I am feeling completely overwhelmed and blessed. For about 25 years my #1 "bucket list" thing has been a trip to New Zealand and a hunt for a big red stag. This afternoon Huntin Fool called, and I was the winner of the raffle for their New Zealand hunt for a big Red Stag (400 to 425), Tahr and Chamois.
My story:
Early in the 1990s I lived in the Netherlands to help launch a start-up for my family's business. That was the timing of the Iron Curtain falling and new hunting opportunities were opening up in Romania, Hungary and other formerly communist countries. I visited some very cool hunting exhibitions in Germany and became fascinated with big Red Stag. I did a pile of research and came very close to booking a hunt, but it just never felt right with my house not paid off and other financial priorities. I also thought I would feel more secure hunting Red Stag in a stable country like New Zealand.
Many times over the years I have researched the hunting in New Zealand. I have kept piles of notes hoping we could swing it someday before I was too old to do it.
This past Monday I talked to my wife Christy. Tuesday would be the last day to buy tickets for the Huntin Fool raffle. Christy asked me to describe the hunts being offered. When I said I was most interested in the New Zealand hunt, she told me to buy 12 tickets (two groups of six) and said, "You are going to win that hunt!". I was a surprised by her certainty. I put two groups of ticket in my "cart" and starred and the dollar amount for a couple hours and just didn't feel right spending that much, so I finally took out one group of tickets. I said to Christy "If the Lord want's me to get it, it will happen." I bought one group of six tickets, putting four into the New Zealand hunt and one each into two other opportunities.
Today, my friend Robert Hanneman, a consultant at Huntin Fool called me at 1:00 from his cell phone. I looked at the time and hoped it wasn't just a coincidence since the drawing was at 12:00. He asked if I had bought tickets and if I still lived in Roseburg. I said I did. He said that I needed to watch the raffle drawing feed online and I had won the New Zealand hunt and Huntin Fool should be calling soon.
Christy and I have been overwhelmed and in tears several times this afternoon. To me, it is not that I "won" a hunt, but rather it is the attentiveness and specificity God has to my heart. There have been some major challenges in life, but God has on several occasions, though very concrete actions, let me know He is there for me, loves me and is in tune with my life. It is that more than anything that strikes me deeply.
My story:
Early in the 1990s I lived in the Netherlands to help launch a start-up for my family's business. That was the timing of the Iron Curtain falling and new hunting opportunities were opening up in Romania, Hungary and other formerly communist countries. I visited some very cool hunting exhibitions in Germany and became fascinated with big Red Stag. I did a pile of research and came very close to booking a hunt, but it just never felt right with my house not paid off and other financial priorities. I also thought I would feel more secure hunting Red Stag in a stable country like New Zealand.
Many times over the years I have researched the hunting in New Zealand. I have kept piles of notes hoping we could swing it someday before I was too old to do it.
This past Monday I talked to my wife Christy. Tuesday would be the last day to buy tickets for the Huntin Fool raffle. Christy asked me to describe the hunts being offered. When I said I was most interested in the New Zealand hunt, she told me to buy 12 tickets (two groups of six) and said, "You are going to win that hunt!". I was a surprised by her certainty. I put two groups of ticket in my "cart" and starred and the dollar amount for a couple hours and just didn't feel right spending that much, so I finally took out one group of tickets. I said to Christy "If the Lord want's me to get it, it will happen." I bought one group of six tickets, putting four into the New Zealand hunt and one each into two other opportunities.
Today, my friend Robert Hanneman, a consultant at Huntin Fool called me at 1:00 from his cell phone. I looked at the time and hoped it wasn't just a coincidence since the drawing was at 12:00. He asked if I had bought tickets and if I still lived in Roseburg. I said I did. He said that I needed to watch the raffle drawing feed online and I had won the New Zealand hunt and Huntin Fool should be calling soon.
Christy and I have been overwhelmed and in tears several times this afternoon. To me, it is not that I "won" a hunt, but rather it is the attentiveness and specificity God has to my heart. There have been some major challenges in life, but God has on several occasions, though very concrete actions, let me know He is there for me, loves me and is in tune with my life. It is that more than anything that strikes me deeply.
