God's Great Outdoors

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! The founder of the ministry "Kicking Bear," Ray Howell and his wife Karen join Gerry at The Wisconsin Dells, in Wisconsin. In this interview the couple discusses this youth ministry and how it's reaching so many young people across the country. Karen also shares her side of Ray's testimony, seeing a man who felt he didn't need anything and strived to be perfect, deal with the knowledge he needed a Savior. She tells how she prayed for him to see his need for a relationship with the Creator God. Karen goes into the details of that reality beginning to start to sink in to who Ray was and was not. A true story that certainly can be an encouragement to anyone who has someone they love and are praying to see them one day receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! treestand safety is the topic as Jay Everett from Hunter Safety Systems is this week’s guest. Gerry and Jay spend part 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 hunting from an elevated platform. Statistics show that one out of three people that hunt out of a treestand will have an accident at some time in their life, with a number of these incidents being fatal. Jay relates facts on the safety harness and how their research reveals that most falls take place going up, getting into, coming out of and then descending to the earth. The goal of this program is to be sure that none of the listeners will become a part of the tragic statistic, on the negative side.

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! Gerry is at Lake Ellen Camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with the camp’s director, Ralph Peterson. Gerry had been invited to come as the speaker for one of the week long summer children’s camps. Lake Ellen Camp in Crystal Falls has events going on all year, with the summertime being the most active. Ralph Peterson shares with the listeners about his own parents’ history in the area of camping ministry and also his experiences, which have taken place over the years. He details what the campers, counselors and staff experience at the camp and how he’s seen some work up through the different stations over the years, by the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This would be an excellent place not only to sent children as campers, but also those who want to learn to do work in outdoor ministry, as a life career and quest!

On this Trail To Adventure! this week, Gerry interviews one of the outdoor sports world’s legends at the ATA show in Columbus, Ohio. Pro fisherman and television host, Jimmy Houston, shares about his old friends from the early days of tournament fishing when the sport was just getting started, and how they have remained close friends. Jimmy also talks about relationships, and the ability for him to be able to share truths from the Bible with people he encounters because of his position in the outdoor industry. He gives away a Bible each year that he has personally used during his own twelve months of Bible study and reading entirely through the Bible, which he has done for over 40 years. His challenge to the listeners is to be in God’s Word each and every day, plus share it with others!

At the Trail To Adventure! conferences that GGO conducted across the USA, one of the key points is teaching the “4 P’s”. They consist of “Prayer, Planning, Perpetration & More Prayer!” This is also what the guest on this week’s broadcast, Steve Finn, practiced – prayer and more prayer. The founder of Chestnut Mountain Ranch, located near Morgantown, West Virginia, relates on how much he and his family sought God in prayer. This became a practice before and during (is done even today), as they looked toward establishing a boy’s home and school to reach troubled youngsters, with the goal to create Godly men. Having been in a single parent home and later a police officer he has experienced the same struggles these boys do, feeling led to make a difference in their lives. After working at one of the boy’s homes in Georgia, he and his wife targeted West Virginia with its high dropout and suicide rate!

On this week’s Trail To Adventure, Professional fishing legend and television host Hank Parker joins Gerry at the Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas. This was a special two day event teaching pastors and laymen how to do outdoor outreaches. Hank shares with the listeners about his fishing career, television shows and reflects with Gerry about his children and grandchildren. Hank looks on the loss of one of his loved ones, the struggles he went through and how no matter what, God is supreme! Hank Parker’s dad was an alcoholic with a conversion to Christ, had a horrific death in a car accident, and he left a note in his Bible requesting that the pastor preach a salvation message at his funeral if he died because both of his boys were on their way to Hell.

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.

This week’s Trail To Adventure! Radio Program has the listeners going back into the Badger State as this recorded interview was done at the Prayz Network in Sparta, Wisconsin. Our host Gerry has hooked up with Matt McPherson, the owner of Mathews Bows, located in the same city as the radio station. Together, from an engineering/design prospective, the two men look at the Creation around us including the entire Universe, giving credit to our Creator God who spoke it into existence! “Intelligent Design” is the topic as Matt, a design engineer, invites listeners to not just accept what evolutionists say, but mindfully look at the many facts revealing that there has to be a “Designer” in all that exists. Matt presents a number of excellent arguments that can help “break the ice” that ask those around us to examine some truths and begin to think intelligently in the matter!

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! Program, Gerry is in the “Cheese Head” State, dropping in at the Lake Lounger pontoon boat factory and visiting with owner, Scott Marrier. This relatively new business is located in Withee, Wisconsin and was started to give folks a more stable place to hang out on the lake then just a dock to sit on. However, the Lake Lounger pontoon boats began to “take off” so to speak, as folks discovered just how very stable they are. Their large carrying ability is due to oversize logs (pontoons) opening the door to having an enter family aboard and even heavy wheelchairs. Scott Marrier has worked in the marine industry for many years and has a big list of manufactures he’s designed for. Scott shares how he and his family are working with veterans in a number of ways to help them, win their trust and give them hope in Christ Jesus!

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.