Very Special Talk at the Museum, on a Memorable Date—December 7

Things are not static at the Creation Museum.  Even our lecturers are constantly developing new talks for our museum attendees. Popular AiG speaker Mike Riddle is a former Marine (although he is quick to remind me that there really is no such thing as a “former” Marine!), and with this military background, Mike has come up with a special patriotic talk that also incorporates our biblical authority message.

Why is the special talk being given on December 7?  History buffs will recognize that date: the entrance of the U.S. into World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Here is how Mike summarizes the talk that he will give at noon on December 7 (a Monday) inside the museum (free for museum ticket holders):

America: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

This talk presents the history of America and her battles for freedom, including the War for Independence, Civil War, WW I and II, Korea, Vietnam, as well as the Cold War—and now the war on terror. The talk then focuses on another and greater battle that will affect America’s future: the importance of biblical foundations. The gospel message will also be presented. The talk is accompanied with memorable graphics and music that reflect this country’s heritage.

Bring a friend to the museum on Monday, December 7—someone who needs to hear the gospel message and appreciates learning about America’s heritage. Again, the talk by Mike is free with museum admission.

As a relatively new citizen of America, this kind of presentation is of personal interest to me.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken

With Charlie, he usually has his tail in the shape of a question mark! Kids will have fun as Charlie and Trike lead them through the Grand Canyon (and many other adventures to come in other books in the series).

Special Early-Bird Discount for Our National Conference—Ends This Month

Our national family apologetics conference “Defending the Faith” may be in July, but it’s not too soon to start planning for this family vacation. In fact, we are offering a “Super Early Bird Discount” if you sign up this month—more on that later.

Why not make a summer vacation that counts? Make special memories with your family while equipping them to defend a biblical worldview at this conference!

I will be joining many Bible teachers (e.g., Dr. Voddie Baucham—a wonderful Bible instructor—plus great talks by Dr. Herb Samforth, Bill Jack, Henry Smith, et al.) near the beautiful Smoky Mountains on July 19 – 22. This conference will offer something for everyone—new this year will be sessions especially for women and a track geared toward teens. And we’ll have worship music led by pianist and singer John Elliott, and down-home music by our own Buddy Davis.

We have also worked with some of the finest hotels in the area to provide a variety of lodging options at special discounted rates.

While in the area, you can also take advantage of some of the finest family fun the region has to offer. When you book through us, you can save $20 off each adult ticket to Dollywood (a Smoky Mountain theme park for the whole family). You can also attend the excellent musical drama The Miracle—on the life of our Savior. Tickets for The Miracle can also be purchased when you register with us and save 20%!

As we approach the colder weather, make plans now for your summer getaway. Register before November 30 and save 30% off registration.

Visit www.defendingthefaith2010.com for complete details and to register.

Answers for Darwin Conference in Tennessee

Today and Monday I will be speaking in Tennessee at Faith Baptist Church, Bartlett (near Memphis).  You can find out the details from the calendar on AiG’s website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken

Make sure you visit the Creation Museum in December to see these lights, and also check out the dates for the Live Nativity program from the Creation Museum website—this will be spectacular.

Trophy Shown to AiG Staff

I wrote a few days ago that the Creation Museum won some special awards last week for its advertising. At our staff meeting on Tuesday morning, Jason Goff from our marketing department showed the staff the trophy the museum had won for Best of Show—out of over 200 entries—for our museum’s billboard campaign. This was awarded at the Kentucky Tourism Council’s dinner last week in Louisville.

The photo shows Jason in front of our staff, with a sampling of the striking dinosaur-themed billboards on the screen behind him.

Also, the museum won some other awards that evening: our TV ads featuring both our planetarium and the Noah’s Ark exhibits (which were awarded first place) and our Souvenir Guide received first place in the Visitor’s Guide category. Each entry is judged on creativity and how well it relates to its audience.

Congratulations are due our marketing consultants, Joseph David Advertising, for their promotional campaign to draw even more visitors to the museum. By the way, we are close to 900,000 total museum visitors—in less than two years.

Bible Bee in D.C.

Roger Patterson of our staff and his family are attending (and participating) at the National Bible Bee in Washington, D.C., this week. In September, over 17,000 contestants all over the country participated in local qualifying contests—the top 100 contestants in each of three age categories were invited to participate in the national contest.

Situated only a block and a half from the White House, the competition—held at a hotel—is seeing God’s Word elevated as the contestants recite passages and answer questions about six books of the Bible. After two oral rounds and a written test, the top 20 in each age group will continue to the semifinals this morning and then the top seven will advance to the final round this afternoon. That event will be webcast live.

You can find out more about this God-honoring event at www.biblebee.org. (Roger tells me that the Bible Bee is held in memory of Shelby Kennedy and in honor of her passion for God’s Word.) In the photos, you can see some of the sponsor booths and other shots taken by Roger, including a photo of the White House at night.

Devotion

Much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers

(Rev 8:3–4) And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

We focus not on the feebleness of our prayers, but on what the Lord Jesus Christ does with our prayers to make them effective.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

Why did Barack Obama win the US election and did the fact he is over six feet tall influence the voters? The authors of a paper published in Current Biology this month argue that due to ‘a hangover from our evolutionary past’ factors like age, sex, height and weight play a major part in the determining our choice of leaders.

You can read the entire report at: http://www.physorg.com/news175360092.html

However, the Bible makes it clear that God raises up kings and destroys kingdoms—God is sovereignly in control of everything—even the election of President Obama.  And the Scripture also commands us to pray for our leaders (I Timothy 2:1-2)—and we certainly need to do that.

Creation Museum Ahead of Last Year

Attendance at our Creation Museum is ahead of the previous year!  I still remember secular scoffers claiming no one would come, and also even Christian scoffers claiming it would be a white elephant!  On Friday, a local television news crew interviewed me concerning the Creation Museum attendance.  They were amazed at how many people have visited (almost 900,000 in 2 ½ years) and the fact that attendance is even up compared to  last year.  I have included  a photograph taken Friday of some of the buses that brought various groups (a total of 1300 people were here that day, and 1700 yesterday—and we’re no longer in the summer tourist season):

Mississippi Ministry

Pray for the conference at Morrison Heights Baptist Church where I will be speaking today and tomorrow.  You can obtain details from the AiG website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken

Displaying dinosaurs and humans living together, the  Creation Museum is dedicated to refuting what scientific theory?

• Evolution
• Thermodynamics
• Gravity
• Electromagnetism

It is interesting to see the Creation Museum name popping up in all sorts of places—it is certainly making an impact!

A Vegetarian Spider?

I thought you might be interested in this news item I came across on Fox News regarding a “vegetarian spider.”  The report claims:  ‘”This is really the first spider known to specifically ‘hunt’ plants; it is also the first known to go after plants as a primary food source,” ‘

You can read the entire article at:  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,564541,00.html

Also, read our “News to Note” item about this unique spider.

From Seattle and Back

My friends Bruce and Nancy Lindquist visited our Creation Museum last week. They flew all the way from Seattle just to tour the museum—and then flew back home the next day! We often hear of such visits—where people fly all the way here just to tour the museum.

When the Lindquists  came out many years ago, there was only dirt on the property, yet they still decided to become museum members (more than two years before the museum opened)! They were thrilled with what they saw here: they said that the museum was wonderful and much bigger than expected. I remember travelling with them to my native Australia back in the ’90s for a tour by several Americans. Here is a photograph taken of Bruce and Nancy with myself when they visited last week:

Bruce and Nancy did a report on their visit and wrote:

On Monday 10/5 we flew from Seattle to Cincinnati.  On Tuesday we spent all day at the museum. On Wednesday we flew back home.

We had attended a creation confrence near the museum site a number of years ago.  At that time there were a few bull dozers pushing dirt around. What a change to now see a beautiful building and wonderful landscaping. The first thing we did was go on the Seven C’s walk through tour.  We were impressed with the animation of the biblical characters and creatures.  The Garden of Eden and Noah’s ark were very well done.  We were also impressed with the special effects theaters.  We were disturbed to find out that less than 10% of today’s teenagers believe in absolutes and can see how that is destroying our society.

At dinner that evening we told our waitress about our museum experience.  She said she knew about the museum but hadn’t gone to it yet.  She said now she will. On the way home our plane stopped in Chicago.  There was a Field Museum shop at the airport.  It contained books for adults and children on the T-Rex “Sue” that was dug up in Montana [and is now on display at the Field Museum].  The books say dinosaurs disappeared millions of years ago but say nothing about soft tissue or blood found in the bones of a T rex.

We were glad to have started investing in the building of the museum a number of years ago and that nearly one million people have toured the museum and the many lives are being changed through AIG.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken

As part of the exhibit, Creation Museum sculptors—under the direction of Dr. David Menton of our staff (PhD in biology, and an award-winning professor of anatomy)—have produced the head of what we believe Lucy really looked like. Evolutionist models of Lucy have her looking partly human. The sculpture is not finished—but here is a preliminary look at how AiG’s Lucy is “evolving.”

Special Guest

This week, special guest Pastor Wilbert Ellis (husband of AiG’s VP of Administration, Kathy Ellis) gave a devotion to the AiG staff. We often invite a pastor from the local area to speak to our staff. Here is a photograph of Pastor Ellis as he spoke this past week:

His devotional was on Christians being holy; interestingly, the author of the popular book The Pursuit of Holiness had just toured the museum the day before.

Meet the CEO

When I am back in the office, the museum staff often organizes a “meet the CEO” time at the Creation Museum. It is a thrill and privilege for me to meet museum guests and find out more about those people–coming far and wide—who are visiting. Here are two photographs from the meet and greet time this past week:

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

The first salvo was actually a hit piece against us by an editor for the Mansfield News Journal (July 26) who was particularly nasty in his column.  (This anti-museum commentary was, when last we checked, no longer on the paper’s website—we have a photocopy of the piece back in the office, but our administrative offices are closed for two days, for Sunday and Labor Day, and so we don’t have access to scan the editorial and post it here.)

Here is the first letter to the editor, which contains some inaccuracies (e.g., our museum is not in Cincinnati, Ohio, but northern Kentucky; we do not ignore Thomas Chalmers).

[Headline] Modern-day Christians too willing to embrace false and ignorant notions

August 13, 2009

I am writing in response to Mr. Goble’s piece profiling the Cincinnati Creation Museum

While I agree with you regarding the absolute absurd notion of a young earth (specifically 6,000 years) when radiometric dating and other dating methods disprove such ideas, I don’t see why there are only two camps regarding this issue. To clarify, if Christians read the Bible without preconceived, dogmatic and fundamentalist glasses, they would choose to embrace the fact that the Earth is extremely old but also know that they can believe in the biblical account of the re-creation of the earth’s surface.
In fact, they can also assume a literal six-day creation story and dismiss the theory of (macro) evolution. One does not need to purport that the origins of life as we know it were basic building blocks (amino acids) on Earth combined with atmospheric energy.

Needless to say, I am a Christian who understands that math, geology and chemistry prove the old age of our planet. Also, I believe that young earth creationist “scientists” such as Ken Ham are simply feeding on rehashed and archaic doctrine developed during the Dark Ages; they fail to recognize that in the 19th century a preacher and theologian named Thomas Chalmers put forth the “gap theory” in the Bible that embraced an old Earth (another related subject). In fact, Chalmers preceded by several years Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. To be perfectly honest, people like Ken Ham are an embarrassment to critically thinking and scientific Christians, for they make our entire community appear as blinded fools.

It is sad how ignorant modern-day people of faith so willingly embrace false and ignorant notions that are based on fear and insecurity. In fact, if they had a firmly rooted understanding of the Bible, they would recognize the harmony between science and scripture.

Kathleen Bikadi, Mansfield

We could not let that kind of letter stand without some comment, so we submitted our own letter to this Mansfield newspaper.  It was printed August 23:

If you think Ken Ham’s ignorant, would you debate him?
AUGUST 23, 2009

Would the letter writer (Aug. 13) who stated so confidently that our Creation Museum president, Ken Ham, is “ignorant,” “an embarrassment to critically thinking and scientific Christians,” and someone who makes Christians “appear as blinded fools” be willing to engage Ken in a public debate on the book of Genesis? She writes as if her knowledge of the Book of Genesis and radiometric dating methods are such that she could ably defend her positions. An impartial moderator is what we would seek, plus a respectful attitude on her part. I hope she will accept the challenge.

By the way, the writer also falsely claims that we “fail to recognize” Thomas Chalmers and his views of Genesis. Actually, Ken has written much about Chalmers over the past 25 years, including an article for our Web site (www.answersingenesis.org ), so we have not ignored him.

In the end, we trust that the debate audience will come to believe that both a plain reading of Scripture and adding up the chronologies in the Old Testament are God’s testimony to the earth’s true age, and that attendees will reject the opinions of fallible people.

Mark Looy, Creation Museum, Petersburg, Ky

To my knowledge (or Mark’s), we have heard nothing back from the original letter-writer. However, someone else wrote to us in defense of that writer, which included a remarkable statement: “I would much rather be Charles Darwin on Judgment Day than Ken Ham.” Here is the letter (in its entirety):

In response to your letter, debates prove nothing. Debates can be, and usually are, won by the more powerful personality in the debate. Most people know Ham can win a debate with the sheer force of his personality, because the debate he is having about the Bible versus science or creation versus evolution or his truncated, myopic view of Genesis versus a careful, scholarly, and studied view of Genesis, cannot be won by his position with facts as there are absolutely none on his side. (I wish, knowing what I know, I could be as facile of tongue as he is—but read I Corinthians 13:1.)

The debate that will count is the one between him and God or between the Morrises [of the Institute for Creation Research] and God. They are sure to lose that one because all the facts are on the other side and all the effort and money he and they have foolishly and damnably siphoned away from the churches disabling the churches from doing their God-ordained, Scripturally-mandated task of spreading the gospel, will be a monument to his and their folly. I wonder how many churches run short of funds each year because mis-led people are giving some of their money to you and them instead of giving all their money to the church as Scripture teaches for the spread of the gospel. I know our church always falls short and cannot do some of the things we know we should be doing in terms of blanketing Mansfield with the gospel and I know you are getting some of the money that should be given to our church.

Then the thousands of poor souls who refused to see Jesus Christ as Saviour or who never heard the gospel because the churches were short on funds owing to the lunacy of Scientific Creationism and the Christians who were mis-led will rise up and demand of Ham and his minions why he misdirected them. And it remains to be seen what will then be his and your and their fate. I hope he is enjoying himself now because I’m sure on That Day, it will be none too pleasant for him. In my view, he falls under the condemnation of Romans 1:18: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” I would much rather be me on Judgment Day than Ken Ham; I would much rather be Charles Darwin on Judgment Day than Ken Ham—at least Charles Darwin didn’t fail to give his full tithe to his church til the day he died.

Genesis was not written to Ham or to the 21st century and it was not written in English. It was written in Hebrew by Moses to the people of Israel who were steeped in the culture of the Late Bronze Age and to their neighbors; it must be understood and parsed in terms of that Ancient Near Eastern Culture—and that doesn’t yield the message of Scientific Creationism. If Ham and his henchmen could expose their foolish understandings of Genesis and the rest of Scripture to Moses and Joshua, they would laugh in his face—right before they called down God’s judgment upon him and them for their willful and wanton and accursed misinterpretation of Scripture and their lavish misuse of godly resources.

God have mercy upon you. Please stay away from Mansfield. We have enough problems without you.

–T. , Vermillion, Ohio

Do we need to say anything above pointing out the lack of grace, the letter’s condemnatory messages, its compromise views on Genesis, etc? The first letter-writer was bad enough, but this one takes the proverbial cake. I will just add that I am concerned that this person doesn’t seem to understand the true gospel. God’s acceptance of us has nothing to do with money or the lack of it, but everything to do with our salvation in Christ—there is only one way to Heaven, and that is through the redeeming work of the Son of God. Whether it is Darwin or Ken Ham, if we are not clothed in the righteousness of our Savior, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 10:10).

We did see an AiG supporter—who grew up in Mansfield but now lives in northern Kentucky (and is a frequent museum visitor)—submit a letter to the paper in order to defend our museum against the editor’s rant. Here is her letter of August 9:

I find it curious that an editor at the News Journal can write so knowledgeably (July 26 editorial) about a Creation Museum that he hasn’t bothered to visit (it’s just south of Cincinnati) and at the same time mock what he hasn’t seen.

After reading his column that uses the initials “BS” to describe the beliefs of many Christians (how’s that for professional journalism?), declares that the scientists at the Creation Museum aren’t really scientists (several of its staff members have doctorate degrees, including one with a Ph.D. in biology from an Ivy League school), and urges museum visitors to “heckle” its exhibits, I wonder what journalistic standards are in place at my hometown paper?

Furthermore, I wonder why the News Journal would tolerate the journalistic laziness of one of its editors who won’t make the three-hour drive to visit a museum that he is reviewing? By the way, credentialed media representatives are typically given the courtesy of touring virtually any museum in the country at no charge by calling ahead, and that is the case with the Creation Museum (as I have been told). What happened to writing commentaries based on primary source research? That’s Journalism 101.

As a former resident of Mansfield who has toured the Creation Museum several times now, I encourage readers of the News Journal to consider visiting this high-tech center and see for themselves what the museum is all about, and not rely on the opinions of a commentator who has never bothered to visit. See www.CreationMuseum.org for details.  Cindy Moran  Crittenden, Ky.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying.

Ken

While in Peru, Bodie was able to reconnect with our International Training Seminar (ITS) graduates, Creous and Elizabeth Ramdath of Peru. They had spent several days at the Creation Museum two years ago to get in-depth apologetics training during our intensive ITS program.

On the slide, you see the famous Indian ruins of Machu Picchu, one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” that Bodie was able to visit in Peru www.peru-machu-picchu.com/

Last Weekend in Alabama

Dr. Tommy Mitchell went south last weekend and explained to over a thousand folks in Prattville, Alabama: “Why Genesis Matters,” “Why Can’t a Day Mean a Day?” plus everything anyone could ever want to know about “Noah’s Ark and the Global Flood.”

I was told that one enthusiastic attendee remarked: “This is so good for us to hear! Most of us just take it by faith, but I see now we need to have answers to explain our faith to other people!”

A lady said, “I’ve been to a lot of Answers in Genesis seminars and they were great, but Dr. Tommy is just amazing. He’s one of us!!!” (Tommy is from the South—Tennessee.)

“Dr. Tommy” followed up with a talk on dinosaurs: “Jurassic Prank: A Dinosaur Tale” for hundreds of students of the East Memorial Christian Academy and local homeschoolers. There was also a session for the K–5th graders about space and the stars.

A home-school mother at Monday’s sessions was excited to share her delight at discovering that Answers in Genesis sells a lot of curriculum resources now. Her family is now using God’s Design for Science. Her husband read ahead through all the books and said, “This is really good stuff!” They are looking forward to also starting our new history curriculum. Another mom is getting all of the History Revealed CDs to supplement the materials she already has.

These parents are among the many who are glad to be able to show their children that real science is consistent with what we read in the Bible—and to help them learn that the history in the Bible is genuine history.

Tommy is an excellent speaker. You need to let your church leadership know about his great apologetics talks. Direct them to www.answersingenesis.org/events/bio.aspx?Speaker_ID=51

By the way, Tommy led an effort in the late ’90s to have me speak at the First Baptist Church of Hendersonville—near Nashville—and we have heard many great things about the lives that were touched as a result of that conference.  Now on board with us as a staff member, Tommy can bring life-changing talks to your church. He truly is a superb communicator—one of the finest on our science faculty.

Tommy will be speaking this Friday, September 11, at our Creation Museum—see: creationmuseum.org/whats-here/activities/. Come here and check him out this Friday—and also enjoy the museum.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying.

Ken

Japanese Tea Ceremony

We were able to observe a Japanese tea ceremony. We watched as first of all a couple of small sweet crackers were served to people—which they then ate. Then they were served a cup of green tea and told to drink it. Before this happened, we were told that the tea was offered to Buddha (but there was no Buddha in the room we were in). I couldn’t help but notice the similarities to a communion service. Later on Michiko told us that it is believed that Buddhists went to China at some stage (Buddhism came to Japan around the 7th century) and observed a Christian communion service. They then adapted this for Buddhism, becoming the Japanese tea ceremony. Apparently there are Christians who use the tea ceremony as a means of evangelizing by sharing with people the Christian roots of this and then using this to present the gospel. I have included some photographs of the tea ceremony:

Buddhist Temple

We were able to visit a Buddhist Temple.

I took photographs of a couple of their “gods”—I notice they were not very powerful, as they couldn’t even get out past the netting wire that “protected” them!

It was so sad to see people praying to the “god” behind the curtain—what a reminder they need the gospel to free them from the bondage of this false religion that gives them no hope for the future!

Koi Pond

As our Creation Museum landscaper is currently building a Japanese koi pond in our Creation Museum gardens, I thought I should take photographs of a real Japanese koi pond and gardens to show him what it is like in Japan:

Please pray for the people of Japan—less than 0.1 percent are Christians—a nation where our relatives (Acts 17:26) need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

TV People Here

A newsman with the CBN TV network out of Virginia was at the Creation Museum over the weekend and told us he had a great time with his wife and daughter. In addition, K.S., a TV news producer for a Lexington, Kentucky, station, visited the museum last week and told us in an email that “it was absolutely fantastic! We had such a great time and everyone was wonderful!”

Today we will probably hit the 850,000 mark for museum guests since we opened 27 months ago.

Devotion

“We are not able to try to predict response”

(Ecclesiastes 11:4–6) He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper.

We ignore probabilities of response and instead obey the Lord Jesus Christ who commanded us to simply preach the Gospel to everyone of His lost creatures.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

A few weeks ago Dr. Andrew Snelling and Dr. Terry Mortenson of our Answers in Genesis ministry helped to lead a 7-day, 185-mile raft trip down the Colorado River through Grand Canyon for 24 Christian leaders and scholars. The other men on the teaching team were Tom Vail, founder of Canyon Ministries who has led over 200 such Canyon raft trips over the last 30 years, and Dr. Bill Barrick, Old Testament professor and director of the PhD program at The Master’s Seminary.

This was the second year for this unique, by-invitation-only trip sponsored by Answers in Genesis, Canyon Ministries, and The Master’s Seminary. The Lord raised up some supporters to donate $75,000 to substantially underwrite the cost of the trip to make it financially feasible for these men. Many of the participants were seminary or Christian university professors of theology, Old Testament, apologetics, or philosophy. One was a seminary president and the rest were influential pastors or ministry leaders. One each came from England, the Netherlands, and Australia—the others were from the U.S.

Sixteen went into the Canyon as young-earth creationists with varying degrees of conviction and knowledge of the geological evidence that confirms the truth of Genesis chapters 1–11. They finished the trip greatly strengthened in their convictions. The rest of the men started the trip holding to an old-earth view or were unsure what to believe about the age of the earth. At least one of them was persuaded of the young-earth view as a result of what he saw and heard through the lectures. There was a lot of open and respectful discussion and “debate,” and every one of the men (even those who at the end of the journey were still not persuaded of the young-earth view) told the group that he found the trip to be a tremendous spiritual and intellectual experience. The comments of one of the men, who in the end was still unsure of his position, spoke of the impact of the trip in a way that many of the men echoed. He wrote in a thank-you note to those who prayed for and financially supported this trip:

My heart overflows with thanksgiving for the gift you have given me—both in financial and in prayer support. From the first time I dared to walk up to the edge of the South Rim many years ago and look over the edge and see the little ribbon of the Colorado River “meandering” through the canyon, I have longed to “go below the rim.” You gave me an opportunity of a lifetime to see God’s glory in nature in a way I have never seen it before. But it wasn’t primarily a vacation, it was an education! I have long been agnostic on the age of the earth and have for the most part avoided serious study of the subject. But this trip convinced me that there is much for me to study and think through.

Each of the men on the leadership team was an extraordinary model of humility with strong, thought through convictions and a radical dependence on the Scriptures. Their courage to stand up for their convictions amidst the ridicule of the guild was very inspiring to me. Their respect for God’s creation and God’s Word was very inspiring.

The effects of this trip will continue in my own mind and heart and will impact the people whom I am serving for years to come. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

While they were in the Canyon, we shipped them (free of charge) 7 books and 5 DVDs to help them consider further the biblical and scientific arguments for believing Genesis 1–11 as straightforward literal history (two resources I would particularly recommend to you are Coming to Grips with Genesis and Rock Strata, Fossils, and the Flood). So please lift up a prayer for these men as they study these materials—that they would come to a deep conviction about the truth of Genesis and then have a great impact on others through their extensive teaching ministries. And pray that, as the invitations go out to many other leaders and scholars for the July 2010 trip, God will lead the men He wants to come on that trip.

If you are interested in any of the three 2010 raft trips for the general public that we will be co-hosting with Tom Vail, visit Raft Grand Canyon!

Devotion

“Severed People”

(Leviticus 20:26) And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

The Lord Jesus Christ cut us right out of the mainstream of thought and lifestyle of a godless world so that our thoughts and lives are guided as His possession.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken