God's Great Outdoors

Being involved in a godless past to include running with members of the Hell's Angels, Sons of Satan, and Pagans motorcycle bike groups, is just part of the testimony of this week's guest Ken Gingrich. Ken is joined by his wife Judy and the two talk about this time in their lives and how God wound up getting a hold of the two of them when an evangelist showed up at their door. Ken put this story into a tract titled The Ultimate Choice and eventually wound up writing an expanded story of this entire experience in Ken's life in a book with the same name, The Ultimate Choice.

Dr. Tom Rakow, the founder of The Christian Deer Hunters Association and Gerry visit together in Chamberlain, South Dakota. The two discuss the numerous outdoor ministries that have come about over the years, and their ability to provide Christians who are looking to reach others enjoying God's creation and provide the ability to help win them to Jesus Christ, the Creator God. Tom shares about how The Christian Deer Hunters Association got started and how he never expected it to be what it is today. The two also talk about Volume II DVD, Trail to Adventure! Teaching Series for pastors and laymen and having to get in front of the camera to complete this project, a most uncomfortable experience for both of them.

A trip to Ashley, Indiana at the 3 Rivers Archery traditional archery supply warehouse is the location for this week's program. Dale Karch the owner shares with Gerry about how he had started a bow building business in his garage in the state of Wisconsin. As time went on they added a number of other archery products to help those that were into shooting the simple stick and string type bows of the traditional archer. Discovering that 3 Rivers Archery was for sale,Dale and his wife looked at how they could acquire this business and make it something that the entire family could get involved in and as it turned out, they accomplished this goal and it became a family affair that grew their relationships with each other and made memories for now and eternity to come.

Being asked to help a woman load a road kill deer into the trunk of her car so that she could feed her hungry family had an incredible impact on Rick Wilson.Moved by this event Rick felt God was calling him to in some way help people who were struggling with issues when it comes to food and was led to start the ministry Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry.From this little incident and the beginning of this ministry in the Hagerstown, MD area, FHFH has expanded across the nation, seeing numerous people fed by deer harvested by hunters each year.

Would you like to have your family hooked for life? Trevor Ruble the founder of a ministry to children and families on teaching them how to fish called "Hooked for Life" is being adopted by churches across North America. Trevor shares how he struggled as a kid without a dad and how fishing was his escape from that loss and the ministry was something God laid on his heart to help kids to learn to fish and come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.

The founder of the World Wide Christian Scuba Divers Organization, Jim Mustoe shares with Gerry about his early years in life, love of the outdoors, and walk with the Lord. Jim also tells how the Lord impressed on him the idea to write a pamphlet called "Jesus is the Regulator of Our Life." Also, God led him to start a ministry to scuba divers.

Walking into a restaurant after a day at the Archery Trade Association Show, in Nashville, Tennessee, Gerry had what he calls a divine encounter. He went through the door to eat and at the same time, that today's guest Jason Koger was going in as well. Gerry handed him a tract because he had a camouflage shirt on and invited him to join him for dinner. Jason lost both of his hands in an accident where he was electrocuted with high voltage while riding an ATV. It was clear after a few moments Jason had a relationship with Jesus Christ, and also emitted the joy of the Lord. He shares about his accident, the loss of his hands, his wife having to deal with a baby, a small child and him, even having to feed all threat dinner time which caused a decision that Jason had to make that will certainly challenge every listener. Jason also tells how he got back into the outdoors and hunting turkey and deer and where God took him after the accident.

Jim McNamara, a taxidermist from Lima, Ohio shares about the business and how over the years taxidermy has changed, allowing people in his trade to create such life-like mounts of birds, fish and mammals. Jim also tells the story of how he almost died on a duck hunt and at one point he realized or accepted the fact that he wasn't going to make it. Jim had no fears because he realized that despite leaving his loved ones behind that God would take care of them and he was at peace at being with the Lord, but obviously he survived the situation.

Paul Meeks who for many years owned the treestand company called API Outdoors, is the guest on this week's Trail to Adventure! Paul shares how he got started in the treestand industry with API being the first aluminum stand to appear on the market and by the time he sold the business it was the number one manufacturer of treestands. Gerry and Paul spend the majority of this interview talking treestand safety to help the listeners understand the importance of the topic and seriously consider their need to wear safety harnesses while doing their hunting adventures.

Gerry travels to the northeast corner of Ohio to take part in a ministry of the likes he had never seen before. The event was a multi-species fishing tournament where a small fish like a blue gill that was caught at the event could actually be the winner over a larger species fish, such as a muskie. It all worked on percentages, and the technique in judging is explained by this week's guest Roy Hendrickson. The lake the church was using was public access and was actually in both Ohio and Pennsylvania, but you will discover that this ministry outreach is designed also to share Christ and can even be done on a small farm pond that has several species of fish.