God's Great Outdoors

Happy New Year.  It’s hard for us to believe that a full 52 weeks have passed since I was blessed to take over the reigns for the founder and original host, Gerry Caillouet.   The year has flown by and now we are heading into another year. This being our last week of 2023, we found It fitting to visit with an old friend of God’s Great Outdoors and Gerry himself.  He has assisted on some of the TRAIL TO ADVENTURE conferences in Michigan and has been a guest on God’s Great Outdoors radio twice in the past. Let’s get on to the final show of 2023.  We appreciate all that have joined us over this past year…  It has certainly been an amazing adventure.  So let’s join Dean and his guest as we travel down the TRAIL TO ADVENTURE

In all of God’s creation, in His Great Outdoors, we see trees all around us.  When we aren’t seeing trees, if we look around we can see many things made from the wood that came from trees.  When we think of it Jesus was laid in a manger at His birth, most likely made of wood.  At His death He died on a cross of wood.  From beginning to the end of the life of Christ, we see trees. There are many lessons from the trees and forests of this world.  On today program, we will visit with a gentleman that has spent most all of his life in the woods working with trees.  He has learned how to create opportunities for trees to grow fast, stronger, taller and straighter.  We’ll hear how the forest closely correlates with our lives and how God grows us.  We’ll also hear about the ministries that our guest works in and how God is using him more and more as he quickly closes in on retirement.

Every one of us will face struggles, big and small throughout our lives.  Some of the struggles will be easily overcome and others will drag us down if we attempt to take them on all on our own. On today’s show a good friend of our host will share some exciting hunting stories and then he will share some of the struggles he has faced in his life and how he got through them.  It was because of the men around him that he was able to defeat the attacks and live a victorious life. Come along now and join our host in camp as we visit about the struggles we have both in the woods and in life.  The Trail To Adventure might be covered in speedbumps and obstacles, but when we travel with God, through His Great Outdoors, There is hope for victory.

One of the first things that Jesus told His disciples was recorded in Matthew 4:19 When He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people."  This week's guest left a life of drugs, alcohol and a multitude of other sins and when he did, he looked for ways to serve the Lord.   Being a serious fisherman and hunter, he was excited to find a way to use his passion to serve the Lord.   One day he came across an organization that allowed him to use those passions to win others for Christ.  Since that time he has turned his life over to work in many ways to evangelize others through God's Great Outdoors.   As you listen to today's show, please consider how you might become a fisher of men.  God has a plan in all of our lives and has given us passions for things that can be used for his purposes.  We all need to ready to go out and reach others with the Good News of Jesus.   Let's join our host as we travel together down the TRAIL TO ADVENTURE in GOD'S GREAT OUTDOORS.

Teaching our youth to love and appreciate the outdoors is something that we need to do to maintain our hunting and fishing heritage.  It is the same with our love for Jesus Christ.  We need to pass the gospel message on to all those that are coming behind us. Our world is reaping the fruit of not teaching our children what God expects of them.  Many children are pointed towards Jesus Christ and then left to fend for themselves.  We have a responsibility to disciple others into a mature relationship with their Savior. If we fail to do this, they will become like a fish on the edge of the water. They will flounder and eventually fall back into the life we had before Christ.

It’s November and the whitetail deer rut is on across much of North America.  People all over the deer hunting world are gathering together in tents. Campers, tar paper shacks and cabins to share time together.  Hunting is the purpose, but the camp and it’s atmosphere is what most of them long for throughout the other 51 weeks of the year.Hunting and fishing camps are places that men, women and children to share in the outdoor experience.  There is definitely a call to God’s Great Outdoors for millions of people each year and relations are built and strengthened over the years.Today quest has been a friend with our host for several years and they have been blessed to share time in hunting camps together.  On today’s show we’ll share in some current hunts as we well some good memories.Light a fire in the fireplace, grab and cup of coffee of cocoa and join Dean as He shares some time around the table at a Michigan hunting camp.  

In each of our lives we feel we have a vision for where we should end up.  On the Trail to adventure in life, if we remain open to God’s leading we might not be where we thought we would be but we will always end up in the right place.As a follow up to last week’s show where we learned from Skipper Bettis about Quest Ministries and how that came about, this week we hear from another family member and where Two Hats Ranch is headed and how God is using this family to serve Him and others. There is an old saying that goes. “you may not know where you are going until you get there.”  Come along today on the TRAIL TO ADVENTURE and see how God has worked to get this family, this business and this ministry on the road to where He wants it to be.

The whitetail hunting family is a huge group.  There are few names that have carried through generations.  Today’s guest is a man that helped bring the management of whitetails from Texas to the Midwest and has taught many others how to manage their herds. Having left Texas as a very young man, he traveled to the NW Territory and British Columbia before settling into Michigan.  On today’s program he will share some of this adventures and how God has blessed him with an amazing family and life. Come along now as we travel down the long trail to adventure, from Texas through the brown bear country of Alaska and into Big Rapids Michigan.  All in God’s Great Outdoors

There are few things better in a hunting camp than someone that can play the guitar, unless it is someone that can play the guitar and cooks and does the dishes.   This week’s show finds our host Dean Hulce and his wife Linda at Two Hats Ranch in Big Rapids Michigan, where they serve each year with Quest Ministries where they host one hunt for special needs young people and then a hunt for Purple Heart veterans.  There is someone else that takes part in all of these serving and today he shares his talents on today’s show.   His music has become a large part of these hunts and he and his family service selflessly year after year.  Come along and enjoy the music of Pless Gibson as well as his life story.  This is the first of a kind for God’s Great Outdoors on the Trail to Adventure, so come along and join on this musical trail.

Sometimes a story is just too good to tell break it up and not tell the entire thing.  Well, that’s the case this week.  In last week’s program we told you about the childhood and the beginning of the slide into a life of sin of a country music star.  This week we try to fit the rest of the amazing story in.  God’s perfect plan for His children is never to have them self-destruct, hurting themselves and other in the process…  But when it happens, He is always waiting for the prodigal son or daughter to come back for redemption for healing.