“Average” couple leads Mount Prospect prayer breakfast

A self-described “average” Mount Prospect couple who've worked with at-risk youth and families in the community for 25 years delivered the keynote address Thursday at the village's annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast.

Rod and Jan McKenzie said they responded to a need in starting their Higher Up Ministries, which helps residents in the village's Boxwood Drive neighborhood, and they urged local business people and public officials to join them.

“If you had told me 25 years ago that we would have been doing this, I would have said that you're crazy,” Rod McKenzie said. “But we were called into a ministry and responded to a need. If we can do it, you can do it.”

Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks welcomed the more than 100 guests to the breakfast, held at the Bristol Court Banquets. It was the 12th year, community residents and business leaders joined local clergy in an early morning reflection.

“We've partnered with the Interfaith Council and the Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce, who host it,” Wilks said. “One of our hallmarks is that we always have lots of variety and diversity at our prayer breakfasts.”

Xochitl Lanto, a young singer and resident of Boxwood Drive, sang a pair of solos during Thursday's event, including one in Spanish accompanied by children from the community who formed a mariachi band.

Lanto helps out at the community center run by Higher Up Ministries, along with other members of her family.

“They offer tutoring classes and monthly food drives,” she said. “But mostly it's a safe place for kids to go after school.”

Rod McKenzie described how he became involved with the Boxwood Drive community, located just east of Randhurst Shopping Center in Mount Prospect, when he worked with a faith-based group reaching out to at-risk youth.

Increasingly, they became focused on the gang activity and heightened tensions in the Boxwood Drive community, he said.

What started with weekly evening basketball games at Euclid School grew to include club meetings for boys and girls and regular community parties, called the Boxwood Bash. Slowly, things began to improve, he said.

By that point, the McKenzies had moved into one of the Boxwood townhouses themselves, and held many of the small gatherings in their home.

“They've been there a long time and they even live there, which speaks to their integrity and commitment,” said the Rev. Russ Bechtold, pastor of the Northwest Assembly of God.

In 2001, the McKenzies landed a stand-alone center and more activities formed, including job training sessions, family nights, Bible studies and vacation Bible camps for children.

As the efforts to empower families grew, the couple moved away from the original faith-based group they worked with and started their own Higher Up Ministries in 2006.

“If you are passionate about making a difference in your community, find people to partner with you — and then step out in faith,” McKenzie said.