Some of you may recall the article from last year detailing a quest for a friend to help a blind man harvest a deer. This is a follow up or progress report of sorts if you will. The friend is Rev. Rusty Asble. I am the blind man. We thought it would be interesting, and hopefully inspiring, to hear the story from another perspective. You may remember that the Lord laid this on Rusty’s heart first. This is why it is so important to keep in mind that often times God uses others to pull us out of darkness. Never under estimate the power of that first step of obedience. It could just change your life. And, God may use you to change someone else’s.We returned to Alabama to the hunting cabin belonging to friends. After having to cancel our normal mid November trip I was excited to get to hunt again before the end of season. It was very stormy and warm on travel day. The next morning it had turned cold. For the next two days no one saw movement at all. We were to travel back home on Sunday after church services with our friends. So we knew Saturday evening hunting was our last chance this year. We used a ground blind, no pun intended, to hunt from. We were in a perfect setting with clear shooting lanes to the left and right and an open field directly in front of us. Over the last year Rusty, Emory, Paul, and John had successfully put an elaborate battery, monitor, and DVD system together to allow Rusty to see on screen what I normally would see through the scope. It is cumbersome for Rusty but it works.
Rusty and I had been in the blind since 2:30 and not seen even a squirrel. A young button buck entered the field and fed for an hour or so but we both decided not to shoot.Just a few minutes before dark we decided to lift the gun and put the young deer in our sights to make ourselves feel better. At least we had seen a deer up close. Just then deer began pouring into the field from every direction. The buck had been our decoy. All of the sudden we had a choice. There was a bullhorn buck in the pack and the rest good-sized does. By this time it was too dark to use the DVD gizmo. Also we couldn’t use my gun because the laser is illegal in Alabama. With options disappearing fast Rusty said let’s try his gun. His rifle was a .243 with a scope like most “normal” hunters would use. We had briefly discussed this option earlier but I had never even held this gun. I raised the rifle and tilted the scope over to the right. Rusty with his left eye helped me get the buck in the crosshairs, which had now become an “X” because of the angle. A little left he said. A little more and when I say pull you go. By this time I couldn’t feel anything except my heart in my throat. He said pull and I did. In the excitement he ordered me to reload and handed
me a shell. I had never loaded or fired this gun and couldn’t. I handed it to Rusty and it took him a second to realize it was his gun and he could reload. Then he said there’s something white out there. There’s a deer on the ground. There’s a deer on the ground. At 44 yrs. old and blind I had harvested my first deer at 154 yards. But it wasn’t the buck. As I shot the buck bent down to feed and I shot the dough standing right behind him. Oh well, they say the first is always the hardest and the most unusual. God is good. All the time! Because of that one step of obedience more good things, more ministry, more God things, have happened than can be measured.
