March 1989

Dear Brethren;

Greetings and peace in the name of our saviour Jesus Christ through whom we have the assurance of forgiveness of sins and and the hope of a glorious resurrection.

ANOTHER QUICK TRIP BACK
In my last newsletter we reported how my father had surgery in December for prostrate cancer. What I didn't mention was that the tumor had been wrapped around an aneurysm. The surgery and medication had shrunk the tumor off of the aneurysm but surgery was impractical for repair of the aneurysm so it was left. Dad had a checkup in February and the report was good. But during the week of March 13th he began experiencing severe lower back pain and a CAT scan showed the aneurysm leaking and the tumor beginning to reassert itself. By Wednesday the boys had dad back in the hospital under sedation. They did more tests and Thursday Barry (my brother) called to say Dad was in pretty bad shape. He called early Friday morning and Dad had passed on.

We are thankful that he did not have to suffer for long. He was 66 years young and had lived a full life. Like Mom who died in 1987 he never saw the death of any of his 13 children. We were all present for the funeral.

It was requested that I return. So Kathy and I hurriedly arranged plane tickets. It was Saturday morning here in New Zealand and we were fortunate to find a travel agent open. Yes, he COULD charge the tickets on our charge cards but instead of $3700 it would cost us $5,200. So Kathy called the manager of our bank and he agreed to overdraft us whatever we needed AS LONG AS we could pay it back by March 31. That is the end of their financial year and he needed to balance his books. So we said, "No problem!" (Barry said the Baptist church was establishing a fund to help pay for the tickets.) We bought the tickets and were told we could pick them up in Auckland before we went to the airport Sunday afternoon. While Kathy was doing this running around on Saturday I had gone down to the printshop to complete a job I had promised to have done by Wednesday. I was able to finish the running of the booklet and showed Jason and Andrew Taylor how to finish it up (stapling & folding). Andrew Taylor is a young man just out of High School who I am hoping to train in the printshop operation.
After worship on Sunday Kathy and I loaded I suitcase and headed for Auckland. We drove to the airport and checked in for our 7:45 pm flight. We were flying Continental to LA and then on Delta through Salt Lake City to Tulsa. The flight was uneventful until we took off. As soon as we were airborne I slept until we landed at Honolulu. We landed to pick up passengers from a Sydney flight and clear customs. After customs we had to wait over an hour for the Sydney flight which put us behind schedule to catch our Delta flight in LA. The pilot caught a tail wind into LA and we had 20 minutes to change planes. We made the flight but you're right our bag didn't. We landed in Tulsa at 11:30 pm Sunday (after taking off at 7:45 pm Sunday New Zealand time). We were 18 hours in the air. After reporting our wandering bag, on to Joplin.
The funeral was scheduled for 2:00 pm Monday. At 12:00 noon we were to be with the other family members at the First Baptist Church for a noon meal. Five minutes to twelve a taxi cab delivered our bag to the house. Kathy's mom hurriedly pressed the wrinkles out of our clothes and we headed for the church. I read Scripture and led a prayer during the service and performed the grave side services. The weather was not accommodating, it was drizzly and cold.

There are many things which could be said for the occasion. It is sad to realize that time had brought about a changing of the guard. Both my Mother and Father are deceased now but oh, so many happy memories. I hope in the future to complete a book of letters that mom wrote over the years and maybe even include the two that Dad wrote. Our family (all 13 children) knew that Dad's illness would get worse and we in some way were prepared, just not prepared for the quickness.

The house and car will be sold and Dad left the model train layout and equipment to two of his best friends. I spent two days dismantling the train layout and the night before Kathy and I returned home it was moved out of the basement. The few things that Dad specifically left for me were gathered up with care and packed into two footlockers. As I looked through Dad's things and the stuff throughout the house I could not help but ponder. I thought of: When I die what will people see in the things that I leave. Will they see a rock strong faith in God? Would they see a loving Father? Would they see a caring Husband? The physical items are just things but the memories are be treasured in the hearts of individuals who I have touched like the soft incoming tide on the sands of a beach. I could not help but still see Dad sitting in his workshop chair working on model trains or just snoozing with the TV on and Mom upstairs sitting by the window working on sewing and/or reading waiting for her children to come in the front door. As said many memories, ALL pleasant! Thank you God for my Mother and Father. If your folks are still alive, ring them up and tell them you love them, for me!

TWICE A WEEK JUST NORMAL.
The inevitable came. We boarded our flight back home, Continental all the way. We came with one bag and returned with four. Two footlockers and two suitcases. We had picked up some cake mixes, instant oatmeal and kool-aid. The airlines allow two bags each ticket and so Kathy and I went the limit. We flew from Tulsa to Denver. In Denver we changed planes and again had to wait. This time for a London flight for 11/2 hours. We headed on to Honolulu where we changed to a larger plane. We landed back in Auckland at 6:30 am Monday, March 27th. Our bags were delivered to our house at 9:15 am Wednesday, March 29th. Next time we will check our bags to Hong Kong or Australia and maybe they will arrive with us. It was a very hectic trip.

TERASA'S TRAPESINGS
First of all many of you have heard from Terasa and have responded to her request for funds so that she might go to England on a campaign this summer with a group from Harding. Thank you for your response. She said she has raised sufficient funds. She went to Alabama the week before Dad's funeral during their break week. She was in Joplin for Dad's funeral. She met us at the airport and all the way back to Joplin from Tulsa filled us in on all the latest news. She sure was a pleasant sight to see. She got her first grades from Harding and is carrying a 3.47 average. I won't tell you her grades but I told her I probably wouldn't have gotten even a C in Music Appreciation. She is really enjoying Harding and we are so happy that she is able to attend there. She is still talking about coming back to New Zealand for Christmas.

JASON'S JOURNEYS
While we were back in the States Jason was camping around. Monday he had school but Tuesday the teachers were on strike so he worked in the Printshop. Wednesday and Thursday he was on a Geography class campout for school and over the weekend he was at a Youth camp for the church from all over New Zealand. He got home several hours after Kathy and I arrived.

WORLD BIBLE SCHOOL
We have received a number of letters from people requesting names of people for the World Bible School course. At present we have none but will be advertising in the near future in the New Zealand paper as well as the Papua New Guinea paper. The work in Fiji is not presently achieving the desired results of conversions to Christ. One of the problems we are having is following up the initial book before they start the book on "The Christian Life" (book #2 green). We may have to slow down because without this follow-up questions are left unanswered and people are not making a commitment to Christ and being baptized. We really need to have a Follow-up school as soon as possible to meet these people face to face. Another problem we are having to work on is the difference of translations. The books use one version and a lot of people have King James or other versions. When they are asked a question if they cannot fill the blanks in per their versions they are completely at a loss. True and false is also a hard concept for many of them.

Until next month. Thank you for your support and prayers.

the Huffs