Category : blog
The last photo workshop at Grace on the Hill Community Church. left to right, Gus Clouse, Tony Rogers, Myself, Jim Begley, Jim Haverstock and Carl Turner, all dear brothers and friends.
A little over a week ago we lost our dear brother and friend Gus Clouse from this earth. He moved to a new address with his Heavenly Father in Paradise! I have known Gus for over 43 years, ever since Sherelene and I moved to Corbin. He served our church and community for most of those years and it seems I saw him several times a week! Gus was more than a friend, he was an inspiration! He was at every class I’ve taught at our church and he always stayed for the entire time, even the all day classes! His life was a living example of the 13th Chapter of 1st Corinthians!
13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b]and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
I pray, that even a little, of those words from scripture, will apply to my life when my life comes to an end. Gus never met a stranger, never failed to make everyone welcome and feel cared for. Gus did countless acts of kindness for others that he never mentioned and few knew about. He taught classes, handed out food at the food pantry, provided recreation for the communities youth, he was a youth leader and I’m sure many people in our community got their first exposure to Jesus through his efforts and ministry. I would have loved to have been standing close by when Jesus told him, “Well done my good and faithful servant!” If anyone has heard that I’m sure it was Gus! I miss you my friend, and I look forward to seeing you again when I get to come to my forever home, until then enjoy your reward! I hope Wesley was there to hug you and welcome you home!
Blessings,
the pilgrim
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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 23rd, 2024 at 4:24 pm
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I’ve been on a journey for some time now to try to be thankful, thankful all the time, and for every circumstance! Some days nothing special happens but I’m still thankful, sometimes something extremely important happens and I’m very thankful!
Thursday afternoon I needed to drive over to our Lowe’s to get a gallon of deck stain for a project we’re doing at home. Leaving our subdivision you come to a traffic light where I go straight through to our local bank, which I needed to do before heading on to Lowe’s. You cross the major highway and the traffic is heavy and often moving pretty fast. At the red traffic light there was a car on the other side of the light signaling a left turn. I’ve learned that often those people needing to turn left, even though they do not have the right of way, still shoot out in a hurry and turn left, not waiting for the straight traffic to come through the light. The light turned green for us, I paused to see what they were gong to do, they paused to see what I was going to do, realizing they were going to observe the law I started to slowly pull forward into the road when a big Lincoln flew through the red-light at about 60 mph. If I had pulled out as soon as the light tuned green they would have t-boned my car. probably right into my driver side door. and I wouldn’t be here to right this blog entry.
Someday my number will be up, either my heart will fail, or someone will hit my car or I’ll find out that I have terminal illness, but Thursday was not that day. I’m thankful, but I’m not worried about that future day. I know that my life is in God’s hands and it will be the moment I leave this body! None of us know when that moment will happen, hopefully that time is far away, but we can’t be sure of that! I only shared this as a reminder that I hope you are good with he Lord, that you’ve trusted him with your life and you can feel the same assurance that I do!
It is a hot, muggy weekend in Corbin, but I’m still here, for now, and I’m thankful!
Blessings,
the pilgrim
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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 22nd, 2024 at 7:08 pm
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For years I’ve been a big fan of lenses, everybody’s lenses! When I worked for Nikon as a Tech Rep, I tested hundreds of lenses and for my own curiosity I’ve tested hundreds more! One lens I have always admired and heard great things about was the Olympus 75mm f 1.8. I never was an Olympus shooter so I never had any real personal experience with it. When I decided to pick up a Panasonic Lumix GX85, (a Micro 4/3rds sensor camera), I now had a camera that could accept that lens, so I picked one up and boy am I excited with the images!
About the lens, because it is used n micro 4/3rds sensor and a 2X crop factor, the focal length is the equiv. of a 150mm with a maximum, aperture of f 1.8. It is a odd focal length but a great moderate telephoto with exceptional performance and fast to boot! it is physically small and handles very well on the small range finder style body, the GX85. The images below are just random shots I took this morning driving around Corbin with Chester. All handheld, see what you think?
I know Sharpness is hard to evaluate on the internet, but the files are impressive on my computer screen, even at 100%! Not the most exciting subject matter, but I felt the lens performed very well! I would welcome your comments and thoughts!
Blessings,
the pilgrim
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This entry was posted on Friday, June 21st, 2024 at 2:59 pm
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When Sherelene started getting calls and emails asking why there was no announcement of my death, I knew I had gone too long without a blog entry!!!! Actually about two months ago my 10 year old Apple iMac died and after careful examination it was determined that it would cost more to fix it than replace it, so I was stuck without a computer in my home office. Many of my passwords and admin records were on that computer, so I needed help! First I had recently bought a 2018 Macbook Pro which combined with a new 26″ Benq monitor solved the office problem! Thankfully my dear friend RC Concepcion was kind enough to get my passwords straightened up so as of today I can get into Word Press again! Thanks RC!!
So, I’m back and yes, still alive, at 160 Whirlaway Trail! Top Image: It was just a little over a year ago that we lost our dear friend and brother Charles Stanley, I miss him everyday, but I know he finally knows one of his most burning questions, is there photography in heaven!? I’m betting there is!
Since my heart issue in 2023 I have been doing much less traveling and spending a lot of time at home with Chester! I wondered how I would feel when “real” retirement set in, but I have to say I’m enjoying it very much! I continue to play with some new Micro 4/3rds cameras an lenses and while the learning curve is a little steep, I am enjoying them! * Just in case you are reading into this that I am no longer shooting Fujifilm equipment, that is the furthest thing from the truth, I just wanted to play around with something new. I still have all of my Fujifilm equipment, four bodies and over fifteen lenses, and I use them often. I appreciate my relationship with Fujfilm, I’m just am enjoying a little fling! The Micro 4/3rds bodies and lenses are nice and small and fun to shoot with.
My next outing in the field will not be until early October when Jack and I will be joined by a handful of friends in the UP of Michigan! This has become one of my favorite places to shoot fall color!
I will try hard to get back to posting more often!
Till next time, God Bless!
In Him,
the Pilgrim
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 19th, 2024 at 1:47 pm
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