Thoughts of a Modern-Day Mountain Man:A Field Guide to Leadership in the Great Outdoors Chapter 41

This is the forty-first of a weekly blog series that will focus on leadership in the outdoors and how to get the most from the least. Even though the title is called, “Thoughts of a Modern-Day Mountain Man”, it will hopefully cover topics that are useful to everyone.

Chapter 41: A Letter From the Field to my Fellow Modern-Day Mountain Men.

"ON THE WARPATH."

1820's slang used by mountain men to describe a person looking for a good fight.

I wanted to write to you to express both my apologies and my thanks. I am truly sorry for the situation we now find ourselves in, it was never my intention to wait so long to go "ON THE WARPATH." I cannot help but wonder if I would've started being a better leader and educator earlier if it would have made a significant difference. My lack of action has no doubt left many not hearing of the love and words of Christ our Savior. Please know I would never intentionally sabotage or make things difficult just for the sake of making things difficult. I give you my word as a Modern-Day Mountain Man the way this has happened won’t happen again, the fight for good and evil is well underway, it is time to prepare for war, spiritual or otherwise. Christian outdoor leaders like us have sat on the sidelines too long without taking action, too eager to be part of the "in" crowd. Possessing too much fear of possibly offending someone or something. I am just as guilty as the next man in our company. You have my sincerest thanks and praise for choosing to become professional outdoor leaders. I look forward to going on the warpath with you. Together we are going to do some demon hunting.

There is something you need to know about my personality, I quite enjoy conflict and dealing with confrontations. I wasn’t always this way, but I do believe this trait was instilled in me by God to make a real change in the world. I sometimes forget to use this in a positive manner; this is where I must grow and work towards being part of the solution and not the source of the problem. I was once bullied so badly in a school that I had to leave that school in order to try and make things better. Believe it or not, the teachers only made the situation worse. When I went to my new school, during one of the first days, a fellow student thought it would be a good idea to bully and pick on me. Big mistake. It turns out even as a small boy at the time, I was pretty good at fighting back. Who knew? I wish I would have tried it earlier, but everything happens for a reason. To say that I enjoyed being violent when necessary would be a misstatement, but it is safe to say that I was not the target of most of the school bullies as often as before. I know you are thinking that wasn't a very Christian response, Jesus preached turning the other cheek. If that is what you are thinking or reasoning, you are not reading Christ's message and intention correctly. That message was referring to insults and slights, not self- defense. Sometimes in the real world, the best self-defense is taking the fight to the other side, both literally and metaphorically being offensive.

I have always had the little guy in mind since that time, and I abhor bullying for the sake of bullying. If we do not take action and do the good that needs to be done, we are complicit in the evil that's being perpetrated and the bullying that is happening. As Christian leaders, we must defend what God has ordained as good and right. The Christian church, man, and family is under full attack, with our enemies looking to take many scalps. Many of our church and social leaders are acting as wolves in sheep's clothing and it is high time to do some wolf hunting.

I have been let down so many times, by so many people with whom I have put all my trust and all my efforts. When the going got tough, they either withered away or in some cases hung me out to dry or stabbed me in the back. I simply wanted to like them as a friend and I was unwilling to see that their Christian character was found wanting. Our company of Christian outdoor leaders is only as good as the brave men and women that accept the challenge. We must never find ourselves bickering and fighting amongst one another; the battle is on the other side of the ramparts. I know that will never be the case with you, and hopefully you know that I will have your back in the fiercest of fights that we have coming our way. We will stick to our beliefs and morals, and that is rare in today’s world. Others will look to you and me to lead, and we must not falter. God has placed us in this time and place for a purpose, and we must vow to rise to the occasion. Not that I had too many doubts going into this, but now I have none. I will see this through with you and we WILL change the world for the better. The cost will be high if we fail, the eternal lives of those we are leading. God has a plan, tools and resources to battle evil and the devil, we will be at the very front edge of the spear as one of God's weapons of spiritual warfare. In Isaiah 6:8, God asks "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" Our reply must be, Here am I, Send Me!

This will not be easy or be without future confrontations. It has been mentioned several times, as Christians what could we know? We know a lot, in the end we win. This is an argument we will have to deal with on a constant basis going forward. If we are to truly change the world of education, schools and other institutions, we should be prepared that they may say, “you don’t work here, you don’t know our story, what could you possibly do to help us, etc?” I have personally dealt with this question for the past several years in many professional capacities, and sometimes you have to punch the bully in the proverbial nose. This has never been truer than in institutions of higher learning. What could we know? I know that almost all of the men that had very profound impacts establishing the outdoor leadership profession had very little, or in some cases like Mr. Enos Mills, no formal education at all. This lack of formal education was never viewed as a hindrance, as these men were confident and capable enough to use their positive experiences to pave the way for us. You and I will weather many storms of this type together if we go forward with this. Never let a lack of formal education stop you from working to make positive changes. Objective right and wrong is instilled in us by our Creator, and no amount of letters behind our names will change that fact. In reality, the more people are educated by a possibly corrupt agenda, the less connection they may have with the Word of God.

I truly believe we are running out of time in some respects. When God gives us the power and the knowledge to effect a change, we must. I intend to make many changes. Times and certain parts of our lives can be a bit of a trainwreck, we are all human and we will fall short many times, but the one constant we should strive for is being able to make a great change in the world through our education and leadership of others.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5 NIV)

To do this systematic change properly, love has to be our central theme, not fear. This doesn’t mean that we will teach and raise feral children and populations, quite the opposite in fact. You want a child or student to be truly resilient, they need to have no fear, but the supreme confidence that can only come from love. So many modern churches get Christianity completely wrong; they believe Jesus’ love accepts every wrong they do. This is not true. Jesus' love and word is intended for all peoples and all nations, but if a church is accepting of all actions and behaviors without Christian rebuke and teaching, it is not a Christian church. Jesus loves us no matter what, but His goal was to cause division of right and wrong, His task is to hold us accountable in love. The core of Christianity, and thus education and leadership, is accountability through love. We must love what we do, love what we teach, and love the students and campers in our care. Simply put, there must be consequences in order to get to this accountability, but our plan should not be based on fear from false threats or meaningless consequences meant to bully and intimidate. Using my own experiences and anecdotes as an approximation of this belief may not always be the greatest idea, but in this case, it is true. We all fall down, we all make mistakes, we fail often, but when the entire story is examined, our success will be determined by the path we took toward our goals.

I am all in with you and I look forward to the challenges and difficulties this war will bring.

John W. Amschler

Modern-Day Mountain Man