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Thank you for your prayers and follow up calls and emails!  Sherelene and I are doing well.  If it were not for our faith and your prayers I would hate to think how much more difficult this would be!  When Jim Haverstock lost his wife Sue, I searched for every resource I could find to encourage him and help him through his grief.  Little would I know that what I learned over the past almost two years with Jim would help me so much with the loss of Wes.

 

One thing that I want to share with all of you is a series of books that I got for Jim and that I am reading now, that have helped me so much!  The book above, God and the Afterlife, is the result fo major study undertaken by Dr. Jeffrey Long of over 4,000 interviews with people who have had Near Death Expriences.  The resulting study paints and incredible picture of what we as believers have in store for us when we leave these earthly bodies.

 

So why am I sharing this with you?  Well it’s a good news, bad news story.  The bad news is that every one of us will someday die, and before that, we will loose many loved ones and friends to physical death.  The good news is that our spirit lives on, and that is why this is so important, what we do now will determine where our spirits are after our physical death.

 

I would encourage to get and read these books, it will give you incredible hope for your future.  It will also give you a real peace for those that you loose now.  After you read this book you will want more and I have two addiitonal books I can highly rcommend, all available on Amazon;  Life After Life  Dr.Raymond Moody. and Imagine Heaven by John Burke.  All of these books are a must read for believers!

 

These books have not only given me a real peace and excitement for Wes, but they have given me a new prescription for how to live the rest of my life!  In the vast majority of these NDEs the person comes back with one fundimental principle from Jesus, “Have you loved others with My love.”

 

You can rest assured that is my new mandate, for as long as God gives me on this earth, is to hold true to that one request from Him!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

I have a Master Class in Shaker Village this weekend and will leave Sudnay morning with Sherelene to visit family in Florida, my son Scott, his family, Catherine, Clint, Cassidy and Cade and Sherelene’s sisters.  I will return, hopefully ready to go, after a rest!  Thanks to all of  you that have been so gracious to, pray, call, write, and message me with your sympathy and well wishes, you are more supportive than you will ever know, only with you and my Lord have I gotten through this!  May God Bless and keep you!

 

Bill

 

I am thrilled that the Summit is coming back this fall!  Just look at the inredible line-up of photographers that will be joining you if you attend!  I am so glad to see Joe McNally join our team and he joins so many killer shooters,  back again this year!  Eddie Tapp and Roman Kurywczak are with us for the first time as well!  It is always a great joy for me to hang out with RC, Jack, Ken, Bill, Mandy, Len, Tony and Brett!!!

 

This is the hottest ticket in nature photography and I promise if you join us, you will have a great, great time!  Please register soon while there is still space available!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

I was flying home from my trip out ot St. George UT and was listening to music on my iPad. A song came up from Jordan Smith and Michael W.  Smith, “All is well”  Their rendition was especially heart felt.  Many people have emailed, called and stopped by to ask how Sherelene and I are doing and I felt I needed to let you guys know.  Of course this kind of loss will require a long term recovery.  In the first few days I was numb and found it hard to wrap my head around that Wes was gone, from here.  From the moment he passed God has given us incredible strength and peace.  I have genuine joy knowing where he is and what his condition is now.

 

Over the past couple of years I have been spending a great deal of time talking to and encouraging Jim Haverstock after he lost Sue to cancer. I never realized that my attempting to help Jim was preparatiion for what we would face.  In an attempt to better encourage Jim I started to buy and read books about the after life and NDE’s (near death experiences).  As it turns out there are a number of excellent books about documented cases and studies of people that have died and had an experience, only to come back to life and share their stories. If you have a deep fear fo death or know anyone that does I can highly recommend the books, Life After Life (Raymond Moody) and God and the Afterlife, (Dr. Jeffery Long)  Both books are based on an ehaustive studies and examinations of afterlife experiences.  The bottom line is that a large number of common experiences are reported by a majority of people who have experienced this NDE.  Learning about them will bring you great comfort and faith!

 

Let me reach out to you, encourage you and share some important thoughts that are happening at this point, in this siutation.  I am overwhelmed with:

 

Joy:  I know where Wes is now, and I know he is in perfect peace, is not having any more pain and is enveloped in the greatest love one could ever know or experience.  As much as I miss him, and I miss him terribly, I would never want him to leave that world,  for this world.

 

Peace:  I know that God has granted me a peace that goes beyond understanding. I know that God never does anything that is not for our ultimate good.  A dear pastor friend shared with me that, “not all things are good, but God uses all things for our good!”  I know that Wes is at peace and God is giving me peace.

 

Sadness:  I miss Wes so very much.  I find myself thinking I will just go over to his house and see him, but that will have to wait until I too go on to be with the Lord, and am reunited with him and so many others I’ve lost here.

 

Regret:  No one knows when someone they love will go on to Heaven.  I wish I had spent even more time with Wes.  The Tuesday before he died, Sherelene spent the whole day with him and I stayed home to baby sit Chester, oh how I wish I had dropped Chester off at the kennel and gone with her!  I share this to encourage you to take time out of your schedule to spend with those you love, we never know when it is out last day here on this earth.

 

Pride:  I am so very proud of my children; Scott, Wes and Catherine.  They all have become wonderful people, filled with love and devotion for their families.  They have raised great kids and they all have many wonderful friends.  At Wesley’s Celebration of Life a line of his friends and associates filed past us for over 2 and half hours and I got a real picture of how far reaching his love was in this world, it was a great gift, he left us!

 

Commitment:  I now have a great opportunity and mission to help with the raising of his children Abigail and Elijah. One of Wesley’s greatest traits was how deeply he felt for anyone that was having struggles and how much he wanted to  help them.  Rhonda is a fantastic mother and she has the support of her family and Sherelene and I are committed to help support them in every way possible.

 

Let me share something with you that I feel compelled to offer.  It would not be possible for me to even function without the presence of my Lord.  God has given us the strength to get through this loss and He wants to be there for you too.  If you do not have a personal relationship with Him, please conisder how vital it is to know Him and have Him by your side. I know that the moment my heart stops I will be face to face with Jesus and reuntied with family and friends that have gone on.  I want you to have that same assurance!!  Since we will all face loss and all must someday leave these bodies, I pray I see you there on that day!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim