To understand the importance of the progress CTO has made during 2005, it’s important to look at what matters most:  the youth who are touched by our ministry.  CTO is founded on the mission of forming long-term, year round,

personal friendships with young men based on a common interest in the outdoors, and using those friendships to lead them toward Christian manhood. Those words read great on paper, but they take on real meaning when you get to know the real people behind the mission.  Twelve-year-old Zech Hudson is a fine example of the young men who are involved in CTO. He’s a member of the San Antonio unit.  We first got hooked up with Zech through the efforts of his mom, Sheila. She is a hard-working single mother who found out about CTO from an e-mail sent by Community Bible Church, and first contacted us to inquire about scholarship funds. At the time, she told us that she’d been praying for a way for Zech to learn about what it means to be a Christian man, and thought CTO might be exactly what she was praying for.  By God’s grace, we were able to provide a full scholarship for Zech to attend our CTO Ultimate Summer Camp.  Zech had a great time at camp (cactus needle wounds from the snipe hunt aside!), but despite our best efforts he was the only camper who didn’t harvest a big game animal. (He missed an axis doe.)

After camp we stayed in touch with Zech and were happy to hunt with him on two hog hunts in August. We knew God was setting the hooks deep in Zech, as he didn’t get anything during these hunts, either — but was always eager to sign up for the next one!

While we did get Zech on some great kingfish during a deep sea trip, he still had a hunting itch that was begging to be scratched. The opportunity finally arose in September when we had an unexpected opening in our First Hunt for exotic rams.  Thanks to the generosity of Safari Club International—Alamo Chapter, we were able to get Zech on this hunt (they funded all of our summer scholarships in San Antonio), where he made a perfect shot and harvested a magnificent Corsican ram!  Now Zech is applying to become an Apprentice Guide in our CTO youth leadership program, assuring a positive, longterm relationship with us. That’s what it’s all about!  Watching Zech grow in maturity and faith over the summer has been extremely rewarding. He’s developed in so many ways, it’s almost hard to recognize him as the same boy we first met at Summer Camp back in June! The impact that CTO has had on him is best summed up by this letter we got from his mother:

“Thank you so much for all the trips, fishing, hunting and all around being a boy for my son before the 7th grade. What memories he has. The photos are fabulous and will be treasured.  “But most rewarding to the Glory of God is the fact that my son is reading his Bible on his own. Being a reader myself, and struggling with the world's interruptions, I am encouraged by his commitment. Thank you so much for the gift of your generosity.”