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When learning about what it takes to be successful in the outdoors, knowledge is often handed down within the family from adults to youth: parents to children, grandparents to grandchildren, uncles to nieces/nephews. You get the point. The traditions, skills, and attitude that are handed down can be a positive exchange that nurtures growth for the young person, teaching them to respect the environment and the animals that live within the habitat. But lit could have the opposite effect: instilling poor habits and rituals that are detrimental to the environment, can be unsafe and selfish, destroying the habitat for future generations.

As we gathered around the campfire the evening after the hunt, we discussed what it means to be a disciple. As Christians when we hear the word disciple, we think of it as a follower of Christ, but the boys around that campfire learned it means so much more. We shared with the Sportsmen about taking up the cross as referenced in Matthew 16:26. The discussion led to challenges that discipleship could bring if you were following the wrong leader and that Jesus has called us to be disciples to Him first. That being a disciple of Jesus meant being able to overcome where our “flesh” naturally will lead us. The boys shared how the "flesh" nature in us leads to laziness, bad attitudes, and wasting time. Our discussion led to Romans 7:14-25, where we showed the boys that even Paul struggled with the failure of sin. We all have sin in us because of our animalistic nature, and our flesh leans towards sin, but it is Christ living in us that allows us to overcome. 

As the discussion developed, we wrapped up the discussion talking about fasting. Through fasting, spiritually, you will allow for Christ’s discipline to help overcome sin. Fasting is a powerful tool for us as Christ followers to eliminate the things that distract us from putting Jesus first in our lives allowing Him to be put in that prominent spot of focus.

If you are finding that your walk with Jesus isn’t what you want it to be, do as these young disciples did and examine your life to see what is holding you back and eliminate (fast) from that thing until you have replaced it with Jesus.

We were excited to welcome Nic DiFilippo as our speaker for the evening. Nic has filmed in the outdoors for over 10 years and is currently working with Tim Roller’s Whitetail Journey and Bill Winke’s Midwest Whitetail. 

Nic spoke to us about the different equipment he uses when filming these hunts. He explained to our Sportsmen that when filming while hunting, you need to get up a lot earlier then you would normally would.  This is because you have a lot more equipment that needs to be set up before you can be ready to film.

He also shared the importance of have multiple camera angles when filming and that it is important to film everything that is happening when you are out in the wood. When filming for these shows you cant just turn the camera on when you see the deer show up.  You have to have the camera on so that you don’t miss anything. 

Nic showed examples of both his successes and failures that he has filmed over the years. This was both exciting to me and a little discouraging. Exciting because I got to see that even this professional has bad filming days, but discouraging because my best stuff looks like what he shared as failures.

The biggest positive about this month's Sportsmen’s night was all that we have learned from Nic. It has been a goal of mine to be able to film the hunts for the youth that participate in CTO, especially for the first time hunters.

Our next step on this trek is to get better equipment and then spend some time with Nic out in the woods making all this happen.  We have taken one giant leap forward in starting our CTO filming career.

I also found it interesting that after this Sportsmen’s Night, some of our youth brought cameras with them to film their hunts at the next outing. I was tickled and looked forward to see what kind of footage we will get. Thank you to all who participated in October 2015’s Sportsmen’s Night!

When Jesus was twelve, His family and He made the long trek to Jerusalem for Passover. Tradition states that 12 year olds made this journey with their parents so that they would be prepared for the following year when they would be celebrated as an adult. Following their 13th birthday (Bar Mitzvah), Jewish boys became responsible for their own religious rituals. After Jesus’ family has fulfilled their time in Jerusalem, they begin their journey home. Then after they have journeyed a whole day they realize Jesus isn’t with them. (Think about that for a moment, how would you feel if you had lost your 12 year old?)

They made a return trip to Jerusalem to find Jesus, but they didn’t find Him for three more days. Take count; Jesus has been missing five days! One day of travel; discover He is missing and one day return journey, plus three days looking for Him. A 12 year old boy on His own for 5 days. I’d bet His parents were freaking out about now, and I’m positive tears were shed, but then they find Him in the Temple with the teachers of the day. After being asked by His mother why He would worry His parents like this? Jesus responds, “… Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?” Some translations of the scripture use the phrase “…I must be about my Father’s business.”

We then posed this question to the boys at campfire: "What is your father’s business?" 

The discussion lead to us talking about their earthly father’s business or labor.  Each boy knew what their earthly father or stepfathers did to provide for their families. Then we moved to our heavenly father. We stopped for a minute and pointed out the Sportsmen around this campfire were all about the same age as Jesus when this took place. We asked how many of them would have been able to feel comfortable in a similar situation? Many of them felt if they were in this position, they would have felt more fear. We shared 2 Timothy 1:7.  

We helped these young guys understand that our strength comes not from ourselves, but  from Holy Spirit. Jesus knew this truth even at His young age, which allowed Him to be this fearless at this young age. The Holy Spirit gave Jesus the courage to be about His Father’s business in His Father’s house because Jesus, Holy Spirit, and the Father were all together in one frame of mind. The business Jesus’s Father was about is redeeming the souls of the lost. Therefore we as Christians should be about this same business: redeeming the souls of the lost. We left our first campfire of this deer season with a purpose in mind and the CTO Sportsmen went home with a new purpose for their walk.

As we headed out to our first ever dove hunt in the Peoria area. The CTO Sportsmen were excited to stay at anew facility that will also hold one of our Summer Camps next year. The compound is called Wild at Heart and is run by our Friends of CTO Members Peter and Wanda. We were excited to stay in this facility and see all it had to offer.

The boys were doubly excited to get to harvest their first doves too. We were able to get a couple. The dove hunting was extremely difficult and we had to travel from site to site to finally find one where the doves were flying regularly. Luckily we have had a few good deer hunts over the years or I think we would have starved from the results of this hunt.

The Lord gave us an extremely hard campfire discussion too. If I had to guess it was because most of the boys who participated in this discussion were from our older high school age Sportsmen. We delved into 1 Samuel 15:22 and began to look at what God was trying to teach us though this scripture and campfire question.

These men are getting older and beginning to start their path into their own identities of whom they want to become after high school. I hope we have discipled well. I hope we have given them enough good life examples that they will be able to hold onto Jesus and not forsake Him as life becomes challenging.

When we read the whole of 1 Samuel 15 we see that Saul, Israel’s King, decided to not listen to God, but rather listened to his subjects. God had given him a clear command. Saul decided to keep all the best livestock instead of destroying them as God had commanded. When God's prophet Samuel confronted Saul about what he had done, Saul told Samuel that he kept the animals to use as sacrifices to the Lord. Then Samuel interrupted Saul, and told him that he could no longer be king because Saul’s self doubt allowed his followers to lead him away from the command of God. Instead of taking on the responsibility of his choices, he blamed the people he was called to lead.

It was here that Samuel said, although burnt offerings and sacrifices are good, obeying God’s voice is better than any sacrifice that you can make. Listening to God’s voice is more pleasing to God than the fat of the ram. (The burnt offering of the fat of the ram is described in other places in scripture to be a pleasing aroma to God.)

After we had discussed the background and the original meaning of this scripture, I asked the Sportsmen what does that mean for us today. Often this scripture is used out of context to get people to behave themselves, but is that really what the scripture is trying to teach us here, or is there something more significant being shared?

As I explained to the boys, through this passage, God teaches what He expects from those He puts in leadership. God expects His leaders to come to Him for direction. God looks for us to find our self worth in His opinion rather than in the opinion of others, and to be secure as His leader because God has placed us in the position. God wants us to be confident in whom He is, because God gives instruction to the leader He put in place, not necessarily to everyone else. This is why it is extremely important that as God puts us in leadership positions we need to consistently look to him for guidance, and why God holds those in leadership more accountable.  

The young men who were around this campfire continue to grow and are fulfilling the roles God has planned for them.

September’s Sportsmen’s Night was the beginning of a new format. Sportsmen’s Night will now be meeting on the 2^nd Wednesday of each month. We will be having guest speakers each month share with us their hunting and fishing experiences and expertise.

To kick off this new format we introduced Mike Klein, Atlatl specialist as our first speaker. An atlatl (pronounced at’ lat el) was an ancient type of spear thrower, a 'throwing stick' used to hurl a spear with greater force towards the target.

Mike began his visit by explaining the history of the atlatl. The Atlatl was used in most parts of North America prior to the appearance of the bow and arrow. The Pueblo and Creek Native American tribes used it to hunt deer, elk, rabbit and bears. The Atlatl was also used by the Artic and Sub-Artic Native American tribes in the far Northern areas of America for hunting land animals and large marine animals such as whales.

After we had this brief history lesson Mike did his best to train us on how to throw these Atlatl darts. Some of us were able to pick it up right away whereas others of us finally hit the target after 30 – 40 tries. But when it was all said and done, we had a blast chucking darts all over the grassy area of Fluid Events Center.

We concluded the evening with a quick Bible study on the old and new wineskin. Since we are moving to a new format it seemed this was an appropriate discussion. Everyone agreed that they enjoyed having the new format and were excited to see what the future new wineskin would hold.

If you missed this great time with Cross Trail Outfitters, our next Sportsmen’s Night will be Wednesday, October 14^th at the Fluid Events Center, 601 N. Country Fair Dr. Champaign, IL 61821.

When I was a kid I can remember crawling through Eagle Cave and spending time in the lakes of Boundary Waters between the US and Canada. The people who took me on these adventures helped me create memories. I strive to do this same thing for the young men that spend time with me in CTO. I want to create memories that will last a lifetime.

Ultimate Summer Camp is always our most attended camp. This is the camp where the young men get a little taste of everything a sportsman could want to do. We spend time doing everything from archery, tomahawks, and every type of gun we can get our hands on from a .22 through .30-06, and even an AK 47. 

I was really blessed having two Trail of the Guide men, D’Lige Smith-Hughes and Tyler Bialeschki, as summer camp staff. These two guys made me extremely proud this year. It is always amazing to see the boys that I work develop into men of God, and I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I take personal pride in watching them develop.

Tuesday morning of Camp One, I woke up in my bed and felt something telling me that I needed to start following Jesus starting today. So I sat there in my bed and told Jesus I wanted to start following Him. So I want to get baptized at the end of camp.

I didn’t hear about this story until Thursday morning of that week – two days later. Praise God! The Holy Spirit was in attendance!

The next camper that wanted to give his life to Christ came to us Thursday evening. Two of our staff sat down with this young man; we wanted to make sure that he understood his decision. We also called his family at home and shared with them the decision this young man made. His whole family was in attendance when we baptized him at the end of summer camp.

It was because of experiences like these that I leave CTO outings more refreshed than if I were to spend two weeks lounging on a Florida Beach. God is good all the time and all the time God is good.