A Bear-ably Nice Day

It was getting on toward the end of summer and the "bite" was on for rainbow trout on the Kenai River. This is positively my favorite time of year on the Kenai Peninsula. I "had" to use my birthday present from the church of a guided fishing trip with Jimmie Jack Guide Service. David Drake was the guide on this spectacular day.

Guide - David Drake, We watched a brown bear eating some salmon early in the day (see the attached video link for a YouTube clip) and we caught a lot of fish, silver salmon, Dolly Varden, Whitefish, and my favorite, rainbow trout. There is something very special about Kenai River rainbow trout. They are (sometimes) huge, they are spectacularly colored and speckled and they leap and fight in and out of the water with a wild frenzy that is addictive to a fisherman. We had such a day. I was blessed to have caught a beautiful specimen near the end of the day, a perfect way to cap off a great experience.

The other aspect of this day that was exciting to watch was being in the boat while Dave, the guide, witnessed to the other client in the boat, a older gentleman named, Jerry. Jerry was pretty resistant to talk much about faith the whole day, but that did not stop or intimidate Dave! Every little bit, Dave would mention Jesus or thank the Lord when we caught a nice fish.

Jerry would not respond most of the time, but through the day, he was softening up. He talked about his religious upbringing and about all of the difficult things he experienced being a soldier in the Viet Nam war. Each time Dave would say something positive about what Jesus meant to him and gave assurance of God's love for Jerry. It was a marvelous thing to watch Dave mix his professional skills as a guide with his personal witness of Jesus. You could tell this was not a special put-on because the pastor was in the boat, but a lifestyle of witnessing about Jesus to everyone he meets.

At the end of the day, Dave was telling Jerry he hoped he could come back again next year to fish with him again. Jerry said that he would need God's help to do it as he is currently battling cancer and has been advised that he may not have that much time. Dave, pulled the boat up to a convenient bank and laid hands on Jerry and prayed for his healing and for Jesus to make Himself known to Jerry.

Wow, what a great day! the personal enjoyment of my favorite fishing and being on the front row of watching someone give a persistent and passionate witness of Jesus to someone who was obviously not used to talking about his faith. Way to go, Dave! Not only for a great day of fishing, but for touching someone with a witness of Jesus!