![\"\"](\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Kentucky-Fortney-D70001.jpg\" "\\"Kentucky")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt was the best of times, and the worst of times……. \u00a0It was 1991 and my dream of a life time had come true, I was the owner of a workshop company, that from day one had been dedicated to serving God and spreading His love. \u00a0In the early years we worked so very hard. \u00a0I drove up to Freeport, Maine just to meet with some management people of L.L. Bean and ask how they had built their wonderful company, and I committed to make the GAPW (Great American Photography Weekend), \u00a0just like them, very, very customer oriented. \u00a0In no time the company was the top rated nature photography workshop company in America! \u00a0It was totally a God thing! \u00a0It belonged to Him and He made it great. \u00a0We served Him by loving everyone who came and we made our stance known by holding completely optional Sunday morning devotionals. \u00a0Lives were changed, people found the Lord, marriages were healed, people turned their lives around! \u00a0It was the best of times! \u00a0Later we needed capitalization and many long time attendees, all dear friends, wanted to be part owners, so with guidance of a dear brother in Christ we became a Sub Chapter S corp and sold stock. Things went well for a while and then the workshop business started to fall off for everyone in the business, and our board started to try to find ways to “improve” the company.<\/p>\n
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It was suggested that maybe the Sunday morning devotionals might “offend” someone of a different faiths. \u00a0Unfortunately things got rather heated and \u00a0as much as I hate to admit it, I over reacted and in an effort to defend my position, I hurt some people. \u00a0Of course, I came to my senses, and made appropriate apologies, and relationships were healed. \u00a0Shortly after our little internal battle the workshop business got even worse because 9\/11. \u00a0It became obvious that our little company could not survive if it had to continue to pay me. \u00a0To save the company, and in all honesty, I was getting tired of traveling, I resigned the Presidency and went off to look for a regular job. \u00a0The company went on without me. \u00a0I loved those early days when we \u00a0were not in any way under the pressure of “political correctness.” \u00a0I made many wonderful friends and saw so many people grow spiritually, it was all worth while, but sad to see it end for me, the worst of times.<\/p>\n
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Fast forward to today. \u00a0Nine years later I’ve celebrated almost a decade of \u00a0wonderful time at Nikon and in that time God has so richly blessed me with so much to be thankful for. \u00a0I decided that I missed doing workshops and wanted to get more involved in my ministry to photographers. \u00a0I love being with other shooters, and especially sharing our joint faith and belief. \u00a0So here I am again, at another starting point! \u00a0His Light Workshops is different though, I’m not trying to make a living now, I’m trying to make a difference. \u00a0I want the people that come to our workshops, tours, and events to come knowing they have a safe place, a safe place to express their faith, their love of God, and share that in a warm atmosphere of \u00a0Christian fellowship. \u00a0It’s open to anyone I just want them to know going in that these workshops will be different. \u00a0I’m not trying to exclude anyone, in fact I want to include everyone, I want everyone to know the extraordinary joy of being His, I don’t want to run anyone away, I want anyone that joins us to know they are in a place overcome with love, His love!<\/p>\n
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Now this morning at 4:15 a.m. apparently God was up, and He said up and at em’ to me. \u00a0I awoke and got my iPad and wrote out what He was giving me, and now I will share it with you. \u00a0 This is living proof of God’s sense of humor, and the answer to my concern on how to let people know what we are all about, enjoy;<\/p>\n
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His Light Workshops Disclaimer<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The attending of a His Light Workshop may lead to the following symptoms or reactions: elevated joy, increased faith, feelings of unrestrained laughter, compassion, and love! \u00a0In certain participants the following have occurred; desire to know and serve others with God’s love and grace! \u00a0Participants are WARNED that it is possible that the following might be experienced; spontaneous worship, \u00a0praise, and prayer. \u00a0 His Light Workshops should only be attended after consulting with the Great Physician. \u00a0The ownership and management does “not” disavow any of the warnings here with contained in this statement.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On this December 20th, 2011, \u00a0I find myself in the very Best of Times. \u00a0I’m at peace with God, my family and friends, and my friends include those that disagreed so many years ago on the right way to run a workshop company. \u00a0But this is fresh start because this little company does not belong to me! \u00a0 It belongs to Him and it will be used to serve Him until He brings me home. \u00a0My friends, life is strange when I was young I thought success was getting what you want, now years later I understand, success is wanting what you get!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In four days it will be Christmas Eve, my prayer for you is that you will want what you get!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Him,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was the best of times, and the worst of times……. \u00a0It was 1991 and my dream of a life time had come true, I was the owner of a workshop company, that from day one had been dedicated to serving God and spreading His love. \u00a0In the early years we worked so very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4133"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4150,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133\/revisions\/4150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}