A BUSINESSWOMAN has launched a £144 million mission to win youthful converts to Christianity by creating Britain’s first biblical theme park.

The complex would offer visitors the chance to slide down the Tower of Babel before climbing aboard Noah’s Ark, parting the Red Sea and felling Goliath with a laser-guided slingshot.

Before leaving Ark Alive, billed as the place “where Disney meets the Bible”, children would also have the experience of expulsion from the Garden of Eden, being swallowed by a whale, escaping from a lion’s den and walking on water.

Andrea Webster, who has already invested £100,000 in the scheme, hopes that bringing Bible stories to life will encourage young people to learn more about Christianity.

To fund the development, which is scheduled to open in 2008, she hopes that a million Christians will donate £144 each. If believers cannot afford the money, they are being urged to pray for the park’s success. Mrs Webster, 40, a chartered accountant who owns two children’s nurseries in Leeds, has spent four years researching the feasibility of a project that has become her life’s mission.

“I believe it’s a vision from God,” she said. “We need different ways to reach the youth of this country and it came to me in a flash that a biblical theme park would give people a fun day out but also teach them about the Bible in the process.”

The focal point of the 50-acre park, which is likely to be built in Yorkshire, will be a giant replica of Noah’s Ark, built to the same proportions detailed in the Bible.

At 137m (450ft) long and 14m (45ft) high, the replica would be the length of one and a half football pitches and the height of a four-storey building.

Mrs Webster, who is married with two children aged 7 and 12, is a creationist who believes in the “entire trustworthiness and supreme authority” of the Bible “in all matters of faith and conduct”, including the creation of the world in seven days.

She laments “the decline of Christian teaching and celebration in schools” and the poverty of religious knowledge. A survey last week found that only 48 per cent of Britons knew that Easter was a celebration of the Resurrection, while 64 per cent had no idea that Rowan Williams was the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The greatest ignorance was shown by the 16-24 age group. Mrs Webster said: “Every year, children are taught about Christmas and it never fails to capture their imagination.

“I want the park to encompass the magic of the Bible and present it in a way that will be exciting and relevant.” America already has a Christian theme park, The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida, where tourists eat ice creams on the Via Dolorosa as Jesus, played by an actor, is kicked and spat upon by Roman soldiers before being “nailed” to a cross that is raised by a hydraulic motor.

Also part of the project are plans for a place of worship, Christian library facilities, a hotel and leisure club, heated swimming pools, and restaurants, exhibition and conference facilities.

None will become a reality unless Mrs Webster’s charitable trust is able to raise £144million, a challenge which she plans to meet “with lots of prayer”.

“If a million Christians each donate £144 we will reach our target,” she said. “That, in itself, will be a great testament to the power of faith.”

ATTRACTIONS

Planned rides include:

Jonah and the Whale:
a boat ride during which visitors are swallowed by a whale, then vomited from its mouth down a water slide into a lake

David and Goliath:
travelling through a tunnel depicting battles between the Philistines and the Israelites, visitors can slay mighty warriors with a laser

Parting of the waves:
strapped into seats, visitors are chased by the Egyptian army to the Red Sea, where the waters part

Sea of Galilee:
walking on water will be possible due to concealed stepping stones

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