April 24, 2014
Dearest Friends and family
Last newsletter I said "it was hard to believe we have been back a month". Funny that we had not been back a month then, it just seemed like it.
I also need to correct when I said, "March 2nd one of the young ladies we have known since she was a baby was baptized after services. Her name is Tuling and she is the daughter of Sul and Janet." It was her father Sul, who did the baptism right off the beach in the village not her cousin Taal.
BACK HOME
We are slowly getting things back to normal (if anything here can be called
normal). I have had to do a bit of maintenance. We noticed that when we were
on solar power (batteries through an inverter= 12 v to 240 v) that the electricity
to the refrigerator was down to 110 volts instead of 240 volts when on the generator
there was no problem. The funny thing was the voltage only dropped to the refrigerator.
I thought the refrigerator was pulling too much power, as it has gotten older,
and was overloading the inverter, so we went in a bought another refrigerator
that was on sale and brought it home. When I plugged it on the inverter it did
the same thing. I was perplexed so I tried another inverter and the voltage
stayed at 240 volts. So the invertor was bad. (Now we have a refrigerator for
the school!) As inverters cost over $380 I thought I would pull it apart and
just see if I could repair it. I have tried it with other invertors but with
all the electronics it is hard to isolate the problem sometimes. Well, I feel
vindicated - I was able to see that a capacitor had blown out and since I had
another inverter which I had not been able to fix I had the spare part and was
able to repair it and put it back in service.
We have been able to put a submersible pump down the well and I ran a water line to the upper tank and hooked it with a stock float. I switch the pump on (when the generator is operating) and when the tank is full the float stops the water flow, I shut the power off. (We still get water pressure into the house with a small 12 volt pump on the water line from the upper tank, automatically.) I also have outlets from the pump to use to water the garden now.
The motor bike acted up on me for a couple of weeks and I had to go to town and find a number of replacement parts before I had it running again. We have been trying to repair a wheelbarrow wheel all month. Every tube we had is rotten and the new one I bought last week blew out when I inflated it also. So I will try to get a new tube that will work my next trip to town. Rubber rots here very quickly!
Laundry Room
I was asked and was able to put a cement laundry basin in the laundry for Kathy.
Something about using it to wash out my stinky, salty, sweaty clothes after
a day of busting rocks in the garden or chain-sawing bush. I go through about
4-5 shirts on work days.
Children's Classroom floor
Three of us mixed and poured the cement for the children's classroom I had built
just before we came back to the USA last year. The 4 months we were gone the
brethren were SUPPOSED to do the floor but it didn't get done. Some of us got
tired of nobody taking pointed hints so we "got ur dune!" Now Kathy
and the children don't have to sit on the ground. (And the chickens don't come
in and scratch around in the dirt anymore!)
We had an eclipse of the moon here one evening Kathy and I watched it just at dusk. (It is between the trees just over Kathy's head.)
MISTER GREEN THUMB
I am still busy cleaning out the garden. Only this time I am taking all the
rocks out of the ground. (Someone commented on my last pictures that there seemed
to be a lot of rocks in paradise. I agree and thought I would do something about
it. Thanks Nancy!) We are digging about 10 inches down and then sifting the
soil and getting all the rocks out. This is hard work but this is the ground
I have right now for my garden. I have been putting in 4-5 hours a day getting
this done. The renewed ground looks very rich.
Juju is helping me and the pile of rocks you see are just part of what we have taken out. We have to use iron bars to break up the limestone and coral. Many blisters later!!!! I feel like I am on a rock busting chain gang!
SCHOOL PROPERTY
We are making progress on a fence. I was able to do a survey of the property
using my iphone's GPS and compass. I drew it up and the brothers signed off
and we started clearing the property. These pictures show where we marked the
fence-line and have chain-sawed our way in. This is AFTER we cleared the line.
The five days 4 of us (Sul, Tall, Juju and myself) did this we averaged 5 hours
per days in 100% humidity hacking and cutting. I AM GETTING TOO OLD FOR THIS!
It took us 4 days of work to cut the basic line from the road to the back of
the property. There were times I was falling all over the place with all the
roots and trees on the ground. Luckily I didn't hurt myself. Right now Stephen
has contracted a crew to go cut wood posts from the cattle farm (we will need
over 150 for the 466 meters) and they will run the barbed wire. (There
were some brethren in the States who expressed a desire to help us build the
buildings when we get ready. I am thinking they should be here helping us clear
the property instead! Buildings are NOTHING compared to this kind of labor!)
There are a number of lemon trees on the property and we have had to trim them back for the fence. When we have done so the resident bull (literal) smells the lemon oil and comes trotting out of the woods and eats any lemons that have fallen. Stands right there and eats the lemons!!!!!! Crazy cattle here!
Hauling rocks
We have been hauling the rocks we have been taking out of the garden down to
the school where we are building a new road access into the property with our
own gate.
Taal and me with a bike full of rocks.
Visitor from Afar
We were privileged to have Larry McKenzie visit us. He is 80 years young and
has served as a minister for 45 years with Highland St CoC in Memphis who support
the Bible School in Lae, PNG. He has been a dear friend for many years since
we first met him in Papua New Guinea. He has been on trip through Singapore,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea visiting missionaries and works
Highland supports. He made us his last stop before going home even though Highland
does not support us. Therein is a story.
He was supposed to arrive here at 11:30 pm on Wednesday night from Sydney but the plane was delayed (due to windshield replacement) and he did not get in until the next afternoon after 6:00 pm. I was able to work all day in the garden and we went in and we picked him up and brought him back home.
Larry preached Sunday AM for us at Eton and talked Monday and Tuesday night on prayer.
SINCE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO LEAVE the following Thursday we decided to take him
back to Port Vila the other way (around the island road) and visit a WWII museum
that Eddie Karris told us about.
Larry at the museum
The museum is right by where there has been a Marine base and just up the road from an airstrip that Corsairs flew from in WWII. Eddy also told us stories about the Negro Army unit (250 men) that had been stationed just here at Eton beach and how they trained and then went to the Solomons when the fighting with the Japanese escalated there. Eddy was 11 years old at the time. Very interesting!!!!!!
Well, Larry was SUPPOSED to board his flight to Fiji April 24th and then on to LA, Houston and Memphis Thursday morning and we arrived in plenty of time. The only problem there was no flight.
Here is the story: Larry missed his Air Vanuatu flight to Nadi Fiji because they took the local soccer team to Nadi in advance at midnight Wednesday night without calling Larry. We have a very limited number of flights to Fiji from Vanuatu (Air Vanuatu only has 2 a week and Fiji Airways 2). So not only did he miss the Port Vila - Nadi flight that morning but he missed the night flight from Nadi to LAX and then on to Houston and Memphis. The next flight being Saturday 26th April with Fiji Airways to Nadi and then the night flight to LAX.
Larry was booked from the USA and they used Air New Zealand (which at the time they said was cheaper) but the 26th flight was full (for ANZ tickets) and he had to pay for another ticket with Fiji Airways ($800). His ANZ ticket was business class and since he cannot afford a whole new business class (US$4,000) ticket he traveled coach. The plane belongs to Fiji Air but Air New Zealand, Quantas and American share load with them.
I got in contact with Air Vanuatu management here and after a day of runaround they said they could not change the booking because the tickets were with Air New Zealand and United. They even thought about sending him back to Syndey and on to LAX. Since we don't have internet in the village I had to drive into town and email the booking agent in the states and Larry had to email people who were expecting him on the 24th.
He was also told that changing his flight in the USA would cost him an additional $600 because of penalties. He had to suck up and pay or he wasn't going to get home. Now he knows why he should have paid flight insurance!
A funny point is we had watched "Castaway" with Tom Hanks the night before we took him the FIRST time to the airport. We kept kidding him about "Castaway" and the movie about the man trapped at the airport.
When we got in the truck early Saturday morning to take Larry to town and the airport the "check gauge" light came on about a mile down the road and I saw that the alternator was not charging. It was still dark and we needed lights and windshield wipers (as it was misting) I knew we would not make it to town without the alternator. So I went back to the house, popped the hood, sprayed some WD 40 in and around the alternator and waa-laa the alternator started working. I don't know what Larry was thinking but I know he was praying. We got back on the road.
We finally got him on the Saturday morning Fiji Airways flight to Nadi, Fiji and pray that he made it on home safely - howbeit poorer, sorer (coach is not as comfortable as Business class) and a few days later then he had planned.
We left him when he went into immigration and we had gone to the grocery store and were home when the plane took off (I heard it and it flew right over our house), an hour late! It was good having him here sharing our "wee" little house. He slept out on the verandah on a couch mattress. It was cool at night with breezes when he was here so he had the best sleeping spot.
If he tells stories about my garden be assured he did not dig up any of the rocks, sift any of the soil, plant anything - but he did move the shovel 6 inches one day. But that is okay he is 80.
Teaching
I was asked to preach at the combined island worship this month at Epau and
continued on the same topic I have been teaching at the Eton congregation -
Discipleship! I still share and talk with a lot of people as well as my articles
in the newspaper. Next month I am hoping to start a Bible Correspondence class
where the local students do the course during the week and we meet together
for an hour Sunday afternoon and grade and go over the lesson before they get
their next set.
This is how I am going to choose the students who will be the first intake of our Bible school here. The courses will be in English and will give me a good indication if they will apply themselves to Bible study and if they understand Basic English.
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
------------------------------------------------
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