March 29, 2004 - The Creation Tour Report

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The Creation Tour Report
By Christian Richardson with Arlo Moehlenpah
March 29, 2004

11 February 2004 Wednesday
Well I just spoke to Bro. Arlo Moehlenpah, and the first stop on the United Pentecostal Church’s Campus Ministry International (CMI) Creation vs. Evolution Tour of Florida colleges and churches was a great success! They had approximately 35 people show up for their 1 p.m. event on the Florida International University-Miami (FIU) campus—including two professors. Strangely, however, the professor (Dr. Martin L. Tracey) who was scheduled to debate did not show up! Bro. Moehlenpah did a presentation followed by questions from the audience.

His initial 30-minute presentation showed the following:

1. Evolution is not scientific in that it is not observable, subject to experimentation, verifiable or repeatable.

2. Evolution contradicts scientific laws such as the law of biogenesis, the law of kinds and the second law of thermodynamics.

3. Evolution is not mathematically probable in that it has been estimated that the probability of a living cell forming by chance is less than 1 in 10 to the 40,000th power. There is a greater chance for an explosion in a print shop producing a dictionary than there is for a living cell to form by chance.

One of the professors who did come (Dr. Edward J. Reininger, Physiologist and Chairman of Classic/Foreign Film Discussion Group) got very angry during the presentation. During the question and answer session a Baptist student turned around and asked him why he was so angry. Afterward the CMI Chaplain, Brian Fegter, befriended (the professor) and has plans to meet with him again in the future.

Other valuable contacts were made and the CMI ministry of Bro. Mark Hattabaugh’s church in Fort Lauderdale made a positive impression on their campus. Thanks to Elizabeth Tovar, this ministry, “Apostolic Christian Fellowship” was founded just this year. And already they have had this event and a very successful Holy Ghost rally (three received the Holy Ghost and one was baptized) in addition to their regularly scheduled activities. Way to go, Fort Lauderdale!

Next stop is FAU at West Palm Beach on Thursday, Feb 12.

12 February 2004 Thursday
On Day 2, the Apostolic Christian College Fellowship hosted Bro. Moehlenpah at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton). This ministry is led by Trecina Anderson under the pastorate of Bro. Daniel Kyle located in West Palm Beach. This time the debate opponent, Nwadiuto Esiobu, Associate Professor of Microbiology, actually showed up! She is involved in biodefense projects involving practices for dealing with bioterrorism.

The exchange between the two opponents was very cordial, and they had a friendly conversation afterwards. It turns out that the science professor has the Holy Ghost and believes in the miraculous power of God (two of her children were healed from sickle cell anemia)—but for some reason she tries to unite the Theory of Evolution with the scriptures.

There were about 105 people in attendance at this event! A lot of great contacts were made with students as well as with the science professor.

13 February 2004 Friday
Dr. Moehlenpah was scheduled to be at Valencia Community College (VCC) and at the University of Central Florida (UCF) on Friday the 13th. The VCC Student Activities Office somehow decided that the room had not been reserved early enough (although they usually accept reservations in the same time-frame) and that the event had to be cancelled. The club at UCF has not been officially registered yet. (They turned in their paperwork months ago, but the office is dragging their feet.)

Still the school allowed them to hold the event, but promotion was very limited. As it turns out, Chaplain Jeff Goodman and CMI Chapter President Eric Sierra felt that the smaller attendance they had lent to a tremendous opportunity to make close personal contacts with several people. Of those contacts, one particular Catholic young man has said that he definitely intends to visit the sponsoring church (The Pentecostals of Apopka, Pastor Mike Williams) and he wants a personal Bible study!

So God once again shows that He has a perfect plan! Opposition does nothing more than to help Him shape it!

17 February 2004 Tuesday
We had our installment of Dr. Moehlenpah’s Florida tour right here in Bellview/Ocala today. He spoke at Central Florida Community College, where no professors were willing to debate. There were eight people there connected with our church (about eight of our usual CMI people are out of town for their senior trip) and 17 who are not connected to our church—about five of whom are evolutionists. We made valuable contacts. One young man came to eat with us afterward and then came with his wife to our church service tonight. We ate with them at Wendy’s after the church service and made a very strong connection. There were additional visitors at the church service—all as a result of our radio advertisements. The service was awesome—good information accompanied by a powerful anointing!

Tomorrow is the USF debate against a director of “Atheists of Florida.”

18 February 2004 Wednesday
The fifth stop on this tour was at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa Bay, and at the UPCI church pastored by Bro. Daniel Davy. Natasha Manigat is the president of the CMI chapter at USF and did a splendid job organizing this; she was the moderator for the debate. At USF around 125 (over 100 visitors!) came to hear the debate between Dr. Moehlenpah and James Young of the Atheists of Florida organization. He wrote the following before the debate.

The following biographical information may be used to introduce me.

James A. Young was born, raised, and continues to reside in Hillsborough County, Florida. At the age of 16 he accepted Jesus as his personal savior and accepted a calling to carry the gospel of salvation to as many others as possible. He later abandoned that ministry.

Today, James is Chairman of the Board of Atheists of Florida, Past President of the Humanist Association of West Central Florida, and a member/supporter of numerous other organizations…James is a regular participant in USF’s Bull Market. His atheist/humanist outreach booth can be easily found there most Wednesdays. Additionally, James is actively involved in Atheists of Florida’s production of a television broadcast titled “Atheist Forum” aired on Hillsborough County’s Tampa Bay Community Network.

On behalf of Atheists of Florida, I thank you for extending this invitation. I will arrive at Marshall Center ballroom by 11:30 am on February 18th fully prepared to debate.

James A. Young

The format was the same at every campus—each speaker was given 30 minutes to present his position, then a five-minute rebuttal. This was followed by questions from the audience that were turned in on cards that were given to members of the audience. The debate was professionally videotaped. (Information below.)

The result was an extremely sound victory for the anti-evolution position. James Young could not show how evolution was scientific, how it did not contradict scientific laws or was mathematically possible. One of the students mentioned that an atheist walked out of the session disgusted at how poorly the evolutionist did.

“I might mention that in his presentation he said that he had been a Pentecostal preacher. I think he was stunned that in my rebuttal I said that I was a Pentecostal preacher also,” Bro. Moehlenpah said.

Several of the visitors followed over to the revival service at the church in the evening, where Bro. Moehlenpah spoke briefly and Bro. Greg Godwin preached. Reportedly some of the visitors ended up in the altar and may have received the Holy Ghost!

This was the report as of March 16: “Two unsaved young ladies that attended the Debate came to Bible study last night and after the lesson (on the Baptism of the Holy Ghost), they both had a desire to receive the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Also Joe Reinhardt (the one who did the videotaping), has been coming to our Monday campus ministry Bible study.”

Last two stops: Thursday at University of Florida for a seminar/discussion and Friday at Florida State University (FSU) for a debate with a highly qualified science professor.

19 Florida 2004 Thursday
The University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville got its taste of Truth tonight. Karissa Thomas attends Pastor Arnold's church in Gainesville, FL and is the president of campus ministry at UF, The Difference. In a meeting with some of the CMI people at UF before the discussion event, the Lord quickened to Dr. Moehlenpah’s mind Ephesians 3:20, which states, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”

There were somewhat over 30 people in attendance, over 20 of whom were visitors. One young man actually gave them a lot of trouble. By his own admission, he came to heckle and he did his best to frustrate the events. But in spite of that, a great impact was made on the minds and lives of some UF students. Some approached Bro Moehlenpah after the session to thank him, saying that they had never heard anything like that before. While the natural mind would think that not much is accomplished while someone is trying specifically to interfere, God made it clear ahead of time that He was going to do more than the natural mind can perceive! While some fruit was seen tonight, I believe even more will be recognizable later.

Perhaps the climax of the tour will be the final debate tomorrow night (Friday) at Florida State University (FSU).

21 February 2004 Saturday
Bro. Amilcah Gomes of the FSU chapter of CMI sent me a report on their event from last night. He did such a good job that I am copying it to you rather than writing my own version:

We hosted our Creation vs. Evolution Debate with Dr. Moehlenpah last night, where a biological evolutionist professor, Dr. David Houle, was willing to debate. Both of them presented PowerPoint multimedia presentations with rebuttals and questions from an audience of approximately 250 people, about 230 of them were visitors. Many positions were represented in last night’s audience, including other campus ministries, the Union of Freethinking Students, Pagan Student Association, and those simply seeking more Truth. The Truth of God’s Word definitely permeated the atmosphere as Bro. Moehlenpah gave his presentation on how evolution is not scientific (without even having to mention anything about God in his argument until the evolutionist professor first mentioned Him).

Many people stayed to talk to Bro. Moehlenpah and also to us from CMI after the debate. Amidst the many contacts that we received through last night’s debate (over 40 cards, 10 requesting Bible studies), one was made with a Pentecostal who already believes in the Apostolic Doctrine, and one contact card struck me so hard that I have to quote what it says on the back:

Prayer Request:

“I need to find God. PLEASE come help me.”

She requested to find out more about CMI and have a home Bible study.

We truly thank God for all of your prayers and for all those who helped us to coordinate this debate. We’re looking forward to Bro. Moehlenpah speaking in tomorrow morning’s service at our church, as several visitors from the debate will be there.

We also have pictures that will be available soon. Also, the debate was recorded onto video, but we have yet to review the master copy and see its quality. As several people have asked about tapes, I will let you know whether or not we can have them available.

Lots of people commented on how well organized it turned out to be, even the agnostics and pagans! It was pretty unanimous from comments from the audience and their response, as well as their behavior :-) that the debate was very informative, to say the least. It’s been said that the debate was an event that we would never forget!

This is a testimony that can also help with advertising events such as the Creation vs. Evolution Debate:

We had students and teachers who came to the debate from the local public schools (junior and senior high, as well as the colleges), many of whom, upon taking flyers to their science teachers, were able to receive extra credit in class for attending.

From now on, whenever we hold an event that piques the interest of the world of science, math, history, etc. we’ll try to get the word out to all of our students and teachers. Even our evolution professor heavily promoted the debate in all of his Biology classes.

God is truly awesome!

22 February 2004 Sunday
Amilcah Gomes emailed again:

The church service on Sunday morning went very well. Bro. Moehlenpah was able to go into even more detail on not only the sense that Creation makes, but also about who that Creator is! We had about three visitors from the debate on campus, one of whom brought with her two others, and another who had actually been baptized in Jesus’ Name and attended an Apostolic church. That makes a total of about seven visitors.

We are yet seeing God’s blessings through last Friday’s debate and Sunday morning’s service.

Three emails followed; they are summarized below:

From Amilcah Gomes:

God has been doing wonderful things here since the debate. Most of the visitors that we had for church on Sunday will be returning tomorrow. God has opened the door for me to teach two home/dorm Bible studies, and I plan on the others being taught very soon.

From Shanathan Crayton (on 2 March 2004):

I want to be the first to let you know that God has blessed us with a soul, who's seeking for the Holy Ghost at our church. (His name is Keith, by the way!). Keep him in prayer that God will fill him. He showed up at the debate, and we discovered that he attended a UPC church back in West Palm Beach, Florida and was looking for a church here in Tallahassee! It's a God-thing, you would say!

From Shanathan Crayton (on 15 March 2004):

Thanks, again, for the Creation vs. Evolution Debate. God has blessed us with Keith receiving the precious gift of the Holy Ghost! What a blessing from God.

ninetyandnine.com

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Christian Richardson is Florida District Coordinator, of Campus Ministries International. Dr. Arlo Moehlenpah, author of the book Creation Versus Evolution: Scientific and Religious Considerations, has earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Minnesota, and a Doctor of Science degree from Washington Universiity. These degrees were in Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in physical science. He also graduated from Apostolic Bible Institute with a Bachelor’s degree in Apostolic Studies.

To obtain the videotaped debate on DVD and VHS, visit: www.doinggood.org.

For more information on Campus Ministry International, email cmi@upci.org.