May 2011
Dear Friends, Brethren and Family
Bula Vinaka
And the Lord added to their number
After Anna’s father funeral last month I received a call from
Josua saying that Josefa Drava wanted me to baptize him. Joe is a friend of
one of Anna’s sisters, Vani and he lives and works in Nadi. He had been
attended services were we were meeting in Sabeto on the Queen’s highway
but we had not seen him when we had to move to another house on a back road
in Sabeto. So after services on Sunday we went to the beach and fulfilled his
request to be baptized for the remission of his sins.
Josua, Anna, Me, Joe after baptism
Malika (Christian sister from the Marina), Emosi (Anna's brother), Joe, and Vani (Anna’s sister) after Joe’s baptism
The road to Sunday services continues to deteriorate with heavy rain falls.
Sunday Study Series
We finished the Sunday morning study series we were doing on the book
of Amos and I am now teaching Paul's Letters (in order of when they were written).
This is being done so we can know the REAL story. Galatians was Paul's first
letter.
Medical adventures:
Kathy has been in the hospital and had her gallbladder removed and is
back at home recovering. She was in a couple of extra days due to the fact that
she could not cough well with the incision and she hurt veryyyyyyy much. She
is slowly getting over that and getting her strength back. I don’t think
she will be climbing any coconut trees in the near future. Unfortunately with
the back roads we have she is also limited to the house and walking slooooowly
down to the Marina for tea with the ladies. No Sunday service trips!
We took a can of bug spray to the hospital. You ask why? After Kathy’s
surgery she was laying there in bed with a oxygen line on. After she started
coming around and sitting up she complained of ants and sure enough they were
on her. They were crawling out a hole in the wall by the power point over to
the oxygen line and travelling down it to her hair and on to her. Any more questions?
The next to last day Kathy was in the hospital I had to leave to do
some chores while they were supposed to take out her drain lines, catheter and
get her up to walk. She had been having some problems when she needed to cough
that she could not cough well and she had trouble sitting up to help cough and
then she would have problems breathing. While I was there afternoons and nights
I could help her even though the nurse's station was just on the other side
of her wall. The nurse's button was mounted on the wall and could not be reached
from the bed in anyway even if someone could sit up well. I was gone about an
hour when I got a call from Kathy's cell phone saying she could not get any
help from the nurses. They had removed the drains but had never come back to
help her get to the bathroom or walk. She could not sit up and was having a
hard time coughing. I told her to throw the metal dish she had handy for throwing
up in but she didn't want to. I immediately called the nurse's station and said
for them to get off their backsides and go help Kathy - which they did! When
I arrived back they were a bit sheepish about the situation - they should have
been. They know me at the hospital as "Kathy's junkyard dog".
I just had to send these pictures:
This was at the heart doctor’s office. If you wanted to know your weight you had to pay 50¢. “user pays”
The is a storage unit in the ward where Kathy was staying.
If you look real close you can see their number system left to right - top to
bottom is:
1,2,5,3,
9,10,8,4
7,6,12,11 confused yet!
Kathy’s foot booties: really just pillowcases sewed up with a drawstring!
In case you think I was exaggerating about the waiting rooms at the hospital here is what it looked like! Every day - twice a day!
Not to be left out
While Kathy was having surgery I was having a rash. The last time I
cut grass with the weed-wacker I somehow got mango sap on my hands and touched
my face or it landed on my face. I tried my treatment but eventually had to
go get a steroid shot in my hip (I almost could not walk) but the rash was somewhat
stubborn. On my good days for about a week I could see out of both eyes a not
so good day I could not see out of my left eye. I was taking heaps of antihistamines
(mangos and sugar cane are in bloom also) but the itching was killing me so
I finally went to the doctor and got a prescription for a script of steroid
pills for a longer term treatment (the shot in the hip still hurts after two
weeks). This doctor, when he asked my name for the prescription, said he always
reads my letters to the editor and articles that are printing in the newspapers.
He even thanked me for my letters. My rash is getting better but have finally
realized that Fiji (particularly mango trees of which we have 5 large ones in
the yard) are killing me. It might be for the best that we are leaving Fiji.
What happened??? Can't we just
be brethren????
Anna’s father and mother had been living in Ba with Anna’s
sister Vani when Paula died. Josefa, after he was baptised, asked Josua to travel
to Ba and talk with his sister there about the Bible and the kingdom of God.
Josua did have some studies and then he told me Joe’s sister and another
woman had also been having studies with another coc missionary who was using
the Hurt’s Bible Correspondence course. (He had told these woman that
he had no affiliation with any other coc group in Fiji.) I saw Josua later that
week and he gave the name and phone number of the man who had also been teaching
them. I called, his name is Ken McDanial (of Kansas City, MO) and he was hesitant
to talk over the phone to me. (Didn't trust everyone who says they are a Christian
that they are REALLY a Christian.) So on Sunday afternoon I invited them over
to talk (after our separate services) and found out that he and his wife, Penny,
had been in Fiji for three months on a temporary work permit teaching Bible
studies. They are renting a meeting hall in one of the hotels in Nadi. They
had been to Africa, India and New Zealand before doing the same thing but when
they read about Fiji and the friendliness of the people they decided to come
here. They have been here before for a few weeks and baptized 5 people but had
not been able to locate but one of them when they got back. They have to go
out of Fiji every three months to renew their visas. (Our resident visas are
for 3 years, multiple entry, but you have to have someone invite you in.) The
first thing he said when he came in our house was that I would consider them
“anti”. I found that perplexing but have found out since that I
guess they are. We talked about our work, were we had been, what we we hoping
to do and where we hoping to go. Ken told us they did not come to work with
any of the Fijian churches and he very dogmatically told us that he was not
going to bring any money into the Fiji (ie. he is not going to give any money
away to the brethren for any needs). I talked to him about Josua and wanting
to introduce him to Josua tried to set up a lunch date the following week for
us all to meet together and break bread.
After Josua returned from his Tuesday night study in Ba (where he was asked
to speak to a whole room of ladies) he said that Joe’s sister and another
woman requested baptism and he assisted with that. It turns out that Ken was
waiting for them to call him and arrange to be baptized but Josua baptized them
on Tuesday afternoon after his class with them.
I have arranged a pizza lunch with myself, Josua & Anna and Ken
& Penny. I have been doing some reading about them (Non-institutional coc)
and don't think we will be seeing much of them after the lunch. Ken and Penny
were leaving Sunday for their 3 month out. They are going to the states: he
is coming back in 3 weeks, Penny in 6 weeks after a wedding. They are planning
to keep the 3 month rotation for the future from what they were saying. They
were somewhat discouraged as they have found that they can have studies every
hour of the day but very few of the students will make a discipleship commitment.
They are very dogmatic about "the one true (non-institutional) NT church".
I just wonder which "one true NT church" they are talking about: Corinth?,
Ephesians?, Laodicea? etc. (In case you might think I don’t believe in
the one true church, I do. The church does not save us - it is Jesus and our
relationship with him! Jesus is indeed the head of the church and we are the
body, the saved.) The way they operate is that they are very dogmatic about
their beliefs and if other Christians don't agree to these beliefs then they
disfellowship them.
The night before the luncheon Ken called about 6:00 pm saying he would not be able to make lunch as he had set up a study. I said I understood and then he said that they had been doing some thinking about what had happened in Ba and our conversation Sunday afternoon (we have a sponsor, use WBS, etc). Especially the fact that they have spent all that time in studying with the Fijian ladies in Ba and then Josh goes in and baptizes them under their noses. He said that was too deceitful! All that hard work, waiting for buses in the rain going and coming back late at night and then.....and I said I thought the Bible said that we are to water, tend and God would give the increase.
Ken flat told me that I was taking that out of context and that I wouldn't
understand. I told him I did understand and thought we should be joyful that
the women were in Christ. He didn't think so! He said I was just justifying
this being a friend of Josua's.
I said I was very sorry that he felt that way and that was why I felt
lunch with Josua tomorrow would still be a good idea to meet Josua and see the
heart of Josua and not be so judgmental. He would not let me talk further and
said they felt it was best that we not see each other again - goodbye!
(dial tone noise) (He also left a voice message on Josh’s phone about
the same situation.) We have been officially disfellowshiped! So, so sad!!!!!!!
I tried to call him back and explain that Josh had been asked by Joe to go teach
his sister and that Josh had no idea who Ken was before I talked with them,
but he refused to answer his phone.
We already have some who come, teach, baptize and go back without fellowshipping with us (have marked us a liberal) but this is one step further (In fact Ken thinks this other group are liberal as well.) The saddest part is that we never get to meet and fellowship with these new brothers and sisters in Christ. I think I can better understand why Paul would tell the Corinthians, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Cor 2:2)
Plans that change:
Four years ago we packed a container of our worldly goods (and gave
the rest of them away) and moved from Joplin Mo and came to Fiji figuring that
this would be the last big move we would be making, wrong! After evaluating
the current situation for the establishment of a located campus for “The
Christian School of Biblical Studies” in the Oceania region of the South
Pacific we have put a plan in action which see us moving to Vanuatu this year.
We will be leaving Fiji July 16th. Our containers have to be packed by July
13th and will be put on the ship in Lautoka on July 17th. The ship is supposed
to be in Port Vila, Vanuatu July 19th. Which really doesn’t help us a
lot because we don’t have housing sorted out yet as to where we will be
living while developing the school property.
The congregation at Eton Village formally invited us to come to Vanuatu
and they would work with us on getting our visas and “The Christian School
of Biblical Studies”established. I called Stephen Felix in Vanuatu last
week and his father Morris said they are working on the land at the moment.
I couriered all the necessary paper work for our visas to Stephen on Friday
and it was supposed to be in his hands this morning (June 6th).
I have to go see the immigration people here to get our deposit back
$1500) we have to pay as well as close out bank accounts and pay up on all utilities.
There are some other things we will buy here and ship with us because they are
cheaper here. (ie. Fiji plywood, pine and mahogany lumber for cabinet building)
Of course that does not take into account the fun of packing everything, cleaning the house and leaving it better than when we moved in (which will not be too hard to do) and get the house deposit back before the leave. We will have three days with no house before we depart.
Challenges in a move back to Vanuatu
Challenges: Eton, Vanuatu (35 km from Port Vila where the land is) is
a hot spot of cerebral malaria right now, no electrical grid, no phone grid,
no internet grid. (They do have mobile phone service through which internet
connects slooooooooooooow) We will have to have solar hot water, power/solar
& or diesel generator. All of which are available in Port Vila at a price.
Sounds so much like camping out again!
We would build a house out there because at present I might be the
only Bible teacher for the school. Even though the road out to the village is
paved now and very, very good the commute 35 km (25 miles) might be unpractical
from town where housing is expensive and petrol even more expensive. Land in
town is not affordable or suitable to build a school with gardens. Also beggars
can be choosers and free land is free land. (I hesitate to mention that it includes
beach access to a beautiful secluded white sand beach.)
Not starting the school full-time until late 2012 or early 2013 would give us time to get some land cleared, the house build, gardens planted (right now it is all bush), the school registered so we can get exemption for overseas students (immigration fees wavered) and advertise to overseas island congregations so they can raise the airfares they will have to pay for their students to come to the school.
With this move in mind I repeat from last month some of the needs we
will have: headmaster house ($35,000), guttering, water tanks and pumps ($1,800),
a solar hot water unit ($1,800), a generator ($5,000), a solar/wind power unit
($2,500), 220 volt tools for the carpentry school (lathe $2,200, planer $2,300,
table saw $2,100), septic system ($1,200), a classroom ($12,000), a student
duplex ($15,000), another vehicle/small truck ($10-15,000) (our car is not suitable
and only worth maybe $2,000 and not being shipped), a door ($80 x 4), a window
($75 x 12), a roofing panel ($45 x 40). Can you help?
Please send funds to the work
CIBS - Huff family
c/o Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Road
Webb City MO 64870
We are praying to that end.
Please continue your prayers for us as we work toward the future.
Again we appreciate and thank all of you who make it possible for us
to be here and assist in the workings of the Kingdom of God here in the South
Pacific. Your prayers and support are a God-send in times we feel we are but
spinning our wheels
Your seed sowing workers in the Kingdom.
Tobey & Kathy
PS: The totals for the Joplin (our home town) tornado were
Six thousand to 8,000 structures.
Three hundred businesses.
Four thousand jobs.
More than 1,150 injured, 142 lives lost.
It took less than 20 minutes.
Mt Hope has become a large part of the help of recovery for the victims. Pray for them!