Sunday, June 30, Lenexa United Methodist Church celebrated
their 150th Anniversary, being founded in 1869. This has been my church since 1983 and I have
been on staff as Business Administrator since 2004. As Business Administrator, I am the staff
liaison to the Records & History Team who was responsible for planning the
celebration weekend, giving me a major role in the planning and carrying out of
the celebration. Everything went really
well and everyone seemed to have a great time.
We had many former pastors, descendants of former pastors, former
members, and descendants of founding members come for the celebration.
In case the celebration wasn’t enough, I decided to write a
book. Actually, when I started, I didn’t
know I was writing book. I was just
trying to put together the previous histories that had been written (all of
which were just a few page handout), consolidate and expand them, and add
pictures. None of the previous histories
had included pictures. Next thing I
knew, I was writing a book. Methodism
in Old Town Lenexa: The History of Lenexa United Methodist Church 1869-2019 ended
up being a 200 page hardbound book with Table of Contents, Glossary, and Index
with almost 300 pictures, and included bios of all 70 former pastors. The previous histories had included very
little, if anything, about the former pastors, they had mainly been a list of
names and dates served. I made them come
to life.
 |
| Me presenting a copy of the book to the mayor. |
The planning of the celebration and the writing of the book
took over two years. The amazing thing
as I look back, and the reason I’m including it here, is that this whole thing
culminated just over two years after I had my total gastrectomy. My gastrectomy was on February 21, 2017. I returned to work part-time six weeks later
in early April. As I look back, I’m not
totally sure when I started compiling all the previous histories and
information we had into a consolidated history to create a starting point, but
I think it was either just before or just after surgery. I actually think I may have started at home
during recovery before returning to work part-time. You would think I would
remember, but I don’t. I didn’t return
to full days until September. Within a
couple of months of doing that, I started working on a first draft of what would
become the book, even though I didn’t know it was going to be a real published
book at the time.
In retrospect, I’m just amazed that I pulled off this major
event that took lots of time and effort on the heals of having major, major, surgery. Not only can you lead a normal life after total
gastrectomy, you can apparently go
beyond normal and commit crazy amounts of time to a project.
