The Final Circle

From the banks of the Olentangy River.....

Tonight, this stretch of the HGIOG Tour comes to a close on the campus of The Ohio State University, the University so mighty it must be preceded by the definite article "The" so no confusion will abound. We played tonight from center court of the Buckeyes basketball arena on the same day the aforementioned team returned home from a successful Sweet Sixteen run that landed them in this years final four.

[By the way, I would go into one last round of mascot madness, but it's the end of a draining day and it would take a bit of explaining to cover the full story of the Ohio Buckeye Tree (the State's official tree - Aesculus glabra), so named because its nuts resemble the shape and color of a deer's eye...or to introduce you to Brutus Buckeye, the school's mascot...so let's just say that The Ohio State University is a fairly impressive place, one of the top five schools in the nation in terms of student body and tradition.]

As you remember, we ran into snow and ice on our last visit to Columbus and had to leave town no sooner than we arrived for fear we would be stuck here and miss yet another date in Michigan the following night. That was strike one. Strike two came about 1 hour before tonight was to begin when the sound system went out and we faced the very real possibility of not being able to go through with the night. We prayed...and our crew pulled out an amazing back-up solution that allowed the night to happen...just in time!!

At this point, we should say a massive thank you to our crew, guys who rock at what they do and lean into the wind with us every night as we ask God to do more. They are Greg D., Brian, H., Mark, Christian, Cam, Kyle, Russ, Tommy, Michael, BJ, Ryan, Greg M. and drivers Chad, George, Tim and Paul (and family). We owe so much gratitude to you all!

So the night went on and we poured out our hearts one more time. Maybe it's just a coincidence that we almost missed doing this night for a second time, or maybe there was something more powerful behind it all...someone perhaps that was going to come face to face with a Universe maker who calls them by name. We may never know, but as the night ended we found ourselves in a back-stage hallway, circled one final time...arms locked and heart's grateful. We prayed for Columbus, like we have for 32 cities along the way...and asked God to plant a seed from this night that will last forever. And we said "Thank You" to a God who brought us back to life and gave us something special to carry to the nation. Imagine that...

How Great Is Our God!?