Dear Friends and Brethren
Greetings in the sweet and precious name of Jesus.
Since changing over our visas (as mentioned in our last newsletter) I am now on the verge of being deported. In July the Four Square Pentecostal Group brought in an evangelist from Papua New Guinea. He was to hold meetings in three different places for a month at each place. His first "show" was here in Port Vila. One of the local newspapers ran a story promising "miracles as were performed by Jesus and in New Testament times." He was quoted as saying he was personally instrumental in raising two persons from the dead in Papua New Guinea. I replied with a letter to the editor denying that he could do such and challenged him to prove it. That paper didn't print it but the other one did and gave me a full page so I could lay out from scripture why I felt the Bible did not teach that we could have miracles today. (see Headline.jpg ) Wow! Did I ever step on a wasp's nest. The evangelist did not reply but the group sponsoring him did with a half page ad in the same newspaper attacking me and calling me the "son of satan" etc. Nowhere in the article do they answer the challenge but the person writing the article is a known racist and anything a white man says doesn't matter. He attacked me from every way known to man without addressing the challenge that I had laid out. (They had to pay for the ad I got mine free because I help the newspaper with their computers.) I did get a number of good comments on the article and many saw that the person responding missed the whole point of my initial letter. He closed off the letter by demanding an apology from me or he would have me deported the next week. I replied with a half page letter answering some of the charges leveled at me. I wrote trying to get him to look at the challenge and if he felt I was wrong in the use of Biblical references then please answer that. I also wrote asking him to refrain from attacking the messenger and to address the question of Biblical authority I had laid out. I re-affirmed the challenge, stating that I did not feel I owed them an apology and that in fact they owed me one for the inflammatory remarks made against my person. (This was on Thursday.) On Saturday morning the other paper (who ran the spiel on the man first and who didn't print my initial challenge) came out with a front page story stating "public concern mounts over comment by Tobby Huff." It went on the say, "Police in Port Vila say that they had to act early this week to quell public discontent with Dr Tobby Huff over his recent full-page Letter to the editor, critical of visiting Pastor Franklin Luke. Captain John Taleo said scores of public complaints, with some threatening to hurt Dr Huff, forced the police to calm the people and promise they would look into the matter. He said due to the gravity of the public complaints and concerns over the comments expressed by Dr Huff in his regular column in the Trading Post (the other newspaper), the police were duly worried. "We are asking the Immigration Office to look into the status of Dr Huff's residency to determine what he does in the country. We will also summon him and advise him to be careful with the type of divisive statements he makes in the media", Captain Taleo warned. He's an expatriate and he's overstepped the boundary, by his comments. Captain Taleo said the police were also disappointed with the Trading Post's attitude in printing the Tobby Huff column and that they would make his point known to the Trading Post."
The rest of the story: The constitution here allows for freedom of speech and religion. Their motto is "long God yumi stanap" (with God we stand). The police never contacted me. The editor of the Trading Post said he had talked with the police captain who said they had received several complaints from the Four Square group but that they had gotten a letter from the Vanuatu Counsel of Churches with a remark to the effect that many apostolic Christians were upset with Tobby Huff's remarks and that the counsel was concerned that if I continued with the challenge that my life was in danger from Christians who disagreed with me.
In regard to immigration I was just up to their office several times the week before straightening out our visas and the visas of a PNG worker. I had a long conversation with the Chief officer and he was sympathetic to our plea and our work. I had also been up to see the government minister in charge of immigration and he was friendly and said that he read my regular column with anticipation every week. I have been told that since the PNG evangelist moved on to another island and that I don't plan to print anymore challenges (they haven't accepted this one yet) then things will probably blow over in a week or two. The newspaper (Trading Post) did say that if it went any further that they are ready to step in and print a statement saying "they have no problem with the challenge as printed and they stand behind their right to print." They also said that if I got hassled from immigration that they would step in as well. I had hoped to get to present my case before the Vanuatu Council of Churches but they cannot be contacted.
It was pathetic what this "false teacher" was doing. I went one evening and stood outside while he hollered inside. When it came to the end of the meeting he had people bring plastic bottles of water up to the front where he would pray over it, the people WOULD (his word) put a contribution in the basket then they could take the water home to anoint sick people so they could get well again. Not once did he open the Bible and read it though he did from time to time say, "in the Bible, it says." But his sayings was a very, very loose renditions of what the Bible really said.
Steve Felix who is a member of the church and is also a magistrate was not too happy with what was being said against me and promised to keep his ears and eyes open. He explained that usually it was just a lot of hot air from the church counsel. To be deported it has to go thru the minister of immigration and the chief immigration officer, both of whom I have talked with extensively in the past month.
We are in the process of printing the song book with notes in Bislama (here in Vanuatu) we are going to have over 160 songs. We have 74 songs in the current book. I also just received back from Fiji the last of the songs that they proofed. I will photocopy some and drop them off on our way through going back to the USA in September.
I had a meeting the first week in July with the Chief financial officer of the Paanma province where the island of Ambae is. Ambae is where the church started in the early 1920's and grew to over 15,000 members at one time. They had schools, a preacher training school and a hospital. In the 1960 the government took over the schools and the hospital and the brethren started using instruments in worship and practicing other non Biblical acts of worship. There are still a few isolated groups trying to follow New Testament Christianity. I was approached to see if I could find a doctor to come and work at the hospital which is run by the Vanuatu government at the present time. They have housing and plenty of work but the person taking up the position would have to bring their own funds. The local government feels that if they can get a doctor and medicines that they can ask the government to turn it over to them to run. At present patients which need treatment other than for 'in and out' have to be sent to Santo or Port Vila hospitals.
The Miopa family return to Papua New Guinea on the 24th of August. It is in-between school terms here so the children can go back and finish the school year at home. It was too bad the door never opened fully in Santo where we had hoped they would work. But they did a great job around here. The past few months Yusi started visiting the jail here to teach Jeffrey as he serves his prison term out. The other prisoners have really enjoyed him coming and teaching as well. The Miopas will be missed!
This newsletter will see the close of an era. It is our last report from the South Pacific, at the present time. I have thought long and hard of what title to give it and came up with the following: "The Last Roundup", "The Last Hurrah", "The Huff's Unplugged" or "The Huff's Farewell Tour." You can probably guess that, yes, we are returning to the USA. Several things have brought this on.
#1 - We had been working toward going to Fiji and assisting them in getting a National Bible School started in the next few years. We had a National board in place and I had even been pushing for financing. However it was not to be at this time. We set a deadline by which three major things had to be accomplished by the Fijian brethren in order for us to be able to move to Fiji. That deadline was July 31st and the three things were not done for various reasons. We set a deadline because our tourist visas for Vanuatu are to expire in October and we had to be able to make plans for leaving here.
#2 - As many of you are aware Kathy has had health problems over the years due to our Pacific lifestyle which included melanoma, cerebral malaria and regular malaria. They have finally taken their toll where she has what they call "chronic fatigue." She has her good days - she has her bad days. (And no, I am not her bad days!) The bad days are when she does something for an hour and has to rest for 2 hours. It is very frustrating for her. This has also exasperated her allergies. Since we live in a "village area" of town where most people cook over wood burning fires, the grass is always being cut somewhere around us and where dust and other allergy causing microbes abound, she has not been getting any better.
#3 - The role we came to fulfill here in Vanuatu was coming to an end and we needed to move on.
After consulting with our sponsoring congregation it was decided that since Fiji was not open at this time it would be wise to come back to the USA and try to recoup. At this particular time we have nothing definite lined up. I had applied to some of the Brotherhood schools for an opportunity to teach Bible/Missions but all of them are filled for the coming year. If we can keep our current support for a while we are planning to take a month or three going around and reporting to our supporters "what the Lord has done through our ministry". After that I guess I will have to find a "real" job.
What I would like to do is stay loose so if a University/school gets an opening where I could go teach Bible/Missions I could do so. If that means doing odd jobs and stuff to put bread on the table and pay on the two credit card bills then I would do that. I don't have any preference where we live. Whatever!
We are booked to leave Port Vila Sept 20th (3 days after my 53rd birthday anniversary), travel thru Fiji and arrive in Tulsa on Sept 22nd, 10:45pm. This schedule doesn't push us and I feel it gives us enough time to get things done and other things straightened away here for a smooth transition. We are having to sell off all the electrical appliances and tools as they are all 240 volt. Much of our household will also be sold off.
We are shipping a container back with books and some other stuff which hasn't been ruined by the high humidity yet. Expense wise the container will cost around $5,300 to ship and will be dropped off in Savannah, Georgia where it will be trucked to Chris and Terasa's new house in Coker, Alabama. What a good excuse to go see the grandkids! Our airline tickets will cost just over $2300.
1975-2001: seems like a lifetime some days and other days it seems like we just got here! I can honestly say that we have given it our best and we are not ashamed of anything we have said or done in PNG, New Zealand, here and in regard to the proposed Fiji school. Disappointed at times - yes, discouraged - no! We tried the doors, the ones which opened we went through - some the Lord isn't ready to open yet. Someday they will have a school in Fiji, we might not be a part of it, but they will have a school. Its too bad I didn't get a chance to visit Ambae or other places but the people did not open the doors and we did not want to go where we were not really wanted. This will have to be done by the Vanuatu brethren in the future.
It has been a great ride. One of the things you learn when you turn your life over to the Lord is that you never know what, when or where you might be next. There were very few boring times. We cannot express how much your support and especially your prayers have meant to the success of this ministry. You have been the greatest people to have along for the ride. There isn't anybody better than brethren. We hope to get around as much as possible to give you our personal thank you.
If you wish to get hold of us after Sept 20th you can leave a note with Kathy's mom at (417) 624-4016 or write to: 3113 Martin Dr, Joplin MO 64804. (e.mail after Sept 17th will be PNGpig@aol.com) Or you can contact our sponsor thru Ken Beck, Lebanon TN (615) 449-0283).
Forever yours in the Service of the Master.
Tobey & Kathy Huff