Have Message, Will Travel

Joy, relief, confidence, renewed passion for the faith––each of these and more characterizes reaction from first-time hearers of RTB’s message. That message resonated with global audiences in recent months as RTB scholars traveled to three continents.

Amid initial uncertainty about how––even if––he would be received, Hugh Ross addressed audiences all over Down Under (seven events in Launceston, three events in Perth, three events in Brisbane) during Easter week. Australian churches in general seem to hold strongly to young-earth creationism. One pastor received a flurry of negative emails prior to Hugh’s arrival calling for a boycott of his events. Despite fears of poor turnouts, Hugh spoke in front of sizeable audiences about harnessing the power of science for evangelism (among other topics) and helped change minds. One person remarked, “My vision of God was far too small––now I need a bigger one.”

Later in April, Fuz Rana flew to Lima, Peru, with a group from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. The team members spoke fifteen times at multiple venues around Lima that included churches, universities, and a private event hosted by the surgeon general of Peru. Fuz spoke on creation-evolution issues in both the poorest and wealthiest parts of the city and the response was the same: hunger for apologetics and for the gospel. At one church nearly 100 people responded to Fuz’s invitation to receive Christ.

Jeff Zweerink traveled to the United Kingdom in July to speak in Shrewsbury, birthplace of Charles Darwin, then at two churches in London, and at Unbelievable? The Conference, the largest Christian apologetics conference (900 attendees) in the UK. Among other topics, Jeff addressed the question, Is atheism winning the battle for science? One conference attendee said, “I just recently became a Christian and never realized how well the Bible is supported by science.” Another attendee showed his enthusiasm for RTB by directing people to the book table and telling them: “Have you seen this stuff before? RTB has been the most infl uential part of my Christian life over the last two years!”

Despite occasional travel mishaps, including a wrong-way train ride outside London (corrected with the help of a kind station officer), the RTB team always returns to the office with reports of breakthroughs––sometimes with skeptics, other times with Christians––as RTB’s message of science-as-faith’s-friend moves hearts and changes minds everywhere.