October 1, 2026
NICEVILLE, Fla. – Bob Huisken was a deacon and youth leader in rural Minnesota when suddenly he realized that though he knew the Bible “very well,” he did not have good answers when someone asked why they should believe the Bible.
It was in 1993, Huisken’s wife Cindy had bought a Gateway computer with a dial-up network and on it found a Christian chatroom to entertain the former butcher.
“The atheists would come in there and just tear the room apart,” Huisken said. “One night I was praying, ‘Lord, I’m supposed to be able to be your representative here, and I’m not doing a very good job.’ I looked down at the floor, and there was a newspaper ad that said, ‘Creation, Evolution. What’s the answer?’”
An evening seminar on defending the Christian faith gave the now-retired businessman a new purpose.
“They [atheists] were asking good questions,” Huisken said. “At this time I was on the school board of the Christian school my father had helped start in the early 1950s. I was a youth leader in our church. I was a deacon, and I could not answer those questions!”
The conference at a nearby college was sponsored by a group now known as Answers in Genesis. Gary Parker was the guest speaker. Huisken was captivated and took home every bit of information available: books, VHS and cassette tapes, CDs and more.
Ever since, he’s been studying, learning, buying more books, CDs and (since the late 1990s) DVDs to learn the scientific, archaeological, historical, manuscript, eyewitness and other reports that support the Bible’s validity.
“What it says about God is true,” Huisken now says he knows without a doubt. “The Bible can be trusted and defended.”
Huisken says he believes too many Christians accept their faith – or any belief system – based simply on what some person on the street, or even a religious leader, tells them.
“The Bible’s claims stand up to investigation,” the self-taught apologist continued, referring to Romans 1:20. “God is doing this. He’s giving us these gifts [the various evidence.] God wants us to know Him better. That’s why He gave us the evidence.”
Personal witness
Huisken is not just an apologist. He loves talking with people about God to show them that God and His word are truth.
Today, a member at Rocky Bayou Baptist Church in Niceville, about an hour east of Pensacola, Huisken enjoys the opportunities he makes to tell the truth about Jesus.
Huisken routinely asks people to give him 10 minutes to talk about God, and often offers to help in some way, with his “payment” being 10 minutes of their time.
A single mother had requested help removing a tree from her property after a hurricane. When the time came for Huisken to collect his 10 minutes of payment, she told him she wanted her sons to hear him too. She had been thinking about God lately, she told Huisken, which is something he says he frequently hears when he mentions God’s name.
“Because they were teenage boys, I told them, ‘I want you to imagine that there’s 10 Corvettes in front of you. There’s a shiny blue one and a gray one and a green one. Every color! Ten beautiful Corvettes. There’s a person standing in front of each of them telling you, ‘I want you to take this Corvette. It’s free!’
“’Now I want to tell you something,’” Huisken continued, reiterating his conversation with the boys. “’Only one of those Corvettes has an engine. Which one do you want?’ And one of those boys asks, ‘How can you tell which one has an engine?’
“‘You open the hood; that’s how,’ I told them. ‘There’s going to be lots of people from here on out trying to talk you guys into joining this religion, that religion, some other religion. Don’t just take someone’s word for what they say is truth. Check it out, open the hood. Find out if you should believe their book, if it gives the truth.”
The engine is truth. It’s defended through a discipline called apologetics – the various evidence that the Bible is what it claims to be.
“And God has done this, you know – all the different evidence – because He wants to reach you, reach us,” Huisken said. “We can trust that He loves us, that He has a plan for us, a purpose.”
Evidence project
Huisken moved from Minnesota to Niceville, his wife’s hometown, after a visit there and a talk with the principal convinced him his teenagers should attend Rocky Bayou Christian School. He needed to keep busy, so he asked the school how he could help and was directed to an overgrown acre-sized patch of ground near the center of the 21-acre property.
He cleared it, watched over it, and about 18 months ago turned it into what he named the “Rocky Reflections Park” with the school’s approval. There are metal signs around the perimeter of the park that explain the truth of the scriptures and what to do with the knowledge.
The “Reflections” consist of 27 white-on-black, 18×24-inch, aluminum signs attached to guideposts painted black, plus one larger sign that explains the exhibits of anthracite coal, petrified wood, and a 130-pound example of striated sedimentary rock in front of the sign, soon to include a large fossil rock.
“Each section builds upon the last, pushing you, guiding you through four stages of discovery,” according to the first sign.
Bottom line, according to another sign: “The Bible stands apart as its history is repeatedly confirmed by external non-biblical sources. Conclusion: History outside the Bible consistently affirms what Scripture records. The Bible’s message is not confined to a blind faith, a superstitious faith.”
The metal signs don’t stop with evidence that God and the Bible can be trusted. Those who walk the circular Rocky Reflections path come to a wooden bridge where the path-taker reads, “Everything you’ve read to this point can be tested to show the Bible is reliable and true. Truth is the foundation.”
The gospel message presented when one crosses the Faith Bridge leads to a spiritual decision, Huisken said.
“Among other signs, you are taken down the ‘Romans Road’ – Romans 3:23, 3:24, 5:8, 6:23, 10:9,” Huisken said. “You are then challenged to prepare to give a logical defense and help change a dying world in need of a Savior.”
The path comes to an end with a sign stating the awesome responsibilities of a teacher, as well as a warning, including an actual millstone at the foot of the sign.
The Rocky Reflections Park with sturdy picnic tables at the center is open to the public on weekends and after 3:30 p.m. to sunset on school days. More information is available at rhuisken1@gmail.com.
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This article appeared on Baptist Press.
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