During the recent Hope Community Church Sportsmen’s Banquet members of the congregation showed a great deal of respect toward each other, and courtesy, civility and helpfulness to each other and to the dinner guests.

This yearly event brings the community together and is a good distraction from the winter cold, snow and ice.

The Sportsmen’s Banquet is a time to greet old friends and make some new ones.

After the introduction by Bill Vanartsdalen and the invocation by Pastor Ken Kalisz, dinner was served.

The choices were excellent They ranged from venison chili to snapper soup.

Outdoorsmen and avid hunters Dave Ashworth and Corey Baumann related their adventures in pursuit of a huge whitetail deer they named “Goliath.”

Sightings were minimal. Most of the pictures gathered were on their trail cameras at night.

The two speakers told dinner guests they did not connect with Goliath, so it is assumed he is still alive and will be hunted once again this coming fall.

Ashworth delved into some of the mistakes that were made in pursuing this trophy deer.

The hunt was a learning experience for him and Ashworth said he will try not to repeat the mistakes he made.

These included getting aggressive too early, having too many “hang and hunts” (deer beds close to a feeding source), getting lazy with scent control, lack of focus on the wind, entering and exiting the stand, and snacking while on the stand.

Ashworth also discussed various ways to improve one’s chance of bagging a deer.

These included year-round preparation, finding good stand locations, studying the terrain of the area, doing offseason scouting, studying trail camera data and limiting any pressure on the deer.

Ashworth then expounded on his life and how it was changed when he found Jesus.

He said he was obsessed with money, job and other parts of his life until he discovered Him.

By giving his life to Jesus, Ashworth said he found peace, and, thus, he lost his obsessions in life.

“God does not seek us. We must seek God,” he said in closing.