Picture Purge Paused

While some of us were having fun at the BootCamp, others of us had fun at the Serven's House.

We hope you have been enjoying the photo chronology of this past month . . . we have almost got back up to date, except for our time at the Entrepreneurial BootCamp. As much as we would like to complete that post too, we have run out of time. We will be away from the computer this next week but will be sure to share about our experiences when return.

We must mention with much gratitude how greatly indebted we are to the Koenig family. They have been sharing their Internet connection with us this week, and they are the reason there are any pictures on this blog! Thanks Koenigs for letting us camp out at your house this week. You know, I just realized we did not take any pictures of those hours and days! While we were waiting for slow computers and finicky blogs, what a joy it was to have deep conversations with you older girls, share some piano duets, hear about the latest going-ons with the "Indians" and the "White Men", give lectures on how to start a blog, and just be your neighbor! : ) We are so thankful the Lord brought you to live across the street from all us Servens.

With a grateful heart,
Rebecca of Clan Serven

Our First Excursion to the Atlantic Ocean

The East Coast

The day after the History of the World Conference in Virginia held many fun adventures for Mom, Nathan, Elizabeth, Peter and Sarah. Their first visit to the Atlantic ocean was a memorable one. The Zes ladies joined them for the afternoon's adventures.


The first feel of the Atlantic surf.


A real old-fashioned lighthouse.


Ahh. The feel of sand between your toes. Nothing can compare.


Is this boy homesick for St. Louis or what?!


Mrs. Zes and Mom had fun climbing up the rocks.


Really--they did!


Introducing Mr. Crab.

And now for the story you are all waiting for . . . in our previous post, we alluded to the infamous Ms. Good Human. Every one was walking along the beach, just minding their own business, when all of a sudden--they saw a boy with a fishing pole. He was excitedly reeling in his big catch of the day. Everyone crowded around to see what it was. When the young man discovered it was a sting ray, he dutifully started unhooking it from his line to throw it back into the ocean.



At this moment the notorious Ms. Good Human walked up with her grey poodle to see what all the excitement was about.

"Now what's that you have there?" she merrily chattered.

"Oh a sting ray, is it? No, no, Fifi, stay away from that nice boy. You know, you are such a nice person to be taking that dear creature off the line and returning him to the ocean where he belongs in the lovely darkness of the water. Everyone knows you don't eat things from deep, deep down in the ocean."

By this time, the silently working boy had finished his simple task and waded out into the surf throwing the creature back into the water. The crowd around the boy started dispersing, but just before we got out of earshot, the grandmotherly woman turned to the boy promptly exclaiming, "Oh, good human."

She then turned to her dog, "Now, come Fifi! Good dog." And with that she sauntered down the beach. We got this picture just in time . . .


Ms. Good Human


Do we have to go home?


All good things must come to an end. Following the leader back to the vehicles.


Dinner with the guys.

Editor: Many thanks Zeses for sharing your pictures. : )

Important Disclaimer: The Editor took liberties with embellishing the story of the said Ms. Good Human regarding the actual transcript of the conversation. Ms. Human's words were reconstructed based on the memories of those present, but recreated and written by the author, who was not actually on location at the time. However, to clarify, the recorded conversation was based on fact, not fiction. We are not held responsible for any legal suits, public or private, especially involving the welfare of poodles and sting rays. And furthermore, our deepest apologies to Ms. Good Human if we misunderstood her meaning.

Peter is Home!

One of the most important changes this month came to our brother Peter. For the past 4 months he has been interning with the Carpenter family in Tennessee. What a wealth of things he has learned under Mr. Carpenter's able mentorship. And what a privilege to be included as a member of their family while he lived in the sunny south.


Silly brothers!


The Carpenter and Serven girls.



Were we ever glad to see Peter drive up in our drive way!! The Koenigs even came over to help be part of the welcoming committee. What a blessed thing to have a brother who has returned home.

[Editor: Make sure to visit Franklin Springs new website! As people in California would say, "Much coolness". : )]

A Day at the Farm

Some friends of ours recently invited us down to their ancestral farm, about an hour south of our home.


The main sleeping cabin.

After driving through a shady and secluded woods and over several treacherous looking bridges we pulled into a clearing with half a dozen little cabins sprinkled around. This was the farm; the place were our friends the Knibbs spend several days every week, living their "other" life. It stands in sharp contrast to the bustling city life of most subdivision families.

The property was a wonderful bequest of previous generations. In the late 1800's and early 1900's the property was used as a family retreat for the Knibb family. Young families would travel from the east and set up camp for the summer. The fathers would hike into town during the sultry summer months, work hard then return back to the farm on the weekend to spend time with their wives and children. Each part of the farm is filled with traces of past generations. As the Knibbs rebuilt the main cabin last year, they used old boards from previous cabins to finish the walls on the interior. Pencil marks and notes from the early 1900's decorate the walls with fun old fashioned "graffiti". So and so caught a 25 pound cat on this day, spent so many days at the farm, or other such humorous things.



The Knibbs have launched many animal and agricultural pursuits with which they check on at the end of the week. The turkeys were quite entertaining. We had never watched their red waddles grow and shrink! [Editor: For all you turkey experts, I am sure "waddle" is not the technical term--but that is what you call it on a chicken. Does anybody know the correct name of the red floppy appendage that comes over the top of their beak? : )]



Of course a day at the farm would not be complete without some shooting. I had never tried clay pigeons before. 2 out of 15 was not great--but you have to start somewhere! Peter took the prize, consistently getting 4 out of 5 or 5 out of 5.



Beth tried her hand with the deer rifle. The Knibbs enjoy hunting very much. Every year when deer season rolls around, Alyssa and Nathan are up before the sun and fall into bed when it's pitch dark.



Mr. Knibb was so kind to take the little kids on horse rides around the clearing. Andrea took several of us older girls on long rides through the woods and down to the river.



I can't believe this is the only real water picture we have! A stupendous water fight erupted between the Knibbs and the Servens, but the camera person would have been dodging streams and buckets of water had the photography equipment been handy. The younger kids had a tamer experience on a good old-fashioned water slide.



We shared a grand feast for both lunch and dinner, cooking things in the pump house/kitchen. Of course we sampled two different recipes for home-made ice cream--one at lunch and one at dinner--to vote for our favorite kind. Quite yummy!


The Knibb boys.


The end of a long day.

The Blessings of Hospitality

The Hayden family

The blessing of hospitality brings such joy. To share heartfelt conversation about what God has been teaching us, to strategize on specific kingdom building ideas, to laugh over the humorous things as we walk through life's "muddle in the middle", and even join in songs of praise to our glorious God--these are some our our favorite things. And we were thrilled to enjoy these blessed things just a few weeks ago when we were honored with a visit from the Hayden family.



Mr. and Mrs. Hayden exemplify gracious and humble servants of Christ. How privileged we were to get to know them better.



Dad enjoyed giving Caleb a tour of his library. Here, they look over some of Dad's sermons.



All the little boys had a blast making "set-ups" out of Micro Machines. At one point the boys had totally taken over the stairs with their airfields, mortar rounds and tanks.



Nathan Hayden kept us all laughing. : )





The Haydens introduced us to some beautiful scripture songs written by a friend of theirs. It was fun singing Psalm 127 from the psalter and then again set as a scripture song. The truth of God's word shone through both styles. After piano and singing we were serenaded by Susanna's talented violin solos. Too bad she lives so far away--we found the perfect violin teacher in her.

Haydens, we so enjoyed having your family in our home and are truly blessed to get to know you better. Thank you for coming!

[Editors Note: You may enjoy visiting Lydia's, Caleb's, and Nathan's blogs.]

Making Bread - Sarah Joy

Taking bread out of the oven

Recently, I learned how to make bread. It was pretty easy to make. Here is the recipe if you would like to make it.

Whole Wheat Bread
makes 4 large or 5 medium sized loaves

6 c. water
10 c. whole wheat berries, freshly milled (we use Hard Red Montana Wheat)
3/4 c. honey
3/4 c. olive oil
2 T. salt
2 eggs
3 T. yeast

Heat water in between 100-110*. Add yeast and honey to water. In mixing bowl (we use a Bosch) mix together oil, salt, eggs, and water/yeast/honey mixture. Add 8 cups of flour then mix. Add flour in 1/2 - 1 c. increments until the sides of the mixing bowl come clean. Knead in mixing bowl for 6 minutes. Let rest for 20 minutes. Turn out and shape into 4 large or 5 medium size loaves. Place in warm oven or on stovetop and let rise for 15-20 minutes (until approximately doubled in size). Bake at 350* for 20 minutes. Alternate position of loaves, bake for an additional 15 minutes or until done. Cool on cooling racks. Enjoy!


The finished product

Evening on the Town

The Municipal Opera House, affectionately referred to by the locals as the "Muny", was the scene of an evening rendezvous with several people from our area. Our supposed reason was to attend the performance of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but of course the underlying motive of fellowship with the saints outweighed the musical. : )



We first enjoyed an outdoor dinner on the ample surrounding lawns of the Muny. David Fry met us there--we made sure to bring plenty of poultry. : ) We kidnapped dear Kimberly Fambrough and were thrilled to have her accompany us for the evenings festivities.



Our crowd at the Muny--the Koenigs had kindly saved us seats while we ate dinner. The 9,000 seat outdoor amphitheatre has 1,500 free seats. We gladly filled 24.



After the performance; tired but happy.

Stay Tuned . . .

Over the next week or so, we will be giving you a months worth of pictures, trips, thoughts and ponderings. Check back daily for the latest report.

Fruit Picking - Lydia Faith

Recently, the Serven and Saffa clans went peach and black berry picking. We picked boxes and boxes of fruit.


The Saffas were waiting for us when we arrived.


Isabella enjoying a peach.


Ben picking berries.


We had a lot of fun.

Alive and Kicking

My dearest and loyal readers,

To answer your queries, we have been busy. : )

However, with great gladness we must assure you that we are now home, our picture uploading system seems to have returned to its "normal" state of troublesomeness (instead of the "unusual" absolute incompatibility of the past few weeks), and we have pictures.

But it is the end of a long day. And the wisdom of sleep has won the day, over mumblings of a fuzzy brain.

Good night . . . or rather, good morning,

Rebecca of the Clan Serven

The Christian in Romans 7

Many thanks to Pastor Poorman for pointing us to this article by Arthur W. Pink.

Excerpt:
"O wretched man that I am." . . . The one who is truly in communion with Christ, will also emit this groan, and emit it daily and hourly. Yea, the closer he draws to Christ, the more will he discover the corruptions of his old nature, and the more earnestly will he long to be delivered from it. It is not until the sunlight floods a room that the grime and dust are fully revealed. So it is only as we really come into the presence of Him who is light, that we are made aware of the filth and wickedness which indwell us, and which defile every part of our being. And such a discovery will make each of us cry, "O wretched man that I am!"