Often families send out Christmas/end-of-the-year letters to their family and friends to relate what has happened throughout the year and how God has led and blessed. I would like to do the same with you, the ICR "family," as we look back on an incredible year. Through it all, our Lord has been faithful and showed Himself strong on ICR's behalf.
Research
The case for scientific and Biblical creation has never been stronger, but some questions remain to be answered. To address the need in physics and cosmology, we added Dr. D. Russell Humphreys to our full-time staff. He'll be available for limited speaking, but primarily his duties will focus on research. We look forward to real breakthroughs in this area.
Research on the discovery of billions of fossil nautiloids in Grand Canyon is leading to the publication of a technical paper in a geology journal while the research on radioisotope dating continues. Preliminary indications seem to indicate that radioisotope decay rates have changed in the past. Dr. Steve Austin's fascinating research on the geologic events of the Sodom and Gomorrah disaster points to major movements along the East African Rift zone (which goes through the Dead Sea) as the means God used to judge these wicked cities.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ken Cumming and the biology graduate students continue to research the discontinuity between "kinds" of animals, both in the present, the fossils, and in the genomes. Genomes are the new major research thrust in creation thinking. Already it has revealed another layer of design and information underlying the genetic code. Dr. Larry Vardiman continues to probe the mysteries of the pre-Flood and post-Flood environments and the nature of the "mega-storms" during the Flood.
The Graduate School houses and facilitates this research as well as the discipling of new researchers. The full-time faculty was joined by eight adjunct professors last summer. Thirty-seven students took courses this summer, a "full" student body for a graduate/research school with our sized faculty. Seventeen other students continued work on their thesis projects, or took courses on-line.
Communication
The Graduate School could be considered ICR's primary communication tool, but it only directly reaches a chosen few. The Outreach Division, on the other hand, reaches untold multitudes with the creation message.
Several national factors held the number of large seminars rather low, but the smaller type seminars, loop tours, and speaking engagements numbered nearly 250. Couple these with Good Science workshops, youth camps, and school conferences, and the number of people reached neared 100,000. A good and effective year.
The radio ministry continues to expand. The one-minute "Back to Genesis" program and the 15-minute creation radio "magazine" "Science, Scripture & Salvation" are now heard on over 1700 outlets. Four "Jonathan Park Adventure" radio specials also appeared this year.
Our "public information services" division, which answers the myriads of e-mails generated by the website, was quite busy handling well over 4500 inquiries. Speaking of the website, (www.icr.org) thousands of people from around the world visit this site every day. Each of our science staff were also interviewed often on radio and television, totaling at least 60 interviews we can remember.
Several books and other products were completed this year. The Remarkable Wisdom of Solomon by Dr. H. Morris and booklets, The Amazing Prophetic Claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, Impact of the Empty Tomb, The Scientific Case Against Evolution, and videos/CD Origin of Life Equipping Manual by Mike Riddle. Many more are nearing completion so next year should yield a "bumper crop."
Acts & Facts continues to go out each month, bringing up-to-date creation information to 134,954 readers. Days of Praise reaches 287,691 each quarter, to individuals who enjoy a daily devotional Bible study. Subscriptions to each of these publications can be arranged on-line, a blessing now claimed by 8200 and 3000 subscribers respectively. The ICR website, "Updates and News," now reaches about 5000 creation enthusiasts.
Administration
Financially, this has been a difficult year for ICR. But God supplied every need, and with creative administration, mostly by delaying certain projects and expenditures,
each bill was paid and our policy of no debt was upheld. Praise His Name!
Several major new initiatives are in the developmental stage but these will need financing from outside our normal sources. Thus we hired Dr. Henry Morris III, my older brother, who has a strong track record in business and finance to contact foundations and potential major donors in an attempt to expand the ICR ministry.
In general, the ICR faculty and staff remains in good spirits and good health. This includes the ICR stalwarts, my father, Dr. Henry Morris and Dr. Duane Gish. In both cases their wives are in ill health, minimizing the time they can put in at the office. Both continue to be very productive from home, but please pray for them and their wives.
I feel that Biblical and scientific creation ministry is dramatically on the rise. With the surge of interest in old-earth, semi-creation thinking on the wane, the church is returning to a belief in all of Scripture, once again, and we are poised for major advances. Thank you for standing with us. Together let us accomplish much for the Kingdom—encouraging the faith of Christians, answering questions and satisfying doubts, and pointing the non-Christian to our great Creator/Savior Jesus Christ, and the accuracy of His word. Our Creator deserves our very best.
* Dr. Morris is President of ICR.
