God's Great Outdoors

Gerry is in Anchorage Alaska on this week’s Trail To Adventure! discussing his early years in life and growing up in the mountains of North Carolina and following his dad through the woods is how Dave Battle begins this interview. Remembering the other men who also were instrumental in his life and how one individual on a gravel mountain road impressed him to be more active in his relationship with Jesus Christ, because he had his Bible with him on the seat of his work truck. These days Dave is a wildlife biologist in Alaska and as he shares he is still learning about God’s creation every day. His reflection back to this time in his life can cause us to examine our own personal daily walk.

On this Trail To Adventure! a family tragedy is part of the story as the guest will give the listeners some real recreational water safety thoughts to consider. Kenny Ratliff begins this interview by describing great times in the outdoors with his dad and reflects on how he introduced him to spending time afield and stream. This later in his life became where he directed his vocation and passed up opportunities to wear a suit and tie to work. Kenny then goes into the story of how on Father’s Day some years back, and at the same time, the family was celebrating his dad’s and his youngest brother’s birthdays, something terrible happened. Kayaking on an area river, both of these two loved ones were taken home to be with the Lord because of a boating accident. A sad event to be sure, but one we can all learn from to be safe in our future recreation on the water.

This week’s Trail To Adventure! interview has Gerry at the Ark Encounter with Ken Ham, Founder of Answers In Genesis and the Creation Museum. Located in Williamstown, Kentucky, Gerry’s guest shares about being a school teacher in Australia and liked how he was challenged on creation vs. evolution and what the Bible said on the issue. This led to Ken’s passion to present the truth of the book of Genesis and the real facts of what science reveals about God’s universe and our earth. Ken unveils how studies done by Answers In Genesis discovered why people doubt God’s Word, because of evolution and “the millions of years” yet there are many items people can learn to use to defend God’s Word. A trip to see the Ark that is the size as described in God’s Word can make the Bible become real and possible in a visitor's eyes!

This week’s interview is with Mark Looy as he shares about the Answers in Genesis ministry and Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. A great way to evangelize those who come to visit and Mark relates about this apologetic ministry focusing on the importance of the first book of the Bible. The two also talk about the Ark Encounter located 40 miles away from the Museum in Williamstown, Kentucky. This life size exhibit’s having a fantastic draw of visitors, with a high number of attendees needing a relationship with their Creator God. These attractions are an hour’s drive from God’s Great Outdoors Family Fun Fossil Hunt’s in August. This happens in Ohio and Dr. John Whitmore, who teaches young earth geology at Cedarville University, comes and shares with the fossil hunters, discussing the proof Noah’s flood.

Dr. John Whitmore, who teaches geology and paleontology at Cedarville University, is this week’s Trail To Adventure! guest. John shares with the listeners an overview of the years that God’s Great Outdoors has been doing their Family Fun Fossil Hunts is how Dr. John Whitmore starts off in this interview. John and Gerry discuss this August event that occurs each year in Ohio, a little over an hour from The Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter in the Cincinnati area. John shares about the fossils that are everywhere, and the fact that attendees of the hunt can keep what they find of these once ocean-dwelling animals. This location is loaded with these fossils and the place is wheelchair and stroller accessible so the entire family can take part!

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! a trip to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky is the location where Gerry connects with dinosaur sculptor, and musician, Buddy Davis. Buddy shares about adventures that he has had hunting dinosaur bones, plus what the Bible say about animals we now call dinosaurs. He explains how his years of making a living doing taxidermy work, led him to begin sculpting life-size dinosaurs, many of which are viewed at the Creation Museum by those visiting. Buddy also explains what the Creation Museum and Answers In Genesis is about and how it introduces visitors to the Book of Genesis. He relates how the Bible is the most important book in our lives as it directs us to a personal relationship with the Creator God, Jesus Christ.

On this Trail To Adventure! interview, a visit to Dr. John Whitmore’s office at Cedarville University in Ohio, Gerry got to meet Dr. Steve Austin. As an undergrad geology student at Washington State, Dr. Austin was able to explore probably the most significant geological event in the 20th century, the eruption of Mt. Saint Helen’s. This was a turning point for him as he was able to watch and discover firsthand how this catastrophe affected the landscape, including a creation of a one-fortieth scale of the Grand Canyon, in only one day. During this time Dr. Austin switched from a Christian “old earth” geologist, to a “young earth” geologist, believing the biblical account of 6000 years of earth’s age. All from seeing layer upon layer of earth that was laid down by volcanic eruptions in minutes, not hundreds of thousands of years as he had been taught.

Now on this week’s Trail To Adventure! Gerry is at Cedarville University located in Cedarville Ohio. His guest on this program is Dr. John Whitmore, who teaches geology and paleontology at Cedarville University. Dr. John shares with the listeners how he got involved as a young man running around the woods of Ohio, collecting rocks, arrowheads and fossils. John is considered to be the world’s leading authority on fossilized fish, and he discusses how he did his research in this area of expertise. Gerry & John talk about the annual fossil hunt done every year near the Creation Museum that sees families attend from many different states. The fossils are everywhere, and the attendees get to keep what they find. This is a wonderful outdoor outreach event the listener can do with God’s Great Outdoors and invite their friends and relatives to join them to hear about the Bible’s Flood and see proof!

This week’s Trail To Adventure! has Gerry at one of the conferences GGO does across the country teaching “How To” do outdoor outreach ministry. The author of the tract "Up in Smoke," Bob Hodgdon, tells the story of how his dad's business, Hodgdon Powder, had its beginnings after World War II. Bob shares a funny story "now," of how as a 10 year old boy he almost blew up their house; his parents didn't find out about this until a family reunion 35 years later. Bob relates what a reader would see in the tract of how an explosion at one of their factories and four funerals for Christians, who were killed at that tragedy, brought him to receive Jesus Christ. It was during these funeral services and seeing how the men being buried, their family and friends, though sorrowful, rejoiced and celebrated their homecomings in Heaven. Bob didn't know what they had or what was different about them, but he just knew he had to have it too.

This week’s Trail To Adventure! the interview is with Dan Ryks, a charter boat captain on the Mississippi River, in Minnesota. Dan tells the story of how he came to Christ in prison. He went in an angry man who was always fighting and came out totally opposite of how he went in. Gerry and Dan talk about how Dan, born in 1965, used to, along with about 12 other boys, carry their shotguns to school to shoot ducks on the way. These young men all left their guns in the principal’s office, took them out at lunch to hunt ducks, then again as they traveled home. The point Gerry reflects on is how they were allowed guns in school, had The Ten Commandments, and there were no school shootings back then. Today – can’t mention Jesus, no Ten Commandments or guns in schools and there are school shootings. Why?