Guns for God: High school club mixes target shooting, spirituality

March 1st, 2012

Guns for God: High school club mixes target shooting, spirituality

Thursday, May 01, 2003

By Melissa Slager
The Grand Rapids Press

CALEDONIA — David VanderMolen listened to a Bible message, bowed his head for the prayer — then grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and stuck in some ear plugs.

“Let’s go heat up the barrels, boys,” the South Christian High senior said, still aiming at clay pigeons alongside a dozen other teenagers into nightfall.

God and guns?

It’s a combination that works for members of the latest club at this Cutlerville high school.

The South Christian Young Life Shooting Club — known more affectionately in the hallways as “Guns for God” — meets every other Wednesday at the Caledonia Sportsman’s Club.

Parents donate money for ammunition. Anywhere from 12 to 30 teens show up each time.

The club gives a bloc of avid young hunters and marksmen a social and spiritual outlet, say the two teachers who started the group last winter after deer season.

“It’s more a laid-back environment,” said Jason Boersma, a history teacher and Young Life leader. The club emphasizes “safety, the creation and the majesty of all of it.”

Young Life, a national Christian youth group with branches at many area high schools, hosts other events at South Christian. Monday night “Club” events, for example, feature singing, preaching and Burger King runs.

But teens such as Eric Timmerman say the echo of a gun blast beats praise songs any day.

“I’m just not into going and sitting in somebody’s house and that sort of stuff,” the sophomore said.

Said senior Ben Koning: “We shoot for God.”

Biology teacher Rod Jager opens meetings with nature- or hunting-related devotions.

He told a recent outing about a turkey hunt, hiding and calling the bird in close for a hit.

“I can see him in full strut, feathers out,” he said.

Pulling a camouflage-cover Bible out of his back pocket, Jager said the experience is much like the way Jewish king David called out in search of God through song.

It drew out a lesson in spiritual discipline.

“I probably put more effort into trying to find a turkey — four hours, five hours, a whole weekend, sometimes. But I don’t do that in devotions,” Jager said. “We should try to put as much effort into searching for God as we do deer, or turkeys — or clay pigeons.”

For high-schoolers, though, the meetings don’t always get so spiritually serious.

“We’re just a bunch of hicks with guns,” said senior Jason VanderVennen with a laugh.

The Carhartt-clad teenagers say camaraderie is the main reason they look forward to meeting.

“I come out because it’s fun and you get to be with friends (and) compete,” sophomore Tyler Bruin said.

Sophomore Danielle Visser likes the “fellowship, getting to know these guys, because I don’t see them much at school.”

Visser got involved through fellow sophomore Abby Smies. They are the only girls to come and stuff shells in their pockets.

“The first time (you shoot a gun), you’re kind of freaked out because you don’t realize what the kick is going to be,” Visser said. “People say I stand funny — like a tower. But you’ve got to lean in so you don’t fall backwards.”

The troupe of teens, teachers and parent chaperones split up, one group heading to shoot skeet — where the disk is sent across the shooter’s horizon — and one shooting trap, in which the disk is sent away from the shooter.

“Pull!” each yelled, sending the bright orange disk sailing.

Then a BANG! and spit of flame from the barrel, echoes of the blast drowning out crickets and smoke trails filling the air and nostrils with the smell of gunpowder.

Hit disks split into two, three or countless pieces.

“Sometimes you can hit it so good it turns into dust,” Timmerman said.

Jordan Bosserman, a sophomore, looked on as he waited for his turn at the line.

“This is something we like to do,” he said. “Add our spiritual life into it, and it’s just great.”