Ed and Eileen Gross travel around the United States in their Blue Bird Motor Home, representing the Institute for Creation Research for the past 10 years to hundreds of churches.
"All done on a volunteer basis," Ed said in a recent interview. "And the Lord has just been providing."
They visited ICR’s new Dallas headquarters for the first time in March, where they had a chance to share their testimony.
"We grew up as Catholics," Ed said, "and we were not too concerned about Scripture. When you’re raised as a Catholic, you don’t read the Bible."
The Grosses raised their six children in the Catholic Church as well. Then in 1969, their 18-year-old daughter ran away from their Maryland home "to find herself." She hitchhiked until she ended up at the Shiloh Youth Revival Center in Dexter, Oregon, a former training center for street ministry.
"They looked like hippies, but they didn’t talk like hippies," Eileen said.
"These young people hadn’t seen a nonbeliever in months," Ed said. "So when she showed up, they just loved her into the Kingdom. That was her first exposure by real people who loved the Lord."
Ed remembered the first phone call they had received from their daughter in months. "She said, ’Daddy, I found Jesus.’ I thought she was on drugs. But it was real."
After returning home for a brief time, their daughter went back to Oregon, where she enlisted the help of about 200 believers to pray for her parents’ salvation.
"Something was stirring in our lives," Ed said. "And one Valentine’s night, we were watching TV. And there was some speaker on a program that said, ’I feel really sorry for the Catholics because they are trying to get to heaven by being good.’ And that was a key phrase that was like a light coming on. And we got down on our knees in the living room in 1972 and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior."
"Intercessory prayer works," he added. "Don’t ever give up on intercessory prayer."
The Grosses excommunicated themselves from the Catholic Church and began reading the Bible on their own. "We had never read the Bible up to that point, so it became alive to us."
As their interest in the Scriptures grew, Eileen began to listen to a radio program in 1970 about creation―by ICR’s Dr. Henry Morris and Dr. Duane Gish. The Grosses began subscribing to ICR’s programs and publications.
In 1995, Ed retired and they began traveling to the national parks. Along the way, they visited Answers in Genesis in Cincinnati and purchased several videos, including some produced by ICR. "We watched them all that summer while visiting the parks. By the time the summer was over, we were convinced that we had to do something to become a part of [the creation science ministry]."
The Grosses sold their house and began to follow ICR speakers to various events. Staff members at the time showed them how to help with selling books and explaining about the ministry. Eventually, they assisted with ICR Loop Tours.
"Every Wednesday and Sunday, we were at a different church," Eileen said.
When the month-long tours ended, the Grosses saw that smaller churches could not afford to bring speakers to where they were or travel to larger churches for seminars. So, they purchased their motor home and took ICR materials to them.
"We started that in 2001," Ed said. "And that’s what we’ve been doing since."
* Ms. Dao is Assistant Editor at the Institute for Creation Research.
Cite this article: Dao, C. 2011. Ed and Eileen Gross: ICR’s Ambassadors-at-large. Acts & Facts. 40 (5): 23.
