Year In Review : Blood, Sweat and Tears

July may seem like an odd time to do a review of the last year. It's actually going to be a little more than a year, as our 'adventure' started in June. For us, the last year has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, giving and receiving, highs and lows, openings and closings, laughter and tears, openness and withdrawl, joys and sorrows.

At church this weekend, during a sermon on loss, this verse reminded me of what I had already written in the paragraph above.
Ecclesiastes 3 A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.


June 2 - Stephen and I had been talking about opening up a church in Enid for quite some time. We had lots of great excuses like "Oh, we are expecting." or "We have a baby." or "Our van isn't reliable." and a host of others. We went to church to hear the last week of a series called Fearless. This particular sermon was on 'facing your Goliath." The gentleman that spoke talked about how is most recent Goliath was the sermon itself, as it was the first one he had ever given. During service Stephen leaned over to me and said "Enid is my Goliath." I acknowledged his statement and continued to listen to the sermon.

As we were getting up to leave, Stephen said "We are going to Enid next weekend." I replied with something really clever like "You mean, like the one seven days from now?" Uh, huh. I asked several questions on the way towards the exit, which takes quite a while when you sit in the front row. He didn't know the answer to most of them, but he knew we were going, and that's all he needed to know right then.

The following week we packed up our van, hauled our family and a bunch of stuff to Enid to set up church in the American Legion. Since we had zero advertising, we put on church for our mommies! We did a couple of weeks of 'dry runs' before we even made some fliers. One afternoon after packing things back up, we went to lunch at one of our local favorite restaurants. My husband had previously worked for the owner and I suggest that he ask if we could put out some fliers. He did, and we left a small stack of fliers there. Those were the only ones that we ever put out. From that small stack of fliers, an amazing transformation occurred!

A gentleman picked one up and excitedly called his coworker and friend and read it to him. The gentleman he called was Marshall Billingslea. Marshall made a bunch of phone calls, tracked us down at home and talked to Stephen about what we were doing in Enid. The Billingslea family came to our rented room at the American Legion the following week and instantly became an intricate part of Anew Church. A year and two moves later, the church has grown so much!

There is so much more to come in this 'Year In Review.' I hope you will visit again to read about everything from puppies and kittens to injuries and surgeries. We will also cover flood, fire, fungus, famine, foliage, flood (yes, twice) and funerals. We will cover the good, the bad and the ugly.

What is your favorite memory of your past year?