We walked up to the designated meeting point at 8:00 AM. Cold gray skies and cold gray sidewalks stretched out in every direction. But we were there to bring color to the campus of Ohio University.

One of the staff workers for H2O Athens had created an informational template, an example, of what our team would replicate. But he encouraged us to use artistic license.

So we broke down into teams of three and spread out in four different directions.

The further we went, the more creative we got.

As different teams ran across the work of other teams and we sent pictures to each other of our progress, the designs became more fun and more arresting.

Some designs were small, and others were big.

Our hands grew colder as we worked on the sidewalk art, but our hearts grew warmer.

Some of my favorite designs don’t photograph as well because they’re serialized, like the old billboards from Burmashave. But this one particular series — on one of the longest staircases on campus — seems worth sharing.

I’m honestly not sure how effective a ministry chalking actually is. But it’s certainly worth a try. And we had fun in the process.