On Course

It seems as if I've been in school all my life! In fact, if you add up my years of formal education and the time I spent as a professional educator, the sum is 28 years.

As I begin my new position at AiG, I tell people that this is my first “normal” job. I'm used to my life running according to the school calendar.

It should be obvious from my years of educational experience that I highly value education (and biblical education most of all). I taught for six years at a private college. Now as a parent, I have the task of educating my daughter. Even though she is only two, I have already begun to consider her future education and how that should be done once she reaches kindergarten age.

One thing I've begun to realize (and it's echoed in AiG President Ken Ham's book Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World) is that the primary responsibility for her education lies not with the school she attends or the curriculum she uses, but with my husband and me as her parents.

This responsibility is often shirked by Christians, and their children pay the price. We have a responsibility to be educated ourselves-and to educate our churches-so that our proper, biblical roles in society can be fulfilled as we strive to raise godly families.

Sadly, many schools teach young people that they are nothing more than the products of evolutionary processes over millions of years-from bacteria to man. If this becomes the worldview of students, their morality and ethics will follow-and this world will be in much worse shape than it already is. We need to understand the issues of the day and how to tackle them from a biblical worldview.

Ken once told me about a sad conversation he had with a young lady who was the product of the evolutionary-based public education system. She said that “we all have to fight and scratch our way to the top”-a survival-of-the-fittest mentality based on her evolutionary worldview. As a staff member at AiG, I'll be able to reach even more such young people with the much-needed message of hope.

I've been asked several times if I miss teaching. A news reporter even asked why I would “give up” my teaching career. I don't know how to answer those questions because I certainly don't feel I have left teaching. AiG offers many educational opportunities.

In my new position, I will still be educating, albeit at different venues. There will be different topics in front of different audiences. I eagerly look forward to these opportunities.

On course for on-line teaching

I'm especially excited about AiG's new on-line education program. I was asked to be the “virtual professor” for this new course of study. Our first online class is titled “CAP 101: Fundamentals of Creation Apologetics.” I know I'll enjoy the daily interactions with students (something I do miss now), even though it will normally be done via the web. It is my goal (as well as that of AiG) to equip parents, students, churches, and others with the tools they need to build and support a biblical worldview.

Recently, I found several journal entries I had written in 2002 when I began to sense the call to enter creation ministry full time. At the time, I was dealing with frustrations at my current job, and I had the desire to expand our family. How to balance it all was quite daunting.

I wrote in 2002: “Is this why God keeps opening doors to the creation/evolution world [for me]? Will I go through those doors? How does it reconcile with my call to teach? Mass confusion! Maybe I could still teach within that world.” The journal entry continued: “Don't want God to start closing the doors because I didn't step out in faith-maybe I need to be willing to make the total commitment to His will and see what happens from there.”

Well, I'm glad I made that total commitment, stepped out in faith, and have joined AiG. God has blessed me with a familyfriendly position and many teaching opportunities. It's not just a job here-it's a career and a ministry.