And Now, the Results ...

(The conclusion to "Preparing My Own 'Relevance of Genesis'" and "The Night Before") I wanted to post the results of my "Relevance of Genesis" presentation along with the video from it, but technical difficulties are preventing me from getting the video online, but watch for it soon. Tuesday, November 15, I gave AiG's main message, "Relevance of Genesis," to Ken Ham, the AiG speaker review team, and any staff who wanted to watch during their lunch break. That morning, I was feeling great and excited about the opportunity ahead. As usual, it wasn't until several people kept asking me, "Are you nervous?" that I started to feel nervous. By the time 10 o'clock stumbled around, I was quite anxious. But relief came in the form of a nice distraction of finally receiving my new Sager 5720-V notebook computer. I spent the next hour installing software on it and setting it up. Around 11:15, I began setting things up in Creation Museum's Nehemiah Room. I prayed a lot during this time. At 11:45, I called my two greatest spiritual mentors, my dad and my pastor, and asked them to pray with me before I spoke. Both gave comforts and expressed their confidence that God's will would be done. After finishing on the phone, Mark Looy announced over the intercom, "Daniel Lewis' brown bag talk will begin in ten minutes." It seemed so strange to hear my name announced like that. Several weeks before, I had emailed Outlook appointment invitations to my closest friends and respected individuals at AiG. I was so encouraged to see them entering the room around 11:50. Ken introduced me by making some jokes but also telling of when I approached him asking what I could do to eventually become a speaker. I'm one of the few staff to have done this. Ken then turned everything over to me. I took a deep breath, looked at the faces of the fifty-or-so staff who sat before me—some of my closest friends. In silence, I turned toward my computer screen, but I wasn't looking at it. I prayed one last time before I opened my mouth, and then I started a talk that could change the direction of the rest of my life. I had waited ten years for this opportunity. As I spoke, things became a blur. I tried to make eye-contact with every person in the room. And when I stumbled over something or felt unsure of something that I had said, I would just look toward one of my close friends, and I knew that they had confidence in me. But it wasn't their looks that encouraged me; rather, they were reminders that, even though the "pastor" was before me (these were far more committed people that just the "choir"), I was presenting for the Lord and following His leading on my life. It was a little unnerving to see some of the speaker review team writing things down, but I pretended that they were just taking notes to remember the message. When people present these talks for the speaker review team, we are expected to talk as if in front of a church that has never heard the issues before. And we also have to promote some products; not for money motivations, but because the people need the resources for them to understand and remember the issues and know how to respond. So, at the end of my talk, I also promoted a handful of important resources. While I was doing this, I saw Ken get up and whisper something to Tom, our director of outreach. I closed with about three minutes left from my forty-five–minute limit. Ken came to the front to say some things before dismissed everyone but the review team. He heckled about me having illustrations that he didn't (benefits of being the presentation designer—I can create my own images). But then Ken said, "There are a few ways that you could tweak your explanations or make something a little more clear. But I wouldn't be embarrassed for you to give this talk in churches right away." That really surprised me, but I wouldn't jump to conclusions. I spent almost two hours total with the whole review team and some of the individual members. Almost everything that they pointed out were just minor tweaks like expounding on something more, explaining a concept differently, or changing some of my wording in places—all fairly small things. There were some funny mistakes that I made. I displayed an image that shows the generations from Adam to Christ and I called it "The geologies in Scripture." I also mixed up some words somewhere else and said, "You can't have no death before sin," which I think partially fit in the context, but it's too close to bad grammar. At one point, Tom said, "We'll talk very soon," which left me in suspense. I returned to my daily presentation design job until about 6:00 that evening. I stopped by Tom's office just to thank him for giving me the opportunity and for being there, but we got into a conversation. In the conversation, he said a couple things that stood out to me, but I decided to ask for clarification later, which I did that Thursday. In response to a direct question, Tom told me, "Yes, Daniel, Ken was impressed with your presentation and he has approved you to be AiG's next speaker"! I could hardly believe it! I am now an official speaker for Answers in Genesis! WOW! Thank you all very much for your thoughts and especially your prayers. This is truly an answer to my long-time prayers and the fulfillment of a dream that I've had for more than ten years. I was reminded of Psalm 37:4 …

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Starting early 2006, AiG will first send me along with other speakers like Bodie Hodge, Dr. Jason Lisle, Carl Kerby, and Dr. Terry Mortenson. I would preach "Relevance of Genesis" in Sunday School, and my "buddy speaker" would preach a different message during the main service (such as a more scientific talk). The wisdom from these men will be invaluable in fine-tuning my presentations so that I may best communicate the vital truth. After maybe a few months of this partnering, AiG will start sending me out by myself to first local churches, then regional, and eventually national. It's also exciting to see that I'm the first (of many to come) second-generation creation/biblical authority speaker. All of the other speakers discovered the truths mostly first-hand. But I grew up learning the truth from my parents, my church, and through the other creation scientists and speakers before me. In a sense, I'm the product of their ministry of the truth. But I know that many more will come in the future as parents are raising up their children understanding the final authority and accurate history of the Word of God. AiG leadership are excited because they see me as easily connecting with a homeschool audience, since I can stand up and say, "I was homeschooled too, and here's what I noticed ..." And for this reason, they want to promote the fact that I don't have a degree. Although some people are indoctrinated by our culture into thinking that only degree-holding speakers are reputable enough to speak on the subject of origins, the reality is that since evolution/millions of years is a belief system about the past and not actual operational science, it doesn't take a degree to refute it. After all, creationists and evolutionists have the same facts (same Earth, same fossils, same rock layers, same stars, same physics, same operational/observational science, etc.) but different interpretations of those facts based upon beliefs about the past. Now, I'm working on writing my bio for the AiG website while event schedulers are looking for venues for me in the coming months. In everything, I hope that my life phrase rings out above all of these exciting events: "To God—and God alone—be the glory!"