Clean method for declaring models

I have a node project that uses express, orm and sqlite3.

I have multiple models. Currently each model is declared similar to this:

var orm = require('orm');
var db = orm.connect({database: ':memory:', protocol: 'sqlite'});
var schema = db.define('service', {
    uptime: Number,
    // ...
});
db.sync(function (err) {
    !err && console.log("db synced!");
});
module.exports = schema;

No particularly pleasant across a dozen models to repeatedly require and connect.

I would like to tidy it up so I can connect in the app.js and then load in the models and use them as I normally would in the routes. However I can't get it working. This is what I am doing:

First I define the connect and define the models in app.js:

var service;
orm.connect(app.get('db-opt'), function(err,db){
    !err && console.log("db connected!");
    if (err){
        throw err;
    }
    db.load('./models', function(err){
        app.service = service = db.models.service;
        !err && console.log("models loaded!");
    });
    db.sync(function(err){
        !err && console.log("db synced!");
    });
});

The models/index.js file looks like:

module.exports = function(db,fn){
    db.define('service', {
        uptime: Number,
        // ...
    });
    return fn();
};

And the routes/services.js looks like:

var services = [];

exports.list = function(service){
    return function(req, res){
        service.find({}, function(err, services){
            if (err){
                return next(err);
            }
            res.render('services', {
                title: 'Services',
                services: services
            });
        });
    };
};

And finally I connect the route like this in app.js:

app.get('/services', services.list(service));

I get the expected console messages but soon as I try to visit I get the following error: TypeError: Cannot call method 'find' of undefined.

I have tried passing app.service and models.service to service.list but neither works giving the same error.

How can I cleanly load the models and have them accessible to the routes that require them?

Update: I can prove that the db.load call is working with the following code:

db.load('./models', function(err){
    var services = [];
    service = db.models.service;
    service.find({}, function(err, services) {
        if (err){
            throw err;
        }
    });
    !err && console.log("models loaded!");
});

As this gives a Error: SQLITE_ERROR: no such table: service