VOLUME 8; NO. 1                                                                                         JANUARY 1985

Dear Brethren;

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

SHAKY END TO YEAR
The year 1984 ended with several special highlights. The major one was during the middle of the month when we experienced a good sized earth tremor which had everything in our area shaking, rocking and rolling. Kathy and I were at the Golf Club for presentation night and the kids where at home watching video. We called them to made sure everything was OK and Terasa told her mother that the model airplanes (suspended from the ceiling in the living room) were having dogfights. On our way home after the presentation dinner we came upon a drum and a log blocking the road on the back to town. As we have been here for several years we knew what it represented: a road block. Usually people will get out of their car and remove the road black and in the meantime men would come out of the bushes and rob (the least) you. Seeing the drum, I dropped to a lower gear and rammed it out of the way and gunned the car on down the road. Just as we cleared the drum a large rock was thrown at the back of the car (intended to break the back glass) but as I had momentum the rock hit low on the license plate. We drove straight to the police station and reported the road block and they sent a car out to check it out. We were the first to leave the dinner and there were over 100 people still there.

LET MY QUAIL GO
I have for several months been raising quail for meat and eggs. From time to time I have been careless after feeding them and spent time chasing quail all over the property because I failed to latch the cage doors properly. After the tremor Jab went outside and found several quail loose. The next morning I found that the tremor had opened four of the six cages and we had quail ALL over the place. King (our dog) figured we had let them loose just for his enjoyment. He was hopping here and there and finally chewed up two of them. The only thing I could think of was that the Lord had sent an angel to let his critters loose. (Remembering Peter and John.)

PRINTDATE 1984
The year 1984 saw a tremendous amount of printing done. I sometimes review a week (or month) and try to account for my time and have a hard time seeing any real accomplishment and then realize how much time was spent in the print shop. During December I printed over 61,180 pieces. During 1984 over 845,265 sheets of paper went thru, under, in and over the presses. We were also able to purchase a "new" used 1250 printing press. We also bought a used photo copier which has been a super addition to the work.

The largest project was the reprinting/revision of the song book which is used by all the congregations here.

TWIDBITS
Twidbits are bits from a twit. In my last report I mentioned the problem we were having with the car. We won't anymore ! We traded the Subaru for a Mazda 929 station wagon. The local printshop here in town agreed to trade almost even. The deal cost me about $500 but we got a good car in trade. We went to Lae to Christmas shop with the kids and the car did OK. Now that we don't go to the village that much and the highway is paved 4 wheel drive is not a necessity.

The Burrows daughter Patricia had a slight misunderstanding with the road on Christmas afternoon. She and Terasa figured that Jason and Stephan were having a lot of fun riding bikes up the road and they wanted to share in the fun. So the girls borrowed the bikes and took off up the road. While pedaling down the road a guy jumped out and tried to scare the girls. (Maybe to steal the bike.) He did (scare not steal). Tricia hit the front brakes, did a field goal through the handle bars and spiked herself on the pavement. She still has a fat lip and will lose some of her teeth but thank the Lord no permanent damage was done.

The song I was singing over Christmas was "I'm dreaming of a dry Christmas.,' That's all it was, a dream. We continue to have rain, rain and more rain. We are averaging over 6 inches per week. I mean listen to my chickens complain, "quack, quack".

PETER DECLARES BANKRUPTCY
You have heard the old saying, "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul". Well I having been borrowing from Peter to pay Paul since the first of 1984. We began 1984 with over $3,000 worth of due bills. During the course of the 1984 year we have incurred debts which now threaten to overwhelm us. Expenses of the work here have been much more than our incoming funds. The printing work is a hard work to scale back in terms of finance. Usually congregations there in the states have the option of a special "make-up" contribution. We don't but we do. We are asking for your help!

During the past months we have shifted funds out of all our personal accounts to make up the deficit of over $5,000. This is in addition to the $3500 needed for the kids school fees due February 1st, 1985.

I would like to ask everyone who receives this newsletter to help meet this need by giving just $20 (if you can give more it would be much appreciated). Please give this need your prayerful consideration !

Thank you so much for your support and prayers and we continue to covet very much your continued prayers.

In the Master's service.

the Huffs