U.K. Update

In a day or two, I will offer a report of our speaking tour of the United Kingdom. For the moment, let me report that Monday was a very busy day: I spoke three times at a public school with some interesting responses from students and teachers—a really fruitful time. On Monday I also spoke in Liverpool, where the auditorium was packed (around 450–500 people), and there was a great response. On Tuesday, I spoke at the missionary group called New Tribes Mission, and then we had an evening program in the city of Grimsby.

Everywhere people are HUNGRY for this message—what a need in this land of Darwin.

While on the tour, I received an update from Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on a couple projects he’s heavily involved in—I thought I should pass them on to you.

GRAND CANYON RAFT TRIPS

April 25 sees the launch of the first of three AiG Grand Canyon raft trips for 2008, assisted by Tom Vail of Canyon Ministries. On this first trip, Dr. Snelling and Carl Kerby will spend 8 days floating more than 180 miles down the Colorado River with teaching stops and hikes into picturesque side canyons. There’ll be excellent Flood-related teaching, challenging devotionals, fun, and some research on the side. Our June and July trips are already full, so start thinking about joining us in 2009!

RESEARCH

Research at AiG is gathering momentum. Dr. Snelling, our Director of Research and a geologist, is continuing his ground-breaking work on radiohalos (damage in crystals due to radioactivity) and on radiocarbon dating. Expect to see more technical papers reporting results in our on-line Answers Research Journal (ARJ), as well as his four papers in the Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Creationism (ICC).

Dr. Snelling is traveling to Redding, California, this week to publicly report to the church that paid for the radiocarbon dating of local ammonite and wood fossils. These are supposed to be 115–120 million years old (Cretaceous), but yield radiocarbon “ages” from 32,780 to 48,710 years. Biologist Dr. Georgia Purdom is researching bacteria and has written two ICC papers. Astrophysicist Dr. Jason Lisle continues with development of planetarium presentations in the Creation Museum, as well as writing projects.

CREATION ON-LINE

I wanted to give you an update on the on-line apologetic courses, as reported to me by Dr. Georgia Purdom of our staff.

Ken, they are still going (and growing!) strong since we started the classes in the Fall of 2006. To date, 330 students have completed the Foundations in Creation Apologetics course, and 266 students have taken one or more of the advanced courses (Bible, Biology, Geology, Astronomy)—not counting our current enrollment! Many homeschool parents are now making these courses requirements for their children/students. We have also seen an increase in the number of pastors taking the courses and an increased number of international students.

In the current and previous classes, we have/had students from Portugal, Singapore, Scotland, Hong Kong, Wales, England, Canada, Germany, and Australia. Roger Patterson and I (as well as our other instructors) continue to update and “fine tune” the classes to enrich the students’ learning experiences.

One interesting thing I have noticed is the increasing number of students taking the courses who are unfamiliar with Answers in Genesis. Initially the classes were filled with students who were supporters of Answers in Genesis and knew the ministry well. Now, many of the students taking the classes have possibly heard an AiG speaker one time, were referred by a friend who had taken the course, or happened upon the AiG website and decided to take the classes to find out more. It is very encouraging to see the number of people who are being reached directly through the courses and even more so indirectly.

Many of the students who have taken the courses are teaching Sunday school classes or leading Bible studies on creation, talking to their pastors and church leaders about the importance of biblical authority, and giving their children a proper foundation in the Word of God. Considering the fact that I’ve had 2 hard drive crashes in the last month (!), it’s exciting to see God teaching and blessing people through the wonderful technology of computers!

Thanks for stopping by—and thank you for praying for AiG, including as we minister in the U.K. right now with another speaking tour.

Ken