“I Did Not Expect This to be Life-Changing!”

I am a graduate student at Purdue University (W. Lafayette, Indiana, USA). I wanted to write about how an opportunity to serve for a week at Answers in Genesis-US impacted my life, especially my plans for the future.

I had the opportunity both this year and last to travel to AiG in Northern Kentucky for a spring break missions trip with our church’s college class—helping with AiG’s Creation Museum now under construction. For our first year, we went down to move exhibits from one warehouse to another, among many other tasks. While on my first trip, I had the chance to see the great importance of this ministry. I had my eyes opened to the very real battle going on between evolution and creation.

I was fortunate to go to a Christian school growing up, where creation was taught in my science classes. I assumed that most all Christians believed in Genesis 1:1; that is until I went on the missions trip, and learned how AiG is a ministry outreach to the church first and foremost!

At AiG, I became aware of Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” I had never realized that when evolutionists were attacking creation, they were really attacking the foundation of our faith. To believe what God did in Genesis is to give a solid foundation for the rest of the Bible.

When I signed up for the missions trip, I expected to go down, serve God and the AiG ministry, and have a good time with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I did not expect this to be a life-changing event.

While at AiG, I saw the many staff who were using their gifts and abilities in the ministry, and they were not all pastors and missionaries with degrees in theology. There were artists, computer programmers, translators, designers and, yes, scientists, all using the unique gifts that God had given them in full-time service in His Work. That greatly broadened my view of what it meant to serve God with what one had been given.

I have always had an interest in the sciences and, at times, an interest in full-time Christian service, but I could never seem to reconcile the two. That is, until I went to Answers in Genesis.

I came back from the trip with a new-found passion—a passion for the creation ministry. For the first time, I saw how I could use my science education for God’s Work. In my science classes, I see God’s design everywhere, from chemistry to genetics, where sometimes I can only say, “Wow” (especially as I look at the design of the human body; as the psalmist said in Psalm 139:14, “I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made”).

Now I have a defined purpose in my studies, and it’s not just to get a job. The trip to AiG and seeing Christian ministry in a new light has greatly impacted my future plans. I have decided to enter graduate school to further educate myself in the sciences. I want to be equipped with more knowledge so that I could continue to be a witness to others. Already, I have been able to share my faith with others by starting, for example, with a scientific observation made in one of my classes, and saying how awesome I thought God was when He created it.

I don’t know yet exactly what I will end up doing with all my education and this new-found passion, but I think I would like to teach science in high school and bring back God into the sciences which He created, and where He has always been, and equip young people with knowledge that the Genesis account isn’t a fable or story.

Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” Science points to a Designer, a Creator. The more I learn about science, the more I see God in everything, and I am further able to worship our awesome God. And I want to share that with others.

I never expected that the simple opportunity of taking a spring break trip to serve the AiG ministry would end up serving me so much more! I am so thankful that I took advantage of it. It was an awesome opportunity to see how God uses all of us, from pastor to scientist to layperson, to accomplish His work.

Editor’s note: To lend your talents—or even a strong back—as a volunteer with AiG in one of its international offices1, please click here. Here are some possible volunteer activities for you to consider:

1. data entry in the AiG offices
2. stuffing envelopes, folding letters, and other clerical tasks in the AiG offices
3. if you can’t find the time to volunteer at an AiG office, then please:
   1. encourage your pastor to host a faith-building AiG meeting in your church
   2. contact your local Christian radio station about carrying AiG’s daily radio feature “Answers … with Ken Ham”
   3. show AiG videos in a home Bible study, Sunday school, etc.