American Adventure (5) - "Son of a gun on Billy Graham's chair"

So, how to describe a day in which I fired a Glock 9mm, a 22 Hornet Magnum rifle and a small pistol, made a film and sat on Billy Graham's own chair in Billy Graham's personal office dressed in camouflage? Kind of surreal, huh?

For the last day and a half I've been the guest of Brent Besosa in Asheville, North Carolina. Brent is a passionate hunter, fisherman, Christian and, along with his buddy Sam Bennett heads up an outdoors ministry called 4Outdoorsmen. The organisation has been in operation since 2000 and runs large-scale evangelistic Wild Game banquets, creates tracts aimed at non-Christian hunters and anglers, produces a radio show, and makes hunting and angling DVD's. He also smokes a mean pork tenderloin.

 

Sunday night saw me roll in from Charleston and enjoy a meal with Brent, his wife Kathy and a retired pastor (also an outdoorsman) and his wife. Brent and I then stayed up till "silly o'clock" as he recounted his exploits and experiences of men's outdoor ministry. This morning saw more conversation, and lots of genorosity as Brent gave not only advice but DVD's, tracts, a booklet on how to put on evangelistic outdoor events and a gift of an inscribed Bible with a Realtree cover.

We then went into town and met Sam, his partner in 4 Outdoorsmen and one of the full time pastors at Bent Creek Baptist Church. After prayers with Brent, Sam and Brian (the church's youth pastor) we filmed a short video, which - once edited- will be put up on Facebook, where 4 Outdoorsmen have a wide American following. However, here's a sneak preview of the unedited version:

 

Then came a big surprise: Brent and Sam are good pals with Will Graham (Billy Graham's grandson), and Sam texted Will and asked if we could pop over to "The Cove", the Training Centre of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which sits in the middle of 1200 acres of beautiful forest and mountain countryside. We looked over the whole centre, and then- as a result of Sam and Brent's friendship with Will- were afforded the rare privelege of being able to go into Billy Graham's personal, private office where framed pictures of his meetings with presidents, celebrities and British royalty line the walls. I posed sitting at his desk in his leather seat, behind the nameplate bearing the legend "Rev Billy Graham", before stepping out onto his balcony and enjoying the wonderful view.

Following our trip around "The Cove" we returned to the church, grabbed some guns (yes, the Pastor has a load of his guns in his office along with the Bibles and Commentaries!), and walked down to the woods by the river to do a bit of shooting. It felt strange, as an Englishman, to be walking in broad daylight with a rifle slung over my shoulder in a public place, but there's a kind of boyish pleasure that comes from casually strolling along with a loaded gun when you're not used to it.

I started off firing the rifle at a tree branch that was trailing into the water about 200 yards away on the far bank, and- due to the quality not of my shooting, but of the advanced telescopic sight- came unexpectedly close to hitting it.

Then we moved back up the hill towards the church where I fired a Glock which had a kick-back far more savage than the rifle, and then a small pistol, firing at a mark on a tree.

The day concluded with an "all you can eat" Chinese buffet along with Brent and Sam's wives, and one of Brent's boys.
It will take a while to process all the information that Brent shared, but his help and generosity and enthusiasm for the inauguration of a Christian fishing ministry in the UK have been a great help, and his company and support a real pleasure.

And so to repack my suitcase to "hit the road" again in the morning for the drive to Tennessee to talk fishing with an experienced fishing ministry practitioner. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!