Christmas Provision
Lois and I were married in September. By July we were
living in Celina, Ohio and I was pastoring a little country
church they called Beaver Chapel. We celebrated our first
wedding anniversary there in our neat little white parsonage
across Swamp Road from the church. That is where we would
celebrate our second Christmas. The next October Kyle would
come into our lives changing them for good and forever. We
were happy there. I had pastured a church in high school for
a year, but this was my first full-time church. We lived in
the parsonage and they paid our utilities and paid us 130.00
dollars a week if my memory serves me well.
When Christmas came I enjoyed preparing Christmas messages
and Christmas services. The people were good to us. On the
Sunday night before Christmas there was a Sunday School
program. Everyone was there in the little church house. At
the end of the program just before I pronounced the
benediction the people interrupted me and took over the
service. Someone carried a large box through the back door
and presented it to us as a Christmas present. I opened it
up and it was a small artificial Christmas tree with little
ornaments all over it that looked like tiny Christmas
presents. We thanked the people and prayed and said Merry
Christmas to each family as they bundled up and drove off
into the night. We turned down the heat and turned off the
lights and walked across to the parsonage. There at home we
put the little tree on a table.
Lois said, "We're supposed to unwrap all the little
ornaments."
As we began to unwrap the ornaments we realized all of them
were made of cash. We sat there together unwrapping the
little ornaments until there were all gone. The people had
given us the equivilent of about three week's salary.
We were so grateful and surprised at what the people had
done. It was a small church filled with common people but
they had given sacrificially so we would feel loved at
Christmastime. There were just the two of us there in the
parsonage that night. We went to bed grateful and happy. We
were just learning what marriage and life were about, and we
were just beginning to see what a good provider God is.
The next Christmas we were in Michigan. I was serving on the
pastoral staff of Fulkerson Park Baptist Church in Niles.
Early in the fall the Senior Pastor, Larry Whiteford, asked
me to call Christian schools and organize an orange sale.
His family owned a trucking company. He sent a truck to
Florida in late November and bought a load of good navel
oranges. I sold them to the schools for a fund raiser. A
week before Christmas the orange sales were over and all the
oranges that were ordered were gone. We had over-ordered a
little and I noticed that the over order was going to go to
waste. I asked Pastor Whieford if he wanted me to sell the
over-order at a discount so they would not ruin. He liked
the idea and suggested that I sell them for ten dollars a
case. It was a bargain. I got a pick-up truck and Lois and
Kyle and I went out selling the oranges. It took us all day
but we eventually sold all the oranges.
I was excited at my success. If I remember I sold about 60
boxes of oranges at 10.00 a box. My pocket was thick with
bills. I stopped and used a pay phone to call pastor
Whiteford. He was elated with my success. "So you sold them
all, did you?"
"I did, every one."
"You got ten dollars a box?"
"I did. I have 600.00 dollars in my pocket right now."
"Well, Ken, you did a good job. You just take that money and
have a merry Christmas. And you can take the rest of the day
off."
At the time, though all of our needs were met, our salary
was very small and there were few extras. Elated and
surprised, I bounced back to the car to tell Lois of Pastor
Whiteford's gift. She was happy. The gift came as an
unexpected boon. We had an especially nice Christmas.
At the time I could not look into the future and see that
our little Kyle would be joined by three brothers and four
sisters. I couldn't have imagined that our weekly grocery
bill will climb from twenty-five dollars a week to
two-hundred. There would be insurance and taxes and dental
work and auto insurance and in-line skates and bikes. There
would be summer trips to our home school convention and
school books. There would be baseball cleats and heating
bills and phone bills and doctor bills. There would be
literally hundreds of pizzas and hundreds of gallon of pop.
Back then we could not have imagined that through the years
every single need would be met. Our income has always been
modest but we have enjoyed many pleasures. People have been
good to us. God has been good to us. We did not know that
there would be many more delightful surprises along the way.
There would be gifts and joys and delights beyond our
imagination year after year. We would have food in abundance
and rich fellowship with people of like mind. We would have
clothing and shelter and, what's more valuable than all, the
capacity to enjoy them.
We would have difficult times. We would have needs. We would
have discouragements and we would have enemies. We would
have fears and questions, but God would supply all our real
needs and hide delights for us all along the way. Many of
those delights would come at Christmas time disguised as
pressures and challenges and troubles. With the troubles has
been a deep and abiding knowledge within that each of these
are not random circumstances but arrangements of the
Almighty, out-workings of his sovereignty, weavings of
providence.
Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.
Kenneth L. Pierpont
ken@kenpierpont.com
Ken Pierpont is the director of the Riverfront Character Inn and International Conference Center in Flint, Michigan. He is the Director of the Eternal Vision Ministry Team. Ken and his wife Lois have been married for twenty-five years and have four sons and four daughters. He loves to preach and sing and write to nudge people closer to Jesus. He publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter available free at www.kenpierpont.com