Dear Friends, Brethren and family
Ni sa Bula Vinaka
Greetings everyone. Happy New Year 2008!
We wish to thank those who gave in a special way in December for our needs.
In regard to the printing equipment we have submitted a letter
to the minister of finance for exemption on it. After all we went through we
found out that the Minister of Finance is the only one who can give exemptions.
So it is still in customs in Suva. They were trying to charge us over $2000
duty on the old machinery. If we cannot get it by custom exemption we are going
to wait until customs auctions it off and buy it back that way. It does not
look great getting an exemption but our God is still in control the last time
I checked! We are not the only ones that the government here is trying to get
more money from. A container of donated clothing was sent from Fijians living
in New Zealand to local needy but the customs people wanted over $5000 customs
before they would release it. Of course the charitable organizations could not
pay for the customs (nor should they have to) and it still sits on the wharf.
There is a company here called “Fiji Water” which exports bottled
water to the USA. I’m sure you have seen the bottles of water there. The
company has been exporting for many years and building up the overseas market.
However the customs department here heard that a case of Fiji water could sell
for as much a $50 in the USA and so when the company was trying to load 6 containers
of Fiji water to ship to the USA the customs department held it at the wharf
in Suva demanding an additional $24 per carton before they would let it be loaded.
The customs people here said the export valuation should be $50 not what the
company had been listing before. The containers sit at the wharf and the company
has taken the government to court. (A judgement was given yesterday which allows
Fiji Water to post a $7.8 million bond and ship up to $7.8 million worth of
water until the end of January when the case will be heard in Suva court.) The
average Fiji person wonders who is running the finance department. “Fiji
Water” hires many people who could be laid off and pays many hundreds
of thousands of dollars in taxes. Many letters have been written to the editor
of the newspaper. I wrote one and they printed it reminding the customs people
the value of any export product is only what it cost to produce and ship it
to the wharf. I tried to explain that the export value for customs has nothing
to do with what a product is sold for on the world market. But then that is
just my wayward thinking! It is real easy to kill the goose which lays the golden
eggs!
It is like the local Fijian village chiefs who increased fishing
licenses (for anyone one wishing to fish in their fishing area commercially)
from $1300 per year to $13,000 per year. Actually they are calling it a “Good-will
Payment”. I call it a greed payment. They had heard that some of the commercial
fishermen had made $130,000 last year fishing and exporting to world markets.
Of course the chiefs had not taken Economics 101 which teaches that the gross
and nett earnings are very different and that the nett earnings are what and
if any profit comes from. The chiefs don’t care that the fishermen had
to pay for a boat, the fuel, its upkeep, the crew, the bait, the shipping and
marketing etc. All they saw (heard) was the big bucks coming back to the fishermen.
Unfortunately this seems to be the mindset of the current (not elected but coup)
government and they are strangling the economy of the country. Our fuel
prices are now $6.08 for a gallon of petrol.
Anybody who lives or has lived in this part of the world knows that the December-January period of the year is when schools are out and everyone in on the move. It is summer and families go visit their relatives and go back to the villages for the holidays. (Kind of like the summer season in the USA but more condensed.) Because of this everything is put on the back burner, including Bible classes and worship services. This is also the rainy season and cyclones develop. So the last of December and the month of January the house church where we worship on Sunday has not met but we have been meeting and lunching with Josua and Anna at their house. Several Friday night meetings and a Sunday gathering was also canceled due to heavy rain and high winds where we stayed home.
We had our second cyclone of the season which developed January 15th Northwest of Vanuatu. It traveled down between Vanuatu and Fiji out in open ocean but slapped both countries with heavy rain and high wind gusts.
Some damage was done to crops and the roads but it could have
been a lot worse. We received over 16 inches of rain in a three week period.
We were supposed to re-start meeting at the house church at Sabeto Junction
but they called Sunday (Jan 20th) to say they were experiencing heavy rain and
winds as the cyclone moved further South away from Fiji. Since the place we
meet does not have walls just poles and a roof we stayed in town again. After
the passing of the cyclone Funa our weather is back to normal, hot and very
humid with afternoon thunder storms! Believe it or not it feels more humid before
the rains actually start falling.
The past month has been hard on my computers. We had major lightening in the
area which took out three power supplies and a hard drive. It was raining so
hard one afternoon (we could barely see off the verandah to the street) that
sheet lightening and instant thunder just followed the rain down to the ground,
one bolt about 200 feet to the left and front of our house the next one with
instant spine-jarring thunder hit 200 feet to the right and front of our house.
I lost two power supplies and the hard drive this time. Nothing else electrical
in the house was affected. If I had a pace maker I’m sure it would have
stopped.
We had been for sometimes having trouble keeping our DSL internet on line. There
is nothing more frustrating than being on line talking with and viewing the
kids and the grandkids on the web cam and have the connection go down. We finally
got the telecommunication people here to replace the cheap modem which they
had first provided us with and give us a more up-market version. We have had
very few disconnects since. My frustration level with the internet has decreased
considerably. There are other frustations I am still working on! Drivers, taxis,
buses which spew out clouds of unburned black diesel smoke, barking pack of
dogs whenever the neighbors move their vehicles.....
FLOOD PRODUCING RAIN
GOD'S PROMISE
ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES TO TEACH
We have found that the place we are trying to rent for English
speaking services on Sunday is not available for long term commitment for services
but they are willing to allow us to use it to teach Bible classes for short
periods. The building is a common room building right in the middle of a public
housing area. So we are working on securing it for a series of Bible classes.
It looks like we might get this started the first weekend in February with the
first course being Old Testament History. I am planning to teach two hours for
two nights a week. If the classes go well we might be able to convince the government
agent in charge of renting the building to let us hold English speaking services
on Sundays at a later date. It seems other groups have tried to reserve the
building and lock it in for long term. The government figures if you want it
for long term, “go build your own building.” One frustration in
dealing with the government here is that you have to talk with the “right"
person. If not, everything you try to accomplish is for naught. Many times the
“right" person is not easy to find to talk with. It takes a lot........lot
more time to get things done here. They call it Fiji time!
January 17th Kathy and I marked our 39th year of marriage. Hard to believe. We are planning to celebrate this bit of history the last weekend in January by getting out of town. The Christian women are having a workshop in Suva so we are driving to Suva where Kathy and Anna will attend the workshop and I will catch up with some of the men brethren. We are planning to go to Cost-U-Less for shopping and will probably hit Pizza Hut and KFC before we come back. We have none of these stores here in the West (Lautoka is a 3 1/2 hours drive from Suva). We will worship with one of the house churches in Suva before coming back to Lautoka Sunday afternoon.
As for the proposed Christian Institute of Biblical Studies we
are still working toward securing leased property and building facilities. We
have talked with a contractor who will build a 2 bedroom house for $12,200 and
a 3 bedroom house for $16,700. Another contractor submitted a bid of $72,000
to build the classroom office block, staff housing (1 x 2bd, 1 x 3 bd) and student
housing (1 x 2 bd duplex). So with land to cost up to $30,000 (27 acres) and
building costs we are in the neighborhood of a minimum of $100,000. Realistically
we need $150,000. Please continue to pray earnestly for this need. The sooner
we can get the land and facilities in place the sooner we can get to teaching
and training fulltime the workers who will indeed take the gospel to the ends
of the Oceania region.
Say you don’t suppose that all these “You are a winner” and
“I am writing you this because you are such a trustworthy person to help
me get these funds out of my country” are really true do you? I get several
every week like you do. I guess “if it is sounds too good to be true it
is probably to good to be true” is correct! Too bad, could use the funds!
Here is what I will do, if you can get someone to send us $150,000 I will send
them all the emails I get and they can recover and keep all the millions being
promised. I think that is fair! Well, it was worth a try! I know, you were born
yesterday, it just wasn’t last night!
Please pray and consider the following needs we still have: (feel
free to copy and send this email to any and everyone you know for their consideration)
1. Personal support: we have about $2900 monthly. The
budget we have proposed we need an additional $600 plus $800 monthly for work
fund expenses. We have been able to cope up until now on what we are getting
but will need to get additional funds especially as we get more involved in
the work here.
2. Printing Equipment: Customs charged wavered and the storage charges not too
high.
3. "The Christian Institute of Biblical Studies - Fiji"
>Immediate funds of $50,000 to buy land and build basic facilities (URGENT!)
>Additional funds to update facilities: classroom, office, student &
faculty housing $75,000-$125,000
>Monthly funds of $3,600 for 5 years or until the school can be self supporting
from planted cash crops
Funds can be send to our sponsor:
Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Road
Webb City MO 64870
or you can contact my son about helping or even buying my truck <j13huff@yahoo.com>
Thank you so much for the care packages we received over the holidays.
Thank you so much for all who presently financially support this work and especially
all your prayers for us and the work. We beseech you for your continuance of
both.
In Christian Service and because of the Cross of Jesus Christ
Dr Tobey & Kathy Huff
PO Box 4615
Lautoka, Fiji Islands
Home (679) 664-5808
Mobile (679) 938-2808
web Site: http://cibs-fiji.fiji.com/CIBS-Fiji/Index.html