Seminar and conference attendees may be familiar with seeing the Institute for Creation Research booth. ICR attends over a hundred events every year, and the booth is a great way for people to stop by and chat with ICR staff and faculty.
I recently had the opportunity to attend a local conference where ICR had a booth. As with any event, there are logistical and organizational challenges to meet to get all the necessary equipment and resources from ICR headquarters to the event location. At this particular conference, none of the exhibitors were allowed to sell anything, but that didn't stop us from giving away loads of books, Acts & Facts magazines, Days of Praise devotional booklets, classroom teaching posters, and all kinds of free information.
This conference was designed for parents and grandparents of school age children, youth pastors and volunteers, teachers, and anyone else who works with young people to some degree. The highlight of my day was simply talking with visitors, meeting current friends of ICR and making new ones. People attended from all around the Dallas/Fort Worth area and other parts of Texas, as well as from Oklahoma, Kansas, Washington state, Florida, Georgia, and even someone from Canada. As a first generation Asian American, I took note of the various ethnicities represented, reminding me with joy that God is the Creator of all our beautiful skin tones, and that Christ is the Savior of every nation, tribe, and tongue.
Virtually everyone that stopped by our booth was eager to receive information from ICR on science news and the Bible, and many signed up for our free Acts & Facts. We also gave away many Fall Resource Guides, featuring ICR books, DVDs, and education materials. Several people expressed interest in the new Origin of Life curriculum supplement because it helps close the gap in science education, highlighting what the Bible has to say about scientific matters. I spoke with one enthusiastic woman who said her son was chair of the science department at a Christian school and that she would tell him about the curriculum supplement because it was "precisely the kind of thing he [was] looking for" to add to his school's program.
In an interesting turn of events, ICR was invited to bring materials to a Christian health conference in the same area. Many attendees there were homeschooling parents as well, and they were eager to receive free materials, as well as to have a chance to glimpse the Origin of Life curriculum supplement sample that we had available.
Especially among parents and grandparents at both events, I listened to their discontent with the public censorship of the truth of God's good news. Many are turning to homeschooling simply because public school teaching has been so watered down that children aren't asked to think critically anymore, just regurgitate the information told to them.
They are also tired of the Darwinian evolutionary story "being shoved down my kids' throats," as one mother put it. And while many public schools will permit students' headscarves and pentagram jewelry, some will not allow Christian students to express their own faith by praying before football games.
While we can't attend every Christian event in our country or beyond, ICR's mission still remains the same as when Dr. Henry Morris founded it decades earlier: to equip the believer with scientific truths that point to the accuracy of God's Word. After all, if we can't trust what He said He did in Genesis, how can we trust what He said He did on the cross?
Science testifies to the creation. Our testimonies demonstrate salvation. And our hope longs for His return, when He will finally and completely right all the wrongs of our fallen world.
* Ms. Dao is Assistant Editor at the Institute for Creation Research.
Cite this article: Dao, C. 2009. Manning the Booth. Acts & Facts. 38 (11): 6.
