Bittersweet Farm
Teens from Evangel Baptist are in Florida and New York on Missions trips this week. (If you click on the pic you can actually make out who these fine folk are except Rob who was checking his shoe laces. Sorry Rob. We’ll get a good shot of you in the next bunch maybe).
Today the Pierpont family makes their way back to the Downriver area from vacation in Kentucky. It’s been refreshing. Almost every day has been a day of ministry here in Lois’ home town. Yesterday we hiked up to Chimney Top and Princess Arch in the Daniel Boone National Forest. Last night we sang and testified on the street and enjoyed the fellowship and some mean BBQ Brisket and ribs, too. That always makes me feel all happy inside.
Down here, you will notice they still do old-fashioned haircuts for young men. The local barber has been at it for 50 years in Campton. He cut George Hatton’s hair (Lois’ Grandfather), Ralph Hatton’s (Lois’ dad), her brother Alvin’s hair, and now her sons Dan and Wes.
Today we celebrate our nation’s independence. All over America families will gather to watch parades, grill burgers, and enjoy our families in the mid-summer sun. When darkness falls the sky will explode with colorful light all over this wonderful land. I am glad to be an American today. In my life I know I will never get to see all I would like to see of our country.
[Read more…] about Pray for America
And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
First-born Kyle and his family are visiting “second-born-son” in Door County. Read his posts here.
On the way to Iowa the other day we stopped to visit wee Kyle. He grabbed my cell-phone and jumped into his jumping balls. I think he is texting his girlfriend. Bright kid.
Dan, Wes and I aimed the Jeep for Kentucky early Monday morning. We had been apart from the girls for a month while they did their Kentucky music ministry. For a late lunch we wound through the mountains to a country store complete with a squeaky, slapping screen door. The friendly lady made me a home-made sandwich with real tomato – a real, red, juicy, vine-ripe tomato. Not the grainy, pink, hot-house variety, but a real, red tomato. No salmonella or anything. I washed it down with an Ale-Eight-One watching a hawk circle the valley.
We walked to a barber name Rudine who had been cutting hair here in Campton for fifty years. He knew Lois’ grandfather Hatton. He said, “The Hattons were all good people.” He gave the boys good old-fashioned 1950’s style haircut. Wes looks like Opie Taylor now with a vintage flat-top. Pude Oliver was there and a man from Jackson who made small talk about how they don’t tell stories anymore since they made it illegal to whittle on the front steps of the courthouse.
This morning there was mist in the mountains when I went for my morning coffee. It’s a beautifully cool morning. The music system was broken at the restaurant where I always start my days here in Campton. I was happy. Usually I listen to Fernando Ortega through my ear buds to drown out the country muzak they pipe in. The usual music at the restaurant is country music which is two parts God, home, and apple pie and one part fornication, drinking and general despair. (And yes, I would be glad for you to quote my description of country music).
Keep an eye on by blog www.kenpierpont.com while I’m here in the mountains. If I lived here I would call it “Blog on the Mountain – ”
This week we have been basking in the fellowship, feasting on the ministry of the word, and singing our hearts out here at the GARBC Annual Conference. It has been sweet. Dan and Wes are with me and I have been praying that God would do in their hearts what He did in my heart when I was their age. My deepest desire for them is that they would desire to devote themselves to life-long allegiance to Jesus Christ and pour themselves out in His service for the rest of their lives.
On a couple of occasions in my youth my parents made major sacrifices in order to expose our family to the fellowship and heritage of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. We tented our way to Kansas City one year. We stayed at a crowded camp ground. Every morning our family emerged from the tent – Scofield Bibles in hand, wearing dress clothes and we were off to the sessions. In the evening we hurried home and jumped in the pool. One day thunder storms knocked down our tent and soaked all of our possessions while we were away for the day at the conference. That was an adventure.
One year my dad and I drove to Winona Lake, Indiana for a day of the conference in our powder-blue VW bug. Dad and I spent the day enjoying the historic conference grounds, the fellowship, the book store, the music and the preaching. I remember Roger Mill’s message that night from 1 Peter on love. I remember what the group from BBC sang that night. There was another teen in the service that night named Ken Pyne. We would not meet for years. The meeting was in the old Billy Sunday Tabernacle with a sawdust floor. Darkness came quietly in during the meeting. We all spilled out onto the lawns in the cool night breeze blowing in off the lake. Dad and I drove home talking all the way about the ministry and the things of the Lord.
My parents were and still are devoted to the ministry of Christ over every other thing. They didn’t spend much money but when they did it was always investing in things of eternal significance. Like the household of Stephanus, they “addicted themselves to the ministry – ” (1 Cor. 16:15 KJV)
I am happy in the service of the King!
Pastor Ken Pierpont
Ankeny, Iowa – Attending the GARBC Annual Conference
June 27, 2008
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