by Eric Latas & Christine Dao *
The Institute for Creation Research has a small but dedicated events staff committed to planning, directing, and staffing the various conferences and outreach events that ICR hosts and attends throughout the United States.
In meeting the needs of the ministry, the team relies on the selfless contributions of a dedicated volunteer force, which fills a variety of roles from preparing promotional materials to manning the ICR booth at events and answering questions from attendees who want to know more about ICR’s work. The Events Department would not be as effective without these volunteers.
One such individual is Ed Creek, who has supported ICR for a number of years and more recently started helping out at events and at the ministry’s headquarters in Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Creek worked as a CPA for over 20 years and then as an executive recruiter, locating job placements in financial and accounting positions. He retired this past year, as well as celebrated thirty years of marriage to his wife, Janice. Throughout his life, he has been dedicated to serving the Lord through various means, and he has committed to personally sharing the gospel since taking an Evangelism Explosion course in the early 1980s.
Around the same time, he became interested in creation science while writing a research paper as a part-time student at Criswell College. He realized that the Bible’s statements about creation should be taken at face value. An avid reader, Mr. Creek became a fan of the writings of Dr. Henry Morris, the founder of ICR, and he even purchased copies of Dr. Morris’ books to donate to the Christian school his daughter attended at the time.
Mr. Creek began volunteering officially with ICR in March 2010 by assisting and leading a group of fellow volunteers in preparing promotional materials for distribution at conferences. He saved the ministry nearly $10,000 on one event by packing and taking books, DVDS, and nearly 8,000 leadership packets from ICR’s headquarters to the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2010 national pastors’ conference in Orlando, Florida. For an organization that depends almost exclusively on individual financial contributions, this was a crucial blessing in optimizing the use of those resources with which God has blessed us.
In the summer of 2010, Mr. Creek suffered a stroke and a heart attack after undergoing triple-bypass surgery. By the grace of God, his life was spared, but the stroke affected his ability to speak and he had to spend four months in speech rehabilitation. He has made significant strides in his recovery since then.
In December, Mr. Creek returned to his work as a volunteer at ICR. He took on the responsibility of updating the massive magnetic events calendar board, which tracks all scheduled ICR events. The events board allows the staff to track which events our speakers are participating in and where they will be traveling, and this helps prevent scheduling errors. By Mr. Creek maintaining the board, the events team has more time to plan and participate in the actual events, further expanding the reach and ministry of ICR.
Rather than allow his age or health challenges to deter him, Ed Creek has chosen to continue to play an active role in advancing the cause of creation science for God’s Kingdom. ICR is very grateful for his work and the efforts of all our volunteers. Their contributions are clearly felt throughout the Events Department and, by extension, the organization as a whole.
* Mr. Latas is an ICR volunteer and Ms. Dao is Assistant Editor at the Institute for Creation Research.
Cite this article: Latas, E. and C. Dao. 2011. Ed Creek: ICR Volunteer. Acts & Facts. 40 (10): 22.
