Don Mathis

January 15, 1927 - February 22, 2022

Funeral services for PASTOR DON MATHIS, 95, will be held at 10am Monday, February 28, 2022 at the Rendevous Center at the Goshen County Fairgrounds. Burial will follow in the LaGrange Cemetery in LaGrange, Wyoming. Don became absent from the body, present with the Lord, February 22, 2022 at Goshen Healthcare Community in Torrington, Wyoming. Memorials may be given to Eastgate Baptist Church or Goshen Healthcare Community Activities Department both in Torrington. Visitation will be Sunday from 3pm to 5pm and the casket will be closed at the service. Arrangements are by the Colyer Funeral Home and condolences may be sent to www.colyerfuneralhome.com. Don was born January 15, 1927 in Detroit, Michigan to Ken and Faye Mathis. Upon growing up in Detroit he left home at sixteen desiring to work on a farm with animals. He met Betty Jo Hice in high school, and they were married February 15, 1946, a week following her eighteenth birthday. Don and Betty Jo became Christians in 1950. Their first baby, Mary Ellen, born in 1947 died when she was only twelve days old. That sorrow, along with the unexplainable change in Don’s brother, Ken–who had recently been born again, were used by God to bring them to believe upon Christ. This changed their lives and their priorities completely. The goal of owning a farm with prize winning dairy cows was gone. Instead, a hunger to understand the Bible for what it really is – the Word of God became their utmost goal. They sold their beloved Jersey dairy herd, abandoning the temporal goal for an eternal one. With their two young children, they left the farm and Don enrolled in a Bible institute. It was there they became lifelong students of the Word of God. Don would become a pastor, serving in churches in Michigan, Wyoming and Nebraska. With wife Betty Jo at his side, they worked as a team to preach Christ crucified. Loving people by telling them of Christ who alone could change their lives. For the past several years his flock has been the residents of Goshen Healthcare Community nursing home in Torrington. Don loved his Savior, God’s Word, his wife, and other people, in that order. He was no respecter of persons: “There are two kinds of people in this world–saved or lost. “ Don was preceded in death by his wife Betty Jo. He is survived by his beloved brother Ken (Carole) Mathis; seven children Bill Mathis, Linda (Mike) Ronk, Loretta (Rick) Roberts, Gayle (David) Johnson, Jim (Mary) Mathis, Tedd (Dawn) Mathis and Scott (Diane) Mathis; twenty-two grandchildren; and a plethora of great and great-great-grandchildren.