Ark Encounter “A Major Feat of Excellence”

We recently received this email from the media director of a church in Tennessee. After visiting the Ark with her husband, she encourages everyone—believer and unbeliever—to come to the Ark Encounter.

The Ark Encounter is an amazing project. Many articles are well written in support of the project and how it shares the Biblical facts of Noah's Ark in many wonderful ways. Of course, this educational aspect is a vital part of why the project was undertaken, and you should explore all these articles so you can be prepared to see the Ark from this viewpoint. However, I would like to challenge you to open your eyes a little further and view it from another perspective as well.

Speaking as a family of designers, engineers, excavators, and non-profit founders who know what it takes to accomplish a project of varying size and cost . . . EVERYONE needs to make the trip to see this exhibit. All Christians should come and bring their families to show support to the Ark Encounter project, which will enable it to build its client base and sustain its purpose. All non-believers should come to view it as an exhibit—as they would many others around the country—just to marvel at its size and impeccable craftsmanship.

The Ark Encounter project is a major feat of excellence in engineering, design, and implementation. The craftsmanship alone is worth viewing. There is not a visible construction flaw in anything we saw—the woodworking, the details of the exhibits—including the awesome animals, cages, living quarters, mannequins, and the actual old Bibles in languages from around the world are all wonderful to view.

Look at the exhibits through the eyes of the designers, engineers, and craftsmen to appreciate all the forethought, planning, and prayer that went into the project. From the signage; to the parking lot with its clear directions and parking attendants; to the new buses to quickly carry you up the new access road with its new bridge; to the view of the Ark's home area with the guest services building, complete with motorized scooters, wheelchairs, and walkers to assist guests; to the restroom building; to the man-made pond; to the restaurant, petting zoo and zip line areas. Don't just look at the complex from a visitor's consumptive eye, but view it from the visualization of how the property evolved from nothing but empty land to a complete complex.

Then view the Ark itself, when you are touring the inside, from all aspects: the smoothness of the wood and the way all the massive timbers fit together so properly and securely; the coverage of the sound system speakers so there isn't a dead spot anywhere while you're walking and how the sounds change to fit the exhibit location that you are viewing without being distracted by the previous or outside exhibits' sounds; the placement of the lighting fixtures on the exhibits and how the choices of color and focus add to the details of the items that you are viewing; to the exquisite detail and painstaking hours that it took the designers and artists to layout and draw/design the many murals, signs, explanations, and directions that are displayed throughout the Ark—notice the selection of the fonts and how they are readable—and how the colors and design and content all work together cleanly so what you are viewing is easy to read and understand.

Think about how many hands/eyes/minds it took to design/create/paint/sew/build/install all the beautiful animals and props that they have included on the Ark.

Don't just walk through and say "Oh, that's nice," but walk through and really look at the detail that is a part of the entire project. It seems that everything has been done with "excellence," and this is how it should be for anything that is undertaken by Christians—for we are called to excellence—so why should it be surprising when it is accomplished for a project of this size? It shouldn't be a surprise; it shouldn't be taken for granted; it should be celebrated and supported.

So make a plan, take a trip, buy your ticket, eat in the restaurant, buy something in the gift shop to support this project and further the education of both Christians and unbelievers. Just as you might support a musical concert, a sporting event, another theme park, a trip to wherever—add this stop to your list and help spread the word. Invite your friends and family to come with you or to plan their own adventure. Bring your kids and students to have an amazing day of learning God's truths. Let's help this project take off and grow and help them to honor our God with the Truth of one Bible fact. Cover the project in prayer so that all who come will be moved to explore the topic further and study the scriptures for God's truths to be revealed for all areas of their lives.

Now that’s what I call a real review as opposed to what often appears in newspapers, magazines, and blogs about the Ark!

If you haven’t been to see this engineering marvel, I encourage you to plan your trip to our full-size Ark at ArkEncounter.com.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.