Can God Really Help You?

In the summer of 2001 I was on holiday with my family in Cornwall. I had felt for some time that God was calling me to ‘reach out to children’, but was not sure how. One day I was idly staring out of the window as we drove along the country lanes, thinking about how difficult it was to teach children about Jesus. Sunday morning was no longer a time for church for so many families, it had become ‘lie in’ or ‘sports’ morning. How did we teach children if they no longer came to church and schools taught very little about the Bible? Suddenly I had the idea for a biblical theme park. It would be a fun day out for all the family, but they would come away knowing a lot more about the Bible, its stories and characters. I knew instantly that if it was going to be done, then it had to be done big. We are competing with so many different types of entertainment for children. They have a very high expectation. Something small was never going to cut it.

I sat on the idea for a while. After all, how do you build a biblical theme park? A few months later I sat down to pray about this and the idea began to take shape. Up until this point I had thought that it was my good idea, but it gradually began to dawn on me that it was a vision from God, something he was calling me to do.

Over the next three years I slowly developed the idea. I engaged architects and they produced some preliminary drawings of what it might look like. I also looked at various sites to build it on. I learned a tremendous amount about theme parks (which included by necessity a holiday or two to Disney!!). I set up a charity and God gave me the name Ark Alive.

In 2002 an opportunity arose to submit a proposal to build a leisure attraction on a site in Yorkshire. Along with professional advisors and some friends I put together a proposal to build a Biblical Theme Park. We were shortlisted to the final five and asked to give a presentation to the local Council and various other interested parties. However, we were unsuccessful and the reason given was that they felt they couldn’t support a Christian project. I spent the next few years looking at other possible sites, developing the idea and trying to raise funds. Doors never seemed to really open, and even though many people agreed that it was a good idea, they didn’t seem to want to support it financially. Many times I asked God whether this was really from him and would it happen. Each time the answer was “yes, this is my will, but the timing is not right, keep praying”.

Towards the end of 2004 another possible location presented itself. The owners were interested in the proposition and things finally seemed to be moving forward. Up until this point I had not asked anyone else for money, but the sums required to move forward were greater than my own resources so I launched a fundraising campaign.

There was a huge amount of interest worldwide. Many newspapers carried the story, in the UK and abroad. I did several radio interviews, including for Australian and New Zealand radio stations. I was also on the local television news. It finally seemed as if it was going to take off. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few precious people, the donations were few and far between. The money raised did not even cover the costs of the publicity campaign.

At the same time it seemed as if I had entered a nightmare in my life. I seemed to be under attack on all fronts. One bad thing after another happened. I had never had any teaching on spiritual warfare or the Enemy and I really had no idea what on earth was happening. Fortunately God connected me with a precious mature Christian lady. She set up an intercessory prayer group for me. With their help and knowing that I was supported in prayer by certain other people I gradually came through to a place of victory. I now know that there were a lot of things in my life that needed dealing with so that God was able to trust this project to me. I thought I was waiting for God, but really he was waiting for me.

In the summer of 2009 I was travelling with my family near to the original site and suddenly God put it on my heart. I resisted this as I assumed the original successful bidders had developed the site, however three weeks later the same thing happened and this time I was overwhelmed by the feeling. To cut a long story short, the original bidders had obtained planning permission and secured the lease on the site. This had not been easy and had taken several years. Due to the credit crunch and recession they are unable to move forward. God said to me “this site was meant for Ark Alive all along and they have done all the hard work for you”. I immediately asked God to show me a similar situation in the Bible and he pointed out the Promised Land. God showed the Israelites the Promised Land, but didn’t let them go in until they were ready.

The only thing now standing in the way of Ark Alive is money. To build a high quality visitor attraction will cost millions of pounds. It seems a huge giant of a task. I think its name is Goliath!