This past Saturday evening, I attended the 4th Annual Outdoorsman Banquet held in Suffolk, Virginia, with friend, pastor and speaker Brodie Swisher (www.thrutheseason.com). Scope & Hook was invited to be an exhibitor at the event as well, which gave me an opportunity to talk with those in attendance about the mission and purpose of the ministry. With spring turkey season right around the corner, I brought my full strut mount with me and placed it at the table, as it serves as a good tool to bring folks close and spend some time initially talking turkey with them. As I fully hoped and anticipated, many a hunting story was relived around that table Saturday. All outdoorsmen are alike in at least this one respect - we all have stories that we like to recall with fellow hunters and fishermen. Stories of special trips in the outdoors with friends and family, stories of days gone by when the game was plentiful and the action was unreal, stories of record book fish and game harvested, and stories of missed opportunities and the big ones that got away. And as more time passes from the point in which these hunting and fishing trips took place, the more chance there is that the story surrounding them has been exaggerated and embellished to capture the attention of even more bystanders the next time it's told.
2 Timothy 1:7-9 (NASB)
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity...
