Category : Pilgrim’s Chronicles

A few days ago I asked for your prayers about a sharing experience I had last night in Fort Worth, Texas, at Southwestern Photojournalism. I was the last twenty minutes of a day packed with powerful teachers, photographers, and speakers, that wowed the collected with their fantastic work and talent. My mission was a lot more simple, remind them how much God loves them and how much He wants to use their talents for His Kingdom.

I asked you to pray that it would not be me that they saw, but Him. Your prayers were answered.
I believe that in the end, they saw clearly just how much our Heavenly Father loves them, and how much He wants them to succeed, but succeed at serving Him and others. I followed Jeremy Cowart, an extremely talented young man, who has used his talent to accomplish some of those goals of reaching out to others. It was a touching moment in his program when he revealed just how much we can affect others lives with our God given talents.

It was an incredible time of seeing many dear old friends that I have such a deep love and respect for. It was a wonderful feeling driving back to my hotel last night knowing that once again, His mission was accomplished. When my head hit the pillow last night, I sent up one more prayer for the day,

Father, thank you for being with me tonight, thank you for once again, giving me the words to express my profound love for You. I’m gratified with the many kind words expressed after the evening program had ended, but Father my prayer to you is that they will have a hard time recalling my name today, but will forever be indelibly reminded of Your love, and Your Son’s great sacrifice for them. I pray that anyone that was there that does not know You, came to an understanding of their deep need for You in their lives. If one person decided to give up the fight and surrender to You, it was all worth it. Father, thank You again for giving me the mission I asked for so long ago. Please don’t let me ever misuse it, but may I always direct all the praise and honor to You. In Your Son’s precious name I pray, Amen.

the pilgrim

My good friend Sam Garcia, says, “A man who has a watch, always knows what time it is, and a man who has many watches, never knows what time it is…….” I’m not sure that quote is original to Sam, but he is the first person I ever heard it from. Today I have to take a moment to laugh at myself.

Yesterday morning after doing the blog, I had breakfast with Sherelene and then packed the car and headed to the airport. I had checked all my paperwork, flight, March 4th, rental car, March 4th, hotel reservations beginning on March 4th, I looked at my watch, March 4th. Off to the airport. Arriving in Knoxville an hour before my flight I went up to the Delta counter and said “I’m on the 12:25 to Memphis and then on to Dallas/Fort Worth.” The lady said let me find you and after a lot more clicking on the keyboard than usual, she said sir, I can’t find you on that flight. I assured her I had a copy of my e-ticket and handed it to her. She looked at it and looked up and said, “this is for tomorrow.” I said, “but today is March 4th and that’s what the ticket says.” “No sir she said in a kind voice, “ today is March 3rd.”

At the end of February if you have an old watch, like the one I was wearing, you have to change the dates yourself. When changing the date I must have advanced forward one day to far. The result, if you use your watch to determine the date, better set ti right. No harm, no foul, I visited a client in Knoxville and drove home for another night with Sherelene and then today, I really am off to Fort Worth. It is the 4th, isn’t it? At least that’s what my watch says……….

I’m a watch collector, sad to say I’ve got over two dozen, as marvelous as they are, they aren’t worth a dime if you don’t put the right information in them. Our lives are much the same, we must be set to the proper place if we are to be of any value to ourselves and others. The proper place is under the authority and guidance of Jesus Christ. When He rules our lives, when He sets our schedule, we are never too early, or too late.

It’s really pretty simple, I want to make a difference for Him, and I have nothing in me of enough value to accomplish that desire, but, He can give me all the tools, skills, love, patience, grace and power needed to do His will. He doesn’t want me to do it in my own strength for two very good reasons, I can’t, and He wants me to be dependent on Him. If I go out and do something He has led me to do and great results come about, the credit, and the glory all goes to Him, and that’s how it is suppose to be.

To Your glory my Father,

the pilgrim

*Photo Note: Nikon D7000, 60mm Micro Nikkor f 2.8 lens, window light.

Since I’m leaving for Fort Worth this morning and will not return until Sunday evening, Jim Begley and I ran over to Shaker Village yesterday to test the D7000 and do some scouting for an upcoming workshop we are holding in that area. It was a beautiful “spring like” day with temps in the mid 60’s.

We enjoyed walking through the beautiful Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky scouting shooting locations and making a few images along the way. I wish our society took a deeper interest in history, their is much to learn in a place like this. While I may not believe everything the Shakers believed, I can have nothing but deep admiration for their steadfast dedication to their beliefs. This Historic Village remains a shadow of things past with great accuracy due to the wonderful dedicated staff that keeps this history alive. Only three individual Shakers are still living today, but long ago hundreds farmed and lived in this wonderful place.

I can’t wait to share this great experience with our friends that will join us here in April. While you enjoy some of the images, please think about how important our won history is to us and what our forebears and forefathers passed down to us. Think about our responsibility to keep it vital and alive for our future generations.

Blessings, the pilgrim You can check it out at: http://www.shakervillageky.org/

Top, Spiral Stairs in Shaker Village, Above left to right, Traditional Shaker straw hat on peg runners,
Steep stairs with side table and lemons in bowl, broom straw in the brethren broom shop, Shaker dwellings, wool yarn made and dyed at Shaker Village. Below, the famous Sunset Motor Lodge sign, nearby in Sanford, Kentucky, made famous by Jim in his terrific HDR shot, very bottom, beads and watches in the Beaumont Inn gift shop.

* Photo Note: All images D7000, 12-24 AFS f4 Nikkor lens and 24-120 AFS VR f4 Nikkor Lens.
All tripod shots except the lemons and stairway, shot hand held at equivalent focal length of 180mm
at 1/50th of a second, gotta love Vibration Reduction.

First set back on the get healthy program, up a pound. Not a problem, I’m sticking to the program and figured this day would come, still going to be on track. I wanted to take this morning to do something very important, thank you. I’ve never had this much success trying to get my weight down and I know it is directly related to the prayers I asked for from you guys. You’ve proven your partnership before and it’s working now.

One of the great things about a committed walk with Him is the great fellowship it leads you to,
even though many of us do not know each other personally, we are in the same fight together.
I’m looking forward someday, to spending an eternity getting to worship Him and fellowship on the other side. Today I’ve got to do some local traveling before leaving for Fort Worth tomorrow.
Thank you for your friendship, your prayers and your being here with me.

When you have brothers and sisters like all of you, it’s easy to whip up some lemonade on days like these.

the pilgrim

* Health Note: Up 1 pound 220. Back to the grindstone.

* Photo Note: D700, 200mm Micro Nikkor f11 @ .3 sec. Lemon slice in seltzer water.