Ark—Top 3 Award Finalist, VBS Giveaway, and Other Ministry Updates

Ark and Creation Museum—Top 3 Award Finalists

Both of our attractions, the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum, are top finalists for the 2023 Best in Kentucky awards presented by Kentucky Living Magazine. The Ark Encounter was nominated for the “kid-friendly” category and the Creation Museum for “best museum” category.

Now, we made it to the top three, but we’d love to win the number one spot. If you’d like to vote for us, simply go to this link and make your selections (please note you do not need to vote in all 30 categories if you don’t want to. Simply make the selections you’d like, enter your name and email address, agree to the terms and conditions, and hit submit). You can vote once per day per email address through May 31, 2023. We would love for you all to vote every day for the Ark and Creation Museum.

Thanks for voting for us!

TrueSong Releases New Single, with Album Coming in June

Our Ark Encounter and Creation Museum artists, TrueSong, have signed a contract with the major Christian record label Daywind. This group—which only formed a year ago this month—performs worship, southern gospel, and faith country songs nearly every day at the Ark Encounter and select days at the Creation Museum (check our attractions calendars for daily schedules). They’ve been nominated as “Favorite New Artist” for the 2023 Singing News Fan Awards.

I’m excited that this band, who, through their music and concerts are ambassadors for the Ark and Museum, will be releasing a new album, Tell Someone, on June 9—and you can already listen to their first single (already playing on radio stations such as LifeFM), “Army of Love,” wherever you stream your music. Another single, “Believe for It” will be dropping May 19.

TrueSong is just one of the many bands (over 150 different artists!) performing during our upcoming 40 Days and 40 Nights of Christian Music festival taking place at the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum August 1–September 9, 2023. During this event you’ll also enjoy music from award-winning favorites such as:

• CAIN
• Selah
• Jason Crabb
• Booth Brothers
• Hoppers
• Triumphant
• Cochren & Co
• Natalie Layne
• The Isaacs
• Joe Mullins & Radio Ramblers
• Authentic Unlimited
• The Inspirations
• Ernie Haase & Signature Sound
• Karen Peck & New River
• Guy Penrod
• Brian Free & Assurance
• Emily Ann Roberts
• Joseph Habedank
• Mo Pitney
• and many more of your favorites!

I will also be speaking on various days throughout 40/40. And this isn’t the only music event taking place at the Ark this summer. You can also join us for Singing News’ Faith Country and Bluegrass Music Festival, June 14–17, and Singing News’ Gospel Music Weekends at the Ark, June 2–June 29.

All concerts—even for the special events I mentioned—are included FREE with daily Ark or Creation Museum admission! So be sure to plan a three-day Bouncer pass (or the annual Bouncer pass, which is a fantastic deal) into your visit so you can take in as many of these concerts as possible.

Answers in Genesis Wins a Variety of EPA Awards

During the recent Evangelical Press Association awards ceremony, Answers in Genesis won several awards, including another Award of Merit for our magazine, Answers, and first place for publication redesign for Kids Answers (which is now a 32-page magazine!).

Here’s what the judges shared about Answers:

From cover to cover, there is a high degree of intelligent design (pun intended) to the wide variety of content about science, theology, and other concepts that challenge some mainstream ideas. Taking a visually even-handed approach helps this publication tackle the challenge effectively.

A publication with a unique niche necessary for the Christian community.

And for the exciting Kids Answers redesign:

This new design is FANTASTIC! Kids’ publications can sometimes reflect a “they won't notice if we don’t bring our A game” mindset. This organization chose to invest more deeply in this audience and empowered their design team to take the publication from really good to great.

A lot of hard work and smart visual thinking goes into this publication: it honors an audience that is often overlooked but still deserves our very best.

We took home two other first place wins, including:

• Infographic
• General article: short (we also placed 4th in this category)

And a variety of other awards:

• Article series (4th place)
• Biblical exposition (2nd place)
• Blog: single post (2nd place)
• Blog: website (4th place)
• Cover (4th place)
• General article: medium (5th place)
• Original art: traditional (2nd place)
• Video: long-form (3rd place)
• Titles (3rd and 4th place)

As you can see, we won a lot of awards in a wide variety of areas! A big congratulations to our very talented staff who work so hard to proclaim the message of biblical authority and the gospel with excellence every single day. (And we are hiring, so if you’d like to join our team, consider our current openings!)

You can learn more about our multi-award-winning magazine, Answers, and Kids Answers (which comes free with your Answers subscription), at AnswersMagazine.com.

2024 Answers VBS Giveaway

In just a few weeks we will reveal the theme for our 2024 Answers VBS. But in the meantime, we are offering an exciting giveaway where you have the opportunity to win the grand prize of a free Super Starter Kit + Digital and a $1,000 shopping spree on our bookstore for VBS materials.

You can also win these prizes:

• Answers VBS 2024 Super Starter Kit
• Answers VBS 2024 Super Starter Kit + Digital
• Answers VBS 2024 Super Starter Kit + Digital and $100 VBS shopping spree
• Answers VBS 2024 Super Starter Kit + Digital and $250 VBS shopping spree

I encourage you to enter today for an opportunity to win and stay tuned for the exciting theme reveal. Learn more about our current theme, Keepers of the Kingdom, a very powerful armor of God themed VBS, at AnswersVBS.com.

Two Encouraging Emails

I thought I’d end this blog with two encouraging emails that we recently received:

I just wanted to take a minute to let you all know that your time and commitment to research this world’s information (and disinformation) has led me to get back into the Truth and Bible information. Thank you so much for all you do!

Dear AiG, I am 16 years old and from Ohio...I absolutely love the work that you all do and I admire your passion for the Lord and your perseverance through the storms. I see all of the horrible things the world does because you stand for what is right, the challenges Mr. Ham faced when building his ministry, and I think that the words in Matthew 5 apply here nicely, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Thank you for all of the work that you do and for providing Biblical teaching. Thanks!

We are so thankful for how the Lord is using this ministry to encourage, strengthen, challenge, and equip his church, as well as challenge unbelievers with the message of the truth and authority of God’s Word and the gospel. All glory to God!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

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