November - December 1996

Dear Brethren and Friends;

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His promises does bless us above more than we can ask or think.

SOUTH PACIFIC TRAVELING – PLANES, CARS, BUSES, TRUCKS, FERRIES & TRAINS
Phew! What a way to finish 1996 off. Some of you will comment it must be so fun to travel. It was good to see and visit with brethren throughout the South Pacific but the bag acking/unpacking/re-packing and checking, checking through immigrations, getting on the planes, traveling, filling our the arrival/departure forms, getting off the planes, finding all the bags (and any pieces they might be in), check through immigrations, finding transport, etc. can be a different story. Beam me up Scotty!

On November 1st we left Lae PNG (at 10 am) and flew to Port Moresby PNG (we had 3 pieces of luggage, 95 lbs). After checking in and a short break we flew on the Brisbane Australia. After a short layover (now 9 pm) we boarded our flight to Port Vila, Vanuatu (in a blinding rain squall). We landed in Vanuatu 0030 am. We cleared customs and caught a taxi to a motel to catch some shut-eye. Due to a misunderstanding nobody from the village was there to meet us in the morning. So Kathy and I walked downtown and had an American style breakfast at Jill's Cafe (Jill is an American living in Port Vila). After breakfast Kathy and I caught a taxi which took us out to the village (24 miles). The brethren were expecting us Sunday morning not Saturday morning. After visiting we set up our tent. It had been packed up for a year and a rat had built a nest in one of the folding chairs. Everything else was OK. It was good to see the Dowara family and how easily they had settled into the village life there. On Sunday morning I was asked to preach. In the afternoon Sombo held a class for the men. We spent a week in the village and had some good talks with Sombo and the leaders as to what they have planned. On Wed-nesday I went with Sombo and Morris up to his farm (a large section of fenced-in brush about 30 minutes drive up a overgrown path where he has about 300 head of cattle). We had to drive the whole herd into pens to cull out a calf for sale. We did kill our calf but not before a cow tried to attack me and then Morris and finally Sombo. This was Sombo's first experience with cattle and when the cow turned toward him (he was on the top of the rail outside the pens) he was off the fence and a mile down the pasture within seconds. (Eat your heart out Carl Lewis!) Morris and I just had a good laugh. Kathy taught a ladies class on Thursday afternoon. The brethren have always sung in English during worship. I asked them if they had local language songbooks like we had in PNG. They said yes but because they had been translated by denominational groups previous workers had encouraged them not to use the local songs. I talked with them and ex-plained that most of the songs in the English songbooks are also from denominational groups. I bought a copy of the local songbook in Bislama and sat down with them and determined to help them put music to the songs. I am already doing that here in PNG. Sombo is also teaching songs from the Pidgin songbooks that I took over with us. On Friday I went into Port Vila to talk with some of the Chris-tians there. Saturday morning we had a leadership class and then lunch. Mary (one of Morris's daughters who lives in Port Vila) arrived in a van. She was acting as tour guide for her boss who was leaving the next week. Stephen (Morris's son) had taken the truck up to the farm to start up the water pump for the cattle and was supposed to take us to the airport for check-in. With time running out Mary and her boss offered us a ride into the airport, which we took. (Morris's truck is an open back Toyota Hilux and the road was dusty. The van was Air conditioned.) The Lord does really provide! After we arrived at the airport and checked in for our flight Stephen and some of the village came in to say goodbye. We are encouraged at the way the brethren have received the Dowara family. The brethren have built a bush material house for them close to the church building. They have running water, outside toilets and cook over an open fire stove as well as a small gas burner stove.

We landed in Nadi Fiji at 7 pm. We were met by Joe Kanabicibica from Lautoka who drove us to a motel there. It was good to have a hot shower and indoor plumbing again. I was asked to preach the next morning. Numbers are down at the congregation and they only meet for 1 hour on Sunday morning. We also had visitors from Sikeston Mo, the Johnny Hester's. They were on their way back to the USA after a campaign in the Solomon Islands with Randy English. We had Josua and Anna Conivanua (local Fijians who had attended South Pacific Bible School in New Zealand) over for lunch at the motel and talked with them.
On Monday (a Hindu holiday) we rented a car and drove to Suva, 3+ hours, where we stayed with the Eli Fong family (another graduate from SPBC). We stopped at the MacDonald's on our way back through Nadi. (It was OK but I wouldn't have had a stroke if I had missed it.) It has been a few years since we had seen them and their children have all grown. The youngest still remembered coming down to our printshop and me giving them M & M's. We wanted to visit with other SPBC graduates on the other island and so we flew on to Labasa to stay with Ledua and Sera Naivalurua. While there we caught up with Semisi Matakibau who lives and works in Nabouwala Village. He was in town getting an air compressor fix-ed they use in line diving for sea cucumbers for export to Japan. On Thursday Kathy and I boarded a local bus for a 4 hour trip to Savusavu to visit with Samu & Marama Rakai. The bus is the size of a greyhound bus but with bench seating and NO windows. It was an-other way of travel for sure. The Rakai's live in a small house outside of town so we booked into a guest hostel in town. We had dinner with the Rakai's that night and Friday night were trucked out to Ronald Seeko's house where we fellowshipped with the brethren. The next morning at 4:30 am we walked (and pulled all our luggage) down to the ferry wharf where we boarded a ferry which took us back toward Suva. We were in the First Class section which was Air-conditioned and had seats out of an Air New Zealand first class airplane section. (The only way we will ever sit in first class seats for sure). The ferry off-loaded us up the coast from Suva and we had to take a bus ride for another 2 hours before we arrived in Suva again. We were met by Jerry & Ma Soko (SPBC graduates). They took us to the house of the Alan Wright family (missionaries).The Wrights were out of town and had offered us their house for a few days. On Sunday morning I preached at Nasori and we enjoyed fellowship lunch with them. That night and Weds I spoke at the Raiwaqo congregation. The Wrights arrived back Monday night and we stayed on with them until Thursday morning. Thurs-day (21st) we hired another car and we headed for the airport. We had to stop on the way and buy a new suitcase when the zipper on one broke. We also stopped again at McDonald's for lunch, it was better this time.

We arrived in Tonga late afternoon(21st Nov) and were met by Taniela Fokufuka (SPBC graduate). We drove into town in the dusk in his open back truck. We stayed in a hotel because Tua (his wife) was in the hospital having twins. Spoke to the small group of believers 5 times while there. It was good to be able to just walk around at night. There were a number of trade stores open 24 hours. Kathy and I got into the habit of going down to an ice cream shop close to the hotel and getting a waffle cone ice cream before we turned in at night. On Sunday everything but the bread shops close due to the King's Proclamation of the sabbath. It doesn't make anybody any more religious than before though.

We left Tonga, flew back thru Fiji, changed planes and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 11 am Nov 28th to a cool breeze. We were met by Malcolm Maclean who drove us back to Tauranga.

We had a very good two weeks in NZ (after we figured out how to stay warm at night). The Owen Willis's were going on a trip and offered us the use of their house while we were there. We also had the use of their vehicle. It was a God send. See the Lord does still provide! It was here that we received a message to ring Terasa in the States. She gave birth to a 7 lb 15 oz girl on December 7th. Her name is Ragan Michal (like David's wife) Davis. The whole family is doing fine at last call. After getting thoroughly ribbed for being a grandfather we got on with business. I was able to get the parts for the photocopier, get my laptop computer modem fixed under warranty and shipped a printing press back to PNG that the new owner of the Last Stop Printing Service gave us. (I was not able to get the parts for my laser printers either in NZ or Australia and am waiting for the parts from the USA.) It was good to visit with friends and the church family again and we were able to attend the Graduation ceremony of SPBC. We visited K-Mart, went to the movies, just went store looking and walking and to as many fast-food places as possible.

Dec 5- on to Brisbane: we landed during a rainstorm and were met by Rick Niland (former missionary to PNG ) who drove us back to their home (after a stop at a Subway sandwich shop), 3 hours down the road in Lismore (suburb called Goon-ellabah). We had Friday fellowship with theBallina brethren. They were having their Christmas get-together. Saturday the Nilands drove us back to Brisbane where we stayed with Ross and Elaine Leggart. Sunday we worshiped with them at Holland Park, I preached. Monday Ross dropped us off at the bus station in downtown Brisbane where we caught a (real) bus (with windows & air-conditioning) to Maryborough (4 hour trip) north of Brisbane where we were met by Tom Bunt. We stayed with him and his wife Rens (former missionaries to PNG) until we boarded the train to Townsville, the next day. The trip was an over-nighter in a sleeper car. In Townsville we were met by Colwyn Parker who drove us (after a stop at another Subway shop) to Charter Towers , 2 hours away. We stayed with the Parkers for a couple of days. It was 95 ºF in Charter Towers but the humidity was only 38%. We were trying to re-acclimatize ourselves for PNG weather. The nights were cool though. On Friday (Dec 20th) the Parkers drove us back to Townsville to catch the train on up to Cairns. We all went mall walking before we caught the train. They for Christmas shopping us just to dream. Our bags now weighted over 160 lbs. We had picked up a few books, the spare parts for the photocopier and a lower motor casing for an outboard motor for Jab Mesa.

After a 7 hour train ride we arrived in Cairns central train station. Due to another communication mix-up our ride was not waiting. We took a taxi to the Ron Doyle house. Ron and Margaret put us up when we visited Cairns back of 1979. We were able to stay with them again. Ron has his parents staying with them now and Colleen their daughter was visiting with her young baby so we slept out in the living room on the divan. I was able to preach Sunday morning While we were in Cairns Kathy and I walked the mall and just enjoyed the freedom of wandering. We were also able to play with Colleen's baby since we had to practice being grandparents. Monday December 23rd Ron dropped us off at the airport and we checked in for our flight back to PNG. We had to pay overweight charges to Port Moresby. We arrived back in Port Moresby with an hour to go before our flight on the Lae. We had to declare our rattan goods from Tonga and our candy from Australia (which were both passed). We rechecked our bags (and didn't have to pay anymore overweight, Thank you Lord!) and headed out the door for the domestic lounge for our flight back to Lae. We loaded the plane but had a delay while they changed a radio jack in the cockpit. We finally landed at the Lae airport about 5:30 pm collected all our bags and Jab drove us back to Lae (45 kms) and to a store to get milk, bread and eggs. Back to 90ºF and 95% humidity.

WE'RE BACK
Because everything was to be closed Christmas Kathy and I went to town the next day to bank some money and get some groceries. We knew we were back when the bank said they would not cash and deposit any check over $500. Before we left on this trip they had done the same thing and we had filled out an application allowing us up to $2500 per month and also negotiated an overdraft for the account incase of insufficient funds. While we were gone a check that I had written in July for $1000 came back and the balance in the account had been wiped out to a debit. We knew we were suppose to have sufficient funds. So we had a conference with the manager and found out that the man we had done our application was no longer there and that since we had been gone they had not finalized our paperwork. He apologized and negotiated our US check and said he would straighten everything out. Time will tell.

I spent the next few days sifting thru the mail which had piled up while we were gone. In that mail was notification that I had been awarded my Bachelor of Ministry from the Theological University of America and I am being evaluated for my Master of Ministry degree. These will come in handy as the PNG government is becoming more insistent that missionaries have the qualifications and skills (with diplomas) to come and work here in PNG.

Melanesian Bible College classes start again January 6th. We will finish up missed classes from 1996 in January and February with graduation March 1st. The 1997 school year begins March 3rd. We will have a full school with our first intake of single women.

WHILE WE WERE OUT OF COUNTRY
While we were in Fiji the PNG government put the main towns under curfew. It is still on in Lae and Port Moresby from 10 pm - 4 am. It has made it a lot quieter without the all night drinking and dancing places open around town. Our TV blew some main resistors and the portable phone blew up due to power surges. The air conditioning in our small car leaked out all the freon. One good thing that happened is that the local sugar company started refining the sugar to a white sugar without all the cane bark. We can now drink kool-aid and coffee without extra roughage

We would like to take this time to thank all of you who have supported us in prayer and finance this past year. We know the Lord will richly bless you.

In Christian service, your co-workers for the cause of Christ in the South Pacific,

Tobey & Kathy Huff

Say goodnight Tobey - "Goodnight Tobey!"