Devout Christian and well-standing businessman, Johan Huibers, has taken on a pretty big side project that demands front and center attention.
In the course of four years, he and a team of people had accomplished part one of their mission: create a fully-functional, life-size, true-to-story replica of Noah’s Ark.
But part two of his plan is so ambitious it will no doubt make waves across the world.
Born in the “Realm of a Thousand Islands” region of the Netherlands, Huibers’ fascination with water began early in childhood.
When God changed his heart and adopted him into the Kingdom at age 24, the seeds for helping others were planted, manifesting initially as adventure-filled aid missions to several countries.
It wasn’t long before another seed was planted with a large-scale vision.
At age 33, Huibers experienced a vivid dream in which his whole homeland was under a horrific flood. With the details of that memory still fresh and a spirit filled with faith, he took that as his sign that the time had come to set off on what many called a crazy, impossible plan. (But haven’t we read about a similar response before, in a very similar story long ago?)
He began the journey to build a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark, with a greater mission than the mountainous building portion of the project: prove the veracity of Scriptures by his own real-life example, that Noah and his family could very likely have built the Ark in the four years the Bible outlines.
Now the Ark of Noah Foundation, primarily in operation out of California, U.S.A., works to spread the news of God’s Truth in outreach projects, as well as upkeep of the Ark.
The Foundation is also spreading the word and raising funds toward part two of this large-scale vision.
Beginning in 2008, the first phase of this effort was to accomplish the build with the dimensions of Scripture in proper proportion. Five years later, there it stood, “making it 390ft-long, 75ft-high and containing 12,000 trees worth of wood.”
While there is some discrepancy by scholars over the exact Biblical dimensions, Huibers chose current day equivalents averaged from the proposed suggestions as much as possible.
Huibers then opened the doors to the public in order to introduce them to Christ with a museum and theater style experience that explains the project, the Savior, and the correlation between the two.
Now they are preparing for the most ambitious part of the project yet!
They plan to sail the ship across the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Brazil for “hundreds of thousands” more to experience God in this really big way.
From Brazil, Huibers plans to sail on to “Montevideo and Buenos Aires, Havana, Panama, Columbia and then off to the United States: San Diego, Long Beach, San Francisco and Seattle”.
For now, until funding is together, it has already proven seaworthy in a short excursion on Holland’s Maas River.
Finally, Huibers says he would love to bring this boat back to its homeland… but not where it was built.
“My preferred destination for the ark is Israel … This is a copy of God’s ship. It only makes sense to take it to God’s land.”
Huibers now asks that people support this ambitious plan in one or more of these ways:
(1) Use his site and project as a reason to learn more about God and the Bible history behind this effort,
(2) Pray for people who come upon this story, for hearts to be changed and eyes to be opened,
(3) Subscribe on the website to receive email updates about the Ark, and
(4) (If God so directs you), donate to the cause financially.
However you choose to respond to this story, the invitation from Huibers stands: “Join us on this journey of what God will do with the Ark of Noah.”