On a typical deer hunt, we get up in the wee morning hours of O’ dark 30 so that you can get into the tree and get everything in place before sunrise and, if possible, even get some quiet time before the sun begins to crest on the horizon. It is beautiful to watch and even more exciting when that perfect shot presents itself shortly after. 

As enjoyable as that scene is, one of my favorite times to hunt is the morning after the full moon.  Many experts will agree that the moon plays an important role to deer movement and phases of breeding time. But that isn’t my main reason for loving the after-the-full-moon hunt. My favorite reason is you get to sleep in a little, because the full moon has provided enough light for the deer to feed and play later into the evening then they would typically do on new moon or crested moon nights. Therefore they are usually napping a little later into the morning. This allows us to let the boys nap a little longer too.

We explored the idea of phases around the campfire. We read through 1 John chapter 2 and discussed the different phases of our Christian walk. We shared what John meant to be little children, young men, and fathers. We asked ourselves what phase we thought we were in and what could we do to grow to the next phase in our spiritual walk. We also asked Jesus for help in guiding us as we look to grow. 

We compared the similarities of our growth with Jesus. Just like the moon needs the sunlight for it to glow and grow, we need the Son’s light to do the same. We look forward to see the CTO Sportsmen continue to grow as we disciple them to Christ through the outdoors.