God's Great Outdoors

On this Trail To Adventure! Gerry meets with Dave Battle who is someone making his living related to God’s great outdoors. Dave and his wife Beth live in Anchorage, Alaska. He was raised to believe in Jesus, the Bible, and Creation, as he was immersed in experiencing the outdoors with his father. However, in his college years everything he was being taught as he studied to become a wildlife biologist was telling him, not only was Evolution a fact, but there wasn’t even a God necessary for life to exist. Yet, one day in class, an eye-opening look at how each skull he was required to examine and study from the different animal species revealed that they had to have been both intricately and intelligently designed for that animal to exist at all. They had such precise locations for the many openings and these hole locations; to him was positive proof of Intelligent Design and a Creator God!

On This week’s Trail To Adventure! we look back to July 6 of 1996, God’s Great Outdoors first aired on WCDR radio out of Cedarville, Ohio. One of those individuals who were instrumental in getting the program off the ground was today’s guest, Jon Skillman. In the year of 2015 God’s Great Outdoors celebrated 20 years on the air as Jon celebrated his 50th year of broadcasting with the vast majority being on Christian radio. Jon shares a number of things during the interview, but the most important thing was how a little boy standing next to him as a teenager beside a roaring bonfire said, “I’m sure glad I’m saved because Hell is going to be much hotter than that fire in front of us!” That night at that Christian camp Jon could not get that out of his mind and prayed to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. This program is designed to honor and thank my friend Jon Skillman as he retires from Christian radio after 55 years of service to our Lord Jesus Christ. Know also, that his efforts live on with each broadcast of God’s Great Outdoors since he helped get us going in 1996!

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! Gerry joins up with Joni Eareckson Tada in Xenia, Ohio as the two relive the memory of Joni’s close encounter with a large black bear on a camping trip. Marshmallows as it turns out was all the bear was after at this hair raising encounter. Also discussed is how Ken, Joni’s husband, is using fishing as a way of reaching out to men who need Jesus, or need their relationship with the Creator God brought to a deeper level. Additionally, Joni tells about the special summer camps they have across the nation for physically and mentally disabled young people and adults. Her call is for men who might be willing to come along side these people and be volunteers at these summer events. Since the day years ago when a diving accident while swimming put Joni Eareckson Tada in a wheelchair, God has used her to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is an inspiration to all of us to do the same!

On this Trail To Adventure! Gerry’s with the Len & Gail Marcott who are from the “Cheese Head State,” during a trip to Rushing Wind Retreat Center in Ontario, Canada. Len shares how God worked in his and two of his son’s lives seven years before this interview on their first trip to Rushing Wind. This is a fly in fishing an adventure you can take someone on where they’ll have the Creator God speak to them by way of the outdoors, speakers and fellowship of others! This camp is operated for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to all that visit this remote wilderness area. Gail had set up the first trip to allow her husband and two adult sons to have a reconnect, but God clearly did far more than she had hoped for! Why not check out what a Rushing Wind trip could do for you and your loved ones too!

On this Trail To Adventure! traveling to speak at a Game Dinner in Wisconsin, he hooked up with Daryl Christensen. Daryl is a past God’s Great Outdoors Board of Directors member and spent most of his life in the professional walleye fishing arena. He shares how when the economic crash of 2008 took place, it hit the fishing industry hard. This caused Daryl to move to an early retirement from his profession, going in a different direction. Having been one of Wisconsin’s leading members of the state’s bird watchers, he began doing studies for the Department of Natural Recourses. So, besides getting to speak at Game Dinners, this has opened doors to present the Creator, Jesus Christ to those who enjoy ornithology. The interview also reflects on Daryl’s testimony that is found in a tract carried on God’s Great Outdoors web store titled, “From Loser To Winner!”

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! we’re exploring how two guys, David Hale who was a farmer, and Harold Knight a barber, who got together to design, develop, and market turkey calls. Gerry visits with these two legends in the outdoor world to discover that the only reason they started to sell their calls was because there weren’t many turkeys in Kentucky and they hoped to be able to make enough to buy a non-resident hunting license in Missouri. Giving one of these calls to an outdoor writer way back when there weren’t many turkeys to start with, created quite a stir. His article in an outdoor magazine drove in hundreds of phone calls to get one of their “turkey tubes” and it just went on from there. Both of these men give all the glory to God for what has happened in their lives and they continue to praise Him as the years roll by. The two are able to present their story at game dinners, telling of God’s blessing on them!

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! Gerry is in Montgomery, Alabama as he dropped in for a visit with Ed Gannon. The two met through Russell Thornberry two decades ago, with Gerry getting to do a little deer hunting on Ed’s farm. At that time, Ed was just starting to see wild hogs occasionally on his property. Now twenty years later, it’s being overrun with these animals that are destroying everything and make farming close to impossible! Ed tells how he uses his farm to bless and minister to groups, fathers and sons or anyone God directs his way. He shares the increasable story of how a baby in Russia was saved because of a father’s visit to his place. Then Ed share on his work with “LIFE ON WHEELS” and the powerful impact this outreach ministry is having on mothers and babies around their area of Alabama for the Kingdom of God!

Trail To Adventure! Gerry is at a Game Dinner in Pennsylvania with an old friend, Dick Hribar. Through the years as a fishing and hunting guide, Dick Hribar has put a lot of miles on his body. At the time of this interview he was about to undergo his fourth knee transplant on both legs; he is quite an outdoorsmen, always on the go. Dick shares how as a Special Education teacher in Pennsylvania for 30 years he was able to connect with his students by way of the bow and arrow, connecting with them using archery and hunting, turning many of their lives around as they lacked fathers at home. Dick also talks of his guiding elk hunters who draw the limited and coveted tags in Pennsylvania each fall to pursue the monsters that roam the mountains near his home.

On the Trail To Adventure! photographing mountains, fields, streams, seashores, and much more is the topic with this week's guest Dr. Charles Stanley. Dr. Stanley shares how he got involved in photography to include even developing all of his own photographs which are featured on just about all of the In Touch Ministry's items available to the public. He tells how awestruck he is by God's creation and by the memories surrounding the photos. Dr. Stanley also tells of his early years of fishing, hunting, and shooting, but how the absence of a father in his life to do these things with were clearly remembered in later years when he was a man. He offers to the audience that they may not think that taking a youngster fishing that has no father figure is a big deal, but he assures them that it is and how it can leave a lasting impact for eternity.

On this week's Trail to Adventure! Gerry‘s in Bemidji, Minnesota to speak at a men’s ministry event hosted by the radio station, Your QFM and BAMM. (Bemidji Area Men’s Ministry) While there in the area he connected with Kent Fraser. He’d met Kent at a mission’s conference in Ohio in the mid 90s. Kent and his wife Kim had come to speak at Gerry’s church as they’d just starting to minister to Native Americans in Edmonton, Alberta. During that encounter the two men somehow discovered they’d both lived in Maryland and had another connection too. Gerry’s high school photography teacher later became Kent’s principal, when Mr. Bill Russell changed schools. The connections continued as Kent now travels to capture radio interviews across North America for a radio program like Gerry does. Kent works with a ministry called “Without Reservation.” The ministries radio show is titled, THE STORY TELLER, as Native Americans share their life’s story on the program of how Jesus Christ saved them by HIS blood on the cross! Kent also relates the mercy and grace God showed his family in a plane crash on their travels!