When we got to Glasgow, Gavin Chittick, a pastor at Bridge Christian Fellowship in Erskine, Scotland, took us to lunch by a most beautiful lake with a famous song—so we got to eat by the “Bonnie, Bonnie Banks of Lock Lomond.”

Mike and Gavin at Lock Lomond

Then we had the pleasure of going to dinner with Lucien Tuinstra, an ardent AiG supporter and creationist. Lucien was born in the Netherlands and is now working in Glasgow. On Saturday morning, Lucien took Mike, Gary, and me to see Stirling Castle, which was first mentioned in history in the 12th century. Mary, Queen of the Scotts, was crowned there in 1543.

Stirling Castle

We also visited the Wallace monument which was erected in 1869 to honor Sir William Wallace. If you saw the movie, Braveheart, you know the Hollywood version of how Wallace fits into Scottish history.

Wallace Monument

On Saturday evening, Mike spoke at Bridge Christian Fellowship in Erskine, Scotland, close to Glasgow. His talks were: “Four Power Questions to Ask an Evolutionist” and “Thinking Biblically about Dinosaurs.” There was a small but wonderful group of people who were excited to hear the truth of God’s Word.

Teacher Training in Spokane

Who could have guessed that it would fall on the same day as the Gonzaga men’s basketball game in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Gongaza is a small school very close to the church, and the game was in Spokane. Here is a picture of Brad paying attention to Mike, but keeping up with the score.

Brad Goeman checking the basketball game score

We even had a family that drove down from Canada and stayed in their trailer so they could attend the entire weekend. Dr. Tom Davidson (PhD, Soil Chemistry), a longtime friend of ours and of Answers in Genesis, came from Idaho, and several others traveled to get this teaching. One special man, David Losey, is a member of Turning Point Church. He has taken youth from his church to the Creation Museum more than once, and is planning another trip. So many who live close to the Creation Museum say, “I just have not gotten around to coming yet.” David has made the journey across the nation just to bring youth. Thanks, David, for your dedication.

On Sunday, March 21, Mike spoke at this exciting church at 9:30 a.m. and for youth at 11:00. Pastor Monte LeLaCheur and his famous gymnast wife, Amy Jo, took us to lunch after church. They made us feel so welcomed. Amy Jo made the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team in 1980. Unfortunately, that was the year it was in Moscow and President Carter boycotted the Olympics. We were excited because our granddaughters are gymnasts.

Mike at the evening service

Mike spoke again on Sunday evening and twice on Monday evening. There was a “hard-core” evolutionist who came to all of the talks and brought several youth with him. He debated Mike after each session, but would never answer Mike’s questions. He accused all Creationists of lying. Finally, after the last session, he answered Mike’s question, “Why is lying wrong?” His answer was, “It’s my opinion.” There was always a large group of people listening, and they understood the meaning of his answer. Many of them remarked that they learned a lot just by observing the exchange.

Mike and Lesley at Stonehenge

That evening we had our first event. Kings Church sponsored the evening, and we met at the Ringwood Methodist church. There was a nice group of people, and Mike spoke on “Is Evolution Possible?” It is a talk that shows evolution is impossible by using probability and design in God’s amazing creation. We want to thank Ken Turner for organizing this event.

Ringwood, England

On Thursday, March 4, Mike spoke on the topic of apologetics. We met at Parkstone Christian Centre in Poole, Dorset, England. Pastor David King arranged the meeting. He is the pastor of Vine Christian Fellowship. There were several people who had come on the night before who came again to hear more. That was an encouragement to us. We stayed with David and Linda King and had a wonderful home-cooked English dinner (or locally called “Tea”). Afterward, we had “pudding.” If you have never been to England, you need to know that pudding basically means dessert—so we learned something new. We were expecting vanilla or chocolate pudding, but instead had a wonderful fruit crisp.

Parkstone Christian Centre, Poole, Dorset

On Friday we flew to Glasgow, Scotland. I will post more on that in a couple of days.

On Tuesday, March 2, we had a wonderful day of sight-seeing in London with Paul. We went to the British Museum and specifically focused on the exhibits that referred to the Old Testament.

There were reliefs from Nineveh showing the Assyrians’ victory at Lachish (700-692 BC). They depicted the Judaean prisoners taking their goods and animals into exile. We saw many other exhibits, but I will show you two that Mike especially liked.

The first is the Flood Tablet. The caption says: “This is perhaps the most famous of all cuneiform tablets. It is the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, and describes how the gods sent a flood to destroy the world. Like Noah, Utnapishtim was forewarned and built an ark to house and preserve living things. After the flood he sent out birds to look for dry land.”

The Flood Tablet

We saw the Rosetta Stone but did not get a very good picture, so instead I’m putting in the Taylor Prism. Its caption reads: “This terracotta foundation record, named after a previous owner, lists the campaigns of the Assyrian king Sennacharib. It begins with his accession in 705 BC until the start of his final war against Babylon and includes a description of the tribute received from Hezekiah, king of Judah, in 701 BC. (691 BC from Nineveh)”

The Taylor Prism

We felt encouraged to see the Bible being verified right there in the British Museum! We’re so thankful to Paul Taylor for escorting us around. We started our speaking portion of the tour on Wednesday, March 3. I will tell you about that tomorrow.

First, we met a couple from Scotland and we chatted about where we would be in Scotland on our trip, the weather, and their children. Then we challenged them about their relationship with their Creator. They listened but did not say too much. Next, we met a very attractive, well-dressed young woman from New York City. She was in Paris on business. After some conversation about places we had both been, we talked to her about the impossibility of evolution—especially in the area of the orgin of life and DNA. She was genuinely interested and was considering what we said. I finally said, “It doesn’t matter how successful or wealthy you become in this life. Each of us will breathe our last breath and enter into eternity. You have no idea when that will be.” Mike did what he often does—he gave her a homework assignment to read the books of John and I John. She got a phone call and said she had to leave for a few minutes but would be back.

She returned with a colleague who was a young man from Boston. She had told him of our conversation. We talked to him for a bit and then they had to go to a meeting. We prayed that our words would be fruitful. Well, the next morning we were walking through the lobby and there—all by himself—sat the young man from Boston. We were able to share the gospel with him, and praised God that we had had a day of rest and the opportunity to meet these people at our hotel.

On the next blog, I will share with you our trip to London and the beginning of our time in the UK. Thanks for reading.

Mike at Omaha Beach

As we stood on Omaha Beach, we contemplated the feelings of those men as their landing vessels approached the beach. Many of them were in their late teens or early twenties. How many of them said their last prayers that day? We wondered what they thought as they stormed the beach and witnessed the sights and sounds of their comrades dying around them, of the bombs dropping, and the machine guns firing. We began to understand why our World War 2 veterans don’t want to remember that day. They say they were just doing their job, but they really are war heroes who paid the price for the freedoms we have today. It was not the politicians nor the lawyers, but these men who protected our freedom.

It was humbling to walk among the crosses at the American Cemetery and see the names inscribed on them. When you see the names, it brings their sacrifice to a personal level. Just as these brave men fought to preserve our freedoms, so we as Christians need to hold to the authority of Scripture and be in prayer to protect the freedoms that come from our Creator God.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We arrived in Paris on the morning of Friday, February 26. We found our way to the hotel, and then jumped right into the tourist thing. First, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and tried to imagine being there as the U.S. troops marched to the Arc as they helped liberate France from the Nazis in August of 1944. What an impressive monument!

From there we braved the Paris Underground and traveled to the Sacre Coeur Basilica, which is situated at the highest point in Paris. It had been raining, but the sun came just as we got there. This picture was taken from one of the streets leading up to it. It was beautiful!

Then we got back on the Underground to the Louvre. We were getting a bit tired, so we didn’t actually go in, but enjoyed the outside none the less. The next morning we took the train to Normandy—our main reason for stopping off in France. I will tell you about that in the next blog.

On Saturday Mike taught his 20^th Teacher Training class at First Baptist Church in Artesia with 41 students attending. It is an all-day class that helps students learn to teach creation from a biblical worldview. On Sunday he spoke twice in the morning and again in the evening. On Monday through Wednesday, First Baptist sponsored a lunch each day for business and lay people, during which Mike got to teach even more. Then there were also two lectures each night. We appreciate Pastor Rick and his staff for giving the people of Artesia so many opportunities to hear the truth of God’s Word from the very first verse.

We had several testimonies from people who had never thought about biblical creationism as truth. The common response was, “When I heard the part about no death before sin, I was convinced.”

Next we are off to Columbia, South Carolina. I will report on that trip next week.

(Romans 1:16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

I had the privilege of speaking at the Chapel by the Sea in Melbourne Beach, Florida, this past Sunday, January 17. It was a beautiful setting in which to talk about the Creator of everything, including the ocean—we were right on the Atlantic Ocean and close to the Kennedy Space Center. We enjoyed our time at the church and felt very welcome there.

My wife, Lesley, and I had an uplifting experience when we visited the Kennedy Space Center. We went to a briefing on current NASA missions given by a man named Bill (see his picture below). He asked us where we were from, and then we asked him if he had heard of the Creation Museum. We were encouraged when he responded with an enthusiastic, “Yes.”

It turns out that he is “not ashamed” of the gospel or the biblical account of Creation. There were others in the audience who heard the entire conversation. Thank God for men like Bill who proclaim the Lord no matter the audience.

In my next blog I will tell you about the Christian school where I taught on Monday and the way the students are being trained in apologetics.