So far, I have had five sightings of eight eligible whitetail. I have seen several nice does and two bucks. The other day, a four point was within shooting distance, but he got spooked from some movement. He made a graceful dance into the woods. This morning I had the best opportunity yet. The same four point, young about three to four years old came out to feed just after dawn, about 10 minutes from me getting settled! I was sitting among some brush, in full camo, scent covered, slight air movement at my back. Not ideal, but for the most part invisible. He came from the left from behind heavy brush into an open area. Unfortunately, I was in almost full view of the deer. He slowly moved towards my right exposing his side and within 20 yards. My heart was beating, my breathing almost out of control. I was doing everything possible to control my trembling. He became suspicious and probably smelled me. He spooked slowly and went back to my left out of view. I was not in a position to shoot nor could I even move a muscle to draw. I just sat for a few more minutes. I turned my body clockwise to improve my angle, I positioned my bow. He returned in about 3 minutes. Same thing, expect he didn’t spook. After turning back left, and still suspicious, he walked slowly towards the brush out of view. My best angle and distance was just before he entered the brush. I decided to take this as my best shot. Mind you… I am hunting with a 55# Grizzly Bear re-curve with no sights. I can hit a paper plate easily at 20 yards with consistency. I can’t hold it drawn. I moved very slowly to draw, but his peripheral vision caught me and before I could draw, he was spooked. I waited. I could see him playing beyond me behind some trees for about 10 more minutes. I called. He moseyed into the woods. I heard some snorting. That was it. How can I shoot? Without a blind, there is just no way. This pict is a buck about the same size, but the one I saw had a smaller rack.
Not like a bad habit, but rather the thing that squeezes stuff. I feel like I am in one. I am being tested right now. These feelings are a curse sometimes.
What I mean is that several things are happening this year for me professionally and it seems as though the progress that I am trying to achieve professionally is tied to what I am trying to achieve long term spiritually. When I started this journey back in 2000, I said to myself the following… I am returning to finish my education to accomplish the following things… I want to be able to have a profession that allows me to provide for my family anywhere in the world. I want to learn a second language to see what God would do in terms of opening doors for world missions. So, I chose a degree in Spanish and Education because that seemed like the closest thing to those priorities. I would at the very least eventually be able to take summers off and do missions work, at the very most, be able to just go to the mission field and never come back. I also said that finishing the entire education program with its ups and downs was a priority. There being several major milestones along the way that would seem to present a change in direction, I just stayed the course. Now, I am going to really cross the final finish line in August of this year. I mean, I will have my Masters of Science in Education, my permanent certification in Secondary Spanish and I speak Spanish pretty well. I could move to Spain and function in the language very well taking a year or two to really be high level. My ultimate goal for my speaking ability is to be very high level. I have met a lot of missionaries that speak so-so. They get by, but have stopped applying themselves to language learning. I have never taken this approach because of credebility issues. I don’t want short cuts. I want to be as close to a professional native speaker ability as possible. I want to be able to translate materials in the field and not have to depend upon others. I would need instruction in an immersion environment to bring me where I want to be. Anyway… Now that I have entered the teaching profession and will have finished by August, I am approaching a stage where I am saying… Ok God… what next?… all the while trying to be a fruitful in my family and ministry here as I can. I can see myself working until I am able to go and it is as simple as that. Waiting for the timing of God… I have lately been giving thought to Bilbao lately. I can’t find anyone who is doing anything there…
I just wanted to make a simple post. I am hungry for God. I want more of Him. I was in our worship service on Sunday and could only cry out from deep within my soul for God. He never breaks his promises and all of the promises of God are YES and SO BE IT in Christ. Its fun being a Christian. But I just stood there and didn’t want the worship to stop. I could have stood there all day long. God is refreshing me daily.
So, I go to 57 Market and sit in a prophetic meeting that is geared for the church’s youth. I’m there because I brought my kids and hey, deep down I am a charismatic and I was hoping to hear from God through whatever method He chose to speak. So, I’m sitting there in a group of about 40 or so youth and about half a dozen adults. I was not expecting to get prophecy, but I was hungry and crying out to God in my heart for a word of encouragement. The prophet is making his prayers and I’m listening to some really good stuff when he starts looking at me. He comes over to me and says basically two things. One, that I was like a man in a boat on the water fishing for big Bass, but was only catching sunnies. How come I can only manage to catch sunnies? Then the prophet basically said that I am to not stop casting. But that I am to persevere and that keep on casting and that God was going to give me a big catch of bass. That was encouraging. Then he continued with, that I was going to get a new working situtation making a lot more money, that God was going to financially bless me and that when the economy was going down, my economy would go up. All of this would happen within the next six months. Well, the date of this was March 29. I am trusting God to bring all of what he said to pass and that God is still making me into a man of God. I feel greatly encouraged and refreshed by this.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/128877
I could save these guys millions of dollars. First, no one can find God, cause He ain’t lost. Ok. That’s settled… Second, God is finding (lost) people everyday and if a person really wants to be found by Him, they can just ask, nicely. Third, although I really respect the work these guys are doing and hope that it will lead to something revolutionary, God has already layed out an order for the universe. The problem is that God makes it simple enough for everyone to understand and that upsets smart people sometimes. Here is a sample of what I’m talking about. Genesis 1:1. Here’s another… Job 38:1-40:2. Furthermore, there is so much overwhelming scientific evidence that God is the creator of all things that you need more faith to believe in the theory of evolution than you do to believe in God. What I cannot stand is the non-scientific way that evolutionists go around defending their theory like one would defend extreme religious belief. They exalt their ideologies like gods and demand obedience and homage from all. One might accuse Christians of the same thing, but really Christians should just point people toward God. No one in their right mind would expect coercion to produce anything good. Let everyone be convinced in his or her own mind. But please don’t demand that I worship evolution like a god. If you are curious… check this out. http://www.leestrobel.com/
Here is my redition of El Greco’s painting of the suffering Christ. It looks like a 3rd grader did it because it is woodless colored pencils. I am not a painter, just a pencil sketch drawer.
A lot of people blog on Sunday after church because they feel inspired, refreshed, refocused. I fit into this category today. I feel all the above. I just wish I were a different person. I guess I have to trust that God is changing me. None of my present problems are solved or even changed in anyway. It just that I feel more well equiped or just more driven to solve them with God’s help.
On another note, do we have the right to question what we think is wrong? One would think the answer to be “YES”. Check out this link… http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php
It was an awesome day and I really played my best. It was good enough to beat last year’s champion, but not good enough to beat this year’s. I placed second. Mark placed fourth and Luke placed fourth in their divisions. We all won some dough and had a great time. Now lets see if we can get the ball rolling in Potsdam. Chess club here?
