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The Element
E358: Arkansas Hunt with Pastor Scott Harness! (Bow Hunting in the South)
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1h17m
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On this episode Tyler Jones Talks with Scott Harness of That Church about their recent hunt down in Arkansas. Tyler & Scott talk about life, Relationships and hunting. Tune in to hear how the hunt went down! Go check out these videos on The Element Youtube Channel
00:00:00
Speaker 1: I'm Tyler Jones, and you're listening to the Element podcast. What's going on on my Woods People? I am Tyler Jones, and this is the Element Podcast, brought to you by First Slight Gear. I'm sitting here right now in a Camo chair, not the Nebraska Furniture Mark couch, and my daughter is looking at me in the worst way. She thinks that I'm crazy. But I am kind of talking to myself right now, even though many of you are listening, because everybody's best friend, case Smith is not here with me right now. He is on a hunt, trying to shoot the most dear that he can possibly shoot in a season, and they're out having a lot of fun, him and Greg and the guy that we call Cuppy or Cupcake because his name is Casey and we can't have a CAC and a KC. It's just too confusing. And now you know how to say k C's name right, because the sea is the emphasis there. It's different than Casey. Anyway, today, what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk a little bit to one of my best friends in the world, Scott Harness, who we have spent some time hunting with he's a pastor in the Little Rock area and we have hunted in Arkansas with him now for three years. I have spent four years in Arkansas and I have not I have not killed and recovered a buck. So it's kind of one of those things where it's not the best hunting we've ever done, but it's some of the best times that we've had exploring some of Arkansas's what we would call the natural state, or Clay Newkan calls the creation state, some of its public lands and the big space that they have, trying to find deer to kill that are worthy of putting on to YouTube and having you guys watch. So that's been that's been the goal, and we've had a good time doing that. But as much as anything, we have enjoyed spending time with Scott. And this past week we had Nick in camp as well, who you guys probably recognized from a few weeks ago. He's a killer spent time recently packing out a big buck in Kansas. So we spent a bunch of time together hanging out and enjoying good food and doing the thing that you do at dear camp, and it was a it was a great time, but I will say this, the hunting was hard. A couple of things that that I took away is that there's there are some some different things that can show up early in a hunt that can really hurt your hunt later in the hunt. So something that you take and you say, oh, that's the pattern or that's the thing that they're doing right now, and it could just be especially when you talk about rut or rut behavior, rut dates or rut behavior, it can be something that shows up because a buck is doing a thing that he's not normally doing, because it is that one month of the year that that deer does crazy things, right, So it can show you something. You can be shown something early in that hunt that actually hurts you later in the hunt. And I saw that on this trip. I think that we had a plan going in to do a certain thing and because of the first afternoon what you'll hear in a little bit about, we changed that plan and it made the whole week just kind of discombobulated. We also took some boats up there, and another thing that really was a struggle for me is not having the proper lighting to get up and down the water and be able to see out in front of me and feel fairly safe about what I was doing. It made things quite difficult. And then there was a lot of variable water levels as well that kind of affected what we were able to do, the speed at which we were able to get in and out of places in the ability to get in and out of places sometimes too, So all those things were difficult. There also was we had difficulty finding food sources, which in the past there was so much food that even people that I know from the area were telling me, hey, food's not a thing. Like that's kind of like historically speaking, like food is not really a thing. They can eat food everywhere because there's a billion oak trees, and honestly, there's there's quite a few persymmetries and some of this stuff. And I mean I found some of the biggest persymmetries that I ever found on a trip last year that didn't even they weren't even getting eaten. The per simons were just falling and rotten because deer weren't taken to them because they had plenty to eat elsewhere. And so, you know, there's one thing that we you know, we get later in the year, your mind starts to get kind of fried on some of these trips and you don't make the best decisions every once in a while. And I'm sure many of you can relate and that's okay, but I would say that trying to stay focused on the plan you had going in instead of getting drawn into something. You know, it's okay to get drawn into it, but a few days into that, realize, okay, this actually was just not the thing that's happening right now, and this was this was you know, you have to think through this continuously. So again we kind of burnt, were kind of burnt fried mentally, and some of the midday stuff that we're having to do work wise was taking away from our ability to really think through things. And it was just like all of a sudden, it was like two a or two pm and we just had to go out. So there's a lot going on, and I look forward to discussing some of the stuff that we've done. I think we have a gap here between what we last discussed in what we're discussing this week, and I may be wrong on that, but I'll know better when k C gets back. You know what's the date, it's the you know, it's the twentieth when we're recording this. Hopefully this comes out probably the next day or so. We're looking at Christmas coming up soon, so there's a high chance that Casey and I we'll get together here at some point after the holidays and talk through some stuff for you guys to listen to what he's been down doing. And we are still dear hunting. We didn't, we ain't giving up. We got we got plenty of you know, weeks left of hunting here, so we're excited about what the potential is until things start warming up and the baths start biting. Pretty much. With that being said here, after Christmas, we will start kicking out some videos again on the YouTube channel, so don't forget to make sure you're subscribed there, and we would appreciate likes and all that kind of good stuff that most people ask for on YouTube channels that we don't ask for all that often, But just make sure you're over there watching the videos. You'll get a better idea of what we've been up to. Again, we've been bar Bones crew this year and it's been Casey and I and two camera guys for the most part, rolling around with no editors. So if you are an editor, and you're good at it, and you would like to edit for us at some point you might could help us out. Send us a DM on Instagram or Facebook, let us know kind of your resume a little bit, and what you might be interested in doing for us that would potentially could be something that would help you join the Element anyway. All that being said, Scott Harness is just one of my favorite people, and we spend a bunch of time with him this past week, and I'm fixing to get him on the phone. We're gonna talk a little bit about We're gonna talk about hunting, because Scott knows the stuff. I'm gonna let him kind of explain what Arkansas is kind of like, what you can kind of expect, what he's known over the years, being a resident there for pretty much his whole life. And then I'm also going we're going to talk about some stuff that you know, actually matters a little bit in my opinion, the life stuff, the things that help us to understand how to get along with our hunting buddies better, and the things that are beneficial to us in the long run. Scott, being a pastor, has seen it all, so I look forward to getting on the phone with him and talking through some of this stuff, and I appreciate you guys. One thing that i'd like to say before, which you know we'll have I'll talk again after Scott for a second, but right now I just want to go ahead and say it. Well, I'm thinking, and I appreciate your support as an Element listener, and if you're a subscriber to the YouTube channel, I thank you so much here in the year twenty twenty four for being a part of what we do. I'm very, very blessed to be able to do what I do, and it is because of you people that we get to do that. And I try to give you a good picture of what we do at all times. We don't want to hide things, we don't want to be over dramatic. We want to just go out and have fun. And sometimes it's tough and sometimes it's the best time of your life. And either way, we're just out there breathing fresh air and doing the thing that we love to do. So I'm thankful that I get to do that, and thank you guys for the support. We've had a lot of people saying that they're interested in getting merch and that merch being shirts, T shirts, hats, those kind of things that say the Element on them to support us. Thank you for that, and we are working on that desperately. But it is out of case in my hands right now as to whether this thing, this new site goes live and we're able to sell merch, so working on it. Hopefully it'll be done asap. In the meantime, let's listen to Scott and I'll see you on the other side of this. All right, Scott is on the phone. This is my brother from another mother and a guy that happens to be from a state that the gym on the side of my family is from, so you know, we have some sort of connection there. And uh, I'm excited to be talking with you from my house, even though I enjoyed the last week that we had together at one he at your house pretty much. So uh anyway, I'm I'm glad to have you on the phone, and thanks for hopping on here with me man, And uh, we're gonna talk a little bit of deer hunting because one thing, one thing I noticed about Scott was the first time I talked to him kind of gave him a chance to to Uh, you know, scare me off, and uh, he he knew what he was talking about, and so that was one thing that kind of rung true to me was just Okay, well, I feel like he knows what he's talking about in the woods when he's talking about deer hunting, he can at least talk about it, and uh, seems like a pretty nice guy. So we ended up kind of connecting that way. And this was this was all based around message that you had sent about the time that we had stopped really reading a whole lot of messages through our social media. So I was, I don't know, it's it's one of those things where God works in uh a peculiar, peculiar way that we don't see right off the bat, but then later on we're like, man, I know exactly what he was doing, you know, yeah, And you.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: Know, it's it's been such a divine appointment.
00:11:24
Speaker 3: I think some of the things that God's let us do and do together, and and the the I shared with each other too, and over the process of this time where it's been I know, for me personally, it has been super encouraging. It's been it's just you need relationships like this in the world. You need some people out there that are real people, you know, doing the doing the real thing, and and they're just trying to lift for the Lord, and you just ricochet things off each other. Are you are you sending word of encouragement or whatever? And I feel like that's gone both ways. It's been It's been huge for me.
00:12:00
Speaker 1: Well it's been huge for us too, man, And I think that I think you're right. I had this conversation this morning with so I did. My wife does a coach's Bible study. Even though she's not a coach anymore, she still, you know, coaches me all the time, but she's she's, you know, a part of this coach's Bible study on Friday mornings. And so I went up there since I was home, and a couple of these people there I know all of them, and a couple of them are really several of them are really really good friends of mine here in the community. And we talked about the same point that you're making, where you know, I had one of the coaches tell me that when he was at a certain school, he had a bunch of people come around him early on and we're very friendly to him, and he's like, it's weird. But as soon as I got fired, everybody disappeared, and he's like, really, they just wanted to be around the coach that could make a difference for their kid, you know what I mean. And so he's like, if I got fired from this job, things wouldn't be the same. That people in this room right here would still be my friends years down the road. And he was talking about how you know, you need those real people in your life and that that takes time to kind of forge those relationships. Sometimes they come forward earlier than others. And I think one thing that it's good for guys to remember is that you you know, this this thing that we do called hunting, which we're going to talk a lot about, and you're gonna give us some really good thoughts on some of the Arkansas hunting and that kind of thing in a certain style of hunting as well. But the thing that we do, man, it's kind of a manly man thing, you know. Like I think about it and I feel a little intimidated to go pack a white tail out of the back country a mile or more back in Uh. It's it's it's really fun when you have multiple guys that will do that with you. You do it by yourself, I mean, it's a manly man thing to do. You do it with a couple of guys. It's still a manly man thing to do, but it's a lot easier. But there's something about it that when you do that and you accomplish that kind of thing, you caught it up a deer, carried it out on a couple of dudes' backs, Like you just feel like that's kind of what you're supposed to be doing. Almost. It's like a very natural thing that we as men sometimes maybe miss out on in certain aspects of our life. And I think that, you know, looking at this this whole thing, it can cause guys to kind of say, hey, my truck's bigger than yours, kind of thing, you know, pretty often, right, And it's that's the kind of the the uh, the disposition that a lot of guys have towards each other in hunting sometimes. And I think that it's really good to try to surround yourself with guys that will be very transparent with you and very frank about things, that will share ideas with you, and that will root for you and your success even if they're having a tough hunt, and that can be a really hard thing to do, I know, even for me, Like, uh, you know one thing, I kind of if k C kills a deer, sometimes I'm like, oh, man, I'm fixing me hunting by myself out here, and that's not really what I want to do, you know. So there's kind of there's all different kind of variables and aspects of celebrating that. But it's always good to get outside of your own self and your own feelings and to think, how can I show this guy that I'm super pumped for him and that I support him? And I think that we just got to make sure as men that we don't just close ourselves off because a lot of guys will do that and that they don't want to show any quote unquote weakness. But in other words, I'm coming back to this whole point where, man, we have got to we've got to care for each other, and we've got to let ourselves be a little bit vulnerable at times in these social structures. Otherwise what you'll end up with is three years down the road, do you think you have a good friend and you get into a big argument and you find out that dude didn't really care about me at all. He just wanted to hunt on the hunt, least with me, you know what I mean.
00:15:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think I think with the advent of social media, I think our relationships in general are really shallow, sure careful, and I think one of the things mentioned I think so true been able to celebrate other people's successes and genuinely celebrate that, you know, you know. Basically, I think we've been programmed into believing that that, you know, we have a rich life if if we're constantly showing off what we've done or what we've accomplished or whatever. And the truth is is that that that moment of triumph for you lasts but a moment. You have way more opportunities and you have a much richer life when you fill your life with people and you genuinely care about them and you genuinely celebrate when they're and you help them, you know, share what you have and you know, and I think when we do that, that's when we really have rich relationships and really get to have a rich life. And I think that's part of this. I think what you're what you're saying is so true. I even see it among some of the young guys that I have the opportunity to take hunting, and I take a lot of people hunting, and I enjoy it. A lot of these guys that that I hunt with have never hunted in their life and they don't you know, their dad didn't do it. And you know, you got to just to be honest with you, It's like golf or something else. If you didn't have somebody bringing you along in this story, it's very intimidating. There's a there's a lot of things to know and and and sometimes in the hunting community, just like some of the other communities, that there's.
00:17:13
Speaker 2: A little bit brought bravado there.
00:17:15
Speaker 3: You know, we we know the terms and and we talk about those terms and and and you know, if you're the outside looking in and you're just trying to get involved, and sometimes we use that as a chance to kind of lord over somebody else. And I think it's I think it's a huge mistake because if there's anything that we need right now and the culture that we have in our community, we need hunters because you're gonna have more rights with more hunters. And I know, we go, Gosh, I don't want a bunch of people in my hunting spot, and I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying. However, if if we get to the point where we're a very small, niche group of people, you're not going to be able to manage hang on to the land masses we have.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: You will not be able to hang on the rights that we have.
00:17:57
Speaker 3: It don't take but a minute for a lot of what we experience right now and take for granted to go away. And so bringing other people into that story gives you a chance to have a rich relationship with them. Plus, what you're saying is so true when you when you harvest an animal, or even if you don't, but you got there, and it was complicated to get there, and you got in there and you got out. I've watched a bunch of these young guys. You can just see it on their face. They got a chance to do something that is native to their hardwiring. They got a chance to be in the wild. They got a chance to see something, and they walk around going, hey, I did that, you know I was. It wasn't on a video game, it was actually in the real world. And I got a chance to walk out there and I got a chance to see this and I got a chance and it's I think it's really valuable for for young men. I think it's really really good and us sharing it is a big deal.
00:18:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, man. I mean there's there's uh, you know, we were we were given one of the first things that God would command is that we would work, and so they were they were There's a like you think about it, man, like Adam and Eve are working in the garden before pre sin, right, so like, uh, what they what they were doing would be deemed as what God, like originally would say is a good thing. Where a relationship with there's two people in this relationship, right, people have this relationship together and a relationship with God. And they're in the natural world pruning and uh, you know, walking about and checking on these different plants and such. It's it's a lot like being in the woods man, Like I'm checking on different plants to see if the acorns dropped, or to see if you know, you know, if they've been if the deer have been browsing certain things, or you know, what the flood has done to certain areas and if that's changed things for the for better. And you know, we you know, as stewards of the land. We kind of get to be be a part of what was a very again, like what you were saying, like a native thing to us, not just not just men, but uh definitely. Uh there's a there's this sort of like provisionary thing that men kind of have and we get to do when we when we hunt, shoot a deer, you know, bring some me home.
00:20:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and and and and I'll add one thing to that. And I know we got to actually talk about hunting. But I will say this too. I think one of the things that I see with you and Casey that I think is such a cool thing is a relationship that's healthy between two dudes that that enjoy doing something. But you guys push each other, you hold each other accountable, and you celebrate braid each other's victories.
00:20:35
Speaker 2: You know.
00:20:36
Speaker 3: In our world, I think maybe it's time. Maybe it's just the time factor. I don't know what it is, but we don't have a lot of relationships like that. But man, when you do, it's it's a valuable relationship. And I think it's it just gives a testimony of of making time for each other, you know, outside of your marriage. I mean, obviously you know, our relationship to God has to be number one, or we don't bring in anything to the table in any other relationship. But then behind that is our relationship to our spouse that we're married. But man, it's great to have a brother. It's great to have some dudes that you do some stuff with that that man, you know, they're they're pushed in the same direction you're going in.
00:21:16
Speaker 2: You know, they're they're yolks up like you are.
00:21:18
Speaker 3: They're trying to follow God, and and it's it's nice to have that. First of all, it's nice to have somebody can call the phone and go, hey, man, guess what I just I just smashed a giant, you know, and you you know you're gonna tell your wife that, But it don't have the same impact. You know, your buddy that's been out there to you in the dirt with you though, and you go, man, guess what that dear we've been he's on the ground. I can see him from here, and on the other side of the phone, you hear that's hooping and hollering. Man, there's just something cool about having.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: That, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, it's a it's a great thing.
00:21:46
Speaker 3: To have and and hunting does provide that for us. It's a it's a cool deal.
00:21:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, man and uh, you know, I mean we've definitely we've so we've been sharing a camp. Uh in the last week. We shared a camp for about a week thanks to you, because I had shared a camp the first year that I went to Arkansas and hunted any public ground, at least, I shared a camp that was a tent that I got to listen to coon dogs, you know, howling all night long, and as a light sleeper, that was not very good for me. I was, you know, breathing in damp air and cold air and listening to coon dogs all night. And by the end of that trip, I mean it's always you know, Arkansas for us the last few years has always been a tough trip on a number of different levels. And one of those is the fact that it's at the end of the year, towards the end of the year, right it's in December, We're coming up on the holidays, we're missing our families, We're we're low on rest. We you know, sometimes when you include like any boating or anything like that, we can really be getting up early. And then when you know, depending on how fired up we are when we get done with dinner, you know, we might talk to you for a long time and be going to sleep late, you know, so we you know, these conversations and stuff can can be great things, and I love them. And that's what why one reason we keep coming to Arkansas even though we don't kill nothing. Uh, it's you know, the camaraderie is is I mean, it's such like I hate to I hate to say it because it's like an old man thing to say, you know, or like you know, sometimes people will kind of justify not killing deer by saying, oh, the camaraderie is great, you know, but you know it really it really is more and more as I get older, I do understand that like this is actually it is. What it's about. My dad used to say it all the time. And my dad is a killer. I mean, the dude he just he gonna find a way to shoot some big deer and when he shoots at him, they die inside all the time. I mean, he hardly ever sees one go out of sight, and so you know, and I think about him. I mean, he used to say it all the time. It's about who you're doing this with. And I was just like, it's it's very like for me as a as a young man, and as that's a surface level thing for me to even understand. We're talking about this this morning with some of the you know, some of my friends that were there at this Bible study. You know, they're they're talking about evangelical things that are going on within the school system, and not necessarily the school system, but the kids that go to that school system and how you know, it's just not seeming to take and those kind of things. And I think that that's what you know, I look at in the hunting space, you know, I kind of relate that. Like when you're sixteen years old, sometimes you just you just don't know what you don't know, you know, and you just you listen to something and it doesn't really you don't think that's wrong, but you don't really think too much about it being right. It's just a thing that you hear a bunch and when you get older you look back on it, you're like, man, those were wise words, you know, and it's unfortunate that we have to be, you know, whatever age to start gaining the wisdom to to that. But I do think that it really is about the camaraderie a lot of the time, because I don't I don't really want to hunt alone, you know, Like I don't. I told you about this and in several different instances, and like even earlier this year, you know, Casey had a kid and we were we were not hunting together for the first couple of months, and uh, I mean I definitely learned a lot. I definitely can focus really well when he's not around, to be honest, because he's like squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, you know. Uh, But but I don't really want to hunt without you know, my best one of my best hunting buddies, you know. So sure, it's one of those things where it's it's a tough thing to kind of undergo. But we have been hunting together in the last week. Can you kind of I want you to run through real quick before we get any further. How you came to be in the position you are as a pastor. What your church? You know, what your church is? What it's Because it seemed that on social media a lot of people have really liked some of the posts we've been making about this and that, and I just want to kind of I want you to tell everybody what we did this week and kind of give it just a little bit of your story and how you came to where you're at today.
00:26:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:26:03
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So I never really set out to be a pastor. That was not even something on my radar at all. In fact, I was a My my degree field is criminal justice and I actually I flew helicopters for the army.
00:26:19
Speaker 1: So you had you had a really good story on Clay Newcomb's podcast at one point that I think it's hilarious about flying over a swamp. We'll have to just we'll just have to refer to we you know, but it's a it's a hilarious story about the the pier rou or whatever you all were in.
00:26:40
Speaker 3: You know, I thought I was got by a gator. Telling thought I was a goner. But yeah, so I flew helicopters, and you know, at some point I got interested in photography and actually got my degree in photography as well and opened a photography studio and I had that for a number of years, really successful photography studio. Things were going really good. But in the process of printing some of my prints and I was involved in church, I was active in church.
00:27:29
Speaker 2: I've been in church since I was a little kid.
00:27:30
Speaker 3: My mother introduced me to the Lord when I was seven years old, and so I've been in church since I was a kid. However, I got to a point in my life where, you know, I was involved, but I didn't think it was anything more than that. But while doing photography, I was printing my own I'd got this crazy idea that I could print my own photographs instead of sending them out to a lab.
00:27:51
Speaker 2: And I built this big lab on the back of my studio and.
00:27:53
Speaker 3: It took hours and hours of my time printing stuff. So I would shoot during the day and I would print most of the night. I'd get a few are sleep, and I'd come back and do the same thing next day.
00:28:02
Speaker 2: It was a terrible idea.
00:28:03
Speaker 3: But anyway, in the process of that lack of sleep and being in that dark room and working you know, those prints and everything, God really spoke to me. And I'd have my Bible and literally, I would, you know, put Prince into to print. I'd go and study my Bible a little bit and go. But and it was in that process God called me to be a pastor. And and literally it took me a year before I acknowledged it because I just thought there was something wrong in me. I'm like, there's I'm not qualified for it, have not been to school for it. My dad's not a pastor, you know. But I woke my wife up in the middle of the night.
00:28:35
Speaker 2: And I just told her. I said, listen, I said, can I tell you anything?
00:28:37
Speaker 3: And I woke up because this couldn't take it anymore, the amount of pressure I felt, you know, with God telling me what he wanted me to do.
00:28:44
Speaker 2: And God just doesn't negotiate.
00:28:45
Speaker 3: If you if you've ever been called to do something by him, he's He's like I tell people, and it offends people.
00:28:50
Speaker 2: I said, God's like a terrorist. He just doesn't negotiate.
00:28:53
Speaker 3: You know.
00:28:53
Speaker 2: It's you're either going to do it or or he's going to keep on, you know.
00:28:57
Speaker 3: And so I I told my wife, I said, I feel like God's called me to be a pastor. At that moment, I fully expected her to say that's crazy. And I was just gonna roll over and go back to sleep and go, Okay, I got my wires crossed.
00:29:10
Speaker 2: I am an idiot, forget it. But she didn't. She looked at me she said, I can see that.
00:29:14
Speaker 3: She said, whatever God caused you to do, I'm with you fully full sin let's do it.
00:29:19
Speaker 2: And uh. And then I was like, what you know?
00:29:22
Speaker 3: So anyway, yes, I was ready for my checking balance part, you know. And so anyway, so once she said that, I was like, how can this be? And sure enough, you know, God had asked me to do it. And so I progressively migrated out of photography and moved into the ministry.
00:29:40
Speaker 2: I really didn't expect to be full time in ministry.
00:29:42
Speaker 3: I thought, well, I'll keep my business and I'll do church on the side. You know, I'm more of an outdoorsy guy. I'm not a skinny Jean guy. I'm not a cool pastor. I don't have the cool hair and all that stuff.
00:29:53
Speaker 1: I need. Cool on Camo Sunday, that's how cool you are.
00:30:00
Speaker 2: I didn't have anything clean, you know what I'm saying. We just came back from hunting.
00:30:03
Speaker 3: So but I mean, I'm just I might be out there skinning a flathead as much as I would be, you know, doing something cool, you know.
00:30:11
Speaker 2: So I kind of in that history, and that's the reason why.
00:30:14
Speaker 3: In my mind I didn't think it fit, you know, when I saw pastors, they kind of looked a certain way, they sounded a certain way, but that's not really how it is. God calls to me, calls and I know that now. But anyway, started the church several years ago. I pastored a couple of churches before that, little churches, and God put on my heart to start something different, new, and and you know, we wanted to really adhere to the Bible and reach people who were far from God. And we were willing to put up with the messiness of people's lives and and you know, our agenda was to introduce Jesus to as many people as we could. And we said all the time, and it's still the truth. We wanted to make it really hard to go to Hell from our city. And so that's what we've been doing ever since. And God's really blessed it. And I'm as surprised as anybody when I look around and see what happens. And that's one of the reasons why I love having like you guys come, is because it helps everybody see the diversity in the body of Christ. Christianity is not a it's not a theme where everybody's supposed to look alike sound alike. We believe the same thing, we trust the same Lord, but we're all very different. We all come from a lot of different backgrounds. There's you know, and and I think that's the beauty of and that's that's how what God has done is so significant and why I think that's why it baffles the world sometimes because how can this group of people that aren't the same skin color, the same socioeconomic level, the same history and background, you know, how can they come together and care for each other and have so much commonality. Well, Jesus in the middle of it, that's it, And and that causes the world to go wow. Because out in the world we're in, we're compartmentalized.
00:31:52
Speaker 1: You know.
00:31:52
Speaker 3: If you've got a different political affinity than me, then we're separated.
00:31:55
Speaker 2: If you've got different skin color than me, we're separated.
00:31:57
Speaker 3: If you're if you don't make the money I make, or I don't make the money you make, we're separated. And in the church we're we're just one family, and and God brings it all together and again at the cross, we're the same.
00:32:08
Speaker 2: Sure, we're sinners who are lost without without hope, without.
00:32:11
Speaker 3: Him, And so we found where our hope is and and it just draws us together.
00:32:15
Speaker 2: And so yeah, so that's who we are.
00:32:17
Speaker 1: So you and man, I mean they're really at church on Sunday, we went to went to church and uh with you and I mean it really is a very diverse picture of church man like. I mean, you know, we we don't we don't see it out here where I'm from kind of like quite like that, which you know where where your church is much more in the city, you know, so you got a lot of different you know, where we're at. It's uh, demographics are a little different. Uh. And then there still is this whole you know. I mean, this is you know, we have cowboy churches out here. You know. It's like a goodness. I guess I can't go to that one because I did wear skinny jeans one time, you know. Uh, you know, I mean it really is good. And so talk about real quick, how when you decided to start the church you're at Now, how long has that been in work in progress?
00:33:10
Speaker 2: I guess yeah, it's been about twenty years ago.
00:33:13
Speaker 3: And we started it in the front room of my photography studio actually, and there were six of us and it was really just a Bible study. But I'd been praying about it for a while, and everybody that came came for a Bible study, and it was like our first Bible study, and I just couldn't hold it in.
00:33:28
Speaker 2: My wife's like, she's like, you can never give us surprise.
00:33:30
Speaker 3: You can never you know, I always give away all my Christmas presents away before Christmas.
00:33:35
Speaker 2: You got. If I've got you a birthday present, you're going to get it early. I can.
00:33:38
Speaker 3: And so anyway, first Bible study, you know, everybody's sitting there, just there for Bible seting. I just looked at him. I said, I think we all need to start a church. Let's start a church right here in the city. And about half of them was like, I think we're going home. That's not really what we signed up for. You we lost half the church the first nine.
00:33:54
Speaker 1: Well, but that's the right. But you're pretty good at putting pressure on people, you know. So you know, you took the pressure that you got and just transferred that onto people. And you know, I had to play a song the other day, you know, at church, so because of your pressure. You know, it's just I don't know, it's you're good at that kind of stuff though, man, and and what And I appreciate that about you because I mean, a real leader man stretches people. And I think that that's what you know, first of all, like when you have that conviction you personally, it seems like you're just like yep, that's that's uh, the Holy Spirit working through me. And I'm just gonna go with it, you know. It's like, uh, it's it's good. And so I'm gonna put pressure on this person to do this thing because that's what needs to happen. And you just you're a really good leader in that way, man. And uh, I think it shows you know, all the operations at the church were just so smooth. I couldn't believe how how you know, servant minded everybody was and how well they took care of their job and how much they cared about what they did, uh and did it well and honestly, like this is this is this is a bigger thing we talked about this morning as well. But like, uh, man, if everybody stop thinking about their rights, you know, and thought about their responsibilities, maybe, I mean not maybe even, but the world would be such a different place, right, it'd be such a better place if you were, like, I mean, ultimately, like you think about if you just continuously serve people, but then all those people also served you and served others around them. I mean, what would this it would look You couldn't even you can't imagine what that would look like, right' that's heaven pretty much, you know on earth? Right? It is? It is?
00:35:31
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you, And I know this is gonna sound so preacher like you know, and I know everybody expects you to say certain things because you're a pastor.
00:35:38
Speaker 2: I think that they think I.
00:35:39
Speaker 3: Make commission office saying and stuff like this. But I'm telling you here's this is the truth. Okay, this is gut level truth. When you make it a point to care about other people because God cares about them, and I don't care who they are.
00:35:53
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about just in the church.
00:35:55
Speaker 3: We should care about each other the church, absolutely, but let's just care about people and let's be considerate and let's be encouraging, and let's help where we can, and let's be willing to stand on the app What's crazy is when you do that, God takes care of whatever needs to be tagging care of for you.
00:36:10
Speaker 2: You know, if you seek out. You know.
00:36:12
Speaker 3: He said, if you seek my kingdom first and my righteousness, then all these things will be out of you.
00:36:17
Speaker 2: That's what he said.
00:36:18
Speaker 3: So what he said, what he's saying is is if you'll be concerned about the things I've told you to be concerned about the things I'm concerned about, then I'll take care of the things that would concern you. And I'm telling you as as sure as I am speaking to you right now, God is faithful to do that. And so many times we're so concerned about our own thing, and we're so concerned about our own limelight, our own fame, or own whatever that we were wrapped up in that and it's filled with anxiety and pressure. But man, if you jettison all that and say, you know what, God wants me to care about other people, I'm gona care about other people. I'm gonna care about them, I'm gonna help them, I'm going to be concerned about them, I'm going to encourage, I'm going to strengthen, I'm gonna share the gospel. When you do that, man, you just I'm telling you you don't don't have to be concerned with your own stuff, because God's concerned with it.
00:37:03
Speaker 1: That's right, you know.
00:37:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the truth.
00:37:05
Speaker 1: And and all those things that are he's talking about in that passage are your needs, right, clothing and food and those things. He says, don't worry about those. So uh yeah, No, it's really good man, And it's it's uh, it's it goes back to that whole celebrate with your buddy. You know. I go over the top a little bit, you know, I mean, just what is uh what is life if we can't rejoice with each other? Man, I mean, it's just it's a sad, lonely world, you know. And you know I think about that, especially this time of year, because here we are coming up on Christmas pretty quick, and you know, there there are people that live a much, like you said, a much different life than you and I do. I mean, dude, your family's huge. I mean it's you're like you guys are like uh no offense, but like a poor man's uh Robertson clan, you know what I mean. Like y'all are just like a bunch of people who are uh, you know, devout people and and love on each other and can be loud and funny and just have you know, always serving each other, always wanting to hang out with the community and the people around you, and just it's it's such a good thing. There guys listening to this podcast right now that don't have anybody hardly, you know, and and so I think about this time of year. I mean I've got I've even have a couple of friends that don't have a lot to lean on, and so, uh, you know, I would say, if you know somebody that's kind of like that or potentially like that, even uh, this this time of year is a great time to reach out to them and just be like, hey, man, I hope you have a merry Christmas. Manya you know, I'm sending you a Christmas card or you know, what's your address, I'll send you a Christmas card or whatever. Like just show a little bit of care, you know what I mean. I mean, it goes such a long ways time here because I don't know the stats on this, Scott, you might have a better idea than I do, but I think suicide is really high this time of year. It is, and and it's it is that whole deal where you know, people people see these commercials where you know, a husband's buying his wife Alexis and their their wife just left them and they don't really have a lot of friends because she was kind of demanding with their time and didn't really like you anyway. And and you know, maybe the folks died when they were young and or whatever. You know, it's like there's just so many particular situations. I think we got to really care care on each other this time of the year because of what's been done for us, especially right at the cross.
00:39:26
Speaker 3: But and that is so big, and you're so right. I mean, even a simple phone call. I've got a list of people that over the years have lost a child, and this time of year and different times of year, I keep up with their birthdays and stuff, and I'll call them and you know, just making a phone call and going, hey, I just want to let you know I was thinking about you and thinking about Greg today and I just want you to know that you know, may I love you and I know this is a tough time for you. Those kind of things go a long way. I mean, it's a having somebody, especially for parents, you know, like parents have lost the kid. The worst thing they one is they don't want the kid to be forgotten. Ye, And so I always use the kid's name. Sometimes people are worried, like, well, if I mentioned the child's name, is going to create pain. No, it doesn't create pain for a parent. A parent wants to hear their kid's name. They want to know that their kid is remembered and you know doing that. And there's people that are lonely. Heck, man, if you got room at your table for somebody to come and eat dinner with you or join you for Christmas morning, man, say come on hang out with grab a couple extra presents and just bring them in, or a phone call or a card or a text message. Man, there's a lot of lonely people in the world that we live. And you can be in a world full of people and feel all alone. And we have such an opportunity to be that kind of light to people. And what a gift that we get to be, you know. So, yeah, you're right, you're right.
00:40:43
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And I don't know, that was just kind of something that I didn't plan on talking about, but it just kind of hit me in that moment. But oh good, I wanted, you know, I wanted. I want to make sure because I think about that from time to time. The summer years start to get outside of myself. And my wife's so good at planning all the Christmas stuff that I don't have to think about a whole lot of that, and it allows me to think about other things like that, which is also a blessing. But you know, we did hunt this this week quite a bit, and you know, we we celebrated some victories together. We we we thought about through some situations that we could have maybe done better or how could we have done better? At least we thought about them. We don't necessarily know, you know, what would have happened in these situations, but we think through that stuff. And this is the kind of stuff that you know, relates to what I was talking we were talking about just now spiritually speaking. You know, the the iron sharpens iron, uh is a spiritual thing. But in the same way, uh, you know, good friends man can help you to become a better deer hunter. And you know, one thing that another thing about you that you know, you you mentioned you'd rather, you know, you'd be more apt to be uh skinning out a flathead than you would to be doing you know something sometimes that's uh kind of trendy and on social media with some skinny jeans on or whatever. But and it's true because you'll see your dad was a commercial fisherman, right yeah, yeah, And so I mean you have spent some time on a boat, You spent some time on the rivers, you spend some time in the trees. I mean, every time I talk to you, you're like, oh, you should go to this place because we went up there last year and we smoked the spoted bass or whatever. You know, Like you just know all the different areas, and it's like every time you go somewhere, it's like I'm gonna try to find a way to fish and hunt, which is me to a t. Like my wife laughs every time we're talking about vacation, because we can't go on vacation without me finding something to fish for, you know, I mean it has to be like the vacation. It's like, well, you know, you can go to Cancun, you go to Costa Rica, you can go to the Keys, you can go to Jamaica, you can go to the Bahamas, whatever, but any of those are gonna cost you know, pretty good chunk of money. So we might as well find something that's gonna be good fishing, you know what, I mean, that's how I think about it. But you are, you know, you're just you know a lot about your woodsman. Like I said, when the first time I talked to you, it was affirming to me that you weren't just some guy who was like wanting to wasn't us to teach him how to deer hunt that wanted to hang out with us? You were you were, You didn't need anything from us, you know what I mean. And so I wanted to ask you and pick your mind on some of the things that went on this week and talk about, you know, any questions you might have that we wouldn't be able to answer very well, but also, more more than anything, some questions that I have. And you know, one of one of those things is the first I think it was the first evening you and you and KC went out together in a boat, crossed over to a certain piece of land and you started team rattling, which is what we call it team rattling. So you get a guy that rattles for you, and he's behind you anywhere from you know, fifteen to one hundred yards and usually he could see you at least ideally, and you try to get either Casey likes to kind of work in a direction and then have the call the caller behind the dudes that are shooters that would be facing the territory that we have not walked through. I'm a little more apt to work in these like micro loops or whatever, where we work kind of with the wind at like a ninety potentially, and then the caller is gonna set up so that the shooter is down wind of the caller, not necessarily into the new territory as much. You know, So we think about it two different ways. So we went out the next day and we actually team rattled, and we kind of honestly clashed a little bit on the way. We were trying to figure out how to rattle this place. But you guys, the nine four rattled, Can you tell us because I mean, I know part of the story, but I don't know exactly how y'all are working into this. Was this the first time you rattled? I mean, what talk about the situation and like what happened?
00:45:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we had an island where that we were.
00:45:05
Speaker 3: Going to hunt on that has a chunk of property in the middle of it that has been clear cut and it's a couple of years old, so it's pretty thick. And so between this clear cut and the edge is a lake that loops that loops pretty much around the island. It doesn't close the island completely and but loops around it. So so we're walking parallel to a clear cut that imagine it's a rectangle ot our right side, and.
00:45:31
Speaker 2: We're walking through fairly open woods.
00:45:33
Speaker 3: It has small pockets of thick places in it, but for the most part it's it's big timber, closed canopy, open woods. And then on our left, So on our right is the thicket. We're in open timber, walking down parallel, and on our left is the is the lake that's that's more like a river. It's it's we're walking parallel to. Yet so we're kind of in a pinched area between the thicket and between the water and the cases behind us. It reminds me so much of Team Turkey hunting, you know, when and you've got somebody calling, except for we're kind of mobile. So we first hit the woods and Casey I get ahead of him and probably I don't know, forty fifty yards we were fairly close. He starts rattling, calling, making a ruckus, you know, and and I we feel pretty confident, or I feel pretty confident that this thick security cover is holding some deer. And had I had seen a buck on this island back during gun season, and I'm just believing he's still in there. He's good deer, you know, And I thought, I think he's in there. The only thing that I had questioned about was we're a little late, we're a little past, we're a little post rut, you know. I just didn't know that there would be enough hormones to bring them in, and I was So we do a good rattle sequence. Then we moved down probably another one hundred and fifty two hundred yards, maybe not that far, maybe one hundred yards, and Casey's going to stop. They're going to rattle again. We're going to go up ahead of him. Now went up and we were gonna go ahead about forty yards. But when we when we started moving up, the woods opened up too much, and I wound up having to go about seventy or eighty yards ahead of him because it was too thin. And so we'd get to the next thick spot and there was a couple of pretty big oak trees and a couple of them that had fallen over, so it was a little bit thicker, and I got up in that and Casey's a little further behind us than what we normally are when we team rattle like this. Well, anyway, he starts rattling. I'm looking at the security cover and we've got a win. That's for the most part in our face. It's we've got a pretty good win. And so Casey rattles, and literally Nick or the camera guy, goes, hey, man, big buck, big buck, big buck.
00:47:41
Speaker 2: He's looking right, ass, don't move.
00:47:43
Speaker 3: But he's on the absolute other side of the tree from where I'm facing. And and I leaned back just a little bit look over my shoulder, and I see him, and he is blocked on us, I mean just and really, what he's actually doing is looking through us. And he was actually looking I didn't think about us being in a direct line.
00:48:00
Speaker 2: I didn't think he'd come from that direction. So that just goes to show you.
00:48:03
Speaker 3: So he comes literally in a direct line between us and Casey back there rattling. So he's trying to see what Casey's doing back there, ratling, trying to see him, but he's looking through us, you know, And so.
00:48:15
Speaker 2: You can't move and it it's a it's.
00:48:17
Speaker 3: A really cool it's a really cool video that that portion of the video.
00:48:21
Speaker 2: It takes a long time for it to develop too.
00:48:22
Speaker 1: And yeah, anyway, it was that buck. Was he working to the down wind side or not.
00:48:29
Speaker 2: Well, he was trying to the wind. The wind was.
00:48:35
Speaker 3: The wind was blowing towards the lake for the most part, kind of in our face, but towards the lake.
00:48:39
Speaker 2: And he was working the edge of the lake.
00:48:42
Speaker 3: So he really couldn't get the wind in his favor.
00:48:45
Speaker 2: Because of the way the woods are set up.
00:48:46
Speaker 3: It was just a it just had good hard funnel boundaries on either side, you know, with the the thicket edge and then the lake on the other side. It was it just worked to our advantage. And it just so happens. He had been ahead of us, expected he would come directly out of that thicket, but he didn't.
00:49:04
Speaker 2: He came down through that open woods.
00:49:05
Speaker 3: And I mean from the second time Casey rattled when we when we stopped and set up and he rattles that deer. Is that deer's forty He was either forty two or forty seven yards roughly from me. I couldn't I had ranged a tree that he had walked past. But where he was in there, I wasn't exactly sure, but I mean he was literally right there immediately. So either either he started moving the first time we rattled, and he hears us coming down through there, and he thinks that's a deer. And again, maybe he's just got enough you know, hormones and testosterone going that he still looking because this is this is late for this particular area. And but but he's still coming. And honestly, I thought he was going to come past us. He got hung up at about twenty five yards and he was. There was a little bit of cover between us and him is a little bit thick, but man, I was, I'll be frank with you. So I've hunted there my whole life, this region. You know, my knowledge is regional. I tell people that all the time, that you know, deer act differently at different times in different places. You know, I kind of have a knowledge about somewhat about around here. However, that's the first time I've ever experienced that. And I mean it was which Casey is I'm telling you, sounded just like a deer fighting.
00:50:22
Speaker 2: I mean it was it was really realistic.
00:50:25
Speaker 3: I mean everything that he was doing from raking leaves and snort weezing and grunting.
00:50:31
Speaker 1: Man, he's got a snort wheeze that it's the best one I've ever heard. He can do it so well.
00:50:35
Speaker 2: Man, it is incredible.
00:50:37
Speaker 3: And I'm telling you right now, I was sitting there and I was like, dude, that that is a deer fight right there. That is a couple of bucks getting after it. And that deer thought the same thing, and he was coming to visit.
00:50:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's and so you know, I won't spoil everything because you know there will be a video coming out, but I will say this, we rattled the to the week, team rattled the rest of the week kind of off and on, and I don't think we called in another deer doing the team rattling stuff. And so it was it goes to show you that you could kind of in that situation, which same deal with our South Dakota trip, you could be if you you could kind of work yourself to sleep and all of a sudden be surprised. Now it would it was kind of you know, backwards this time in Arkansas, but you know, we almost could have had that happen in South Dakota for sure, because we rattled you know, ten times probably before we had a deer come in, and so you know, you want to make sure that you should staying keyed up in those moments, especially early in the rattling sequence, when a deer is label to actually run in. You know, if the deer hears you and once to get on its horse and run, it's going to come in within a minute or two. You know, if it's going to ease its way in, it might take ten minutes or whatever. But if that's the case, and you know, you'd like to be kind of keyed into it, but as much as possible, you know, just really that first few minutes can be things can happen really quick, and if you're focused, it can really be a good thing. If you're not, it might be kind of tough. But you know, I think that one thing that that was almost like a it was almost like a false signal or what they call it a red herring or whatever, where we thought, oh, that's the key team rattling. We never hunted out here like team rattling. And then all of a sudden, all these years of history that Scott has with like not really rattling deerien out there becomes much more evident after that first encounter, and anyway, it's just yeah, it was it was tough. But you know, one thing that I noticed, and uh, you know, this was something that was kind of funny that a duck call maker that we got to hang out with talked about. But he said, there's no nuts in the bottom, which means there ain't no acrons out there right now. And I thought everybody I talked to, I talked to some people that were launching boats and different things at different times throughout the week, everybody said the same thing. Man, there's just there's hardly any acrens. I mean, I had one guy say they're out there. I mean, you can definitely find them. And when you do, it's actually a good thing, right because you found the tree that has the acrens that are not wormy and that actually produced. That tree produced and that's a good thing. But you know, private Ag was kind of a thing that I was seeing. I saw all of my dear for the most part, near Private Ag. The problem with that is this time of year, I mean they're hanging out on private ground on the ag and they're betting on private ground right next to it too, you know. So it's not that they're you know, not going to come across some public every once in a while, but it may it made the trip really tough. Now, as far as you know, you're in your knowledge, you've got some whites and you've got some red oaks. Do you see a whole lot of differential in the preference of those different types of oak trees on a year to your basis or you see and just you know, because because the thing that the thing that I think a lot of guys get hung up on is well, what tree do I hunt? Right? Because they're all dropping and so like in this case, they weren't dropping. None of them are dropping. So where do we go? Well, if you find the one tree, that's good. But if you don't, where do you go? And the same deal is it's the same deal in the woods where like when you go to Iowa, it's like too much sign is overwhelming, So there's gonna be signed right next to the road. Well, maybe don't hunt that sign because that's not signed or whatever. Is there anything like that that's an indicator for you when there's when there's acres dropping, when there's a bunch of them.
00:54:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, whether there's a bunch of a you the primary thing that you're gonna want to look for is you're gonna want to look for You're gonna want to look for for trees that are there, they have have proximity to really good cover. They'll they'll use the other trees and you'll find fresh poop underneath the other trees and the open you know, in the open forest. But in reality, that's probably three o'clock in the morning. And and you know, if if you can.
00:55:01
Speaker 2: Find a good and it doesn't matter whether.
00:55:03
Speaker 3: It's a lot obviously they prefer white oaks, but it doesn't matter if it's a white oak or a red oak. If you can find that tree near good security cover where that deer.
00:55:13
Speaker 2: Has some type of access and they don't have to go.
00:55:16
Speaker 3: Very far to expose themselves, or if that tree is actually in the security cover and it's kind of thick in there, that tree's got.
00:55:24
Speaker 2: A you know, with a sign underneath it, that's a good tree to hunt. You know. If you don't, if you don't.
00:55:28
Speaker 3: Have that security cover, then the trees out there in the open, I don't care what sign you see you can you can set your life away and open the open forest.
00:55:37
Speaker 1: Said by a guy who probably has done that a time or two.
00:55:40
Speaker 2: Oh, let me tell you.
00:55:41
Speaker 1: I can tell you I have too. Now if I want you to think about your favorite spots that you have in Arkansas? What what? What is? What is like? Something that is a common denominator in those favorite spots?
00:55:57
Speaker 2: Cover?
00:55:58
Speaker 3: I mean, I think I feel like cover is your number one thing, no matter.
00:56:01
Speaker 1: I feel like that's because close canopy, big trees, you're not gonna find cover everywhere or what.
00:56:08
Speaker 2: You're not you're not you can see too far.
00:56:10
Speaker 3: And a deer, a deer feels much more secure when he don't care if he can't see you either. He would prefer not to see you and you not to see him either way. He would rather have that, you know, because sometimes you know in certain point and I know in certain parts of the country, deer position themselves for a visual advantage. Here when you're talking about in the bottoms that these deer don't want to be seen, and you know they're going to lean one percent into their nose and usually the the what they're in is so thick that they're going to hear you you know, or they're gonna smell you. They're going to definitely have a wind advantage usually, but they like it where it's really really thick. I feel like that's a big deal. I think that you have to hunt public land here in stages. When you talk about early boast season, early both season is night and day different than after you've hunt they've been hunted for a little bit. Once you get like with us, we're on the other side of muslod season, we're on the other side of rifle season. These deer have endured an onslaught of a lot of people tramping around, and these deer move back, you know, they just they don't say. And I do understand the idea of a deer having a home range here for survivability, those deer have to learn how to move back and they have to have to move into areas that they can be in. There's places they'll occupy during hunting season because it's cold that they would never occupy during the summer because the amount of insects and it would be horrible. They'd have PTSD when they came out of there if it was August, you know what I mean. But during but during the the when it's cooler, when it's cold, they'll move into those areas. So so I feel like you have to be adaptable most of the time. If you want deer that have some predictability to them, in other words, deer that are doing deer things, you have to go to places where they just hadn't been interrupted a whole bunch. That the first deer that we saw on the first day that we team rattled in, that deer acted like a deer at that particular moment because that deer has not been bothered a bunch. He's been overlooked and so but but if that but if you'll notice that was it you got one time, that was it. Now now he's no longer doing deer things. Now he's doing things as a prey that has a predator after him, and he's not the same animal anymore.
00:58:52
Speaker 1: That's right. And what you're what you're saying when you say, if you notice, you know what I what I he's talking to me, And what I noticed is that we went back in there and we didn't see a deer. So you know, because that's what you're saying is you know you had one chance and when things were at all just weird. It was like, Okay, I'm not doing that again, right, A good buck has, you know, and it's not necessarily that he's smarter or whatever, but he he has somehow lived through an experience like that that's probably taught him. Yeah, I probably shouldn't do that again. It's like when a you know, when you discipline a dog, it takes them a few times when they're a puppy and they but then you know, anything else that you throw into the mix. If you use the same type of discipline once they get older, it takes them like not very much time, you know, when you're like, okay, this is the same type of discipline on the I'm doing, but it's a different it's a different action. You know, they start to grasp onto stuff really quickly once they're not a puppy anymore, you know. And that's kind of probably the same way with deer. It's like, you know, you can full of one and a half year old over and over and over. Yeah, but when he's four or three or whatever, like, you get you get a few chances, and especially for some a deer that's you know, on the back side of the rut man. You know, he's it's not even it's not even hunters at that point all the time either. I mean, it's it's a a three and a half year old has he's whooped up on some deer and he's been whooped a time or two as well during the rut, so he's kind of watching his back so he didn't get a tie in his rear end too, you know. So he's just kind of spooky. They're just kind of spooky that time of year. Once that testosterone sass drop back down. If you had if you had one tip for hunting, uh, and this doesn't even have to be just an Arkansas deal, this can be a general deal. If you had one tip to give to people for hunting, and you had one tip that was a life tip. As a pastor, you go through you see so many different types. Like you were saying earlier, there's been you know, you've probably been part of many counseling sessions, and you've probably with friends who again, like you said, have lost children or have lost spouses, have gone through divorces, who have you know, all kinds of different particular have struggled with their own like personal kind of secret sins and stuff too. You know, like there's all kinds of struggles. So I want you to kind of throw out, you know, at a life tip for a dude, knowing that mostly dudes listen to this, so maybe people, but it could be aimed towards men as well, and then also just your best hunting tip man for people.
01:01:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:01:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I'll start with a deer tip. The deer tip is stay on the ground until you see deer.
01:01:42
Speaker 1: Okay, I like that. That's a Case Smith type of thing to do.
01:01:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what.
01:01:47
Speaker 3: Happens to us a lot of times is is that especially and I'm gonna just speak for this region. What happens is is you see a little bit of sign and you get excited and.
01:01:59
Speaker 2: You start things together in your mind.
01:02:01
Speaker 3: You're like, God, this is it, and then you climb up too early and then you wind upsetting your life away.
01:02:06
Speaker 2: Stay on the ground.
01:02:07
Speaker 3: When you start seeing a lot of signs, slow down, but stay on the ground so you see deer, don't. I don't like to hang just based on sign unless it is overwhelming. So I'm gonna stay on the ground until I see deer. And I'm gonna do that because I can move around, i can edge a little bit closer. Once I hang everything in a tree, I'm kind of committed to that place, yep, And I'll stay there, and I'm only going to see as far as i can see from there, but it's from the ground.
01:02:32
Speaker 2: I might find me a place.
01:02:33
Speaker 3: I might back up to a big old tree or something, and I'm just gonna sit there for a minute, and i may get up and I'm gonna ease down a little bit further and I see way more deer and figure out more from the ground. And when I get that figured out, then I hang.
01:02:48
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:02:48
Speaker 2: If I am too soon, I'm limited.
01:02:50
Speaker 1: And especially in timber, like in big timber, you can see it better from the ground than you can see from a tree most of the time because the limbs, you know, for sure. I have a spot that I've seen some quite a few deer, even some big bucks in Arkansas, and I cannot bring myself to get into a tree. I take my saddle stuff in every time, and I'm like, I'm gonna sit on the ground because I can shoot forty five yards. And then if I get in a tree, I've got one hole that has a thirty two yarder and the rest of them are like twenty and in you know, so it's the same thing for visuals. So that's that's a good tip.
01:03:22
Speaker 2: Man.
01:03:23
Speaker 1: What about the life tip?
01:03:24
Speaker 3: Lifetip is that I love the pastor the scripture says, don't grow weary of well doing.
01:03:29
Speaker 2: At just the right time, you'll you'll reap a harvest. I think one of the things.
01:03:33
Speaker 3: We do in life is we switch too much and we move away from good Keep keep planting good seed.
01:03:42
Speaker 2: God is always faithful. Now that doesn't mean you're going to get a harvest in every season. You won't. You won't.
01:03:47
Speaker 3: But you keep planting those seeds, and you keep doing the good thing, you keep doing the right thing. You keep you keep putting God first. You keep you know, doing what's what's what's good for for for God's reputation and good but what God's told you to do. And then you you do what's good for other people. You keep doing good thing over a period of time, You're going to get a harvest that you couldn't get otherwise.
01:04:08
Speaker 2: I think I think a lot of people quit too soon.
01:04:10
Speaker 3: I think they quit before they had a chance to see the fruits of their labor. And if a farmer went out and he planted seeds and he didn't like how everything came up, and he tilled it up, and he stuck more seeds in the ground. He tilled it up and stuck more seeds. He's never going to get a good harvest. And he would blame it on everything else. But the truth is he didn't get a good harvest just because he didn't he wasn't willing to wait. You've got a plant seed and then you've got to wait and just trust God that he's.
01:04:33
Speaker 2: Going to be faithful on his timeline. He's going to bring a harvest. Just just don't give up.
01:04:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and that that's a good point, man, because waiting patiently is is your faith, you know what I mean, it's you being faithful as well. Uh, it's you. It's you showing your faith. And that's the that's the gap that you're bridging there with that faith.
01:04:52
Speaker 3: You know.
01:04:53
Speaker 1: I looked at I look at I think it's Romans five where Paul said, is that suffering leads to like essentially, like if you think of it almost like a scientific deal, where you've got like an arrow that points to the next term here. So suffering therefore, long suffering or endurance or you know, persevering through that suffering. It's so you have you have suffering as being something that can be good. But if you go through a weightlifting session one time and then don't do it again for a month, you're probably not gonna get any stronger. If you do that weightlifting session three or four or five times a week, whatever your plan is, and you do that for a month, then you can see where that long suffering is actually creates something you know good. You have growth there, you know what I mean. So Paul talks about how that all leads to proof or can be translated into character at times one or the other. But proof essentially is that your proof is that you had faith in the beginning when you when you knew that you would have to suffer, that you had faith in the beginning in something, and that it came to fruition through not just suffering, but long suffering. Right. So in other words, it takes time, and our lives are they're a period, not even a period on the end of the sentence of God's timing, right, who God is in an eternal aspect, right, I mean, you think about how many years, whether you want to talk about young Earth or not. Have we have existed within how the Earth is? You know what I mean? And it's and it's nothing. It's nothing. So why do we expect in two weeks that a guy is going to change. One thing you told me one time, and this has stuck with me, is that even the Disciples were a bunch of you I think you said they're a bunch of boogers or something like that, you know, like they were knuckleheads or something maybe you said, but like, you know, they're They're sitting there arguing over who's going to be the greatest, and Jesus is like, uh, well, the one who serves the others the greatest is the greatest, the one who is last as first, you know what I mean? Uh? And and you know, uh, what is it? James and John John's mother is asking Jesus if you know they can Maybe I had this wrong, but you you know, this is a casey moment where I'm going to test you. But she's asking if they can sit at the right hand of God? You know what it is? And He's like, you know, not what you ask you know, like this is this is silly what you're what you're worried about right now, you should be worried about these other things, right and and uh, it's just very interesting to me that even even through the kind of knuckleheaded moments and these blind moments, even though through the moments where Peter denies Christ three times on the night he you know, goes into custody or whatever you want to call it, you know, like that even in that moment, Jesus still loves Peter and builds his church on Peter. So it's not it's not for us to just kind of uh put things into our own wind time windows and think that this should happen immediately. It's not very faithful on our part, you know. So we I think that's such a good point. Man. It's just to continue planning seeds and keep This is what you do well, man. You take and focus on the things you know that your time is limited, and you focus on the things that you feel like you can add and that you should be doing, you can add to and that you should be doing, as opposed to worrying about how something is not doing what it's supposed to be doing. Does that makes sense? Like you focus on the I don't know, It's like a positive connotation as opposed to a negative connotation. It's like this, we can focus on the things that we don't do well, or we can focus on the things that we do well. And if we focus on the things that we do well that and if they're part of what we should be doing, then we can put full force effort into doing these things as opposed to focusing on what we don't do well. It's not to say don't focus on some weaknesses and try to bring them up, but man, you just are always like, hey, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna go appreciate gospel, not gonna worry too much about, uh, where we messed up, because you know, God's grace has us covered in that and we're gonna not that we're gonna continue to live a life of sin by any means, but you know, there's there's different things that we can do that are uh that where that we can feel like we messed up, we should have done better, we should have said this to this person and then maybe they would have come to salvation, right, Like, don't worry about that, go go go and do what you're supposed to do. You know what I mean? And be faithful in that and God will God will honor that. Man. I think that's really good advice.
01:09:33
Speaker 3: Man, Yep, you just gotta you just got to keep keep realizing that God's gonna be faithful, and you just keep doing what you need to do. And you know it's not a perfect walk. You know, we can't. We can't walk in perfection. But what we can do is walk, you know. And Jesus had followed me. He didn't say follow me perfectly, he said follow me, yep. And so I think if we'll just keep in mind we're just following, We're gonna keep doing everything we can. And man, I'm gonna make mistakes. I'm gonna mess some stuff up. But that's what repentance is. For repentance and a sign of maturity is the amount of time between my screw up and my turning to God and say God, I'm sorry.
01:10:06
Speaker 2: You know you want. Maturity isn't being perfect.
01:10:09
Speaker 3: Maturity is when I can recognize acknowledge and it meant my mistakes.
01:10:13
Speaker 2: Quicker, you know, the quicker I do that, the warm mature I am.
01:10:16
Speaker 3: Man, I screwed that up, whether it's to my kids, my wife, my family, or my ministry or the Lord, whatever it is.
01:10:22
Speaker 2: The quicker, I can just go, oh, I mess that up. That's bad. Sorry, Lord, I forgive me.
01:10:27
Speaker 3: And we claim the blood of Jesus and then we just keep we keep shucking the corn. You know, we don't have time to You don't have time to set back and try to get it perfect. If God wanted us perfect, he would have taken the abilities and away.
01:10:39
Speaker 2: He doesn't want perfect. He wants heart, he wants effort. He wants us to.
01:10:42
Speaker 1: Walk in that right. That's right.
01:10:45
Speaker 3: The sun, the sun shines because it was made to shine. We were called to follow him and we can. We are a living sacrifice. The problem with the living sacrifice is we can climb off the altar, you know, a dead sacrifice. If our throat was cut, we couldn't get off the altar. But we so we just got to keep walking and we just got to keep working it. Yeah, serving it. You're not going to be perfect. And yeah, yesterday wasn't what it should have been. But you know what, Tomorrow is something more and we've got today now, and let's do something.
01:11:10
Speaker 1: With that, right man. And so many things are your own perspective. It's a human perspective, right, Like, you know what you're saying is yesterday was what it should have been in your eyes, right, but in God or God ordained what would happen that day. And and you know, I mane one last thing here. My our guy that has worked with he's kind of like our family minister at our church. His wife made a point one time that I thought was it stuck with me as well. It's such a good point. But you know they she she homeschools their kids. Well she was like, you know, I always used to just have the whole day planned out, and then somebody would like you know, break their nose or whatever, you know, and uh, and all of a sudden, it's like we didn't get nothing done we were supposed to get done today. And you know, she she's like, I came to realization that that was what was exactly what was supposed to happen that day. And so I need to kind of live in the mundane and not chase these whole these goals that I have set up for myself as human goals, right, and just know that God is God is gonna lay before me what he wants laid before me. And then I just got to live in it and go faithfully and long suffer. You know.
01:12:19
Speaker 2: So, Oh that's good man, that is good. You're right, that is good.
01:12:23
Speaker 1: Well we could say, we could go on and on preaching, but I now have held you twice as long as I told you that I was going to have you on the phone. I knew this was going to happen. But man, it just always goes there when we start talking.
01:12:35
Speaker 2: Man, you know, it's so good, it's great. I need to hear it too.
01:12:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I appreciate you hopping on the phone man and doing this with me.
01:12:43
Speaker 3: Man.
01:12:43
Speaker 1: It's always good to chat through things. And I think that I know the last time that you were on the Element podcast was last spring, and we had just an outpouring of messages man that like and just support of you know that episode in particular the things that were said, but also just you. Man. You're just You're just a light man. So I appreciate you, uh, And I appreciate you your hunting knowledge too, man. I mean people people will learn over the years, Uh, the more we have you on this thing that you are just a year as good as they get out in the woods too. Man.
01:13:17
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate that. Man, I have absolutely enjoyed it. We had we certainly have had a great, a great time.
01:13:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it's been good. We're gonna have many more too. Man. Well, thanks for hopping on the front and I'll I imagine I'll be talking to you probably after we get off the recording here.
01:13:35
Speaker 2: All right, it sounds good.
01:13:36
Speaker 1: Always a good time to talk to Scott. If you enjoyed this podcast, I'd ask for you guys to pray for k C and them down there. They're they're here not I mean they're they're quite a ways away hunting but in state and they're having a good time. But uh, it's always you know, what we do has an inherent danger. So it's good to think about them if you if you think about it, If not, that's okay. If you need to spend time praying for other people, then that's great too. But again, going back to what Scott and I talked about, this time of year is tough for people to just reach out. People are missing loved ones and some people just don't have anybody left. They're pretty lonely people. So just check on those guys, make sure they're okay, and make sure that they understand that you love them during the season, not just during the season, but let them know during the season. So I hope that you guys enjoyed this talk with Scott. Again, it's a little different format, but don't forget YouTube videos will be coming out soon. We're going to try to get some merchandise on the website as soon as possible. I know we've been saying it again, it's out of our hands a little bit, but we got a lot of big things coming up for twenty twenty five. I'm really excited about what the Element has in store. Some of the videos that we're going to produce for you guys, I want to really make them some of the most best content video content on the Internet. And that's what we started really striving for, especially probably twenty twenty one and then into buck Truck. The Buck Truck stuff was we intended to make that the best deer hunting videos on the internet, the most relatable, and the best that we quality that we could possibly put together for you guys' best stories. So we're just trying. We're working really hard at those things, and I really appreciate the support from you guys that appreciate that, and I really appreciate the many of you out there that are asking questions and those kind of things. We're gonna have a place, a forum of some sort for answering some questions for some people. I'm not exactly sure what that looks like going forward. We again, we have a big we have big plans for twenty twenty five. If you go to some of the expos or shows or that kind of thing, maybe we'll see yet some of them will be around, some of them when we're not hunting. But again, waytail season is still on and we're gonna be hunting somewhere for for quite some time still. So guys, I hope you get to do the same thing. I hope you guys haven't merry Christmas. Jesus in full deity and in one hundred percent being a man as well, came to this earth as a little baby around this time of year, grew in knowledge and favor with God and with man, and became a sacrifice for our sins. He died the death that we deserve, and he was resurrected three days later, conquering death and sin for all of us that would believe and have faith in that message. And that's what this time of year is celebrating the short period that he was on this earth to do that for us. Keep that in mind and remember if this is your element, living
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