EP 7 The Power of Prayer and Trusting God with 10 Children - Roberta Pepin

After a decade of gathering women together for prayer, we are inspired to bring our words of encouragement to you. This is iRefresh. Welcome to the iRefresh podcast. Today we have our guest Roberta Pepin, a mother of 10 children. I have enjoyed getting to know her and actually I've gone to school with some of them. I've worked with some of them. Now we have multiple grandkids. I'm not even sure what the count is, Roberta, but welcome, and we are so excited to have you here. Thank you so much. I'll give you the count. Okay. Okay, 10 children, and I have 21 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Grandchildren. And I've been married to my husband for, what is it going on? Let's see, 58 years? 58? Yes. Beautiful. Yeah, it's been a journey and it's been a good one. Thank you Lord. Well, highlight to me of like from the beginning, give us a little bit of your background and before even like going into before you got married and what caused you and your husband when you think about the idea, did you plan to have a big family or like where did God start as far as putting that desire as a mother? Sure, I grew up in Minnesota and I was the youngest of four daughters. and I ended up having eight boys, so I knew nothing about boys, because I was girls in my family. But pretty normal school and great friends. I always liked going to church. It was just a traditional church in those days way back. And I really, I was just always wanting more of God So even when I graduated from high school, I went on to a college in Minneapolis that was a Lutheran college. I thought a Christian college. But then after a year of college, I met, well my husband actually lived down the street from me, but we started dating. And we married, and from then on, we had three children. and we weren't Christian yet. And very much in the normal world, nothing wild and crazy, but normal world thinking. And after three children, I started thinking, oh, there's something more, and I need help in that situation, because I just didn't have all the tools to be able to manage everything. And so we ended up going to a Billy Graham, movie and we went forward at the end not knowing what we were doing because we hadn't been taught that way. But we received Jesus and so then shortly after that I just really knew something different was going on in our lives because there was just really a hunger then for the Lord. And, um, so did you go to start going to church? Did they help you to know where to go after you'd made the decision? Well, we were still in the Lutheran church and we just didn't know that there was anything else. I mean, that was our, you know, our only knowledge of church. And, um, I remember, um, just praying and, and saying, God, I just want whatever you want. I want It was at a time when I was still able to have children. Of course, I just had three, but I still was at a young age. That's still overwhelming. Three is still a lot. Yes, it is. It really is. So I went to a Lutheran meeting, and it just so happened that there was a man teaching from India there. And in my background, I was taught that, oh, India has so many people, and they shouldn't be having these people, and they have too many children. So I thought, I wonder what this man from India would say, because he was a very good Christian man. So after the service, I went up to him, and I said, okay, I said, you tell me, am I doing something wrong by having children more than three? And he looked at me, and he said, go home and read Psalms 127, and I said, Oh, okay. I mean, all right, that's my answer. So I went home and I read it and I kept reading it and I kept reading it and I kept reading it. And I'm sure you're all familiar with it, but I grabbed my Bible along and I'll just, if it's okay, I'll just read it. I like, my Bible looks really new because I just got it. Otherwise my other Bible is all, you know, marked up and everything. But this one is the Living Bible. And I like it because the one that paraphrased this, which is Kenneth Taylor, he had 10 children himself, and he wanted his children to know what the Bible says. And so it's kind of written in a simpler form than the other ones, but it's wonderful. So it says, Unless the Lord builds a house, the builder's work is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, centuries do no good. It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing you will starve to death. For God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest. Children are a gift from God. They are his reward. I kept reading that, his reward? Oh, wow. Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows to defend him. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. That man shall have the help he needs when arguing with his enemies. And further down it says, Your wife shall be contented in your home. And look at all those children. There they sit around the dinner table as vigorous and healthy as young olive treats. That is God's reward to those who reverence and trust him. And then even further down in 128 it says, May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. And I just... I have read that in every version there is in the Bible. I have looked it up now when I have an iPad and everything, and you can go to every kind of commentary and everything. So what was God speaking to you when you went home and you read that verse? What was God speaking to you when you read that? Well, he said, I mean, I felt he said that I could trust him and that I could, I wouldn't be able to do this on my own if that's the route I was going. But if I could trust him and always go to him for an answer, because I was starting at number four. So if I could always say, okay, God, what are you saying for me in my situation? What are you saying? Because I don't want to go off on my own thing. So anyway, that's where it all began. And from then on, we moved, we were in toward the Twin Cities, and then we moved up to northern Minnesota. And when we moved, we had by then four children. And we were looking for a church, so the only church we knew was the Lutheran Church. Well, at the Lutheran Church, there was a spirit-filled Lutheran pastor, right? And he came out to our house and talked to us and knew that we had a hunger for more of God. And he said, well, I have meetings at my home. And he said, I'd love to have you come. So we came and we were taught so many things about the Lord and about being baptized in the Holy Spirit and all the things that we were so hungry for. So anyway, during that time, I kept on seeking God. at that stage of, I guess I was late 20s, and I knew I had until, like, the 40s to have children, so I thought, what are we going to do here? I want to do what you want, Lord, but what are you saying to me? Now, were you doing this? The two of you were praying together about it? Yes. Or was that something you were quietly asking about for direction? I think I had more of that. My husband was so busy working and keeping, you know, the home together. So did he want a bigger family? Well, that was totally out of, I mean, I... I hadn't thought that much about it before. I mean, I was a very normal person, you know, going about that. Probably thought that three was enough, you know, and that was fine, but then I just, it just kept coming to me, and it kept coming to me to check other verses. That isn't just the only verse, and through the years I've realized that there's tons of verses from beginning to end on what God feels about children. So whenever I would just be wondering, God, what are you saying? And I'd have to go, sometimes I would go away, like to a motel just for one night, and just zero in on him and just really, I wanted to hear his voice. I wanted to hear his voice. So you actually made a point of getting away from the family. Yes. Just by yourself. Yes, I did. How often? It was only one night. One night. So how often would you do that? Whenever I was probably making another decision on, you know, now what? Now what do we do with him? five or six or whatever. And there again, I honestly would say, Lord, if you want to stop here, that's fine. I mean, whatever you want to do. And he'd always give me verses about the positive part of it. And I would find out that as I was going through this that it was getting lonely because people, you know, you're in a culture that doesn't, you know, expect... God to be that way. But anyway, um, I just really, I was seeking him and seeking him and seeking him. And along the way, like I say, he would give me different, um, things. And one of them was, and I'm sure you all know this too, but it was in Deuteronomy and I, being kind of new at all this, I, I didn't know this, but he said, um, that if, in Deuteronomy 28, it talks about blessings and it talks about curses. And he said, if you fully obey all the commandments of the Lord your God, and all that I'm telling you today, he said there will be blessings in the city, blessing in the field, many children, ample crops, and on and on. And then further down, it says, in 11, 28, 11, the Lord will give you an abundance of good things in the land, just as he promised. Many children, many cattle, many cattle. So there again, I was like, okay. Now did you share that with your husband? Yes. Okay. Yes. Uh-huh. And, um... And I think, you know, It was settling in my heart what God was doing. So I guess I, some people have asked me, they said, well, what if your husband isn't going along with this, you know, or whatever? And I said, I feel that a husband will go along with somebody that is contented and happy and positive about this whole realm. But they're going to try to do what's best if that person is not, you know, I mean, they want to please their wife. And. Jerry was very much into God, what you want, what you want. So anyway, it all, we had some wonderful times as a family when they were all home. The hard times though, there were many financial situations where we didn't have what other people had. We couldn't do what other people would do. But what did you do when you saw that you may not have had the financial things? I mean, I'm sure that you, with all your kids together, that was not the focal point. What are some of the things that you can think were highlights of what made your evening special together? Well, for one thing, it was hard even to go to church, I mean, as a big group. How long did it take you? I'm just curious. How long did you get 10 kids together? Exactly. And then how did you divvy it out? Did the older kids help? Yes, they did. And I think that's where some of the leadership skills came from. It was like lived out. And we, I can remember one room having like one, two, three, three or four bunk beds in the room. Okay. So they just lived it out. I mean, and it was, it turned into something very positive because like I say, we had a hard time sometime going to church. Maybe somebody was not feeling well or whatever, just even to get everybody to find their shoes or whatever. And so we'd have church at home. And we'd trade off with some of the kids seeking with the Lord. is teaching or what's showing them. And to this day, I have a pastor's son who has a couple of churches and he says he can remember going into a little pantry and sitting and looking at his Bible and coming up with a message. And so it turned out where... So you had your own church at home. We did. We really did. Yes. And so even the younger ones got to share. They did. They did, yes. And we'd pray together. And one of the advantages of a big family, you do have that group. You have that wall around you. And we have realized that in our later years as we age. When my husband was in the hospital a few months ago, that wall came up to the hospital and prayed. You know, the ones that are here and... The long-distance ones were praying, too. But then another advantage, too, was... Well, I'm kind of jumping ahead because I'm jumping ahead when Brad and Scarlett got married in Florida. I still had a lot of young people home. And we had prayed months before that. not knowing that this would happen, but months before that, that we would get to go to Florida, to Disney World. I mean, that was like our dream, you know, vacation to do with the family. And probably a year after that, Brad and Scarlett got married in Florida, and we went, and her dad was part of Disney, and he gave us all these free tickets to go to Disney World. You know, so things like that would happen that it was like, God, you just take care of things. I wouldn't have thought that would happen. But I like that, though. Even those small things that you would believe for, that even God cares about the details, something that maybe doesn't seem important to someone else. But God does care even about the things that you're passionate about inside to make it happen. I love how God works. and makes those dreams come true. Yes. I mean, of course, Disney, you can't go wrong there. No, right. You had all 10 at that time. Yes. Okay, and you all went? Yes. Did anybody get lost? Well, two were married, the two older than Brad, and so of course they went, and then all the others. Were you able to stay together? I'm just curious, were you able to stay together, though, Oh, yes. Or did you break apart and regroup? Oh, yes. We stayed together. I mean, of course, the other married ones were in their own place. But we, I mean, the kids, they'll sleep on floors. And that's why they adjusted to college so well, because it was like, this is no big deal. You know, this is life. You know, this is the way it is. So I just, you know. It went well. I mean, like I say, there were a lot of times when I can remember saying to the Lord, I can't do this. I can't do this. You know, a day could be just, you know, everybody's sick or whatever, throwing up or whatever. And I'd always hear this voice, I know you can't, but I can and I will. So it was, it took him to, I mean, I don't have all this wonderful motherly, you know, whatever but he does i mean he will make things happen as we just get to him and say okay take over here so and i think that's one of the things when i thought about even talking today is that what how do we plan out our life i mean are we including him and what does he say about that and and um and there again you know in isaiah it says i know the plans i have for you i wonder if i have Um, I have, it's Isaiah 55. So you created a pattern though for your family, your kids to be able to see that you are constantly relying on God every part of your day. that he was a significant part of making it to where you could be the mother you wanted to be for your kids. Yes. Well, because I needed him. Right. It was pretty important that he came through. Did you even have other people, friends, family to come in and help you at any given time? Not really, no. So you were on your own, basically. Really, yes. Really? Yeah. I did have, I have to say, I did have one. Catholic friend that would always encourage me and say, you'll be okay, you'll be okay, you know, this is good. But nobody came over and helps babysit? I don't know, no, no. Things have changed. Yes, really changed. Wow. Yes. Well, in fact, I don't know if you guys have heard, but there is a lady in Florida right now, that has 16 and she's, she's amazing. I mean, she homeschools them all and she had 12 of her own and then she adopted four others. But she, I mean, she, they have a beautiful home. She's, she's like I say, they go to all the sports activities and everything she makes sure, but she says she leaves lots of lists for kids. She has no household help whatsoever because they have learned to, you know, take care of chores at home. You had to have the gift of organization, which you had to have had in order to keep that army. Like I say, I would make lots of lists, too, like this lady does. Yes. But that's really a great tip to help out even other mothers. I'm sure there are a lot of things that you could say, like, these are the kinds of things that help me survive on a daily basis. Yes. Because a lot of us would like, okay, I'm going to call for help. But your call was help from God. It was. He was your help. It was. But then using your abilities, even as an organizer, really, to be able to create lists and organize your family to help to... I guess clean and do laundry. So that sounds like that's what you were, all those things you were instilling within them, what was necessary to get everything running and going. Because you said your husband worked a lot. Yes. So he was gone most of the day. Yes, exactly. Yes, right. And they were huge. I often think when God gave us the children, he must have... went around and picked out some really good ones because I got some really nice kids. And they were so helpful and so caring for one another. I mean, not to say they didn't have their fights and all that. I mean, they did. But even now as adults, they are very concerned about one another and will back them up in whatever they need. And so I feel like God really picked out some good ones for me, and I'm thankful, very thankful for them. So I don't take it for granted, but I think there again, I think any child, Anywhere, whatever, it's a gift from God. And I feel like we're kind of losing that in this culture, and I'm kind of concerned. What would you say to maybe a mother who is struggling with maybe, you know, today you hear kids with different disorders or their attention is struggling with their attention or they're addicted to TV or, you know, now with your phones, it's hard to get your attention. What could you say to moms out there that are struggling with, with like how do they survive on a daily basis? They may only have one or two kids, but yet they feel like they're an army of kids. Right. What would you share with them to give them hope? Well, there again, I think that a person is gonna have to get into the Word and really ask God, what are you saying? You know, I see out here what everybody else is saying, I see out here what everybody else is doing, what are you saying? And what are you saying to me individually? And he'll show you. I mean, like anything else that you're going through, any difficulty, he will show you. I think another thing, though, I think there's got to be more of a focus that it is important. I think a lot of parents, I don't know if they don't feel it is that important to spend time with a child or spend time in that realm. Personally, I think it breaks God's heart. when we act like it's no big deal. I think family is very important to him. And I think he's ready to help when we really trust him and rely on him and go step by step. And he's there. But I think you're gonna walk in a different situation than the world is walking in. And so you can plan on a narrow path, you can plan on being alone. But the end results and the rewards are amazing. And I'm, and that's, I guess I'm 76 now and I want to share with others that their family is so important and that there's advantages to, you know, children being brought up in a big household. And I have all 10 of them are in leadership positions. They love the Lord. They're raising their own family to love the Lord. And to me, what more could I ask? I mean, that's a jewel in itself. So I'm so thankful to God that... So tell me now too as you transition to being the grandmother or great-grandmother, did you find, because sometimes I think, you know, you were in a helicopter, had my mother, were you? I couldn't be. See, and that's what forces you not to do that. What would you do for, like think about some moms are that way, do you find, is that helpful to them or is that detrimental to the children? Well, I think you have to let them make some decisions on their own because how else are they going to find God? How else are they going to find their way if you always solve their problems? And I mean, even all of them going to ORU, it wasn't because they had to or we wanted them to or whatever. We wanted them to. You decide. You choose because you're going to live four years somewhere where there's going to be ups and downs. And so things like that, they need to... you know, branch out. And, you know, sometimes they do slip off, you know, go off. And the power of prayer is there for you. The power of prayer that I maybe can't say anything at this time because they're just going to, you know, stop it, don't tell me or whatever. But God can. God can change situations in whatever it is. So that's the significant part I'm hearing you talk about is that prayer, no matter what situations you might be going through, is the power of prayer in seeking God liquid. Whatever your situation is, is what does the words have to say? God has an answer for every situation that you walk through as a mother, as a grandmother even. Yes. In a different stage with your children. Yes. Is seeking what is God's will, his heart, for your loved ones. Yes. Because he will kind of... There's an antenna that goes up with mothers, I think. And you kind of know, even like with your grandchildren, oh, something's going on here. And, but the power of prayer, I mean, you know, that it can't be underrated because it is, it's the Lord that takes care of our situations. If we rely on him, if we obey him and don't get caught up in what all the world is doing and what everybody else is doing. And I, you know, the. Isaiah 55 says, this plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than yours. And just to know that he's got a higher plan than what this culture is, what this earth is. And there's an enemy that's going to come against families. There's an enemy that's going to try to break down families because that is a, I think it's just a choice thing of the Lord. People, the gift of people. Whether they're bad people or whatever, I just love the prison ministry because I think those are people that have messed up big time And to have them realize God loves you. That's the base of it. He loves you, and he wants a better life for you. So anyway. I think that's great. I think, you know, what we want to go away with, too, Roberta, your story is really that you prayed, you trusted God. Whenever you sought God, I hear that he was answering you. He gave you words of hope, and it helped you, and you instilled that same pattern into your children. and teaching the word, praying, seeking God's heart for them. And I think that's what we want to encourage you today, too, is seek God, trust God. Like when he speaks, he's going to share something with you, and then trust him with what he tells you. Yes. And the power prayer with that solidifies that God has hope for each one of us, no matter what we're walking through. Yes, he does. I think it's just such a great testimony. And what a great legacy you and your husband have left with Jerry and Roberta have made. a standing of God, His Word, and prayer can change anything. Yes. We're so grateful, Roberta, for you coming. And we want to encourage you, too, that you would subscribe to our podcast so that you can hear more extraordinary stories of women who have allowed God just to flow through their lives. And be sure to like us on Facebook. We'd like to hear from you about how God's helped you to overcome your adversities. And until the next time, go change your world. Amen.