A GREAT TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!

Just a quick update on our weekend getaway with our small group from Texas. We had so much fun. It was such a treasure to be together. It had been 8 years since we had all been together. The 15 kids had such a great time and got along so well. We played a lot of kickball, dads against the kids:) had a blast doing the challenge course, had some wonderful fellowship with each other, had a great Sunday service led by our 2 seminarians in an old church building on the Lutheran camp property, went on a hike to Bear cave a top Mount Petit Jean, had lots of laughs, and even tears at how much we still miss each other after 8 years not living near each other. It truly was a gift from God to spend 3 days together. We treasure our dear Texas friends. I will post some pictures from our time together at a later date. We are praising God for the gift of friendships.

LITTLE BOY BUZZ CUTS

A QUICK VISIT FROM GRANDMA AND GRANDPA HINTZ

SUMMER BUZZ CUTS

We are getting ready to head out for a camping trip. So this will be brief... We are thrilled to get a chance to have some family time away. Last evening Grandma and Grandpa Hintz stopped by on their way up to Indiana. The kids were screaming when they arrived, they were so excited. I think everyone on campus knew. We had a fun visit with them, though too short. We are heading out shortly. We will be going to Arkansas to a Lutheran camp to get together with our small group from Texas. It has been close to 8 years since we all have been together. We are so looking forward to the fellowship with them.

The other night Greg begged me to buzz all of the boys hair. I didn't want to do Jojo's. But eventually I gave in. He doesn't look like my little baby anymore. Oh well, they will all be cool for the summer. We'll update late... Peace and Joy in Jesus!

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!

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!

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.

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.

A LITTLE GETAWAY FROM THE SEM

Praise God, Greg is done with finals. Yeah! One year down and one more to go here at the seminary. Then one year of vicarage. We are excited. The finals were difficult, but he survived. It is kind of funny to see him reading some of his school books just for fun. He says that now he actually has more time to read and enjoy it compared to just reading so much material to complete papers, prepare for tests, etc. Now he can take the time to absorb a little more. But actually he is spending a lot of time playing with the kids and relaxing a little bit.


Last weekend we were able to get away for a little bit. We went to Columbus Indiana to visit my cousin's family. The second picture above is of all of the second cousin kids together. We all enjoyed the great hospitality they offered us. What a wonderful treat. It was really nice for the kids and I to see Greg be more like his usual fun-loving, silly self. It was great! We all love it here, but it has made Greg a bit more serious at times. We did a lot of biking together and even had a chance to go swimming. It was really refreshing(chilly:) but that didn't seem to bother the kids at all, especially Louis the water bug. We also got a chance to go up near Indianapolis and visit some dear friends of ours, the Bramlets from Wisconsin. They have since moved there. We were in a small group together for 5 years. It was a short visit, but so special. We are God-parents to one of their daughters so it was neat to get to spend some time with her. All in all it was a real blessing for us to get away for a bit and have some family time together.


Louis had some standardized testing this week here on campus with some other home schooled children. It was kind of funny, he loved it. We were happy about that. The top picture above is of Caleb, JOJO and Lou enjoying some ...brotherly love:)