Left the Range - Sterling Johnson / kyletxria1911a1

[Vaquero]

Great tribute.
Thanks for sharing Ben.

 

[benenglish]

Sterling's church is in the process of setting up a dedicated method for giving to the group he supported. As I said, I'll post here as soon as it's done.

 

[1911'S 4 Me]

He was a better man than any of us thought.

 

[Hoji]

He was a better man than any of us thought.

A lot of us had a pretty good idea

 

[robertc1024]

A lot of us had a pretty good idea

Yep. He just called it like it was - whether you liked it or not - but in love. That's what I'm most going to miss about him being gone. It's easy to be a jerk, but someone who tells you the honest truth and still cares about you, is rare.

 

[Darkpriest667]

Sterling was too good for us to keep so God took him early. Breaks my heart, but we're only sad because we're selfish and want him for ourselves. Whenever that tribute is set up I'll be donating. I'm not 1/100th the man Sterling was.

 

[billtool]

After I talked to David, the director of the Kids Outdoor Zone church group that Sterling supported, he sent me this text, the transcript of a tribute to Sterling and chock full of insight into what sort of man he was.

In the next post, I'll put the pictures that go with this narrative.

----------------------------------------

Brother Sterling Johnson passed away 7/7/22 in the morning. My uncle Pat passed away the same day at 10:30 AM.

Brother Sterling Johnson was a grandfather to a boy he brought to KOZ at the church. He told me he was not in good health and wanted Gavin to have good Godly mentors that would teach him about Jesus and how to become a man and how Gavin did not have a father in his life.

The first day he brought Gavin was in November 2021. It was a day that we were going to address a problem that happened in October on a deer hunt. There was a boy visiting us for the first time that was causing some of the boys to make fun of Olumide. He admitted to one of our boys that he was a racist.

Olumide was troubled on the ride home and he told Josh about it when they got to church. Olumide’s mom called me and was upset telling me that she thought KOZ was a safe place for her son and how they had experienced this kind of persecution in Africa. She told me Olumide would not be back.

I was so sick at this and I started praying. I told Richard we needed to address this at the next outing but we can not fix it with words or actions we will need the Holy Spirit to do it. So at November 21 meeting in a circle around the campfire with new visitors Sterling and Gavin Johnson brother Richard started to address the issue with the boys. The Holy Spirit took over and brother Richard was pleading and crying with the boys not to look at the differences in how others look but that each boy was made in Gods image Richard got overwhelmed with tears and could hardly speak the boys were listing intently to this powerful leader being broken in front of their eyes.

As all eyes were on him and hearts were opening to this truth and Richard was overwhelmed brother Sterling Johnson got up and walked straight to Richard and gave him a big hug and patted him on the back!

This was so powerful a older black man hugging a 54 year old white man both in tears, in front of our boys.

I video taped this and I ended up sending it to Olumide’s mom. Holy Spirit moved and his mom sent me a message thanking me for addressing this issue and that Olumide would be back to the next meeting ! Praise God He used Brother Sterling and Gavin to help heal a big wound in our group that had never happened before or since !

Only God could send someone to do that and change the course of our KOZ group !

Thank you Brother Sterling for allowing the Holy Spirit to use you !

Olumide had been with us for 2 1/2 years and I am so glad he has been with us now for 3 years. The next month in December we did a homeless serve day and I made Olumide the leader and director of the outing ! I wanted to honor him and his family and I told his mom he is a leader. At this years fundraiser gala at the Hyatt downtown Austin I picked up Olumide from home and took him with me to sit at the Christian Life Austin Kids Outdoor Zone table. He was the only KOZ invited and he set at the table full of leaders. He is definitely a Junior leader in our group And I told him he’s going to do great things in his life. He told me he’s going to law school to Harvard for Texas he wants to become a judge.

So thank you brother Sterling Johnson for what you did bringing Gavin to us and for what you did for Olumide and his family and for what you did for our group’s spiritual and mental health.

Thank you for always wanting to help and do all you could physically do and I know you would of done more if you could.

But what you did in the spiritual realm for Gavin , Olumide and our group was far more than you knew.

Kids Outdoor Zone Christian Life Austin owes you a great debt of gratitude and we honor you life and legacy today !

I bet this was just the very tip of the iceberg. It’s just so sad that this man’s family has to forge it’s path in his world without him.

 

[Axxe55]

After I talked to David, the director of the Kids Outdoor Zone church group that Sterling supported, he sent me this text, the transcript of a tribute to Sterling and chock full of insight into what sort of man he was.

In the next post, I'll put the pictures that go with this narrative.

----------------------------------------

Brother Sterling Johnson passed away 7/7/22 in the morning. My uncle Pat passed away the same day at 10:30 AM.

Brother Sterling Johnson was a grandfather to a boy he brought to KOZ at the church. He told me he was not in good health and wanted Gavin to have good Godly mentors that would teach him about Jesus and how to become a man and how Gavin did not have a father in his life.

The first day he brought Gavin was in November 2021. It was a day that we were going to address a problem that happened in October on a deer hunt. There was a boy visiting us for the first time that was causing some of the boys to make fun of Olumide. He admitted to one of our boys that he was a racist.

Olumide was troubled on the ride home and he told Josh about it when they got to church. Olumide’s mom called me and was upset telling me that she thought KOZ was a safe place for her son and how they had experienced this kind of persecution in Africa. She told me Olumide would not be back.

I was so sick at this and I started praying. I told Richard we needed to address this at the next outing but we can not fix it with words or actions we will need the Holy Spirit to do it. So at November 21 meeting in a circle around the campfire with new visitors Sterling and Gavin Johnson brother Richard started to address the issue with the boys. The Holy Spirit took over and brother Richard was pleading and crying with the boys not to look at the differences in how others look but that each boy was made in Gods image Richard got overwhelmed with tears and could hardly speak the boys were listing intently to this powerful leader being broken in front of their eyes.

As all eyes were on him and hearts were opening to this truth and Richard was overwhelmed brother Sterling Johnson got up and walked straight to Richard and gave him a big hug and patted him on the back!

This was so powerful a older black man hugging a 54 year old white man both in tears, in front of our boys.

I video taped this and I ended up sending it to Olumide’s mom. Holy Spirit moved and his mom sent me a message thanking me for addressing this issue and that Olumide would be back to the next meeting ! Praise God He used Brother Sterling and Gavin to help heal a big wound in our group that had never happened before or since !

Only God could send someone to do that and change the course of our KOZ group !

Thank you Brother Sterling for allowing the Holy Spirit to use you !

Olumide had been with us for 2 1/2 years and I am so glad he has been with us now for 3 years. The next month in December we did a homeless serve day and I made Olumide the leader and director of the outing ! I wanted to honor him and his family and I told his mom he is a leader. At this years fundraiser gala at the Hyatt downtown Austin I picked up Olumide from home and took him with me to sit at the Christian Life Austin Kids Outdoor Zone table. He was the only KOZ invited and he set at the table full of leaders. He is definitely a Junior leader in our group And I told him he’s going to do great things in his life. He told me he’s going to law school to Harvard for Texas he wants to become a judge.

So thank you brother Sterling Johnson for what you did bringing Gavin to us and for what you did for Olumide and his family and for what you did for our group’s spiritual and mental health.

Thank you for always wanting to help and do all you could physically do and I know you would of done more if you could.

But what you did in the spiritual realm for Gavin , Olumide and our group was far more than you knew.

Kids Outdoor Zone Christian Life Austin owes you a great debt of gratitude and we honor you life and legacy today !

I think that's a wonderful story to remember about the type of person Sterling was.

Thanks for sharing that with the members.

 

[PinnedandRecessed]

Recently, I have not been able to check TGT as often as I'd like so it came as a shock to hear of Sterling's passing. I always enjoyed his humor and the multiple interactions I had had with him through the forum. We were neighbors but sadly never met in person. The days are long but the years are short. RIP Sterling.

 

[TexMex247]

Damn. We lost a good one. I never had the pleasure of meeting the man but I could tell he was a salt of the earth guy. His character, quality and sense of humor were on display in just about every post he made here. I hope he's slapping steel at that long range in heaven. My condolences to his family and all that knew him personally.

 

[TexasRedneck]

Who's going to make the services tomorrow? I'm going - heard from DCav today that he and the missus will be there...I'll be wearing a TGT shirt in his honor - Sterling would love that! Just wish I knew if the place was posted - I'd tote one of my 1911's for him!

 

[benenglish]

I'll be wearing a TGT shirt in his honor

And his family will have one on display.

 

[TexasRedneck]

Just spoke with Rose Ann - the church IS a "gun free" zone....they'll be having a gun salute (military), but those will be blanks, of course - but other than that, we need to leave any weapons in the vehicles, or at least DEEP under cover. We don't need to create any issues for her.

 

[AKM]

I’m out of town the wrong direction or I’d go.

 

[Txhighlander]

My life had been turned upside down here lately an I missed this. I never got to meet Sterling but always tried to read what he posted. R.I.P. Sterling. God has you now.

 

[TexasRedneck]

As far as I could tell, it was DCav and his missus Anastasia, and myself (wife is still recovering from her stroke, but understood why I needed to be there). We had a final shot salute to him.....I kept the bottle (just a plain plastic bottle, but...).

His daddy is SO identical to Sterling's appearance it's eerie - you can see the familial resemblance in his brother Chris. Rose Ann appeared to be holding up well.

Damn, I"m going to miss him.....

 

[motorcarman]

I did meet him at Hicksville TGT meet years ago and shook his hand.
I gave him a telescoping fork to go with his big personal bowl he used to bring.
He did shoot my SVT40 and said he liked it.
Gonna miss him.

 

[Moonpie]

Sitting here thinking about Sterling and what toys to take to the meet.
I recalled a little anecdote about him.
It was at one of our occasional get togethers at Dietz range outside New Braunfels a few years ago.
Sterling was shooting the bull with me as I unpacked some pew-pews. One of them was a small auto pistol I had recently acquired. A Colt 1903 pocket auto in .32.
I had put a set of fake ivory grips on it.
He asked me what it was. When I told him it was a .32 his eyes lit up and he became very animated about it. Of course I handed it to him with a handful of loaded mags and said have at it. He was loving that.
Of course he wanted to buy it.
As usual I told him sure I’ll sell it. $400.
He went into the Sterling mode of “$400 DOLLARS!!! You crazy! FOR A .32?!?!
Oh how I was trying to rob him. He even said I was pointing the gun at him demanding THAT much money. LoL.
Handing him the now reloaded magazines he went out and shot it again.
The wailing began anew when he returned(with a big smile on his face).

So. I will bring that little .32 and shoot it to remember.

 

[benenglish]

Sitting here thinking about Sterling and what toys to take to the meet.

Thanks for the anecdote. If I make it, I'll bring a .32 auto and a .32 revolver or two, too.

Seems fitting.

 

[TxBigfoot]

I'm just now seeing this. There's a few members here that make TGT what it is, Sterling being one.