God's Great Outdoors

Guest (Male): God does amazing things in lives when we allow him to do them. When we call on him, he'll work through our lives to do his work in the world around us. On today's program, we'll meet with a group from South Texas, and we'll learn how God had planted the seeds 61 years ago for a work being done today.

This just shows us that if we hear God's voice and we follow through in faith, he can do great things in lives and in any circumstances. If you have heard God's voice and know that he's calling you out of your comfort zone and into a work for him, you need to answer and go.

Today's program is a story like the story of Noah, who worked hard for decades to complete his ministry calling. Let's join our host now and his four guests as we learn about a hunting legend that turns into a ministry winning others for Christ and ministering to many others. Let's head out now on the trail to adventure in far South Texas.

Dean Hulce: Welcome to God's Great Outdoors on the trail to adventure. We are in a really special place today. We're in Freer, Texas. Before we introduce everybody or let them introduce themselves because we're on all the mics, any of the hunters especially that are listening, if you know Freer, Texas, you've heard about the Muy Grande.

We're going to hear the story of the Muy Grande and what God has done over 61 years. I'm excited for it. But we're going to start with the daughter of the gentleman that started Muy Grande, and then we're going to have you guys all introduce yourselves.

Imelda Garza Sharber: Hi, I'm Imelda, Imelda Garza Sharber. Lionel Garza was my father.

Kenneth Sharber: I'm Kenneth Sharber.

Ashley Carpenter: I'm Ashley Carpenter, the wife of the pastor of the Muy Grande Ministries.

Cliff Carpenter: And I'm Cliff Carpenter, the pastor of Muy Grande Ministries.

Dean Hulce: Well, God had this plan way before we were here. I've known about Muy Grande as a hunter. You think of a competition that's been on for years, and you think of big Texas bucks. Before Iowa came along and Wisconsin came along where people knew if you thought of big whitetails, you thought of South Texas.

That's changed a little bit, but this is still known for its big whitetails. A year ago, I passed through the store here since 1990. The first time I passed through the store was a year ago. I met a brother-in-law, George. George was so excited to see our God's Great Outdoors truck. He was so excited to tell us what was happening with Bible studies and such. He said, "You've got to meet Kenneth."

Well, it took a year to find Kenneth because we looked all over that day. Knowing we were coming back this year, I'm so happy that it worked out because the story of Muy Grande is pretty amazing to a hunter. What we know about what's happened with it is really the deer are secondary. The big whitetails are just a way to tell the salvation story. If you'll share the story of how the competition started and what's happened over the 61 years, which is pretty amazing.

Imelda Garza Sharber: Yes, the whole story truly is a testament of God's love and faithfulness and definitely supernatural miracles for over six decades. Dad started the deer contest at the Center Circle gas station that he was managing on the corner. He wasn't the owner; the owner was actually from Laredo.

Dad was managing the gas station, and he wanted to attract more hunters to the gas station. He was a competitive man. He was a mile runner in high school and competed at state, so he thought of a contest. He based it off of the widest spread. There was one category, and he decided to do it.

He started the deer contest in 1965. One day, a hunter called him, and he was stuck outside at a ranch, at his lease. He asked my dad for help. So my dad got into a semi-truck and took off to the ranch and decided to help him. He pulled him out, and the man asked for my dad's name.

He said, "Well, I'm Lionel Garza." He said, "I want to tell my friends about you." He said, "Well, just tell them I'm the hunter's friend." That was it. They parted ways and left. Within a couple of days, there was a huge article in the Victoria Advocate, and the writer was Fred Strong. That was actually the gentleman that my father had pulled out at the deer lease.

With that story being printed, hunters flocked to the store, and there were literally lines at the gas station over the weekend. News had spread very quickly. The article talked about the hunter's friend, and that's who he became known as at that time. He had the deer contest, and it was very successful.

He actually didn't have a prize for the winner. A man from Freer, Homero Garza, won that first year, and Dad ended up giving him his own gold watch that he had won for selling Goodyear tires that year. So he ended up giving him his own watch, and the contest continued.

At some point in time, writers were continuously getting stories from Dad because he was meeting first-hand with deer hunters, and they always had a story to tell. So he was contributing to all the sports writers weekly. Then they began to make fun of him, saying that his station was just a filling up deer contest gas station.

He knew he needed to have a name. He said he thought about it and what now became a world-renowned name. Dad said he based it off of South Texas deer. He said they were as big as the state of Texas and as wide as the Rio Grande. He said, "Therefore, they're Muy Grande." The name stuck, the contest succeeded, and it continued to grow year after year.

Dean Hulce: There's that same attitude of the Texans again of how big everything is in Texas. You know, for Northerners, we've heard of it for years, and very few of us have ever been to Freer, Texas. But they know of it. It's amazing how because of that, it's brought me through Freer.

I guided here one year, years ago. Then to learn of what's going on now. Kenneth, I guess you do a lot of the scoring now. Is it still the widest spread or are you going by Boone and Crockett scoring?

Kenneth Sharber: We've got so many different categories right now. We've got from low fence to high fence to Macho Grande, to Mas Grande. We've got the bow division and a Mexico division. We have youth and women's divisions. It's expanded greatly over the years.

Dean Hulce: How many people in a year bring their deer in?

Kenneth Sharber: This last year, we averaged a little over 100,000 inches of deer scoring. We have approximately over 2,000 people come, including our lifetime members. It's growing every year.

Imelda Garza Sharber: We actually sell memberships. There were lifetime members that were registered several years ago, but now we do an annual membership or registration. You have to sign up every year before you hunt. You go to our website and sign up from there.

Kenneth Sharber: The neat thing about our deal is you sign up one time, and that makes you eligible for every category we have. Let's have fun.

Dean Hulce: Just two days ago, I interviewed somebody in Baytown. He's a Christian guy that's a retired cop. He hunts down in Cotulla, which isn't too far across the country from here. When I told him that there's ministry going on here, he said, "That's not the Muy Grande I remember."

Which is good. I know there's some pain in that as well, but it's a great thing to know the growth and the new life of that. We're going to get into that here shortly. Before we go into you sharing your dad's life and the testimony of what God has done, we're going to take a break. Then I want to just share what God's really done here and then share about what's happening today. We'll be right back with God's Great Outdoors on the trail to adventure in Freer, Texas.

Guest (Male): 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 blessing as well.

Additionally, 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 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. We're on the trail to adventure in Freer, Texas. For those that don't know where Freer is, because you almost have to be looking for something here in order to find it, but we're pretty much straight south of San Antonio, almost exactly two hours drive south. South Texas has a beauty all its own.

I'm glad it's greening up a little bit because just 50, 60 miles north of you, there's no green. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it does have a beauty all its own. It's way different than the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Let's share a little bit about your dad. He began the contest, and he's passed away. If you could share about how God changed his life and brought it to what it is now.

Imelda Garza Sharber: Throughout my childhood, the deer contest was a part of our life. I have four older sisters, and we all worked at the store. We all contributed. Some were bookkeepers and did office work for him. So we all worked the business.

It was at the 40th anniversary. I was a young mom. I had three children, and I was married to my husband, Kenneth. Dad approached me and said, "Imelda, I'm a little tired. Can you help me this hunting season?" At that point in time, Dad was already sober. He had been an alcoholic for at least 20 years before that.

I told him I would think about it, but in my own thoughts, I had no interest whatsoever. I didn't have a desire. In my opinion, our relationship had already healed. I had overcome a lot of the shame and the pain that comes from being in an alcoholic household.

So in my opinion, things were fine and at peace, and I didn't need to go further by going into his world too much. But I told him that I would pray about it. God had other intentions and a different plan for me.

So after a couple of days, I did pray, and the Lord pressed on my heart to do this for him. The Lord wanted to mold him and continue to sanctify him and his life and his character. So I knew I had to obey.

The greatness of God and the goodness of God is that he always changes your desires to fit his plan. I immediately had a desire to help him and to spend time with him. Instead of paying myself, I paid my mom to babysit my kids, and I started working for him daily.

We began to paint the building and just move things around. He was completely supportive of any decision I made. Honestly, looking back until he passed, he was the one with all the ideas. He had the ideas, he had the vision, he had the hopes, and he asked me to put them into action.

So I did that. He began to pray with me. We were in the little store at the time, and the building needed work, and everything needed work. It was hot in the summer, and it was cold in the winter, and it took an act of faith every day to pay the bills.

I remember one particular time we had a big electric bill. I said, "Dad, we're going to fast." He said, "Okay, how do I do that?" I said, "Okay, well, I know how I'm going to fast, but you're not going to eat any tortillas." He started laughing and said, "What about biscuits?" I said, "No, no bread. You're not going to eat any bread, Dad, at all." We were going to do this for three days. He said, "Okay, I'll do it."

He completely abided with it, and we did that. It wasn't but a few days later after the fast that a gentleman who has passed away from Freer showed up. He said, "I want to buy deer corn from you. I'm going to be a regular, but I'm going to pay you all the money upfront for the next two months." And there was our money to make ends meet. It is amazing when we think back on all the ways that God does those things.

Another time, I remember buying him a devotional for Christmas. I gave it to him and he said, "Okay, great." He went into his office, and the next day he came back and handed me the book. I said, "What's wrong? Why are you giving it back to me?" He said, "Well, I already read it." It was a one-year devotional.

I said, "No, Dad, a devotional's different." I didn't explain how to read a devotional. We laughed about it, but for me, that was a major kiss from God because God was showing me the hunger that he had. It wasn't always like that in his character. Even to the day he passed, he had very colorful stories and a lot of colorful things to say, but I could see the work in him over time.

Dean Hulce: Since we walked in here, the word "sanctification" was one of the first things we talked about in this church, which we'll get to. But that keeps coming up over and over because that's what sanctification is; it keeps coming up over and over and gets us closer. We'll never get to that point until we're raptured or we pass from this life.

I walked in the store a year ago. A board member was with us here, and George found him. I'm not sure exactly how, but we had our truck out in front which has God's Great Outdoors all over it. I've fought that truck because I don't like people looking or I like to go incognito a little bit more than we should, but God has done amazing things by people seeing that truck.

George came in the store looking for somebody that owned that truck. He said, "You've got to meet Kenneth." We couldn't find Kenneth; he was working. Everybody said he was just here a second ago, and we could not find him. But it had me fired up all year. We've talked about getting back here to hear the story of what God's doing.

There's so much more between now and the building we're sitting in, but because we're limited on the radio time, why don't we talk a little bit about how God put this together and where it's at now? There's a lot of steps between the two. But maybe you guys can share a little bit because you've been here your whole lives, or at least in Texas. As pastor here, when we think of pastor, I think of a gas station and a store, but that really spawned something much greater. Talk about how that's happened.

Cliff Carpenter: Sure. Throughout everything that had happened at the Muy Grande, Mr. Garza actually told Imelda one day, "You're going to have a big ministry someday. You all are going to start something and it's going to be huge."

She prayed on that. Kenneth and Imelda prayed on that. The day came when it was go time. God said it's time, and they prayed about it. They asked Ashley and me if we'd sit on the board along with George and Lety and her mom, the queen, Imelda.

God had been working on Ashley and me for a while. We'd been asking God, "There's got to be more than just going to church and getting up and reading the Bible every day. We've got to be doers." We walked into the store that night and they said, "Hey, we want to start a ministry and we want you to be here." I was like, "Sign us up." We were already really close friends, more like family.

That was the beginning of it. In the beginning, it was simple stuff: supporting the food bank, helping at the food bank, mowing elderly people's yards. We would still pray with people. We had home Bible studies. We had just built our home and said that if we could ever start a Bible study, we'd like to. Kenneth and Imelda talked to their pastor in Alice, and he said he'd love to come to Freer.

It started from there and grew to 90 people in our house every week. We saw lots of people get saved in our living room. We saw a lot of people that most people, even as Christians, discount a lot of times. People that I said I'd never let in my house because I don't know what's going to walk off. We watched those people break down on their knees and surrender.

The doors were open just because we were willing and obedient. Fast forward, we felt like it was time to do something and establish a home base. I think it was about 2018 we bought the building. It sat here on the lot because we didn't have the money to put it up.

God said, "Put the building up." We had just enough money; he provided. We just continued from there. In April of 2022, he said it's time to step out. We stepped into it and started with a small group of believers, 25 or 30 people.

It's grown to what it is now where it's not just the little 40 by 40 building that we drew on a napkin on somebody's kitchen table anymore. It's in faith. We've never gone to the bank, we've never borrowed money, we've never asked people for money. God just sent people every time.

Every time the desire was there for expansion or we need to do something, we prayed about it, and God always brought the funds. He always provided the people to come and the donations to happen. Now here we are with, on average, probably 80 or 90 people every time we open the doors.

People have come up and donated air conditioners and electrical work and discounted cement jobs. God's provided every step of the way. It's been a beautiful thing to be a part of it and just to look back and say, "Wow, I can't believe that God allowed us to be a part of something like this, so spectacular."

Dean Hulce: Lynn and I say that all the time about our life. Why us? I wanted to touch before we get off the radio portion and go on to the podcast. How big of a town is Freer?

Cliff Carpenter: The sign says 3,214, but it's been 3,214 since I was about 12. I would venture to say there's probably 2,600 to 2,800 people here now.

Dean Hulce: When I came in '97, that's the same sign. It's really amazing because your seating is 250 people, give or take, in here in the church. Not that it's always like that, but you have the capabilities to serve. Well, you're serving way more than that because you're doing things in the community.

I told you we did a ministry in Colorado. A lot of our ministry in Colorado was just going to people that needed firewood, elderly ladies that their neighbors have three or four years of firewood in their yard and nobody brings it to them. One time a lady said, "You must be angels that God sent." We got a chance to share those things.

When you're doing that, they want to know why you're doing that. Then you get a chance to share with them what else God is doing. That's what's happening here. Always be prepared to give people a reason for the hope that you carry. I think that's right out of the Bible.

We're going to take the break from the radio program and go to the podcast in just a minute. But I just think the main point here is just living by faith. Your dad had a prophetic word a long time ago without having any idea, really. But then just taking that and living by faith to the point of where you're at now.

We're going to share more of that on the podcast. But thank you for joining me on the radio, all of you. Ashley, we heard a little bit in there. We're going to join back up in just a minute. For right now, thank you for joining our listeners on the radio portion. If you can, go to the podcast, and if not, join us here each week on God's Great Outdoors as we travel down the trail to adventure.

Guest (Male): As a young boy, our host read about the legend of the Muy Grande deer contest and dreamed of one day visiting the place where it took place. Starting 35 years ago, God called Dean to Freer, Texas and the Muy Grande location in Freer, Texas. Many times he's returned to see the mounts in the Muy Grande store and to eat some lunch or buy some gas. After all this time, Dean was finally introduced to the heart of the Muy Grande.

The legend became reality for this family, and today God is doing amazing things. This happened because the roots of the Garza family planted the seeds for not only a deer contest but for the work of a ministry to serve others and introduce them to Jesus. What calling has God put on you, our listeners' lives? He has a calling for all of his children. We just have to listen to him speaking to us through his word and others and then live out the calling he has on our lives.

We challenge you today to be open to his calling and what might seem today to be an impossibility could turn into something far greater for you and your imagination can fathom. 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.

We want to thank you all again for joining us, and we'd also want to remind you that we are listener-supported, and without your help, this program isn't possible. Please consider partnering with us in some way, and you can find out how at godsgreatoutdoors.org and there you can also make a donation. Please join us again next week and every week as we head down the trail to adventure in God's Great Outdoors.