DAVIS—A lengthy chapter is coming to an end at Falls Creek Conference Center. For 41 years, Jan Glenn has been involved with providing medical care for campers, with the last 17 years serving as administrator of the First Aid Station.
“Nurse Jan” will be retiring after the encampment’s last two major events of the year—Indian Falls Creek (July 30-Aug. 3) and Collegiate Week (Aug. 6-10).
“The Lord told me it was time,” Glenn said. “This was always my way of serving Him.”
In 2016, Anthony Jordan, right, announced the First Aid Building at Falls Creek would be named after Jan Glenn, center. Andy Harrison, current Falls Creek director, left, joined in the announcement.
And serving the Lord she has. Hundreds of thousands of campers have been treated at the First Aid Station. Glenn’s experiences with campers have not always involved medical treatment, but she and others on the medical staff have been available to help with spiritual matters too.
“We know there is spiritual warfare,” she said. “We have seen patients who were under conviction, though they claimed to have physical pain, but we would ask them, ‘Have you asked Jesus in your heart?’ or ‘Can we pray with you?’ That was exactly the treatment they needed.”
The Jan Glenn First Aid Building is nearly three times the size of the previous clinic.
Glenn was recruited by Tom Cotton, former director of missions in Enon Association, in 1982 to work Associational Children’s Camp. From there her services at Falls Creek grew.
“We started out in a little medical clinic,” she said. “It was torn down in ’98. It was tiny with all of us in there, but we made it work. Now, our building is almost three times the size of that little clinic.”
The building she mentioned bears her name, the Jan Glenn First Aid Building. On July 22, 2016, at the final evening service of Week 7 of Falls Creek Youth Camp, Anthony Jordan, former executive director-treasurer of Oklahoma Baptists, announced the building’s new name and recognized Glenn, which was followed by loud cheers from the whole camp.
For 41 years, ‘Nurse Jan’ provided both medical and spiritual care for campers.
“When somebody has given 40-plus years to serve in this way, it’s just a small token of appreciation to put her name on the building,” said Andy Harrison, Oklahoma Baptists director of conference centers. “Her name is synonymous of the level of care we have provided for all our campers.”
Harrison is one of six directors who have served at Falls Creek during Glenn’s tenure. She made it a point to recognize all of them, which include Harry Dodd, Gary Fielding, Kevin Darland, James Swain, Jason Langley and Keith Burkhart.
“They’ve each impacted my life in their own way and have been very supportive of us here at the First Aid Station,” she said.
Glenn also appreciates everyone she has served with at the First Aid Station, including doctors Dan Horton, former medical director, and Rick Schmidt, current medical director. The list also includes nurses Oleta Chaffin, Joyce Fielding and Vickie Arocha.
“When anybody thinks of the Falls Creek First Aid, Jan Glenn is what everybody thinks of,” Arocha said. “She has touched so many lives.”
As a member of Ardmore, First, Glenn will continue serving in ministries of her church, including a clothes closet and in other community ministries. She said she will serve “wherever the Lord leads me.”
“Jan has led the First Aid Station with great integrity,” Harrison said. “She has served on the front line on all the medical care, and yet at the same time, she’s organized all of it. Everybody loves Nurse Jan, and we are going to miss her. But what a fantastic career.
