God's Great Outdoors

Narrator: Since the beginning of time, people have passed stories from one generation to another. The history of all humanity has been shared through spoken and written word. If we didn't have these stories shared to us, we would have no purposeful way to make our plans for moving forward.

On today's program, we'll hear from a hunter that has written down not only his hunting and fishing stories, but he's also written down the things that God has done in his life and the way that he was brought to Him through hard and nearly life-ending times.

As we listen to today's guest, we hope that you think back on all that God has done in your life, both in the outdoors and sometimes without an outdoor experience. We hope that you'll consider sharing all that God has done for you with those that are coming behind you in this life. Let's join Dean now and his special guest as we head out on the trail to adventure in the woods and waters of Northern Alabama in God's Great Outdoors.

Dean Hulce: Welcome to God's Great Outdoors on the trail to adventure. We're in Hampsville, Alabama this morning, just a little bit north of Birmingham, a little bit south of Huntsville. We have a guest this morning that I actually just met yesterday and was introduced to me by some good friends that were back in Michigan with us. Andy Johnson, good to have you with us, Andy.

Andy Johnson: Good to be here.

Dean Hulce: I think it was two or three years ago that Lloyd and Laurie came back to Michigan and stopped and saw us. I had sent some books with them, some devotionals, and they had brought one to you. I didn't know who you were until yesterday, but then they said, "Here's a guy that you really should get on the program."

I'm excited about it. You came in this morning and you brought me four books that you've written and a couple of cane calls for turkey calls. We're coming up on turkey season. You've got about a week and a half till you open up in Mississippi, correct?

Andy Johnson: That's right.

Dean Hulce: You hunt Mississippi every spring usually?

Andy Johnson: Sometimes you don't get drawn for the first two weeks.

Dean Hulce: Really? That's a draw? I didn't know that. I've never hunted Mississippi. I'm kind of collecting states. It's fun to go to different places. Not because it's a different state, but it's a different place. Have you hunted around different areas?

Andy Johnson: Mostly Southeast: Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama.

Dean Hulce: Well, if you ever want to come north and hunt a Yankee gobbler, they don't gobble with an accent different than yours do up there. Reckon they would like my calls? They probably would. That sounded sweet.

I know that you're a very avid hunter and a fisherman too from the story you just told me before we got on the air. But you also love to write, which I do. I started writing many years ago and just started publishing books about ten years ago. Why don't you tell us a little bit how you got into the books and how you got started in that part of being able to write the things down that are on your heart?

Andy Johnson: It started because I had spent so much time in the outdoors and it meant so much to me in my life. From the time I was a child, my grandfather, one of my mentors, the story was told on him when he was a young man that if he was in the field plowing and one of the neighbors came down the road and said, "Gordon, do you want to go fishing?" that he would unhook the mule right in the middle of the road. He wouldn't even finish the row. I come from a long line of addicted outdoorsmen.

My dad, every year when we were growing up, he took part of his vacation to crappie fish in the spring and part of it to quail hunt in the fall. It was just a way of life. I had so many stories and so many fond memories that I thought it would be a shame for these to pass with me. I want to leave them for my grandkids. I've got 12 grandkids. Every time I write a book, they get a book. So they'll have something to look back on when I'm dead and gone.

Dean Hulce: That's a great way to share. I've thought of that because I've never written a book like yours where I've just laid out a lot of experiences. Mine are small experiences with a biblical application. But it's a great history thing for our families.

Unfortunately, that stuff used to be passed down from person to person, even way back in biblical times. That was passed down person to person in stories to generation to generation. The Bible actually speaks of that, but we've lost that in our world today. It's great to have that. I'm anxious to hear them and to read the stories.

I'm going to challenge you to take some of your stories and do some devotionals. I'd love to share some of your stories in shorter form on devotionals. If you ever had an interest in writing them, putting a scripture to them, and then writing just a small experience with a little biblical application, I'd love to share them with our listeners and to our readers.

Before we go on, we're going to take a quick break because I want to get into some more of those stories that are in there and talk about some of your history, specifically a major event in your life about 20 years ago or so. In the meantime, we're going to take a quick break. Adam's going to come on and let people know that we are listener-supported. God supplies what we need, but He calls people to do that alongside of us. Then we'll be right back.

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 blessings 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 and so much more at our website, godsgr8outdoors.org. That's godsgr8outdoors.org.

Dean Hulce: Welcome to God's Great Outdoors Trail to Adventure. We're back again, sitting today in Hampsville, Alabama. We've got Andy Johnson, who's a good friend of some old friends of mine and Linda's. They left our place up there in Michigan about ten years ago and came down here and got to know you through church, I believe. As I mentioned, you've written four books, and they're really your memories and your heart. Why don't you share a couple of the stories in these books?

Andy Johnson: When I first started to write the books, I wanted to be, first of all, honest and transparent. Growing up in the South, hunting ethics was not always at the forefront. As you grew into your sports and your sportsmanship, you wanted to begin to do things the right way.

I went back from the beginning and I was just honest. I told some stories in there about earlier times in my life where I was not always an upstanding outdoorsman. I wrote about how I had grown through that and I'd come to a place where I don't even want to be associated with the idea of being a poacher or someone that doesn't do things the right way. I want to feel like that I have earned the animal when I take it.

Growing up, my dad was pretty straight-laced. When I would do something to stretch the game laws, he would come down on me pretty hard. I began to be really more consistent with the way I approach the outdoors when my boys started getting old enough to pay attention to what Dad was doing.

Dean Hulce: They're watching you, and we have a responsibility.

Andy Johnson: That's right. Now I consider myself a legal and respectable, ethical outdoorsman. I only bow hunt, not that I'm opposed to rifle hunting or anything like that, but it's a decision that I made. I explain it in my book, Whitetails and Blood Trails, about the transition and the first deer I shot with a bow. I thought, "I don't know if I can ever shoot one with a gun again." I got such a charge, it was unbelievable.

In the books, there's lots of turkey hunting stories. I share adventures with an old friend named Joe. We've been hunting buddies for years and years. There was a lot of stuff in there that kind of reminds you of the T.K. and Mike escapades. One time we were on a management area hunting and we were going down the road and Joe throws his hands up and yells, "Stop!"

I said, "Why?" He said, "There's a big gobbler there 25 yards off the road, full strut. I can lay this shotgun out the window and shoot him right out the window of the truck." I said, "Not out of my truck." So we went on down the road and tried to sneak around and call the bird up. Well, it was a decoy the game wardens had it there. We could hear them on their walkie-talkies up on the hill. "We got somebody!"

Dean Hulce: Well, it paid off. You saved him a lot of money.

Andy Johnson: Well, probably saved us both a lot of money and maybe jail. I don't know.

Dean Hulce: You were guilty just for driving the truck.

Andy Johnson: Yeah. There's just a lot of the foolish stories in there. There's a lot of serious stories in there, a lot of family stories. There are stories in there about how much I appreciate my wife. She has been the number one supporter for somebody that spent as much time away from home and in the outdoors as I have through the years.

Dean Hulce: I've got the same thing. It's a partnership, and it's not always easy. I think it's way tougher on our wives. I guided for 38 years, so until the last 15, 20 years, I was always gone. It was me going and she was home. As our boys got old enough to move on, she started going with me, and it made a world of difference. But she put up with a lot in the meantime before that. So I totally understand that.

I don't know if the story of your health issue is in the books or not.

Andy Johnson: It is.

Dean Hulce: Why don't you tell us about how that happened, what happened, and then how God brought you through it?

Andy Johnson: That really didn't have anything to do with hunting or fishing. We went to a Valentine banquet at church on February the 13th. Everything was fine. Had a nice meal, enjoyed the company of our friends, and then came home, got ready for bed. I laid down in the bed and I started getting a severe headache. I don't have severe headaches. It was really something out of the ordinary. It felt like brain freeze all over my head.

I told Tina, "I've got to get up and take something. My head is killing me." I got an ice pack and I went back to bed. I laid an ice pack under my neck, and it just wouldn't go away. In probably an hour, I told her, "You're going to have to take me to the emergency room." It was really unusual. We went to the emergency room on a Sunday night about 11:30 and got there and there was nobody there, no patients.

They took me right back. In ten minutes, they were doing a CAT scan, and in 15 minutes, they had a helicopter on the way to transport me to Birmingham. That was quite the shock. I was the picture of health. I was active, I worked hard, I played hard. But anyway, when we got down to Birmingham, my wife laughs about it, our oldest son was still at home then and he drove her to Birmingham to meet me down there. She said, "We actually beat the helicopter."

It's just the way God works. That next morning, now, a lot of this is second-hand because realize I'm kind of out of it at this point, but there were 51 people from our church gathered at the hospital the next morning praying and lifting me up. I had a couple of individuals that I didn't know very well, but they were young guys that had started a church and we'd kind of clicked and connected. A couple of those guys just walked in that next day in the ICU and they said, "God told me to come pray for you."

They just laid their hand on me and prayed and turned around and walked out. They didn't say anything else. They had already told my wife, they had the diagram of my head and my CAT scan and all of that, where they were going to make the cuts and the incisions and all that stuff. Earlier, they were going by the CAT scan from Cullman. The guy said, "We need to do an MRI." So he does an MRI and he comes back and tells my wife, "We don't know what's going on, but this thing stopped. It's not still bleeding."

He said, "We're going to keep him a couple of days and we're going to do another MRI." On Wednesday night, they let me go on Wednesday from the hospital, and on Wednesday night, I did the service at church. It was just a miracle. I'm so thankful because I've got to see so much since then with my family and experience it and see my grandkids growing up and things that I was about to miss out on.

I tell in the book that the whole time this was going on, I never got afraid. I asked the doctor in Cullman before he put me on the helicopter, "Am I going to die?" and he said, "A lot of people with these do die."

Dean Hulce: Most. With a brain aneurysm, that's not a good report normally.

Andy Johnson: It was just a miraculous God working in a miraculous way in my life. I didn't deserve it and I don't understand it, but I'm so thankful for it.

Dean Hulce: We don't need to because we can trust God. There's one story in your last book that you wrote that I'd love for you to share with us. We've got about five minutes left, so if you'd share that and bring us out of the radio program, that would be a great idea.

Andy Johnson: We talked about this. I've got a story in the bowhunting book called The Killing Tree. All hunters, especially bowhunters that have access to a piece of property that they get to hunt for very long, there always seems to be this one tree. It's just something you can't tell by looking, but it's just special. When the deer get up and begin to move, for some reason, they all move by that tree or around that tree.

I'm not talking about a white oak tree that's loaded with acorns. I'm just talking about this is their natural way they move through the forest, through the timber. So I had one of those trees and I've killed—I'd be afraid to put a number on the number of deer that I've taken out of that tree. But as I sat there writing this book, thinking about that tree, I called it the original killing tree.

We've talked a lot about hunting and fishing and faith. We all have to have the Cross, and the Cross was the original killing tree. It's the place where Jesus hung and shed His blood so that we might have forgiveness of our sins and freedom and receive His grace. Without that, without His death on that original killing tree, then everything else really doesn't matter. It's meaningless. That's the most important event that ever happened in the history of the world: when Jesus died on that original killing tree for my sins and the sins of the whole world.

Dean Hulce: As you're telling this, I can think of trees that we have like that. As you tell about the story of the original killing tree, my eyes were watering because as much as we love to hunt, if we don't have Christ, that's just passing by for personal pleasure. There's nothing lasting in that because your property's going to be logged, you're going to lose a lease, something's going to happen that that's temporary.

Believing in what Christ did on the Cross is eternal. For our listeners, if you have questions and you've never made a decision to follow Christ, to trust what He did on the Cross and then later rising from the dead from the tomb, please get a hold of us because we'd love to share that with you. Also, Andy, why don't you share how people can get a hold of you to get some books?

Andy Johnson: Can I do one more little thing before I do that?

Dean Hulce: Sure.

Andy Johnson: I was talking to my mother yesterday. My mother's 88 years old and she's sick. I told her we were talking about something that happened in 1974. I said, "Mom, you know what happened in 1974? I gave my life to Christ." In 1974, I was a 14-year-old boy, and it's a decision that I've never regretted. It was one of those points in life where everything changes from that point forward. I'm so thankful to the Lord that He convicted me and I was converted as a 14-year-old boy. I've been able to be with Him for all these years.

Dean Hulce: There's something great about having Christian parents that are praying for us. I had a mom that taught us to sing Christian songs as little boys. Someone just reminded me my brothers and I sang in front of the church an old song called "The Countdown," I think it's called. I do remember it. To have a mother that cared enough to share and a father that cared enough to share, that's a generational thing that needs to pass on. Tell us how people can get the books.

Andy Johnson: You can get the books on Amazon. They were on Books-A-Million; they probably still are. All the major bookstores online have my books. Just type Andy Johnson in there or "outdoor books" or "turkey hunting" and they'll pop up.

Dean Hulce: I'm anxious to get into them. Like you said, they'll probably remind me of things from my childhood all the way up until now. Those things don't end. As long as we're in the woods, God shows us things, new things all the time, new experiences. We're going to tell more stories on the podcast. Join us there if you can't join us here each week on God's Great Outdoors as we head down the trail to adventure.

Narrator: We've all got special memories of great and sometimes scary experiences that we've had in the outdoors. God has given us an opportunity to hold those memories for many years. Today Andy shared how he has taken many memories from his life and has written them down for others, especially his children and grandchildren to recall and learn from for generations to come.

God has shared with us so much in His Word so that we can find our way in life, learning from those that have gone before us. We believe that the Bible is God's very words that have been shared to be drawn to Him and direct us in life.

Many of us in the outdoors trust our GPS to find our way. Using the most important GPS is God's Positioning System. This GPS keeps us on God's path and helps us to get through life successfully. We hope that you keep this GPS active in your life as you head down your own trail to adventure.

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, P.O. Box 414, Powers, Michigan 49874 or on the website godsgr8outdoors.org. Please share this with your friends and family and allow them the opportunity to hear about what God is doing in lives through His great outdoors. Thank you for joining us and please join us every week right here on the Trail to Adventure in God's Great Outdoors.