Rutledge Road Prayer

I am the oldest child in a family of 8 kids. I am a fourth-generation pastor. Growing up as a pastor’s kid was not what I would call a life of opulence. We never went hungry and we always had a place to call home, but God taught me early in life that it was good to trust him for our needs and our wants.

I remember specifically one week having very little groceries and my parents trying to piece meals together to make it to the next payday. Before my dad left for work one of those days he gathered us together and asked us to pray to God to provide money for groceries. We prayed. The next day my sister went to the mailbox and there was a check from a lady in a church where my dad used to be pastor. We went to Aldi and loaded up the back of the van with groceries. There was a sense of happiness as we drove home. We thanked God for answering our prayers. 

When I was 9 years old we lived in a home in town on a busy street. It was not a bad part of town, but there wasn’t much room to run around and explore. I wanted to live in the country where my brothers and I could shoot our BB Guns and where my Beagle dog, Yoder, could run and live without being hooked to a chain.

My dad would often take me along with him for coffee at McDonalds. Dad would make those McDonalds trips times for meaningful conversations. I remember a specific time telling him that I would love to have a place in the country. He told me if I wanted a place in the country that I should talk to the Lord about it and if the Lord wanted us to live in the country that he would provide a way for that to happen.

My brother and I prayed every night laying in our bunk beds before falling asleep. We started praying for a place to live in the country. The next week, my mom found a listing in the paper for a home big enough for us, at the right price and it was in the country. The home was on a farm in a valley surrounded by the Kokosing River and corn fields on one side and a high ridge on the other. It was on a dead-end road that ended in our driveway. We rented that house for four wonderful years. We spent hours playing in the barns and corn cribs on the property, riding our bikes up and down the road, hiking the woods that led to the river, running with our dog, shooting our bb guns and exploring the creek that flowed into the river.

I will never forget that place and I will never forget that it was a direct answer to my prayer as a 9 year old boy.  

~ Kyle Pierpont