Hunting, Daddy and the Letter

A few years ago I hosted a father / daughter hunt on a ranch in south Texas. The place was made for this type of events with good sleeping quarters, lots of wild animals and my all time favorite cook shack.

The one girl who was there without her father was Kayla. Her daddy was killed in an auto accident when she was very young. I have mentored her brother for years. He dearly loves hunting and fishing.

Kayla never liked the idea of all the hunting we did or anything about it. Then a couple months before the hunt she mentioned she would like to go. I told her if she really wanted to, I would take her.

The first afternoon, Friday, I took her and several other girls to shoot the small caliber scoped rifle. Not only was this her first hunting trip, but this was also her first time to ever shoot a gun. She hit dead on four of six shots with the other two slightly left, but deadly. Wow.

Kayla hunted with me each day; my daughter guided a father daughter team that had never hunted before. Saturday morning we were all fogged in and could not shoot safely at what we saw. That afternoon Kayla and I returned to the blind and watched a large group of javelina, some nice bucks, birds and all types of other wildlife. I love that about south Texas.

The loss of her father had never really come up much in conversations over the years, but that afternoon in the deer blind as we sat in the warm sun, she talked about her feelings, how she missed him and how she loved her mom. I could see how God had given her strength in some areas. I could see she accepted His arms around her to help her walk through where she is in her life today with the cards that have been dealt her.

Then it happened, the perfect opportunity. A lone doe came out and stood broadside. Kayla took her time, set up and dropped the deer in its tracks. It seemed at that moment I saw something in her eyes, a twinkle or glimmer, a light. I am holding back my emotions as I write this. It was so clear, so pure, so real.

On Saturday night at hunt camp I had the girls write a letter to their dad. Taylor, my daughter, and I talked about the letter with Kayla. She was OK with it. She took her pen and paper and went outside to write. Her plan was to put it on his grave. I was moved by her strength.

Psalm 59:16, But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.

I collected the letters to be given to the dads at the end of the weekend.

Sunday came and Kayla shot a second deer that morning. It took a few minutes to track her deer, and she loved the adventure -- the girls all did really well and harvested deer. My daughter, Taylor, had all the girls joking that retail stores were going to have to start selling bullets one at a time because they didn’t need to buy more than one or two to get their tags filled. I loved that.

As we all began to go our way Sunday afternoon I gave the fathers the letters. My daughter had one in the stack for me. There was also one for me from Kayla. The instructions were to read them later that evening as well as the notes the fathers wrote to the girls.

In the letter I got from Kayla she tells me, “Thanks for teaching me how to shoot a gun. I feel like I can accomplish anything at this moment. Thanks for the great talks and for taking me to a father and daughter event. I have never been to one.” My heart skipped a beat. I am crying again.

The time I got to spend with the girls on this event reminded me what true beauty is. What I see in them is beauty from the inside out. They are strong and courageous, determined and mindful. They are soft and gentle and funny and caring. They are searching for a loving Father and have begun to see Him in their walk with the Lord. They inspire me and make me laugh; they frustrate me and own my heart all at the same time.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to spend time with the girls hunting. Thank you for their joyous and wonderful hearts. Thanks for the clean shots and deer that were harvested. Thanks for the girls’ willingness to clean them and the cookies the girls made Saturday night.

Lord, I also pray for the young men you have picked out already for these girls. I pray they know early these girls can shoot, they can handle a gut knife, a four wheeler, a credit card, a Chi hair straightener and that they aren’t messing around.