God's Great Outdoors

Guest (Male): One of the best known scriptures in the entire Bible comes from Matthew 4:19, where Jesus calls Simon and Andrew to follow him. Jesus says, "Come unto me and I will make you fishers of men." From the very first day of his ministry, we see that Jesus called the fishermen of his day to come alongside him to do his work. Soon after the first call, he came across James and John as they were mending their fishing nets and called them as well. There's something special about fishermen and new builders of our world.

Today we'll hear from a fourth-generation net maker, fisherman, and hunter that not only follows Jesus Christ but also shares him with others through his passion for the outdoors. Some of us have been blessed to be raised in a Christian home by Christian parents that set us on a godly path. Others were called when God threw his net over them and hauled them in. That's the case with today's guest.

Let's join our host now Dean Hulce as he hears from the brother of a past guest. We'll hear about how God has used a family to not only build fishing nets but as fishers of men as well. So let's join the two of them on the Trail to Adventure in God's great outdoors.

Dean Hulce: Welcome to God's Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure. Again, one more time, we're in Florida and we're going to be in Florida for a few more days, so this won't be the last of our programs in Florida. We've got the brother of a good friend of mine that I've been hearing about for three or four years and hearing about your hunting. You've done a lot of hunting and love to hunt. We've got Billy Burbank with us. Good to have you, Billy.

Billy Burbank: Thank you very much, Dean. I'm glad to be here.

Dean Hulce: I say I come down here and I need an interpreter sometimes with some of you guys down here.

Billy Burbank: The last time I was in Montana, this one girl said, "What language are you speaking?" She said, "You're talking so slow, it's like you're talking backwards." Hopefully we can end up like that.

Dean Hulce: That's okay, we can handle that. I can even speed you up if I have to. We're going to talk hunting, but I want to go way back first because it's very interesting to me the business that your family was in for over 100 years. Share that with us.

Billy Burbank: 111 years. When you reach the age I am now, I call myself in the fourth quarter of life. Some people are in overtime, but I'm in the fourth quarter. I'm just trying to understand where God was leading me back in those days when I didn't know what the Holy Spirit was all about. I've been a net maker all my life. I've had no other job. I've been a master net maker since I started working with my father.

At nine years old, I started sewing nets with my father at the net shop. I saw my mother sewing and said, "If she can do that, so can I." We were kids working at the shop just to get enough money to play the pinball machines at the beach during our time off when we weren't footballing or baseballing. I often credit myself for being the third generation. My grandfather was born on Cumberland Island and he became a net maker at a young age around 1915.

My father had a stint in the Navy, but he came back in 1957 and incorporated the business. My grandfather was ready to move to his house at the beach and just do little nets. So my father incorporated Burbank Trawl Makers, Inc. in 1957. We worked for a company called Standard Marine Hardware, one of the largest marine hardware dealers in the country. They were all over South Africa, the West Coast of Africa, Central America, and even the Persian Gulf.

They sold all the nets we could make. We were making way more than 3,000 new nets a year for the Persian Gulf, Colombia, French Guiana, British Guiana, and Honduras. I've got some stories to tell about how many places we've been. He incorporated that, so me and my three brothers all worked there at one time. Being the namesake, the third generation, I call myself the son of a son of a net maker.

I've written a book many times and everybody said that's a nice introduction, but I've never gotten any further than that. During those times working in and out after school and after sports, my mother passed away at 42 years old. Johnny was about 14 or 15 at that time. He was pretty much left to the control of his older brother trying to help steer him. We all worked there.

One of my brothers, David, was more mechanically inclined and went to work at a mill, so he got out of the shrimp net part, but all the other brothers stayed in it. In 1996, my father passed away. Before that, in 1993, he had sold me the business. At that particular time, Johnny was still working there and so was Tommy, my other brother. In 1978, the shrimping industry was starting to go through some hard times.

Fuel prices and a lot of stuff were not looking good in the early 80s. I said to my father one day, "We've got to find something else to do to make a living, Dad. I don't think we can on labor only," because we were just working labor only through this hardware company. It was tough supporting 12 or 15 employees. One day, one of my old football coaches came storming in the front door.

He walks right up to me and pointed to a picture in a magazine. He said, "Can you make this?" I'm looking at it and it's a batting cage. I said, "Yeah." He said, "Make this guy two of them." This guy was Jack Ryan, who became one of my best friends. At that time, he was head coach at Wolfson High School in Jacksonville, Florida. Two years later, he became the head coach at the University of Florida.

My father was a Gator and all my family were Gators. At that time, I started making the nets at home. I wasn't making the sports nets in the business itself because it was a shrimp net shop. My father said, "You started this, it's yours. You do whatever you want to do." So I was doing business as Burbank Sport Nets during that time but was going through Standard Marine. As time grew, I was actually a founder of Stanmar Sport Nets, which was their logo name.

Standard Marine didn't want to accept the Burbank name to do their trademark and I could understand that. They weren't into installations, which is what Johnny did when he worked for me, traveling all over the country. I had him in every stadium you could think of and he was very good at it, the best. In 1999, I chose to leave Standard Marine and try to go this on my own. At that time, I got out of the business and had Burbank Sport Nets going.

That rocked on to be a very strong company with the help of Johnny Burbank and his son-in-law Eli Rowe. We had very good people on the bus. Everybody was doing their thing. I had very good employees and everybody was diligent. I would call them into my office every Tuesday and we would have our talks about whether anybody had any problems. Then we would always go to scripture. Those guys couldn't wait to get in there at 9:00 on Tuesday mornings.

In 2008, I dedicated Burbank Sport Nets to the Lord. I told him, "I can't run this business like you can. If you don't have your hand in it and if it's not there, then I don't want to go to sleep at night thinking that it's all on me. I've got to give it to you." When I did that, everything just astronomically changed. Then there came a time my wife died at 42 years old also.

This was my wife of 23 years, a beautiful woman. Everybody in Fernandina knew her and loved her. She was an artist and a churchgoer. She's the one that would ask me to go to church with her. She died and my son was also about the same age as Johnny when my wife passed away. For three or four years there, I still kept everything together, still manufactured, but just didn't know where I was going.

During that time, I was introduced and got remarried. I was married for 17 years. In 2015, I was brought on to sell the company. They told me, "You're getting old enough, you need to retire." My thoughts were, "Okay, I'll do this," even though I knew my brother would like to stay on in the company and so would his son-in-law. We just went in another direction and found somebody that wanted to buy it that I thought was just going to do well.

It turned out God knew this whole story. Once this unfolded, my worrying about Johnny and Eli all folded into a perfect pattern. They got their own thing going, their own story going. They learned some good traits and they carried on and added to what they had and they built it into a monumental business. On my end, the Lord knew that I had a son who's the fourth generation, William Hunter Burbank IV.

His son is the fifth generation. When all this happened, he left the company that I sold as well and started his own company, Burbank 5. All he does is build the nets. He doesn't want to do the stuff that Johnny and them are doing with the professionals or the company that I sold. He's doing it God's way. He's doing it good to great in God's eyes. That brings us to me retiring at the ripe age of about 72. I'm not saying I'm fully retired because if somebody needs me to work, I'll get in and work.

Dean Hulce: It's interesting because as you talk, I've heard the same story from the other side but they match. Other than Johnny's issues that he got through and what God brought him through, he could have well just been dead through a lot of his life. Honestly, that's one of the most popular shows we've ever done is him talking about what he came through.

Billy Burbank: During the time that he was going through all that, he was my youngest brother. He's working and it was disturbing. I'm part of the company my father's was and we spent whatever it took to get him to the first place we sent him, which didn't work. We sent him to another place again, which was Bridge to Hope. I remember the time when he and the people that he was building the catfish nets for, and I could tell that was it.

Later in life, he was not working for me; he was working for another net maker that used to work for us and worked for him as well on the repair side. After Sherry died, I remember Johnny being at my house just a day after she had passed away and I hired him back. I hired him back into the family. It was a great move for this amount of time. The Burbank name and history is strong in this community around here.

There are some big hearts and even the brother Tibo, who's passed away, was just another character in himself. That would be a podcast for you if he was still around. I love the history of this and what you poured into Johnny and what others poured into him. Then after that, the people of this church poured into him later on. It reminds me of the story of Joseph and what Satan meant for harm in his life, God meant for good because he's turned that around.

Dean Hulce: Let's take a quick break and then we want to get into some hunting because the one thing Johnny's told me about you since he mentioned your name is that you're a hunting nut. We've got a lot in common. You love the mountains and you love to chase elk with the bow. We'll take a quick break and be right back with God's Great Outdoors.

Guest (Male): For the last 26 years, God's Great Outdoors Trail to Adventure has been broadcast to win men and women, boys and girls to Jesus Christ. This is only possible by the generosity of our listeners. Thank you to all who have supported us in the past. God has blessed us because of you, and we pray that you feel his blessings as well.

Additionally, underwriting support has been provided by: Matthews Archery, the leader in the archery industry; Mission Archery, with revolutionary crossbow technology; Three Rivers Archery, supplying everything you need to make your own traditional archery equipment; Hunter Safety Systems, saving lives is what we do; and Conviction Game Calls.

At Conviction, we don't separate work from our faith. We believe that our faith should be evident in every aspect of our lives, and the outdoors is one of the best places to share that. God's Great Outdoors has produced many ministry tools, including tracts, DVDs, and books to help you reach others for Jesus Christ. You can access these items, other God's Great Outdoors items, and so much more at our website, godsgr8outdoors.org. That's godsgr8outdoors.org.

Dean Hulce: Welcome back to God's Great Outdoors and we're on the Trail to Adventure again in North Florida. We've got Billy Burbank with us and you guys have probably heard us talk with Johnny Burbank in the past a couple times. Billy's his older brother and for a lot of his life, he was an overseer and poured into him at times when he needed that. I've been told since Johnny ever mentioned your name, he said, "You need to talk to Billy because he's a hunting nut." We've got a lot in common. You love the mountains and you love to chase elk with the bow. Why don't you share some stories with us?

Billy Burbank: You're right about that. It came later in life than what some people were fortunate enough to have been raised by their father hunting and taking them hunting. I never had that. None of us brothers had that. My mother took me rabbit hunting with a shotgun one time on the south end of Amelia Island. I forget how old I was, but I had a couple of my friends with me, so that was the first hunting experience.

The hunting actually came from my dad's brother, Frank Burbank, who was a net maker also. What a man he was. He's kind of like a John Wayne man to me, a hero. He was a big left-handed net maker and he loved hunting. He loved hunting turkeys and turkeys and elk are two of my favorites. I love to hunt birds, but that's when you call something. I'm itching right now because I've got several turkeys I'm looking at on the farm that I run for my son Hunter.

Back in the days when I learned how to hunt ducks, if the wind was blowing, I would go to work to sew nets at 4:00 in the morning. I would work over 100 hours a week and still find time to duck hunt. My brother Tommy would be with us. If the wind wasn't blowing, we're in a 13-foot Boston Whaler with a 70 Stinger on the back of that thing doing about 55, hunting ducks. We're hunting every slew, every pothole that we could think of.

I trained Labradors back in those days and he and I trained many with a flashlight at night, getting them to retrieve. Johnny was coming up and he saw me and Tommy. We were Duck Dynasty before Duck Dynasty. When you look back at the pictures and see all the ducks we had and what we did, painting our faces with mud and just whatever it took, it brings you back. We weren't in the limelight back in those days; we were just doing our thing.

We were selling raccoons to pay for our gas. We couldn't afford the gas. I'm going to tell some funny stories on little baby brother Johnny. Everything about him you can put on me because I was there living his life with him and through it. Unfortunately, without a mother back in those days and a father that worked like he worked, we were pretty much the Burbank boys thrown to the wind out there.

That means we were trusted and we had teachers and people in the community that loved us enough to keep their protection around us with the Holy Spirit. We didn't know what the Holy Spirit was back in the day, but that Holy Spirit was folded in his arms on them Burbank boys because it was tired at times trying to keep us together. One story before we get into Johnny's hunting when he finally got with his big brother to go hunting was Tommy and I coming back from the Nassau Marsh.

Back in those days, Chesapeake Bay would freeze over in the late 70s and 80s. The Chesapeake Bay would freeze by Thanksgiving. That pushed a lot of ducks, black ducks, all the ducks down this way. So we killed just about everything you could imagine out of that marsh. We were coming back into town one day. We had had a good day, our faces were all wind burned, and we were in Tommy's old brown Jeep truck.

He said, "That looked like your Corvette that just went by there." I looked at my red Corvette go by and I said, "No, it can't be my red Corvette." He said, "Yeah, it was. Johnny was driving." Johnny didn't have a driver's license. So we go run Johnny down and Johnny says, "Daddy said I could drive it." I said, "Get that car back to the house." That was one story of Johnny's. He said, "If you'd take me hunting with you, I wouldn't be driving your car."

Like Johnny says, I was so into duck hunting. Then some friends introduced me to bow hunting. One of them, Steve Simmons, was part of me meeting Dan Quillian. I've got one of his recurve bows from back in the day when he was hunting and I've hunted some places that Steve has hunted. During that time, Johnny knew I liked to call predators. He said, "I want to go predator hunting with you. I want to see what a bobcat looks like. I want to call one up."

I couldn't afford the calls or anything like that, but I knew how they made them. So I just took two pieces of wood and took my old fancy net knife I've got here and carved out two pieces of wood and put a flat rubber band between them and then wrapped it around the ends. I got what I thought sounded like a dying rabbit and I could stretch it and get different pitch. Not far off the island here, there was 350 acres of woods.

We went calling that night. I gave him a red light to put on his head. I had one on my head and on the 22 Magnum that I was shooting, I had an amber light that I could just flip up and it came on. He had a shotgun. I said, "Okay, there's no tree I'd like to get right here, but here's what I want you to do. You're so big, you're like a tree. You back up to me and put your back to me and I'm going to lean on you. You look that way and I'm going to look this way."

We were in a pasture, but with a little bit of palms and palm trees around. I started calling. A few minutes later, Johnny hit me with his elbow. He hit me again and I said, "What?" He said, "Quit calling, quit calling." I said, "Quit calling, for what?" He said, "You need to turn around. How big is a bobcat? How big is a bobcat?" I turned around and looked and here are these two big eyes.

Here's a big old cow about 10 feet in front of Johnny and he's got his light on. That was his first debut of doing a predator call. That's a big bobcat. He was such a big guy. We tried taking him duck hunting with us at times, but he would always bog through the marsh. He was just so big and heavy and we knew where to walk and how to cross these creeks, and every time we turned around, Johnny's bogged up.

One day, Uncle Frank was with us. Me and Johnny were sneaking up to a pond probably loaded with black ducks and mallards. I got there, but Johnny didn't because we were heading that way. Uncle Frank's in the boat and he starts hollering about halfway there. We're crawling. He's yelling, "Johnny! Johnny!" Johnny turned around and he said, "Come here! Come here!" Johnny went running back to the boat.

He gets there and Uncle Frank is sitting there smoking a cigarette and he says, "Man, you just missed it. A whole family of coons just went by." By that time, the ducks were getting off the pond, so Johnny still remembers that.

Dean Hulce: I love the history of this. There's nothing closer to me other than sitting with a group of Christian men, no matter where you're at. But there's something about being in the mountains that's special when you're closer to the Lord. The stars are closer and when you wake up early in the morning and walk out and you're listening for the elk, everything is so close. That's truly being with nature right there in God.

When the Bible says be still and know that I am Lord, it's easy to be still in the mountains. We'll pick that up in the podcast. Thank you for joining me on the radio portion. Thank you to our listeners for joining us and join us each week here because we don't ever know where we're going to be. The next few months we may be across the South a lot, but we'll always be sharing stories of what God's doing in lives. Join us each week here on God's Great Outdoors as we head down the Trail to Adventure.

Guest (Male): When Jesus came down to earth, he could have called anyone to lead and build his church. It would seem to us that the smart thing would have been to use religious leaders of the day, but God had a bigger and better plan. He chose the rugged outdoorsmen of the world to do his work. The fishermen and hunters of this world have been used to share the love of Christ to others.

What is God calling you to today? What is it that God has been doing to prepare you for his service? So often we don't feel adequate to be used by God, but remember the old saying: God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called. Are you being called to his service? If you've enjoyed today's program and would like to hear the extended podcast version, you can find it by looking for Dean Hulce or Trail to Adventure wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

This program is provided by and can be contacted at God's Great Outdoors, PO Box 415, Powers, Michigan 49874 or on the website godsgr8outdoors.org. Thank you for joining us today on the Trail to Adventure. If you feel you're being equipped by God to a call, step up and answer that call. Then join us here each and every week in God's Great Outdoors.