Creation Evangelism Tools

11.12.2008

Remarkable Answers to a Mother’s Prayers

Picture this:

A board meeting, October 2008.

At the head of the massive wooden table presides the 22-year-old dark mustached male director, with twinkling brown eyes, he welcomes input from the others present. At his right elbow – leaning forward with calm interest – sits his sage advisor, a generation advanced, whom the director closely resembles, except for the spectacles, graying hair and laugh lines.

On the other side of the leader towers a fair complicated 16-year-old youth, with hands suited for farming, and a ready smile. He is passionate that their meetings open and close with prayers of thanksgiving and petitions to the Creator of all things, asking wisdom, guidance, provision and blessings.

An 18-year-old ash blonde maiden is next. She is the assistant web content manager, bubbling over with ideas, speaking with animation. Nearby, taking notes on the newly-acquired laptop computer is a quiet, efficient dark-haired girl of thirteen, she’s a whiz with the newsletters and business cards.

Her sister, aged 10 ½, with pen and paper, tries desperately to keep up with her own note taking. She occasionally contributes a worthwhile comment. She’s a thinker. Her 6-year-old brother unobtrusively draws with markers on a stack of scrap paper. He’s welcome in the meeting as long as he doesn’t disrupt.

This gathering takes place around an heirloom table in the cozy dining room of a brick ranch-style house, located in a rapidly growing suburb. By now you are understanding that this is not your grandfather’s business meeting. Rather, it’s a family ministry, headed up by the eldest son, encouraged by his parents, and supported by a spectrum of enthusiastic siblings. Not the typical ministry board. Remarkable.

How did this come about?

Well, it all started back in Genesis. But, for the sake of brevity, we fast forward to the late 1990’s.

A mother – upon observing the decay of our nation and the malaise of the Western Church – began to cry out for answers. Why, O Lord was the Church, in general so ineffective?

The answer came in stages. First, a corner of the curtain was lifted to reveal that the younger generations saw through the hypocrisy of the older generations, who in large measure only gave lip service to what they said they believed. These young people were tossing aside the “faith of the fathers” as being irrelevant and impotent.

Then, as if the Creator had drawn the curtains back fully, He showed the praying mother that the Bible’s authority had been undermined by evolutionary teachings in the most influential institutions in the land. Beginning in the government schools, and tragically embraced in the churches. The older generations didn’t believe the Bible, so why should they obey it? It seems to be a special Book, revered by many of the aging population, but was the entire thing to be taken seriously? To be obeyed?

The mother’s relief and excitement spilled over to her family. Her husband had laid a foundation of Bible teaching and a righteous example of servant-hood and compassion. They had worked together to teach their six children that God was the Sovereign Creator and His Word must be the rule and guide for their lives. The mother had long held the belief that the lord had special plans for each of her children. She and the father prayed for them.

The family had already been learning about the creation/evolution debate. But with this latest revelation came a desire to become fully educated on the topic. They attended two Ken Ham presentations in the fall of 2005. The parents were penniless, but the children were so excited about what they had learned that, after gaining permission, they pooled their resources and bought 8 DVD’s. Things snowballed from there. The eldest son, (supplemented by his younger siblings donations) who is a hard worker, used his own funds to build up a large library of resources from several creation apologetics ministries. The family became informed on a wide-range of creation science topics, always holding in mind the importance of the authority of the Scriptures, especially Genesis 1-11. Even their youngest child could spout interesting tidbits of creation/evolution related material. Remarkable.

So whose idea was it to start a family ministry, that would uphold the Truth of Scripture, with an emphasis on providing tools to aid those in the Creation evangelism field? Well, since Joel our 22-year-old is the Director we’ll let him take the credit. But this ministry was gradually gestated ant then birthed at family meal times, where lively discussions about important matters had always occurred. Probably it was everybody’s idea, a passion born out of a desire in the hearts of each family member to see souls won to the Lord, using the most effective methods. Remarkable.