Easter. It’s dusk on Easter Day out on Bittersweet Farm. All the family have gone home and the house is quiet leaving us to our thoughts, and they are sweet tonight. Friday at Bethel the church was full of worshippers even with some in the balcony. Today the place was full to the ceiling, even the balcony was well-populated. We celebrated with food, brass, bells, songs, choir, dance (on Friday night), prayers, praise, accordion, and the preaching of the Word. The Bethel faithful invited hundreds of guests. I’m sure it is a day I will remember for the rest of my life. We are so blessed to serve here.
Finding Bittersweet.Every day I’m getting reports from people who are reading Finding Bittersweet. My heart is full for how it is being used to encourage people. When I was writing the book I knew it would be of interest to our friends, but I was not sure how it would be received by those who do not know us well. The testimonies that are coming back are from some who are going through deep waters and the Finding Bittersweet story is helping them cling to the promises of God.
A Story Behind the Writing of the Finding Bittersweet Story
This evening I am in my writing corner and the sun has set on Easter and I’m tired. I’m tired in a peaceful way. I’m about to climb up into our wonderful bed and rest. Tonight I will rest with a smile in my heart. 
I have a beautiful copy of my new book Finding Bittersweet lying on my desk under the light beside me. I keep looking over at it with satisfaction. I pick it up and fan through it. I re-read snatches of it. It makes me smile. It makes me want to cry. I give thanks to God.
To the author a book like Finding Bittersweet is an accomplishment, it is a treasure, it is the culmination of decades of living and reading and writing and crafting words and conversations and stories and listening. There are are stories and stories behind stories revealed in the book and there are stores behind the stories of the book that will probably never be printed.
So the book is really the product of primary grade teachers drilling basic facts into a hyper little blonde boy. It’s the product of bus rides and reading groups and book clubs and trips to the Principal’s office. It’s the product of my parents faithful discipleship and discipline, their love and encouragement. There are dead-ends and there are misunderstandings. There are false starts and scraps of ideas that never came to anything. There were hurts and injustices. There were my own many sins and mistakes.
When I wrote the heart of the book it was in the deep winter. We had a snow day and it was imprudent to try to get the church office open. We stayed home and enjoyed the luxury of a snow day with the calendar page wiped clean. I wrote that day. All day. Coffee and writing. Little else. Sitting by the window in the dead of winter writing about spring drives through the mountains it seemed at times if I opened the window the air would bear the fragrance of spring.
My faithful little Jeep sat out in the yard as if shivering in the snow and icy wind. The furnace purred. I napped, rose refreshed, brewed more coffee, wrapped myself is a fleece-lined flannel shirt jacket and kept writing. I wrote on into the night and that day the heart of the book was done.
There would be many, many, more hours of writing, editing, re-writing, listening to others, but I was well on my way after that winter day.
A now spring has come and the book is on the desk beside me and a season of my life has ended, but the lessons are sealed in this book. Now I look forward to new and fresh stories. There will always be more stories. Life pulses with them.
Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019
Below I have gathered some photos of many of the family today.
Our son Pastor Kyle, his wife Elizabeth and the boys.
Kyle, Oliver, and Leland
Our oldest daughter Holly, her husband Jesse with Aiden Redemption and Bella Allene
Our son Pastor Chuk, his wife CC and children Aspen and Gunnison
Our Daughter Heidi
Our daughter Hannah and her husband Dale
Our son Deputy Dan Pierpont, his wife Katelynn and their son Waylon (another on the way)
Wes and Dylan
Our newest granddaughter, Halie Marie Pierpont, born to our son Wes and his wife Dylan.
Hope America and her friend Tim
And this is Lois, who avoids pictures a lot but needed to be on this page… without whom, no one would be here.
Beautiful pictures of your family!! Miss seeing them and you & Lois! God’s blessings on all of you!
Jim & Bea
Thanks for sharing your family pictures. All very special . And your right none would be here except for the strong woman Lois.
Looking forward to reading Finding Bittersweet. Congrats on the newest grandprincess !
Thanks for sharing your pictures.
Thanks Bea. Miss seeing you and talking about the things of the Lord. Thanks for staying in touch.
Karen, thanks for your interest in the family. We were not all able to be together so I thought posting a bunch of Easter pics would be fun. Thanks for all you do.
Dolores, you are right about Lois. She is the very heart of things around here.
WHAT a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful family! As you already know, you are a blessed man, Ken Pierpont! Thank you for sharing these wonderful photographs, and thank you for sharing Finding Bittersweet with all of us. It is a masterpiece of the heart and pen that brings glory to God. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
Donna! What an amazingly kind thing to say. Thanks so much for all your work on Finding Bittersweet. Bless you.
I love the legacy you are writing in your family. I believe God has called me to follow the example of guys like yourself—a pastor whose children after him are also serving Christ. Thank you for your example to me personally. God bless you, Ken.
Michael, may God give you the desire of your heart for his glory. We need the Lord, every one of us. We need all of Him, but He has been kind to us to give us children who love Jesus and love us.