RENVILLE COUNTY, Minn. >> John Homme’s deer hunting shack is a modest affair despite of being dubbed the “Homme Hilton.”

In its prime, and that was sometime long before 1986, it was a farm shed.

Hand-built bunk beds are stacked atop one another like empty containers around an old heater, and a counter offers space for a couple of Coleman stoves. Outside, there’s an outhouse.

Long before “forest bathing” was a thing, and comfortable (and expensive) resorts offered the chance to rejuvenate in the woods and outdoors, Homme, of Rochester, Minn., and his hunting pals were doing exactly that right here in the woodlands of the Minnesota River Valley in Renville County.

The weekend of July 19-21, Homme and his pals hosted five men who shared two attributes: They’ve spent time behind bars, and are participants in a prison ministry in Rochester known as Network for Life.

“It was really an experience for them,” said Walter Bush, director and founder of the ministry, and the man who led the guests to this remote getaway. “I enjoyed it. They enjoyed it.”

He knew the experience was what he hoped it would be when on the ride home, the youngest of the group, the “kid” at age 19, confessed: “I can’t believe I could have had this much fun with a bunch of old men.”

“Expose these guys to the experience out here,” said Homme of the goal of inviting the group for a weekend camp out in this river valley location, “to experience this area.”

To that, Bush would add that it was also important that these men were exposed to Homme and his friends. “These men can learn from these men,” Bush said. He said he wanted them to be around mature, Christian men with strong backgrounds in life and the outdoors.

The river valley property has been part of Homme’s family since pioneer days. He spent the first six years of his life here. It was in 1986 that the family farmland became what it is today.

Most of the land is preserved in woodlands and prairie for deer and turkey hunting. Ample frontage on the Minnesota River offers opportunities for catching catfish, walleye and all the other species the river holds, from mooneye and sheepshead to shovelnose sturgeon.

The catfish were biting, but the waters were too high for a decent shot at the walleye. Homme and his friends filleted some of the catch and used their secret recipe to treat the group to the catfish.

Neighboring landowner Andy Holt, an avid angler and outdoorsman, dropped by and offered some fishing tips to the visitors.

“He seemed to know everything about the outdoors,” Bush said.

“The guys were just mesmerized by his knowledge of fishing the river, and coyote hunting,” said Homme of his neighbor.

Homme and his hunting and fishing pals led their guests on a few hikes through the woods, a chokecherry picking excursion, some fun with a spud gun, and fishing on the river. They spent evenings around a campfire telling stories and listening to the whip-poor-will who began his nightly mantra right as dusk gave way to dark.

“It was magical, magical,” said Homme of the campfire time.

Bush was as enchanted by it all as were the men he led. Like them, he’s known a different life. Bush said he grew up in Chicago and later followed his mother to Rochester in hopes of straightening his life out.

One day, the Rochester Police and Olmsted County Sheriff’s deputies kicked in his door and hauled him off to jail. That’s when he did start to straighten things out, including putting an end to his nearly 20-year addiction to heroin. He was sentenced to 81 months in prison after deciding he’d come straight. He was released after serving 24 months.

After his release, Bush said he called on a man he befriended through a prison ministry in the Olmsted County Jail. In turn, he made his life’s work a ministry to those in trouble with the law. He worked for two prison ministries based in Rochester — Damascus Way and Next Chapter Ministries — before starting his own, Network for Life, in 2018.

Taking time to enjoy nature and life and to be at peace in the outdoors, in the company of others, is a true blessing from God, according to Bush. By weekend’s end, he was talking to Homme about bringing a crew back sometime in the fall for the same experience.

They will be welcome. Although these hunting buddies learned long ago the value of spending time in the outdoors, Homme said the opportunity to expose others to the experience proved rejuvenating to them, too.

“When you see it through someone else’s eyes, you really see how special it is,” he said.