Left the Range - Sterling Johnson / kyletxria1911a1

[A1Oni]

Our dear friend and brother Sterling has passed away.

While the staff discusses and sets up a more formal mechanism for remembering our treasured friends, let this thread serve as a memorial. Post your pictures, stories, and anything else that tells us how Sterling touched your life.

When a memorial section is created, I'll clean up and move this thread there. For now, though, what say you in this time of sorrow?

man what a bummer, praying for him and his familia.

 

[blueangel64]

RIP to Sterling. Always enjoyed his comments/verbage. He will definitely be missed. Prayers to his family.

 

[GasGuzzler]

Godspeed to a loyal friend to folks here and safe travels to those who will attend. Rest in Peace Mr. Johnson.

 

[308nato]

Met Sterling a couple of times at some meet ups and always had a good time talking with him.
Prayers out to the family and RIP Sterling.

 

[mp_tx]

Godspeed. You will be missed. Condolences to the family.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AKM]

I just found out and man I hate to hear it. Sterling was a good guy, I hung out a couple times and it was a blast. I’m glad I got a wild hair to message him a while back and catch up.

Hopefully he left his CCW at home so they don’t hassle him at the front gate. (He would laugh at this...bonus points if you get the joke)

You definitely missed out if you never met him in person.

 

[skfullgun]

RIP.

Go climb high, on that mountain...

 

[AKM]

This makes me want to go hangout with the OG meetup group.

 

[TexasRedneck]

I just found out and man I hate to hear it. Sterling was a good guy, I hung out a couple times and it was a blast. I’m glad I got a wild hair to message him a while back and catch up.

Hopefully he left his CCW at home so they don’t hassle him at the front gate. (He would laugh at this...bonus points if you get the joke)

You definitely missed out if you never met him in person.

Oh, I remember it....I also remember the grief I gave him once it was all over.....In the usual Sterling style, he took it all in stride!!

Still trying to come to terms with his loss, too many good memories.

 

[Jakashh]

Very sad to hear, I found out earlier yesterday. He was truly a staple OG member of the TGT community. My condolences to his family. May there be plenty of white women waiting for him in heaven.

 

[FireInTheWire]

Time waits for no man.

RIP Sterling.

 

[benenglish]

More than a few people have mentioned or asked about where or how to make donations in Sterling's name or do something to honor him. While we have things we can do as a community like having a meet-up dedicated to him, it would be nice to make some direct gesture on behalf of him and his family.

I've been in contact with his widow. Apparently Sterling was quite involved with his church. In lieu of flowers or direct monetary gifts, she suggests that donations in his name go there.

I've texted her asking her to confirm the name/location/etc. of the church and I'll post it here as soon as I get it.

I made this post at this time in case anyone was about to send flowers or take other action that they might prefer to divert to the church.

Hopefully I'll have an update and instructions before the end of the day.

 

[Sam7sf]

Thanks Ben. I’ll definitely attend his church one Sunday and say hello.

If any of you folks want to join me for a road trip for Sunday service I’m cool with that.

 

[benenglish]

The church to which donations should be made is Christian Life Austin. They have a generic giving page here: https://app.easytithe.com/App/Giving/clcaustin .

I have messages in to the church to try to set up some sort of designated offering channel in Sterling's name. Thus far, I haven't heard back. I'll try to contact them by phone again tomorrow during business hours.

I'm going to delay my gift until I figure out if they can set up something in his name. One way or another, I should know tomorrow if that will be possible. If it is, I'll be back here with further instructions. If it's not possible, I'll post back here with confirmation of that. My fingers are crossed that all the details will be worked out within the next ~24 hours.

 

[SURVIVOR619]

Sorry to read this. Rest in Peace brother. Prayers for comfort to his family.

 

[benenglish]

I just talked to the director of the church program that Sterling supported. He's going to try to get a dedicated giving portal set up for the program. I should have more news tomorrow.

 

[AKM]

Just remember we are all bummed over him passing, but he’s doing better than ever now.

 

[benenglish]

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 !

 

[benenglish]

 

[benenglish]