Bittersweet Farm

Red Jeep Journal
August 6, 2017

What were you doing 50 years ago? I remember distinctly what I was going. It was my very first summer camp experience. I was a camper for the first time at Lincoln Lake.

I remember the chapel, which at the time was in a WWII-style Quonset hut building.
I remember the choruses we sang; “With Christ in the Vessel” and “I Know Who Holds the Future.” (I sang with all my little heart and I still love both those songs).
I remember my counselor who was a pastor.
I remember the burning question that I asked him about assurance of salvation.
I remember some trouble I had (It’s personal) and…
I remember the nice nurse lady who helped me.
I remember swimming in the lake and playing “find your counselor.” (He hid under a row boat– nimble fellow).

This week when the campers gather in their chapel at Lincoln Lake I will be their chapel speaker. I hope they have happy memories of swimming in the lake and sleeping in the cabin or Yurt with their buddies. I hope they have a good counselor. I hope the camp songs still ring in their hearts after five decades have passed. I hope they cherish the sweet story of the Cross over the years like I do. I hope are each of them are soundly and securely and sincerely saved and that fifty years from now Lincoln Lake will be a happy memory for them, too.

Ken Pierpont
Deckerville, Michigan
August 6, 2017

Red Jeep Journal
August 4, 2017

Radio on the Road

They build camps in remote, beautiful places. I’ve been on the road a lot this summer driving to some beautiful places to speak at camps. On the road I often drive along in silence with my prayers and thoughts. I love to listen to a good podcast on the road.

When I was a boy I loved radio, still do. Now we have “radio-on-demand”–podcasts. A good podcast is great company for a road-trip. I still aspire to build a good podcast. In the last few years I have been experimenting with my own.

Adventure Deficit

Our son, Kyle has a friend named Drew DeVries who has created a fine podcast called Adventure Deficit. You may have noticed that there will never be a time short of the New Heaven and the New Earth to take all the adventures we would like to take, but you can read about them and you can watch them on TV and, especially when you are on the road, you can listen to adventures on podcasts.

One of the podcasts was about the North Country Tail, another was about a father-son cross-country motorbike adventure along the Rio Grande from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. They celebrated by fishing for shark in the Gulf of Mexico in baiting them in Kayaks. That episode was full of interesting stories.

Speaking of Father-Son Adventures

While we are talking about father’s, sons, and families, you might enjoy the Family Man podcast. It’s a realistic look at family and a reminder to cultivate strong family relationships. Check it out here.

Red Jeep Journal
August 3, 2017

Hope and I are in Millersburg, Ohio. I am preaching to teens at Skyview Ranch. Skyview is in the heart of the Ohio Amish Country. I have always loved this area. It has a wholesome feel to it.

The house where we are staying this week has a wide, shady porch and Hope has spent hours there reading. We have had time for some drives in the Ohio countryside to see tidy Amish farms among the hills and sample the local food and baked goods. It would not be good for me to come here often.

The weather as been perfect this week. We had a few showers yesterday but I was taking a nap when they came. It may have rained in the night once, but the campers have enjoyed a picture-perfect week. I have been teaching Romans to the teens. It is a delight to have a week to teach a book of the Bible to young people and watch drink in the truth.

Heartsong

This week a group of students from Cedarville University has been leading worship in chapel. They are outstanding young men and women and they have made preaching a joy. Their band is called Heartsong. They connect with the students and lead worship that is meaningful and powerfully Christ-exalting.

A Delightful Surprise

Years ago we started a church not far from here. One day I called on a young man in the hospital who had rolled a cement truck. His name was Lewis. I led Lewis to Christ that night. His wife was there and when I left she took the tract I left and went to the hospital chapel and prayed to follow Christ. The next day Lewis died. They had a little boy named Wes who was four at the time. Wes manages a restaurant not far from here so he and his mother and a friend came to chapel to hear me preach last night. There is no joy like the joy of following Christ and making Him known. Only God knows what will happen when we are faithful at that.

Big News This Fall

We have some very exciting plans this fall. Keep an eye on the kenpierpont.com web site. We will have a very special announcement to make very soon about our ministry this fall. You will not want to miss it.

We especially appreciate those of you who pray for our ministry and help us with financial support. You can follow this link to give.

If you are interested in our itinerary you can see it by clicking the ministry tab above.

Ken Pierpont
Skyview Ranch
Millersburg, Ohio

Red Jeep Journal
July 31, 2017

Hope and I will head to Ohio today to spend the week in the heart of the Ohio Amish Country. I will be speaking to teens at Skyview Ranch this week.

Next Sunday I will head up into the Michigan “Thumb” to preach at Deckerville Bible Church…

Pray for us, that campers would be saved and blessed and that I will not be tempted beyond that which I can bear by all the Amish baked goods within a short drive.

Red Jeep Journal
July 25, 2017

So after a session yesterday a cluster of mountain pastors were standing around swapping well-told stories. One of them was telling of a fella’ in his family who was good at woodworking.

Someone asked; “Did your dad teach you woodworking?”

“No”

“Well, where did you learn it?”

“I learned it in the pen.”

“Why were you in the pen?”

“The Feds found my moonshine still.”

“How did they find your still?”

“Well the hogs got lose and found it first and they got drunk, then the Feds followed the hogs they found my still and then I learned woodworking in the Pen.”

I chuckled and thought to myself. Now, that will make a great sermon illustration some day. I’m not sure what it illustrates, but I promise, it will make a good sermon illustration some day.

At lunch I ate with two mountain pastors. One of them had been in the ministry for 50 years. He and his wife drove the mountain road down to Oneida to hear me. His wife said; “I’m looking forward to hearing you preach. You’re handsome.” She may have had failing eyesight, but she had a good, sharp wit.

Another pastored one church for over 30 years. It was humbling to stand before them. They are kind people who love the Lord and the church and the ministry of the word. They listened and responded with great interest and kindness. I found myself asking God for many more years of fruitful ministry if it would please Him to allow it.

The music is being led by a giant of a man who’s name is Jason Stewart, but everyone calls him “Buba.” He used to drive Dr. Al Mohler, the president of Southern Seminary. He would make a great body guard. He towers over me at six foot seven and he is a big man, but he’s not really a bodyguard, he is a musician—a worship-leader and a very good one. He’s doing a great job, and if he wasn’t I would never tell him so.

I’m sleeping well and eating well and enjoying my time in the mountains this week. The only thing wrong with this picture is that my little hillbilly wife is not in it this week. I will return with her and we will dance at Hoedown Island and eat up at Natural Bridge and hold hands a little and drink some Ale8 in cold, green glass bottles.

Ken Pierpont
Oneida, Kentucky

Red Jeep Journal
July 24, 2017

I’m deep in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, a region I have come to love. I’ve been traveling into these mountains every year for the last 39 years. I’ve come to love the people and the countryside here.

Sunday I preached at New Prospect Baptist. The church is pastored by my friend Dr. David Price. Sam Judd is his associate there. The church is out a road that is carved from a mountain and it rests on the bank of a tree-lined, meandering body of water called Laurel Creek.

There are bird songs here I have never heard before. It’s good for a fellow’s soul to quiet his heart and listen to bird songs and take long, winding drives in the mountains and go to church on the banks of a creek. You should try it some time.

I am encouraging pastors this week at a mountain pastors conference. I am speaking in the chapel you can see from this pic taken from the lodge where I am staying.

I’ll tell you an interesting story I mined out of the hills of Kentucky a little later this week.

Ken Pierpont
Oneida, Kentucky