God's Great Outdoors

Dean Hulce: There are very few people that love the outdoors, especially hunting and fishing, that don't also love the creation. But all too often, we fall in love with the creation and forget the love of the creator. The creation, while it is amazing, is only possible because God loved us enough to provide it for us.

On today's program, we'll hear from a pastor that, along with his wife, are raising six kids, and he takes them to the outdoors as often as he possibly can. The life of a pastor is often run at a fast pace, and time off is at a premium. The distractions of caring for many people is not only time-consuming but also energy and soul-draining.

It takes a special pastor to draw lines that protect not only his own well-being but also the well-being of his wife and kids. We'll hear about hunting and fishing adventures with all the kids and times of having many kids in a hunting blind or fishing boat, and when it would seem impossible for things to be successful, but with God, all things are possible. All too often we think that we have the control, but when we truly consider things, we see that God had control all along. Let's join our host now, Dean Hulce, and God's Great Outdoors board member Paul Gaffney as they head out on the trail to adventure with Paul's pastor in God's Great outdoors.

Welcome to God's Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure. Today we are in Belleview, Florida, which is just south of Ocala for those that aren't familiar with it. We are with Pastor Ben Reams at First Baptist Church of Belleview. Good to have you with us, Ben.

Ben Reams: It's a pleasure to be a part of things today. I'm looking forward to this time.

Dean Hulce: I'm excited because we just cruised through your office and saw where your passions are besides the Lord. I did notice a lot of study books that are similar to mine. I saw your Unger's Bible Dictionary there with the cover ripped on it just like mine is at home.

We also have a really special guest. We have Paul Gaffney, who we're not sure if he's going to say much. We did put him on mic, but Paul is really involved with the very first radio program that ever went out for God's Great Outdoors and you've been a board member for many, many years and a good friend.

Paul Gaffney: Good to be here. Thanks that I can be part of this program and joined with you today. I'll be quiet and let my pastor speak though.

Dean Hulce: Well, you could get yourself in trouble if we override your pastor. I'm driving away when I'm done, but you're still here. But Ben, why don't you give us a little bit of your history?

Ben Reams: I have grown up in a pastor's family and also outdoors as well. My dad always took time on weekends to make sure that he spent time with us as kids growing up. I have very vivid memories of those first turkey hunts he ever took me on.

The first one being remembering getting your camouflage ready, preparing for that moment, and then the pre-dawn darkness giving way to the owls and then the first gobble. Just remembering that and then not only seeing that and experiencing it but having success that day. My dad harvested a very nice gobbler and being on the front lines of it definitely impacted me and still does to this day. Even the turkey fans in my office, just the fun of chasing gobblers and turkeys and then the call to ministry. All of that is so similar in some regards.

Dean Hulce: Very similar. And you didn't go to school close by here. Some of your schooling you kind of were in different places.

Ben Reams: Right. I grew up in Perry, Florida. I call it the armpit of Florida, right in the Big Bend area. I graduated high school there and married my high school sweetheart and we went to school at Florida State University.

Both of us got undergraduate degrees and then we went to Fort Worth, Texas to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and I got my Master of Divinity. I have pastored a church in Texas, one in Florida, one in South Carolina, and now here at First Baptist Church Belleview.

Dean Hulce: Where in Texas was the church exactly?

Ben Reams: It was in a little town called Coppel, Texas, near Lake Whitney, south of the Metroplex. The hill country of Texas, mesquite trees and Rio Grande turkeys. Great people in that area of the world.

Dean Hulce: It is. Actually, all across Texas, that's a different mentality. Probably pastoring there you saw some of that as well. They really do believe everything's better and bigger in Texas. It's funny you said Florida State. We just came out of Amelia Island for a week and everybody there is Gator fans. I would never have been brave enough to say I'm a Seminole fan. Well, it's good to be here and I have the same passions you do. I wasn't raised in a pastor's house, but I was raised in a strong Christian home. To be growing up in a pastor's house, a pastor's got a really hard job. The hardest job is a pastor's wife and his kids lots of times too.

Ben Reams: That's one thing that my dad was very vigilant about growing up and that's where the outdoors came in. On the weekends we did spend time. Now, of course, on Sunday we were in church, but on Saturdays we would often spend most of the day in the woods hunting, whether it was in the deer stand that morning or in the springtime chasing turkeys through the morning and even fishing here and there.

Knowing that we didn't have to worry about our dad saying, "No, I can't make it. I've got something else." There's always something else to do as a pastor, but one of the things that I have reminded myself of and sought to live by is my family are members of the church too.

Spending time with them, I'm also ministering to the church as well. In fact, the most important ministry in my life is my family. The outdoors still play an important part of that even for me and my six kids.

Dean Hulce: Six kids. I was raised in a family of six kids so I understand that aspect of it. The time was split amongst five boys. My dad loved the outdoors, loved the Lord, was a leader in the church. So he had to divide his time and there's times it's kind of hard to be real successful sometimes, especially turkey hunting if you've got three or four kids tagging behind you.

Ben Reams: You're exactly right. I have had success multiple times. In fact, my youngest son, this is his year for turkey. All the others have killed one except for my daughter and she's now expressing interest this year. I'm sure we'll have a story to share about one of her hunts later on.

But the fun of putting a blind on your back that's already 25 pounds, carrying one kid in a left arm, the gun over your other shoulder, and another kid in the other arm and then two more toddling behind. People would laugh and say, "There's no way you'll have success." And we would have success.

They would I would let them call, I would let them just participate, knowing that we may scare something off. But what we weren't going to scare off were the memories that we made and the love that now has been instilled in them for the outdoors is evident every day.

Dean Hulce: I think a lot of pastors could probably and will, we have a lot of pastors that listen, can and will learn from just what you've said there. There are so many pastors that they put the church and all the needs of the people of the church, and you can't meet all the needs. That's one of the reasons we have deacons and elders in our churches. But they can't put that aside for their family lots of times and even for themselves. I mean a lot of them won't take the time for themselves when they need to.

Ben Reams: That's something that when I came to this church, I told them, I said, "Fridays are my day off." Everybody agreed, "Oh yeah, Pastor, take that time off." Until it's them that needs you on a Friday. So that's when it really tests you and the church whenever you're the one that feels like you need the pastor on Friday, but it's his day off and I already have a fishing trip planned with my boys. I'm not going to cancel that. That's when the church gets tested to see, can they truly accept ministry from other men in the church? They should be able to. As a pastor, am I going to stand on what I believe and be willing to say no, which is a hard thing to do to people in your church for the sake of your family?

Dean Hulce: And there are churches that don't take that well. It's very hard on the pastor's family as maybe harder than it is on the pastor.

Ben Reams: You're exactly right. I'm happy and blessed here at First Baptist Belleview because they have been very understanding of that. They know most Fridays I'm going to be on the lake with my guys or we're going to go to the woods or we're going to be doing something family-related most of the time. Most of them have given up on trying to contact me on that day.

Dean Hulce: Well, I will tell you, our church is without a full-time pastor, we have an intern. But a quick story, a few weeks ago, just on our way down to our board meeting for God's Great Outdoors in January, we had a member of the church that was in intensive care in Milwaukee, which is about a four-hour drive.

We happened to be going down to Indianapolis and I said, "We're going through there. I'm an elder at our church and I'll stop." You know, to that family I don't think it would have mattered who it was, it was just that somebody was there. That's what your leaders are called to. We're really ministering in the same way, or we should be, as the pastor.

Well, why don't you share a story with us? You shared, let me see some antlers in the other room and you did mention about that buck in particular there.

Ben Reams: That's a good story. We had just moved back from Texas to Florida and our family property is in North Florida and it's teeming with deer and turkeys. It has always been a blessing to be able to hunt the same areas and know the land well. You don't even realize the blessing that is until you grow up.

But to be able to take my boys opening deer season, I think my oldest son was about five years old and the next one he's about four at the time. We pile into a blind, a deer blind, and right at daylight, right on cue, they didn't even have a chance to get restless, that buck walked out. Made a shot on him, he ran off and so we had to wait for it to get light enough to go track him down.

I still remember us easing through the woods following the trail and looking up and he was there and he had not completely expired yet. So it was a little intense moment that he got up and ran a little further and stumbled and fell. Just the excitement of the moment to finally finish him off and to be able to the boys to literally grab him by the horns. Just experience that together is something I know I'll never forget and I know that it permanently is something that's impacted them as well.

Those moments, it's hard to put a value on that special time with your family. Of course, we can have it in the outdoors, but there are other places you can have it. I think the key is the time together, those moments that you share could be on a ball field too, could be at a sporting event, but the outdoors is as good a place as any for that to happen.

Dean Hulce: Probably better than most. Listen, we need to take a quick break. Adam our producer will come on and let people know who it is that the donors that make this possible but also let people know that if they want to come alongside how they can do that. We'll be right back on God's Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure.

Adam: For the last 26 years, God's Great Outdoors Trail to Adventure has been broadcast out 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 blessing as well.

Additional 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 godsgreatoutdoors.org. That's godsgreatoutdoors.org.

Dean Hulce: Welcome back to God's Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure. Again, we're in Belleview, Florida, and we're with Pastor Ben Reams from the First Baptist of Belleview. Good to have you again, Ben.

Ben Reams: It's fun. I'm enjoying this.

Dean Hulce: Most people are usually pretty nervous and I said all we're going to do is tell stories and talk and we'll share how God works through the outdoors in our lives as well. I was going to tell you a quick story about our dads. I remember as a kid, my earliest memory of my dad, one of the very earliest I have, was sitting on his bed when I was five years old, him with his Bible open and explaining John 3:16 to me.

I remember it like yesterday. I remember what their bedspread looked like, and it was after church on a Sunday evening. Fast forward just a couple of years and I'm walking behind my dad and the leaves were on the ground and it was mid-fall for us. I remember trying to be as quiet as I could and I snapped a twig. My dad looked over his shoulder. Normally he would have just given me a look so I knew that I had messed up.

But instead, he turned around and he knelt down in front of me and he said, "Let me show you how to place your feet." And he showed me how to place my foot so I wouldn't put all the weight down and snap a twig, and then he showed me how to walk in his steps. I didn't realize it at the time but looking back, what a great example. We set a path for our kids and in the outdoors, if we're watching for it, the opportunity to share what God does and is is an amazing, amazing opportunity.

Ben Reams: It sure is. I would say one of the things with the outdoors and my kids following in my footsteps, I think one of the biggest hurdles that outdoorsmen have is it's so easy to make the creation greater than the creator. In the pursuit of game, in the pursuit of deer, turkeys, quail, dove, whatever it is that you hunt, even bass fishing, whatever you're doing, it's so easy to let that consume your mind, consume your heart, and you can begin to pursue that so diligently that you forget about the creator.

That is one thing that I have worked diligently with my boys on is saying, "Guys, we're going to love to hunt, but you can't let that consume your life. There's way more to life than just the outdoors even."

One thing that I do to try to help set that stage for them is we often will pray before we leave the truck to go into the woods. We've even stopped after a harvest and said, "Let's just thank God for this moment. Let's thank Him, this is His creation." Often the sun is glistening on the dew and cobwebs shaking in the wind with the dew sitting on them, maybe even a distant gobble of a turkey you didn't kill still you hear and just to take it in and say, "This is an amazing moment, but God created this and we have to keep Him number one even in the midst of the outdoors."

I've seen that as a pastor, so many men they start to worship the outdoors or the creation instead of the creator, which is even in the Bible we're given warning of that. I think that could be one of the greatest hurdles that men have because it's so easy to just keep going and keep going. "I want to get better. I want to do it better. I've got to kill a bigger deer next year. Oh, I need to kill a bigger turkey. I need to catch a bigger bass." And that pursuit can easily overshadow what you should be as a husband, what you should be as a dad. To bring it back down to realizing that, "Hey, enjoy the outdoors, God made it that way, but don't make it an idol in your life that can easily replace the more important things," which is ultimately God but even your family. You can leave them out of there if you're not careful.

Dean Hulce: Very easily. Our world today in the hunting world especially, what trail cameras have done, what record books have done to hunting is not necessarily a good thing. Sometimes we've lost just the enjoyment of hunting. So many guys have to have something bigger and they want it to score higher and somebody will shoot something and somebody else, if it gets on social media, "Why would you shoot that? Should have left him another year."

We lose that. You mentioned something and it brought something to me. I've done a lot of disabled youth hunts, dozens and dozens of them over the years and now God's Great Outdoors helps sponsor a hunt at Two Hats Ranch.

Almost every kid in the blind, because we're there to introduce them to Christ, almost every one of the kids in there wants to pray for a successful hunt. So often it kind of surprised me because often even kids that are unchurched, they know that there's a connection to God and sometimes they'll want to pray, if not I'm happy to pray.

But what I've found is, as it's gone on, when we used to just do that and then we'd get a deer and you'd take it back to the truck, you'd take it back to the camp, and that was it and we forgot. So I started telling the kids, "Hey, we prayed for this and God gave us exactly what we asked Him for. Now we need to thank Him and praise Him for that."

Almost every one of those kids says, "I'll do it." And it amazed me because some of these kids that don't even know the Lord and aren't haven't been brought up in church have the most beautiful prayers. If we only had that kind of faith sometimes and that kind of response back to God. You have a story that has a good connection to bring us out here?

Ben Reams: Probably the most recent one from this current hunting season just ended here in Florida. Of course, five boys, one girl, she's kind of right in the middle of the guys and she's not had that much interest in hunting. But this year for whatever reason she said, "Dad, I want to go hunting."

Of course, when you've never killed something you automatically are thrust to the top of the best stand and the best opportunity. Of course, trail cameras, they're a game changer for engagement in hunting now. I think we have just as much fun looking at the camera and what's coming in front of your feeders. There's probably more excitement about that sometimes than the actual hunt.

Well, a very large buck showed up early on in the year and I don't know about everyone else, but it's fun to name your deer. So this one, because he was so big, probably one of the largest we've had a picture of in the North Florida area, we nicknamed him Brutus.

Brutus became the topic of family conversation every day. Did Brutus come? Did he show up? Did he show up? And he was showing up pretty regularly. So it came time for opening weekend and my daughter was able to go and hunt with her granddad, my dad. They were in the stand that first evening and lo and behold Brutus showed up right on time. 40-yard perfect broadside shot. The 243 fired, the deer hit the ground. She was ecstatic. They were texting, "Oh we got Brutus." But Brutus kicked a little bit, Brutus got up, Brutus ran off.

If you have hunted anywhere, when a deer gets up and runs off, it's normally not a good thing. So after hours of searching friends, family bringing in special trail dogs, we jumped him up, he ran off the property. All hope was really lost.

That's often how life does leave us in that boat. There are things that happened, we did everything right, we prepared well, and it doesn't come out like we want it to. It was heartbreaking for all of our family. We were like, "Man, the biggest buck we had a picture of, you're going to be your first deer." And of course, her brothers are ribbing her about, "I bet you didn't make a good shot, I bet you missed."

And then about three weeks later, showing back up in front of the same camera, Brutus. He still has the wound. You could see it on his side and she had just shot a little high in that no man's land area between the spine and the vitals and it was a 243 pass through and as far as we know Brutus is still alive today. So the hope of next year, the anticipation, everyone is so excited to see what's going to happen if he stays in the area and what happens with his horns and all of that.

Dean Hulce: We've had the same things happen and when that happens it's heartbreaking. It really is. But as you said, those things happen and in life they happen often. We live in a sinful world but it's an amazing thing that we have a hope. Not as the world has hope, the Bible even says that, but this is a hope that's more of an assurance.

Talking with people that just I just had some speakers that spoke with me at a church this past weekend and we talked about they lost their dad, I shared how I lost my dad and there was an amazing hope as we went through this to share that we're all going to be together again. And it's not very long. Time goes by fast. It seems like my dad passed away last week, but it's 12 years ago.

So we do have a hope. It's a different hope. Like I said, it's hard because when you say that in front of someone that doesn't know the Lord, you think big deal I've got hope. But we have an assurance. We know where we're going to be and we know who we're going to be with when the time comes.

We're about out of time believe it or not for the radio portion already. But we are going to go onto the podcast and hopefully those that are listening on the radio can get to a podcast app. Actually any place you can get to a podcast app, you can find us, Trail to Adventure and God's Great Outdoors. But until we get there, thank you for joining us.

Ben Reams: It's been a pleasure.

Dean Hulce: Time goes by fast, but we're going to jump into the podcast and please join us there and if you can't get there, join us every week here on God's Great Outdoors as we head down the Trail to Adventure.

There are many times in life where we get our hearts and minds messed up and the things that should be most important take a backseat to our own selfish wants. We think that shooting the biggest buck or catching the biggest fish will make a difference in our life. We need to realize that a bigger buck or fish or bigger turkey beard will make no difference in our lives and certainly not in eternity.

God is not impressed with our accomplishments in the woods and on the water. What is it that you value most in your life? Is it hunting or fishing? Is it sports or riding your motorcycle? What is it that holds your attention and your heart? If it's anything besides God Himself, then you're thinking wrong. God deserves your number one place, then your family after that.

Matthew 6:33 tells us that when we keep God first, He will bless us. This verse says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things shall be added unto you." We challenge you this week, make it a practice to keep God first, then spend a lot of quality time with your family. You will not regret any of that.

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 414, Powers, Michigan 49874, or on the website godsgreatoutdoors.org. Thank you for joining us again this week. Please join us each week on God's Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure.