Hope Overflow serves communities through music

Hope Overflow, the band formed from the Circle of Music service trip, is sharing love, faith and service through its music as it performs in the area and prepares for its Winter Break service trip to the Chicago area.

This year the group chose to circle just one city to reduce travel time so there will be more time to serve, Michael Jensen, co-adviser of Hope Overflow, said.

“We’re just going to experiment this year.  It’s still a ‘circle of music;’ but we’re just going to stay in the Chicago area, that way we can do more,” Jensen said.

Some of the things they want to add to the trip includes performing at more worship services, working with Feed My Starving Children in the Chicago area and serving in homeless shelters.

“I think the fact that we have a service trip that we’re doing service and we’re doing it for God and that we get to do something we all love; that’s what I get out of it. I get to do my job that I like to do anyway for a really good purpose and with a good bunch of people,” Hans Pregler, co-adviser of Hope Overflow, said.

During this service trip, the group grows musically, but they also help each other grow in their faith, Jensen said.

“The thing I get the most out of this is seeing students develop a realization that their talents are suppose to be used to glorify God, to help people and to serve others. You really do see a light going on for them” Jensen said.

Kate Glenney said she felt God’s presence while performing on the trip last year.

“I felt that I was obeying God by using the talent that He blessed me with. I look back on that week as the best week of my life,” Glenney said.

Meghann Baumann decided to join Hope Overflow after seeing the group interact with each other and the audience during their performance at Kastle Kapers last year.

“I felt this vibe they were giving off and thought it was something I wanted to be part of,” Baumann said.

Baumann went on last year’s Circle of Music tour.

The idea for the group blossomed out of an idea mentioned to Jensen during a voice lesson with a student.

“We thought, ‘what would it be like to have a service trip be about music and have music be able to serve people?’ Serving people with your work is great, but how about musicians, how can we actually serve people?” Jensen said.

The service trip’s combination of music and service attracted several students.

“This one seemed perfect because it was musically and spiritually oriented. I knew some of the people and thought it would be a lot of fun getting to know them better while providing worship music around the Midwest,” Glenney said.

The name of the band came from a Bible verse, Romans 15:13, which says, “May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The group chose this Bible verse because they want to bring hope to all of the communities they touch with their music.

Hope Overflow has had a core group of students for the past two years. Once a member graduates, the group holds auditions to go along with the  application process used for all service trips.

“I like having that core group, because you still have some that know the music, so every year it gets a little easier to do that. But that first year we had to learn a lot of songs in a short amount of time,” Jensen said.

Currently, there are 15 members including Jensen and Pregler. Pregler handles the technical work, while Jensen plays guitar and sings in the band.

The band plays mostly Christian rock music. It has tried writing its own music, but has not performed any of its own pieces yet.

Hope Overflow will perform this weekend at Nazareth Church in Cedar Falls.

“We feel good about being able to play music and help other people get into a deeper relationship with God.  I think that’s a unique property of what our group is about,” Jensen said.