September 2, 1986

Dear Brethren;

Grace and peace unto you from our Lord Jesus Christ who upholds all things by His uncompromising word.

Just think in 2 days it is Kathy's birthday, in 5 days my mudder's birthday (some of you didn't think I had a mudder and fadder) and little young one, me turning another big one on the 17th. Sending sympathy cards would only be a sign of bad taste.

GETTING OUR HOUSE IN ORDER
We are still settling in the house. I set my office up in the basement. We were able to buy a large amount of old shelving from a grocery warehouse which went out of business and built all kinds of shelves for the upstairs and my office books. The scrounger is still alive. When we first moved in I cleaned out the various flower beds around the property but soon received a letter from our landlord that he was upset that I bad pulled up a heap of local herbal fauna (they sure looked like weeds to me). Our manderin orange tree is ready for picking and the grapefruit and lemon tree are not far behind. Many of our neighbors have orange trees loaded with fruit, much of which is failing to the ground uneaten due to the over abundance of fruit.

I have said it is cold here: the other morning I think I saw Spring but I may have misinterpreted what I saw. THEY say spring in settling in and summer does got here. We are waiting for sure. We have learned to dress and live in layers of clothing.

HAPPENINGS OF THE KIDS
Our kids are having their spring holidays this month. They are out of school for three weeks. They are planning to go snow skiing the last part of the holiday. We are only about an hour and a half from a ski field. Little Tobey is getting along real well. fie brings his family over from time to time to watch TV at our house (the Mesas don't have a TV). Usually I let him hold and rock me for a while. There must be something about me that he takes for a toilet: invariably he does his duty one way or another while in my arms. I can hardly wait for him to get older so I can teach him how to play. Abraham and I continue to harass each other. Abraham is in kindergarten and spends most of his time letting the teacher know that he should be in high school instead of kindergarten.

PRINTING EQUIPMENT BLUES
I have for many years been trying to hold the printing equipment (we are able to afford) together with bandaids and chewing gum. The only new equipment we had was in PNG and we ran that press into the ground with work. The presses we now have (3- 1250 Multilithes) are sturdy machines but old. This past month was one of those months of frustration. (To produce patience, Lord?) I was having one of those days where I just wanted to set the press and the folding machine out in the middle of the adjacent railroad tracks and see what the 10:35 "express" could do with them. I finally got the press adjusted. We are just waiting for a nice warm day to have a formal burial of the folding machine.

One of the Fiji students was helping me with some of the printing during one of their days off last week. I had enough trouble running the job on the press (I started with 3500 copies but after running the paper through the press four times to accomplish two color printing, I ended up with less than 3000 good copies at the finish.) Then the folding machine started playing 'jaws' with the copy we were trying to fold. Gooble gooble here, chomp chomp there, here a tear, there a chew, everywhere a mess mess. When I finally said, "enough, is enough" I was down to less than 2800 good copies. The machine finally had motoriac arrest (the motor expired) and saved us the trouble of shooting it. The student, Lendua himself said, "enough" and when I came back into the room after going outside he had left also. I told him the machine wouldn't bite but he didn't believe me.

STANDING AT THE CROSSROADS

We are at a crossroads here with the printing equipment. We are in need of new equipment. Do we continue to carry on with inadequate equipment or do we launch out a drive to purchase some new equipment? I truly believe that the Lord's work deserves more than the bare minimum to get the job done.

Standing at the Printing Press

Especially we need a folding machine and a definite need is for a plate maker. At present we have the platemaker we bought second hand just after we got here. It has and will just accomplish what we need to make paper masters to print from. But somehow and somewhere we need the funds to be able to buy a new folding machine and a new platemaker.

The American dollar has become stronger against the New Zealand dollar and thus your funds buy more than they used to. This in essence means equipment costs us less than it did last month. We can buy a folding machine for $1500 which is capable of the folding and perforating we require. We can purchase a platemaker for $4000 which is of a quality on par with making plates from negatives.

Brethren, we just don't have the money to buy these needed items. Due to the generous help of some of you brethren we have been able to pay off some of the debts that this move have placed upon us. We thank God for your generosity. We stand looking at all the opportunities which exist for the printed page throughout the region but are handicapped without the proper equipment to get the job done. The three presses are capable (and enough) to do the printing but we surely do need a quality platemaker and folding machine to compliment the operation. I truly believe that the quality of material we issue forth will indicate the quality of message we are trying to share with those around us.

Perhaps a congregation or several congregations would take buying new equipment as a project. Your consideration of a special contribution can make the difference of an eternity to many in the back waters of Pacific islands where missionaries don't go but the printed page can. We believe your help can make a difference - WILL YOU HELP ?

Please continue to remember us in your prayers as we thank the Lord for you in ours. Remember the Mesas and their need of support also. Because of your support and prayers we are here and we ask for your continuance. You may think your help is not appreciated or that important because it may be small but remember: Jesus fed thousands with only seven loaves and a few fish. Thank you so much for your support and may God continue to bless you richly from his bountiful storehouse of grace.

Your servants because of the cross

the Huffs