We had the privilege of having lunch yesterday with Mel & Mary Hinz. They are 88 years
old, and are friends going back to 1968. Mel, a bi-vocational pastor, and I worked at Boeing in Everett, Washington together in the tooling shop; also called the jig shop. Tools, in this sense, are not hammers, screwdrivers, and pliers. Tooling is a specialized field, and those tools are what the production workers used to actually build the Boeing 747s.
Often on a Saturday, Carol and I would take our kids and visit Mel & Mary. They had 6 or 7 kids and lived south of Seattle in Federal Way. Their children are grown but Mel & Mary still live there.
We would have dinner with them, then spend the evening discussing theology, Bible doctrine, church beliefs, personal understandings of Scripture, and a lot more. When we discovered it was two in the morning, they told us to spend the night and ask Carol & me to sing for them in the church service.
Why am I telling you all this? I’m glad you asked.
Those weekends with Mel & Mary made a strong impact in our lives. Where I had been
quite firm in some of my beliefs – church beliefs outranked Bible doctrine at the time – Mel helped me to grow in my understanding of the Bible, and in understanding of Who Jesus really was – and is. Mel always talked about Jesus because Jesus was – and is – the most important Person in his life. Mary comes next.
Needless to say – but I’ll say it anyway – Carol & I love Mel & Mary Hinz (M & M – a Sweet 
Couple) more than words can say. We are grateful that, in our formative years as a family, they invested valuable time into our lives to help us become who we are today. That is a primary reason that we, in turn, invest time into other’s lives.
Thank you, Mel and Mary, for your friendship and
love for us. But mostly we thank you for your love and devotion to each other and to our heavenly Father; for that is what made you who you are today.
We love you dearly.
Gene Linzey 