We’ve all heard it said that music is a wonderful thing for youngsters to study. Even those who will never consider doing it professionally, or even on stage, can still learn valuable lessons about discipline, attention to detail, and the value of hard work. For those who don’t carry it into their adult lives, they still learn how to be a discriminating listener, a skill they’ll never lose.
Of course in bluegrass, we see lots of young folks playing the music, especially in the classic family band format. I doubt anyone has ever calculated how many groups there have been in bluegrass made up of Mom, Dad, and the kids, but it must surely be counted in the many hundreds. It would be hard to attend a festival without seeing one or two on the show.
Here’s a story in that vein that is especially poignant and heartwarming, about Jeremiah Penny, a young man whose love of bluegrass music pushed him to overcome hurdles larger than most teens ever face, and become a fine picker and singer. His development has led his parents to form their own Penny Family Band in their hometown of Beulaville, NC. Now they tour the gospel circuit sharing his remarkable story along with their music.
Brent plays guitar, with his wife Sonia on bass, and Jeremiah, now 16, on banjo, guitar, and mandolin, and his sister, Leah, 13, on fiddle. Little brother Silas, age 8, also joins in on mandolin and vocals from time to time.
To listen to him now, you would never guess that Jeremiah has struggled with autism.
We heard recently from Brent, who shared this touching and even miraculous testimony.
“Jeremiah is our first born child, he was born on February 4, 2008, a healthy baby boy reaching every milestone he was suppose to for his age. Until his first birthday. We noticed at his birthday party that the food we had cooked for him, his favorite (barbecue) he refused to eat. He just didn’t want anything we tried to give him, not even his birthday cake. We just thought he was tired and overwhelmed with everything that had been going on that day.
Over time we began to notice that his speech regressed, his eating habits changed drastically, from eating just about anything you put in his mouth, to hardly eating anything at all. A blank stare would come over him like he was staring into space, and he began to not use much eye contact anymore. We expressed our concerns to his doctor and she recommended that we get him tested for autism.
Before getting him tested, we prayed about it, then finally one day we decided to go ahead and do it. After he was tested we found out the most devastating news to us at that time, that he indeed was autistic. Upon hearing his diagnosis we figured our dream of having a family band would never be possible. This began a journey of many disappointments, heartaches, and tears.
The next fews years Jeremiah would be non-verbal hardly saying any words, and he only wanted to stay in his room, never going out in public. This was a very difficult time for us. One night while preaching at the little country church that I pastor, the Lord placed it in my heart to stop preaching my sermon, and come down from the pulpit and lay hands on Jeremiah in the name of Jesus, and pray for him.
I obeyed the Lord and prayed for him, and from that moment on we began to see a change in Jeremiah. At this point he was 8 years old, and almost overnight he began to play music. We showed him everything we knew and he really took off. At the age of 9 Jeremiah became the banjo player of our family group. The Lord has blessed Jeremiah so much with playing music and singing, we have been blessed to get a little bus that we can haul our music around in.
The Lord has opened many doors throughout a few states that we have played and shared Jeremiah’s testimony, which has blessed so many people who are dealing with kids and family members struggling with autism. Ever since Jeremiah was small we have made Philippians 4:13 his motto (“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”)
Today Jeremiah sings many parts, plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro, and bass.
Although Jeremiah still has some struggles in life with certain issues, we are grateful to our Lord Jesus for all he has done to help Jeremiah with autism.”
Here’s another video of The Penny Family with Jeremiah on guitar.
We are so impressed with Jeremiah, and the whole Penny family, and wish them the very best with their family group, and in life.
Well done Jeremiah!
