Refocus
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| Femur and me |
Hi!
I feel like I've been a bit out of commission on my public engagement this year. I also feel like I've been incredibly busy, so that's weird. Anyway, here's a brief rundown of what's up.
The first four months of my year was consumed with an unexpected stint of substitute teaching. Like Jacob wrestling with the angel, I was blessed through that experience but it took a toll. Part of that blessing is a little building project my wife and I started back in January, financed by this extra teaching. I've been teasing it on Facebook all year, but I haven't really said what it's for. Mostly because I don't have a singular vision for what it's for. We live in a small house, just 800 square feet, and it's crowded. We wanted some extra living space. Something that could be an office, a bit of creative space, a getaway, a gameroom, a reading nook, a nap zone. Whatever. So we built a tiny cabin on our property. It's off in the woods and totally off-grid. Why do you care? I'm going to use it as a recording studio. Those who've been to our current offices know how thunderous that railroad crossing is. It's always interrupting our recording plans. In a nice contrast, our cabin is steadily quiet. So in the near future expect more content like "Ask a Creationist" and "Fossil Focus." The building is just about finished. All that's left is trim work, painting, and a wood stove. I should be able to start using it very soon. All of this was paid for by that substitute teaching job.
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| Look at all that peace and quiet... |
During the summer, I also spent time working on new baraminology and hominin research. As you might remember, I published a massive paper on methods that I told you about back in July. I've also been working with a really great student on hominin research (that's what Core Academy is all about). Our first paper together comes out next week (no kidding). Come back on Wednesday, and I'll tell you all about it. After that, we have an even bigger thing that we're working on. It's big. It's fascinating. It's groundbreaking, really. At least groundbreaking for a couple creationists. It's actually so big we spent about thirty minutes last week talking about how to publish it all. It's complicated work, but I'm having so much fun with it! God's really blessed this work, and my student's learning a LOT.
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| Hominin research is a great joy. |
Also during the summer, Core Academy hosted one of the locations of the annual Origins conference, and it went OK. It was kind of an experimental year, where we arranged for three in-person venues but streamed the same talks to each location. That was challenging in ways we didn't expect. We decided not to do that again. But it was still a good time to reconnect with folks after the COVID lockdowns, and I think everyone who attended was very grateful for the opportunity.
Meanwhile, my staff at Core Academy has been working to keep the ministry operations moving along and to manage production of our new podcast Let's Talk Creation that we do with Biblical Creation Trust in the UK. We just launched in March of this year, and we're about to record our twentieth episode! And the response has been far beyond anything I expected. I'm just not a podcast guy, so I had no idea what I was getting into, but people really like that show. If you're a regular listener, thanks! And if you're not, get to it! We're on all the major podcast channels as well as YouTube. Check out the podcast page for more information, or click that picture below.
There are other things - BIG THINGS - going on behind the scenes that we're not quite ready to make public yet. We're actually in negotiations now with some other individuals and organizations, so we have to respect the process. But this will have a huge impact on our work and our future. Hopefully we'll have some news to share in the new year.
One more thing before I wrap this up: Some of you know that I've been talking up various book projects for several years now. I've got ideas, notes, outlines for at least eight different books, which is crazy. I just need to get organized and start working, which is exactly what I've done. In the past three months I've been working feverishly on three of those book ideas (yeah, all at the same time). I've written about 40,000 words so far, and I'm hoping to get two of those books done next year. Things are happening finally!
So that's that. I appreciate your prayer for me personally and for Core Academy. We just cancelled our supporters' banquet, because I guess people just aren't ready to go back to those kinds of events yet, and I understand. Still, that's a big event on our calendar, so please pray that God will continue to provide for us as we close out our fiscal year. And thanks for all your support!!
PS That femur in the photo on the top of the page is pretty weird. It's short and curved, and it has really big knee and hip joints. I wonder what it could mean?
Have you read my book? You should check that out too!
