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!