We officially crossed the halfway point in January for our launch team's commitment to be here (3 year commitment). I'm hoping and praying that most of them decide to stay longer to continue to help out. Overall, these are encouraging times in the new life of h2o church at Kent State. Some solid foundations have been laid with the University for a long-term presence here. Many of the systems are in place to support a larger number of students coming around. God has drawn our core team closer than ever before. We are truly on mission with our best friends. Last semester we focused on publicly launching h2o - created an advertising campaign as new students arrived on campus, built the production and programming system for a public service on Sunday nights, established a small group structure in the dorms (beginning with 6 small groups), and attempted to build our numbers a bit to eliminate the awkwardness for new visitors and to create ministry opportunities for folks to serve in. God blessed those efforts tremendously and this semester we are refining those systems as well as focusing on leadership development. We just finished a teaching series on leadership lessons from the life of David. We brought 12 students to a leadership retreat in Columbus, we multiplied a small group - creating opportunities for new students to lead, and we will be graduating a total of 26 people from "The Well" - our 7 week intensive leadership class. It's fun to see God lay the foundation of this young church block by block.

This week has been especially exciting as we are hosting our first mission team from Bowling Green (on their spring break). They are out meeting students on campus and inviting young people to h2o. They served as at our worship gathering last night, and they will be giving out free hot chocolate and cookies this afternoon on campus. But most importantly, they are ministering to us through relational connection. It's nice to have old friends staying in our house and serving alongside us again. It brings a new wave of encouragement and the desire to press on in our efforts. It's fun to show them what God is doing here first-hand.

And so we press on here at Kent State; excited about what God is doing and hopeful for the future.