Finally, Fall.

What a joy it is to share with you all the work the Lord is doing on campus at University of Cincinnati through H2O Church. Lately, I have been extremely encouraged by the opportunities I have to join in furthering the Kingdom. Since my last update, things have been constantly moving and I have been so busy, but I have seen the Lord’s hand through it all. 

As I stated in my last update, I am once again leading a Life Group in Morgen’s Hall. We have been averaging about 25 students a week and have been digging into The Gospel of John. I think what I have been most encouraged by has been the questions that are being asked during our discussion time. Tangents are very common on a Thursday night, but they have led to some really neat conversations. The leaders in our group have been doing an incredible job keeping up with the people coming around (grabbing coffee, hammocking, eating meals, you name it). We just love spending time with each other and it has been super fun getting to know this crew. 

We recently had our annual Fall Retreat. What a blessing it was to get away with our church. This retreat is always an important time for our Life Groups and always seems to spark incredible conversations with our students. We had 23 people come from my Life Group and about 140 total from H2O Cincinnati. We were also joined by H2O at Indiana University (the newest church plant in the H2O Network) who brought about 25 of their students. We had three main sessions, which we had the privilege to hear from Tori Mayo, one of our campus pastor’s best friends and an H2O Bowling Green Alumni. The worship team from UC got to lead both the Saturday morning set and the Saturday evening set. I cannot put into words how blessed I am to lead a team of such incredible musicians. 

Since school started, this team has not stopped moving. It all began at our leader’s retreat back in mid-August, from there we planned our first Sunday set and have been rolling on those since then, but on top of our normal things we have had the Plunge, Fall Retreat, and Auditions. My two co-leaders, Micah and Jake, have been killing it with all the extra work we have needed to do as a team. I have been so proud of all of our teams hard work, but I have a special place in my heart for these dudes. I could not do any of this without them. 

I have been in a rather “dry” season these days. As I have been praying through it, the Lord has been encouraging me to “sing the season that I am in.” He has given me such a sweet gift of song, and ever so gently reminded me of it’s purpose in my own life this week. We sang “Come Thou Fount” at church this past Sunday and I cannot stop hearing “Tune my heart to sing thy grace.” I have been in a season of learning to fall in love with the good news of the gospel daily. Things like “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” along with the other line I shared have been constants in my mind. I came across this Spurgeon quote sometime ago and when I found it again recently it tied everything going on together in a beautifully worded way.

Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.

Charles Spurgeon

Worship through song, and not song in the way we normally perceive it, but song in it’s most complex form: the chords, each individual note within each chord, all the notes in between, the structure, the frequency at which the sound travels to create such a noise, the lyricist and their testimony, the instrumentalists and their backgrounds, I could go on. I have been thinking about music in ways I haven’t in a long time. So as I have been singing through this season, I have been drawn to my knees in worship at the beautiful complexity that is song.

If you are stuck, sing. If you are running, sing. If you are weary, sing. If you are confident, sing. Wherever the Lord may have you, sing. 

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I want to thank all of you who are supporting me either financially or via prayer through all of this as you are making it possible for me and the rest of H2O Cincinnati’s staff team to reach the students at the University of Cincinnati. If you are not a part of my financial support team, I ask that you prayerfully consider joining me and my mission with H2O Cincinnati at a monthly amount by clicking on the “give” button on the top of your screen.

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