The Schamel Family

Schamel Good

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Committed to sharing the good

news of Christ's love and joy in

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Aug. issue

Baking Cookies

By Melody Schamel

This summer, mom made cookies with my sister, Grace and me. We were almost done with the dough when my sister and I tasted it. We expected to taste yummy cookie dough, but it tasted like baking powder! My mommy realized that someone put in too much baking soda. There is a big difference in a teaspoon and 1/2 a cup! So now what were we to do?!

We took 1/4th of the dough and added all the other ingredients called for in the recipe, but we had to add 5 times what the recipe called for of all the other ingredients! It was way too much dough for our bowl, so we found our blue apple-bobbing bucket to mix it in. When we got done, we weighed the dough. There was 10 pounds! We should have invited you all over for some cookies because most of the dough went bad before we could eat it all!

From this experience, I learned to follow the directions or else the cookies will be all messed up!

Father/Son Retreat

By David Schamel

Two weekends ago, Dad took Ben, John and me to a father/son retreat in the mountains. Amber tagged along to help serve us our food. Our friends the Cupit's came too. Since we got to the resort early, the first day we helped show people where to park their cars. Then we played basketball, volleyball, went on the waterslides and the blob. The blob is like a big balloon shaped like a burrito that is in the pond. One person gets on the end, then someone jumps off the deck onto the blob and launches the other person off into the water. It was fun! We had one session that night after dinner.

We got special rooms because dad supports the Generations radio program and the people that work on that program did room assignments. Most people stayed in dorms where there were bunk beds and several other people. Our rooms had regular two beds. Us three boys got one room, and dad got his own.

The second day, we had a meeting after breakfast. Then we had some free time. After lunch we did the ropes course and the zip line. It was somewhat scary, but very fun. Then we watched a speaker who did a talk with his horse. His name was Lou. He talked about horses and fathers and sons. He said that the sons are like the horse and the father is to train them like Lou did the horse. Next was the Father /Son Olympics. We played with a medicine ball. We had two teams and we had to try to get the ball passed the goal line. We also played tug-of-war. Amber served us at our meals. She did a great job! Thanks Amber!

The next day was Sunday, so we had a church service, then we had some free time. During free time we played wombats. Wombats are PVC pipe with padding that we use for sword fights. After lunch, we had a special talk with Dad. We learned a lot about Dad. He told us about the past jobs he had and some stories about his life.

Monday we made our beds and other people's beds too because they had to leave early. Then we helped clean up our building. We also had another meeting in the morning. When we were ready to go and waiting for Amber, we helped Vision Forum pack up their store stuff. For helping ,we were able to get a knife and a broken pop gun that we could easily fix.

My favorite part of the retreat was playing with the wombats and spending time with my friends and family. Thanks Dad for taking us!



Our Chickens

John J. Schamel

On Feb. 5th my bothers and I got some chickens. They are 6 months old. The girl chickens are called hens, and the boy chickens are called roosters. The hens start laying in between 6 months to a year. The roosters start crowing in between 6 months to a year too. We have 12 chickens that are 6 months old. One rooster is crowing. The other 11 chickens we can not know if they are hens or roosters, because they are not laying or crowing yet.

There are lots of different types of chickens. We ordered a straight run which is a variety of chickens, so we don't even know what kind all of them are. The one that is crowing is black and has some brown and sometimes looks blue and green depending on how the sun shines on his feathers. We feed our chickens two times a day. We give them Layena, a special feed for chickens that are laying eggs. Although our chickens aren't laying yet, they should anytime. We also feed them our scraps from the house. The especially like the tops of strawberries and salad.

When they start laying, we expect to get 1/2 a dozen eggs a day. That will be more than we can eat, so we hope to sell the extras to help pay for the food. If you are interested in fresh eggs, let us know!



The Florissant Fossil Beds

By Ben Schamel

several weeks ago our family went to the Florissant fossil beds. At the fossil beds they found petrified red wood tree stumps. For a long time this was the only place where there was a mother tree and something happened to it and three other trees grew out of it. Florissant also has paper shale. In this layer they find, leaves, insects, twigs, seeds, cones from trees, flowers, and pollen grains. they even found the dust on a butterfly. The rangers there say that it sank to the bottom of a swampy area and that's how it got fossilized. They also teach you that things are millions of years old, and that's why we need more places in the world that gets the creation message out.



What God Has Joined Together

By Amber Schamel

Several weeks ago, we had the pleasure of going to a friend's wedding. We strolled down the petal-covered walkway, and were met by a breath taking view as we looked out over a beautiful prairie. After finding a place to stand under a group of trees we waited for the wedding to begin.

When we first met this lovely young woman, she was still only 12, and it was hard now to believe that only six years later she would be getting married! We hadn't heard from her in about a year, and last we knew she was planning on moving to Tennessee with her parents. However their plans in Tennessee fell through. So they stayed here, in Colorado, were the bride met her fiancee. They met at a youth gathering and only nine months later were getting married!

Suddenly the music changed, and everyone turned toward the aisle, to see the pastor, two groomsmen, and the groom come down the aisle and stand at the front. Next came the Bride's mother on the arm of her son. When they got to the front they exchanged a tight hug and both went to their places. Next came the groom's parents and the two bridesmaids.

Finally, here came the bride, her face radiant in virtue and purity, as she held to her father's arm. Seeing his gorgeous bride-to-be come down the aisle brought tears of joy and gratitude to the Groom's eyes.

At the end of the aisle, the pair stopped and her father turned over the brides hand to her husband-to-be, who carefully, with tears still in his eyes, escorted her to stand before the pastor.

The music stopped and over the sound of sniffles and birds, the pastor began the ceremony. He began by telling everyone how long he had known the couple and how overjoyed he was to see two people who had put God first in their lives come together to become one flesh.

He lined out the responsibilities of each of them starting with the bride. She is to respect, honor, obey and submit to her husband, and he in return is to lead, love and cherish and protect her.

One of the most awe-inspiring things that the pastor explained was how the husband edifies the wife. The husband can make the wife stronger in the Lord, and now is a tool in the hand of God to mold her into what the Lord wants her to be.

After vows were exchanged, they were pronounced "Man and Wife."

The pastor emphasized the fact that this was the couple's first kiss, and that they had stayed pure and unadulterated to each other.

Finally, he gave the couple a few minutes to take communion together for the first time.

It was the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen.

At this exquisite wedding, I was reminded of the relationship between Christ and his bride. Someday, Christ will come back to take his bride away to the wedding supper, and he expects to find her pure, unadulterated and committed to him. Matthew 25 tells the story of 10 virgins, 5 were ready, and 5 were not.

Are you ready?

"Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." -Matt. 25:11-13

God Bless,

The Schamel Family