August/September 2017

Dearest Friends and family

This is a definite transition time. We have been back 4 months and when we went out this weekend I kept the crayons from the restaurant thinks I was going to start getting things together for our trip back to Vanuatu. Woe............... wake up call - not going back to live!

Kathy keeps asking if she can have all the lights on, the coffee maker going and the microwave on at the same time without losing power. I keep thinking I have to take out my contacts every night even though I know I don't need them anymore!

Right after I had the right cataract worked on I spent a few hours in the emergency room with light headedness, nausea (trying to throw up my liver) and weakness. The only thing we can figure is I was having to put eye drops in both eyes at the time and somehow my system did not like it. The day before I had a nose bleed, as well, for no reason.

Well, on my trip back to Vanuatu and that was such a fun thing. When I went through TSA in LA they would not take my word that I was wearing a pad for incontinence and I was taken to a room for a "Full Monty" search (full nude view). First time for everything! They didn't believe me - now they do! I left July 31st and arrived in Port Vila 9:15 August 2nd. Nobody there to meet me. I called Goman. He thought I was coming on Wednesday so he quit cutting grass and came in and picked me up.

Several physical things required my attention:

the small generator (coil needed replaced),

the medium generator (the alternator needed replacement),
the solar array (the main connections from the solar panels to the battery was no good so it had not been charging the batteries, the connector was replaced) and

louver frames that were rusted needed replacement (new on left, old on right).

SHIPPING CONTAINER WOES
Before getting back to Vanuatu I had sent the shipper a picture of the plate on the container hoping we could get the container loaded and shipped while I was still there. However they were now saying that my personal container was "not valid for travel because it was out of fitness". It seems that all sea containers are regulated by the United Nations and have to have a Warrant of fitness every year and mine had come over in 2014 and was no longer valid.  And, surprise there was nobody in Vanuatu who could do a warrant of fitness on containers!  One company said there was a way to ship out of fitness containers and it entailed using a flat rack. We tried seeing if we could do that but found out that we would only be able to get the container on the flat rake to LA because the railroads and trucks have to abide by the same warrant of fitness regulations as the ships and the flat rack could not leave

LA. ??????During the 2 weeks I was in Vanuatu I was in town almost every day trying to get things I needed, things that needed straightened out, seeing people and seeing immigration about cancelling our resident visas and refunding our immigration bond and the like.

One of the main reasons I went back was to get the container packed which I finally did the last morning. Then after I left Goman, Sul and Tal had to unpack my container and repack it in the shipper's container for the shippers to pick up and get it moved to Port Vila for shipment to New Zealand, then to Savannah GA and then it will be railed to Kansas City and trucked down to Joplin. Today I received word it should land in Savannah Oct 7th, hurrah!

shipper's container

repacking container

Tal with repacked containerTal & Goman

Edward and Goman locking the container

Ta Ta - container headed for Port Vila and loading on a ship

BUK SONG
The other reason I went back was to reprint the Bislama/English songbook with I had updated and included 75 new songs. My first printing of the Bislama/English song book was in 2001 with revisions/corrections in 2009 and 2011 but this was the first with new songs. All I had to print with was 2 Brother mono Laser printers. I had been buying toner cartridges and had extra toner to refill the cartridges. I also had A4 paper that I had traded ink pens for in 2010. Since most of my days were repairing and fixing things and being in town trying to straighten the shipping container woes that only left the evenings to print the song books. As I was starting the job one of the printers would not work right so that left me with only one working printer. It took me 7 nights from 6 pm until 1-2 am (when the generator was running) to get the songbook printed, collated and bound. After as was said and done I tried to start the other printer and it worked just fine, go figure!

printer

toner cartridges

collating

Finished Buk Song

100 copies of the Buk Song

I was honored to speak at the August combined worship in Port Vila on August 6th and the service at Eton village on August 13th. I was still on Joplin time somewhat and almost put myself to sleep during the singing. I was able to sell most of the items we are not bringing back and gave away most of the other. Goman and Ure moved into the house we were living in in the village so most of the stuff we had for our use stayed with them. They had been living down at the school but moving to this house will be more convenient right now. He will be continue working with the school.

The August 15th was a holiday and Stephen and his family came out from Port Vila, Eric and Shanwda, and the brethren in Eton had a goodbye lunch for me at the building. There was a whole bowl of fresh lobsters!

The last day I was there I had lunch with Stephen and got a call from the bank saying they would not be able to transfer the refund immigration gave us because the paperwork was still in Stephen's name. So we went to the bank and got that fixed and the funds were put into the account that I use to pay for school expenses and Goman's salary. That was easier that converting it to US dollars and then having to send funds in the next few months from our account here in the USA.

And then the trip home: the flight from Port Vila to Fiji was on time but the flight from Fiji to LA was 60 minutes late because two flight attendants were late - that therefore made us late for our arrival into LAX and we missed our slot and had to park way- way- away from the terminal and we were taken on trams to immigration the same time three other flights unloaded and took a loooooooong time getting processed and cleared. By the time I got out I was 60 minutes late for my Southwest Flight to Pheonix and Tulsa. There were no other flight to Tulsa that afternoon so I took a flight to Denver. I had to overnight and had a 10:30 am flight to Tulsa the next morning. Kathy had already gone to Tulsa and was waiting for me there. After deboarding in Denver I looked for somewhere to lay my head and went out the terminal to a hotel there. They wanted $259 + tax for a room for one night. I said, "no thank you" and went back to the terminal and stayed there for the night. I was on Vanuatu time so I was not particularity sleepy so that was alright. I found another traveller in the same boat, he also was a veteran (Iraq time frame) and we stayed up and talked.

I did get home the next morning and was glad to see my smiling bride.

VA
I have heard from the VA on my hearing evaluation and they said, "Yes, you have hearing loss" which they awarded 10% but since I already get compensation on other things it would not be added. ????????

I have started conversations with an advocate who will be helping work outside the VA system to get my medical records declared (which the VA still cannot find) and reinstatement of my Purple Heart award. He is the commander of the Purple Heart program here in Joplin. We went to school together. He helped me to understand that the VA is not in the business of finding my records and we will have to do that elsewhere. I will have to find doctors who are sympathetic to veterans to have evaluation on my various physical ailments due to agent orange exposure. He thinks we should be able to overturn the VA compensation I am getting and either get it back to 100% or qualify for VA unemployment compensation of 100%.

I was supposed to get a cyst cut off behind my left ear at the VA the week after I got back from Vanuatu but the surgeon would not perform the operation because they could not get my blood pressure under 150. This is in spite of the fact that I have documented "white coat" syndrome and have documented files that my blood pressure is normal all other times.

My last trip to the VA in Mt Vernon gave me some hope. Our team had a new doctor who has not been tainted by the VA. We had a good talk about my conditions and he is as perplexed as I am that the VA can list 5 conditions I have as per "agent orange exposure" but not "service related" as well as shell fragments in my left knee but "not service related". He has arranged for me to have my ear looked at and operated on in Fayetteville by a proper Ear-Nose-Throat surgeon/doctor in October. He also diagnosed my "yeast infection"(which has not healed up or gotten better with mucho treatment) as "Seborrheic dermatitis". The same surgeon in Mt Vernon had told me before I left for Vanuatu that it was just dry skin and I should just put moisturizer on it and when I tried that it broke out worse then it had been in years.

TRAVELS
Kathy and I will be at Harding University for the "Missions Experience" weekend September 21-24th and the Harding University lectureships September 24th-27th. Her brothers are looking after Bonnie, their mother, so we can be there. I still have hope that I might be able to teach there in the future. Of course, we will also be looking in on Jason, Mel and the kids.

Thank you so much for your support of the work we have been involved with and we pray that you have been as blessed as we have.

There have been some of you (and you know who you are) who have sent funds for our transition back and we thank you so very much. If some of you still want to help you can send funds Mt Hope.

God is good!!!!!!!!!

Onward and upward!
Thank you so much for all of you who are praying for us, supporting us and have contributed to our needs. God bless you! Thank you for your prayers and fellowship!

Thank you Lord for healing and providing what we need! Continued prayers for Kathy, especially, as she helps with her mother and her worsening dementia.

Grace & Peace
Tobey & Kathy Huff

Ph: (417) 396-6443 (NEW JOPLIN NUMBER)
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Contributions for the Huffs and the Bible school can still be sent to:
Huffs/Bible School
c/ Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Rd
Webb City MO 64870
or
Tobey & Kathy Huff
1501 Euclid Ave
Joplin MO 64801
PH (417) 396-6443