Hi from Laramie,

Yesterday we took a detour and went north to I80. If you have seen the news there was a heavy snow in Northern Colorado with about a foot in the Fort Collins area. We saw the news this morning and the roads are reported to be bad down there. So we came north and stayed here in Laramie.

This morning it was 3 below and the real feel temp was 14 below!

Here is a picture of the team at the museum before we left and another at the Ark Encounter offices.

Had a wonderful time in Branson and the meeting with the folks at New Leaf press was very exciting.

Hope to give some report and more pictures on Sunday.

We stayed with the Gilmore’s and the Unruh’s in Kansas two nights ago. It was 86 degrees in Missouri the day before we left with the leaves really changing. At Branson Amy and Caleb came to see us and we had a great time of fellowship with them. At the museum Caleb B. and Ethan joined us too!

Cort did a fine job playing the hammered dulcimer at the museum lobby and he also played before I spoke to the pastors and also at the JHBC booth. The young people did a fine job representing the college.

Thanks Kenton for the fine message last week. Looks like the small groups are ready to fly. This is very good.

Don

Hello,

Well the Pastors's Conference is history. We had a wonderful time. I spoke today twice, once for a devotional for about 20 min plus on the subject of forgiveness and a regular session this afternoon on the subject of God and the Spectacular.

Here is a picture of our crew. The booth for the college went very well and we had a lot of responses. Cort played at the booth today as well as in the lobby of the museum. The team represented the school very well and met a lot of interesting people.

It was Ken's birthday today and we had several presentations during the day.

The kids are tired and tomorrow we head over to the Ark Encounter offices so they can meet the team there and share some of the book.

They enjoyed hearing Mohler and the many of the other speakers as well.

It has been raining here for most of our stay.

I had the opportunity to present a gift to Ken and Mally on behalf of the board and include a picture also of that.

Don

Well today was the first day of the Pastor's Conference. Al Mohler spoke twice today and along with our speakers and Ken etc had lunch with him. He did a wonderful job and gave insight as to the state of affairs with Christian leaders who have tried to make peace with modern thinking on millions of years. Will try to share this with you all when we get home.

Beverly's birthday today and the daughters sent flowers!

Staff met later tonight to go over the day at the booth and the needs for tomorrow. They are doing a fine job and representing the college and church well. Met Lance and Karen and had a great time with them, also some others we met last time.

Appreciate your prayers for the two presentations on Thursday.

Don

Hi,

We had a neat experience yesterday. We traveled a part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and soon after getting on this route we came to a turnout that had a sign about the migration of the Monarch butterflies. I remember seeing the migration featured I think in a Moody Science film. At any rate while we were standing there the butterflies were flying overhead and sometimes pretty close to us. I have copied a couple of pictures. These amazing insects travel something like 4000 miles in their migration. A clear testimony to the design of the Creator.

Note the butterfly in the middle of the picture and another one against the sky.

Also here is a photo of the highest point on the Parkway, over 6000 feet.

Well tomorrow we head north to PA to get ready for the weekend retreat at the Loft Camp.

Here are a few photos of the past week. The board along with some Ark staff met to tour the site of the Ark Encounter. We took a very important moment to ask the Lord to bless this effort.

Then we have a photo of us waiting at the Hanson’s home ready to begin the ichat to CBC for the Sunday message.

The Hansen’s live in South Carolina near the boarder with NC. We had a wonderful time with them, very restful. Got to tour again a bit of Bob Jones U and also to see the sanctuary of the church they are attending. Got two ideas we may be able to use for future small groups or other program curriculum.

Then we headed north and stayed two nights in Pigeon Forge, TN. More pics later.

Don

Arrived at the Answers in Genesis Board Meeting

Hello everyone. We had a good trip here with great travel weather. It is about 80 here and warm and I was surprised to see the leaves were already changing.

We arrived at the AiG offices and museum on Tuesday evening. We joined the board at the home of Ken and Mally and had a wonderful dinner together. The board meeting started Wednesday morning and it has now been two days of full meetings. Very exciting. Tonight we ended the day with a viewing of the new HD Cosmos planetarium presentation and then viewed some heavenly objects from the newly built astronomical viewing building just completed. Dr. Lisle had an assistant and used three large telescopes to show us various stars along with some wonderful pictures of the moon.

Beverly started yesterday by handing out cookies to the staff that she brought from Jackson. I think she told me she had something like 120 dozen!

Today she made lots of bippies, 300 of them, and they are a big hit here! Everyone looks forward to them. Her brother Herbie arrived Wednesday morning and helped her with the baking and frosting.

We had about a 13 and a half hour day yesterday and were in board meetings and together for another 11 and a half hours day today.

Tomorrow morning we are scheduled to travel to the new Ark Encounter site.

This is a privilege to be involved with AiG. We thank you for all your support and prayers.

This time instead of staying at a motel we are staying at the apartment at the Deck Lane house, a home owned by AiG at the museum which is used by volunteers. It is a very nice apartment and it means we are right here and do no have to travel the interstate each day. Less stress and much more convenient for Beverly and me.

Pastor Don

A Fond Farewell

Dear Friends,

We were just home in Jackson for about a week when we received a call that Beverly’s mother was very ill. She had been in a care center for many years and had dementia and now was physically turning worse.

When the news arrived that she was not expected to live very much longer we decided to fly Beverly back east to be with her mom. As we were in the parking lot at Camp, ready to take her to the airport, the phone call came that Ann had gone home.

Beverly flew to Pa on Friday, and by the next morning seven of the family loaded into a rental suburban and headed back to Pennsylvania as well. The memorial service was held on Tuesday at Cedar Crest Bible Fellowship Church. I led the service and gave the message, Beverly and her sister Joyce also shared about Mom Geibel.

It was a good service and the family did very well. Mom Geibel was for many years trapped in her body in a sense and it was somewhat a release for the family, even though of course there is the grief of losing a loved one.

While here a couple of family members came down with the flu, one with h1n1 virus, and so we are a bit tentative as to our timing for the return home. We would appreciate your prayers on this matter.

Also while we were in Pennsylvania, news came that Jared’s uncle died after a battle with cancer. The funeral will be Wednesday morning, near Chambersburg, Pa. Since we are all traveling back to Wyoming together we will stay for that funeral service as well. Jared is a pall-bearer and he needs to be there to support his parents. This will delay our arrival time in Jackson. If we miss the service Sunday morning in person, I hope to be speaking to the congregation via iChat. Thanks to James Pratt for filling the pulpit for these two weeks.

A good number of our men are in California at the Shepherd’s Conference. I needed to miss that event this year but clearly desire to have you pray for all those attending, that God will bless their time and challenge them.

Today I had the opportunity to do two and a half hours of marriage counseling. Prayer is requested for a young couple in great need.

We want to express a very sincerely thank you to the church and all you dear folks for your prayer support and outpouring of love. We received flowers from several dear friends and I cant tell you enough about how that support was appreciated, especially of course by Beverly. We saw thoughtfulness in many different ways and we were touched.

Thanks for your love at this time.

Pastor Don

PS Since last night Beverly also has come under the weather and is not feeling well. The flu is going around back here.

Catching Up with Long Time Friends

Hello everyone,

An official welcome to all of you who might be following my personal blog. I hope you are enjoying the news updates and continue to have your interest piqued to follow up on the info we give and the sites we introduce you to.

We had a wonderful time Wednesday night with Ron and Karen Hutchcraft for almost four hours over dinner. Stopping in their home town of Harrison, AK, we caught up a bit on each other’s lives and ministries. Ron and I graduated from Moody and worked together on the staff of Youth For Christ in Chicago many years ago.

Ron heads up an evangelistic ministry called Ron Hutchcraft Ministries which also has a very effective work with native American youth. Ron Hutchcraft’s website is http://www.hutchcraft.com/ if you are interested in viewing his ministry.

Continuing our travels we had the opportunity to stop at the Natchez Trace trail headquarters outside Tupelo, Mississippi. The Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail is a National Park drive which is 444 miles long! In addition to our interest due to historical data, there are two mounds sites along the trail! Mounds are of interest to anyone interested in Ancient Man history and research! More on this subject to come.

We hope to be home in Jackson by Saturday.

Reflecting upon God's Sovereignty

Pastor Don and Beverly outside Boca Raton Bible Church

Boca Raton Bible Church

Geibel Family at the beach

During the latter half of this week, Beverly was able to get some time on the beach with her family It was overcast most of the week with rain one day and also lots of wind. Beverly enjoyed two days with sun at the beach but the second day had high wind so they did not stay long. Beverly’s best time however was with family; her sister and husband, Beverly’s niece and nephew with their families, and today her nephew’s wife’s family joined us as well!

Today we visited Boca Raton Bible Church for services. This church used to have the name, "Bibletown" many years ago. It was an emotional service for both Beverly and myself, because about 40 years ago we visited Bev’s parents and attended this church while on vacation. On a Monday morning, 40 years ago, Bev’s Dad and I attended a prayer breakfast where I told the men we were heading west to Jackson, Wyoming to start a camp for young people. They responded with such enthusiasm in contrast to the folks back home in Pennsylvania, that it shocked me. While riding a bike on the way back to the Geibel home it dawned on me that we could not do what I said because we did not have any money. I vividly remember stopping the bike by a bridge over a canal and having a time of prayer and telling the Lord we would go to start the camp if He provided, but if He did not we could not go.

The prayer meeting was on a Monday morning, then on Tuesday my dad called from Pennsylvania and told me to sit down, he had bad news. Our trailer home we were renting in Pennsylvania caught fire and burned us out! A propane heater, located in a very small room which was Holly’s bedroom caught fire (during her normal nap time). The Lord used that fire to supply fire insurance money, and after bills were paid, we had about $2300.00 to move to Jackson.

Within a few days of the prayer meeting, the men of the church we attended today in Boca Raton, gave us a check for 200.00! What a surprise and confirmation to us from the Lord.

While I listened to the pastor, a Moody grad, preaching a message on paying a tribute or a tithe, it dawned on me what a blessing this church had on our lives a long time ago. After the service we met with the pastor and gave him a short letter Beverly wrote with our story on it and I told him a little of our story as well! This church had given some seed money to us and along with the help of family and other friends we moved to Wyoming. God used all these folks in our lives to bless us and today share in bringing the Lord glory for what He has done.

Beverly was able to share with a Jewish woman at the motel we stayed at this morning. On Saturday we traveled to the Coral Castle to visit this very unusual museum which is about 20 miles south of Miami. Two of our Ancient Man researchers visited it after the cruise an spoke highly of it, so we took time to go to see it for ourselves. It was very unusual. You can google this site to read more about it. Photo/video

Saturday night we had a great time with the family showing them a presentation on the Ancient Man research project with a lot of interest shown. They seemed to enjoy it very much and we quit about 1:00 am!

We have heard that the marriage retreat was a big success. Thanks to the church leadership, Martin, and John, and Mike for their work on this on behalf of the whole church!!!

Thanks for your prayers,

With love, Don and Beverly

Congratulations from Ken Ham

This is an encouragement from Ken Ham while we were at the board meetings:

"Last week, the AiG board of directors met for three days at the AiG headquarters, as they do three times a year. During this time, the chairman of our board (Don Landis) and his wife (Bev) celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary. Congratulations to Don and Bev. Don is pastor of Community Bible Church in Jackson, Wyoming, and is also the president of Jackson Hole Bible College."

Travel Pictures

Beverly at the beach in Florida with her family, enjoying the warmth.

With Doug and Anna Maria Hanson at their home in South Carolina.

Beverly at the Florida border.

Hello from South Carolina!

Tonight we spent a delightful evening with the Hanson family here in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina. Doug and Anna Maria are neighbors in Jackson Hole yet live the majority of the year here at their home at Traveler’s Rest. These dear friends have been an encouragement to us and to our children for quite some time and it is wonderful to fellowship again with them.

Our board meeting ended after three days of deliberation on various matters important to the work at AiG. I am very excited about the Ark Encounter project and you can keep up with this missionary venture by going to www.answersingenesis.org.

I will be encouraging all our family and friends to get involved in some way by helping us build the Ark a second time! There are different levels of donations, there will be life memberships to purchase and some of you might consider investing in the LLC, which has already been formed.

It is predicted that from 1.6 to 2.2 million people will visit the Ark Encounter during the first year. Can you imagine what a wonderful platform the ark will be to get the message of the authority of Scripture and the Gospel message to that many people!

We leave tomorrow to spend time with Beverly’s family in Florida. While there I hope to spend time writing on the book and we will be visiting a site having to do with our Ancient Man research program.

Kenton, thanks for preaching last Sunday, I hear good reports.

My many thanks to the staff, Jennifer and Cally for the work they are doing along with the rest of the staff of JHBC on beginning the newsletter for the JHBC alumni. Just after we left Jackson on the 30th of January, over 20 alumni met to talk about the school in a session to help us make the school a better experience and to work on helping past students keep in contact with the school and continue to grow in their personal faith.

Till then,

Pastor Don

Ancient Man Presentation to AiG Ark Encounter Staff

Hi everyone, February 3

Thanks for your prayers.

We were able to drive on the second day of our trip from Sidney, NE all the way to Mt. Vernon, IL.

Jared, brother Dave and Nick, were helping us by watching the weather news and relaying to us. Jared counseled us to go as far as we could so we drove through the evening until 2:30am. It was good we did. The Lord led us right through the weather window. The next morning it was raining and continued to rain most of the way to KY. Within hours that day I-70 was completely closed across MO behind us! The St. Louis area had ¾” of ice which made a bad time for people there, basically shutting the city down. It would have been a long trip and we would have missed the opportunity to present the Ancient Man material to some of the AiG staff. The Lord timed it just right for us.

We arrived in Kentucky and we had dinner that night with Mike Zovath, head of the Ark design project from AiG and he told me they had set the entire day aside for us. The next morning at the offices of the design team for the Ark Encounter, (also our new leased shipping area), we met with about 15 men in a conference room. They had set it up with all we needed and had lunch and refreshments brought in for us as well. We started at 10:00 am and I went for about 1.5 hours and then Mike McCurdy called in from Florida and presented for an hour before lunch. After lunch we resumed with Mike who went about another hour or more.

We had plans for Brian Mariani and John Burnside to share as well, but with more presentation to go and questions from the staff our time ran out. We shared more details and some of our views and axioms from JHBC and closed the meeting at 5:00pm! I said we would videotape John and Brian’s presentations and they were interested in viewing those presentations.

I think the AiG staff was very pleased with the info and were amazed at the work so far.

Wednesday night we had a dinner with some board members and today we began our first day of meetings. I spoke at the chapel for the AiG staff this morning for about 45 or 50 minutes on the stars. The information was new to many of them and they wanted to know more.

Tomorrow we work on the Ark Encounter project and end the board meeting on Saturday afternoon. One board member did not make it and another might get in yet tonight. The ice is really bad in Arkansas. One of our consultants got in late today. The weather in the Midwest is bad in large areas and it is also cold here in Kentucky.

Dinner tonight was with the board and some of our key leaders and their wives.

Cary Summers the head of the project for the LLC and the architect Leroy Troyer were at the dinner tonight. They will be at the board meeting tomorrow.

There is another important issue coming back tomorrow after discussion today.

Thanks again, I sent two pictures of the presentation to the 15 or so folks on the AM project.

Today, Beverly made about 320 bippies for the AiG staff. They all loved them and they love her and appreciate her ministry. Tonight she is tired and hopes to make bippies again tomorrow along with handing out lots of cookies we brought with us from the Manna Ministry. Thanks to all who are helping out while she is gone, it means a lot to both of us.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. It meant so much to us both.

Pray also for Kenton as he prepares for the upcoming messages at CBC.

Take care,

Pastor Don