Hinten-Hubert-Ruth-1979-NewZealand.pdf

7/28/2019 Hinten-Hubert-Ruth-1979-NewZealand.pdf

1/9

.Dear Fr iends,I had to look a t my calendar to real ize tha t it actually had been a month sinceI ' l a s t wrote to you a l l . As Ruth says, "My how the time does f ly when you are

having fun," ue a t le as t have been qui te busy th i s month with v ar io us ac t iv i t i e s .It seems l ike Ruth i s gone to something every day. Hith helping in the OpportunityShop, working with our mid week af te r school, group, and.going weekly fo r excerciseswith a spina bif ida chi ld she has a busy schedule aiid then there arp always planningmeetings and womens meetings of on e kind or ano ther, so with the housework she hasno problems with boredom. The boys w er e both for tunate tha t they f inished t h e i rl&iiversity exams one week and were able to get jobs the next -vjeek. . Ricky i s workingin a lumber yard close to home and should be the re a l l summer. Kirk i s vrorking fo ra wolesale fabric place in the ci ty a t leas t unt i l about Christmas. They are pleasedto have the chance to make some money and have something to do. Laurie f inishedher exams this week and i s off school now unti l . the f i r s t of February. . She wouldlike to work some but may have troiibie finding a job. She is mostly just happy to "be finished studying for awhile.

Our church act ivi ty a t the moment which i s at t rac t ing a lo t of at tent ion i sbuilding a float . to enter in"the local business mene parade this Saturday. In thepast. there has been nothing to cause people to even think about the real meaningo f Chr is tmas so th is year we determined to enter a f loa t . There i s always a bigcrowd that at tends and in th is way we can cause them to be aware of the bir th ofJesus and publicize our presence in th e community as a church. The f loat is on a9 by 6 t ra i ler which the men have built a frame out to make i t straight on the sides.This is covered with chicken wire and serviettes (napkins). Then there will a poston the center of each side and end which have a cross piece to come together abovethe center of the trailer. On top of this will go a big red bow made of the stuffedwire. The posts will be covered id.th red crepe paper. Inside wil l be two youthrepresenting Hary and Joseph and a doll for the baby Jesus, i.'e irajited one of thecouples here with a 7 month old baby to do this bu t they were afraid he would befussy so that didn't vrork. The float will be pulled by a car and in front of i twill be l6 kids each wearing a covered box over their.shoulders with a le t te r oneach box. They will spell out GODS GEIiyTEST GEFT. On the back of the f loat vdll bea sign with the name of the church and address on i t . l/e have had one work nightwith a good response and hope tonight to finish all . that.can be done ahead of time.I t has been good so far just to have everyone working together on something andvje are sure t ha t it wil l be a good witness fo r Chris t Jesus on Saturday, ilow \iecan only p ray tha t the weather wil l continue good till then.One encouraging area of church life is the good response to thb ai'ter schoolprogram each week. There i s a f lucuat ion of individuals but we run about 20 kidseach week. Some of these V7ill be taking part in- the parade and then in our Christmasprogram for the f i rs t time, ue think their parents will attend so i t will giveus a good link with the families. Thise seems the most effective way of reachingpeople in the community so we think i t is worth a lot of effort, i.e tty to providesomething for a ll ages* but concentrate more on the younger children. There is agood nucleus for a senior youth group and we will be viorking more with that in thenew year and particularly with Barrel now taking the. leadership there. Darrel isdoing a good job here and is well accepted. He informed us this week that he is nowengaged to a girl in Kansas. She is to come out here in.December and they expectto be married sometime in the new yeax but no time set definitely yet. i.-e arepleased with the idea since i t will help him to be settled and to be happy in hiswork here. She is the daughter of a preacher and they have been acquainted fort li ree years so it seems l ike a good match.lie are enjoying a good beginning of summer now. In fact everything is becomingdry since i t has been tvio weeks since vre had a good rain. I am trying to get someflowers started so I have to water them eveiy night. They are on a hil l which makesi t dry out more. In the garden the moisture is pretty good and the beans and radishesare growing n-rell. u-e have been having very nice let tuce r ight now. The tomatoes areSitt ing on so by the end of next month or maybe by Christmas we will, have ou r f i r s t

Strawberries-are- in-fuli^ produetion^-but-ours have not done-mucl-t-sinee^ wemoved dom here so a l l vre ho.ve had i s some we bought. The l a s t of the cau li flowersare gone also. Laurie ;and Iiuth hate been swimming a time or two so far . i.hen i/e sawpictures on TV of the f irst snowstorm up in the western states we were very pleasedto be here and in'summer time. All that snow blowing around just doesn't have anya,ppeal for me. I would much p re fer to look a t our beau t ifu l roses now that they arei n full b loom...e wish you each one a very Happy Christmas t ime, le know that you i .dll have manygood times of worsh ip and praise of the Christ child and also times to do good deedsto those who are less fortunate, iiay God bless you each one as you continue tose rve him as you see fit.

The Hin t e n s


2/9

Dear Friends ,The weather reports say you are. having a fa i r ly cold winter so I am thankful fo r"being in the southern summer, i/e have jus t returned from two weeks of hol iday outon the East Ga.pe a t Gisbome. I can now say we have seen some hot weather here# Itwas in the nineties a few days and even reached 100 on one day. That vras a bit warmfor comfort, V/e enjoyed our time there and the privilege "of meeting the church

people there. I spoke a t two services so we are now better acquainted. The churchthere is separated from all other churches of Chr is t so it,.is. not often we meet them,^ey are pretty active with an attendance of 80-90. They have many of the sameproblems of holding their youth as the rest of us but are doing very well. Theirpreacher came and l ived in our house and vre l ived in h is house so it made fo r anholiday time. -He spoke here tv/ice also so that ^ve Barrel a bre^.-Vie have not had any rain for some time so i t is "a bit dry. That is good forholiday people but not so good for farmers. Wy beans are burning up and I have beenwatering the tomatoes. The rain will start again in a few days and then we willhave lots of i t so, we will just enjo^^ the dryness now.Laurie starts biack to school this coming vjeek. She was jubilant this week to gethisr results on her Iftiiveristy Entrance exams. Only 50 per cent of those who sit theexams are allowed to pass so she vras pleased to pass. She viill s t i l l be in secondaryschool this year but has peissed that level of achievement. If she does not changeher mind she plans to return to the States at the end of this year and enter OzarkBible College. Kirk hsis been accepted for the Pharmacy course at Otago Iftiiversityso he Tfill be going to Dunedin about the middle of February to begin classes. Thatis about 800 miles from here on the south Island. He can fly for half fare as astudent so that is the most economical way for him to go. He will have full boardin a dormitory there. I/ith what he had made working and vrhat assistance thegovernment gives he thinks he can jus t break even. Ricky has worked a l l &"unmerat a lumber yard and since he will s t i l l be at home for this school year ho i sbeQoming wealthy. He prill go back to Auckland University to take a BSC course. Hecomes in from work every ni^t and goes to the beach fo r a swim before he has h issupper. He seems to be enjoying his work but doesn ' t think he would l i ke to do itpermanent ly .Ue are now a t the point of beginning the new school year and also it means arenewal of the church programi Sunday School resumes next Sunday and this bringsother ac t iv i t i e s . The Christmas season was an active one fo r the church and a timeof encouragement. Our entry in the local parade was well received anH created alot of interest. Then the Christmas tea and program was very good. Ue had 115present which was high for us for that program. Each year there seems to be moreiho come to i t . Barrel was in charge and^did a good job. The ladies went to quitea bit of trouble to fix costumes including about 25 angel robes cut out o f sheetand sewed up. l/e have stored this s tuff away where we pjill have it for use anothertime. The midweek childrens hour also closed on a good note with good attendanceand new people r ight up to the las t week. V/e now hope to build on that enthusiasmand get off to a good start, 'for this new year. One older couple shifted up here fromi/cUington so we are pleased to have them. Overall the outlook is good.I t is hard to realize that i t has been a whole year s ince we arrived back fromour visit in the States. I t has been a good year in many ways and we expect thisone ahead to be even better. The congregation here is in good harmony and as aresul t we are getting more visi tors and more interest from the community. Hhen acongregation has dissension viithin i t soon becomes apparent to those on the outsideso they want nothing to do with i t . This i s evidence tha t Jesus Chris t in notbeing put f i rs t and so there is really nothing to present to the world. Ko congregation ever completely rids i t se l f of wbrlly att i tudes and has 100^ harmony but wecan t ry. It i s a sad thing to hear, of troubles within the body o f Christ in any^ea.Hay the Lord bless each of you.

Hube r t


3/9

Dear Pîends ,Greetings from dovm under once again. It i s not win te r h er e but we are s tar t ing tohave a little cooler weather and ra in once again. This wi l l cont inue un t i l aboutHay when winter actual ly s ta r t s . Now it i s nice and warm xfhen the sun shines anda l i t t l e cool on rainy days. 17e picked our grapes off our one vine l a s t week andRuth made je l ly and then she made some apple je l ly from off our t rees . This week Ispent a l l rooming on Monday picking "blackberries and Ruth made jel ly of them so weare real ly getting sweetened up. Ihe berries were not top quality but the tasteis good. She also bottled (we don't can things here) a l i t t le tomato juice from ourplants. I stopped a t a farm l a s t Saturday and picked some sweet com and boughta watermelon so we have r ea l ly been going b ig on f r u i t and vegetables . Barre l hasbeen picking some of the peaches up a t his house.The big event fo r our household tliis month was Kirk going away to school. He l e f ton the l8 th for Dunedin to enrol l In the Iftiiversity there. That i s about 800 milesfrom here so he flew on a student stand by which i s h al f fare . He went to the a i rport about 6:15 am and l e f t a t 813O am so he was there a t 11sJO, He T-iill stay inthe dormitory and xirill have a l l his meals provided fo r him seven days a Tjeek. Thiswill cost him $42 a weekL^but^heêts_^s)30^ week jfrom the govF.mment_as-^-studentso tha t i s not bad. I f a l l goes well he vrill be a qualif ied phainnacist in threeyetirs. Ricky i s back in ' class here a t Auckland Ifriiversity working on a ESC program.If a l l goes we ll h e .c oul e receive t ha t a t the end of th i s year . Laurie i s back insecondary school fo r her l a s t year , iiext week I begin a counsel l ing class whichwil l be-part time for three months so I should leam something also.Darrel has not hea rd any th ing yet about h is visa so he i s under a b i t of pressurebecause of i t . He has organized a a.ble Bowl team which i s meeting each week nowto prepare for competition, i/e hope it will become accepted for the whole dis t r ic t .There i s also a camp for the youth just from this congregation in . a couple of weekswhich wil l be led by Darrel and Cindy so they are busy gett ing ready fo r that . Itwon't be a big camp but should be good in getting the kids thinlcing of themselvesas a group. A couple of members of Parliment have put in special appeals fo r afavorable hearing on the visa so now it i s in the hands of the Dept. of Immigrationand the Lord so we can onl y p ra y about i t .Sunday School has s ta r ted a little b i t slow with 25-30 kids each Sunday. The adu l tclass i s larger* than usual so t ha t i s good. Next week we begin our mid-week af t e r -school program which should also help the Sunday School. There was a good attendancea t the church picnic l a s t Saturday and the weather was nice so it was a very goodafternoon. V/e spen t th e entire afternoon on the beach and everyone brought the i r-evening meal-so vre a te our togetîer.^ Some "tarought bexbecue grHis-aad- sharedthem. It was a-good time of fellowship fo r a l l . Then Sunday night the you th t ookcharge of the evening service. Laurie led the song service and f ive of the youngmen spoke for a short time and the junior class presented a skit . I t was a ll wellr e c e i v e d .;Je can a l l moan together about the pr ice increases on most everything, li e aref ac ing inc reases in milk from 10 to 15 cents a pint . That sounds cheap bu t it was4 cents a pint when we came over, iiilectricity is going up about 50^^ which is ourheating supply. Rail costs will rise sharply. Our inflation is currently lO^j butwith a l l our o i l being imported the l a t es t problems there will ca.use big problems,lieekend sa les of petrol i s already prohibited and other res t r ic t ions are expectedalong with a probable big price hike. The one thing which has gone dovm i s a irf a r es between here and Hor th America. In c er ta in o f f seasons th e f a r e is now aboutî500 return to Los Angeles. Since wage scales have also gone up dramatically mostpeople are doing v ery well.ie pray for you a ll regularly and ask that you also pray for us. iiith His help a l lth ings a re poss ib le

The Hin t e n s


4/9

I would like to thank each and oveiyone who helped in making our spring'revival. a success. ! really appreciate my committee. It would te impossltae to try and. ^ all th work myself. Thanks Pauline, Gene, Clarence, Billie, Bob, and Perry.ê music was beautiful and set the mood for the serivce. Thanlcs Kathleen and. iSlê for the hard work you did. Also, Stacy helped in lining up the specialseach night. Thanks for each specialthey were fantastic.ânks, Dorothy for lining up the meals. This is the first time I've seen peoplethem!^^ list to feed the preachers. Also a big thanks-for the ones who fedue really appreciate Faye and her crew for taking care of the nursery each night.I t was a sacrifice for you not to be in the auditorium. -Th^ you, Bob and iUileen for keeping the preacher and the other things you didauring .the .meeting. Bob,-you were ,a-good spprb'S the pie throw.Thante to Roberta, Joyce and Pauline for the pizza paxty after the service. Theyouth real ly enjoyed i t . Ifevin Ilay,,I. -ap^^ up the laen for the offering. Thanks also, men.Thanks to Richard and June for opening their home for the prayer meeting Siindaynight af ter church. Jerry, your devotion a t the piayer meeting vxas a blessing.Thanks to each one who provided r ides and for each one who invited others whichis the key t o g ett in g people a t the services.Thanks to the iiuppets and the ones who came to- practice one hour early each night. =Thanks to Tom and Barry. I 'm sure we wil l a l l remember them fo r a long time.I f I have forgotten to thank anyone, please accept my apology, but most of ^1 ,thanks for the job you did.Most of a l l , thank God fo r sending His blessing to lis and fo r the good weather.

Chairman of Evangelism CommitteeDelber t E. Guffey

BUILDERS & SiS/iRCHERSt SUNDAY SCHOOL LITERATURE8The Builders and Searchers Class met Quar te r l i e s , Student & teacher books,Ihursday night March 1 in the church . act iv i ty materials in c le an useab le shapebasement id.th Clarence and Elaine McVay fo r Stan Uay, Smithville are NOV/ beinga s hosts. There were 14 adults and 3 collected. A shipment is planned soon,children present. Before the meeting was Bring yoia: material to the church.cal led to order, our pres ident , RobertaJ enk i n s r e ad some humorous comments from THiUIK YOU NOTES:8, 9 and 10 yea r olds on the subject ofdeath and dying. Thanks to June Ray, Emma Body, Ruth AnnFerguson, and Maxine Evels izer fo r car ingThe meeting was cal led to order and . fo r the nursery during revival .Richard Ray led in our opening prayer.The minutes of the l a s t meeting were Faye Lockardread and approved. The t reasurer s r epor twas given and two thank-you cards fo r Thank you so much for allowing me toChristmas plates were read. I/e. were re- . .. share your revival. Way God continue tominded to keep our shit-ins in mind with bless you as you seek His will in thecards and vis i t s . future there. I appreciate so much thelove you s ha re d w it h me.Joyce-CiiffRy read Inttpr from-Stan l.'ay Ha-n-niTv His- -of Cedar Greek Church in Smithville, OK Tom Kakac *t e l l i ng o f t he i r need fo r Adult , HighSchool, Junior and PrUa^y Sunday School ^ to say thank you formaterials! also his need for newjlasses, letting me come to Mrian and share ^lithas other e^^^ses have htodered h^ being ^ this past neeki I really

enjoyed myself and hope tha t I was ahLe tosend !i>100.00 o im. help you to achieve some of the expecta-t ions what you had fo r the weeklFollowing the meeting adjournment Clarencegave a very interesting devotion of "God's Thanks again for a great vieekJ Be sure toCreation" and the appreciation we should te l l those 51 people that made decisionshave for the beauty God has t^ven in His that we are s t i l l praying for themI And we

Citation. Scripture was takû from Glenesis.are praying for you too, and hope to hearabout great things happening there inAfter some very interesting games were Adajian in the weeks and months to comeSplayed, deliciour refreshments were Sincerely in Christ,served by our hosts. cameron


5/9

Dear Fr iends , I wi l l s t a r t ou t with uha t i s bad ncvrs to us . This i s t h a t Bar re l , our youthminister, has received defini te word from the Immigration Department that he willonlj'- "be allowed to remain here unt i l .\usust 18 . This i s under a policy which i s totry to preserve a ll positions for i?ew Zealand people, i.c have all prayed about tliisa great deal and now accept that this is God's willo Darrcl is working now to doas much as possible in the next few months to build a solid foundation for theyouth TTork. He hopes to get someone to come ou t and take his place in /lugust but

this is indefinite.

For the ôod neTis we are a ll vrell and active. The weather has been very favorablevjith wGiTii temperatures and some rain. Bverythihg is growing l ike crazy. 'Our familyis setting along very well. ICirk soems well adjusted to univers ity l i fe away fromhome, i.e hear from him each week xrith one of the main items being what kind of goodthey have: been having. He is attending a*non-instrumental Church of Chris t therewhich has an actlvc youth program so he is happy with i t . He thinks they- are workinghim fairly hard in cla.sse^'"BDEt'nof^^Beydrid reason". Ricky doesn't say much about hisschool work but appears content with i t . Laurie would just as soon forget aboutthe class work but enjoys the act ivi t ies. Her softball season ended l as t Saturday.Ihe won-lost rccord wasn't too good but they seemed to enjoy i t . They do have onemore game tomorroir as an interschool contest. Kuth continues busy with all theactivities of family and church. Cindy (Darrel's financee) continues to live withus so there i s always someone coming or going. I started taking a class calledClin ica l Pastoral Evaluation the f i r s t of this month which is keeping me busy. Theempiiasis is on the mental heal th of the student and irhat effect this has on theirministry to others. I em finding it very interesting, i.'ho knows, I might even makesome changes fo r the bet ter . Tliis i d l l continue to the end of Uojy*Last iJaturday Tias a vrork day for the men of the church to do some painting andfixing up on the outside of the building. It was nice so i t a ll went on very well. Ihis coming Saturday is to be a workday at the cpjnp to work on a new fence so i t will depend on how well everything goest h i s week on wether it go o r no..,c s tar ted our Jed. afternoon chi ldrens hour th is month and have had excel lentresponse so far with around 50 each week. Several of them are from the I3.ble cla,ssesthat Darrcl, Cindy, and I talce a t the schools each week. Others are children fromthe church or others from the area. That i s a lo t of energy bottled up to be usedbut we arc getting along very Tjell so far. Uur usual Sunday School and iilot Carclub continue on. Barrel is also organizing a Eible Eowl competition so a, teamof young -people meet each iêds. night to study the book of John. They meet with usfor the opening part of the Eible Study and they go dovmstairs vrhile ire have ourstudy upstairs. Txro weeks a.go we had a faiaily tea and service with the childrenon siunday night so the jBible Bowl kids put on a ten minute demonstration lor us .They found i t was more difficult when you were in front of a crowd. They a.rc doingvery well. Tonight is ameetijig t5f"thc churches- in the district with Darrclscheduled to lead the singing and I vrill present an iilaster messa^ê...e ha,vc had American visi tors twice th is month. About toir weeks .ago Lot"ellApplebury from San Jose, CaJLifomia was in Aucklajid and camc out for part of a day.He wa.s going on to the South Island where he was to lead some Seminars on -ijvangelism.'.e cxiDCCt him back tomorrow on his way to the States. Then las t week kc hadvisitors from Trenton, iiissouri. They were the i.ilfords that attended the churchwhere I -orcr.ched while in college a.t iioberly. They were with a tour group bu tspv^nt part of two days with us. It is nice to visit with the different ones ajids'ho:/ off Che area to them. ..e are just a^ proud of i t as i f we were natives so wcl i lvc to show a l l the l o c a l s igh t s ,-veryonc is very conscious of the fuel shortage here. All oil for here is imported riid much of i t ha.s always come from Irrji so the present situation there isserious for here, 'ihcre i s a b ig d ri ve to cut usagp which so far is working fair lyt/ell. x.ll petrol stations v(rc dosed from 7s00 pn Friday to 6j00am on Hondayand on all holida,ys. Preparations arc being made that this next month stickers Trillbe issued.for each car so"that we will have to designate one day each week thatttI-TI not, fiyivr? out crny at al l . ^his aiid th e fa.ct that petrol is to rise sharplyin "price next month should limit consumption a bit. There a,re busses but they don'talways jo Tihere you waiit to go. e will just have to think ahead more aiid plan forwhere wc need to go.Ruth'Lj old washing machine played up so wc got her the very first new one she ha.sever had. She is quite proud of i t aaid washes everytime i t isn ' t raining..c have been getting the Adrian Journals this week telling of your big snoirstormback in January. I am glad I missed out on that one. The stuff s t i l l looks niceon Christmas cards but that is close crlough. ilow it will be time that you arethinking a/oout putting out some garden aiid getting ready for warm/hot weather. eneed some of the storms occasionally to remind us of. ho^r Trell tha^t God docs caxefo r us. I haxln't thought-much about i t but we do need a certain amount of sufferingto develop a irell rounded life. ,:od in His wisdom has created-us in the T:ay thatis b e s t for u s . .u i t i l nex t month I wi l l s ign of f .

In His Serv ice ,Hube r t


6/9

Hay 29, 1979Jcax Friends., ^ .There have been two main events this month to t e l l you about. The f i r s t was ourannual family camp which was held the weekend of May II-I3. (You're right i t wasiiother's Day.) Je started on Friday night and continued all day Saturday and Saturday night and then concluded with the noon meal on Sunday. There were 35 who tookpart in a very enjoyable weekend. Ue used the book about Christian Fellowship thatwas being used in the i/ednesday night Mble Study when we visited you there a tMrian. I led most of the studies and Darrel led the ones on ounday morning, ijefound them to be very stimulating with lots of discussion of just what Christian

fellowship involves and i t s importants. Darrel and Cindy and one of the ladies herehad done a lo t of preparation for the younger children so they were kept welloccupied with various act ivi t ies. The spir i t of the camp vras the best we had hadyet so that made it very enjoyable and reflected the good att i tude within thecon^egat ion a t t h i s time. Our numbers are ho ld ing s te ad y bu t i d t h it there i s afeeling of optimism.Ihe second big event for us was the wedding of Daxrel and Cindy, After havingCindy live; with us for ^ months it was almost l ike having a dau^ter to be marriedand in f a ct t h at i s the way we were involved. They determined to have an /unericans tyle wedding so for two weeks before the event there was l o t s of a c t i v i t y a t ourhouse. Darrel seemed to be present more than he was absent until it reached thepoint we were sick of hearing anything about wedding a t a l l . Laurie even went ajidspent one of the l a s t days a t a friends house so she could get away from the wholething. Those of you who have gone through a l l the rigamarole know what I'm talkingabout and the r e s t wouldn't understand. Anytjay the big day came on liay I8th andeverything went off beautifully. I had a new experience of for the f i r s t timeescorting the bride down the ais le and then off iciating a t the wedding service. Honeof their family from either side was here so I became the logical choice. I t wasa candlelight service which was dif fe rent from normal for here. They also lit aunity candle which no one had seen done and they sang a song in the service sothat xms different. The big difference came with the reception. They did just likein the States and had cake and punch, mints and nuts for eve3:yone in the church hall .The normal thing here i s for the reception to be a ful l catered meal usually held insome special h a l l . The going rate i s about fp8 a person so only family and closefriends talce part . That meant that for many of the younger children this was t h e i rf i r s t wedding and they were quite impressed with a l l of i t . About 80 were expectedand 107 showed up so f a c i l i t i e s were stre tched a l i t t l e . They had t h e i r carhidden close by the church in a garage but that didn' t fool anyone and they didn ' tget away without the usual adornment of tin cans. They were put on with pliers andhe d i d n ' t have any so he drove 100 miles that night before they f inal ly came off.They went away fo r the weekend to Rotorua. Ifoi; they are back and gett ing a lo ng v erywell . Our house has become suddenly quiet .Kirk was home for 2|- weeks this month during his school holidays which we enjoyed.He l e f t on Tuesday a f t e r the wedding to return to s chool so tha t made it evenquieter. He and a friend were driving dom so they l e f t a few days e a r l i e r to v i s i tand sightsee along the way. He will be there u n t i l August and then home f o r aboutthree weeks. I t i s as cheap for him to come home as it i s to pay the extra boardwhere he s tays so he g e t s a break.

It was nice and warm the week of our family camp and then turned cold the nextweek so now we a re f i n d i n g h e a te rs and more c l o t h e s t o be very d e s i r a b l e . Since weare aware t h a t our heating charges went up 3O/0 a t the s t a r t of t h i s month there i s ahesitancy t o use very much. Since our w in te rs h er e i n Auckland a re m il de r we stillget by much cheaper than you do i n Missouri. Like the r e s t of the world we arefeel ing th e gaso lin e cinjnch. Our prices were raised 7 cents a l i t r e one day l a s tweek which makes it now about ;j)1.60 for a U.S. gallon, we are accustomed to thesmaller cars with h i ^ e r mpg so t h a t helps. So f a r there has been no s ho rt ag e butit i s l i k e ly t h a t s ta r t i n g i n J u l y we w i l l a l l have t o des ignate one day dur ing theweek t h a t viill be a earless day f o r us. I don ' t suppose t h a t will be ciny r e a ltragedy f o r our family anyv/ay. People who work shiftwork and i n areas where therei s no public t ransporta t ion wil l be exempted, l.'h ethe r t h a t wil l a ct ua ll y cut downon consumption o r not remains to be proven. 1 tninic i mentioned t h a t I have been taking a course -which d e a l s with understandingyourself b e t t e r . It went on f o r a period of twelve vreeks and i s now completed.fluth and I a t tended a s e s s i o n on Sunday cifternoon where c e i r b i f i c a t e s were given out .ilow a l l I have t o do i s t r y to put i n pract ice some of the p r i n c i p l e s t h a t I havelearned. Sie whole thing was vrell worth while I thought, v/e spent some time i nformal study and a l o t of time in group discussion. The supervisors had a l o t ofpsychotherapy e:q)erience so they were helpful. That was the f i r s t t ra ining classesI had talien part in s ince leaving Seminary so it was good to have the break.

Having run out of e x c i t i n g t h i n g s t o t e l l you about from here my mind was adj us ti ng t o what it i s l i k e f o r you a l l now. I suppose the weather i s s t a r t i n g to gethot and muggy. Gardens should be d oi ng v ery wel l with Strawberr ies i n f u l l f low.liost crops should be i n the ground by now and haymaking ready to s t a r t i f not alreadys t a r t e d . 1/e ha ve been h er e l o ng enough new t h a t we t h i n k i n terms o f what t h eweather i s here f o r a p a r t i c u l a r month. At f i r s t we had to concentrate to do t h a t ,' / a c a t i o n Bible School should be i n f u l l swing t h i s week and by t h e t ime you r e c c i v er,his you wil l be saying. I t was a l o t of work but it was well worthwhile. Didn ' tthey do a nice job a t the program?God b l e s s you a l l i n your work and thank you f o r your i n t e r e s t i n our a c t i v i t i e s .

T h e H i n t e n s


7/9

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8/9

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Dear F r i e n d s ,Once again I take pen in hand to see \^;hat I can think to t e l l you that might be ofinterest . All i s going smoothly here a t the church for r ight now. Most of th e monthhas been regular act iv i t ies . Last Sunday was a particular ly good Sunday. We had alarger Sunday School than usual to begin the day. I attribute that primarily to a con

t e s t which began betwen two o f the c l a s s e s and so r e su lt e d i n b e t t e r at tendance f o rthem plus a couple of visitors, I'm not too keen on contests but they can have goodeffects at times. Then we had a larger than usual church service in the morning. I tstarted to rain in the afternoon and continued to come dox^ pretty hard clear into thenight. In spite of this we had a good turn out fo r a church carry in tea and thenmore people f o r the evening service. I t was a Family Service which means t h a t th echildren were involved quite a b i t in i t . They presented several musical numbers plussome readings and a s k i t so there were s eve ra l p ar en ts present ^vho do not usual ly a ttend. All in a l l it was a very good day. j^iich of the tiioe here it seems t h a t a l o t ofeffort i s being put out for scanty resul ts but occas iona lly i t a l l seems to comer ight a t once so there i s a b i t of encouragercent. Overall the atmosphere i s pret tygood. We have more recognition in the community each year as a place a t least concerned for their children. The congregation i s in good haimony so this should be a goodyear.

Cindy's parents and one brother were here f o r two weeks t h i s month so they havebeen on the go taking in a l l the sightseeing of the local area. They made a couple ofs h o r t t r i p s from here and were able to see qui te a l o t f o r the s h o r t time involved.Her dad i s a preacher in Minneapol is so he spoke a couple o f times while here- Theyleft this w e e k s o now we a r e all b a c k t o n o r m a l .The f a l l season has now begun so we are feel ing a cooling o f f . Daylight savingstime has ended so the evenings ar e g et ti ng shorter. The gardens are vir tually finishedf o r the year. I pulled nty- tomato plants a few days ago. About a l l t h a t w i l l do anygood now i s cabbage and cauliflower or perhaps some potatoes. The flowers are doingw e l l . We have a row o f d a h li a s t h a t a r e b e a u t i f u l . Some a r e pink and some a r e orangewith huge blooms up to 6 inches across. They have been blooming for two f u l l monthsand don ' t show any sign of stopping yet. The many of our flowers do b e t t e r in winterthan summer. The zinnias and marigo3.ds tha t I p lant ed a re looking a l i t t l e peaked. Wehad the edge of a hurricane with strong winds and rain for a few days v/hich was veiyhard on them. Then the slugs were eating them up so I had to put out some poison andthey are looking a b i t better . Our season now i s f a i r l y cool with periods of showersbeing coimnon. We have had one Saturday out of the l a s t six that i t hasn' t rainedwhich d is tu r b s f ac to r y and o f f i c e workers .Our family i s a l l well. Kirk i s now working for a security firm in Dunedim. Heworks a night s h i f t but doesn' t seem to mind that . He l ikes Dunedin and considers hims e l f a permanent resident there. There are q uite a few young people in his age groupa t the non i n s t r u m e n t a l church t h e r e so he has become a c t i v e t h e r e and q u i t e happywith i t . We are pleased s ince we do not liave many of that age and so he found it hardto be content in t he congregat ion here. We hear from him regularly so a l l i s well.Ricky i s now enjoying his motorcycle although he just rides i t back and forth touniversity most of th e time. He seems to be enjoying his studies this year more thanusual. Ruth stays active around th e house and church- Last night she had the g i r l sclub a t our house fo r a demonstration on making hot cross buns. Cindy and the otherlady was there too along with n ine girls . They are in the 11-14 age group so theywere having a good old noisy time. They did get the buns made and the ones I sampledturned out very well. This group meets every other week and usually have a demonstrat ion of some kind. So f a r they have responded very w ell w ith a few new ones-

We have been hearing recently of the increased interest rates in the U.S. and themeasures being t aken to curb infla t ion. This a l l seems to be true v^erever you are inthe world so we have t o l e a m t o l i v e with it and put our confidence i n the thingst h a t HKDths and r u s t cannot destroy. We are also kept f a i r l y well informed about theAmerican p o l it i ca l a c t iv i t ie s . The r e s t of the wor ld canno t understand why there i sa l l the system of primaries and elect ions t h a t exte nd ove r so many months- I supposemost Americans d o n ' t r e a l l y understand it e i t h e r . I t i s a f a c t t h a t whatever happensthere has a great affect on the res t of the world so there is a sharp interest . Count r i e s l ike New Zealand depend on the U.S. not only fo r defense but also as a giantniarket. Anything which i s going to affect the economy or trading relationships i s amajor i tem.By th e time you receive this Easter will be past and spring will be arrived in a l li t s glory. As you see a l l the new beginnings of l i f e there will be the reminder thatit i s God's world and He takes very good care of i;:. We appreciate your continuedprayers for us and th e work here. We know that a l l things work for the Lord's gooda n d at H i s t i m e s c h e d u l e .

I n H i s s e r v i c e ,T h e H i n t e n s


9/9

21

Dear Adrian Fr iends,I will start by telling you our immediate plans. We expect to leave New Zealandin mid August to return to the States to remain. We do not know where we will be inthe States but we know the Lord has a place of service for us somewhere. We will expect to be in Adrian sometime at the end of August or early September to spend a weekend witih you. Originally our term here was not to end until December of this year buta young New Zealander became available to minister here beginning in September of thisyear so it seemed best for us to terminate early and allow him to begin. He con^letedhis Bible College work at Atlanta Christian College at the end of the first semesterlast year and then had one semester at Cincinnati Bible Seminary. He is a talentedyoung man so i t will be good to have him back in New Zealand. The change means thisis likely the las t let ter I will write you from New Zealand. It has been five and ahalf years but has gone by quickly in most cases. We have had our ups and downs,, butfeel like we have done the work the Lord sent us here to do. I know I have learned

a great deal about Christian living in that time. Now Ruth and I are ready to returnto the States for whatever is in store for us there. Rick and Kirk both plan to remain here for an indefinite period. They are old enough to be on their own so ^ accept their decision even though it means a separation of the famxly. They are bothstrong Christians so will do very well wherever they are. So many of their classmatesat Adrian have gotten married in the last couple of years I think they are afraid toreturn for fear i t will happen to them. tt t, ^We have been busy with church activities here the last couple of months, wea family in Jfe.y which was very good and then the next week had a camp at the churchfor the 12-15 year olds. The boys slept at the church and the girls slept in ourfront room and dining room. It was wall to wall girls but they seemed to enjoy themselves as well as have a good time of Christian fellowship and study. On Satu^ynights we have been having table tennis evenings getting practiced up for the Districcoii5)etitions which are this week. Ihis is always well attended with strong competitionfor cups in the different age brackets. There is even a cup for the veteran groupwhich is the ones over 30. Tonight several of us are going to see a play about theApostle Peter which is reported to be very good. Then the first two Saturday nightsin August will be progressive dinners for the adults. Later in August a Bible Collegeteam from Woolwich Bible College in Sydney, Australia are to be here for a full weekend of activities so everyone will be kept busy. Of course the usual activities ofworship services, Sunday School, Wednesday night Bible study for youth and adults,after school programs on Wednesday for the children, slot cars for the boys on Fridayand a club group for the girls, all continue on. We manage to find enough to do.This Sunday night we will have a carry in meal with parents of children invited andthen the children will be leading the worship service. The people are not re^ilyopen to Christ but occasionally there is a bit of a break through. Jfeny of the peoplesay they were just "not bom to be Christians", They look upon Christianity as something that is for some people but not for most. Still some can be reached by preaching the Gospel so that is what we are here for.We have been reading of the excessively hot weather in Texas and surrounding areasbut i t is hard to realize when we are in the middle of the winter. Even the thoughtthat tomorrow is July 4 doesn't mean much since i t isn't celebrated here. We are verywet right now and likely to continue that way for a couple of nKinths. Bie temperatureis fairly mild this week. Last week we even had frost one morning so we thought i twas exceedingly cold. This week i t has been about 50 at night and 60-65 in the daytime. When the sun shines that is very pleasant. On rainy days i t is a bit cool.We use our l i t t le electric heaters and put on more clothes to be comfortable.I will sign off now and wish the blessings of God until we meet again.

In His Serv ice ,Hube r t Hin t e n

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