Bittersweet Farm

Our daughters Holly, Heidi, Hannah, and Hope are singing this month in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Last week one of the places they sang was Pigeon Roost Community House of Prayer. It was a tiny, neat church hidden in the hills of Kentucky, hill after green, forested hill from a town of any size. The girls have become such flatlanders living in Michigan that they usually arrive at their engagements green as the surrounding mountains.

They recovered enough to sing. When they sang, each of the girls testified. When they were done the pastor said he would like to hear their mother testify. Lois is reluctant to speak in public but when she does it is always sweet and meaningful. She stood to her feet and gave public thanks to the Lord Jesus for his goodness. When Lois was done the pastor said, “Well, now we’ve heard from each of the girls and the mother. Now I would like the grandmother to testify.”

Lois is reluctant to speak in public, but her mother never speaks in public – never. She is so quiet publically it is hard for her to order in a restaurant.

Lois and Holly both immediately started to intervene to save Grandma Allene from embarrassment, but before they could she stood up and delivered a flawless testimony of her dependence on Jesus and her gratitude to Him. She is almost seventy and it was the first time in her life that she ever gave a public testimony. On the way home she said, “These are my people down here in these hills. It’s not hard for me to talk to them.”

I’ve heard people in Kentucky, when they are referring to someone as a devout believer, say, “She’s a fine Christian, why she even testifies in Church.”

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
June 9, 2008