Board Meetings and Family Updates

Hello from Arizona.

Beverly and I traveled to Arizona to spend more time with Mother and Dad Landis.  As you know Mom was diagnosed with bone cancer, and we see value in making effort to spend more time with her.  She is 89 years old and is doing well. In fact, she looks much better here in the warm weather and lower elevation than when she left Wyoming.

Earlier in the year, after the AiG board retreat on Branson in January, we added a week to our trip and swung by Arizona before going home.  Then just last week, when we were informed that the AiG March board meeting was changed to a conference call meeting, we decided to come to Arizona and miss another Sunday at CBC.

Ken Ham, just last week, gave a presentation about the Ark Project along with a strong message about the condition of the country today. The presentation was a recorded webcast that was shown at CBC, along with a 13 minute video preface I taped down here, during Sunday morning’s service last week.

Well we were having a good time here with family—a big encouragement to Mom.  Four of my five brothers were able to be together for a short time with my brother Dean and his family coming down from Montana.  

After church on Sunday we all had lunch (picture below).

But on Saturday night of last week, Beverly alerted us to her concern. She noticed Dad’s breathing was labored, and while holding his hands she slyly took his pulse and was alarmed.  His heart rate was erratic and elevated, and she also noted he looked like he was in congestive heart failure.  Other family members had noticed he did not seem well this past month and had regularly asked him if he was feeling well.  Beverly was pretty sure his heart was beating with an irregular rhythm and she named it (it was medical terminology to me). The very next day, after attending church in Phoenix, we all had lunch together as a family. At the end of the meal I said to Dad: “How about we all drive back to the house where mother can take a nap, and we will go with you to the local emergi-care office”.  We did and the sequence of events unfolded: we went from the office to an ambulance and a local hospital ER and then to more tests.  

Beverly spent the night with him at Mountain Vista Hospital here in East Mesa. He lost 10 lbs of fluid overnight. He was looking pretty good but tired the following morning. His heart rhythm still was not right, but there were no blood clots in the lungs. He had to stay for another night due to pauses—when the heart stops for a short time and then starts again!

My brothers Dave and Doug were at the hospital Monday morning, and mother, Ellen, and Sue came in later, while Dean left for Texas the same morning.

I am very thankful the Lord had us here and that Beverly pressured us to follow through—she has a gift for noticing medical issues.

So last week we focused on visiting “Dad” instead of “Mom”!

My plans are still to leave here Friday to be back to preach on Sunday in Jackson.

Thanks for your prayers for both of my parents.

P.S.  I also met with my oncologist and received a good report from him.

Don

Back home in Jackson Hole.

A traditional "camp send off" by staff and students

We left Jackson Friday after teaching a two-week class on Church History at Jackson Hole Bible College.  There remains one week left of that course which will focus on the history of the church in America.

 Beverly and I made it to Branson, MO by Saturday night and attended services at First Baptist Church of Branson on Sunday morning.  Checking in at the beautiful Big Cedar Lodge that afternoon gave us a time to rest a bit before meeting with most of the board members and their wives for dinner.

We met Monday and Tuesday for a very special time of retreat to think about the ministry of AiG.  It was a very interesting time to pool our understanding to make some predictions on what the church, the country and the world will look like in 20 years.

We prioritized what we believe are our main goals and objectives for the next years and spent time on the Ark Encounter project. 

It was the first time all the wives attended, except one dear gal whose brother suddenly died just days before, and so the evening dinners were very special.  The women had their own study time and toured the area.  Beverly lead one the devotionals.

New Leaf Publishing Group

The retreat was over by Wednesday, then Beverly and I traveled to the headquarters of New Leaf Publishing to meet with Laura our editor. We said hi to folks we know there and passed our thanks again to the team at New Leaf for the incredible job they did on publishing the Genius of Ancient Man.  We discussed some possible new projects and were very encouraged by the response to the book.

We left Branson on Friday and arrived in Arizona by Saturday night.  We were going to head right back to Jackson but new health issue facing my mother, Gladys, moved us to take a bit of a detour to visit her and Dad (and two brothers and their wives, and a nephew and his new wife).  She seemed a bit better than when we left Jackson although it was a hard time for them as they have her on hospice now.

Break-in at the Oasis

The surprise came Saturday night as I opened the door to the Oasis in Arizona under a cold steady rain and was greeted by a dirty floor and an empty space where the washer and dryer should have been.  We were robbed!  Someone had broken into the home through the back porch patio doors and stolen a number of items including our mattress and box springs in the master bedroom as well as a lot of everyday items like vacuum, cooking utensils, decorations, etc.  So we were up till 1:30 am since the deputy from the Sheriffs office had to interview us and take fingerprints.

The last five days were a blur as we visited mom and dad three times, shopped for new items to replace some of what had been stolen, and spent time cleaning up.  It is no fun being the victims of a burglary.

We did have a couple of meetings with Ted and Norma Blaylock to discuss a possible new project with a focus on Legacy.  Also, plans were made for a meeting in Jackson over two weekends to do marriage counseling for Noah and Kaitlyn, who have wedding plans for April.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers these last two weeks!