Kyle Pernell, 17, and fellow page Kylon Bush, 15 speak with their Mississippi Rep. Sarah Richardson Thomas, D-Indianola, about their experiences after serving as pages at the state Capitol in Jackson. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)JACKSON, Miss.- Kyle Pernell is already ordained as a Baptist pastor at age 17, and he has put his skills to work at the Mississippi Capitol.
Pernell gave the opening prayer one day last week in the state House of Representatives, where he spent the week as one of more than a dozen pages running errands for lawmakers.
"Bless this House. Lead, guide and direct them on what to do and what steps to take," he prayed in a deep, confident voice. "Give them your heart and your mindset."
Pernell is a junior at Gentry High School in Indianola, Miss., where he sings in the choir and is vice president of the school's Student Government Association. He says he has been preaching since he was 10 years old, and his first sermon was based on Jeremiah 29:11: "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"
In a hallway at the Capitol, he smiles as he recalls the sermon.
"There was this peace that came over me as I spoke," says Pernell, who is one of four children, including his twin sister.
He was ordained in October through the Sunflower County Ministerial Alliance, part of the National Baptist Convention USA. He has been preaching as a traveling evangelist at several churches the Mississippi Delta.
Recently he was the page for Democratic Rep. Sara Thomas of Indianola, a retired educator who has known his family for years. Thomas says he is an honest, responsible young man who is a good role model for his peers.
"His attitude is above reproach," Thomas says. "He always says 'Yes, ma'am' and 'No, ma'am.'"
Pernell grew up attending services as often as four or five days a week at First United Baptist Church in Moorhead, and is now the youth minister there. The Rev. Herman Cole, the church's senior pastor, describes Pernell as gifted.
"I've never seen anybody so young that is so advanced," Cole says. "He comes to Bible class every Monday night, and he asks some questions you never thought a child would ask."
He hopes to attend either Morehouse College or Oral Roberts University. He aspires to become a pastor of his own church and to own several funeral homes. After a week of watching lawmakers debating bills, he says he might have another ambition: getting elected to the Mississippi House.