Dear Friends, Brethren and family
Ni sa Bula Vinaka
It is Thursday here but a day before Thanksgiving your time. We
want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.
We just celebrated “Diwali”. (Google that!) Diwali is a five day
Hindu festival. Diwali means "rows of lighted lamps" and the celebration
is often referred to as the Festival of Lights. During this time, homes are
thoroughly cleaned and windows are opened to welcome Laksmi, goddess of wealth.
Candles and lamps are lit as a greeting to Laksmi. Gifts are exchanged and festive
meals are prepared during Diwali. The celebration means as much to Hindus as
Christmas does to some Christians. However they incorporate fireworks at night
like July 4th. To enhance the joy of Diwali both the young and the old light
firecrackers and fireworks at night. The house we live in is on the side of
a hill higher than most of the houses so we had a great view and the thunder
boomers shook our bunions. The military government had banned the loud fireworks
this year but someone forgot to tell the vendors and buyers.
We have started our rainy season otherwise know as the Tropical Cyclone season, November - June. They are predicting at least two large cyclones to hit the Fiji Islands this season. We have been getting appreciable amounts of rain which means someone is cutting the grass around here at all times which means I am on antihistamines most days. The people here also like to burn yard rubbish which includes paper, grass, wood, plastic, rubber etc. Every evening the people light their fires and the valley we overlook is clothed in smoke. This flows up to us and the smells are (chockingly) something else. More antihistamines!
Last month we started advertising in the local paper for World
Bible School. The return address is our sponsoring congregation in Webb City.
We have been notified that they have received over 20 requests so far. We believe
in WBS as a fishing tool to fish out those who are seeking.
In my February 1988 report I wrote the following: “ACTION MAGAZINE EDITORIAL”
I would like to share with you an editorial by Reuel Lemmons from the January
1988 issue of "Action":
"We received a letter this week from a man who had baptized 8 other people
before he himself was baptized. He said he couldn't find a preacher to baptize
him.
It is news like the above that keeps us going. We get several letters every day that say roughly the same thing: that a jillion people are working their heads off to see that somebody else hears the gospel and has a chance to obey it. That will encourage anyone.
In America we think that we have a great God but with a yawn mentality. He must not be really concerned about the lost millions out there, because He seems to let us be content with church going and sermon listening. And He lets us shoe-horn Him in between softball and forty two. We are such a shallow people! And so unconcerned about the lost. The average church does practically nothing to save them. But the World Bible School is out there where there aren't any churches. Its an uncluttered world out there in so far as religious traditions are concerned especially of the Christian variety. You preach this new doctrine and they are more anxious than the Athenians to hear it. You have Mars Hill over again in the country of your choice.
Instead of coming into a "worship service" to let the local preacher shove a little God into the cracks and crevices of our lives, WBS teachers want to be out there where the action is. The world is blessed because they are willing to teach."
I was very impressed with these thoughts as this ties in with what I have been teaching in my Romans class with the second year students in the South Pacific Bible College. Paul says the world is lost because of sin. Also in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 Paul says that Jesus will judge those in the last day who "know not Jesus and those who have not obeyed the gospel of Jesus." People are lost in this world not because they have not been baptized but because they are in sin. The ONLY hope that they have is that we share the Gospel with them and they obey this Goodnews.
The World Bible School makes the sharing of this message possible through the use of Bible Correspondence Courses. The use of the printed page helps us to enter a foreign nation and assess the receptivity of a nation without the huge expense of establishing a missionary family in an unproven field. If the people are receptive then it might be practical at a later date to support full time workers in that field. Yet on the other hand we can ill afford to support an sustain missionary personnel in areas where the nationals do not desire to hear the truth.
This has been the dream that Kathy and I have shared with our move to New Zealand. We desire to extend the World Bible School into all the island nations in the South Pacific and then follow up with local training schools to help grown those people who respond to this Gospel call of Jesus. In this way we can work in fellowship with Christians all over the world as they act as teachers of these students. You work from there we follow up from over here.
Things have not changed except we are in the country in which
we are advertising. We are planning to be the follow up when called upon.
I am still teaching my Sunday Morning class on “Christian Evidences”.
We recently bought books on the Fiji language and plan to try to learn more
Fijian. When we sing with the brethren on Friday night and Sunday we sing verses
of every song in English and Fijian.
We are still awaiting final clearance of the printing equipment that was shipped from Vanuatu. This printing equipment has been used by us to print Bible related materials for over 25 years here in the South Pacific and we know that with it here in Fiji and the Christian Institute of Biblical Studies much more good can be achieved for the Kingdom of God.
One of the outreach programs we used in Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu was the setting up of a booth at the local carnivals (like county fairs) and giving out Free WBS courses and Tracts. Since we arrived here there have been three occasions here in Lautoka and next week a two week long carnival is being held in Nadi. These are opportunities we can take advantage of once we have the printing equipment set up and operating. There are a number of tracts in the Fijian and Hindi languages written by our brethren which need to be printed and distributed.
Before we left PNG in 1985 we had printed 5,160,000 pieces of literature: 42 different books; 6 BBC courses; 45 tracts; and 254 Bible Class lessons for 10 Bible Class Series.
Before we left New Zealand in 1995 we had printed over: 15,000,000 pieces of literature:50,000 postcards to advertise Bible Correspondence Courses in New Zealand; 12,000 tracts in Fijian; 5,000 WBS Courses in Pidgin English; 3,500 Pidgin Song Books (200pp); 1500 copies of WWBS course (48pp); WBS-2500 Foundation for Faith (48pp), 3500 Introductory Lesson, 2000 copies of Red Book, 2000 copies of Yellow Book, 1000 copies of Green Book; 200 copies each of Joe Cannon’s Books: For Missionaries Only, The Heart of the Missionary, and Go For The Globe.
We cannot even start to clear the equipment until we have paid the shipping invoice. The equipment landed in Fiji last week and is in storage until we clear the shipping invoice. If we had sold our truck there in the USA I would not be asking for your financial help with this urgent need. But we haven't so we are! Please, Please give serious consideration to this request. We know that you are always being ask to contribute to many worthwhile needs.
Please, Please we need your financial help
and your prayers. We received $300 from our appeal November 13th but we need
at last an additional US$800.00 and could use up to US$1,200 .
Funds can be send to
CIBS c/o Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Road
Webb City MO 64870
or you can contact my son about helping or even buying the truck <j13huff@yahoo.com>
We are STILL waiting to get the Bible School started here. We had hoped to hear from a couple of congregations who are considering this need in their upcoming budgets. We are also hoping that our personal support level will be raised in the coming budget year. If we cannot get the funds necessary to buy land and build then we are looking at renting space to start a part time school which will cater for the people who currently have jobs but would be willing to study in the evenings. We have had a number of people who have expressed a desire to study part time if we go in this direction. Even going in this direction temporarily will cost us funds which we do not have. We need congregations and individuals to step up and help us with this need. It will cost us at least $1,000 per month for the facilities and services to provide what we would need. Can you help? Do you know anyone who can help?
I see that Matt Romney is spending $85,000 per day on TV ads for his campaign for President. All we need is less than 3 days at this level of spending to buy land and build the Bible school. What say ye?
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
Tobey & Kathy Huff