Happy Birthday Peter!

The Month of Weddings

The newest Erber Family.

What joyous times to see the establishment of new covenant households. Last week, we witnessed Josh and Abbey Erber's vows, and this week some of us travel out to California for Daniel and Jenny Gillogley's wedding. Needless to say, the blog may be a little on the quiet side this week. : )

Tree Triming

Broken Limbs.

A recent ice storm made for some broken branches in the woods around our property. The guys tackled the project to convert the limbs into firewood for next winter.


Spotting.


Perched in the tree.


Pulling . . . pulling . . .


Heave ho!


Chain Saw making firewood for next year.

Mens Advance 2008: Official Photo Report

The brisk winter air gave clear views of a bracing blue sky. The 2008 Men's Advance was in full swing.

With one hundred thirty-five men in attendance from seventeen states across the nation, there were many opportunities for old relationships to grow, as well as new ones to form. The 24 hours of the Advance were intense, yet filled with relaxing times of fellowship, encouraging teaching, and bountiful feasting.

Pastors Brown and Serven presented four lectures on the providence of God and raising godly children. Related discussions were quite varied in the question and answer session, the small group discussions and around each of the meal tables.

Elder Scott Brown.

When considering the Providence of God, the speakers did not shy away from God's truth as they addressed the "frowning providences of God" as well as His "happy providences". There was even a rousing discussion on the theological gordian knot of whether or not God is the author of evil.

Listening.

Pastor Marcus Serven.

The men also looked at various how-to issues on raising godly sons and daughters including discipleship, maintaining healthy parent child relationships, the role of education, how to guide your sons into their calling, being a good steward of ones time and life, and how to establish oneself in a new household.

There was continued discussion of the importance of family worship and how it practically related to the re-ordered of a busy father's schedule.

Father and sons building relationships.

Oldest and youngest brothers.

Mealtime discussions: Browns and Vaughns.

Informal miscellaneous discussions abounded around the tables. Business, marketing, future plans, economics, history, and even discussions on cryptozoology. : ) Talking with men in an iron sharpening iron manner, was an excellent opportunity to be encouraged in the Lord as each of the men looks forward to the road ahead.

The Ice Cream Bar, a popular mid-night snack.

The Koller Men.

Taking notes.

Before the beginning of each session the men sang several hymns, led by Mr. Brooke Hopkins on the piano. All us ladies in the kitchen would often stop in the midst of our cooking preparations to listen to the singing--it was so rich and full.

Deacons in training.

Fun and Games

Outdoor break on the grounds.

"Change chairs if . . ."

Saturday afternoon, the room took a light hearted turn as the men pushed back all the tables and made a huge circle of chairs. "Change chairs if . . . ." was the phrase of choice.

One person would make a statement true of them, "Change chairs if you've ever been out of the country", then all the people who had traveled abroad would jump up and switch with the other players. The only problem, was that there was one less chair than players. That is, one person always gets left in the "mush-pot" and has to state the next "Change chairs if . . . "

". . . you are wearing blue jeans!"

"Change chairs if you are wearing shirt with buttons" would get almost everyone out of their seat, while "Change chairs if you've ever been skydiving", had only one taker who had braved that proverbial altitudinal challenge.

The small fry on the playground.

Ball game.

Invigorating exercise.

Catch.

Support Staff

The Kitchen Crew.

Standing ovation for the ladies.

Church on the Lord's Day

Missouri, Wisconsin, North Carolina.

On the Lord's Day, Pastor Brown exhorted Covenant Family Church from Romans 5. His message from God's Word struck close to home as he spoke of the realities of our redemption. We are standing in a stream of grace, are called to hope in the goodness of God, and even rejoice in our tribulations, knowing the truth of our justification in Christ.

Young Mr. Houghton explains the mission of the African Interior Missions.

Young men with a big vision: a few of the men on the AIM team.

Romans 5;1-11

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

"For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

"Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

"More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

Thanks to Peter Serven and David Brown for the photography.

Men's Advance 2008: NCFIC Leadership Meeting

Organizers and Speakers: Marcus Serven, Jim Zes, Scott Brown.


The National Center for Family Integrated Churches held a Leadership Meeting right before the Men's Advance. More than 80 pastors, elders, and leaders, gathered to stratigize using God's methodologies to build Christ's kingdom.

Pastor Serven.

Our father, Marcus Serven, taught on Calvin's pastoral theology and it's application to our lives today.

Fathers and sons came from around the country.

Caleb Hayden, Christopher Berkompas, and Nathan Serven.

Thanks to Peter Serven and David Brown for the photography.

Rushdoony on Local Elections

Historically, the seat of government was locally based. 

"In early America, town and country elections were properly regarded as more important than state and federal elections, and property qualifications were more strict on the local level. The country was the heart of the Protestant feudal restoration, and the growth of state and especially federal power was as much distrusted as the growth of royal power, and royal absolutism had been hated and distrusted in an earlier era. 

"The county is currently under assault from United Nations, federal, state and metropolitan planners. City and county manager plans have been and continue to be instrumental in subverting representative government and in undermining localism. Even as feudalism was and still is identified with backwardness and primitiveness, so the historic American system is now slandered as belonging to a horse and buggy age." 

The Nature of the American System, by R. J. Rushdoony. Excerpt from Chapter 1. 

Rushdoony on our Roots of Feudalism

I have much to learn.

Because of my lack of application during the years of my formal education, there were many subjects that I missed.

The rest of my brothers and sisters internalized their studies much better than I. In fact, quite often, I will come up to them all excited, saying, "Hey! You'll never guess what I was reading today!! I learned that so and so was the founder of such and such! And that was connected to this other movement years before!" "Yes", they'll sweetly reply. "I already knew that". : )

The realization of this lack spawned my recent mini unit-study in economics. And now, it is now time to turn to the study of American History.

When I jumped into Rushdoony's The Nature of the American System yesterday, I was surprised to see his connections between the foundation of the United States and feudal England. This is quite timely, as my reading is in preparation for Liberty Day and this subject is quite similar to the upcoming lectures by Marshall Foster.

- Rebecca

" . . . It is necessary to recognize that the American civil structure was almost from its inception, a Protestant restoration of feudalism.

"To the colonists, as to the barons who wrested Magna Carta from King John, English liberty meant feudalism in essence, localism as against centralism, contractual government as against absolutism.

"Almost at once, the colonies gravitated to localism and contractualism. Their charters with the English Crown were feudal contracts, and there was not relationship between colonies and Crown except in terms of these charters.

"Although the Crown was often arbitrary, and sought to be absolutistic, the legal basis remained feudal.

"Each colony was thus an independent state, with its own independent civil structure, under a feudal lord, represented in the colony by the royal governor.

Rushdoony writes on Robin Hood?! : )

"In the colonies, this Protestant feudal restoration was steadily developed, even as absolutism was steadily developed in England. At first, the Crown claimed divine rights, and then in 1688, Parliament claimed the right to exercise royal absolutism in the name of the king.

"In contrast, in the colonies, and at times with astonishing rapidity, power gravitated from the state (i.e., the colony) to the local level.

"A large degree of autonomy was accorded to teach town in Massachusetts as early as the General Court of 635 because of the steady insistence on local self government. Local officers became locally elected.

"In the declining days of feudalism in England, Robin Hood's enemy had been the sheriff and the country officials, all Crown appointees; against these his feudal rebellion was directed. Now, in America's feudal restoration, these officers were steadily made the county's men.

"Any attempt, as of that in Massachusetts in relation to the pay of judges, to centralize authority over the colonies in London, was bitterly resisted as an invasion of liberty. "

The Nature of the American System, by R. J. Rushdoony, Excerpt from Chapter 1. Emphasis as written.

Men's Advance 2008: Friday's Kitchen

Cooking Schedules: Organized or what?!

Friday morning bright and early, we rendezvoused at Skyway Farms with a bevy of capable kitchen helpers. These ladies were SUCH a blessing to us. For the first part of the morning we focused on the most work intensive tasks.


Chopping.


Approximately 250 Enchiladas in 4 hours.


Master Chef Beth.


Covenant Seminary Book table.

As the day wore on, we finished set up and clean up in the cabins and hall.


Folding napkins.


Miss Lyd cuts the potatoes.

Finally, as the men started to arrive, it was time to pull Friday's dinner all together.


Mrs. Ford finishing the Teriyaki Chicken.


Mrs. Lokke slicing bread.


Dinner's Ready.


French Toast Prep Team.

With dinner behind us [Editor's Note: Sorry--no pictures of the serving times! We were busy running around. : )], we focused on breakfast preparations for Saturday.


French Toast Casserole.


Now that's a lot of sausage for the morning!


Andrea R. making the mix for the french toast.

Late that evening, after serving an ice cream and cookie bar to the registrants, we made a midnight run to the store, then headed back to our house to bed down for the night. The alarm was set early for tomorrow!

Men's Advance 2008: Sound Check

Serven Boys Sound Crew.

Men's Advance 2008: Set Up

Now what?

We approached the next task with fear and trepidation. We had to figure out how to graciously accommodate 135 men for the lectures and dining hall. All in a 3600 square foot room.


Trying to keep warm.

We started off the morning by making a fire. Warm bodies make for quick minds. We needed all the help we could get to figure out a solution.


Heave Ho!

We tried out a few different configurations for the Dining Room.


Trying an idea.


Keeping music going to ensure happy workers.


Reinforcements arrive.

The kind Brabo children were willing assistants in our table and chair endeavors.


Getting the chairs in place.

Ok. The dining room is good. Now we threw everything up in the air, pushed the tables back, and tried to squeeze in 135 chairs.


Tired out from all the work.


Time to stoke the fire.


This looks like a plan. Counting chairs to make sure.


Continuing in the tradition of Self Portraits.


Looking good.


The mastermind, a.k.a. "Miss Analytical", creates the diagrams for seating and dining configurations.

We made liberal use of duck tape and a sharpie pen to mark the rows of chairs, the location of tables, etc, so that our man on site, Bryant Cutler, could implement the plan while we were in the kitchen.


Wow. These look complicated.

Bryant did a masterful job running the room reconfigurations. Before each meal, a team of young men would change the room around to resemble a dining room, then afterwards in no time flat, it was re-set for the speaking times. Thanks so much guys!


Blame it on an analytical mind.

Men's Advance 2008: Map It

Pin-points.

Our registrar, Mr. Hamann, gave us a fun idea for this year's Advance. Why not make a map with pins for the locations of our registrants?

We placed yellow pins for last year's Advance in Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, California, and Texas.

For this years registrants, we used blue and teal pins to mark the states of Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Idaho, and Washington--17 states in all! Wow. The Lord sure surprised us with a country wide turn-out.

It was such a blessing to have so many fathers and sons from across the states.


Sarah locating our registrants on the map.

Men's Advance 2008: Tackling the Kitchen

Organizing the unloaded supplies in the kitchen.

Once we arrived at the camp, we made the same hundred trips (or so it seemed) from the van to the kitchen to unload all the needed supplies.

The last group to use the camp was a Boy Scouts troop, so we decided to give the kitchen and surrounding environs an extra thorough cleaning. : ) We can say this without malice since we have 3 former scouts in our family.


Water. We didn't have but 5 or 6 gallons left by the end.


A cheerful dishwasher.


Our task: Turn this into something delicious, nutritious, and yummy.


Unique warming methodologies for cold toes and fingers. Notice the jacket turned direct heat vent. : )


We placed these snack baskets in each of the cabins.

The cabins and manor house also needed a little perking up. We sent a delegation to clean and straighten up the rooms. They also started the heaters running. By Friday afternoon, the cabins were much more temperate.


Checking in with the crew on the road before lunch--"Are you almost here?! We still have a ton to do!"

Men's Advance 2008: Transporting Supplies

Stuff, stuff, stuff.

Beth diligently worked for several weeks collecting all the needed supplies for the Men's Advance. The pile started out in one corner of our living room, but by the end, she had food stocked away in all our fridges, paper products in the living room, 6 borrowed roaster ovens, heaters, tables and chairs in our trailer, more food at the church, etc.

It was quite a task to organize and transport all the needed equipment up to the camp. It seemed like we made hundreds of trips to and from the van, gathering things to transport for the event. Thursday morning early, we left the house to make the 45 minute trip to Skyway Farms Camp and start preparations.


SAV on the job--swinging by our church building (we rent).


Rolls for 135 brisket sandwiches.


Packed and still smiling in the van. This is a good thing. : )

Men's Advance 2008: Many Hands Make Light Work

Ground beef for enchiladas.


Dressing mixes.


Washing lettuce.

Men's Advance 2008: Water Pickup

80 gallons strong.


Loading in the "SAV"--any guesses for meaning of the acronym?

Men's Advance 2008: Cookie Testers

The all important job. But, somebody has to do it.

Practicing

Keep your ears open for a new recording.

Delectable Leftovers

Leftovers can present a special challenge. How do you get the most bang for your buck and not waste food, but still create a meal with lovely presentation, that tastes yummy and retains good nutritional content?

Since I am the breakfast person at our house (Sarah does lunch, Beth does dinner), here are a few of my favorite left-over breakfast dishes. Please leave a comment with your leftover ideas for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Breakfast Potatoes
These are our absolute favorite way to serve potatoes--they taste like oven fried potatoes you would get at Bob Evans, Denny's or another local breakfast spot.

leftover baked potatoes
butter
raw brown onions diced or green onions sliced
season salt

Place 1/2 cube of butter [Editor's Note: That's a "stick" to you midwesterners] on cookie sheet in oven to melt. Meanwhile, chop potatoes and onions into desired size. We usually do 1 inch chunks of potatoes, but you could also do wedges, etc. Pour potatoes and onions onto cookie sheet and toss with melted butter. Sprinkle with season salt. Place in broiler, or 500* oven directly under heating element, stirring every few minutes until crispy (20-30 minutes).


Bread Pudding
This recipe serves our family for breakfast and is great to use up bread heels, dry bread, toast, batches of bread that didn't cooperate, etc. I know many people also enjoy Bread Pudding for dessert.

8 eggs
4 cups milk
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 cups dry bread cubes (7 slices)
2/3 cup raisins

Beat together eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Place dry bread cubes in a greased 9 x 13" pan. Sprinkle raisins over bread. Pour egg mixture over all. Bake in a 350* oven for an hour or until a inserted knife near center comes out clean. Cool slightly. Makes 10-12 servings.

Notes on the Photos: I did not take these pictures . . . but found them on Google Images. They are the closest I could find to what the dishes actually look like when we make them. It looks like they added a little fresh parsley into the potatoes and maybe mushrooms--great idea! And on the bread pudding, we typically use whole wheat bread, so that gives a slightly different look, but makes for a wonderfully hearty breakfast.

Snow Fort

Artic Explorers a la' The Giant of the North.


The tools of the trade.


Fast friends and brothers.

The Real Deal

Glorious White Stuff.

After our patient waiting, real snow has finally arrived. The children have been outside non-stop, coming in only of the event of meals, and the occasional emergency run for hot chocolate.


On the sledding hill.


Up from a wipe-out.


Joely Boy.


Trudging up the hill for another run.


Snow Angels.


"Arnold"--Don't ask me. Perhaps the children christened the van with a name? : )


Frozen Boots.