Don Wildmon
AFA/AFR founder
April 2010 – Milestones mark our lives in various and unexpected ways. Last August, when my family finally convinced me to go to the doctor with a lingering illness, I expected to get some minor treatment, a prescription for antibiotics, orders to rest a few days, and then be back going full steam ahead the next week. I would have argued with anyone who suspected otherwise.
But it didn’t work that way. I was admitted to intensive care. It took the doctors several days to agree on the diagnosis of encephalitis. As it turned out, I was hospitalized for more than three months, and I recall very little about the first several weeks.
Even after I regained my mental capacity, I was still in an extremely weak state physically. Add to that the fact that every time I made a little progress in physical rehab, I’d get something else that required a surgery or treatment that set me back. You know the old saying, “One step forward, two steps back.” That’s what it felt like all winter long.
But God apparently isn’t through with me yet. I’m fully recovered from the encephalitis, some vision problems are responding to treatment and I can walk a little without my walker. Give me two months and I will be walking fine. Praise God!
And I’m able to be back at the office for a few hours at a time. I will be relinquishing the responsibility of chairman of the AFA board of directors effective the end of February. (I never liked meetings anyway.) But I fully intend to keep stirring the pot and having input in AFA’s issues and special projects.
As I recover from this months-long battle for health, I’ve had a lot of time to think about you and what you mean to me. There’s no better way to say it than to quote Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men” (Matthew 5:13).
You are, indeed, the salt of the earth. Thanks for standing with me these 33 years as we defend faith and freedom in our land. Thanks for praying. Thanks for loving the AFA family. My life is enriched because of my association with you. Whatever success we have you are playing a major role in achieving it.
As we pass this milestone, please keep praying for me, for Tim and the AFA staff, and for the ministry God has called us to. 
