It is always fun to have “firsts.” Today I saw my first flying fish. They have wings and launch out of the water, gliding a considerable distance. I hadn’t actually seen them glide yet, but I did see one in the bait tank. One of the deckhands caught it with a hand net and put it in there, but I have been assured that I will see some flying this evening. Another first was that an owl was roosting on the top of our boat’s mast. We are 100 miles from shore, so I am not sure why he was out here; he must have gotten lost. I caught two nice yellowfin and two big Dorado so far today. The boat rocked so much last night that I hardly slept. Finally, I tucked some dirty clothes under one side of me and managed to sleep a little bit. We ended the day by catching a lot of Dorado fish. The sunset tonight was amazing. It was so beautiful it took my breath away. I don’t know of a time when I have felt closer to the Lord than tonight.

The boat trolled for Wahoo all day yesterday. Five rods are going out the back of the boat. When one rod is hit, a deck hand blows a whistle, and the Captain stops the boat. Those with the other four trolling rods reel in, and the one with the fish fights it. Everyone else on board the vessel casts out their rods all over the boat, away from the one being fought. Usually, there are two or three more hook-ups while the trolled rod is fighting its fish. When the fish hits the deck, everyone reels in, and the troll starts again. When you catch a wahoo on the troll, you are out of the rotation until everyone has caught one. There are 25 people fishing, and I was the second-to-last one to catch one. The one I fought and landed was the hardest fish I have ever fought, including halibut and sturgeon. When I finally got him in the boat, I was sure I was going to need CPR. Wahoo are like a Marlin without the sword.

We had yellow fin tuna for dinner last night, and it was the best-tasting fish I have ever had. It was so good. All the food has been exceptional, but that was the best.

The weather has been sunny every day, with temperatures around 70 degrees, and the ocean is relatively calm today. I am getting my sea legs and can now walk without holding on to something all the time. I am sleeping well, despite rolling around on my bed.  

While we are trolling, I spend most of my time praying. I have gone through all my kids, their spouses, grandkids, their friends, siblings, their families, and Patty numerous times. I also pray for my church, and I include a prayer for fish regularly.

Fished today. I landed four yellowfin tuna, lost three, and threw back two small ones. We are currently trolling for wahoo and will switch to tuna fishing a little later. It is a bit wild, tuna fishing, because there are almost always three or four people with fish on at the same time, and you have to pay attention to avoid or navigate over or under people’s lines as their fish run up and down the railing on the boat. I pretty much know everybody by this point, so as the guys catch fish, everyone works together as we catch fish. The ship caught 40 tuna and 20 wahoo today, and we didn’t start fishing until 1:00 pm, so hopefully tomorrow will be better. I had a funny thing happen today. There is a big rack that holds everybody’s fishing rods. When the bite starts, everybody grabs their rod and starts to fish. I grabbed what I thought was my rod, and then when I got it over to the water, I realized it wasn’t my rod; I had accidentally grabbed someone else’s. I got it back before anybody noticed.

The meals on the boat are excellent. Tonight, we had steak, and it was one of the best steaks I have ever eaten. My goal was not to gain any weight on the trip, but I think I abandoned that goal tonight. Fishing starts at daylight tomorrow, so I am going to try to be in bed by 9:00 pm, and it is 8:00 pm right now. Everybody is sitting around playing cards and some crazy dice game—lots of laughing and telling fish stories. I am reading and writing this blog. I am working hard to read my Bible every day and spend time memorizing Bible verses, but it is tough to squeeze it in between fishing bouts, eating, and games. I am enjoying my experience very much and have declared this trip a success even if I don’t catch any more fish. 

This is the second day of fishing on the Excel. Actually we aren’t’t fishing, we are traveling SW at 15 mph from noon yesterday, all night, and all day today to get to where the good fishing is. There are some pretty good size waves and the boat is rolling quite a lot. I have to be careful walking, hanging on guard rails all of the time. I woke up about every thirty minutes last night literally rolled over in my bunk. We have rails on the bunks so we don’t’t fall out on the floor. I have the lower bunk so I don’t have far to fall if I did. With just travel these two days I have had lots of time to read, memorize, and write. There are about 20 other guys on the boat so we do a lot of visiting. I have shown a lot of pictures of my grandkids.

One of the major blessings in my life are the number of different experiences that I have had. There is something about new experiences that spices up life and makes your energy level rise. I am at the age (my birthday is today and I am 77 years old) where new experiences aren’t as appealing at first because they usually move you out of your comfort zone, but now that I am in it I am very excited to be here. I can’t imagine what the experience of entering heaven will be like and it will continue to be new and exciting for eternity.

We got up at 5:30 am, and I had three hard-boiled eggs at the motel’s complimentary breakfast and a cup of coffee. We then got carts and hauled all of our stuff down to the boat and got on board. We took off at noon and stopped at a fish market, where we purchased thousands of live little herring that we will use for bait. They keep them in these large tanks, and we reach in and catch them with our hands, then put them on our hook for bait. They swim around with our hook in them, and hopefully, a big tuna eats them. We are now cruising along on this 124-foot boat at about 15 knots. We will continue nonstop until about 5:00 pm tomorrow, when we arrive at the location where the fish are. Scott and I share a room that is approximately ten feet square. He has the upper bunk. The boat rolls quite a bit from side to side as we cruise along, so I have to be careful as I walk. Especially when I go down the stairs to the sleeping rooms, they are really steep. They have a TV on board, and they can get a signal from somewhere, somehow. I have been watching football all day. They also have pretty good Wifi so far. They have a wide variety of snacks and food available all the time, so I will probably gain a few pounds, but so far, I have been doing well. I am also spending time memorizing Bible verses and reading. After tomorrow, I hope to be fishing 16 hours a day.

The fishing trip to San Diego has started. Over the last two days, we have driven from Jefferson, Oregon, to San Diego, California. The first day, we drove for twelve hours to Bishop, California, and stayed overnight in a motel. Today, we drove for eight hours to San Diego. The driving was mainly on back roads, and it was beautiful, with mountains and two herds of elk. I am going on this trip with my friend Scott Haven, and he drove the entire time, both days, so I have had a relaxing time looking at the scenery, sleeping, and reading on my iPad. Tonight we went out to a very nice restaurant and had a great meal. Tomorrow begins the adventure. In the morning, we get checked in and board the boat with our luggage. There will be 28 people on the ship, including captains and deckhands. It will be noon before everybody gets checked in and their gear is hauled on board and stowed, and we head out to sea.

This trip is a lot like going to heaven. I am very excited about going, but I have never experienced this before, and all the unknowns make me anxious. My nervousness is not based on fear but simply on not knowing what is going to happen. It is a good kind of anxiety. An eagerness to get on board and catch my first fish, but not knowing how it will come about. There are so many unknowns about death, going to heaven, and my new glorified body that I get anxious. Not a bad kind of anxiety that is related to fear, but simply not knowing and wondering. It is an eagerness that results in nervousness about the unknown. It is a good thing.

One of the mysteries in life for me is the balance between my choices and efforts in living life and God’s sovereignty and part in my life. I need to choose, to obey, to strive, to seek, to read, and to be faithful. It is also clear that apart from God I can do nothing. If I seek the Lord diligently and obey Him completely, will I live forever? No, that is obvious. Well, if I pray without ceasing with great faith, will I be free of all sickness? I would probably significantly reduce my sick days, but life is still life, and sickness, heart attacks, and cancer seem to be part of it by God’s design. I am 77 years old, and my physical conditioning and energy levels are significantly lower than they once were. If I ask God for His strength every day, and exercise, work out, ride my bike, lift weights, eat right, and take the right supplements, can I have the strength and energy of a 20-year-old? I did a devotional for the Santiam Christian High School football team yesterday. Before I spoke, I watched them practice for 30 minutes. The athleticism, strength, speed, and energy of those young men were impressive. I was very envious. No matter how much faith I have and what I do, those days are long gone for me. That too is part of God’s plan. But I want to do as much as I can with the life I have left. I don’t know how many days or how much energy I have left, but I will choose to push right up to the edge. I am not going to be naïve and think that I can do everything and anything. Still, I am going to be diligent to run the race with endurance, be very faithful in exercise, eating right, stewarding my physical body, and then I am going to get as close to Jesus as I can, walk in the Spirit, pray for strength constantly, and look for open doors He is giving me to step through. I don’t think it is a lack of faith for me to admit that what I can do for the Lord is getting less every day, but I won’t let that admission give me freedom to do nothing.

I am leaving on Friday morning for a fishing trip. We will drive for two days to San Diego and board a 120-foot boat, where we will live for ten days. There will be 28 people on the ship, including the captain and deckhands. We will fish together and eat together. I am sure that I will get to know some of them reasonably well in the ten days. I want to be an incredibly positive witness for Jesus during the days we are together. I am praying now that God will work in every heart and that He will give me some divine appointments. I am also praying that I won’t get distracted by the great fishing to miss any of the opportunities that God will supply. I am praying for opportunities, for attentiveness not to miss them, the boldness to step through the doors that God opens, and the wisdom to say just the right thing at the right time, neither too little nor too much. Being a witness for Jesus is one of our primary responsibilities given to us by Jesus. We are His ambassadors. Please pray for me that God will open doors for the Word and that I will make the gospel clear and compelling whenever I share it. I am bringing 30 tracs with me that I wrote with the gospel clearly presented in them. I will be fishing for tuna and for men.

Jefferson Baptist Church has a ministry of picking people up in golf carts after they park their cars on Sunday mornings for worship service and driving them to the sanctuary front door. JBC has two golf carts that they own for this ministry. It is nice because some of our parking is a long walk away from the sanctuary, especially in the winter and especially for older people. No one has been driving the carts for the last couple of months. If no one picks up this ministry I am going to drive one cart for the 8:30 am service starting November 9th. I am pastoring at the Jefferson Evangelical Church and I need to be there at 9:15 am so I can drive the cart from 8:00 to 8:40 am and make it to JEC in plenty of time. The “Golf Cart” ministry is one of the “Men’s Ministry” projects. In our last “Men’s Ministry” board meeting we were discussing how to recruit some people to do it.

As we were discussing it I said, “You can recruit people to a ministry in writing or speaking to the crowd but the best way to recruit people to do anything is one on one, face to face, explaining to them what exactly is involved in doing the ministry. As we were talking a thought popped into my head, “you could drive a cart for the first service and then attempt to recruit people while you are driving them to the sanctuary.” Another big plus would be the opportunity to chat with people who attend JBC. I don’t get to do that much now that I am preaching up the road at another church. One of my life mottos is, “When God opens a door, don’t be slow in stepping through it.” When I have thoughts pop into my head like I had at the board meeting, I am pretty sure it is often a prompting from God, to not just to sit there, but to do something. That motto is why I am preaching up the road half a mile at the Evangelical Church. God opened up a door and I had a thought, “you could do that.” I am having a blast working for God, building His church. Whenever anybody chooses to serve God in His church He gives them the energy, the time, and the resources to do it well. Most people won’t step through doors because they are afraid to take a risk, even a little one. Many people don’t’t volunteer to do things because of the inconvenience factor, it will take away some of their time. People who are stingy with their time in serving God never have enough time as they struggle to get everything done. I am surprised at how few people have volunteered to help with the “Trunk or Treat” event. It is four hours at most for one night.

I am getting all jazzed about my tuna fishing trip out of San Diego. My friend and I are leaving this Friday at 5:30 a.m. We are taking two days to drive to where we will launch out on a 120-foot boat, live on the ship for ten days, and fish. I first wrote this down as a goal in 2019 while I was up at the Portland Sportsman’s Show. The Sportsman’s Show features approximately 800 booths that sell every type of sporting goods imaginable, as well as hundreds of fishing and hunting guides and lodges. I stood and watched videos at a booth advertising fishing trips out of San Diego for over an hour. I was totally mesmerized by the number and the size of the fish being caught in the video. There was a drawing for a free trip, which I filled out. Although I didn’t win the free trip, I did receive advertisements from them every month after that.

I have a place on my cell phone where I write down ideas for future goals, and I typed in that I was going to go on a ten-day trip out of San Diego before the end of 2025, and here we are, October 2025. The trip costs $5,200, excluding gas for driving down and back, three nights in a motel, fish processing, fishing gear, and tips for the deckhands. I have been saving for the trip ever since I wrote it down as a goal way back in 2019. I even have a little extra money left over that I may use to do a fish mount of a 100-pound bluefin tuna. If Patty reads this, she will want the extra for grandkid gifts for birthdays and this upcoming Christmas. I wrote this in my official goals that I sent out to all my friends and posted on my blog for the first time in 2020. A Pastor friend who reads my blog and saw my goals told me that there was a fellow in his church who did a trip like I wanted to do every couple of years. He gave me his number, and I called.

We had coffee together and talked about his past experiences. This was almost two years ago, and he said he was signed up to go in October 2025. So, I decided right then that I would go with him. Here we are, only five days until we leave. Many people don’t set ambitious goals for five or even ten years in the future. As a result, they don’t do any huge things with their lives. Big goals, whether they are ministry, occupational, or fishing goals, take time to accomplish. If you don’t have the confidence to dream up big goals that take time to accomplish, you won’t achieve many, if any, big things with your life. Over the years, Jefferson Baptist Church has planted and adopted ten different churches; seven of them are still going strong today. Very few churches have done that. We set a goal in 1990 to plant our first church by 2000 and another church every two years thereafter. Ten years later, we started Agape Family Fellowship in Albany. Big goals require time to pray about for God’s guidance and blessing, time to plan well, and time to save up the necessary funds to accomplish them. All of the buildings at JBC are paid for, as that was the goal. Several of our buildings took ten years to finish, but that was the goal. Dream some crazy dreams. Dreaming is free. Be open to promptings, ideas, and experiences. Anything is accomplishable if you have enough time.