New Day Trips for 2012

Dear Friends,

We took several wonderful one day Gorge trips this past year, hosting nearly 300 new homeschoolers. It was a joy to be with these families to who appreciate God's amazing creation evidences right here in the Columbia Gorge. Because of the popularity of these day trips we are expanding the variety and number for 2012. Most of the family day trips are scheduled for Saturdays (see below), but we can do weekdays if that works best for your school or group.

Please click on the Tours below for trip descriptions and pictures. Further details, costs, and registration forms will be available on our website after the first of the year.

You can also get updates as they become available on our Facebook and Twitter pages:

facebook.com/CreationEncounter
twitter.com/c_encounter

We hope to see you soon and wish you a blessed new year,

John Hergenrather, Dennis Bokovoy, Steve Hayley, Rick & Sylvia Thompson

2012 Tour Schedule

Book News

Worth waiting for: New guidebook will be published in March, 2012!

The new Your Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks will be ready for purchase this spring. Sorry for the delay, but this essential guide will be ready for the 2012 vacation season. Our next guidebook will be Your Guide to Yosemite, Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks with special section on Death Valley National Park, in the works for printing in 2013. These amazing parks are all within five hours drive of each other.

All of these guidebooks give detailed information on the geology and climate, biology and ecology, history and archeology, fossils and formations in these national parks. The books are intertwined with a powerful biblical perspective which refutes the evolutionary view of the origin of the parks. Presented in a non-technical, conversational style, they are packed with hundreds of anecdotal evidences that point to the handiwork of the Creator. They contain panoramic photos on 3-page fold-outs for the sites you can't miss while exploring these beautiful parks. If you would like more information on our previous books, please visit our Road Guides website at: www.RoadGuides.net.

Life Above the Boiling Point?

On our S.E. Oregon trip last September we found a tiny horned toad (pictured below, sitting on a participant's finger!). We also discovered mudpots, fumaroles, and colorful life forms growing in water way too hot to touch. Heat-loving microorganisms, called thermophiles, were first discovered in Yellowstone National Park in 1961. How can life thrive in boiling water? They have specially designed enzymes enabling their DNA to replicate at extremely high temperatures. These heat-stable enzymes form the basis for DNA fingerprinting from which has grown a huge industry in crime scene detection. From airplane design, to Velcro, to NASA robotics, a great many of man's inventions are based on examining God's designs in nature.

Amazing Undeserved Goodness

On our field trips many people have shared how they have experienced God in a deeper way. This is a privilege and a purpose of our trips and there are reasons for this. For one thing, God wants to be known and he finds ways to communicate with us. He says in Jeremiah 9:24, "But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me..." One of the ways God has chosen to reveal himself to us is through nature. "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities ... have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made..." Seeing the unseen means you are able to see "with the eyes of your heart" (Eph 1:18). This kind of knowing and understanding runs deeper than concepts and precepts and is a great gift from God.

But when we see God in a manger and on a cross, he reveals himself in an even more personal way. He shows us that he will do anything to communicate with us. He withheld nothing, but gave it all and paid it all to secure a loving relationship with us. Now we are free to simply love him and receive his amazing (undeserved) goodness. Joy to the World!