VOLUME 3; No. 2 February
1980
Dear Brethren:
Last month's newsletter deadline really snuck up on me. This month it almost
went by. Things have really spun around here.
CORRECTION: Last month I mentioned that Paul Heston as a friend of Larry Voyles
had visited here. There is a Paul Heston but he wasn't visiting. Roy Merritt
was visiting from Zambia. Sorry Roy! Come see us anyway Paul.,
During January our children have their school holiday summer break. They resumed
school studies in early February. During their holiday I along with some of
the brethren who were unemployed put ceilings in all the rooms of the primary
school and then painted it inside and outside. The school board paid all expenses
for the men, all supplies and then paid our (the Huffs) children's school fees.
With us doing the work we saved the school over $5000 (as per our quote from
a local contractor). The school fees for this year were $1000 per student or
$2000 for our kids.
Usually January is rather slow and attendance down in the congregation. Most
of our school age children go back to their villages. You'll notice I emphasized
usually. January was our month of records:
SUNDAY A.M. 245 w/42 Christians
THURSDAY 438
Our averages: JANUARY 1980
SUNDAY A.M. 239 w/39 Christians (1979 - 177)
THURSDAY 374 (1979 - 270)
3 BAPTISMS: 8 RESTORATIONS: COLLECTION AVERAGE $87
On Thursdau night I teach the monki class. These are the young boys from age 7-16 yrs old. I usually average around 120. Painting the school also allowed us to buy up all their old school desks.
These are now being used
in my class. They seat four to a desk for two. They would sit 6 if I allowed
it. (We could use some help in paying for them- we still owe $1400 for 90 double
desks + 6 hegagon tables with chairs). Could we get some Bible classes there
in the states to send us boxes of crayons for our class use. We could use literally
50's of boxes. Biblical color books would also be very benificial.
In Januaru Sailas Koza who was hired by the Goroka congregation last uear as
our full time worker went back to secular work for a while. With this the men
of the congregation will be taking turns doing the preaching. I have taken over
Sailas' Sundau morning mens class. We are studing 1 & 2 Peter.
In last months report we mentioned a new car. After talking with our elders
we went ahead and bought a Subaru, four wheel drive, station wagon. We said
before it was a 1979 model- negative it is a 198O model. We had an initial cost
of $9000. Bu the time registration, insurance and a roof rack and all the little
car dealer charges were totaled it came to $10,500. The bank here loaned us
K3500($5000) we received $5000 from the states and put in another $500. That
is still cheaper than $16,000 for a new landcruiser. We got over 38MPG bringing
the Subaru back from Lae. Now that really pleased me! We have since been over
and thru some cruddy roads and overall we are really pleased with its performance.
We will be paying $220. payments for the next 24 months. Plans are for us to
use this car for at least 5 years( Lord willing).
Last week we traveled up to Chimbu to help get one of our Christian boys enrolled
in school. The main highway is being rebuilt over a 6 mile section and one place
is in real bad shape(you would be too if you had over 30 inches of rain on you
in the last month). At this place a tractor trailer was bogged down in the muck
and had been there for over an hour. After looking over the terrain we slipped
the Subaru into 4-wheel drive and drove around the road impasse thru the grass
and bushes and back onto the road on the other side.(I thought afterwards what
a good commercial that would have made- over 50 vehicles waiting for a bulldozer
to clear the road, landcruisers included, a little Subaru drives up, pauses
then makes a new path around the stuck truck).
Our old landcruiser would have been too big whereas this little car slide right through.
Each year around this time I try to figure out how much things cost us now in comparison to last year. Here is what I found:
Doesn't it just make you want to cry.
The majority of the time all the buses are being driven by the local brethren.
This frees me from the driving all the time as was the case before.
Future plans for the work here in Goroka was the establishment of a Bible Training
School here around Goroka. Land was a problem. We thought we had settled and
then the owner backed out. We were going to build bush houses to house the students
and let them farm the land but now we are back to home base. Plans now call
for us to go ahead within the next two months with a small Bible Training School
using the things we now have until something better can be made available. Pray
for this.
Thank you for your prayers!
In the Master's service
the HUFF'S