The annual Blessing of the Hunt hosted by Goss Baptist Church at the Columbia Expo Center Nov. 13 is once again expected to draw thousands of people to be blessed prior to hunting season.
The primary goal of Blessing of the Hunt has always been to glorify God and glorify Jesus Christ, according to Bro. Brian Malone of Goss Baptist Church.
“Seeing people coming to know the Lord is the greatest thing a person can experience in their life, to find forgiveness and find grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said. “There are a lot of hunters out there that we pray over, and we ask for God’s mercy and grace on them and safety for the hunting season.”
“But the most important part is that they find the Lord Jesus, so we pray for those hunters and pray for anybody and everybody that comes. Not everybody has to be a hunter; everybody is welcome to come. But we pray for God’s blessing and for God to do something great in their lives. We do this every year because we serve a God who is this amazing God who loves us, cares for us and looks and longs for people to come to Christ.”
The event started with the desire to pray over hunters after a hunting accident killed local hunters. When it first began, it only drew 150 people. Within a few years, the event exploded and had to be moved to the Expo Center to accommodate the large crowds. It peaked to roughly 5,000 when Alan Robertson from Duck Dynasty spoke.
“Part of (the growth) was because of the big prizes we give away, but part of it is people want to be a part of praying over the hunters and doing something different. I think that’s what Blessing of the Hunt has served — some kind of different ministry,” Malone said. “That worked out well.”
This year’s guest speaker will be Hank Hough of Kingdom Dog Ministries, which is based out of Texas. Hough, who has been speaking at events all over the country and internationally for 25 years, spoke at Blessing of the Hunt in its earlier years and was still at Goss Baptist Church. He loved the experience and thought it was amazing to see the community come together and work together to bring people to Christ.
“When I called him to come back, he was so excited. He goes all around the nation and still tells people about Goss Baptist Church,” Malone said.
“Speaking at any event is exciting to me, especially when you’re presenting the gospel. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s to three or 3,000,” Hough said. “It’s a real honor to me to be chosen to speak there, not just because of the size of it but because of the results of it. I spoke there years ago, and it was the most people God ever used me to bring to Christ. It’s always been an absolute favorite place of mine.”
Hough’s ministry journey started when he was 53 when he was sitting in a duck blind and he cried out to the Lord, “God, don’t let me die being who I am.” He said he thought he was going to be given a good heart, but he was given a dog. As he trained the dog, he started seeing God’s word in the dog’s eyes, leading to the start of his ministry.
“We kind of backed into what we’re doing. I’m so grateful for it,” Hough said. “I’m 78 and wake up almost every day of my life with fire in my heart because I get to take something out of a dog and tell you who Jesus Christ is.”
But Hough quit for a time after one of his dogs died and his next dog refused to get in a car following a car accident. He said he was actually angry with God and felt that God was telling him he was going down the wrong path with his ministry. It didn’t take long for God to let him know that he was right where he needed to be.
After breeding a female dog several times, one of the dogs from her last litter was given away three times, but he came back to Hough all three times. But one morning Hough went outside to get the dog, but the dog was stiff and appeared to be dead. When he told his wife, Jayne, that the dog was dead, she ran outside, scooped him and carried him back inside convinced he was still alive. Hough said he was convinced the dog was dead and just had body fluids still running through it, but Jayne protested the dog was still breathing.
Jayne convinced Hough to take the dog to the vet with a stern “wife look.” After examining the dog, the vet said he wasn’t sure what the dog’s problem was but he was alive, albeit with an extremely high fever that made the vet believe he would not be able to serve as a hunting dog if he did survive. Although the vet suggested to leave the dog there where he would be cared for until he passed, Jayne refused to let him die alone. She told her husband that if the dog dies, he was going to do it in her arms at home.
Hough and Jayne tried everything they could to get the dog’s temperature down, but their efforts weren’t changing his status. Jayne suggested Hough pray for the dog, which he thought was possibly sacrilegious, but he obliged to her request to pray for her hope that the dog would live. He wrote out a prayer that said that if God saved the dog, Hough would name the dog “The Prophet.”
“Not a prophet that will hear your word that no man can hear,” Hough wrote in his prayer, “but a prophet that would teach your word in such a way that it will change men’s lives.”
The dog’s temperature dropped overnight and five years later, Hough used “The Prophet” to bring more than 8,000 men to Christ. Throughout the years, Hough and Kingdom Dog Ministries have brought more than 100,000 men to Christ.
“Thank you God for women,” Hough said.
Hough’s program has been called the most unique presentation of the gospel of the 21st century because he uses a dog to preach the gospel.
“In Jobe 12:7, where Jobe didn’t have a Bible and his friend says, ‘Where’s your God now?’, Jobe said, ‘If you want to know where God, ask the beasts of the field and He’ll teach you.’ So this dog should be able to teach them something because it’s biblical,” Hough explained. “I love talking to outdoor people.”
Doors open to the event at 5 p.m. with door prizes being given out until 7 p.m., which is when the program begins. This year’s prizes at Blessing of the Hunt will include cash, rifles, shotguns, a two-person quail hunt and much more. Malone said there will be upwards of 70 vendors at the event as well.
“The purpose is to glorify God, give people hope and pray over hunters to keep them as they’re starting the season out,” Malone said. “Jesus will be magnified in all of it.”
