God's Great Outdoors

Narrator: There's one thing that all men have in common: they all had a father at one time or another. Some men may have lost their father to death or by them running away from their family, but at some time, we all had a biological father. Some earthly fathers are good examples of what God is to us, and others are not an example of what a father should be.

On today's program, we'll hear from a man whose father literally threw him away. He was such a poor example of what a father should be, and it made our guest want nothing to do with the Heavenly Father. Guys, we are called to act like men. In Second Corinthians, the verse actually reads: "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong."

This is what a true man is. Ladies, support your guys. Help them to be the man they are called to be. Now, let's join Dean and his guest as we learn how God can take someone lost in their sins and make things new. Enjoy this week's God's Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure.

Dean Hulce: Welcome to God's Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure. We are in Baytown, Texas, which is east of Houston, almost out to Galveston, right across the bay from Galveston. I'm with Mark Street. Mark, good to have you.

Mark Street: Thank you.

Dean Hulce: We've been trying to do this for the third winter that we've talked about doing it. I've been close, but we haven't been able to put it together. We've been trying to go fishing for that long, too. Again, it is good to have you with us. Mark and I met, it’s probably been seven or eight years ago, I would assume.

Mark Street: Yes, sir.

Dean Hulce: Maybe you can tell a little bit about the event and why we were together at that time. I was there to speak, but why don't you tell us about how we met and what we were doing at that time?

Mark Street: That was the Rockport Blast and Cast Men's Ministry event, which is our signature event. It's where it all originated. In that time, we were duck hunting the area and everything like that. It's a three-day event, and we have a guest speaker, which was you at the time. The purpose of the ministry is to share the Gospel, and at that time, sharing the Gospel was in the duck blinds.

Dean Hulce: I had never done that kind of duck hunting before, and it was enjoyable. One day was fast and furious, and the next day was hot and sunny, and we sat and had Whataburger on the beach. There weren't a whole lot of ducks flying, but it was fun. How many times have you done that hunt?

Mark Street: I've probably done that event at least ten to twelve years.

Dean Hulce: Do you duck hunt otherwise besides that?

Mark Street: Yes, I travel around and do a lot of duck hunting.

Dean Hulce: Why don't you give me some background on yourself? Are you from here originally?

Mark Street: No, I'm not. I was actually born in Johnson City, Tennessee, which is East Tennessee. Our family moved down here when I was 12, and so we've been here ever since.

Dean Hulce: In Baytown or just the Houston area?

Mark Street: Baytown.

Dean Hulce: What hurricane was it that came through here and wiped out a lot of this area where you're at?

Mark Street: We've had two that really come to mind. We had Hurricane Ike. When it blew in, it came through what we call Trinity Bay and Galveston Bay, and then came right into Baytown and took a direct hit. There was a lot of damage here.

Then we had what we called a depression, Harvey. Harvey is the one that planted itself over the top of us for three days and rained. I think there was record rainfall everywhere. I think here was 52 to 55 inches of rain. In this neighborhood where I'm at, basically in the front yard, they were launching airboats and boats. The water was that deep in the road to go in and rescue people.

Dean Hulce: 52 inches? You're not even 52 inches hardly off sea level.

Mark Street: No, sir. There were probably 600-some houses in this subdivision, and well over half had water in them, and some of them were completely underwater.

Dean Hulce: It’s funny you should say that about launching the boats. When you see our ministry, it is not just a men's ministry. We have a lot of women listen and a lot of women involved. I'm hoping to actually interview a woman that's been a fishing guide much of her life later this evening yet.

One thing I've noticed, and my friend that's on our board now, David, and I have talked about is when there's a disaster, especially floods or hurricanes, the people you see rushing out to help are sportsmen. Hunters and fishermen get in their boats, and it's pretty amazing to watch because they've got a heart to serve. Outdoorsmen have a heart to go out and do what needs to be done. You had airboats up and down the streets at that time?

Mark Street: We had airboats and every kind of little John boat. I had put my boat in the water the day before. Myself and Brody Cooper went around and helped get people out, and then for the next two days, boats were just going back and forth helping people out or just helping them get their property out.

Dean Hulce: Where I live, we get some snow, but we don't get those type of things. The greatest thing about that is when we think about it, we think about those that just care for people. Not only Christians, because that's generally going to be those that are at the forefront, or you would hope that's our call, but sportsmen. It's amazing how they're the first ones on the scene.

When we see it on the news, because we only see it on the news where we're at, you see the fishermen with their camouflage boats going up and down, or kayaks and canoes and little John boats. I've never had to live through that. How long did that last?

Mark Street: We had three days, and it finally quit raining on the third day. I would say that we probably had to stand in water for over a week. People came from all over. We had people from Louisiana and all kinds of places. All these were volunteers. There was no real organization to it. They were just showing up and basically looking for where they could put their boat in the water and who they could help. It was just amazing just to see all these people show up and be semi-organized. Most of these guys were just regular guys that had boats and said, "You know what, I'm going to go help."

Dean Hulce: That's amazing. I want to get into hearing about your background and how God has changed you over the years. I've only seen bits and pieces of it and heard bits and pieces of it, but we'll get in and share that. We'll talk about some hunting and fishing stories because you get to do a lot of that, but let's quick take a break and then we'll be right back with God's Great Outdoors.

Narrator: For the last 26 years, God's Great Outdoors Trail to Adventure has been broadcast to win men and women, boys and girls to Jesus Christ. This is only possible by the generosity of our listeners. Thank you to all who have supported us in the past. God has blessed us because of you, and we pray that you feel his blessings as well.

Additional underwriting support has been provided by Matthews Archery, the leader in the archery industry; Mission Archery with revolutionary crossbow technology; Three Rivers Archery, supplying everything you need to make your own traditional archery equipment; Hunter Safety Systems, saving lives is what we do; and Conviction Game Calls. At Conviction, we don't separate work from our faith. We believe that our faith should be evident in every aspect of our lives, and the outdoors is one of the best places to share that.

God's Great Outdoors has produced many ministry tools, including tracts, DVDs, and books to help you reach others for Jesus Christ. You can access these items, other God's Great Outdoors items, and so much more at our website, godsgreatoutdoors.org. That's godsgreatoutdoors.org.

Dean Hulce: Welcome back to God's Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure. We are in Baytown, Texas, which doesn't look like most of the rest of Texas because there's lots of water around. I did notice one thing coming in that I had no idea was here. Every time I come across Louisiana, I go to the Best Stop for boudin and other Cajun foods. I drove by one right in your neighborhood here. I may hit it on the way out again.

Lorne and I, on the way down, came through Lafayette. I'm probably pronouncing that wrong for a Louisiana person, but we stopped. It was almost closing time. We buzzed up there, grabbed some boudin balls, and had that for dinner and then got back on the road. I've never driven by one without stopping. So, Mark, why don't you give me your testimony, where you came from, and how God has brought you to where you're at?

Mark Street: I grew up in church as a child. I struggled as a teenager in church. I struggled because I was hearing God's message, but the people that you're supposed to look to to see that message in the way they live, I was not seeing that. I began to think this is just something people do to feel good about themselves or that maybe other people will look at you and think you're a good person.

I would hear about the love of Jesus and how he died for us so that we could be forgiven, and that's a key word with me: forgiveness. I grew up in a home that there was not forgiveness. Again, that's where I would see something and I was like, "Okay, the people around me are telling me about Jesus, but they're not mentioning anything about forgiveness." And I was like, "Because you don't forgive."

That kind of was the attitude I took, that I'm in church now because I have to be. When it became where it was my choice, I was done.

Dean Hulce: That's a lot of kids. Unfortunately, because it's not lived out, a lot of kids say, "This isn't mine; this is somebody else's belief."

Mark Street: Well, that was kind of how I looked at it. My opinion was, and I'm talking a little bit about my father, that was your God. I'd already had a taste of what the world was offering me, and that seemed more appealing and more inviting. So that's where I went.

When I say I went into this world, I went into it and it shaped me. Basically, when I was 23 and I had been living in the situation I was, my mom and dad got a divorce. I was in college, and I came to visit my father. There was a lot of tension always there. My father was very unforgiving of the divorce and talked very harsh of the people in our family. I had to listen to it because he controlled the money for me going to college.

At 23, he sat right in front of me and he wadded his hands up like he was wadding up a piece of paper and threw it away. Then he pointed to the door and said, "Go away. I'm done with you. I never want to see you again." It kind of confirmed, unfortunately, what I had heard most of my life, that I was never going to amount to anything. My father would tell me, "You're not worth the powder it'll take to blow your brains out. You'll never amount to anything."

That was my approach in life: I'm going to live it to the limits because it doesn't matter what I do, I'm a failure. Over the years, I'm rocking and rolling along. I'm partying. I'm in the clubs. I'm in the bars five or six nights a week. Things are happening to me that are good, and some things are happening to me that are bad. What I found out is that this becomes your normal way of living.

My normal way of living was the bars and heavy drinking, and you surround yourself with people who do the same. What happens is that becomes normal. Everybody outside of that is doing something different, and they're wrong because this is what it's all about. Because look, if it's so wrong, why is everybody else doing it?

Moving forward, a friend and I hunted together for many, many years, and he came to know Christ. I remember when he called me. I'm a police officer now, and I'm probably in my later 20s or early 30s. Me and him have hit hard these bars, we partied, we done everything, and he calls me up and he says, "Hey, I've come to know Jesus."

My first response was, "So Jesus is going to be on the duck lease with us now and telling us what we can do?" because I had always heard in church there were all these rules, and I never could live up to those rules.

Dean Hulce: Nobody can, but we're made to believe we can.

Mark Street: I couldn't even live up to my father's own rules. So I was ready. I said, "Okay, when we get up here, you're going to start telling me you need to live like this, you need to do like this, you're doing this wrong, this wrong." I was going to come at him and not put up with this.

He told me something that has stayed with me this day. He looked at me and he said, "Mark, Jesus loves you and he has a plan for your life." I was speechless because I was like, "I can't argue with this." This lease that we were on in Mississippi ran its course for about three years of him not correcting me, not being religious towards me, but basically saying you can be better with Jesus. This began to resonate in me.

I began to question, what is life really all about? Is it all about what I'm doing? Because none of this—I've got this emptiness in me. I can't fill it with alcohol. I can't fill it with women. I can't fill it with anything else I'm trying to do. So there's got to be more to this.

He gave me a Bible and he shared with me Jesus. Now, I've heard about Jesus before, and Jesus has been shared to me before. But this time, the person that was sharing, I could see there was something different about him. It wasn't from the outside; his change was from the inside out. That's probably the first time that I realized, okay, this Jesus is real. But I wasn't ready for it. I was like, "No, I don't want this."

This went on over a course of three years on a duck lease. At the same time, I had gotten married. My wife one night, we'd been married about a year, she said, "You know what, I can't do this anymore. I cannot live this reckless life with your heavy drinking and just your anger," because I had a lot of anger over what was with my father.

She was like, "I'm done." She said, "I'm a born-again Christian, and I have been following you and not following God, and that's got to stop." So I agreed to go to church. It brought back a lot of hard memories when I walked in. I was very uncomfortable, but people made us feel welcome. I actually expected somebody to tell me to leave because I just was not going to live up to the standards.

Over the course of weeks, I would listen to this preacher who was preaching the Gospel. I was uncomfortable, and it's like he was talking directly to me. I didn't like that, but I began to ask myself and say, "Okay, there's got to be more to this. There's got to be more to this Jesus thing."

One Sunday morning we were going to church, and I felt the Holy Spirit. I just felt his presence all over me. I went to every room in this house we're in right now to get away, and it just would not happen. I was coming back into this very kitchen we're sitting in, and I just stopped. I said, "Okay, God, I know what you want, but I'm scared because this is the only life I know, and I've been a failure all my life. At least I've been told that. And I'm just going to fail you."

It was just like I felt a comfort of, "I love you. It's okay. I love you." That morning when we got to church, when the invitation went, I was down that aisle. I couldn't take it; I had to go. I do believe the preacher led me through a prayer. I believe that. But I believe right here in this kitchen, Jesus Christ came into my heart because I recognized who I was, and that was I was a sinner without Christ, and he was my Savior. I believe right then that day he came into my heart.

Dean Hulce: That's amazing. I've heard lots of testimonies and they all have something very similar, and usually it's running from something. That's amazing because so many people think when they have an earthly father, and we talk about a Heavenly Father, so right away we associate father with who we've had, and it's hard to get over that.

That friend that came to you and told you what he had come through and what God had done for him, and just that Jesus loves you—the most amazing thing of that to me is that guy didn't tell you anything you had to do other than that Jesus loved you. That little sentence is so powerful that it changed your life. It really did. That's an awesome testimony. I know it's grown since then, and we're going to get into how God's used you in the outdoors and some of the other things because you've been involved with Blast and Cast Ministries for a long time. They do some awesome things building men up and reaching men for Christ. I just have to ask, have you ever had another relationship with your dad or not?

Mark Street: When I came to know Christ, we don't clean up just like that. There was a lot of anger in my heart. It was one of the things that God dealt with in the beginning. There's some scripture, I believe it's Matthew 14:6 or 6:14, that talks about we have to forgive. I didn't want to.

I remember I talked to God. I said, "You don't know what he did." But really, God did. And I was like, "No, you want me to reach out to him?" He might not even be alive. It's been 25 years. I don't even know if he lives around here anymore. Eventually, just to be short, I can tell you right now, don't ever challenge God. Because I did.

I challenged him. I said, "Okay, you want this to happen? You make it happen. I'm not making any effort." I'm a police officer. I could look up and try to find his driver's license. I could have done some things. I said, "No, I'm not doing that."

God, in his miraculous ways, opened up the door to where it made it very clear that he basically what he did was he brought somebody that's around him in contact with me to where it's like, "Okay, what are you going to do?" I had a choice. I struggled with it, but eventually, I said, "Okay, God, I get it. I know what you want me to do."

We were back around each other for a few years. I don't understand why, but he's now went away again. But I have something now that I didn't have then, and that is I have peace. I don't understand it and I don't have to, but God has given me peace and allowed me to put this behind me, which has allowed me to move forward in my walk.

Dean Hulce: That is the hardest thing. As humans, we can't do that on our own. There's no possible way because our desire is to hold on to those things. Even as Christians, we do that way too often; we hold on to the things that God says let go, and it drags us down. It's like dropping an anchor over the side of a boat. It can go over, but it's not coming back up on its own. So it takes something else to pull it up, and that's God in our lives.

Listen, we're out of time on the radio. We're going to go into the podcast and we'll talk some more about the things God's done in your life, the way that you've been able to be used in other lives as well. But thank you for joining us on the radio portion. If you can join us on the podcast, please continue to listen there. If not, join us every week as we head out on the Trail to Adventure in God's Great Outdoors.

Narrator: Godly men are important in our world today. It's getting harder and harder to find real men. Our world has attempted to tear masculinity out of every man in the modern world. God has set out a plan for men and especially for fathers. Mark's father was far from a godly man, and it left a bad example of what a Heavenly Father might be.

Today's program is a great example that there isn't anyone, no matter what their background is, that is too far away from the reach of Jesus Christ. If you have friends or family that would seem unreachable for Christ, don't give up. Keep praying and sharing. God can make something new from their life.

If you've enjoyed today's program and would like to hear the extended podcast version, you can find it by looking for Dean Hulce or Trail to Adventure wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. This program is provided by and can be contacted at God's Great Outdoors, P.O. Box 414, Powers, Michigan 49874, or on the website, godsgreatoutdoors.org. Thank you for joining us this week on God's Great Outdoors. Please join us each week and share the radio program and the podcast out with your friends and family. Then join us each week again here as we head down the Trail to Adventure in God's Great Outdoors.