A year ago today, April 10, 2017 the Red Jeep Journey began. A young named Shawn Wojtkewicz stood at the tailgate of my Jeep and handed me a gift of $50.00 to help me in my summer of itinerant preaching. I drove the the Shell station on the way home, filled the gas tank of George, the Red Jeep with gas. As I stood there pumping the gas I thought of all the states George the Red Jeep would have to travel that summer and how many times I would need to fill the tank with gas.
“Help me, Lord;” I prayed. “Please provide what we need and help us.”
I went home, packed my clothes, packed a lunch, and tossed my sleeping bag in the back of the Jeep. We formed a little circle, held hands and prayed with the family, and headed down I-75 toward Kentucky.
The little Jeep ran like a champ all summer long. My heart was full and happy to be off serving the Lord and driving down into the lovely mountains of Eastern Kentucky in springtime to preach at Oneida Baptist Institute. You can read the post here.
I drove into Kentucky and stopped for lunch at a roadside rest. The sky was clear. I sat at a picnic table in the sun to eat my lunch. When I bowed my head to pray I was overcome with joy and and tears of thanksgiving to God. At home the trees were still bare, but the mountains of Eastern Kentucky were budding green and the Dogwoods and Redbuds were opening as I drove along the South Fork of the Kentucky River into the Village of Oneida.
At that time I had no idea the miracles of provision and direction that would unfold from April 10th to September 10th. In May I interviewed at Bethel. In June I was asked to speak. In July I was called to be their pastor. On the weekend of September 10th I fulfilled all my speaking promises and on the 17th I started as the Lead Pastor at Bethel.
Now I pastor a flourishing congregation that we love and we have a delightful farm house in the countryside. If the sky is clear tonight I will walk out under the night sky and look up at the stars of God and thank Him again from the depths of my soul. I never get tired of it.
It was a year ago today.
Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Summit Township, Michigan
April 10, 2018
