Before Kyle Road became the beginning of a memoir, it was simply home—a farmhouse, a barn, grandparents a mile away, Sunday mornings at church, and endless adventures for a boy growing up in rural Ohio.

My name is Steve McMillion, and Beyond Kyle Road: A Journey of Faith, Family, Finding Home is the story of the road that began there—and where it eventually took me.

For much of my life, I never imagined I would write a book about it.

I was simply living my life.

Only later did I begin to recognize how the ordinary experiences of childhood, family, work, marriage, faith, disappointment, loss, service, and unexpected opportunities had connected to one another.

Beyond Kyle Road grew out of that realization.

Growing Up at the End of Kyle Road

I was born in 1957 and spent my early childhood on our family farm on Kyle Road near Dorset, Ohio.

My grandparents’ dairy farm was only about a mile away. Church was part of our family’s weekly rhythm. There were barns and haylofts to explore, woods to wander, chickens to care for, tractors to ride, and more than enough opportunities for a curious boy to find adventure—or trouble.

At the time, none of those experiences seemed extraordinary.

They were simply childhood.

But looking back across the years, I can see how much was already taking shape there.

Family taught me about belonging. Farm life taught me responsibility. Church introduced me to a faith that would become increasingly important as my life unfolded. And my childhood curiosity about how things worked eventually developed into an interest in electronics and technology.

I didn’t know where the road was leading.

Most of us don’t.

Life Beyond the Farm

When I was eight years old, my family left Dorset.

That move was the first of many.

Over the years, I lived in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and then Virginia again. I worked in electronics and computer-related fields. I married, raised a family, experienced military life, and eventually answered a call that changed the direction of my life: pastoral ministry.

Each move seemed to open another chapter.

Some were chapters I chose.

Others were handed to me.

There were successes and failures, beginnings and endings, joyful seasons and painful ones. There were times when the next step seemed clear and others when I could see very little of the road ahead.

That is one reason the image of a road became so important when I began writing my memoir.

A Life of Ministry and Service

Eventually, faith became more than something I had inherited from my childhood.

It became my calling.

Pastoral ministry gave me the privilege of entering people’s lives at moments that mattered deeply—baptisms, weddings, hospital rooms, funerals, Sunday worship, family crises, celebrations, and quiet conversations that few others would ever know about.

My military chaplaincy became another expression of that call to serve.

Through the years, I learned that ministry is rarely about having all the answers. More often, it is about being willing to walk beside people while they face the questions.

Even after retiring from full-time ministry in 2022, I continued serving churches part-time.

The little boy sitting in a church pew in Dorset could never have imagined where faith would eventually take him.

Why I Wrote Beyond Kyle Road

For years, the stories existed mostly as memories.

Some were funny. Some were painful. Some involved people I loved who are no longer here. Others were seemingly insignificant moments that somehow remained vivid after more than half a century.

Eventually, I began putting them together.

As I wrote, I discovered that I wasn’t simply recording what happened.

I was beginning to understand it.

That’s an important distinction.

A memoir isn’t just a list of places lived, jobs held, people known, or events experienced. At least, that isn’t what I wanted Beyond Kyle Road to become.

I wanted to look back and ask:

What did these experiences teach me?

How did the people I encountered shape me?

Where was faith during the difficult chapters?

What did success and failure teach me?

And after traveling so many roads, what does “home” really mean?

Faith, Family, Memories & Purpose

Those questions eventually gave the book its subtitle:

A Journey of Faith, Family, Finding Home.

Faith, because my understanding of God developed across a lifetime rather than in a single moment.

Family, because the people who shared the journey helped shape the person I became.

Memories, because ordinary moments often become surprisingly precious with the passage of time.

And purpose, because discovering why our experiences matter can take much longer than experiencing them.

Those themes begin on Kyle Road, but they don’t stay there.

Neither did I.

The Meaning of Home

For much of my childhood, home was easy to define.

It was a farmhouse at the end of Kyle Road.

It was Mom and Dad. My brothers and sisters. Grandparents nearby. A barn, a tractor, animals, woods, church on Sunday, and people whose presence seemed permanent because I was too young to imagine life without them.

Then we moved.

And kept moving.

Over the years, “home” became many different houses and communities. Eventually, I came to understand that home is about more than an address.

Places shape us.

People shape us.

Faith shapes us.

And sometimes we have to travel a long way from where we started before we understand what our beginnings gave us.

The Story Behind the Author

People visiting an author’s website naturally want to know something about the person who wrote the book.

So who is Steve McMillion?

I’m a husband, father, grandfather, pastor, Army chaplain, former technology worker, lifelong tinkerer, and now an author.

But those are titles.

Beyond Kyle Road is about what happened between the titles.

It’s about the boy who climbed into a hay baler and imagined it was a spaceship. The teenager who was trying to figure out where he belonged. The young man beginning a family and trying different careers. The husband and father navigating change. The pastor who spent years walking alongside other people through some of the happiest and hardest days of their lives.

And now it is about an older man looking back down the road and seeing connections he couldn’t see while he was traveling it.

Welcome to the Journey

That’s also what I hope this website will become.

I’ll share stories here that connect with Beyond Kyle Road, photographs and memories from the past, reflections on faith and family, and some of what I’m discovering as I prepare to share this book with readers.

Perhaps some of my memories will remind you of your own.

Your Kyle Road probably has a different name.

It may not even be a road.

But most of us have a place, a family, a person, or a collection of memories that helped make us who we are.

Beyond Kyle Road is my story.

I hope it encourages you to remember yours.