[UPDATE: the podcast of the entire service is now available at iTunes]
Last night we celebrated the completion of the second year of year of ministry here in Walnut Hills. Our actual start date was October 16 in 2005, but it was in September that we started our core gatherings. There was a good crowd of our "regulars" in addition to guests who came to celebrate with us. I was excited that Kelly's parents were able to come up and my parents even took a night off from their church to come and worship with us.
The worship gathering was pretty cool as we had a lot of people involved. Daesik, a native of Korea and a PhD student at UC's Conservatory of Music, opened up by playing the organ. It was rather cool to hear pieces of music over 500 years old as a prelude to our worship. Then Tye led worship assisted by his wife Andrea, along with Derek and Rachel. Derek, too is a student at the conservatory and played a jazz sax that was phenomenal. The four of them humbly led is in praising God.
One of the goals of Echo from our inception was to be a church that started churches in the city. While we haven't met that goal yet, we want to contribute as much as possible to urban churches in Cincinnati. This past year Abe and Joni Brandyberry started Covenant Church in Northside and they've been doing some amazing work there. Last night we had them with us to discuss their ministry and gave them a love offering so they can continue to make a difference in their community. I can't wait to see what God is going to do in this city because of Covenant Church.
But I guess the part I enjoyed the most was seeing all the people God has blessed us with. Echo was started when Aaron and Dorota Burgess joined Kelly and I to embark on this journey. And only Tim and Dale remain from our week one attendees [well, maybe Emily will come back from London someday to join us again]. But God has continued to bring us some incredibly talented people who share our passion for this city and His kingdom.
This is a good place to be.