Bittersweet Farm

Miss Heidi Fredrickson, Miss Angie Novotny, and Miss Hope America Pierpont at the annual ice-skating evening during the Indianapolis Christmas Conference. See all the pictures here.

One Saturday morning in December of 2002 the Pierpont guys made a trip to Lansing from Flint, were we lived at the time. We stopped for coffee, visited a unique guitar shop to drool over the Taylor guitars, and drove downtown to look for a Christmas present for my wife, Lois.

Gary Chapman says there are Five Love Languages. Lois is bi-lingual. Her love languages are acts of service and gifts. I want her to always feel real, real loved– especially at Christmas time. I want her to feel secure in my love like a little girl with a warm quilt tucked under her chin.

So we scouted the shops of downtown Lansing, sipped our coffee, and enjoyed the festive Christmas atmosphere. It was snowing that morning just enough to make it beautiful but not so much to make it difficult. We discovered a little gift shop called the Mole Hole. It was a delightful little shop filled with unusual gifts. I found some little mouse figurines. I knew Lois would love them. There were kayaking mice, tennis-playing mice, golfing mice, baking mice, ballet mice, and others.

My favorite mice were a group of mice in a little shed that included wise men mice, shepherd mice, Mary and Joseph mice and even a little mouse in a manger. That year I bought the mouse in the manger and the Mary and Joseph mice had them gift-wrapped in separate boxes.

From Christmas 2002 to Christmas 2005 we made our pilgrimage to Lansing in December to browse the Mole Hole and every time the Lord send a beautiful seasonal snowfall for us to enjoy. Every year we added some mice to our mice manger scene until last year I was able to buy the stable. Now we have wise men, shepherds, angels, Mary, Joseph and the little infant mouse, and we have the memory year after year of time together with the boys, playing guitars, enjoying the season, the snowfall and the local coffee.

Whatever you do to make sure the people you love know that you love them is worth the effort. Christmas is a time to love. When you do things at Christmas time you make memories and if all goes well, big snowflakes will fall while you are making them. Thoughtful acts of love are like a glue that holds our families together when so many things are trying to pull them apart.

Ken Pierpont
Brook Place
Hinsdale, Illinois
December 5, 2006

This is the view from my chair. (Of course, Lois took the picture)Early in the morning I read my Bible just inside this window before the rest of the family rises. In the evening I like to be with the family here. I try to read them something every night. Every night we are home in December I plan to read them one of my Christmas stories. I have a perfect brass reading lamp beside my chair that I found at a resale shop for five dollars. I repaired the cord and it is one of my prized possessions now.

After the most beautiful, balmy month of November I remember in my life, winter hit the western suburbs of Chicago on the first day of December. God has a way of displaying his power in spite of our plans.

It is an exceptionally beautiful winter day today… I rose this morning at five to drive to Momence for the first of what I am calling “Men of Momence” meetings. Now it is late afternoon. The sun is at the top of the trees. The boys are milking the last few moments of light from the day to snowboard.

Hope America and I are enjoying a quiet afternoon with the London Philharmonic Orchestra Christmas music and a fragrant pine candle. She is puttering in the next room and humming along with the music. I can’t imagine life without her. She wants to know when we are going to get our Christmas tree.

Hope America

Twenty-one years ago tonight Charles Kenneth Pierpont was born at Foote Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Michigan. He was born at exactly 10:00 p.m. and he was at home on Dogwood Drive by midnight. He’s been a great guy to have on the team. He has a great sense of humor. He is a very bright lad. He is one class from completing his bachelor’s degree.

He has devoted his life to the service of Christ. He witnesses to people every day. He would like to go west and get involved in a ministry there or even start a ministry some day. Along with pursuing his degree he has helped with the family ministry and served on staff at Camp Barakel in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan.

I can’t tell you how many times someone has come up to me and told me what a fine son Chuk is. A few times I have had people tell me they would give anything to be able to say they had a son like Chuk. I am glad to say that he is our son.

Happy Birthday, Chuk. You are a fine son.

Take a look at this

I try to be a happy man. A sad Christian is a public rebuke to his God. They say a flag flies over the castle when the king is present. The idea inspired this little chorus we used to sing; “Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of your heart when the King is in residence there.”

My mom worked hard to teach me the secret to joy when I was small. She was faithful to teach me the Bible and not just me but every kid in the neighborhood. She was devoted to gathering the children of the neighborhood into weekly clubs called Joy Clubs one afternoon a week.

In JOY CLUB we had a theme song. Here is how I remember it:

Jesus and Others and You
What a wonderful way to spell JOY
Jesus and others and you
In the life of each girl and each boy
J is for Jesus for he has first place
O is for others you meet day to day.
Y is for you, in what ever you do
Put Jesus first and spell JOY.

On Tuesday night we went strait from the school bus to the church for Joy Club. We would sing songs, and Mom or a friend would tell Bible and missionary stories with the aid of pictures and modest prizes. She awarded prizes to those who had perfect attendance and memorized their Bible verses and brought visitors. One of the prizes I labored hard for was a red and white felt beanie. It was called a “JOY Beanine” because it had the word JOY spelled out in macaroni letters. You may laugh but my mom grew up in the fifties when beanies were “cool.” The year I won mine was about 1968 and we lived in the country where people weren’t too concerned if you were a half-decade out of fashion.

Through my diligent effort I won my own JOY Beanie and ran home to look at myself in the mirror. There in macaroni letters on the front of my beanie was the word JOY reminding me of the timeless truth that the secret of joy was to love God with all my heart and to love my neighbor as myself. That was almost forty years ago. The beanie is gone but I still have the joy every day.

A kid with a beanie today would be laughed out of the neighborhood if not beaten, but the idea of joy growing from putting Jesus and others before you is timeless. I’m grateful for my mom’s efforts to spread joy around the neighborhood.

I hope you have a happy day. Remember: “Joy is evidence to the world that God can fully satisfy the human heart.”

Ken Pierpont
Brook Place
Hinsdale, Illinois
November 27, 2006

P.S. Mom says the JOY was not spelled with macaroni…. she says she can produce evidence to prove it. I yield. I think my mom’s spiritual gift is teacher, and you don’t want to challenge “teacher types” on details. You will loose every time. Nonetheless the salient details of the story are true and facts aside I will always remember my felt beanie with macaroni letters. I reserve the right to postmodern reconstructions when I deam that there is literary merit for them. 🙂