October 25, 2014
Dearest Friends and family
TEACHING
We had our monthly combined worship at Etas this past month. It is just a small
way out of Port Vila on a dirt road that floods when it rains. There had been
rain for the week (over 6 inches in 2 days the end of the month) leading up
to the weekend and since our truck is not 4 wheel drive and the site is not
wheelchair accessible, Morris and I and Kathy and Rebekka decided to stay in
Eton and worship here. When we do have combined worship with other brethren
not everyone can go, even though we provide transport. We had a goodly crowd.
When I talked with Stephen about how services had gone he said that they announced I was to teach that morning and he had to tell them I wasn't coming. He asked if they had talked with me about teaching and they said no. He suggested next time that whoever they want to teach should be asked ahead of time. Stephen ended up teaching. And you thought poor communication was just an American thing - nope - worldwide!
The brethren at Epau ask me to come once a month now and teach, usually the third Sunday. Otherwise I am teaching at Eton on "the parables of Jesus".
TRAILER
At one time we had use of a trailer. The last time you saw it was when Stephen
has carted a load of "heavy" hard wood from his farm, where it had
been cut and milled, when we were building our house. It died on the last load
and limped in here, held together with barbed wire. It has been over at Morris'
and literally rusted apart. The only thing left was the tongue, and two axle/wheel/
spring units and a large pile of rust.
I asked a local car dealership about a pickup tray that was sitting in their
yard and they said I could have it.
I hauled it back to Eton on the back of the Dodge, upside down and strapped on securely. I went to the steel company and bought some lengths of steel to make us a new trailer. We will need it to get building supplies to the school when we start building. I had to extend the tongue to adjust for the wider base of the tray. I have a small arc welder that I bought in Fiji and the larger generator was able to power it.
One of the things that was ruined when we had all the water in the container with the truck was a oxy/acetylene gauge hose kit. The gauges have been replaced but nobody here has a cutting torch which I am in need of for repairing the rusted sides on the motor bike as well as weld on the trailer. So I had to have Jason get one from Harbor Freight and send it to me.
After I finished the trailer (couple of days) I flipped it over onto the wheels. (I was not about to weld upside down on the ground so I welded with the trailer upside down.) I tested it by chaining it to the back of the motor tricycle. It pulled light, empty. When I put it on the ball hitch of the truck and drove it up and down the highway it trailed very good but when I tried to unhook it the ball was lodged in the holder. I had to pry and use a jack to get it free. They have metric sizes here and so I had to change the ball out on the truck so as not to have it stick every time I want to use the trailer.
Tray with new frame
Completed trailer
In regard to the
Opel car
I finally got the car company to provide radiator hoses that their mechanics
had not put back on when they were supposed to fix the Opel 18 months ago. However
there are a lot of wires not connected to things and I don't have a proper book
and the one I ordered from England was never sent. I really hate working on
cars that someone else has taken everything else off of. (It's bad enough when
I take things off and forget where they went!) I did take off all the air-conditioner
tubing and such except the compressor because it was not working anyway. I will
have to drain the fuel tank and the lines also and I just don't feel like laying
down under the car again right now. I just put everything back (transmission
and engine) on and the tyres and pushed it back out into the side yard for a
convenient time!
The Veterans Administration
The VA scheduled me for an evaluation appointment for my disability in August.
Jason got the notification 3 days before the appointment in Fayetteville so
needless to say he had to call them and say I don't plan to be back there until
summer next year. I do have a follow-up appointment for the prostate surgery
in Houston for January 2015 but do not plan on coming back for that either.
(They don't seem to understand that I don't like cold weather.) Then the Mt
Vernon VA wanted me there for my annual check-up also. HA HA!
After Jason called Fayetteville I get a letter (through Jason) from the VA saying that my compensation was to be terminated because I seemed to be doing okay since I did not have anything in my file stating otherwise. Their letter is confusing to say the least. It is 20 pages and the first two pages are about my compensation which I took they were cutting but then that it was continuing.
I have written a letter to the VA explaining that everything is not okay and the VA rep in Joplin, who has been very supportive mailed it on to St Louis. We will see if it matters or not. The fact that they have been non-supportive of required medical supplies and that I have had to pay for them sucks to say the least. Their thinking is: since he had prostate cancer and we took the prostate out he is okay now. They somehow missed that the agent orange is verrrrrrrry likely the cause of my thyroid, kidney and skin problems. Oh, not to mention the lingering side affects of the surgery and all the organs they fooled with.
Social Insecurity blues
Kathy and I have been drawing the minimum social security since I turned 62.
She received payments through me because she did not have enough SS quarters.
We noticed that when she turned 65 her payment went down $101, leaving her with
just $57 p/m. I asked Jason to call SS and ask them but you know the drill -
he is not Mrs Huff therefore they will not even talk with him, even though he
has our power of attorney. They suggested to him and then he wrote me, to sign
on SS to talk with them. However if you are using an overseas ISP they will
not sign you up no matter if you are Mrs Huff or not. Does anyone know why they
deducted this $101 from Kathy's payment after she turned 65? Is it for Obama
care even though we did not sign up for any provider for Part B?
POULTRY MATTERS
We have 8 hens and one rooster from the original 25 day old chicks. I found
one hen yesterday in the laying box dead. She was still warm so I took the carcass
over the Morris and they dressed it out (over 13#). They found a very small
heart, which was probably why she died and 10 egg yokes inside her. I have been
teasing the rooster with crowing when he does (as he has just started) and when
I was in feeding them last week I got in his face with a crow and then when
I turned my back he took a bite of my left leg. I had long pants on but he still
broke the skin. I had a little attitude readjustment with him that Kathy could
hear in the house. He steers around me now when I go in the chicken house. They
are now 20 weeks and are laying eggs haphazardly so far (after I gave them a
pep talk that they had two weeks to produce or they were going in the freezer).
The eggs have been double yoked and Kathy had a triple yoked one the other morning.
October 8th - First egg
And the rains came down - and left!
Rainy season came with a torrent the end of September with us getting over 6
inches in 36 hours and it continued to rain most every day for a week or so
and then NOTHING, dry as ever. I still have tomatoes and green peppers growing
well but they are showing stress with cracking. I have corn growing here at
the house and more on the school property with dwarf beans and cucumbers. The
weeds are really coming up well with the rains. I have replanted broccoli, cabbage
and kale here at the house. I was able to buy some new potatoes that were sprouting
at the grocery store and have over 25 mounds of new potatoes growing as well.
The School
Stephen brought 2 posts (actually two pieces of tree trunk) by to make sure
they were the ones I want for the school houses. It is a very hard wood that
does not rot when in the ground. I have also talked with a local sawmill for
supply as we will need over 150 posts a meter long.
The trial gardens at the school are doing very well.
school garden
When the guys dug the holes for the posts for the buildings the ground they dug out is right beside the holes. When we had the heavy rains earlier this month the rains washed out the mounds of soil and produced castles. The small rocks on the tops are lava rocks - very light but kept the columns from eroding. Pretty neat!
Castles
OUR NEW KIDS
Kathy and I both took mission training at Sunset before we went to Papua New
Guinea. One of the warnings that we both remember is: it is best not to adopt
on the missions field unless you plan on spending the rest of your life there,
and even then it might not be the best thing to do. Well, even with two children
we decided we needed some kids so we now have three kids. We got them from a
New Zealand man on another island, Malakula. I picked them up last Monday from
a barge that brought them to Port Vila. We got one male and two females, they
are 5 months old.
Our new kids
We got them to keep down the weeds and grass at the school as well as for selling future goats for meat. They are boer goats. They are still pretty skittish and we have them staked out behind our house until we can get someone on the property to look after them up there.
Scholarship Fund for the
Bible school in honor of Joe Cannon
We have a new support program for The Christian Institute of Biblical Studies.
I have had memorial funds donated in the name of Joe Cannon in the past two
years. So we have established a scholarship fund called the "Joe Cannon
Scholarship Fund for The Christian Institute of Biblical Studies".
Joe Cannon was a great warrior for the Lord in his missionary journeys in Japan,
Okinawa, Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Ukraine and Memphis for over 60 years.
He touched a lot of lives in his living and I was one. It is only natural the
memory of Joe for the Biblical training of Christians since that is what he
was about his whole life. The funds generated will be used to support students
that come from the island nations around Vanuatu where we will be seeking to
strengthen the Biblical training of Christians from their islands for the future
needs of the kingdom in their home islands. They cannot work while they are
here and thus the need for support for when they are here. The scholarship funds
will be only used to support students who come to the school from outside Vanuatu.
We will be asking their home congregations to cover the cost of the travel to
and back from Vanuatu. Funds can be sent through our sponsor. (CIBS Scholarship
Fund: Joe Cannon)
Thanking you for hanging
in there with us with the building of the school.
As we start building we will be in need of additional funds in the next few
months for building of student rooms, about $30,000. So if anyone out there
can help we would really appreciate it.
Please note that we have been able to get our website (http://www.oceania-outreach.com/Index.html ) back on line and I will try to keep it current. It also has a link for downloading mission books that Joe Cannon wrote.
Onward and upward!
Thank you so much for all of you who are praying for us, supporting us and have contributed to our needs. God bless you! Thank you for your prayers!
Thank you Lord for healing and providing what we need!
Grace & Peace
Tobey & Kathy
Huff
Ph (and text): 678 596-4821 (Vanuatu is +17 hours)
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Contributions for the Huffs and
the Bible school can be sent to:
Huffs/Bible School
c/ Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Rd
Webb City MO 64870
or
Jason Huff
2730 E 24th St
Joplin MO 64804