God's Great Outdoors

Announcer: As hunters and fishermen, we are constantly in pursuit of something. It might be a trophy fish, bird, or big game animal. Or maybe it's just pursuit of the next great adventure. Even others that might not chase prey in their lives are chasing something: success, fame, money, maybe something else. Whatever it is, if it's not the things of God, it's meaningless.

On today's program, we'll visit with a good friend of our host. Our guest pursued a place to hunt and was somewhat relentless until Dean gave in to the pursuit. God had a plan, and eventually, our guest gave in to what God had in store for him. He accepted the gift that God had for him. God is calling to those that are open to the call. He will pursue those that would answer.

We all have things that we pursue in life, but if the things we pursue are not the things of God, we are wasting our time, spinning our wheels, and falling short of the call that God has on our lives. Let's join Dean now and our special guest as they discuss how God pursued him and how God showed it in other ways in his life. So come along now as we head down the trail to adventure in God's great outdoors.

Dean Hulce: Welcome to God's Great Outdoors. The trail to adventure has led us back home this weekend. We are in Upper Peninsula, Michigan, and my guest today is a really good friend for nine years. Terry, good to have you.

Terry lives in Cedar Springs, Michigan, just north of Grand Rapids, an avid hunter, part-time taxidermist, and you shoot your bow a lot. You like to hunt and shoot animals, and today was a good evidence of that. Not necessarily the best decision. We had a blizzard, and what time did you get up this morning?

Terry Gross: I think the alarm went off at quarter after five.

Dean Hulce: And we have about 10 inches of fresh snow. Tell us a little bit about getting out there.

Terry Gross: So this morning I wake up and I kind of look around. I was like, "Hmm, looks kind of deep out there." I grabbed the snow brush, went out, and started brushing off the truck. I was like, "Yeah, maybe I shouldn't do this." Because where we're going is a seasonal road, and I'm pretty sure I'd have been the first one in there, as I was. We had about 10 inches of snow, and I thought maybe about eight when I left the house, but there were some pretty good drifts.

I pulled into the driveway and I made it all the way there without too much of a problem. Pulled in the driveway and as I was getting to the first curve in the driveway, I noticed a tree limb was down just after the curve. I kind of let up on the gas and I said, "Okay, I'm just going to pull up a little further." There was a little turn-around and when I hit the gas, the truck just started spinning and kind of sank in, started sliding off the driveway a little bit, so I really let off so I didn't go into the trees or anything.

I said, "Shoot, I'm here. Might as well get out of the truck and go." It was 25 or 30-mile-an-hour winds as well. It was drifting. I said, "Well, I'm here. It's just a little bit longer walk than getting all the way to camp." So I grabbed the equipment and went in, opened up the window and the blind. I sat there for about two to three minutes and I was like, "With this wind and everything, it's probably going to get worse than what it is. It could blow in and I could be stuck even worse." So I called you and said, "Hey Dean, I got a little stuck. I got hung up."

Dean Hulce: You said, "Okay, I'll be there in a half hour or so because I got to clean off the truck and grab a shovel and stuff."

Terry Gross: So I walked back to the truck and took my snow scraper and used the little end and kind of shoveled around the tires. I got it to move and then you were probably almost there.

Dean Hulce: I was almost there.

Terry Gross: Yeah, you were almost there. I'd got the truck unstuck and was backing back out the driveway and I called you and said, "Hey, hold up. I made it out."

Dean Hulce: I was next to a big field and it was blowing hard. I thought, "Okay, I got to find a way to turn around," because I was on a narrow, basically a one-lane gravel road. I had to back up more than a quarter mile, which was a little nerve-wracking because I couldn't see where the driveways were. Finally, I took my best guess that I was at a driveway and backed in and luckily I didn't go in the ditch because that would have been tough. All to hunt a deer.

I wish we had a camera there yet. We had pulled the camera and I wish we still had the camera there because I'd like to see what's there now to see how many deer were actually in there this morning. I'm sure they're driven to eat today because everything's covered.

Terry Gross: And it was real peaceful for that two to three minutes I sat there. The snow was not nearly as deep down in that cedar swamp and the cedars had knocked down the wind. So it was real calm and nice and I was like, "Man, I'd really like to sit here all day," but I'm glad we got the truck out.

Dean Hulce: It didn't surprise me at all when you called, to be honest with you. I was kind of waiting to see because when I broke some drifts going up the road here, the roads hadn't been plowed. Going up the road, I broke a drift that came over the top of my hood of my truck. Luckily, it's fluffy snow. It is not heavy wet snow.

But that's just part of the adventure. We've had some tremendous adventures. I actually think of the year that you actually proposed to Lori when you were here. I think that was the day we tracked a deer a long, long ways too, that shouldn't have gone that far. It was actually a good hit, but just off by maybe an inch or so. But this week, it seems like every year we have great adventures or something that makes it interesting.

This year is about the most snow that we've gotten while you're here. We had one year where we had about two feet of snow on the ground, but it came before you got here and it was melting when you got here. We've had a lot of southeast winds, high winds, rain, never just the perfect condition. Actually, today now would be about a perfect condition if you can get to where you want to go.

I want to talk a little bit more about some of your hunting adventures and about really a calling that you had on your life through the guys that some of the guys you met here, some of the guys that God put in your life other places. We're going to take a break in the meantime and then we're going to let Adam share who it is that makes the show possible and also let people know how they can come alongside us if they want to help support this ministry as a partner. Then we'll be right back.

Announcer: For the last 26 years, God's Great Outdoors' Trail to Adventure has been broadcast out 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: Mathews 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 Trail to Adventure. We are in Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. The blizzard is kind of over. The sun actually is peaking out and it's actually beautiful. The evergreen trees are hanging. It looks like a Christmas painting, is what it looks like. It wasn't so pretty driving in the snow this morning. It was kind of bleak first thing. But luckily, we're back here and it gave us some time because we've been talking about doing this and glad God stopped everything else for us to do it.

I'd like to share because it's interesting how we first met. I don't remember who it was that told you to call me, but you called me and asked me if I would guide your kids, your son and daughter. I said no, I don't guide bear hunting anymore. That was nine years ago. Who was it that told you to call me?

Terry Gross: Ed Kulak.

Dean Hulce: Oh, okay. Ed had muzzleloader hunted here with me for deer several times. I told you no, and you talked me into it. It took a while, but you talked me into it.

Terry Gross: Yeah. I was like, "Well, if you don't want to put out bait and stuff," I said, "Just allow me to put bait and stuff out on your property. So I'll come up every weekend, 400 miles one way." I think I did seven weekends in a row counting the hunting.

Dean Hulce: And now you guys have drawn three or four years.

Terry Gross: So the first year was my son and daughter. Then the following year was myself, when Gabe came up. Then this year, which my daughter and I.

Dean Hulce: It seems like it was more times than that.

Terry Gross: Every six years we were able to get a tag. I think I actually was seven because I was waiting for my daughter to get her six points.

Dean Hulce: And your first year was a lot of fulfillment and some disappointment because you were really looking at a time to rebuild a relationship with your son. Because of his desires, it didn't work out as well. I just remember he was in an amazing stand and we had three or four bears that were there in the daylight almost every day. But before they came in, he had given up and you had put a lot of work and a lot of effort and you put a lot of money into bait and everything else to get it there. I still remember that real big bear with the big white V on his chest that would have been a dead bear if he'd have waited.

But on the other hand, Jessica got her first bear and got a chance to share that with her grandpa. I wasn't here because I did everything up to that point together and I was in Colorado guiding.

Terry Gross: You weren't here much even during baiting. I think the first time I came up, Linda was here, but you were not. George showed us where the baits were or where to put baits and stuff. It was a couple weekends before I actually met you, but you opened up your house and your property for us to put baits out and stuff.

Dean Hulce: Honestly, we feel like God gave us this, and I hope it comes across that way for people. God has given us this place, and even the leases and stuff, to be used as His, not as ours. Linda and I always felt like we want people to feel like they're coming to their own camp. It's like I'm going to camp for the weekend. If that's how people feel, then we feel like a success. Tell us about Jessica's hunt.

Terry Gross: She was 19 years old and she started putting in for points. In 2010, I shot one the other side of Escanaba and she started putting in points and stuff. When it was her time to draw, her and my son drew as partners. I asked that previous person that I hunted on their property and he had just allowed somebody else to bear hunt his 400 acres.

So I was kind of in a panic. I was like, "Oh man, we got two bear tags. It took six years." I asked him like the year before if it was still all right and he said yeah, and he didn't think we drew a tag, so he allowed somebody else to hunt.

I was at archery and the Kulaks, Ed and Dan, were there and Brian. All those guys are really great guys. We were all shooting archery and I said, "Man, my son and daughter have bear tags. I'm looking for a place in Carney unit to put bear baits on or have somebody do it." To upfront $1,600 or $1,700 per hunter to have a guide do it for you was kind of tough at the time for me.

So I kind of wanted to do most of the stuff myself, kind of cut down the cost and stuff. Ed was like, "Well, I know a guy that he has property up there that he leases and does deer hunts," and he put me in contact with you. So that's how we met. It was a long phone call, I remember.

Dean Hulce: I turned you down many times. It reminds me of the woman in the Bible that goes before this judge over and over and over again, and eventually gives in just so she'd go away. That's not the way it was, because it turned out great because we became great friends. We see each other a few times a year now, whether it be up here or down there at your house. Jessica ended up getting a nice bear. I remember she passed up two bears the first evening she was sitting with your dad.

Terry Gross: Yeah, she was sitting with my dad the first evening and I was sitting with my son. My son and I didn't really have a great relationship. He lived with his mom and Jess lived with me. So we didn't really see eye to eye all the time, my son and I. I thought maybe doing this for him showing him, "Hey, I still do care for you."

So I was sitting with my son and it was raining the first morning, so we chose to stay in camp. I kept looking at the weather and it was going to quit about noon or so, maybe 1:00. George took my dad and Jessica to their spot and I sat with my son. I took him there and I was like, "Okay, at 5:00 the last couple nights, there was a really good bear coming to this bait according to the trail cameras."

He had said something about needing a cigarette. I'm like, "Just a couple more hours. You can do without it for a couple more hours." So he said something like, "Well, I have to use the bathroom break." I said, "Okay, well I'll do it too." So we climbed out of the stand, used the restroom real quick. I went to climb back in and I turned around and he's walking towards the truck.

I'm like, "Hey son, what are you doing?" He said, "You don't listen to me. You never have." He says, "I want a cigarette and I want one now." I'm like, "Okay, run back to the truck real quick, have a cigarette, come back." Then when we got to the truck, he started saying he was cold. Well, it was 60-some degrees, a little bit rainy. September down.

I pulled off my sweatshirt and I handed it to him. I said, "Here, you can wear my sweatshirt. Let's go back." He's like, "Like I just said, you don't listen to me. I don't want to even hunt now." What do you want to do? He said, "Let's go back to the camp."

I'm like, "In two more hours, there's going to be a bear standing in that possibly a bear standing in front of that blind. You have a chance to shoot your first bear." It was a good bear. So he insisted he wanted to go back to camp and it's his hunt, so I brought him back here to camp.

I was a little discouraged and he was sitting here and I said, "Hey, I'm going to go wait for Jess and Dad." I told George I'll go pick them up. So I'd left and sure enough, I'm sitting at the driveway of where they're at. They're back there another half mile or so. But I was sitting there and my phone goes off and I look at it and here's a bear right in front of his stand.

Dean Hulce: You can only do so much. It's funny how God works because as you're talking about that, the way that God has really pursued you through a lot of men, really. Because you've listened. It's funny because Linda and I have mentioned and you've gotten to know a lot of our guys at church, at least a little bit. And some of the other a lot of the other hunters here. But God kept putting more and more Christians, strong Christian guys in your path, and you listened.

Linda and I have talked about, and other people have talked about, when we're talking about what God's doing, whether it be in our men's group or wherever, but you've always hung on almost everything we talked about. We could watch you and see you listening and absorbing what's going on.

Between some different guys, we would talk and say, "We just need to keep pouring into Terry," because we just saw your heart. But the way God pursued you is exactly what you did with your son. As hard as it is, and we pray that that comes back. But God pursues us.

You got to the point this fall, and you didn't tell me, but we prayed for you to know Christ. When you texted me the one day and said, "When I was there bear hunting, I wanted to talk to you and tell you I'm ready to make the next step." Somehow, because we sit and talk, but we never got to that. But God had also put another guy right close to you in Jay Fedick that he had put him close in. Actually, you guys have a lease together now, don't you?

Terry Gross: Yeah. He allows me to hunt his property.

Dean Hulce: So it's very interesting how God did that, how He pursued you over nine years now, way before that and you didn't know it. But that's a story of a father and a son. I think God will honor that someday with your son.

We've come to love Jessica. She's become a great friend and her kids have been here, Fred's been here. But I look at as you were talking, that's exactly what God does for us because we can't really pursue God. God comes for us and we can either turn it away or go to Him. It took nine years.

But when you said, "Hey Dean, I meant to talk, we didn't get to," and you said, "I tried to pursue Jay to get it wasn't working and eventually you just said, Jay, I'm coming to your house." That's kind of a different way than a lot of people come to Christ, but it was a cool story the way that God surrounded you with Christian men and women. You're an easy guy to love actually.

Terry Gross: Lori may argue that. I've been married and divorced twice, so I know there's two women out there that don't like me too much.

Dean Hulce: Well, we're still waiting on... you asked me to do the ceremony someday when you get married and you proposed to Lori when you were here. We already have the place picked out. Hopefully someday that soon. She's just happy she has the ring on her finger. Every time we ran into her, we'd look at her fingers. "You got a ring yet?" No. Once she got it, all of a sudden we don't talk too much about it anymore.

But we're going to take a break here in a minute because we're about done with the radio program. We'll go on to some other hunting stories and some of the other things that God has done and is doing. I'd like to hear more about your archery because you've got a passion for archery. We sat around today and talked about longbows or recurve bows, traditional archery. But you've got a passion for shooting bows and for everything archery related. More than most guys that I know. You just love to shoot your bow and everything to do with it and the hunting.

But we'll talk a little bit about more about that. We'll talk about your because you did have a bear tag this year as well. And you and Jess again. But we'll talk about that in a minute. In the meantime, we're going to take a break from the radio program and we'll come back with the podcast in just a minute. So join us. Please join us each week as we're together on this radio station you're listening to or the podcast.

We are beginning a new year. We'll play this show that'll come out right after New Year, so it'll be a new beginning of something new and it's interesting because it matches right up as well as a new beginning in your life. So thank you again for joining me.

Terry Gross: Thank you, Dean.

Dean Hulce: We'll go into the podcast here in a minute and in the meantime, please join us every week on God's Great Outdoors as we head down the trail to adventure.

Announcer: If you're an outdoors person, you likely understand that there is nothing sweeter than to finally successfully finish the pursuit of the trophy that you've been after. We want you to know that God feels the same thrill over one that gives in and accepts the gift that has been offered.

The Book of Luke tells the parable of the widow's lost coin. She had lost 10% of her money and she was excited when she found it. Jesus says this in verse 10: "In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

For those of you that are listening today, if you've never made a decision to accept the gift of salvation from God, the fact that you are here and listening shows that God is pursuing you. He wants to give you a new life, an eternal life starting today. Don't put it off.

For those of us that have already accepted the gift of life in God's family, if you're here listening today, then God wants you to be used in the pursuit of others for Him. That's the job of all Christians: to be sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

Those are our challenges to you, our listeners, this week. We can read the words of Jesus in the Book of Mark where he tells us, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." We're going to keep telling the good news of Jesus Christ each week here. Please join us as we share the good news through stories of men and women who God pursued.

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 find it all on the website, godsgreatoutdoors.org. Thank you for joining us this week on the Trail to Adventure in God's Great Outdoors.