Words of Faith

Stories of God’s presence in our lives

Yesterday, my neighbor and I bulldogged an 8 point buck, held him down,  and cut a tent off his antlers.

I had been reading a book by the upstairs window when, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw two big bucks sparring down by the creek about 60 yards away.

I watched for a few minutes and then got my binoculars. 

When I looked closer, I could see that it was one very big buck who was thrashing furiously trying to get something that was attached to a tree off his antlers. He was throwing his whole body up in the air and back down again in a wild, frantic panic.

My neighbor, Shane, is an experienced hunter and outdoorsman so I went to get him to go down to the creek with me to see if we could do anything.  I knew, trying to mess around with a buck of any size could be very dangerous.  But, particularly dangerous with a big 8 point buck this guys size who was in a state of frenzy.

As we got closer to the buck, we could see that he was  flailing crazily as he tried to free himself from whatever was tangled up in his gigantic antlers. Just as we got closer, the magnificent buck collapsed and fell into the creek.

Without hesitating, my neighbor jumped on top of the buck, pinned him down, and held on.  I jumped onto his neck, took out my little victeronix pocket knife and began to cut away whatever it was that was wrapped around those big antlers. 

In what seemed like minutes, but was only seconds, I was able to cut away the straps of someone’s tent that had been left in woods below our house. In  a flash, the buck jumped up, knocking my neighbor straight into the creek and ran off like a shot.  THANK YOU, GOD for protection and liberation!

—Howard Kerstine (08/23/2026)