Poirot said.

Being a religious club in a non-religious school, the Good News Club has faced some backlash from the student body.

“[People talk about the club] just like any other issue or activity that’s different to them. People get offended and people get hurt by something that is not their tradition or not something that they grew up with. I also think that sometimes there’s just a natural thing that they stand against. When someone boldly stands up and talks about the God they serve, it’s different, and sometimes, the truth hurts. My response to that is ‘I love [them] too much to say no’,” Poirot said.

One recurring member of the club is sophomore Evan Wood. He has been attending the club since its beginnings.

“The Good News Club has affected me just by seeing who’s with me with my belief in religion and just the power of a higher being. It’s really cool to just see the people that believe the same thing that you do. It’s also a really big confidence booster and it uses belief to sort of improve your mentality,” Wood said.

Wood believes that Poirot is essential for the club.

“Gabe just creates the environment. He reads a little bit from the Bible, and he pulls it all together to your everyday life. That’s really useful because relating religion to your life is very important,” Wood said.

Despite both Wood and Poirot being Christian and the club being based off of the Bible’s ideals, people who are non-religious or of different religions still attend.

“I don’t think people’s religion is really important for the Good News Club. That’s not the main focus of it. The main focus is self improvement,” Wood said.

Poirot’s club has gained attention from a national company called 14Forty which sponsors clubs like Poirot’s across the nation. They buy books and supplies so that these clubs can continue to operate. Through this sponsorship, Poirot plans on continuing and growing his club.

“If it’s just one person’s life that we can change, then I will still keep going. We don’t like fights, and we don’t like hate,” Poirot said. “I do this so I can see lives changed.”