Turkey Calling Champion

Today, Brad Borders, Mark Ridenhour and I took our sons (Jack, Zack and Cade) to an outdoor show in Albemarle, NC. The show was held at a place called God's Country Outfitters. When we walked in the door we knew it was our kind of place. It was filled with camo, guns, dead critters mounted on the wall and on this day - the air was filled with the sounds of turkey calls. It was music to our ears. It's things like this that make it hard on a fella to make it to opening day. While there we got to see our buds from Lodge Creek Calls (Joe Finney, Mark McDowell, Randy Rigsby, Tim Stevens, Jonathan Ellsworth, Jonathan Seamon) which is our proud sponsor. We also made several new friends including Ricky Higgins (pictured above)and his son Ethan, from Galax, Virginia. It didn't take long to find out that Ricky was a follower of Christ who loved God's creation and was "pretty fair" at calling turkeys. Actually, truth be known, Ricky was recently crowned the Virginia State turkey calling champion. And on this particular day, Ricky pulled out his calls and eventually walked away the winner of yet another NWTF sanctioned open division calling championship. To be honest, Ricky actually sounds better than real turkeys do. He's a humble fella, who deflects any compliments toward him, to Jesus - giving him all the credit. Ricky uses his turkey calling success to glorify God and feels that it's given him many opportunities to plant "Kingdom seeds" in the hearts of fellow turkey fanatics.

Brad and I recorded a podcast with Ricky, where he gave us a short calling demonstration. The particular call that Ricky performed was called a "fall hen assembly." The fall hen assembly is a call that a hen turkey might make during the fall when her young (called poults) get seperted from her. She does this to call her young back to her to keep them safe. He made the statement that her young know her voice and follow her. Jesus said something similar about his followers in John chapter 10. He said, "My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." Do you hear Him calling? Do you know His voice? If Jesus was a turkey hunter, he'd be one of those guys who was aggressive - constantly calling and calling. Yelping and cutting as hard as he could to try to get a response. I have to believe that because that's the way he is with us throughout our lives. He calls to us through His creation, through His word, through other people, and he aggressively calls directly to our hearts. He desperatley loves us and rigoriously pursues us (like a crazed turkey hunter) so that we would hopefully respond to His calls and accept his gift of eternal life. It is our prayer that the next time you hear someone working a box call or yelping on a slate, or you hear wild turkeys in the spring woods, that you'll not only visualize a big 'ole Boss Gobbler, but hear the voice of God in your heart calling to you - and you'd accept his call to salvation.

Thank God for Turkey season!