POST FALLS — Those who attend the Sportsman's Banquet at Pleasant View Church next month will hear a powerful story of survival.

The guest speaker, motivational speaker Andy Peterson, will share his experience of living through a violent cougar attack.

"Andy's story is riveting," said Nathan Sylvester, Pleasant View Church's men's ministry leader. "Through trials and things that we deem difficulties and things that we might ask God, 'Why are you allowing this to happen to me?, God uses those things to bring us closer to him. If bad things don't happen, we can't help other people in bad situations."

Coincidentally, the proceeds from the banquet will go to the Good Samaritan Rehabilitation program run by The Altar Church's Pastor Tim Remington, who also miraculously survived a horrific attack when he was shot several times earlier this year.

"I had planned this back in January," Sylvester said. "It was just God's intervention. He put me onto that path with Andy and then we got him booked, and we had set up to have the majority of the proceeds going to Good Samaritan Rehab and it was all before Pastor Tim got injured."

The Sportsman's Banquet will also feature Altar outreach Pastor John Padula who will speak about the success of Good Samaritan, which is a faith-based program to help people lead better lives away from drugs and alcohol.

"We're just trying to find better ways to reach out and help the community and bring Christ into a hurting world,” Sylvester said.

The Sportsman's Banquet will also feature an AR-15 raffle, a goose band raffle, a bucket raffle, games, plenty of door prizes and a tasty steak dinner.

"Our pastor is a big time barbecue foodie," Sylvester said. "He's going to be giving out samples of sliders and he's got it all planned out."

Pleasant View Church's inaugural Sportsman's Banquet will be at 6 p.m. Sept. 17 at the church, located at 19459 W. Riverview Drive in Post Falls. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at www.pleasantviewconnection.org/sportsmans-banquet/index.html. Space is limited.

"It's just a fun night out at a very affordable price," Sylvester said.