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October/November 2024 Printed Newsletter
Bob Dugas • November 22, 2024
This year we have focused on how the Lord has SPOKEN TO US through Christ. Now we are in the midst of celebrating when the Son of God came to earth, and we must never forget that it had been SPOKEN TO US back in Isaiah’s day: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). “God with us” did not start with Christ’s birth; His desire to be with us started at Creation. Since the beginning, being with us has been His focus. We are His most prized possession in all of creation. His heart to spend all of eternity with us was broken in the Garden with sin, yet it brought no dismay because He has always had the plan. Through the course of history, we can see His plan being worked out even though sin continues. His redemptive plan has not changed or been derailed; it has only progressed, moving us closer and closer to eternity with Him, our Creator and Savior. Two thousand years ago, His desire to be with us compelled Him to put on flesh and be laid in a manger. Immanuel came and fulfilled the plan that has been from the beginning. We, therefore, feel compelled to bring Him glory, especially this time of year as we celebrate His wonderful gift of His Son. Let us not get caught up in all of the Christmas celebration without focusing on the reason for our celebrations. Our Savior was “gifted” to us for our salvation. Praise be to God! As we celebrate His gift to us, we are also celebrating His provision for another year of service to the Kingdom. What a year we at CTF have had, as you can see from our stats below. Your prayers and support continue this work in an impactful way year after year. Our desire is to never stop until we are celebrating face to face with Him in Glory. Till then, we continue to seek ways in which we can further increase our efforts for His Kingdom. At the end of each year, we ask for help with a project that kicks off our new year. This year is no exception - we are raising some extra funds to make our Lexington, OK facility more functional. With the Mobile MOEH expansion completed this year, we need to be able to keep our trucks and trailers better protected from the elements when not on the road, as well as allow more room for working on them in a climate-controlled environment. Our 2025 project is to open a new bay and expand the current one in our warehouse, installing a new garage door and replacing the old worn out one to free up useable space. Our year-end goal for this project is $20,000. So as you pray about supporting our ministry in this very tangible way, remember that the ministry tools this gift will protect and secure are used in a mighty way. We can’t count the times this year that the Mobile MOEH has opened a door or heart to hear the Gospel and save a life for eternity. So, thank you for all the support this year. We praise the Lord for you! Merry Christmas and many blessings to you and your families.
As we approach Thanksgiving, my heart is full of thanks, not only personally but even more so in service to the Lord through Creation Truth Foundation. Over the course of this year, we have added to our productiveness by moving forward with the expansion of our Mobile Museum of Earth History (MOEH). This adds to a great staff, which is another thing for which we are thankful. And of course we are incredibly thankful for you, all of our supporters, who have been as faithful this year as any previous year, with an abundance of extra gifts to push us forward in ministry. As you may know, Doc and Diane launched this ministry out of their garage over 35 years ago with a staff of family members. We are all exceedingly thankful for that call and mission to teach the importance of the Bible’s history so we can trust our promised eternal hope. I am more than thankful for our staff as they serve the Lord day in and day out, never complaining no matter what the task may be that is needing done. Every one of them has a servant’s heart for the Lord and ministry. Bob, our Vice President, has faithfully served for more than 23 years. I am so thankful for his spirit of diligence over the years to Doc and now to all of us. He’s always ready to share a witty comment that is needed for a laugh as well. We would not be who we are without him, and we are thankful to his family who has sacrificed days and weeks at a time for him to go and do ministry on the road. Ryan and Amanda have been nothing more than a God-send since their addition in 2018. Ryan’s ability to preach the Word, sharing the truth of Genesis as well as the importance of history, is priceless. His genuine graciousness and love of people is unmatched as he brings them to the Truth. Our effectiveness for the Kingdom over the last several years is a direct result of Ryan’s passion for ministry. His wife, Amanda, is no exception. She too is gracious and humble in her quiet spirit. How she focuses on eight children and still has time to keep track of our books and resources is amazing. And I must mention the ongoing gift of hospitality that she bestows during every Cadre meeting as she provides wonderful meals that sustain us in our studies (many with her made-from-scratch cooking skills, I might add). Megan, our new office assistant, joined us this spring. Her desire to serve has been evident from the beginning as she is always ready to do whatever is needed. From keeping our office clean and tidy to answering phones, receiving and making shipments, shrink-wrapping bundles of resources, being a road crew member, MOEH expansion assistant and seamstress as needed, to whatever else anyone needs done at a drop of a hat, she is willing and ready. Her defining task as she came aboard was to create the Sharp Library. Taking all of Doc’s books that have been collected over the many years of ministry and organizing them in a fashion for use was more than daunting to all of us, but Megan jumped right in. It was a labor of love to categorize and digitally catalog the books as she physically shelved all 2600+ volumes in Doc’s old office. Now CTF has a library that will be useful for years to come as a legacy to our Founder. She makes this father very proud doing “full-time” ministry in a part-time position. Last but not least, Theresa quietly goes about her job of keeping track of our finances. She is not only the right person for the task from a skills perspective, but even more so from a discerning spirt of stewardship and faithfulness. Tackling the task of wrangling us for our monthly expense reports is a job she does not relish but knows we need to do to be faithful in our service. She is always an encourager to me, as I have experienced the lean years of our ministry, and that is always on my mind as I desire us to continue the mission which the Lord blessed Doc with years ago. Theresa continues to do the necessary job that Diane did for years in this ministry, and she encourages us with the faithfulness of the Lord through our supporters. We take our stewardship of resources very seriously, to be faithful to the Lord and you. Theresa is the God-given right person for the task, and the bonus is that I have experienced her faithful heart for ministry our entire 32 years of marriage. I am blessed and thankful beyond words. I am so thankful for all the Lord has done this year. As Paul encouraged those in 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 to give for the Gospel effort, he also gave thanks for those that had fulfilled that call of the Lord. I now give thanks to the Lord on for you and your support of this ministry. None of what we have accomplished this year would have been even remotely possible without your faithfulness. The CTF team is so thankful for the opportunity to continue impacting lives for the Lord. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”