The Miracle 4C’s Mobile Fossil Museum

By: Dr. Richard Overman, President, Creation Education Resources, Inc.

The Idea

“Wouldn’t it be cool to have a mobile fossil museum”. This thought was the spark that ignited a firestorm that became the 4C’s Mobile Fossil Museum. Creation Education Resources (CER) had been working with Dr. Gary and Mary Parker for the last 24 years leading fossil hunting trips to the Peace River in Arcadia FL. The Parkers had a museum called the Creation Adventures Museum (CAM).

When CER went to Arcadia in March of 2024 for the annual fossil hunt, Mary Parker was not feeling very well. Later she was taken to the hospital and was eventually not able to return home. She had to go live with her daughter. It was at this time that the Parkers made the decision to close the CAM. This was obviously a very sad moment, and they informed us that we could come down and get some of the fossils that they had in their museum.

It was during the first trip to pick up fossils that I had this random thought; “wouldn't it be cool to have a mobile fossil museum “.  At first it was seemingly a random thought, but God had other things in mind. Upon returning home we decided to explore the possibility of developing this mobile fossil museum by contacting our ministry contacts and our Board of Directors to discuss the possibility.

Getting a Vehicle

Receiving positive responses from many sources we decided to start a fundraising campaign to buy a trailer or RV or whatever God had in mind to store and transport the fossils. We also kept an eye out for a trailer or whatever vehicle God would point out to us while we were raising money for this project. It wasn't long before we had a little over $4,000 to spend on the project. However, we were not seeing the right vehicle, whether it be a trailer or an RV or whatever, that God had in mind. One day I decided to go to a local trailer dealership and explain to them what we were trying to do and see if they knew anybody who had a used trailer or had something that might work for us. We were thinking that we probably would have to get something used to find one that we could afford. The dealership did not really know of anybody that had anything used but, he gave me his business card and said to look at the inventory on their website. I went home and did that and low and behold I saw this 12-foot, 2023 trailer that looked just like what we needed. I thought, wow this looks like the one God wants us to have. It had been sitting on the dealer's lot for a year or so because it was a year older model and they had it on sale for $3,900. At that point we had $4,250 available. Ginger (my wife) and I went to look at the trailer and it looked like the one. The dealer said, with taxes and titles and other fees it was going to be $4,600 to buy the trailer. I told them I had $4,250. They tried to figure out if they could do it said no, they couldn't do it, they had to have the full $4,600. I told him that we would keep raising the money and, if God wanted us to have that trailer, it would be there when we had money. Within a week God had provided the money, and we were able to purchase this trailer for $4,600 out the door.

 

So God had now provided us with the trailer for the museum. It was about this time that we were going to make a second trip down to Arcadia to pick up more fossils from the CAM, so we were able to take the trailer down to bring fossils back.

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Multiplying by Dividing

As I said before, this was a bittersweet time. We were enjoying getting the fossils, but we were sad that the Parkers were going to be closing the museum. However, we were not the only ones getting fossils. There was no way we could use all the fossils that the Parkers had in their museum so there were other groups, like Camp Gilead that were taking fossils from the museum. It was during a discussion with one of the Parker's daughter about how she thought it was sad that the museum was being broken up that I commented that God was multiplying by dividing. In other words, by dividing up the CAM fossils to various ministries, God could use them in many many different ways that He could not have done while they were still together in the museum. In the end we got a literal ton of fossils from the CAM.

Wrapping It Up

But the story doesn't end there. We had all these fossils, and we had a trailer but we needed to be able to get everything ready so that it could truly be a mobile fossil museum. One of these included having signage or wrapping put on the trailer so it could be identified as a mobile fossil museum. I had been introduced to a company that does wrapping at a Northeast Florida Chrisitan Chamber of Commerce meeting a few weeks earlier. I came up with a design of what we wanted on the trailer and sent it to them for a quote. Their quote came back at around $3,900 to do all the panels on the trailer. God had not provided that amount of money. I also learned that there was a person in our church that wrapped trailers, so I asked him for a quote as well. His quote was much more reasonable but still more money than what God had provided. Time went by and God was just not providing any more money to get the trailer wrapped so we decided that there were three panels on the trailer that were a priority for getting wrapped and we could do the other ones later. At that time, I had about $1,300 that God had provided for wrapping the trailer. I went to the two suppliers and asked them what it would cost to just put the wrapping on those three panels. One came back with a relatively high amount but the other one came back with, guess what, about $1300. So, we were able to get the signage put on the three panels for the money that God had provided. Maybe one day He will provide the money to get the rest of it wrapped.

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We Needed a Logo

While all of this was going on we were communicating with our ministry partners and mentioned during that communication that we needed a logo for the mobile fossil museum. One of our supporters said they would contact a graphic artist that they knew and see if he would be willing to develop one for us. Long story short he did, and it is shown below.

 

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A Puller

But wait, there’s more. Another problem we had was that our 2015 Toyota Venza could not pull the trailer with all the fossils, so we had to get a new vehicle. After some research we decided that we needed a 2019 Toyota Highlander with less than 60,000 miles. Interestingly, we received an email from Consumer Reports with a link to a place on their website where we could see what vehicles were available in our area. We had never received an email like that before and have not received one since. We looked on the website and found a local dealership that had two possibilities. However, we were not able to go look at them for a few days. When we could go look at them, we called the dealer to see if they were still available. The salesman said that one had sold. We were particularly interested in one of them. Guess what, the one we were interested in, which had about half as many miles as the other one, was still available. We were able to get the vehicle we needed. Oh, by the way, the color matched the trailer.

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Only God

It is only God that could take a simple idea, “wouldn’t it be cool to have a mobile fossil museum” and turn it into a reality in about six months. We are excited that many, many, many people all over the United States will be able to hear the truth of God’s Word. We pray that many Christian’s heats will be encouraged, and many non-believers will come to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You can follow the 4C’s Mobile Fossil Museum at www.creationeducation.org/MFM. Of course, there is a donation button on that web page. For a $500 donation, we will put your company logo or name on the sponsor panel. Please pray that God will use the 4C’s Mobile.

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