Keep your lips to yourself!

Each year Beechpoint hosts a weekend Purity Retreat focused on God's design for dating, relationships, and sex - a message that challenges the cultural norms of today.  Campers ages 10-18 attend with a parent or mentor, and there are 3 levels of sessions designed to challenge kids (and adults!) to choose purity.  Please join me in prayer for the 95 participants who came to Purity Retreat - that the weekend would remain real to them when they are home and that they would live out the decisions they made.

"This weekend taught my daughter the importance of saving herself for the man God has for her.  I realize the importance of the retreat.  I didn't have this when I was growing up." - mother

All of the kids that I meet with every week were able to attend Purity Retreat!  Jabri, Jabari, Tamyra, Tavaris, and Kenya.  I loved being there with "my" kids!

"When I get home I am going to be more of a gentleman, be more respectful, and be cautious when I choose who to date." - boy, age 13

Dominique roller skating.

"I learned that God loves purity.  After Purity Retreat I am going to change my attitude."

An object lesson on building healthy relationships.

"I learned that people should keep their lips to themselves." - girl, age 10

Andrew came to Purity Retreat with his father - a great opportunity for them to spend some one-on-one time together. 

"This weekend I learned more about my student and the deep things he had been hiding.  He shared about the pain and hurt of missing his father.  God spoke to me this weekend about the need to understand and protect our youth because they are precious to God." - male mentor

The weekend ends with a ceremony where campers can choose to take a vow of purity.  Scroll down and pause the music before hitting play on the video.


Purity Retreat 2010 from Megan Schenk on Vimeo.

The suit with the FEATHERS

Someone told me I should get in the picture with Mr. Percy so you can be sure that I'm the one really taking his picture, not just finding it online somewhere.  Which I could do ... just as soon as I am with someone I can hand my camera to.  I rode past today hoping to catch the Easter suit.  No such luck... but here's one from the other day!

I told you that he was happy to have his picture taken. :-)  My friend called me the other day tellin me he had on a cheetah print suit.  Sad to have missed that one!

Braids, Beads, and Pimp Suits

Every week I meet with Tamyra for Partners in Discipleship.  She is learning about taking responsiblity for herself - pray that she will desire to make good choices. 

I've also been braiding her hair.  Braiding is one of my favorite hobbies.  It gives me an excuse to be in the home of camp kids and to have them in my home.  And since it takes a minute it gives me an opporunity for lots of time and conversations with kids.  It works out great because I see a chance to braid as a privelege and since just about everybody else thinks it's quite the chore there is always somebody's mama willing to let me braid their child's head.

This is Tamyra - she wanted a mohawk.  I had to explain to some friends how exactly this is a mohawk, but just trust that it is. :-)

The top of the mohawk.  We were all pleasantly surprised it came out like this! Hahahaa.

So anyway, the other day me an Myree decided that we were going to put letter beads into her hair.  You can buy beads a dollar a bag, but we went to Michael's and bought $5 dollar a bag beads just so we could do this idea.

Of course, we had to plan ahead for what words we were going to spell on her braids.  It was a little challenging since the design I did had 48 braids ... but we only had like 11 of the letter "e", which comes up a LOT.  So we were trying to think of words that didn't have "e"s, but we wanted nice words like "princess" and "rainbow" and "Jesus" instead of just random words like "box" - we never did get an x in there. :-)  And of course we had to use her brother's names, so she had a braid that said "Tavaris" and a braid that said "Tavontay" ... and a braid that said "MissMegan"! 

It was a lot of fun and we loved how it turned out, but it definitely took us a ridiculously LONG time!  She had 3 bangs with her first, middle, and last name on them.  Tamyra said that people on the bus ask her if they can read her hair.  :-)

When I go to do Bible study with Tamyra there is sometimes a man standing on the corner at the beginning of her housing community.  I've only seen him a couple of times but I remember him because he has some spectacular suits.  He walks up and down the same piece of sidewalk every day.  So far I've seen him in a peach suit with gold strips and an all pink suit.  And he always has all the trimmings.

Well, today was certainly the best suit so far.  And since nobody believes me when I tell them about the kinds of things that I see in the city, I decided to try to take his picture.  So I made Nakeisha walk to his corner with me so I could ask him if I could take his picture.

He introduced himself as "I'm Percy, the retired pimp".  Really, that was how he introduced himself.  We stood and talked for a few minutes about where he gets his suits and how he's retired and how he likes to still come out to this corner so everybody can see what a real suit is like. 

I told Percy that where I'm from most of the suits are boring and some people don't believe me when I tell them that there are suits like this out there ... and would it be okay if I took a picture?  I actually think I made his whole afternoon, cuz he started posing and pointing out details of his suit.  He was very friendly and told me that I could stop by again for a picture of his next suit (which I will surely do).  He has 283 suits and wears one every day.

Now I realize that in this case a picture really is worth a thousand words.  But let me just point out a couple of details that are my favorite:

* His pimp cane has fur on it!!!!!  Who has that?!

* His shoes, pants, jacket, and cane all have matching purple satin.

* Notice the white glove ...

* His hat has craft rhinestones on it, and there's red feather you can only sorta see.

But for sure my favorite part has got to be the glitter glue!  Yup, that's a glitter glue butterfly!  And just in case you can't read it his suit jacket says (in glitter glue): Percy, Top Dog, Chicago, and King.  I really wanted to ask how much his specially-made suit cost, but since we just met and all....  So the next time I try to tell you a story about something that I've seen in Chicago I'm gonna need you to believe me. :-)

I've been trying to convince my friend to let me mail her a Easter suit from Chicago for her son.  I wonder if I can get this in a little boy size 5? :-) 

More Winter Blasting

The second session of Winter Blast was great!  We had the perfect weekend for winter camping.  Which you wouldn't really think exists, but with almost 80 great kids, packable snow, and temps in the 40s we had a blast!  Enjoy the pics!

This is my friend Nakeisha's son, Tavaris.  He is every bit as sweet as he is cute.  When I took this picture I told him that I was going to show it to his mom and she was going to be upset because he doesn't have on his hat and gloves.  (I was right.)  People here are constantly fussing at me for not having on a "respectable coat" and my hat and gloves.  Little do they know that the fact I've given up my flip flops for the winter is a recent advacement!

The Great Klondike Derby.  Teams pull a dogsled along a trail in the woods and do team building activities at stations throughout the race.

Autumn, me, and Jalayah

So... what do you do when your boots get all wet?!

There are a lot of great sledding pictures.  Nakeisha's other son, Tavontay, is in the back.  I'm not all the way sure she's going to let me take them to Winter Camp again since he's not wearing his hat either.  But he is sure having fun!

This is me being unsure about sledding.  It's a surprisingly big hill - and I doubt very much that Autumn knows how to steer any more than I do.  But I had to go, cuz, well.... camp is for the campers.  And Miss Jessica made me.  Not to worry - we didn't crash.

My friend Elizabeth and our new friend Jamar.

Ivelisse and Jalayah at the park.

Winter Blast Video Clips

Winter Blast 2010 got off to a great start with our January session!  60 kids were able to come and hear the Word through the story of how Daniel stood firm for God.  Pray that children will remember commitments they made during the weekend as they are in their neighborhoods and schools.

I've uploaded a couple of short video clips from the weekend:


Winter Blast 2010 from Megan Schenk on Vimeo.



Winter Blast from Megan Schenk on Vimeo.


 Enjoy these photos from the weekend.

Pearl made a heart out of snow.

Winter kick ball.

Reconnecting with camp friends and making some new ones.

As part of The Great Klondike Derby these boys found Easter eggs and then broke them open to make a "stew" out of the snow inside.

Late night marshmallow roasting.

Please pray for the expected 80 campers joining us for session 2 of Winter Blast in February.

Reasons not to fake illness:

When I was a child there was one standard used to determine illness: green drops. While other elementary students could fake illness by appearing lethargic and unpresentable, the Schenk children had to pass the green drops test before being declared sick - an excellent deterrent to any avoidance schemes we hatched. 

Green drops are a rather murky and insanely foul liquid "medication" used as a cureall - generously passed down to my parents from my grandmother.  And since they are a cureall it naturally follows that if we were unwilling to take green drops then we just must not really be sick.  (This might be a good time to mention that my blog apparently has no spell check .... and I'm not too sure about lethargic, deterrent, or cureall - apply this disclaimer to all posts.) 

I'm quite certain the trick was in giving them to us when were young, but somehow we came to believe that green drops really do work - that if you take them you will feel better!  But the general agreement is that no one would ever take green drops unless they were quite certain they were at death's door.  No death rattle, no green drops.  It's nothing like these gummy bear vitamins or electrolyte popsicles they have these days where kids are excited to receive medicinal relief.  Nope.  Green drops would gag a magot, and if anybody has a strong stomach it's gotta be those guys. 
 
But of course they can't work unless you swallow them.  When we were growing up we took green drops by the spoonful.  Imagine our indignation when we discovered that our nearly grown cousins took them about 2 drops at a time in a spoonful of sugar!  Or diluted in a cup of water (although all agree that prolonging consumption is a bad idea).

So, last night when I found myself sick enough to take green drops I read the label.  (I might could have pushed through but I didn't want the death rattle to alarm the neighbors.)  Here's an abbreviated explaination of the recommended uses for green drops:

* as a gargle for minor irritations of the throat
* as a refreshing mouth wash
* excellent for use with a toothbrush in cleansing the teeth
* relieves the stuffiness of a head cold - place 1/2 teaspoon in boiling water and breath the fumes (I just  
   realized this says fumes instead of vapors.  Hmmm....?)
* temporary relief of minor digestive disturbances - take 1/2 teaspoon saturated in sugar
* temporary relief of muscular aches and pains - gently rub the affected areas with these drops

I know I'm no doctor, but am I the only one who feels like this list is just a little bit, well... sketchy?  First of all, anyone who has ever tasted green drops would immediately elliminate the first three uses from consideration.  Secondly, does the same medicine generally help head colds, indigestion, and muscle pain?

It seems a little "mind over matter"-ish to me.  Which is fine, because last night I truly did feel better after I took them.  But if that's the case, I sure wish I knew the trick to reprogramming my mind to something a little more friendly.  And if "mind over matter" works then I'ma start my kids out right by printing a label and sticking it on some ice cream or something.  Cuz green drops'll make even a magot gag.

Home for the Holidays

** If the music is distracting you can scroll to the bottom and hit pause - but the first 2 songs are my current favorite worship songs...**

I was able to go home to Idaho for the holidays and spend time with family, friends, and supporters.  I was SO TIRED after 3 weeks of rushing around trying to see everyone, but I was also so happy to be with loved ones.  My closest friends are still in Idaho and I loved being next to people instead of just talking to them on the phone!  If I didn't get to see you this time I am sorry - but the good news is that I will be home again next Christmas!  Here are some picture highlights:

In the picture: Grandpa, Dad, Me, Aunt Sherry, Uncle Ray.  I spent 4 days in Yuma, Arizona visiting my aunt and uncle.  We went to a museum with antique farm equipment and restored cars.  There was a lot of stuff there!  As we walked around dad kept saying "Hey! We had one of these!  I wonder where it is??"  I guess "antique" farm equiment does not mean "retired" farm equipment.  Some of the stuff we are still using!

While we were in Arizona we drove around to look at Christmas lights and came upon this snowman.  Someone had spray painted tumble weeds - a creative solution to an Arizona problem. :-)

In this picture:  Wayne, Alice, Sarah (21), Matthew (23), and Megan (27).  This year Sarah didn't get to come home for Christmas - we were all so sad!!  It was the first year that we weren't all there - who would have thought that the baby would be the first one to not come home? (Don't tell her I called her the baby.) 

So Matthew made a life-size poster of her and we carried her around with us for the holidays.  We took her to church, the family Christmas party, the gym, out to lunch at Burgers, etc, to her old job, and anywhere else we went.  We had everybody sign her and take a picture with her and then we mailed the poster and pictures to her in Florida (where she is doing really good at a Parelli horsemanship externship).   So this family picture is going to go in a frame in my apartment as the 2010 family picture. :-)

Sarah's never loved kids quite like I do .... but this Christmas she decided kids were alright!  She had a smile on her face for the whole holiday! (yup, we spent a week saying tacky stuff like that ... and yes, we thoroughly enjoyed our antics and thought we were just so clever!)

In this picture: Grandpa Rich, Uncle Alvin, Aunt Clara, Aunt Ardena.  Every year at the family Christmas party the great aunts and unlces sing Christmas carols in German.  Correction:  Aunt Clara and Aunt Ardena sing and the guys hum along and smile.  It was suggest by a member of the quartet that perhaps they should practice during 2010, singing in German once a year just doesn't seem to be quite often enough. :-)

In this picture: Megan and Ilise.  So, what had happened was Ilise and I looked like right hot nuts on the last chance we had to take a picture together for the frame for 2010 .... and since Ilise had just taken me to get a pedicure I thought this would make a great picture. :-)  I saw so many close friends while I was home and I am so thankful for the people that God has given to me!  They encourage, uplift, inspire and challenge me - and I am a better person for them!  Thank you!!