Sharing My Story

This was published in Alpha-Omega #92 (May-June 2000)
as a part of my Ensign Report #90.

In December [1999] Terry Beh visited the Mt Blanco Fossil
Museum and interviewed Joe Taylor for an article that will
probably be published in New Man magazine [The article
was published in New Man]. Terry was quite impressed with
Joe and the museum. This peaked my curiosity even more
than before. I arrived in Crosbyton late February 12 and
I saw Joe Taylor on February 14 (Monday). Joe is a soft
spoken Christian gentleman who with a full beard appears
to be part fossil hunter, mountain man and cowboy. Joe and
I had a good visit. Joe needed to leave after lunch to take
care of some personal matters. He allowed me to stay and
look through the museum at a leisurely pace. Joe basically
runs the museum by himself (Recently he has had some
part-time workers).

The museum has a number of surprisingly professional displays
including a full sized Triceratops and mastodon skeletons, a
simulated excavation pit, a gift shop and many other fine exhibits.
I was very impressed with the potential of the museum and the
vision Joe has for it.

During this time I sat down in the lecture area and thought
and prayed how I might help Joe realize his dream.Not only of
making the museum a successful business, but also a ministry
that would strengthen the Christian's confidence in God's Word
by showing how fossils give strong evidence of God's creative
and righteous actions.

On my way back to Arizona and then to California my head was
spinning and bursting with ideas partly stimulated by our
conversation. On returning to Temple City I sat down for several
days and organized my thoughts in written form. I came up with
about four pages of ideas on how to promote the ministry and
business of the museum. This was e-mailed to Joe. Then for
several weeks we conducted an extensive e-mail correspondence.
My thinking for the potential of the museum matched Joe's very well.
I basically wrote a job description on how I could help Joe achieve
his vision for ministry through the museum.

The result: My 28 plus-year California sojourn is ending and
I'll be moving the west Texas. For a boy raised north of Seattle
that is quite a change, but I am excited about it. I believe the
Lord has prepared me for a life time (I've had a love affair
with dinosaurs since second grade) for involvement in a ministry
helping Christians be more confidence in the Bible and giving solid
reasons to non-believers why they should receive Christ as Savior
and Lord.

I will be wearing a lot of hats. I hope to function in administrative
roles in managing and promoting the museum. My desire is to relieve
Joe of a lot of administrative functions that are bogging him down.
Also I will be bringing my many years of publication experience to
work with Joe on his future books and other publications. I will be
living in an apartment attache d to the museum. I appreciate your
prayers as I step out in faith into a new chapter of my life. Praise God!