100K Subscribers—An AiG Canada Outreach Ministry Milestone!

The silver lining in the dark cloud of Covid

by Calvin Smith on May 15, 2024
Featured in Calvin Smith Blog

Hello AiG–Canada supporters! If you had asked me if I’d been able to say something positive about the whole COVID situation a few years ago, I’d have to have been honest and say, “I can’t really think of much at all!”

AiG–Canada staff with YouTube silver play button

AiG–CA was still a fledgling ministry here in Canada, just beginning to put on conferences, letting people know AiG resources were available from our Canadian warehouse, introducing our Answers Bible Curriculum and amazing VBS programs to churches, and helping believers stand on the authority of God’s Word through a wide variety of educational tools and events we were developing.

And then, suddenly, everything was shut down. Churches were closed and restrictions kicked in, hindering outreach efforts as everything ground to a halt.

Beginning Our Video Production Journey

Realizing the only path to continue communicating our message of biblical authority was through online platforms, we did a small fundraising campaign to purchase some entry-level cameras and immediately began shooting videos to continue our mission.

Looking back at some of our original content, I can see that our enthusiasm outweighed our skill level sometimes, but our desire to continue sharing the truth of God’s Word from the very first verse spurred us on to get better and more creative all the time.

With everything locked down, the only place to shoot most of our content was in my living room. My very patient wife watched all manner of equipment flow into it as the regular furniture was piled into an adjacent room.

  • Living room props
  • Living room props
  • Living room props
  • Living room props

Modest Beginnings

With a shoestring budget, many of the props used in filming were thrift store items or homemade creations—such as the cardboard and wooden-popsicle-stick-covered Noah’s ark model featured in our 10-part series “The Genesis Account of Noah’s Ark”—all filmed in front of printed curtains hanging behind me (ordered online).

  • Ark prop
  • Ark prop
  • Ark prop

The Lord’s Blessing!

It has been amazing to see what the Lord brought about through our efforts.

However, it has been amazing to see what the Lord brought about through our efforts, as that series’ 10 episodes alone have now been viewed over 8 million times on multiple platforms. It proved so successful on the Ark Encounter YouTube channel that we were asked to produce a second season (titled “Dealing with Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark”) to be released on our channel this fall.

And so, with us growing our skills, expanding our studio, and purchasing more professional equipment because of the faithful support of our AiG–CA donors, we have just reached a ministry milestone that is quite rare—a 100K subscriber award from YouTube celebrating the growth of our channel.

Trojan horse prop

Prop horse used in our early feature video production titled “The Trojan Horse of Long Ages”!

Now Seeing What the Lord Foresaw

It is estimated that out of all the YouTube channels out there, less than half of 1% ever reach 100K subscribers! And being that our channel only began on February 13, 2019, the over 12 million views our videos have attained is certainly something we are excited about.

So I can now heartily declare that there was a definite silver lining to the dark cloud of COVID, as we would never have been challenged to move ahead with this initiative had we not been challenged with the lockdowns.

Of course, this is all in accordance with what the Word of God says!

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Please Help Us Continue to Equip the Lord’s People

The Lord has inspired us to attempt to increase the quality and variety of our productions to an even greater level.

Thanks so much to all who have helped us this far. However, we are not simply happy to just carry on in the exact same way as we have been. The Lord has inspired us to attempt to increase the quality and variety of our productions to an even greater level.

All of which, of course, takes time, talent, and technology. So to those who would like to help us reach an exponentially larger group of people here in Canada and around the world to stand on the authority of God’s Word, we ask that you consider donating to the AiG–CA ministry regularly and/or consider a one-time donation for our Answers TV studio upgrade so that we can continue to impact lives around the world!

Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

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