Dear River of Life family

This week has seen an unprecedented escalation in preparations and guidance to control the spread of the Coronavirus.  The Ohio Department of Health has banned gatherings of 100 people or more, we have seen an unprecedented cancellation of events nationally and steps are being taken for people to protect individuals and our loved ones. The Health Team at our church has recommended that we close our doors this Sunday.

Based on this advice, and the desire to contribute to the slowing of the spread of the virus, we are canceling our in-person service and moving to a livestream at the link below.

We will have a small team of people here at the church to livestream the service. We realize many in our community will not receive this message and may show up. If this is the case, we won’t turn anyone away, our doors will not be locked, but we will use all recommended cleaning and social distancing practices. The Elder Board and Health team will be meeting in the next week to assess our path forward.

We will be live-streaming Sunday service at 10:30 on our Facebook page, and looking to identify a more permanent solution for the streaming. The sermon will also be uploaded to the church website immediately following service. For this Sunday, please join us at www.facebook.com/rolcincy

Our current plan for our food pantry is to remain open during normal hours although we have started to modify our operating procedures. This morning, we allowed five people in at a time and were diligent to clean surfaces in between each group. In the coming weeks, we are making plans to possibly bag groceries and bring them to our community guests at the door. If you or someone you know is experiencing a food crisis, please contact the church or email Pastor Chris at [email protected] so that we may help. We want to be especially mindful of families with children that receive lunch from Cincinnati Public Schools as they will be without this lunch service for the next three weeks. We will communicate an update on procedures for the food pantry sometime in the next week.

Please contact your community group leaders or the Elders if you are in need of any assistance, or just need someone to talk with and pray with. We will be meeting soon to issue guidance on small groups. You can contact the Elders at the following email addresses: 

Chris Woodard – [email protected] 708-224-5400
Ed Allie – [email protected] 513-407-2282
Chris Youderian – [email protected] 208-569-9945

We will send out updates and communicate more regularly in the week ahead as we continue to meet to assess the situation and move forward. You can continue to receive the best information through the following websites:

Center for Disease Control – www.cdc.gov
World Health Organization – www.who.int
Ohio Department of Health – odh.ohio.gov
Kentucky Department of Health – chfs.ky.gov