It is 2:30 am, and we just returned from fishing for sockeye salmon on the Kenai River for the last eight hours. The limit is now six, and we fished past midnight so we could legally have twelve fish in our possession. There are ten of us at Tim’s Lodge right now, so we could have 120 sockeye salmon in our possession. We didn’t have that many when we quit, but very close, and there are still two ultra-crazy fishermen fishing. It is very weird fishing at night with headlamps, especially when at least one person always has a fish on. The fish are running in high numbers; 120,000 fish were counted on the sonar counter yesterday, so we had a very successful night harvesting fish. It is funny because of the ten of us, there are two who like to net fish, and because we all were catching fish so often, the poor netters hardly got to fish!

I am now sitting in my chair in the corner of the living room in Tim’s Lodge. He has now given this place an official name, “Funny River Fellowship Lodge.” I even have an official sweatshirt with the logo on it. The lodge is on Funny River Road and Funny River is close by, thus the name. I like to catch fish, but I actually enjoy it more when there are fewer fish and we have to fish harder. Also as the fish numbers go up so does the number of fisherman and pretty soon it is a rodeo.

I have been working hard to focus on the Lord while fishing and praying silently in my head for people. It is an excellent discipline to develop, praying anytime there is an opportunity, such as driving, fishing, walking, etc. If you don’t have a prayer time regularly, daily is best, where that is all you do, focusing only on the Lord and nothing else; praying while you are doing something else will be fragmented, interrupted by various thoughts prompted by what you see. Many people say that is when they do all their praying while doing something else. If the truth were known, the quality and depth of their prayer life would be very shallow and focused primarily on their own needs and problems. The emphasis in the New Testament is praying for others. God desires time with us that is not scattered but focused, not convenient but sacrificial.

Today many people are sad, depressed, unhappy, discontent, miserable, lonely, unfulfilled, aimless, selfish, critical, and unproductive. If I meet someone like that, I encourage them to find a good church and attend faithfully. Once established, plugin and get involved in some small group. It can be a men’s or woman’s group, a prayer group, Bible study, or some ministry group. A small group becomes a spiritual family where you are encouraged, loved, prayed for, and coached. When I say good church, I mean one that believes the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God and our primary authority on living. In a good church, the Bible will be taught clearly and well in each service. In a good church, you will hear the words grace, faith, Bible, discipleship, forgiveness, and love used often. Good church worship will be a big deal to everyone, and your participation in it will inspire you and give you joy and a real sense of God’s presence.

The church gets a lot of bad press in today’s world. The reason is that the devil hates the church, and he is doing what he does best, which is working in people to start many bad churches that teach a false gospel and heresy. He is infiltrating good churches and leading them astray to become lukewarm and cold churches devoid of love and full of criticism and judgmental attitudes. Once you begin attending a church, it doesn’t take long to discern whether you are in a good church or a bad one. Keep looking until you find a good church. A good church is the “Body of Christ,” “The Bride of Christ,” “The Temple of the Holy Spirit,” and the “Hope of the World,” the only hope of the world.

When you read the Old Testament, especially the book of Leviticus, you will find, if you pay attention to details, that God likes rhythm. All of creation is an illustration of rhythm. Very young children have a sense of rhythm in music. Music without rhythm is basically just noise. My heart beats with rhythm. Time is divided into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, and years, and there is no variation in those time units; they are very rhythmic. Our body, mind, and emotions will feel secure when we live in rhythm, and living without rhythm makes us feel chaotic.

Part of my rhythm that is very much the hub of my life is weekly church attendance to worship the Lord and seek Him. I am not sure why but attendance this morning at Soldotna Bible Chapel was incredibly moving and a great blessing to me. On trips like this one, it is usually tricky to fit church attendance in, but I am always blessed when I do

Hebrews 10:25
not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

I have been coming to Alaska fishing in the summer for 25 years. Usually, I fish for 18 hours a day minimum while I am here. Often, in the past, I have gone to sleep in a chair in the living room with my waders still on, slept for two hours, and then headed out to fish some more. A couple of years ago, I didn’t take my waders off for two days. I was a real fishing fanatic. I tried to do that this year; we fished from 6:00 pm until midnight and went back to the lodge, and I slept in the chair and got up and went fishing with another group from 4:00 am until 9:00 am. It took me two days of sleeping ten hours a day until I felt good again. As the song goes, “The old grey mare ain’t what she used to be!”

I have pondered this getting old thing, and all the adjustments that I need to make year by year that I hate, and why God made things this way. I know it is pretty universal, this getting old thing and becoming less mobile, less energetic, less many things. Even Old Testament people experienced it.

1 Samuel 4:15
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were set so that he could not see.

1 Samuel 4:18
When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for he was old and heavy. Thus he judged Israel forty years.

God’s goal for each of us in this life is to make us grow in character as much as possible so that we become like Jesus in character so that we can enjoy Him and He us for eternity because we are like Him. He accelerates that process at the end of our life because we still have so far to grow and thus all the health issues.

My part in these years of accelerated growth is not to fuss and whine but to rejoice always and to trust Him totally with my life. I am working on doing that. I certainly don’t want to waste these years of getting older and all that getting older stuff.

James 1:2-3 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

Romans 5:3-4
We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character;

Romans 8:28-29 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

Today Luke, Will, and I went fishing in the ocean with my drift boat for Halibut. We caught six in two hours which is the limit. They were all small ones except for the one that pulled my rod and reel overboard. Most of the time the smaller ones nibble at your bait and your rod twitches a bit before they really start to pull, but this one grabbed the bait and pulled my rod and reel over the side before I could grab it. We still caught our limit of two apiece on two rods. We went to a place called Ninilchik where they hook up to your boat trailer with a big four-wheeled skidder and back you into the water. When we were done fishing I called them on the cell phone and told them boat 21 is ready to come out and they hooked up to my trailer which has a two foot square piece of plywood painted green with 21 painted in white paint hanging on it, they backed it into the water, and then we drove the boat up on the trailer. A nice fellow riding on the back of the skidder hooked up the boat and they pulled us out, we hooked the van up to the boat and off we went. It was a very exciting and fun day of fishing except losing my rod and reel. There are lots of big snow-capped mountains that made the day gorgeous.

There are a lot of things that I enjoy doing by myself, but fishing, probably my favorite activity in life, I enjoy doing with friends and family. Not all of my good friends enjoy fishing, nor do all of my family. I don’t remember ever fishing with Patty, but she certainly is my favorite person to do many other things with. Probably the most enjoyable thing that I did with my Dad was fishing. I fish regularly and often now with many of my friends and family. On this trip that I am now on in Alaska my son-in-law, Luke and his son, my grandson Will is with me. Neither of them has fished a lot in their past so I am enjoying teaching them the skill and the joy of fishing. Here is a great picture of Will and I yesterday and also one from eleven years ago with my son Seth, two other friends and their sons.

I left the fishing cabin with my son-in-law and grandson at 1:00 pm, pulling my drift boat headed for Ninilchik, where we planned to launch the drift boat into Cook Inlet to fish for halibut. Once in Soldotna, we stopped at the local hardware store to buy rubber boots for Luke and Will. The hardware store didn’t have any, so we went to “Sportsman’s Warehouse” and found some boots there, and I bought a billed hat because I forgot mine. We headed off for the 45-minute drive to Ninilchik, and I remembered that I needed a boat plug for my boat. So we turned around and went to the hardware store again, but they had just sold their last one, so we again went to Sportsman’s and bought two. I tried putting the plug in the boat, but the drain hole was too small, and then I remembered that I had drilled the hole back in May so rainwater would drain out, but I didn’t have a plug to put in, so I didn’t know what size to drill the drain hole. So I purposely drilled it small, planning to drill it to the correct size once I purchased a plug. So we drove back to the hardware store to buy a cordless drill motor and a 7/8-inch drill bit, but the two were over $100. Tim had a cordless drill and a bit at his lodge, so we drove back where we had started and decided to go tomorrow.

Here is a picture of Tim, George and I after a few hours of fishing. Some titles we have considered for ourselves are, “The Three Amigos,” “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” “Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest,” “The Best Fisherman, the Second Best, and the Worst!” We haven’t picked a title yet because there is a marked difference of opinion over who is who in the titles😀😂

Last night the Sockeye run started. The sonar fish counter had a daily count from July 1st of about 5,000 fish a day, which is very low which means catching one fish will take most of the day. Yesterday’s count was over 20,000 fish. Five of us went down to the Kenai River last night at 7:00 pm and by 10:00 pm we had our limit of 15 salmon.

My grandson Will Doughton is here with my son-in-law Luke Doughton, his dad, and he caught his first sockeye salmon. He also hooked into a big King salmon that took all the line off of his reel before any of us around him noticed until it was too late, which ended his fishing for the night. We sat around in the cabin telling fish stories until well beyond midnight last night and slept in this morning. We will go out again tonight for some more hot fishing.

Many of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen, and He promised to make them fishers of men. That is one of my main ambitions in my life, to be a skilled and knowledgeable fisher of people who don’t know Jesus. Catching sockeye salmon is fun, and I bragg about being the best fisherman, but catching salmon in Alaska has no eternal significance, but influencing people with the truth of the gospel so that they are transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Jesus is eternally significant. Whether I am number one, two, or three in salmon-catching ability means nothing, but how well I do reaching people means everything.

The best salmon fishermen are those who do it a lot, and the most effective ambassadors for Jesus are the ones who recognize our calling and assignment from Jesus and are constantly looking for those open doors and opportunities to say a word, or do a deed, that will plant seeds and influence lost people into becoming followers of Jesus.

Colossians 4:5-6 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, (lost people) making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

My grandson Will with his first sockeye ever!

We see moose everyday driving back and forth from fishing spot.

Lots of moose calves that you have to watch out for while driving.

This is the salmon processing where we pat them dry with paper towels then we put them in bags and vacuum pack them and put them in the freezer soon to be brought home in fifty pound fish boxes on the airplane.

This is the vacuum packer that has vacuum-sealed hundreds of pounds of salmon over the years.

The finished product, ready for the freezer.

For the last ten years or so when we are up here fishing we go to Soldotna Bible Chapel on Sunday morning at 9:30 am. We went this morning and I had a great time worshiping the Lord and being in his presence. The worship was great and the preaching was alright. The Pastor didn’t hold my attention as well as Mike does, but I was blessed anyway. When church was done we drove to the Kenai airport and picked up my son-in-law Luke Doughton and my grandson, Will Doughton.

When the salmon are running it is easy to skip church, skip Bible reading, prayer and all the rest of my daily disciplines. But I don’t skip any of those basics because it gets easier and easier to skip if I do, and the consequences are serious. It may not affect the number of fish you catch, but it very well could impact how you will do at the judgment seat of Christ.