H2O is a Christian Club at Niles North High School. Made up mainly of freshmen and sophomores, they meet in room 2360, every Thursday after school. Although sponsor Tom Chung, of Niles North’s Science Department, supervises the club, H2O is not officially affiliated with Niles North High School; its members, under the leadership of senior Matthew Chang, largely run the club’s regular operations themselves.

The club’s name is an acronym for “Humble to One,” a reference to their humility before a Supreme Being. “This club is important to me because I feel like this is really going to help me connect with people who have likewise beliefs to me, and I also feel like it’ll help me grow my personal convictions in Christianity,” says freshman Max Babakhani.

“Anyone who is religiously open, or if they want to learn more about Christianity or find other people who know about Christianity,” will be interested in joining H2O, he adds.

Members do not have to adhere to a particular interpretation of scripture–or even, necessarily, to Christianity at all.“This is a non-denominational club,” explains senior Matthew Chang, the club’s student leader. “‘Christian’ just means Christian, follower of Christ, so, that’s who it’s for. Non-Christians are welcome too, people who are just curious about the faith and just want to know more about it.”

Different weeks feature different kinds of meetings. “Normally, [there are] four weeks in a month, and two of those weeks are for Bible study,” says Seth Sanchez, a Freshman and H2O member. “So we open a passage of the Bible, and then we read it and we discuss its meaning, and we discuss its application….then one week, we have for prayer, and one week we have for just fellowship–fellowship means just hanging out, having fun together, and bonding.”

Many H2O members seem to struggle with the secular world’s misgivings about their faith. According to senior Elianah Pak, a club member, “A lot of people question us. A lot of non-Christians question us about, like, why Christians do certain things.” (In truth, even I went to interview the club members with the image of homophobic, proselytizing fundamentalists in my mind.)

Babakhani recalls questions he has been asked about his faith. “‘Why do you want to tell other people about your religion?’ Or, ‘Why would you believe in a God who lets harm come to people?’….[It’s] kind of accusatory.”

Sanchez agrees that “a lot of people approach Christianity combatitively”–which is to say, intending to argue with Christians without listening to or understanding them. According to Chang, this partly stems from unease over the life changes Christianity deems necessary to be closer to God.

Freshman Kaia Herning adds, “there’s [sic] also people who have called themselves Christians, who have done terrible things. They’ve done, just really bad things, like, they’ve hurt people, and scarred them for life, with things that they’ve said.” 

This, Herning says, not only damages the image of Christianity as a whole, but also creates a barrier between Christians and people with negative religious experiences. “We, as Christians, are called to love everyone, and love with God’s love to the fullest. And so, when people have had experiences with people who call themselves Christians, but act not out of love, but out of their selfish desires–it just becomes so much harder to show God’s love to them in normal ways, like, just being their friend, being there for them, helping them with their work, being kind to them when their day is rough. Because they’ll believe something different about us when we tell them that we’re Christian.”

Clearly, that is not the image H2O desires for itself. So, what do the club members want people to understand about them? “[That] there’s a space where Christians can come together to discuss faith, to discuss living [their religion] out in the school context,” answers Chang. “Just that we’re here, we will greet people with open arms.”

What does the future hold for H2O? “I think our hope is that the club itself would grow, since Matthew and I are both seniors and we will be leaving soon,” says Pak. “So I’m hoping that this club will have good leadership to bring other people to come to H2O.”

Chang sums it up: “I just want to let everyone know that if you’re curious about Christianity, if you’re curious about the word of God, the person of Jesus Christ, we’re available.…for anyone who’s curious, for Christians, there’s an opportunity to discuss their faith with someone else in the school context.”