Friday, June 29, 2007

ONCE AGAIN WE ARE AMAZED<><

Sophia, Jane, Mark, Leah, Lindsay, Callie and Hannah



Field Day at the Seminary...Sept. 06



Caleb and Uncle Mark up north Christmas 06





We are SO amazed by the faithfulness of God. Not at all surprised, but we just continue to stand in awe of His goodness to us. I remember last fall being excited but also a little anxious as we headed here... so many new things and unknowns. He has more than been faithful. He provided a place to live on campus, special friends and has provided for all of our needs. The reason I am once again amazed is that earlier this week I headed to a new dentist (who gives discounts to seminary students:) because I was having problems with a crown. Well, I will save you the gory, bummer details but the bottom line was we were going to have a MAJOR expense...even with the discount:) If any of you know me I have always had some fear of the dentist and I am a bit emotional. Literally I had to fight back the tears as I called Greg to check with him and make sure I should go ahead with the work that I will have to have done. A little embarrassing, but oh well. Of course Greg was as sweet as usual. Well, God is so faithful. Today in the mail we got a couple of unexpected gifts. What we received will meet this need and has eased a great burden. We have seen his blessings through many of you over and over again. We are so amazed. We so appreciate the gifts, the notes, the encouragement, and the prayers for us. We don't ever doubt his provision it is just so awesome! We give him all of the glory!





The last picture above is of Caleb with my oldest brother Mark. The top picture is of Mark's family. For the last year Mark has been having some serious liver issues. Last week he and his wife Jane went to Mayo clinic in Minnesota to try and get to the bottom of his illness. They think that they have figured out that it is a certain liver disease , but they want to do more tests in July. There are times he feels pretty good, but then has some bad flair ups. Please pray for God's healing touch on Mark's body. He, Jane and their 5 daughters are resting in God's peace and joy. They really do have great peace about it. We know the power of God and the power of prayer so I just wanted to get the word out to some more of God's mighty prayer warriors! Thanks so much for lifting Mark and his family up to the Lord!




Thursday, June 28, 2007

BUSY SUMMER DAYS!!

Caleb, Louis and Anna in front of the Muny

Sweet Little Buddies:)

The kids at the Botanical Gardens

Yes, the Hintz family has been busy with more free activities around the St. Louis area. My Dad has always said I can stretch a buck further than anyone he knows, but boy when it is free it is even better. St. Louis is full of free activities, perfect for the seminary family on a budget:)

Last Thursday I took Louis, Caleb and Anna to the Muny. It is a huge outdoor theater in Forest Park. This is the park about a mile from campus. Every night they have 1500 free seats available on a first come first serve basis. We went early and got to see a wonderful production of Oklahoma. The intermission was at 10:00pm. I wasn't sure if we would make it to the end, but the kids loved it and wanted to stay. It ended around 11:20pm. They were still awake, even Anna. Boy were they thrilled to see it and be up so late. It was really a lot of fun. They have a different performance each week so I am sure we will try to catch another.

Tuesday we went to Forest Park to have a picnic dinner with some friends and listen to a free Jazz concert outside of the History Museum. The kids had a blast playing together and trying to walk on Mr. Zieglers slack line. It was a line he had tied off between 2 trees and basically you try to balance and walk across it. It is maybe only 2 feet off the ground. It looks so easy, or I should say he made it look easy. The kids definitely had more balance than their mama. It was pretty funny.

Yesterday we spent the morning at the Botanical Gardens. It also is free every Wednesday and Saturday morning before noon. I am just totally amazed by all of the free things to do here. It was really pretty; beautiful flowers, trees, sculptures and more. It was a scorcher. I think being northerners we just aren't used to the heat. We were all really tuckered out by noon. Greg of course being from Houston has the southern blood. It was really fun to just be together and enjoy God's amazing creation. Speaking of God's beautiful creation. I was at a home school conference up in Wisconsin and the organization Answers in Genesis was there. Wow, do they have neat resources. I picked up a book on the Grand Canyon because we are going to visit some family out that direction and do some camping for a bit. The book is so cool; amazing pictures, but more importantly shows how the Grand Canyon was formed from a creationist standpoint, the biblical standpoint. It is a bit above the boys level, but we read 2 pages everyday and they are really into it. Wow, we can't wait to see in person the mighty, majestic work of God's hands. It is amazing how much I have to learn, having gone to public schools I can see how the evolutionist worldview was woven into so much that I learned. Not that I believed it, but I am excited to learn how I can defend my faith and prove God's mighty work in creation. I really want my kids to have a firm foundation in that as well. Enough rambling, but I tend to get excited about these things:) Blessings on your day!


Sunday, June 17, 2007

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY


It was an eventful day here at the Hintz house. We went to church last night at a church called Christ in the City, CRAVE coffeehouse. It is a coffee house during the week but they hold a church service there on Saturday night. It is a really neat place. Today the boys had a BIG baseball game on campus. Just a big group of boys getting together to play. This has been the new thing as of a week ago. They have been practice playing everyday, but today was the actual game. It was soooo hot, the boys didn't notice they could've played all day.
After the game they were all going to run through the sprinkler (mom included). Caleb went inside to get a snack and cut his finger badly. He is usually my vegetable peeler and cutter and does a great job, but today the knife slipped and caught his middle finger. So Greg and I headed across the street with him to the hospital. He was so scared that he'd have to get stitches. Thankfully the Dr. was able to just use the glue. He was very relieved. It is so sad to see your child hurting. But thank the Lord, he is just fine tonight.
We had a nice calm dinner back at home and finished off the night with an episode of Little House on the Prairie. We just love that show:) Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. We are so blessed to have such wonderful Father's but are even more blessed to have our awesome Heavenly Father.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

THE HEAT IS ON!

Louis with new baby cousin Ezra

Cousins Grace and Callie with Caleb
Cousin Sophia and Anna having a tea party


Yes, the heat is on in St. Louis. I think it was 94 degrees in the shade yesterday. A little steamy for us from the north. Greg loves the heat and humidity with his Southern Texas blood. We have had a busy last few weeks. We just returned from Wisconsin. It was a wonderful chance to get away and spend time with lots of family and friends. We were also able to visit with churches that have helped us since we have been here at the seminary. We were pretty much on the go most of the time. The kids loved having sleepovers, camp outs, tea parties:), lake time, and just spending time with their cousins. It was great!
We were thankful to be able to be there while my dad had throat surgery. Praise the Lord he seems to be recovering great. He is now on voice rest, so any of you that know my dad know that this will be quite a challenge, he loves to talk. He had to do this about 6 weeks ago and actually did quite well. It was really funny to see him trying to mouth words to us (that didn't work real well), and write everything out ( that also didn't work that well, his handwriting isn't the best:) The kids got a kick out it saying that they want Grandpa on their team for Charades at the family reunion at the end of summer. We are so thankful that the surgery went well. We thank God for His healing touch.
So right before we left for vacation we had 2 of the families in our building of 4 move out. And just today one of my running partners and her family packed up the truck to move to Florida. It is really exciting but also a bit sad to have so many neat friends leaving. We are excited to hear more about the ministries God has been preparing for them. But at the same time the campus is getting really quiet compared to a month ago. It is a bit strange. We have already had two new neighbors move in and in fact at the moment we are getting ready for a Building 4 cookout to welcome the new guys. Our previous neighbor the Williams always organized the group cookouts in fact Scott the husband had quickly earned the name "Mr. Cookout" by the kids. That was pretty much all they knew him as. It was funny. Well I better run to cut up the watermelon.