Despite President Jon Wallace’s absence from campus for the first time in 15 years, this season of hardships has proven to be one of great significance for both him and the APU community.

“My faith has allowed me to hold tightly to those things that God has promised, that He will never leave me or forsake me,” Wallace said.

This fall, Wallace took a medical leave of absence after undergoing surgery at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Southern California (USC) to remove a malignant tumor, a reoccurrence of a cancer that first surfaced nearly eight years ago.

Following six weeks of recovery, Wallace then underwent four chemotherapy sessions, which he described as an “aggressive approach.” Each session required a three-day hospitalization to administer the chemo—or, as Wallace calls it, “the poison.” His recent scans show no evidence of the tumor or cancerous growth.

This year marks 40 years at APU for Wallace.Throughout those years and the various positions that he has held, he has taken a leave of absence only twice.

The first was a two-year sabbatical in Chicago, where he was reminded of the importance of “the Church—the bride of Christ—the primary means that God is using to redeem this world.”

During his most recent stint away, Wallace learned to remember his identity is in Christ. He reflects on how becoming short of breath when walking across a room or looking physically different in the mirror has been a challenge.

“It is a great reminder that my identity is not the things I do or even the way I look; my identity is in Christ,” Wallace said. “This idea presented in Scripture—walking by faith and not by sight—has been a great reminder for me. So, that is the first thing I have learned: to be comfortable, to be aware that losing those things, even temporarily, is a reminder of what you can’t lose.”

As Wallace has been able to better define his identity through his diagnosis, members of the APU community have also seen this five-month period as both meaningful and challenging.

“I find it intriguing that the Lord ordained that this would be the moment for him to be out, and thus, perhaps even a more significant learning,” said Board of Trustees Chair Peggy Campbell, whose husband—also named Jon—suffered from cancer.

“A lot of the language of the last five months has been the language that I was living 10 years ago when my husband was diagnosed and passed away,” Campbell said. “We don’t understand [God’s] timing, but we believe in [God’s] timing.”

Campbell does, however, understand that God worked in and through the people in leadership during this time, and expects that when Wallace fully returns to his responsibilities as president, he will come back to a newly revitalized board and maybe even a different campus.

“If we [have] allowed the Lord to do the work that He intended, [President Wallace] will find us more mature, more committed [and] more spiritually attuned to hurts within our community,” Campbell said.

 

As Wallace continues to recover, those to whom he entrusted the care of the university seek to honor his legacy and his vision.

“Every year, Dr. Wallace gives something, something symbolic of the year to the APU community,” Acting President David Bixby said. “It’s not necessarily something of high monetary value, but it is symbolic of the year ahead.”

In keeping with that tradition, the APU community wanted to honor Wallace by giving him something meaningful to him—a Chevrolet tailgate bench.

The bench was built out of an Old Chevy tailgate, symbolic of his childhood and memories he’d made with his family.

Throughout Wallace’s life, he has owned various Chevrolet cars. Years ago, Wallace bought a 1953 Chevy truck that became each of his three children’s first vehicle. He still loves these old trucks, and lives vicariously through his son Matt, who currently owns and works on two Chevys.

The idea to turn a Chevy tailgate into a bench came from Vice President of University Relations David Peck, and was funded by members of the President’s Council and other contributors. The university presented the bench to Wallace at the Faculty-Staff Kickoff earlier this year.

“The whole idea was [to give] him a gift to show him that we love him and that we are thinking of him,” Bixby said. “We wanted to be encouraging to him.”

 

“The bench is just one small part of the last five months,” Wallace said. “This journey of faith that God has me on, [the one] that I am learning about—the bench is one part of that expression that overwhelms me.”

Along with the bench, Wallace received over 1,000 notes of encouragement from faculty, staff, students and members of the Azusa community

“I think the real gift is from the APU community, [who demonstrated] their willingness to pray, think of me and write that down,” Wallace said.

 

The first conversation that took place on the bench was between Wallace and his wife, Gail. The pair decided the bench would be placed in the entryway of their university home.

“We will have to see over the next few months what kind of conversations will happen on that bench, but now, it’s a family heirloom,” said Wallace, who celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary with Gail in August.

“[During] the last five months, Gail and I have been together 24/7,” Wallace said. “One of the true blessings has been a renewal of my covenant relationship to Gail, and a daily reminder of how fortunate I am to be in a covenant relationship with such a remarkable and gifted person.”

During this time of recuperation and newly discovered blessings for Wallace, APU leadership has handled the transition well.

Campbell particularly noted that Bixby leaned in admirably with enthusiasm, confidence, humility and grace.

Bixby credited the smooth transition to Wallace’s ability to trust his staff and others to stand up and lead.

Though the shared leadership has served the university well, some sacrifices were inevitable.

One such instance was when both Wallace and Bixby missed this year’s Walkabout retreat. However, after Wallace’s recovery, Bixby fully expects them both to “be where we belong, and that’s Walkabout for 10 days.”

 

 

Wallace has participated in Walkabout for 38 years, run marathons of 100+ miles and has hiked around the world with his daughter Kate. The past five months have restricted Wallace from being able to experience the outdoors, one of his greatest passions.

To account for this setback, the Wallaces have instead opened all the doors and windows of their home so that the “outdoors gets to come indoors,” he said.

Kate Wallace, who also shares his passion, added that it’s “how we make the mundane sacred.”

 

Wallace is eager to reconnect with APU and its students by returning to South Africa on Nov. 11, which will be his first adventure since the diagnosis. He plans to speak in chapels for both Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg cohorts during his trip, and expects to come back with a full heart, ready to hit the ground running, come spring semester.

 

“Being a president is more than a full-time job; there will be lots of things to reengage with,” Wallace said. “I am really looking forward to that. I am looking forward to getting back to something that looks more normal than the last five months.”