Up at 4 AM and I feel a little bit like someone poured sand in my eyes. It's not unusual for me to be up this early, but last night I was up till after 1 AM doing things that needed to get done. Why? Because today we'll be driving about 500 miles round trip to check out a river. It might be a total bust, but then again, we might find a new place to hunt. We only have today. My friend flies out tom...  Read More

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is why there are 5 year-olds with greater wisdom than their grandparents. The ability to earn money is not wisdom. The ability to generate 'likes' and 'followers' is not wisdom. No person without Christ has ANY wisdom- none- zip- nada. Intelligence- yes. Great personalities- yes. Love for family- yes. Work ethic- yes. And yet, a rejection of Ch...  Read More

We call it 'instinct', but in truth, it's God-given patterns of behavior that are so miraculous that scientists simply apply a common term as the 'explanation'. Birds travel thousands of miles on their migration routes and often use the same nest year after year. Salmon travel those same thousands of miles to spawn in the exact river or stream where each individual fish came to life. Canadian scie...  Read More

For those who hunt off the road system in Alaska with ATV's, 'scouting' before the hunting season serves two main purposes. First, it tells you if there's any game in the area; and, second, it tells you the condition of the trail going in. In my experience, the trails most often fall into one of three categories: 'hard and occasionally dangerous', 'extremely hard and very dangerous', or, 'we can't...  Read More

Yesterday was a very typical from the standpoint of provision. I had salmon for lunch, moose for dinner and wild blueberries for dessert. Salmon and wild game has been my diet for decades. In fact, Laura and I never bought any kind of meat our first 11 years of marriage. We've been blessed to live on dall sheep, black bear, caribou, moose and salmon. For me, there is something intensely gratifying...  Read More

Rain turned me back again. Unless other people are counting on me, I seldom head out into the mountains when it's raining anymore. Don't misunderstond me- if I had a cabin or was coming back to my house, I would hunt all day in the rain. That doesn't bother me a bit. But to get drenching wet 'on my way' to hunt and then crawl into a tiny tent dripping wet (a small tent that got soaking wet when I ...  Read More

40° and rain- snow in the high mountains- welcome to August in Alaska. But when the sun comes out... oh, man... there is no more glorious place on Earth. Though God placed the life here, the battery- the engine that powers it all- is the sun. Yet even the sun has a power behind it. God created it. He spoke and the sun gave us light, He spoke and the sun was darkened, and He spoke and the sun stood...  Read More

Last time I forgot my rope and my saw and my shovel. Heading into Alaska's wilderness is not like hunting in any other place. Though it's August, you must be prepared for snow. You must be prepared for 40° and rain. You must be prepared to survive on your own in the wilderness, because you never know what you might encounter. Now- try to fit everything you'll need in a backpack, PUT ON the pack, a...  Read More

I am thankful for the opportunities God gives me to preach. But if my ONLY witness for him is preaching, I am missing out on what it means to truly be a follower of Christ. My goal is to be a witness EVERYWHERE to EVERYONE I encounter.'Religion' only meets on Sunday (and weddings and funerals). Relationships are the most vital part of daily life. In God we have a Father, Lord, Savior, Counselor, F...  Read More

Every muscle was taut- arms, shoulders, legs- as I continued to hold the machine 'almost' upright- 'almost' to the tipping point where it would land upright on its wheels. I was talking to God out loud the whole time. The machine was still idling, and I only had two options: 1) give up and let the machine settle back on its side under the mucky water; or, 2) gently feather the throttle in the hope...  Read More

If I relaxed for even a moment, the machine would be back on its side, half underwater, in a deep, ugly muckhole. My arms were stretched as high as I could reach and yet under the pressure of a significant amount of weight, but because I was standing nearly to my waist underwater in a deep rut, I wasn't quite tall enough to push it upright onto its wheels. What I needed was power outside of myself...  Read More

This was not life-or-death, but it was most definitely an emergency situation. My gun boot was under the sludgy water, my gas can was bobbing up-and-down in the water behind me,  and the only solution was for me to stand up a machine and gear that weighs well over 1,200 pounds. On my first attempt at lifting, the machine didn't even budge. I was asking, "Lord, help me. Help me. Help me, Jesus. Hel...  Read More