God's Great Outdoors

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! Gerry and wife Cyndi are visiting with Arnie and Dee Wolf at their home in Chili, WI. Gerry was invited to meet Mitch Hoyt and his wife Chris, to learn about their story. In this interview Arnie tells that an event done in the area needed a speaker and he’d contacted Mitch Hoyt to share with all who attended. Mitch, who is in a wheel chair because of a deer hunting treestand accident that took place on a September morning in 2006, began to tell how he was disabled. Part of this testimony relates to Mitch’s wife Chris having asked him to please not go on that day. But, the deer hunter chose to focus on his desires instead. Climbing into a friend’s treestand that had been hanging there for several years and before he’d safety harnessed up, he crashed to the ground. Finding himself immobile and with his one elbow wedged in a small tree’s crotch, thinking he would died caused a life’s reflection. God used this time stuck there to speak to Mitch and begin a heart change in him that makes this a “must listen to” interview as the Holy Spirit used it all to change his life, as you’ll see!

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 Trail To Adventure! radio program we’re in the “Land Of Ten Thousand Lakes.” Gerry is at the Grace Bible Church in Silver Lake, Minnesota, as he and his wife Cyndi are visiting the church and the founder of The Christian Deer Hunters Association, Dr. Tom Rakow. Tom starts the interview with how he came to Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. From there he shares how he got started writing books to include the deer hunting devotionals The Christian Deer Hunters Association uses in their evangelistic ministry. The devotional was his first project for a college literature class writing requirement. With his family’s help Tom’s been able to produce literature that is helping Christians reach out to their unsaved friends and relatives on topic of fishing and hunting. With a desire to save souls, he’s written a number of books towards that goal and this is despite the fact that he flunked English several times in school.

Friends, on this Trail To Adventure! of the radio program of God’s Great Outdoors, we’re in the state of Michigan. This interview is with Mike Ritchie on the CenterShot Archery Program, and how churches are bringing bows into their houses of worship. Mike, with his churches help, was one of the first people to use this recreationally designed and evangelistically targeted outreach effort! This ministry teaches the sport of shooting the bow and arrow, plus ties it in with teaching God’s Word to those attending, with each lesson. Mike Ritchie is from Roscommon Baptist Church and tells how he and his ministry team are using this outdoor activity based program, and a number of other outdoor outreach programs, to touch the lives of men, women and children with the Gospel Message and seeing lives changed for eternity.

On this week’s Trail To Adventure! we’ll be hearing of an Indiana Jones style hunting trip that started in the year of 2002! The guest, Tim Mahoney, who owns and runs Mahoney Media Studios, a film production studio in the “Twin Cities” of Minnesota, relates his story. It began when; Tim decided he had to visit Egypt. He traveled to the location where it is believed the Israelites lived while slaves in this foreign land. Tim had wanted to document the archaeological digs on film. In a discussion with a famous archaeologist, he was told that no evidence had been found to prove the Bible’s Book of Genesis story and on the Exodus or that Israelites had ever even lived in Egypt at all. This idea rocked Tim’s world and made him question his faith. So, he began doing an investigative study that unearthed all kinds of proof and also, produced the production of the “Thinking Man” documentary films. These include Patterns Of Evidence EXODUS, Patterns Of Evidence MOSES, and Patterns Of Evidence THE RED SEA MIRACLE, Part One & Part Two!

Now on this Trail To Adventure! of the radio program God’s Great Outdoors, this interview is a look back over the ministry’s time. Gerry visits with a retired Ken Beck, the past owner of the Black Widow Bow Company, in the rolling hills of Ken’s home located in Nixa, Missouri. The two look back on their first meeting in person at The Trophies of Grace White Tail Deer Hunt in southeast Ohio. This annual event has been going on for over 25 years now, put on by a chapter of Christian Bowhunters of America, The Lord of the Harvest Archery Club. Ken discusses his life’s journey and how he was blessed to be used by God to help the ministry of God’s Great Outdoors get started in July of 1996. Ken speaks on outdoor ministry and how important it is that the listeners consider being involved, as Christianity is under fire.

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 the Trail To Adventure! program, Gerry’s with the founder and head of the television show, The Buck Commander, Willie Robertson. Willie starts by sharing about the family’s history and how his dad, Phil, was converted from one very bad dude to a man who loves the Creator God, Jesus Christ. Part of this story talks about the early days of The Duck Commander, but even beyond that, how his father was visited in a bar that he owned, several times by a pastor who eventually led him to the Savior. Willie shares about his family and the businesses start up. He also tells how beyond the business and making a living, they really work hard at helping those they come in contact with to know about the Lord Jesus Christ and how He can change their lives, as He did with his father Phil.

This week’s Trail To Adventure! was during a time Gerry was on a speaking tour of several churches up in Alaska. This program has him visiting with Dave Battle in Anchorage, as Dave shares about the way that he was raised to believe in Jesus, the Bible, and the idea of Creation. The program’s guest discusses 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 that one individual, on a gravel mountain road impressed him greatly to be more active in his relationship with Jesus Christ. This was because the man had his Bible with him on the seat of his work truck. These days, Dave is a wildlife biologist working in Alaska and he states that he is still learning about God’s Creation, every day of his life!

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.