TANKJR
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« on: January 11, 2009, 09:50:41 AM » |
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Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ! I am new today to this forum, having never heard of this until yesterday while attending the Easton Church of God's first (and now hopefully annual!) Goose Hunt. Please let me explain...this event was an inspiration of Billy Hughes (World Champion Mitch's father), and with Tim Grounds (most people who have blown a call have heard of this guy!) help, we had an exceptionally good event! Billy had an idea to help his church, have an outreach, AND have a great hunt and made it happen. God Bless him! He put a full page ad in a local free publication, (ok, it's called "Crosswinds" and is published by another world champion caller named Scott Christopher, hope ya don't mind this Scott!) Anyway, he was quickly overwhelmed by the response he received from this ad announcing a chance to hunt geese with Tim Grounds, Mitch Hughes, and other current and former World Champion callers and experienced guides, a wild game lunch, and to hear a message from Tim for only $50...Who would NOT want to do this? He was expecting about 50 peeps, but had over 200 respond. It took him nearly two weeks just to return my phone call expressing interest! He was not expecting this kind of turnout, but he kept at it and got it organized and I have to say, for a first time event, it was excellent! Kudos to Billy! I can't imagine the logistics of putting this event together...finding donors of hunting spots to donate for a day their spots (in the middle of great late half season here!), getting all the guides organized, the food cooked, etc etc....mind boggling for me! And getting Tim for a speaker!!! A coup of sorts! Well, this is how it went down for my 16 year old son and I....we met at the Church at 5:30, Billy got the guides and hunters hooked up and we left for our respective hunting spots with the knowledge that lunch would be served at noon...hunters like to eat, so we went to our spot, a nice little shore blind, set up and shot a limit of geese, picked up and hurried back for a nice wild game dinner of goose, duck, pulled pork bbq(dunno if they were wild pigs or not!), venison steaks, and fried rockfish (some of you know this fish as a striped bass) and many other great choices of wonderfully prepared food! After making a pig of myself, (I have a weakness for pulled pork and venison steaks on the grill!) Billy got up and spoke emotionally about how this event came to be, and introduced Tim Grounds, who demonstrated some calling and talked a little about making calls and using them. Then he told of his past life and testified about his new one, since he was saved and I and my son listened and learned. So did the 200 others in the room! Tim is a great speaker and it was obvious everything he said was from his heart, and it was a powerful message....3 1/2 inch 10 ga. magnum message!!! Then Tim announced he had brought 180 Tim Grounds Super Magnum Goose calls and everyone there would receive one....he ran out, but took those people who did not get one's name and address and would get one to them via mail asap...he took the time to sign each one with his name, the fish symbol, two flying geese and a cross...and dated them 2008. Each is a work of art...knew you could blow a call pretty good Tim, but didn't know you were an artist also! The bottom line is this was a truly great, fun and inspiring event and Billy Hughes and all the people who helped put this together deserve to be recognized as it went off flawlessly for a first time event! I just wanted to post this and hopefully this will inspire others around the country and world to do similar events...what a great idea you had for an outreach program Billy Hughes!!!! After Tim spoke, a representative of the Maryland Chapter of Callers for Christ told us of this organization (I am sorry, but I did not catch his name!) and told us a little about this website...COOL!!! I did not know it even existed, but everybody who was there does now! We broke up this gathering with new friends, new hunting stories, and new knowledge...oh yea, and a new TG piece of artwork! You can bet, we will be there every year this event happens, and we will be spreading the word of it to all who will listen! Thank You Billy Hughes, Tim Grounds, the Good Lord and all the others who made this happen! What a great day my son and I had!!!! Can't wait for next years!!! If it is possible for you to do this, I highly recommend anyone who can, attends this event next year!!!! Great event, great speaker, great hunting and a great inspiration to all who attended! Thanks be to God and may he bless each and every one of you! SS
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