Couple relies on faith after fire

Watching the homestead, where generations of family were raised, burn to the ground just months after totaling a car, might test anyone's faith, but that was not the case for Wain and Sheila Kirkpatrick, aka "Sheila K," on air at KMHM radio, where she is the morning disc jockey.

Sheila started at the radio station in 1995, about six months after the station opened, which is known for "Southern Gospitality."

Her listeners, and others in the Southeast Missouri area, are helping the two get back on their feet, but it is their faith that has carried them through the tragedy.

"If it hadn't been for my faith, it would have been more than I could take," Wain said.

Sheila and Wain said it was God who brought them together as children.

Sheila met Wain when she was 11 years old, while attending a church service at McGee Chapel in 1976. Just 12 at the time, Wain passed a note to her that said, "Do you like me? Yes or no?"

Sheila checked "yes," which sparked their lifelong romance, but they waited until she graduated from high school before they married in 1983.

Wain said although the couple met when they were kids at church, it wasn't until after he married Sheila that he dedicated his life to the Lord and was called into preaching.

He has shepherded his congregation at McGee Chapel, where they met, for many years, and is often called to preach in other churches throughout the region, but said he much prefers to be in his home church.

"There's nothing like good old Southeast Missouri for us," he said

Sheila grew up going to church and said both her parents preached. Her father was an ordained General Baptist minister, and her mother preached in a Pentecostal church.

"I grew up a Bapticostal," she quipped.

Church music has always played a big part in her family's life, said Sheila, nee Sutt. She and her three sisters were known as the "Sutt Sisters," and they played music and often sang together in church.

That tradition continues today, though they now call themselves "The Next Generation," and perform in churches around the area throughout the year.

Wain's great-grandparents owned the property adjoining the land where Wain and Sheila's house was built. In fact, it didn't start out as a home, but as a chicken coop, generations ago. His grandparents cleaned out the old building and began to add onto it, until it became a proper home.

"Yes, at one time my dining room was a chicken coop," Sheila said, sharing the family joke.

The house burned Dec. 30, just days after the family had celebrated Christmas, where together they sang carols in the home where their children were reared.

Seeing a lifetime of belongings and family history destroyed in just minutes was difficult; it was the loss of guitars that had been in the family for so many years that really disturbed Sheila. Before the death of her parents, she and her sisters promised that their girls would keep the musical tradition, and they left them a set of Gibson guitars.

"To watch your entire life go up in flames; that was a tough one," Sheila said, as she fought back tears.

Despite the heartache, their faith was their anchor, and through it they were able to maintain a semblance of order in their lives.

Wain and Sheila Kirkpatrick pose for a photo Monday, April 6, 2015 in the studio of KMHM 104.1 FM radio near Marble Hill, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

"Our faith has stayed strong. We said our nighttime prayers that night just like we always do," Wain said.

Sheila said they have focused on the fact that no one was injured, or killed, in the fire.

"That wasn't God's plan. God's plan was for us to keep living and holding our heads up and keep seeing how good God is," she said.

When sifting through the rubble left by the fire, Sheila said their grandson, Bratlee, age 9, made an observation about the damage. "Why is it that everything about Jesus is OK?" he said, when they found the family Bibles and hymnals unmarred.

Sheila said Bratlee's observation was a bright spot amid the anguish, because it demonstrated that he, too shared the family's faith in God.

Since the fire, because the house was uninsured, the couple has moved between the homes of their two children, Donnie Kirkpatrick, 28, and Stacy Lee Rose, 30.

"We're kind of homeless at the moment, but we're moving our new, used mobile home onto the concrete slab where our home once stood," Wain said.