Hunting in the Hill Country
AT THE RISK OF BEING OFFENSIVE I want to report on the biggest pastime here in the Hill Country of Texas, even bigger than football: It’s deer hunting. The majority of our congregation at Community Church of the Hills (CCH) in Johnson City owns a guns and uses them.
One of my friends, Aaron Wardlow, gave me permission to post his trophies from the first two opening weekends of 2016 (he’s allowed five white tail). The interesting thing is his philosophy about why he hunts deer. (These have all been shot with a bow and arrow, by the way). Here is his defense:
“That is all the meat that our family eats for the year, so this time of year I am stocking up until next season. We usually only eat all natural non-processed meats that I harvest. So it’s not taken lightly and done for the thrill, I give thanks to the animal and God every time for the food to nourish our bodies.
Deer Hunting in Slippers
Waking up about 6:30AM Sunday morning, I put water on the stove for my coffee then went outside to throw some deer corn. After brushing my teeth, and making the java, I looked out the front window and saw two bucks about 150 yards in front of my home. Because another house was just a few hundred yards behind them, I asked the Lord to move the deer to the side of my yard where it would be clear shooting.
Walking back to my bedroom, I grabbed the .30.30 under my bed, put two bullets in it, and, still in my pajamas and slippers, saw that a seven-pointer had moved to the side eating his deer corn. Standing on the front porch again, I raised my rifle to sight him in…but he was looking straight at me, unperturbed! I asked the Lord to turn him around so that I would have a nice heart shot.
He did.
I tied a rope around his hind legs and hoisted him into the back of the church Suburban. After finishing my cup of coffee I whisked him over to one of our church members to have him field dressed. (No, I haven’t learned to do this yet.)
After he was cleaned, I went to our local processor and left him in the cooler where I’m hoping to get about 50 pounds of jerky and dry sausage.
Rushing to church, I took a quick shower, dressed—then preached the Word at our Sunday service.
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