I'm nearing the end of my journey here in Russia. Warm weather is just around the corner! Over the past four weeks I've searched for any trace of an expedition ordered by Russian Tsar Nicholas II which sent 150 soldiers to document and take photographs of the remains of Noah's Ark on Mt. Ararat. The remains were brought to the attention of the Tsar by a pilot in the Russian airforce who spotted the remains while flying over Mt. Ararat.. Within the past 40 years others have come forward to testify that they were part of the expedition or were in Armenia and heard of the White Russian Army on the mountain at that time

If the pictures exist, I figured the likely place you could find them would be in one of the numerous archives in Russia. Dealing with government bureaucy sure didn't make the job of research any easier! Searching any archive in Russia, especially by a foreigner, raises suspicion among government employees. So, it wasn't any surprise we were stopped and questioned and asked to review our footage.

On that particular day we were treated with respect, but it couldn't be said for the other numerous incidents when we were stopped and harassed and threatened with jail time if we didn't pay the "fines." What fines? Yeah, we're still wondering that as well.

As I return to the U.S. in the next couple of days, I hope that any trace of the report, photographs, or even record of troops on Mt. Ararat during 1916/1917 will be sent to me by the people at the archive. The research is continuing by research professionals in St. Petersburg and Moscow. We're trying to find a needle in a hay stack, so it's definitely going to take time and patience before any conclusion can be reached.

Do the pictures exist? Did they ever exist? These are questions I ask and may never have the answer to, but I can't bring myself to speculate one way or the other until I put an effort forward to do the research. There have been reports and letters stating the story is a fraud, but there's been others who've testified they were there or in the area at the time during the expedition. One such individual was Col. Alexander Koor, an officer in the White Russian Army in 1915. Koor tells of how the expeditions found the ark, took photographs and measurements of the object, and made maps of the area. He stated that he saw their findings when they came down from the mountain.

While I was in St. Petersburg spending time searching through government archives, I decided to take a visit to the massive State Hermitage museum in the palace square. The Hermitage is unlike any other museum I've ever gone to before. There are massive corridors, palace rooms and gigantic exhibit halls that store 3 million historical and cultural items. I was there to see just one thing - a piece of wood the Armenians claimed to be from Noah's Ark.

My film crew and I were given access to the museum. Due to the overall since and immensity of the place and the vast amount of archeological and historical items, it was hard to find someone who knew of the wood and where it was stored in the museum. Finally, after hours of strolling the halls and exhibit rooms, we reached the Armenian archeological section of the museum. If it was in the Hermitage, it had to be there! My eyes pierced through every glass case in the room. There were Armenian pottery fragments, paintings, weapons and even some fancy looking, two-foot silver cross embeded with diamonds and rubies, but stil no sign of the Armenian wood.

I had talked with the executives of the museum, including one of the scientist of the archeological department and they verified they had seen the wood in the museum. It wasn't until we decided to leave that my translator asked the woman at the front counter if she had any information regarding the wood. She claimed the wood was part of a temporary exhibit and had been removed several months ago. I could have just punched myself right in the head! Who would have ever thought to ask the woman at the front desk? That was just too easy! Now, I'm just really feeling stupid! You'd think the "experts" in the museum would have known the answer! Anyways, it was just a blast getting to see just a little bit of what the museum had to offer. What a lesson in "keep it simple stupid."

As I leave Moscow, Russia bound for the United States, I'll begin preparing for a trip to Israel in March that I hope can lead to some insight regarding the flood and location of Noah's Ark. My single, passionate focus still remains to share the evidence of a world wide flood and proclaim that Christ will return "as it were in the days of Noah." The media, our public schools and the rest of the Godless bunch, tell the world and its children that our existence was by accident, we have no creator, nor are we accountable to anything or anyone.

Jesus said, "it would be better to have a millstone tied around our necks and cast into the depths of the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble."

As I sit here typing this at my apartment in Moscow I've heard the mention of Darwin, evolution and other such godless propaganda on the television probably over 100 times in the past 30 minutes. The question I present to you is this: how long will you sit and continue to allow the media to trash the Bible and convince millions upon millions of people that we are without a creator, that we answer to nobody and our life is without purpose? How long will you sit and allow them to continue in their ways without making an effort to defend the credibility of the Bible? Does His word really mean anything to you?

If these questions effect you in the least sense, then do something. I'm not asking you to send me a single penny, but there are great organizations out there who are fighting to defend the validity of God's word that you should be supporting. Prayerfully consider what God wants you to do. Bad things happen when good men do nothing. I pray the next time you hear those lies on television you'll remember the questions I asked you. It's time there's something on television that tells the truth!

In His Service,

Jeremy Wiles