Breath

"Breath…"

"Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."   - Genesis 2:7

This past Sunday I returned from leading a 5 day Ministry Outdoor Adventures Foundation hunting event in Morton County, Kansas.  It wasn't just 5 days of ministry, but 5 days in ministry literally out in the County itself, sun up to sun down, as well as a considerable amounts of time both before and after those daily bookends.  They were 5 days filled with miles of walking under the largest blanket of uninterrupted sky Kansas has to offer.  The sunrises felt as if they'd last forever and the sunsets left me wondering just how a once empty, pale-blue sky, could be filled with such contrasted, dramatic color.

Morton County is known as the "cornerstone" of Kansas and if you go there you'll soon realize why it is also known as Kansas's "Desert Southwest."  It is arid and vast, and frequently wins the award for the driest (lowest annual precipitation) County in Kansas.  In the 30's it was the epicenter for the Dust Bowl, and many of the people that live there now are the direct descendants of its survivors.  They are people of deep faith, strong will, stern constitution, and indomitable spirit.  They are also some of the kindest, most generous and hospitable people anywhere in the State of Kansas.

The ministry I led there is a ministry that provides short-term retreats for pastors, and those serving in ministry in their local church, centered primarily around hunting and fishing opportunities.  Our goal, as a ministry, is to come alongside pastors and those serving in ministry to help them keep their eyes focused on Jesus and, in so doing, to ultimately help them stay true to their calling and to the fulfillment of the purpose for which God put them on this earth.  Each day starts with prayer, and then concludes with a devotional and sharing time after supper.

Devotions on the last night culminated with a question for each attendee to answer.  The overall theme of this particular event had been "listening to Jesus," and the last night's question was: "Try to summarize your experience of God during this trip with one word."  And, what an amazing blessing it was to hear each guest share what their specific "word" was that summarized their experience, and then to hear them talk in turn about what it meant to them.

I was the last person to share.  My word was "breath..."  After saying it I let the word hang there for a moment, and then shared that for me, every time I get to Morton County, I feel like I can breathe.  Maybe it's because Morton County finds me over four hours away from my daily drama….  Maybe it's because the land and sky are so wide-open and vast….  Maybe it's because there's  literally nothing to stop the wind when it blows (and it blows a lot)….  Or, maybe it's because I know that when I'm there I'm closer to the mountains than I am to my home.  Whatever the reason, the reality is that I literally breathe better in Morton County, more deeply, more vitally, more meaningfully.  Like there is something that comes into me with each new breath that reminds me of both who I am and who I'm supposed to be.  Being there, walking under that sky, experiencing the wide-openness of it all, feels to me like an elemental, formational, kind of experience, and it always reminds me of Genesis 2:7.

Early Sunday morning as I packed up to leave, as I went one last time out into the Morton County air, as I retrieved ground blinds, and closed gates….  I realized it had been as if I'd had the hands of Jesus on my shoulders, and He had looked deeply into my eyes, like I'd been just recently formed from the dust of the ground, and His breath had filled my lungs and prepared me to leave, and… for all that I must allow myself to return to.  

Finding myself now at 57 years old, I asked myself as I took one last look, and closed my truck door… "Will this be my last time here, or will God bless me with a return trip?  A time once again to be formed, held, filled, and breathed into, out in the extreme southwest corner of Kansas?"

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2)

- Pastor Rob Schmutz, Ministry Outdoor Adventures

2025 Donor Thank You and Support Appeal

Dear MOA Friends and Supporters: 

Just a quick note to share our Ministry Outdoor Adventures “Thank You” and Support invitation message.

2025 marks our 10th year of ministry, and it looks to be the most ministry filled one so far!

If you have 3 minutes, check out the video below which has a quick “Thank You” message from me, and few images from some of our times afield with Jesus over the last couple of years.

And, if you feel led to do so, a donation of any additional amount at this time would help tremendously as we raise funds in preparation for all of 2025’s upcoming hunts and events!

If you’d like to give electronically, simply scan the QR Code at the bottom of the screen, click on the Tithely link below, or just mail your gift to:

Ministry Outdoor Adventures

C/O Pastor Rob Schmutz

PO Box 71

Haven, KS 67543

https://tithe.ly/give?c=4695660

https://youtu.be/ftfB-pTiixk

Thank you, Again, Very Much!!!

Keep your eyes focused on Jesus!

Pastor Rob Schmutz

Founder / CEO

Ministry Outdoor Adventures

Hebrews 12:2

FB: www.facebook.com/MOAFoundation/

Twitter: @MOAFoundation

MOA FALL CLAYSHOOT

Ministry Outdoor Adventures Foundation was blessed with a truly beautiful day for a Clayshoot at Michael Murphy & Sons near Augusta, Ks, yesterday!  And, we were blessed with an awesome lunch (special thanks to Matthew Walters and his family for providing that), an inspirational testimony by pastor Bill Koons, and exceptional service and assistance from the staff at Michael Murphy & Sons!  Thank you so much to all of you who came out (we had 40 participants), and congratulations to all of our prize winners!  Thank you for your support of MOA!

If anyone reading this post would like to become a regular, or a one-time annual MOA supporter, please feel free to click the link below!

https://tithe.ly/give?c=4695660

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ensj26nRn/?mibextid=wwXIfr

MOA Archery Hunt 2024

 Ministry Outdoor Adventures Foundation just returned from our first ever, Fall Archery Deer Hunt in NW, Ks!  And what a blessing it was!  All three of our ministry guests tagged deer and were able to take some meat home for their freezers and for their families!  We were truly blessed with some awesome Fall weather, fantastic lodging accommodations, and some real connection time as brothers in Christ!  

Thanks so much to all of our sponsors who make events like this possible for our ministry guests!  If you would like to become an MOA Sponsor/Supporter, just click the link below.  Your support blesses the lives of men who serve and who are being called to serve in ministry!

https://tithe.ly/give?c=4695660

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19zozPwmmH/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Firearms Deer Season 2024 is a Wrap!

Ministry Outdoor Adventures Foundation just finished up the Kansas rifle season with hunts in both North Central (12/4-12/7) and South West (12/10-12/14), Kansas.  A huge shout-out of Heartfelt THANKS to the Kansas farm and ranch families that make these hunts possible for MOA, the Schultze family of North Central, Ks, and the Barnes and Lamb families of South West, Ks!  Thank you so much for your friendship, kindness, generosity, prayers, support, land access, and ALL of your abundant and overwhelming hospitality!  I truly don’t have enough words to express all of my thanks!

In Osborne County, MOA had five hunters, who focused exclusively on the pursuit of whitetail deer.  In Morton County, MOA had 6 hunters, with two in pursuit of whitetail deer, two in pursuit of mule deer, one focusing on upland birds and one seeking mule deer and pheasant & quail.  

In both Osborne County and Morton County we were blessed by the abundance of God’s grace, felt the power of God’s presence, enjoyed inspirational devotional times, and we found ourselves surrounded by all the beauty the Kansas prairies, hills, creeks, and river valleys, have to offer.  What an indescribable blessing it was to be where we were and to see all that we saw.

If you would like to become an MOA Supporter and help make events like these possible, feel free to click the link below.  MOA seeks to serve those who serve in ministry in various capacities and in various settings, by providing all-expense-paid, outdoor retreat opportunities, centered around hunting and fishing.

https://tithe.ly/give?c=4695660

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GqoiTvLyo/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Socrates must’ve been a deer Hunter…

 Socrates must’ve been a deer Hunter…

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates

I wonder sometimes if, in reality, I don’t actually exist in two distinct places at the same time?

The place where I exist in my day to day life is… “where I am.”  And, it is “where I am” that predominates my existence.  “Where I am” is filled with immediacy, urgency, obligation, task, responsibility, work, worry, people, drama, and every other thing that can possibly suck the life out of a man.  “Where I am” is a place so filled with things that need done, and the demands of people who need me, that there is little time, none at all in fact, for thinking, reflecting, assessing, let alone examining, the life I am living.  “Where I am” is, and always will be, what it is…

But, there is another place I exist.  Or, at least another place I can exist, if and when I make time to choose it.

The other place is a place of cool, crisp, Autumn air.  A place of bold, brilliant colors, and leaves that leap silently from the tops of trees and then carpet the ground where they wait to reveal the sound of secret footfalls.  It is a place of clean, clear, blue skies, perfect sunrises, and sunsets ablaze with color beyond description.  Most of all, it is a place of time… more time than you can imagine, measure, or want to.  An untracked kind of time, completely void of the annoyance of hours and minutes, and bound instead only by “shooting light.”

This is the place I exist inwardly, and actually at all times, wherever I may find myself.  This place I call, “Where I want to be.”  “Where I want to be” is a place filled with serene subtlety, and gradual grace.  Whenever I find myself “where I want to be,” I find that I can clearly see, I can deeply breathe, I can freely think, and… I can even actually feel emotions I never allow myself to feel anywhere else.  Being fully “where I want to be,” when a cold wind blows in my face, I find my eyes filled with tears that are, in all other settings, and at all other times, subdued, restrained, muted.  Yet here, at the end of a day spent “where I want to be,” I find myself filled with an over-abundance of immeasurable and unquantifiable, life giving intangibles.  

Thus, it is from “where I want to be” that I can look back at “where I have been” (and yes, evidently there is a third place I exist…) and understand it.  Or, at least I can reconcile myself to the fact that “where I have been” has, in fact, happened.  And, from there I can choose to fold it neatly and place it somewhere in the bottom of a chest, in a dark corner of the attic of my Soul.  

For me, “where I want to be” is, and always will be, in the forests and fields of October and November, known only to those who live to pursue white-tailed deer.  And, it is in these places and at these times, I find, that I am most alive, and living a life worth living.  

Robert E. Schmutz

Kansas, USA

It was a Monday…

 Monday… after an incredibly busy weekend including preaching a funeral in Perry, Oklahoma, preaching a funeral in McPherson, Kansas, and 3 nights of preaching Revival Services in Wichita, I was headed to NW Kansas, in the wee hours of the morning, to archery deer hunt on some WIHA (walk in hunting area) land I had set a tree-stand up on, and then was going to go check on some tree stands I had set up on a private land area in preparation for our Ministry Outdoor Adventures Foundation annual whitetail deer hunt next week.

As I was making my way North and West, and almost to my destination, around 5:30am I… hit a deer.  And, after pulling over, getting out and assessing the damage, I called my wife.  She was thrilled to both talk with me so early in the AM, and to hear the good news about my most recent deer collision.  After a jovial, pre-dawn, conversation with my better half, I determined my truck was still driveable, marked my location, took a picture of the “dying” deer, and then got back in my truck and continued down the road to hopefully be able to find a rutting buck I could shoot with an arrow.  

Upon arrival at my destination, I speedily gathered my gear, and quickly headed into the woods.  Since this was a Walk In Hunting Area, my “walk-in” hike was a little over half a mile.  About 3/4ths of the way in I think I stepped on a rock and… “Wham!”  It kinda felt like something “exploded” under and inside of my foot and I’m almost certain I heard it as well as felt it.  I thought… “What the heck was that?!?”  But, since I was already 3/4ths of the way in, and since I had come to hunt… on I now more slowly went, hobbling stealthily along the rest of the way to my tree.

Climbing a tree with whatever had just happened to my foot was… fun, probably the most memorable tree climb I’ve ever had.  And, by the time I got up, I was WIDE Awake!  Then… as I pulled my bow up with my “pull-up” chord, my bow quiver noisily came off and fell to the ground.  Now I would get to climb down the tree, and then back up again.  So fun….  Why was I here?!? 

Then… after seeing Nothing all AM, at about 10:30, I hear “Bang, Bang…. Bang, Bang, Bang!”  And, there came a group of quail hunters and their dogs.  Though they never saw me, I watched as they worked back and forth, following their dogs, and drawing nearer and nearer to my location.  Once they got to about the 100yds away point, I decided it was time to give up on my archery hunting for the day.  At least I could now go and retrieve the deer who had ended his life on the front of my truck…

After climbing down the tree, and hobbling out of the woods, I headed to the local Sheriff’s office to get a “salvage tag” for my deer…. Yeah, you know where this is going don’t you?

Upon arrival at the marked location of my truck-struck deer, it was… gone. 😕.

So, Monday wasn’t my best hunting day ever, but I keep telling myself it could have been worse… I think.

The Doc told me this AM, after an exam and x-rays, that though I didn’t break anything, he thinks it is most likely a Peroneal Tendon tear/rupture.  And, that my 2021 deer season (the hiking / walking / tree climbing part of it) is probably over…

Kinda bummed, but choosing to be thankful, anyway!  God is good, even when circumstances stink!

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”        - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18