Campers SHAKEN

Matt Miles • June 13, 2023

   Genesis Week Camp has become one of my favorite weeks in the summer. Ten years ago the camp was started by Ryan Cox, my now colleague. It is a unique church camp in Illinois since it is the only place we teach year after year. Over the course of 3 years, Genesis Week covers Creation, Flood, and Babel so students that attend every year from middle through high school get these worldview foundations twice. The Lord has provided an avenue for us to impact young lives now and for generations to come. This year I was reminded of the importance of this camp, the first of the summer season.


  This year’s camp maintenance director is a former Genesis Week camper. It was great to catch up and see what the Lord has been doing in his life. He is now married to a fellow Genesis Week camper from years back and has two children. (This is a gentle reminder from the Lord we are not getting any younger.) He directly equated the strength of his faith to the study and worldview development each summer at Genesis Week. I was able to meet his wife and children over lunch one day. She expressed similar sentiment for the two years of Genesis Week she attended, stating, “They were my favorite weeks of camp ever.”


   One evening at campfire, a camper got up and expressed the Lord has called him to full-time preaching and teaching of the Word. He relayed to his fellow campers that the Lord, through Genesis Week, had greatly impacted and equipped him for ministry. I don’t know how many of you have the opportunity to impact young lives for the Kingdom, but please don’t pass on those opportunities. He went on to express that during his first summer my teaching had been most impactful. There are moments in life that are more than humbling, yet most rewarding at the same time – this was one of them.


   Another camper approached me and stated her desire to be a “creation scientist”. She asked how to be one. We talked through a whole game time about different avenues and possibilities. I expressed to her the need for more to step up and be called to science. She shared that for the entire past year she has carried everywhere the books she bought last year at Genesis Week so she could give Biblical answers to friends and family members on foundational issues from Genesis. I pray that the Lord continues to use her in a mighty way, as I observed her influence on fellow campers all week with positive results.


   This year, Genesis Week impacted 102 camper lives, along with all the adult staff. The Lord saved 6 students that realized He is the only door to salvation, and He called 5 students to vocational ministry. Ryan and I are deeply impacted year after year with the opportunity to pour Christ’s foundation into students’ lives for eternity. We thank the Lord for your support that makes this Kingdom work possible and encourage you to be SHAKEN to service, if you are not already. The Lord is coming, and there are many lost that need His direction. Blessings!

September/October 2025 Printed Newsletter

October 2, 2025
Ichthyosaur pic

Flooded Marine Reptile

By Matt Miles • October 2, 2025
The Flood during Noah’s day was a devastating judgement against the sin and wickedness of the time. Most people focus on what the Lord did as He saved the eight people and animals on the Ark. Yet while they were being saved, the Flood destroyed the earth and left behind some remarkable things. Geology around the globe shows water burial of plants and animals. Many of the animal remains show signs of drowning and then burial. One particular reptile that shows this is the Ichthyosaurus. From what we can understand, water was her home for everything in life, even giving birth to live young. This well designed creature may even help us trust the Word of God when it comes to the history of the Flood. In our Mobile Museum of Earth History we exhibit a research replica of an ichthyosaur called Stenopterygius quadriscissus . She is from Holzmaden, Germany and is one example of hundreds that have been found in the area. The reason we can so confidently state this fossil is a “her,” when we rarely know for sure about fossil animals, is because she is pregnant. She has three babies present with her remains: one under her tail, one in or near the birth canal, and one still inside. Our fossil is in situ, which means the fossil remains in the rock matrix it was buried in. So, the presence of momma and babies are how they were buried and not articulated in some manner after excavation. This is important to show the rapid, watery burial that must have taken place to lock this scene in the fossil record. The Flood trapped organisms all over the world in different life positions. Sometimes the fossils left behind have shown eating, hunting, sleeping, swimming, nesting, or drowning. When it comes to ichthyosaurs around the planet, there is a significant number of females that seem to be pregnant. They have been found in the fossil record on at least four continents. A fair assumption would be that Ichthyosaurs had a certain time of year they mated and gave birth to young, much like sea turtles today that nest from late spring to late fall depending on the region around the world. So it should come as no surprise that we find pregnant ichthyosaurs all around the world as the Flood lasted an entire year. It would have buried the females that were pregnant near their location of habitat.  Evolutionists maintain that ichthyosaurs lived tens to hundreds of million years ago and each of the mothers found in the fossil record just died while giving birth. This is difficult to support in a millions magnitude time scale. That would mean every time a disaster happened, millions of years apart, the right conditions existed to quickly bury ichthyosaurs that just so happened to be pregnant. It just might take some “faith” to trust that “miracle” would happen over and over again through eons of time. Or you can have faith that the Word of God’s history is correct with a judgement of man’s sin bringing global devastation through the Flood during Noah’s 600th year of life. The Word of God is trustworthy, with even the fossil record showing us glimpses of historical evidence in support of our faith. I’m so thankful we don’t need blind faith to trust our salvation! Blessings.
Furnace

Our God Whom We Serve Is Able

By Ryan Cox • October 2, 2025
14 Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? 15 …if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:14-18 In the 6th century BC, three young men stood up for their faith in the one true God, for which someone attempted to kill them. Today, in the 21st century AD, one young man was gunned down for his faith in the one true God. And sadly, Charlie Kirk is not the only one. According to The Esther Project, martyrdom for the cause of Christ is commonplace around the world ( theestherproject.com/statistics ). On average: 322 Christians are killed monthly. 214 churches or Christian properties are destroyed monthly. 772 forms of violence (beatings, kidnappings, etc.) against Christians are committed monthly. 100,000 to 160,000 Christians are killed annually in the 21st century. 1.093 million Christians were martyred between 2000 and 2010. And more than 70 million Christians are believed to have been martyred since the 1st century, with more than half killed in the 20th century alone under communist and fascist governments. And how should Christians respond? Peter wrote, “ if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God in this name ” (I Peter 4:16). Jesus took this a step further; He told us, “ …love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ” (Matthew 5:44). Now, as Shawn Grant, minister at Kissimmee Christian Church, FL, preached on the Sunday following the assassination, th at may not be what you want to hear right now, but that is what Jesus has told us we must do. Why? So the world will see the difference Jesus makes! The night of and the days after the assassination, businesses did not have to board up their stores. Police and soldiers did not have to be deployed. There were no riots, no property damages, no police spat upon – only tears, prayers, and a witness to the world that Jesus is the answer. So noticeable is this to the world, there were more international press requests for the Charlie Kirk memorial service than are requested for Super Bowls. Within seven days of his death, Kirk’s ministry Turning Point USA had received over 54,000 campus chapter requests. And most importantly, scores of videos of young people considering or even deciding to give their lives to Jesus have been posted to social media platforms. 
Show More