December 2011

Dear Friends, Brethren and Family

'Tis the season and we wish for all of you a safe, peaceful and happy Holiday season. Enjoy the family time! (Eat some turkey for us as we don't get it over here!)

Bicycle mishap
I had a fun day on Tuesday December 6th. Kathy and I were on the motorbike on our way to Stephen's house and the front tyre hit one of the new potholes that have developed in the main road since the continuous rains started a week or so ago. I usually can miss the holes but not this one. The bike kept going for about 50 feet but then the front tyre went flat and I had the devil getting it under control and not crashing. I limped the bike about 100 meters to a service station. I thought the tyre was a tubeless and the hit just released the air. So I left Kathy with the motorbike and headed home to get an air tank to re-inflate the tyre. (The air line at the service station did not work! Besides they only pump fuel.) I called Morris to see if they were home and if the truck was there for us to use - no, they were out in the village and the truck was being used there by someone else. Stephen had left out for New Zealand on Sunday for a magistrate conference and would be back Saturday.

I started walking back home as the rains had let up for awhile. I was able to stay dry from the rain, but not sweat - 85-90% humidity 24 hours a day right now. I ended up walking the whole 2 miles back home. The van/bus service in town had taken strike action that very morning over higher taxes on operation licenses. 35% increase without their consultation. (We didn't find out about the strike until we got the paper the next day.)

After getting home I filled up an air tank and went out and waited for a van for 15 minutes before one finally came by coming in from out of town. The van picked up a couple of girls at the university but he didn't go directly to where the motorbike was and went into town the back way and back up and around the hill before finally getting where I wanted to go. The first thing Kathy asked was, "did you walk all the way home?" To which I replied "yep, no vans at all going in my direction." ('Why' was explained in the newspaper the next day! It was a 2 hour strike only.)

I tried airing the tyre up - no luck. It is a tube tyre and obviously there was serious damage to the tube. SOooooooooooo I told Kathy to start walking up the hill and would drive the motorbike up to Stephen's house about 1/2 mile up the hill. I drove it slowly up (that was a trick trying to steer a flat front tyre, at least the two back tyres gave some stability) to the house - parked it and walked back down the hill and met Kathy. We went ahead and walked on down into town to mail some birthday cards (Can you believe we have a granddaughter 15 years old!) and pay the electricity bill before we caught a van back home.

Back home I didn't want to have to wait 1/2 hour for a van, so macho me, I got the bicycle out. I loaded a car jack and spanners (wrenches) in a backpack and dug out the bicycle. I had to put air in the tyres and wipe the dust off of it. Where we live it is a steep uphill for about 1/2 mile and a level place for 1/4 mile and then a steep uphill for 200 meters before a steep downhill 1/4 mile to Stephen's house. I started up the hill and the backpack kept shifting around. About half way up the first hill I noticed several of the small van buses were coming very close to me so I tried to move over as far as I could (there was no traffic coming so I don't know why the vans were not swinging out, as they do every other time). Then a white van came so close behind me I flinched and that overbalanced the bicycle and I fell into the curb. As the van continued up the hill I heard a hoot of laughter. The fall took a bunch of skin off my right leg but otherwise I could still limp!

10 days after

I ended up walking the bike up the hill off the road on a "sidewalk" the rest of the way. I finally got back on at the level place and then walked to top of the hill and glided on into Stephen's house. (Did I mention that the straps on the backpack had broken and I was trying to balance the jack while biking?)
Well I jacked up the motorcycle, took off the front tyre .....finally caught a van who took me to a tyre place..... they started working on the tyre.......some taxicabs came in .....the worker would go work on their tyre and them come back to mine .... (everyone kept asking me if it was a motorcycle tyre?????????)...your mother called asking how things were going ....asked if I could pick up some hotdog type rolls before I came home.....I explained the slow down..... finally got the tyre fixed....they put patches on two big holes where the tube had been pinched in the pothole incident...cost $10.00.....found a van (they were running again) to take me back to Stephen's house... remounted the tyre.....went to get the rolls.....back by the service station to fill up (I had run out of fuel on Monday coming back from cutting grass for 3 hours at the church building during a sunny break, just happened to have some 2 stroke fuel on the motorcycle for the weed whacker even though the motorcycle uses regular)....went by and bought an extra tube for the front tyre from a shop....back to Stephen's and picked up the bicycle and loaded it in the back of the motorcycle tray... went home. From start to finish- 6 1/2 hours of fun and games + several gallons of sweat! Who says we get nothing accomplished here!

Then Wednesday (the 7th) the sun was out in the morning so Kathy washed and hung out clothes. She needed to go to the grocery store (where we had planned to go Tuesday before we were so rudely interrupted by the flat tyre) so we loaded up and headed out early afternoon after she had gotten the clothes off the line and I had had a short nap (trying to will my body to ignore the scraped leg - wasn't working!). It had clouded up but was not raining. But when we got out of the grocery store it was raining a little so we put on rain jackets. I needed to go get a propane gas bottle refilled so we headed out - the heavens opened - by the time we got to the propane bottle place (200 meters up the road) we were both drenched irregardless of the jackets! They were out of full gas bottles - wouldn't you know it. We waited(under cover) about 10 minutes for the rain to stop. It slowed down and we headed for home!... didn't figure we could get any wetter....about 1/2 mile down the road it was dry - there had been no rain! Got home, changed clothes and the sun came out - go figure! I am feeling my 63 years this week.

I will not be riding the bicycle again here in town but it will be good out at the village where it is flat. It seems a white-man on a bike is a sport with the van drivers. I got lucky this time! Thankful for pain pills!

Building
The concrete blocks are still piled up at Eton. We have been trying to get some sand hauled in for the mortar but have had troubles with the trailer they use. We have been having a lot of rain so that has hindered us also and the fact that the whole country has run out of cement has really stopped us. The ship is due in this week (or next week, whenever!) with the cement. Hopefully the week after Christmas we can get started on the concrete block walls (though the long range forecast is still for lots of rain). Morris has also found it frustrating trying to find his village sawmiller to get the wood cut for us.

Life
I ended up welding Steve's trailer up a bit so most of the sand was still in it when it got to where you wanted the sand. The bottom has rusted out and when we tried to get a new piece of boiler (trailer) plate the company said they were not taking any new orders until after the New Year. The welding took two days as Stephen had a 15 amp limiter on his electrical meter and we had to wait for the electrical company to come out and increase the meter to 20 amps. With the small amperage the breaker kept clicking off!

There is a fact of life here in the South Pacific. Since December and January are school holidays here many stores and services (especially government) close down before Christmas and don't open back up until the second week after New Year's. We have learned to just sort of "chill" during this time.
We have a saying here: How do you know it is Holiday Season in the South Pacific? 1) a rash of school building fires in Australia (5 so far this year); 2) the ferries go on strike in New Zealand (major travel between the North and South Island); 3) Increase in roads accident and deaths here in Vanuatu due parties and use of alcohol.

I have been spending a lot of time in the office preparing booklets for my classes/studies and reading books that I ordered which have finally come. I have attached a pdf file of a study that Morris asked for on "Christmas".

Rainy
This has been a very wet month for us. If you listen you can hear the thunder and hear the rain pelting on our roof right now (10 am/ Dec 21st). We have had over 320 mm (13 inches) of rain so far this month (half since Sunday this week). And that was with a couple of periods of hot, humid and dry days when the nightly temperature never went below 85 degrees. Again we are glad the house we live in is not in a flood plain even though there has been major flooding elsewhere in town.

In the past day or so a low pressure system has been developing North and west of us that could develop into a tropical cyclone. We are monitoring it! That would not be a very nice Christmas present!

The Lord continues to provide
We continue to receive funds over and above our regular monthly needs. These will be applied toward the building projects and we thank you all for your continued faithfulness.

Keep tuned for progress reports.

Counseling, chatting, reading, sharing ........ being family
I still spend time (during the week and weekends) talking with Morris and other brethren here on spiritual growth and freedom in Christ. Eton wants me there every Sunday so I started teaching a series on Paul's Letters which I put together and taught in Fiji before we left there.
The Eton congregation all came into Port Vila the first Sunday of the month and we all had fellowship together, including a meal after services.

Thorn in the flesh
The more I read about Paul's thorn in the flesh I think it was the Judizers who followed him from town to town causing problems. I am getting to the point that I think I also have a thorn in the flesh. Mine is more physical.

You might remember that when we were in PNG (95-'98) and more recently in Fiji that I would get a rash from time to time like poison ivy blisters.

Blisters

There are a number of things I do now to minimize the intense itching but I still get it especially when it is hot and humid. I have also been having sharp pains under my left knee (the one I injured in Vietnam) so I guess the next time we are back it will ask the VA to see why I keep getting the blisters and see it they can figure out the pain in the knee

Crabs holes galore
Where we live we have a lot of land crab holes in the yard. We never see the crabs but the holes are all over the yard. I use the holes to recycle food scraps. I don't know it they eat the stuff but I keep putting it in the holes. I'm just glad we don't ride a horse in the yard.

As a reminder: the end of the tax year is coming up this month and you can minimize your contribution to the US government by maximizing your contribution to the Lord's work. We would like to ask for your consideration to our needs and the work here.   If you would like to contribute to a specific need or project please state such when you send your contribution. Contributions can be sent to our sponsor (marked for us) or mailed to us or electronically sent to our account here in Vanuatu. (Send for account details.)

Needs
As you have read moving here has been expensive and living here will be expensive. We really need to increase our monthly support $500-1,000. If you can or know of someone who can help this need please pray about it and let us know.

A more urgent need is a vehicle that we can both ride in as well as provide transport for Morris when Stephen's truck is not available. We have seen several vehicles from 300-800,000 vt ($3500-8500) but still lack the funds to purchase them.

I repeat some of the needs we have as we move forward: house ($35,000), guttering, water tanks and pumps ($1,800), a solar hot water unit ($2,800), a generator ($5,000), a solar/wind power unit ($2,500), septic system ($1,200), a classroom ($12,000), a student duplex ($15,000), another vehicle/small truck ($3-10,000).

Thank you so much for all of you who are supporting us and have contributed to our needs. God bless you!

Your seed sowing workers in the Kingdom.

Tobey & Kathy

Contributions for Huffs and building the Bible school, vehicle and house can be sent to:

Huffs/Bible School
c/ Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Rd
Webb City MO 64870

or

Mailing Address:
PO Box 3239
Port Vila, Vanuatu
South Pacific

Ph:
(678) 710-1617
(678) 594-7248