God's Great Outdoors

The topic on this week’s Trail To Adventure! is on Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Gerry visits with Billy (Catfish) Parker and his wife Laura at the C’Meer Deer booth during the annual Archery Trade Assn. Show that was held in Indianapolis, Indiana in February of 2015. Both of these outdoor recreationalists share stories of the adventures and the battle that is encountered by a tiny insect at least eight months of the year. Ticks! Laura has been infected with both Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, but early detection helped in her treatment being a quick ordeal. Billy however, went a number of years before his Lyme Disease was discovered causing extended and daily treatments that lasted many months. Their hope is as they tell this story; is it will help keep others from having to go through the same mess they experienced!

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! Keith Jennings is the guest on this week’s interview as he and Gerry were together Birmingham, Alabama to do a God’s Great Outdoor’s The Trail to Adventure! Conference. Keith shares how he got started in archery long before there were compound bows and how he hand-crafted arrows in high school, starting a mail order business that led him to into a career in archery. He tells the journey in the industry and the many experiences he’s had from the businesses he’s worked for. One he’s worked with was Mathews Bows and helped this business as they sponsor over 100 ministries, mission fields around the world. Keith also tells about his book Bows and Arrows of the Bible and looks at archery terms in God’s Word. This is an great Bible study book for groups or personal use.

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! we’ll discover how you can have your family and area kids hooked for life. That’s hooked, with their own personal relationship with the Creator God, Jesus Christ. Gerry’s guest is Trevor Ruble, the President and Founder of a ministry to children and families molded on teaching them how to fish called "Hooked for Life." This is an interest or activity based outdoor outreach and evangelistic fishing themed program that is being adopted by many churches across North America. Trevor shares how he had struggled as a kid without a dad and how fishing was his escape from that loss. As an adult the ministry idea was something God laid on his heart, as a way to help kids to learn to fish and also could be used to help youth come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.

On this week’s program, Gerry visits with Russ Miller who is the founder of the Creation, Evolution & Science Ministries. The two talk about the battle that rages over this topic and the scientific facts that point to our Creator God speaking our world and the universe into existence as stated in the Bible. Russ guides tours in Arizona’s Grand Canyon and shows from the rock and fossil records evidence that backs up what his ministry presents. These adventures are not only great fun for the family, but certainly groups travel from across the country every year to join Russ and be a part of these fact-finding trips. Besides this interview’s discussion on Creation and how God has everything in control, the two talk about the struggles that come to all ministries that stand on the Word of God and refute what world science and opinion has to say. It was during one of these incredibly low times that Russ Miller asked God to make Himself clear in his mind that he was really doing God’s will in educating and equipping others. This interview shares a time through Russ’s outdoor adventures when God clearly showed His love and support for him and his life’s calling.-

On this Trail To Adventure! Jim Mustoe, the founder of The World Wide Christian Scuba Divers Organization, and Gerry visit together in Elkton, Maryland discussing outdoor ministries that have come about over the years. The idea is to provide Christians looking to reach people who enjoy time in God's creation with the way and the tools to provide the ability to help win others to receive Jesus Christ as their Creator God and Savior. 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." A regulator is the important part of one’s air tanks, providing the air to live under water! Also, God led him to start this worldwide ministry to scuba divers.

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! program Gerry is the Archery Trade Association Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. He’s visiting with multi-winner of the National Wildlife Turkey Federation’s Turkey Calling Championship, Chris Parrish, who’s this week’s guest. Chris shares how he got involved in the outdoors and realized early that if you could make the thirty-two different sounds that a turkey produces, there is a good chance you could get them to come and invite them to your dinner table. He also goes into some of the details that are required to qualify for this annual competition and what happens when you are involved in the contest. Additionally, Chris shares how God got a hold of his life and dropped him to his knees when his little boy was born prematurely.

This week’s Trail To Adventure! interview is with Dr. Danny Faulkner at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky as he shares about Answers in Genesis ministry’s Planetarium. This museum is a great way to evangelize those who come to visit with you as it’s an apologetic ministry focusing on the importance of the first book of the Bible. Danny is the resident astronomy expert and shares with Gerry and the listeners on the vastness of the Universe, giving an easily understood example to wrap one’s mind around. He also puts a wrench in the gears of those conspiracy believers who say we never went to the moon. Fact is that because of the Apollo Lunar Missions, we now know how far we are from the moon and that the distance is expanding. It is this information that allows us to do backward math calculations to realistically consider the age relationships between the earth and its moon.

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! Gerry is visiting with Dr. Richard Swenson in Wisconsin and the two are talking about Intelligent Design. The truth is there is more of a chance mathematically that your car happened by accident over hundreds of millions of years, then just your eyeballs having evolved and how they work with your entire body? This is just one of the things that Dr. Richard Swenson shares in the interview with Gerry as they discuss this topic and Dr. Swenson’s book, “More Than Meets the Eye”. Having taught surgery at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, and having minored in physics, this interview is jam-packed with information that declares that we have a Creator God. Perhaps the most listened to interview aired by GGO in the 20+ years we’ve been broadcasting.

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!