Your Story

After church this past Sunday, Jenelle and I spent the afternoon cross country skiing up on the Meadow Mt. Trail. It was a beautiful day to be out. It was only twenty-seven degrees but the sunshine and the lack of wind made it just perfect. It was great to be outside and fun to spend some time with my favorite person and a great way to cap off the week.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I had the privilege of being a mentor for a special hunt being put on by the National Deer Association. The hunt was to give opportunities to people that wanted to hunt deer but never grew up around hunting or had those opportunities that a lot of us had. The hope was that we would turn that spark of interest into a passion for hunting. With a limited three day event, all stops were pulled in an effort to give the hunters a successful hunt.

We started out by using the first day to talk about hunting and working with the hunters on shooting. Since it was muzzleloader season, they needed to use muzzleloaders. We taught how to load and shoot. Each hunter had a modern inline muzzleloader with a scope. 

On Friday and Saturday we hunted mornings and evenings. The hunter and his mentor hunted from a heated blind over bait. Midday the hunters went to a butcher shop and saw how their deer would be processed if they were successful.

Every hunter saw deer and had opportunities to harvest deer and most did. Although it wasn't exactly my style of hunting it was really fun to be a part of and to be there to see the joy of my new hunter as he harvested his first deer ever. 

I hunted with a young twenty-seven year old named Dave. He is working towards a degree in the medical field in the army. It was fun getting to know him and sharing time together. We talked a lot about life, about different techniques and styles of hunting,  along with the joys that can be found outdoors. He had discovered hiking and fly-fishing and was looking for more enjoyment in the outdoors. 

Growing up he had spent very little time out of doors. That mainly only happened while he was playing baseball. But now, with the pressure he felt from medical school and doing his residency, he was finding relief from his busy schedule by getting outdoors, even if it was just for a limited time.

After Dave shot a deer first thing Saturday, we took it back to “headquarters” where there was an older gentleman there that specifically taught the skills of field dressing. He was so quick and clean that I'm sure even the best of us learned something.

The event was held at my cousin Brian's place. His garage was the “headquarters” for the event and we ate lots of good food prepared by Brian's wife Tammy. We hunted on the neighboring farms where there are just too many deer for the habitat.

My favorite part was hanging out back at the garage on Saturday after Dave got his deer. Uncle Don was there and Brian and a couple others that weren't out with hunters. That's when the deer stories started getting swapped. The guy field dressing the deer had some really good ones. We talked about the good ole days when we would drive deer, getting wet and exhausted. 

Brian and I are about six months apart in age. Growing up less than a half mile from each other, we pretty much grew up like brothers. We had lots and lots of adventures and as we got older Don would take us hunting up at his home place which was close to where Brian now lives. We didn't have heated stands and I remembered that icy burn that came from cheap boots and wet feet. We remembered the time Don fell waist deep in the swamp and got his muzzleloader wet, but that it still worked a minute later when he shot a deer. We remembered camping out in November and Don cutting wood with an ax in the middle of the night to keep us warm. I remembered my first buck, an eight point. That same day Brian killed a nine point and we hauled them out on Don's black Dodge pickup.

I didn't get to hunt with my dad much. He quit hunting when I was nine or so. But he had lots and lots of stories about trapping skunks and hunting coons and the big buck he missed and the running buck that he shot the tail off of only to have the buck turn and come running right up to him before he dropped it. 

I'm sure that those stories were a part of the equation for my love for hunting and the outdoors. I'm sure that hunting with Don and Brian played just as big if not a bigger part as well. 

After that we hung out and I let Dave shoot my flintlock a handful of times. He really got a kick out of that.

I hope that the whole experience, the shooting and the hunting and the stories told, helped to ignite the fire in Dave. I'm sure that he'll be hunting again.

Sharing our lives and our stories probably has a bigger impact on people than we'll ever know. If God has blessed us through others, through their lives, through their stories then I think we owe it back. Well, maybe. But for the most part, we can't pay it back. Only forward.

I hope that in this new year you recognize the importance that your life can have on others, no matter how small or insignificant you feel. What you do, your story, it matters. And God wants to use it to bless others.

Happy New Year everyone!