With the year at an end, I thought I'd review the year we've had in our house and church.
January: The year started off terribly, with the passing of Kristin's dad. He had fought his cancer bravely and won, but the cost of the battle was too much for his body to handle. This loss was tempered with our faith in Wayne's destination and the life he had lived.
February: Kristin had a lump in her leg that was causing all sorts of problems, including making it hard to walk. The family doctor found it too difficult to remove, so we got passed to a genreal surgeon, still not knowing what it was, even after a CT scan. Which, by the way, is waaay expensive. After the surgery, we found out it was Cat Scratch Fever (seriously, it IS a real disease). I laughed, Kristin was not humored.
March: We caught enough of a breather to start launching the Gate, and had some students over for hamburgers.
April: The Gate begins meeting on Mondays for conversations, a small group. We start with 5, plus our two girls. It goes well.
May: Kristin begins to experience flare ups of her recurring stomach issues, the Gate presses on and we prepare for...
June: ...when Wally and Crissy Wellborn, our fellow church planters get moved to BCS. We eat out way too much. Kristin is not feeling better.
July: After having reached as many as 10 in Conversations, most of the students head home for the summer, and the numbers drop to 5, we begin to start looking to what we need to be in the fall. Kristin stomach illness is really bad, and we don't like doctors that can't see sick people.
August: We finally get fed up with the family doctor and get started with a gastro specialist. We make the bold decision with the Gate to have a public service, at a bar. We have about two weeks to find a bar, a worship leader, do publicity, and freak out.
September: Kristin has a colonoscopy/endoscopy and we discover she has a hiatal hernia in her esophagus and reflux as the issue. We become fans of Nexium. Kristin starts work at Mother's Day Out at Hillcrest Baptist Church, and the girls begin their first daycare type experience. They all love it. We get ready to launch the church ... and wait 3 weeks while Hurricanes Gustav and Ike take aim at us. Gustav missed, and Ike was an irritant, but its effects on the coast sent evacuees to BCS, and our plan for publicity was affected. Finally, after three postponements, we have a booth at Breakaway (college Bible Study on Campus) and get buzz as the 'Bar church.' The first service launches with 19 people, including kids and nursery workers. We did find a worship leader and we were meeting at Hurricane Harry's once a month. Despite a multitude of tech issues, the night went pretty well.
October: Second Harry's service and we join up with the Aggie Baptist Student Ministry for their midnight pancake feed on Northgate (bar central here) on Halloween. Drunk people are funny. Costumed drunk people are hi-larious.
November: Final Harry's service of the semester, and we decide right before Thanksgiving to bake and give out 1000 Christmas cookies before finals, which was in a week. Our oven almost died of exhaustion. We had to put the family cat, Lucky, down. It was tough.
December: We got snow in College Station, and the girls got to play in it. It was about 2-3 inches, and it was amazing. Then, a week or so before Christmas everyone got sick. Twice. Except me. I just got sick on Christmas Eve. Not cool.
So that is the Lehrmann year in review. I'll post back soon with our hopes and pursuits for 2009.
