Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 132
December 21, 2013
Savannah
It’s Christmas week. A week of celebration, food, fellowship, warmth, gifts and family. Not everyone will enjoy these things. Few really know that Christ of the Bible. It’s been cold. Reminded me of an incident that happened a few years ago. I wrote about it back in 2008.
It was cold last night – good sleeping weather we like to say – if you have a cozy bed piled with quilts. Last night I got in bed with a warm feeling of security. I slept between flannel sheets. Before I went to bed I prayed to Jesus, the King of Angels, that He would watch over our home and our dreams. The house was quiet. I tumbled some scripture over in my mind while I went to sleep. I slept deeply.
Savanna did not. She was drinking with her boyfriend. He was drinking more. Things turned ugly. She was scared. She called the police. They came but did not make an arrest. She packed what she could in a bag and walked away from the house and started south. It was cold. She didn’t have warm clothes. Her bag was heavy. Eventually she ran out of sidewalk. Her thin shoes were saturated with water in the high, wet grass. She was cold and afraid. Her shoulders hurt. She thought of leaving her bag because it was too heavy to carry, but it was all she had. She finally found what shelter she could and tried to sleep.
This morning I was in a hurry. I needed to get some things from the church. I only had a minute. When I arrived at the church and bounded up the steps Savanna was there. She had spent a cold, sad, scary night praying and trying to sleep on the ground under the front entrance to our church.
The pastors and church staff went to work to get her warm and find her a little something to eat. We each took turns talking to her about the things of the Lord and her need for Jesus. Joan made some calls. The Millers drove her to meet a friend who had left from Tennessee and drove through the night to get her. We may never see her again.
Her young life has been filled with incredible hurts. Her mind is confused about what is true. She’s been abused by her family, confused by the exposure she has had to the religious people she has known. Today she is warm and safe and at least six different Christians have teamed up to help her see who Jesus really is.
PS. After Savannah was helped and connected with family from another state I found her shoe. It is a reminder to me that there is much brokenness not far from our beautiful church building.
Ken Pierpont
The Pastor’s Study
October 24, 2008
Before you sleep tonight listen to this beautiful song by Fernando Ortega: Fernando Ortega’s Jesus, King of Angels

December 20, 2013
Are You A Doer or Just a Reader?
It was the first evening of our big Christmas musical. The building was filling up with people to celebrate Christ’s birth. There was a happy excited buzz in the air. People were dressed for Christmas. Here at Evangel the Christmas Musical is pretty serious business. The choir works hard, memorizes their music and uses special lighting, drama, sets and video. It’s a big deal.
A few minutes before the musical begin I got a text from my son, Daniel. He is a second-year student at a Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The text said; “Do you have time for a story?”
The program was to start in ten minutes but I love a good story like a farm boy loves mashed potatoes and gravy.
I called. “Danny, you have a story for me?”
He was jubilant.
“Dad, I just had the neatest experience. I was reading Randy Alcorn’s book The Treasure Principle. I’m reading it for a class. But this evening when I finished reading it I just wanted to give something but I really don’t have any money.
I thought about the cookies that are left over in the school cafeteria. I went over and asked the cook; ‘could I have the left-over cookies?’
He said, ‘Well, the deal is you have to eat your food in the cafeteria.’
‘They were not for me, I said. I wanted to give them away to people on the street who might be cold and hungry.”
‘I see. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You give me 30 minutes and I will have seven dozen fresh-baked cookies for you to give away.’
A couple girls heard about the plan. They went to the school cafeteria to help bake the cookies.
Dad, when I went to pick up the cookies he had them in nice containers and he had four gallons of hot cocoa for us to give away with the cookies.
I didn’t really have any gas in my car, but Kodie, my roommate, had some so we took his car. We went where he fishes, because there are often homeless people there, but no one was there. I think it was too cold. We couldn’t really find anyone. We drove around downtown but couldn’t find anyone. We decided that we were in an area with too many nice restaurants. We kept looking until we came on a long line of people waiting outside a rescue mission.
We were nervous. We got out of our car and started toward them.
Kodie shouted out; “Would anyone here like some fresh-baked cookies and cocoa?”
Suddenly it was like a big Christmas party. People were laughing and talking and eating cookies and drinking cocoa. One man came up to me and said; ‘Do you mind coming over here.’
I followed him. He had two small children and they were huddled in a doorway to keep out of the cold wind. They eagerly took the cookies and cocoa and thanked us.
In just few minutes we were out of cookies and cocoa and we turned to walk back to the car.
Dad, as we drove away there was a huge chorus of people shouting “Merry Christmas.” I had the warmest feeling in my heart.”
I thanked Daniel for the story and went in to celebrate Christmas with the church family.
There is no satisfaction on earth as great as that which comes when you get out of your chair and go do something in Christ’s name. It fulfilling when you start doing what you’ve been reading about.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
December 20, 2011

December 19, 2013
It’s Almost Christmas
A couple years ago I witnessed something sad and made a note about it in my journal. Today I want to share that entry with you…
It’s almost Christmas. I wouldn’t mind if it was a little colder and a little snowier. Yesterday I realized that not everyone feels that way.
I had worked hard all day and on the way home I needed to stop by a health food store for a few things. I was driving behind the store when out of my peripheral vision I saw a man sprinting toward me. He wasn’t jogging for his health or hurrying a bit to get out of the rain. He was on a dead run.
I got out of my car and started into the store. Two more young men came running after the first man. I turned to watch what was happening. The first man dropped a pair of gloves and darted across the street. The young men grabbed the gloves and tried to keep with the thief while they dialed the police. I think they were plain-clothes security officers from a nearby department store.
They ran down the street toward the east. I had an idea where the man might be going. There is a warming shelter ministry at a church near there. It was getting toward evening. They sky was darkening. The wind was picking up. The temperature was dropping. I thought the man might have gone to steal a pair of gloves while he waited for the warming shelter to open and the evening meal to be served.
I finished by business at the store but the incident troubled me. I drove over to the church to see if I could find the man who needed gloves. I couldn’t find him. He may already have been picked up by the police, but as I circled though the church lot what I saw broke my heart. There were people huddled against the building waiting for the warming center to open.
I could tell they didn’t want it to get any colder. They wanted warmth. They wanted shelter. They wanted food. They had no homes. I kept driving toward our home. I wept and I prayed as I drove toward my warm home full of light and love and laughter and banter and food and safety and security.
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, but not everyone is. Merry Christmas
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
December 20, 2011

December 15, 2013
A Difficult Christmas
Here is a classic re-post from eleven years ago.
The decorations around the Inn this year are beautiful. A fire burns in the huge fireplace in the lobby. We are warm, happy and secure. But I remember a difficult Christmas when we had no tree or decorations. The children were complaining about it so I sent them into the woods to find one. About a half hour later I saw them coming from the woods dragging the most pitiful little branch of evergreen you ever saw. It made Charlie Brown’s tree look like the one at Rockerfeller Center. They had cut the top out of a pine tree. We put a strand of lights on it and propped it in a corner. We prayed. We laughed a little. We cried.
I like to write happy stories that encourage so I have never written of this Christmas until now. It is the most memorable Chritstmas of my life. Not because everything was perfect but for the exact opposite reason. Our lives were in turnoil. We were practically homeless and we were deeply discouraged. It was 1994, the year Wesley was born. The house we were renting was on the market for sale. We had promised to move if it sold and it did. We were to be out of the house by the fifteenth of December if I recall the date.
We thought we had a contract on another house, but at the last minute the deal fell through. We had no place to go and we were tempted to stay and tell our landlord that it was simply impossible to move. We knew that he would have to go through legal channels that would give us the needed time to get us thorough Christmas and the New Year’s Day and we had the promise of a nother lease by then.
I received counsel from people who love us much and care for us deeply to stay put until we had a place to go. One morning when I was weighng the decision I rose early seeking direction from the Lord. The Lord brought Psalm 15 to my memory very clearly early that morning.. “–he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.” I knew that I needed to keep my promise.
I called our landlord and appealed to stay longer. He said I could only if I had no other place to go. That day some Amish friends called and said they knew of a small house out near Walhounding that was vacant. They made hay there in the summer. The house we small and it was not in good repair. It was never occupied. A friend made some repairs to the hot water heater so it would be safe to operate.
Wes was born on the tenth. Lois took Wesley and the girls to stay with her mother. They would be warm and safe there. I took charge of the move. A young lady from the church and her boyfriend came to help us. The day we moved our Amish friends helped us. The ladies made a meal. My brother Nathan was there working with us all day. Toward evening everyone had gone home except Nathan. We went back to get one final load. It was late at night. The rain had fallen all day. Almost everything we owned was in a garage at the little house in Walhounding. We would store it there until our permanent home opened up.
Nathan and I, wearily loaded the final load and took it to the new place. When we arrived and opended the garage door we discovered to my horror that all day the rain had been pouring through holes in to roof onto the top of my library and everything else we had stored in the garage. We quickly moved everything away from the leaks and covered our possessions with a tarp.
The house had no well. The drinking water was supplied by a sistern across the road and down the hill from the house. It seemed at this place if we had water we did not have heat and if we had heat we did not have water. The weekend we moved it rained continually. Later it turned very cold. In the middle of the night the heater went out. There was a gas well on the place so heating fuel was free but worked sparatically. The owner said there was a local man who knew how to keep it going. If we needed help we were to call him. Of course heaters rarely go out in the daytime. In the middle of the night we got this poor stranger out of bed to come and get the furnace going. We didn’t know what to think of him. We felt vulnerable, insecure and discouraged.
During our time there the entire family was sick. We would be sick through Christmas and on into the first part of the new year. Lois came back with little Wes and the girls for Christmas Day. It was on a Sunday. That morning we got up to go to church and the tire on the car was flat. After church we left for Kentucky. When we returned we went to Michigan to visit relatives. We would never have stayed so long if it had not been for the difficult circumstances back home.
During that time I preached for a special New Years’ Eve Service at my brother-in-law’s church in Coldwater. That service would be a major intersection in the road of our lives. There that night was a family that God used to direct us eventually to Fremont where we would serve for six good years. That same family was used of the Lord again just a few months ago to confirm the direction of the Lord for us to move here to the Character Inn.
That is the way God usually works. He usually takes us through the valley of the shadow of death before we arrive at the table he has prepared for us. Some dark and difficult days are usually a part of God’s good plan. That was true for the Lord Jesus Himself. That will always be true for each of us. So far I can say, in spite of difficult circumstances and dark days that goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.
Kenneth L. Pierpont
Riverfront Character Inn
Flint, Michigan
Christmas Day 2002

December 11, 2013
The Perfect Christmas
Christmas is never going to be perfect
As long as earth suffers under the curse,
But Jesus is always present
And Jesus is always perfect.
-Ken Pierpont

December 10, 2013
Christmas Tree 2013
We like to wait for a bit of snow before we get our tree. Yesterday about the time I finished my morning message the snow began to fall–just enough to make things look wintry for our trip out toward Chelsea. This is our seventh Christmas. The first two years we found our tree out on King Road. The last four have been from a delightful tree farm out on the edge of Crystal Lake.
Kyle, Heidi, and Hannah are married. Dan and Wes are over in Grand Rapids, so it was just a Jeep full, Lois and I, Chuk, Holly and Hope. We listened to Christmas music and found a perfect little tree growing on the crest of a hill overlooking the lake.
Chuk cut a bargain tree and dragged it to the the barn for binding. We are in the Granville Cottage now, closing a day off with a Christmas movie. Hazard is at my feet. He stayed home this year because he always throws up. Our Frasier Fir is over in the corner right now waiting for it’s lights and decorations. Hope made some cookies and dinner is on the stove.
I hope you have a peaceful, quiet, simple Christmas season with just the right amount of cookies and snow.

December 8, 2013
Quiet Monthly Ritual
This morning I came into my study and realized that I had not turned my calendars to December yet. I love my calendars, especially my John Sloane calendar. For years I have used a large wall calendar with John Sloane prints in my inner study where I see it many times a day. When I glance up at it, it is a very utilitarian thing as I go about my work, but when I change to the new month I always stop for a while, stand quietly, and look into the picture. I suppose I imagine myself in the picture.
If you google John Sloane images you will get page full of wholesome beauty like this:

December 7, 2013
Old AND New
I’m a pastor. In our church we have a great mix of new and old. I think that is the way it should be. We don’t want to live in the past, but we want to learn from it and build on it and respect it. I like to say that I want to pastor the kind of church my parents would like and our kids would like. (My parent and our children know and love the Lord). That requires a good balance of new and old, tradition and innovation. Some things need to change and some need to stay the same and never, never change. Knowing the difference is the difference between visionary leaders and apostates.
Sunday I preached thought Isaiah 53. The spirit in the church was intense and sweet. It was the first Sunday of Advent and it was Communion Sunday. The music was meaningful. Our son-in-law, Dale was leading. At the end of the message I led the congregation in the beautiful hymn “Before the Throne of God Above.” Most people don’t know that it was originally written to the tune of Sweet Hour of Prayer. That was in about 1849. In about 1997 Vicki Cook wrote a powerful new melody and adding the old lyrics to the new tune is going to make the hymn timeless and powerful. Old and new. Powerful.
That’s the kind of guy I want to be. I want to be wise enough to look back and courageous enough to move boldly forward. I want to be innovative enough to change what needs to be changed and resolute about defending what should never change.
You can enjoy the song here.

December 6, 2013
Lots to Look Forward To
I was writing up a little piece from my memory of my boys yesterday and it reminded me of this amazing photo of our grandson Leland–yes this is really our grandson–he is not a child model. I love how his little breath shows up in the picture. I wonder what the future is going to hold for this charming little man. The photo is by our son, Kyle. Last Sunday evening they went for their tree. I think this year K2 (Kyle Kenneth) got to use the saw.
When I see these pictures I look back and I look forward. Christmas memories raising the kids warm my heart and I anticipate making new memories with the Grand-buddies and with Keira, our Grand-princess.

December 5, 2013
It’s Christmas. Open Your Heart
When I was a boy I sold stuff door-to-door, mowed lawns, shoveled walks, and delivered papers to make money. I don’t know if that was so much because of my own diligence as it was a reflection of my parents determination to train diligence into me. They were always trying to figure out ways to channel my abundant energy. My Dad also noticed that I had the gift of easy conversation. So they nudged me toward sales. I sold greeting cards. I sold seeds. On Saturday mornings I went out inviting children to ride the church bus.
One Christmas I wanted to make some money to buy Christmas presents for my family so I gathered hickory nuts from beneath the big trees above the pond out on Grandma and Grandpa Pierpont’s Farm and sold them door-to-door in the little village of Utica where we lived. They sold fast and I went downtown to Hufford’s Ben Franklin and shopped for some simple gifts. On Christmas morning my gathering and gift of gab and hustle turned those nuts into smiles and tears on the faces of my loved ones. Those years were very painful for me at school, but there was love in that little house on Mill Street.
When Dan and Wes were small and cute (They are still cute, but they aren’t small anymore), I found some chestnuts and bagged them up for the boys to sell door-to-door up in the “Hollander Heights” neighborhood where we lived at the time. It was in the snowy weeks before Christmas in Fremont, Michigan. The average annual snowfall is a little over 70 inches. That year we had 110 inches. Picture this: Fluffy flakes of snow falling. Mounds of white snow on the ground. Two little boys shuffle down the street in mittens and boots and coats and hoods and stocking caps. Their chubby cheeks are red with cold. Their breath hangs in little clouds over their heads. There are peddling their chestnuts door-to-door. They made a little Christmas money. They bought gifts for their loved ones.
I love how Christmas tugs on people’s hearts and motivates them to do loving things. It’s almost Christmas time. By all means, lean into it with your heart. Figure out some ways to love people.
Speaking of Christmas tugging love out of the hardest hearts, here is an old story I stumbled on a few years ago.
