Summer SHAKEN

Matt Miles • August 10, 2023

   I feel it appropriate to give a summer ministry update. We have traveled this summer over 15,000 miles with an approximate event attendance of 4800 people, and we have seen the Lord working on worldviews of the young and old alike. Not only have we been called on to do VBS and camps, as usual, but have also done D3 (Dinosaurs, Design and Destiny) events. It is rare that we do D3 events in the summer, as they are typically our “bread and butter” the rest of the calendar year. Through all of it, our mission has been accomplished in overwhelming fashion.


   VBS has been our main focus this summer with a total of 7. It was very impactful to see three of these churches adopt a whole-church approach. Over the past few years we have challenged churches to do VBS for the family. With this approach, we teach the lesson to the students at the beginning. Then the students are dismissed to crafts, games, snacks or other activities while their parents and other adults have their lesson with the same topic studied more in depth. Our desire is that student and parent worldviews are impacted in the same evening, providing great opportunity for discussion on the way home. This has been received well by the churches who chose the “whole church” VBS. There have been numerous times this summer that parents or other attending adults have expressed thanks for teaching them as well. Regretfully, each night at the churches there were still some parents that would drop off their child and not stay, but return at the end of the night, as usual. This seems such a missed opportunity to drive home the Word of the Lord in those families. We are not going to pull back from this endeavor, and our desire is to make this a “normal” VBS strategy when we are invited to teach. We praise the Lord for those families SHAKEN for His Kingdom this summer.


   The couple of D3 events seemed very out of place at first, since most summers are so focused on camp and VBS, but the Lord used these to reach new churches with our mission and message. Establishing the importance of Genesis in worldview development and the Biblical history is priority in these events, and experiencing the excitement of new congregations as their worldviews are impacted is such a praiseworthy thing. We know that the Lord will use these moments of challenge, conviction, and learning for His Glory.


   Some of our fossils were also seen by more than 7000 over the course of several days during a VBS that Answers in Genesis put on at a church in the heart of Dallas. They approached us way too late to make the opportunity work, yet our summer schedule actually freed up for one week. The Lord worked it out for His purpose and the fossils were used as part of the whole event, blessing many with the opportunity to see dinosaurs for the first time in a church and through Biblical glasses.


   From young to old, we have seen worldviews and lives impacted for eternity. Some people have been SHAKEN with a new understanding of the importance of Scripture in their lives. Others have been saved as a response to the Gospel that is clearly seen through the lens of Genesis. We lift our praises to the Lord Almighty for the open doors, hearts and minds this ministry has the opportunity to impact. Thank you for all the support, it is affecting eternal destinies! Blessings.


By Bob Dugas May 23, 2025
NS-29 Launch
By Matt Miles May 22, 2025
As many of you may know, I appreciate space. Not space around me, although the older I get the more I appreciate that as well. The things in the heavens fascinate me and have for a large chunk of my life. I love working with our telescopes, allowing people to see for themselves objects that the Lord made on the 4th day of history. When I was younger I followed our Space Shuttle program, and over the years I have had the opportunity to see a couple of those shuttles around the country. Now it is great to see all the renewed interest in exploring the heavenly creation. I know most of it is for evolutionary reasons, yet over and over again something is discovered that points to the trustworthiness of God’s Word. After all, we are to study His creation as Genesis 1:28 states. On a recent trip to El Paso, it occurred to me that Blue Origin’s launch facility is in west Texas somewhere. After some quick searching I realized we were within an hour and half of it, and there was a rescheduled launch window during the time of our meeting. So, with some persuading of my colleagues, we arose early one morning to make the launch. We made it with just minutes to spare. It was spectacular! The whole launch to just beyond the Karman Line (space boundary, 62 miles/100km) and return of the rocket and capsule is about ten minutes total. While Blue Origin is best known for its New Shepherd rocket that carries paying customers to space and back with the biggest windows ever in a capsule, this NS-29 launch was purely experimental with a payload of instruments to measure simulated lunar gravity. Even though it was not a Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Starship or Falcon launch, it was great to hear and feel a launch for the first time, from blast off to the sonic boom return. It has piqued my desire to see a bigger launch now. As I began to reflect on what I experienced, the Lord reminded me of His design. Earth, our home planet, is so well designed for life. There is literally nowhere in all the universe like it. Yet He gave us the ability to discover creation beyond it. The only reason we can launch rockets and do space exploration is because He set it up in an orderly way. Physics works because He established it to work in a predictable fashion. As much as we may never understand everything in the universe from our position here, it works on an ordered reality that is reinforced by God’s Word. This is what drove Sir Isaac Newton in his understanding of physics. He wrote, “The motions which the planets now have could not spring from any natural cause alone but were by an intelligent Agent.” Evolutionists may come up with theories about the origin of things in the heavens, but over and over again they are being shown through experimentation and observation to be wrong. The Lord set the order of everything in the beginning and sustains it by His Word (Hebrews 1:3). So as you look to the heavens tonight, gaze into the depths of space and observe the different facets the Lord placed up there for our eyes (Genesis 1:17). Peer through a telescope at the lesser light of the moon with marvel and anticipation of further human study in the coming years. Check out the amazing observations being made by the James Webb telescope from deep in space. All of these place a perspective of how awesome our Creator is and how much we depend on Him. Our design becomes more and more obvious with every discovery, yet in our universe we appear so minuscule and fragile. Thanks be to God that His infinite focus has, is and always will be here on us! Blessings.
By Ryan Cox May 22, 2025
Moses & History (part 2)
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