A few days ago we celebrated my Mother’s 90th birthday. My wife, two daughters, sister and a few friends intended to pull off this event as a surprise party. However, my mother is a traveler … she makes several major trips a year (recently returning from a 2 week cruise through the Panama Canal). We decided we probably should let her know what was being planned to insure that she would be here for her own party! Also, she is a very social lady – Church, Genealogy...
Read MoreIs Teaching Creation Child Abuse?
An article in Creation Ministries International’s Prayer News (April 2014) caught my eye. It was entitled: “ ‘Teaching creation is child abuse’? A response to rabid atheist claims.” In this well-written article, Gary Bates exposed their tactics and answered their unscientific claims. Teaching creationism has been called “child abuse” because it is withholding information from children. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Creationists like Bates and...
Read MoreGetting over our fears
As many of you know, my wife Sue was diagnosed with cancer in the small intestine. When we first heard the news, we and the doctors were very concerned about the severity of the cancer. There was a chance the cancer had already spread to the other organs. Thoughts of living without Sue went through my mind. These thoughts were unbearable. The surgery went very well and the doctors were confident they removed all the cancer, but then there was the recovery. The...
Read MoreA Spiritual Battleground
In April, I was invited by Master Plan Ministries to speak on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver. The Auraria campus is the home of Metro State College, University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver and approximately 40,000 students. Auraria is the largest campus in Colorado and has a very sizeable international student population from some of the most closed nations in the world. I was invited to speak on the “hot” topic of Creation at the weekly...
Read MoreHow Ungrateful We Can Be
As most of you know, I had a Whipple surgery on November 25th, because of cancer in the duodenum. As the months after my surgery pass, and as I try to adjust to my “new” (but certainly not improved!) redesigned digestive system, I have found myself having some troubling thoughts. I have often looked with envy at other people who can eat anything they want, anytime they want, and feel good afterwards. No pills, no pain, no restrictions, and I think,...
Read MoreTotal Surrender
I have been thinking quite a bit lately about the term “surrender.” In the weeks leading up to surgery, the word took on a whole new meaning. Suddenly, so many things were out of my control. It sometimes takes a real attitude adjustment, to release OUR control to others, even to God. I heard a sermon during this same time period, reminding me that I cannot question God’s path because it is different than my agenda; even when that path includes cancer. I MUST...
Read MoreWho’s Fault is it? A response…
I received a comment on a recent blog (Who’s fault is it?), and so I wanted to respond on today’s blog. Comment: Do you think that it’s possible that God sometimes inflicts suffering to instruct us? Hear me out. The curse of the ground was to bring thorns into the work of man, to remind him that he’s the cause of his own suffering. And the animal sacrifices instituted by God in the beginning: they cost us something. It’s a little pain to show that we...
Read MoreWonderfully Made
Note: If you haven’t yet heard, we are excited to announce that we are pregnant and expecting our first child in June, 2014! We praise God for answering our prayers and giving us the blessing of children! There is something mysterious and wonderful about having a baby growing inside of you. He or she is about the size of a pea pod now, and it still seems incredibly surreal. Pregnancy still felt like something my imagination had conjured up, until we got to have an...
Read MoreFamily Hits Road With Creation
After working so hard teaching and writing, it’s always good to know that your work is having an impact on the lives of others, and that they are taking the material learned from you and passing it on to others. Recently we received an encouraging testimony from a woman in Montana. She wrote: Quite a few years ago [my husband] and I were at a marriage retreat in Colorado – over by Horn Creek at Hermit Basin. [We] were edified by the Creation Series. We have...
Read MoreWho are the Marianis?
Hello AOI Followers, we are new on staff at AOI and we wanted to introduce ourselves in our first blog post. We are Brian and Aimee Mariani and here are our brief testimonies of how God has worked in our lives in exciting ways and brought us to this position at AOI! That is actually a picture of us jumping into service with AOI at a Creation Boot Camp at Camp Redcloud during the last week of June. Brian: Hey guys, first off, I grew up in Bloomington, Illinois and was...
Read MoreEconomic Crunch
This last week we were to teach at the 3rd camp at IdRaHaJe, working with High school age campers. Unfortunately, one of the groups that normally bring youth in from Utah had to cancel because of economics … fuel prices are just too high. Just before we headed out the door to return up to the camp, after a short 2 days home between camps, the director called with the news that they had to cancel the High school camp for financial reasons. Since we had to return to the camp...
Read MoreCamp IdRaHaJe West – Week 2
Marilyn and I spent another week at Camp IdRaHaJe West above Paonia, CO. This week we taught Creation to the Middle School Camp (6th – 9th Grade) of 60 campers, 12 counselors, and numerous other staff. We had another very exciting week. As at the Junior Camp, we had a mixture of church-going kids, non-churched kids, and kids coming from churches where the Bible is not taught. The Holy Spirit was really evident at this camp …we had 30 campers put their faith and trust in...
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Friends - Richard's Life was Changed!! - And this is why he is leading AOI's Colorado Family Camp! Join us July 30 - Aug 4 - conta.cc/3X4JroB pic.twitter.com/u8j1AP1Pmu
