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Today as I left work, I set my out-of-office reply, on nine different email accounts, to read “I will be out of the office until further notice with no access to email, telephone, radio, or Morse-code communications.” This message is posted once a year (when possible); and it is liberating.  My leave form, a formal legal contract between myself and the US Government, has my Leave Destination listed as a trailhead (and, no, I am not going to tell you which one).

By the time you read this, I will be in the middle of the Pecos National Wilderness sitting the hurricane deck of an Idaho mountain horse I have never seen, exploring God’s Creation as He meant it. In a tangible, first-hand, sight-smell-sound-spiritual, sort of way. 

For the next seven days, I will commune with nature, talk to Jesus, make memories, and continue a tradition as old as the stories of my family.

My Grandfather’s church was a mountain. Or a marsh. Or a meadow.  He was a scientist. A wildlife biologist and a conservationist.  He believed that religion got in the way of Creation and therefore refused to step inside a church, save for weddings and some funerals.  His cathedrals were alpine cirques in which Rocky Mountain Sheep and marmots caroused and played.  His altars were the snow-capped Wind River and Medicine Bow Mountain Ranges of his native Wyoming.  He sought God where God was; and somehow he understood that Jesus was his Salvation.

Thus he taught me, in his way, to respect the Creator, to understand our Dominion, and to conserve that which is granted us by Divine Proclamation. 

I have recognized, though, that I do need religion. Still, whenever life allows, I head to the high country.  God’s Country.  This year I had the fortune to draw an elk tag, along with my brother-in-law from Idaho, in the Pecos Wilderness.  Tomorrow, I meet Alan and his pack mules and we will go where the job cannot find me.  We will camp and explore and frolic (yes, I said frolic, as if I were a child; for that is how I will feel - giddy and liberated).

I will use this hunt as an excuse.  Not only a selfish excuse to leave our crazy world behind for a little bit, but also as a spiritual excuse to be closer to my Creator and my Savior.  When my church is the mountain, there are no emails; there are no phone calls; there are no interruptions; there are no excuses.

I must face my God as who I am, for I am stripped of the trappings of busy-ness and modernity.

I am humbled by those things greater than myself and I am forced to reflect on my shortcomings and my strengths.  Generally, the list of the former is significantly longer than the latter.

This is how my family has lived, worked, and worshipped for generations. I learned these things from my Granddad, an unlikely minister, as he had learned them from his. So it has been passed, commune with the Creator, from generation to generation.  And so, too, shall my children learn of His wonder, within His Splendor.

They will, with God’s Grace, learn the power of walking away in order to walk toward a personal relationship that I can only tell them about but they must experience.

Just a few short months ago while serving on a 31 person team in Poland, I saw God provide in big ways! God showed me that when I remained faithful to Him, no matter how hard the situation seemed, or how many doors were shut, He would always be faithful to open other doors to make a way for the gospel to be shared!   

During our third week in Poland, my U.S. team and our Polish friends split into three groups so we could reach people in different areas. Our focus was evangelizing through performing dances, and skits, a Vacation Bible School (VBS), and prayer.  We were blessed with opportunities to share the gospel in city squares, churches, at a school and a senior home!

During one VBS, God reminded us of the importance of staying faithful to Him even when the situation seemed disappointing. One day it was raining so hard that we had to go inside. Definitely not according to our plan! Luckily, there was a museum close by that we could use.

The problem was not only weather, but attendance. With the exception of the little brother of one of my team-mates, there were no children. We were disappointed and discouraged by the turnout, or lack thereof. But, by God’s grace, one of our Polish friends encouraged us to carry on, trust in God, and to serve Him with a cherished heart. So we went on with our plan, not sure what would come of it, but trusting that God would use it for His glory.

We played games, sang songs, taught a couple lessons, and just plain had fun!

We thought that was the end of the story but soon realized that God had other plans!

What we didn't find out until after we finished that afternoon was that the woman in charge of the museum would offer to call a few places to see if they wanted us to come. Those phone calls opened the door for invitations to both a senior home and a school!

If we hadn't persevered through the disappointment of a low turnout for our VBS on that rainy and discouraging day, we would not have had the opportunity to be invited to those places! God opened the doors for us as we remained faithful to Him. If we had not trusted God, we may have missed those opportunities completely.

Later, during the fourth week of our trip, the Polish kids returned to their homes and the U.S. team and I headed north to Mikolajki. While there we were blessed to minister to kids and teens at a Catholic camp for four days. One particular lesson we shared was about the Colors. We taught them that black represents Sin, red represents Jesus' blood, white is for His blood making us pure and clean, green is for our growth in Him, and yellow is for Heaven. It’s likely a lesson every Sunday school teacher knows and has taught numerous times but this time, the lesson would be as powerful for the teachers as it was the students.

As we finished teaching the students what the colors meant and began passing out the colored beads to make bracelets, we realized that there was only a handful of the green beads. We weren’t sure if there would be enough for every student but decided to hand out all we had and see how God would provide. At the end, after passing out the materials, we noticed that there were still plenty of beads left...we thought, "Wait. Weren't there only a handful to begin with?” Yet now, after passing out beads to all the kids and making our own bracelets there were still a LOT left! More than a handful for sure! It was a small but precious miracle from God. This moment reminded me of the Bible story where "Jesus feeds the five thousand."  Each color we taught and each lesson we shared was important and God did not want to leave a single one out! Just as God yearns for us to grow in Him and loves deep relationships, He provides for all of our needs. What a reminder that day was of His provision for us.

Throughout this trip I was continually reminded about God’s grace, provision and faithfulness. While teaching others about God’s love, I became the student in lessons that I will never forget.

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I awake to the sound of my dad stirring in the pitch black night and within a few moments the light of the old Coleman lantern begins to fill the tent with a soft glow. The year is 1971 and my dad, brother and I are awakening to opening morning of deer season in southeastern New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains.

It was the first of many hunting trips that have drawn me nearer to God, through the celebration and wonder of His creation.

Since that experience, hunting adventures have taken me to many of New Mexico and Southern Colorado’s most treasured landscapes. From the rocky and cactus filled country of the Bootheel, to the cool, conifer and aspen covered mountains of Northern New Mexico and Colorado.

My dad, who was a farmer most of his life, understood the connection to the natural world as much as anyone I have ever known. That connection was passed along to my brother and me. The past twenty years, while people we know have taken trips to Disneyland or other faraway places, my wife and I have taken our two sons to explore New Mexico’s great outdoors. Much of this time spent hunting New Mexico’s wildest landscapes in search of wild game.

Today only around 5% of our country’s population participates in hunting, making my family a minority in an increasingly urban society. The naiveté of my way of life has led to many questions about why I hunt.

Although I often try to explain about the meat hunting provides my family, the memories we make in the field, and the breathtaking landscapes we get to visit, further reflection reveals it is much more than that.

Psalms 19:1 and Roman’s 1:20 speak to the majesty of God’s creation and describe the two ways He reveals Himself to us. One is the special revelation which is God revealing himself through scripture and through Christ, The second way is the General Revelation that God is revealing Himself to all mankind through His creation.

When I read these passages I recognize why I feel drawn to the outdoors and hunting. In the great outdoors I most profoundly feel the awesomeness of God through His creation. Sitting in a duck blind as a hint of pink pierces the eastern horizon, traversing rugged mountain landscapes in search of a mule deer buck, or listening to the sound of a bugling bull on an otherwise completely silent morning. Walking the quiet of a desert with family in search of Gambel’s quail or waiting near a farmer’s field for dove to pass overhead. Each an example of the remarkable access we have to our Creator through the General Revelation.

God reveals His most intimate characteristics through His creation; characteristics of might, intelligence, and order.

His creation is a testimony to His existence. And it is creation that allows me to feel a closer connection to Him. This connection cannot be obtained in society’s urban settings; God does not say He will reveal himself through man-made institutions or structures, in sports, work or other aspects of our culture’s prominent values.

He does say He will reveal himself through His creation and that is ultimately why hunting in wild places has given me so much pleasure. There can be no greater connection to the natural world, than in search of wild game. And it is through this connection, that I am most aware of His presence as He uses the most majestic aspects of His creation to greet me.

“For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

Hunting waterfowl isn’t the first thing that comes to mind about living in New Mexico. After all, ducks need water, and this state happens to be one of the driest in the country.

Waterways and duck marshes are definitely in short supply in the Land of Enchantment. However, they do exist. 

There is an amazing contrast between the desert and the water-filled marshes in which ducks make their home.

On many a cold, dark morning, my sons and I have traversed sandy, desert ravines by the light headlamps to makeshift blinds on the edge of oases. Decoy bags, shotguns and, at times, a RoboDuck, are all part of the luggage we carry down through the desert, making our way to the water.

As we find the water and set the decoys, a hint of pink makes its way into the eastern horizon, while ducks are darting from one end of the marsh to the other. 

It is a beautiful sight in perhaps one of the most unusual places.

As we settle-in just off the decoy set, we begin to load our shotguns and prepare for legal shooting time. 

This ritual has been part of the Young household for close to 25 years now. Although, I didn’t have an opportunity to duck hunt while growing up in southeastern New Mexico, it has become part of our family’s winter ritual. Eventually, after a number of years of hunting with my dad and brother, my two sons became part of the mix. It is during these years that the experiences became even more precious and more intimate.

Through the years, my sons and I have limited-out on numerous occasions, giving more life to an already growing passion. Brilliant red sunrises, hundreds of brightly colored waterfowl darting across the morning sky, the sound of shotgun fire piercing the early morning silence are all part of the experience in the desert. 

Waterfowl passion. Creation passion.

All in a state so dry you could literally walk a hundred miles and never find a drop of water. Yet, incredibly, in the middle of this desert, there is living water that provides for thousands of migrating waterfowl.

As I ponder the contrast between this water-dependent sport and our dry desert state, it is easy to see the implications for our own lives. As water fowlers, we would never experience the thrill of hunting without the water that provides for the ducks. And as human beings, we would never experience the peace that exists in knowing and having a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. 

As we wander at times aimlessly through our own deserts, there He is, providing the living water we need to thrive if we will only accept it. 

“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them, will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. - John 4:13-14

Last Thursday was not your typical night at Youth Group. Instead of starting with an action packed (and only slightly dangerous) game, we launched straight into an intro that reviewed what we’d been learning. The past few weeks Thursday Night Live has been digging into the book of James. If you haven’t read James before, it’s an incredibly action focused book. James tells us to let our works show the fruit of our faith. (James 2:18)

As a youth group, we want to follow the commands in God’s word, to let them bring transformation in our lives.

We want youth members to understand that the bible is more than just words on a page; we want our actions to show the changes God is making in our lives. We want TNL teens to see that God’s Word is active and living.

So, we found a way to do that through collecting food for the MCC food pantry by doing “The Great Canned Food Scavenger Hunt 2017”.

This is how it went down: two teams were formed, each with a driver. We piled in cars with instructions to use any legal means we could think of to bring as many non-perishable food items to the church as possible within the 1.5 hour time limit. Extra points were awarded for having the most unusual food item, the largest food item and the most expired food item.

From 6:15 to 7:45, the high school youth group used various methods to relieve the East Mountains of as many canned goods as possible.

Some highlights:

• Marv buying out the canned food aisle at Triangle Grocery store.
• Creative instagram posts for bonus points, which included pig masks and tiaras.
• Arguing about whether canned soup counted as a “prepared meal” for... well way too long… (We finally decided that it did.)

At the end of the night, TNL was able to collect over 150 non-perishable food items.

More importantly, we had an opportunity to represent Jesus to our community, and serve our MCC brothers and sisters, showing the transformation the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives.

Less importantly, my team won the hunt! We’re excited to see where God will lead us to serve next. If you have an idea for a place the youth group could serve, please contact me, Sami Gutierrez.

Individual photo taken by Jasmine Mostrom.