Da Da Ta Da – Da Da Ta Da. Wedding Bells rang on Chapel Island, as Christen Higby became Mrs. John Adolfi, my helpmeet, on August 17, 1996. After a brief engagement, we spoke our vows among the sparkling lakes of the Adirondack Mountains. Another four years would pass before I would challenge my new bride’s security by suggesting such a huge project called Bibleland.

Still, the Bible Museum idea was tucked safely in the back of my mind while the unsuspected beginning stages of my mid-life crises expressed itself by visiting one of my many childhood hobbies. But unlike my past, with unfinished skills and projects, I vowed to do something spectacular with this one. I was about to become a Treasure Hunter.

As with anyone prone to extremism, several thousand dollars were invested in metal detection equipment as I contemplated where to search next for the proverbial “golden carrot”. 1997 was a good year, finding several hundred coins. The following year shallow water hunting increased my booty to 167 rings and thousands of coins. But this was not enough! Furiously trying to find more, 1999 saw 188 rings added to my growing hoard. Can you feel the fever? My brow was sweating, as I become a certified scuba diver, allowing me greater access to the more elusive, bigger treasure underwater.

Where would this journey lead? Where would it end? My time was consumed; my emotional energy channeled, as still more equipment was purchased with no end in sight. A simple childhood hobby was now an obsession. Because every desire was being swallowed up by “gold fever”, Bibleland had to wait. Thankfully like most obsessions this one would run its course. Could Bibleland capture my heart and send my “golden mistress” home when it seemed like treasure hunting and I were just getting warmed up?

In the next blog, watch as Bibleland peaks through the curtain sending a NEW jewel to compete with OLD treasure.

“Bibleland, John, Bibleland” Brenda a good friend and fellow church member said excitedly around the supper table one summer evening in 1992. “My Uncle (Ted) Conibear had biblical sand sculptures in California that he called Bibleland,” she continued.

Ted Conibear passed away in April 1994 and his sculptures, I understand, are just dust in the wind. However the name Bibleland had a natural ring to it and so that evening I decided, “Bibleland it is. Brenda, let’s call it Bibleland!”

Like any idea requiring resources beyond the average man with average skills and ambitions this one laid under the table for many years. You see I had a drinking problem to lick.

On March 10, 1993 it finally happened. Waking up in jail, embarrassed in a room full people staring, handcuffed I looked at what alcohol was costing me. The “man behind the curtain” was exposed, and as I walked home from the jail that sunny, winter morning, alcohol and I filed for divorced as I repeated “Never, Never, Never, Never, Never again!” Feeling a level of sincerity and determination unprecedented in my life, the compulsion left me that instant never to trouble me again.

My life would need to be rebuilt including finding a good woman to stand my side, then God could redirect my attention towards Bibleland.

In the next installment:Witness the marriage to that “good woman” and a hobby that almost stopped Bibleland.

1992 was a year I will never forget. It was a time of personal struggle. Old habits persisted, as alcohol, the Devil’s brew, became my substitute god. My High School sweetheart and I broke up after graduation in the fall of 1979 but the relationship with beer continued on – way past the graduation parties.

You probably felt a lump in your throat at the cute Budweiser Superbowl XL commercial of the young Clydesdale horse being pushed along by the older horses. The reality is that alcohol is not fun, or cute; it does not help you get the pretty girl. It is a trap, a terrible substance that takes all prisoners and leaves wrecked lives. Beer commercials lie. It robbed me of my work ethic, years of productiveness that I can never get back, and left me clenching life’s steering wheel as my life spun out of control.

I never in my wildest dreams thought it was possible to quit. The compulsion was too great. Have you ever had a bad habit hold on to you or you to it so tightly that you wake in the morning, ask God to forgive you for the indulgence committed and then think it impossible that you or even the Almighty might have the strength to separate you from it and walk away for good? Alcohol was almost my doom. I could not stop. However even in my alcoholic stupor God was working with me. I still had some spiritual interests.

One weekday evening I got out my sketchpad. Like the Disney Imagineers I began indulging my imagination. What if a museum was filled with biblical scenes like the battle between the Philistine giant and the Jewish youth? How tall is Goliath? The Bible said 9 ft. 9 inches at least. How would that look to have a full size representation of him? “What about the parting of the Red Sea?” I continued to draw.

Later that week we all sat around the table. Flipping through the designs, my friends Robin, Brenda and their 5 children looked with amusement. Brenda finally excited exclaims “Bibleland, John, Bibleland!” What is “Bibleland”, I wondered? That night Bibleland was conceived.

In our next blog you will see the idea grow, plus celebrate the anniversary of my last drink and more.

The Lost World Museum. You are probably wondering what this is all about. Before I explain, may I take a moment and say that IÂ really appreciate that you are here and before we go any further, let me introduce myself. My name is John Adolfi – married, mortgage paid, one dog. My wife Christen and I live in a Central New York stone house with our Lab dog Moo-Moo. Now here is some historical info that will lead up to why we are all here in the first place.

After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1985, I went to work for my father’s real estate company and am now a Broker operating Adolfi Real Estate.
At 45 years of age I have spent the last 6 years in a midlife crisis. However instead of tackling a second marriage, piercing my ear and riding a Harley, I opted to keep my first and only wife and revisit my childhood hobbies I used to engage in. (More on the hobbies in future posts.)

Harnessing the energy of this midlife thing, I thought to improve my mind and increased my reading from ZERO books a year to about 20-25 a year. To me, the subject matter of the books I read is critical therefore book content I read is mainly self-improvement, business and bios including P.T. Barnum and Walt Disney (Two men who have greatly influenced my life – especially Barnum.) Early morning is when I crack the books and the Bible to do my reading. Fictional stories are not my favorite unless it is for a greater purpose and not for entertainment’s sake. Non-fiction, as a child, was attractive to me and has continued so until today.

From mind improvement let’s go to the body. Exercise is a discipline I’ve mastered and yet still struggle with 3-4 times a week. My wife is a great cook and we eat mostly vegetarian. Christen and I both attend religious services weekly at a 150-year-old country church we both met at.

Everything I’ve been doing the last 6 years including dropping recent hobbies (not the childhood ones) and freeing up time, has been for a grand and higher purpose. All my energy has been spent to achieve a goal far greater from anything I have ever attempted in my life. And that is creating the Lost World Museum.

In the next blog you will read how this idea even got started, how it lay dormant for years and how one friend helped this goal begin to materialize.

Welcome to the Lost World Museum where we combine the flamboyant presentation style of P.T. Barnum with the deep penetrating thoughts of the book of Genesis. Through unusual evidence we will explore whether we came from Apes, Aliens, or Adam!

Is the book of Genesis the key to unlocking this truth? Can the cumulative fragments of our past, dug up in fields around the world, be placed with confidence in a model that begins with God speaking the world into existence?

This blog will follow the progress of the construction of a museum that will fulfill a life long dream to house thought provoking anomalous fossils and artifacts, which tell a tale seldom published.

You are at the right place at the right time. Welcome to the Lost World Museum.