April 30, 2016
rainy and humid
Dearest Friends and family
COMING BACK
We are coming back for a grandson's (Harrison Davis) High School graduation
(50 years after mine - 1966), reporting and appointments with the VA and Kathy
seeing doctors. We will be leaving here tomorrow and should be in Tulsa late
May 2nd. We have only scheduled 6 weeks for this trip (to June 15th) so as to
minimize of time away from the work. We need your help, please! We have lost
several hundred dollars of support this past year as well as 2/3 thirds of my
VA benefits. If you know of any places we can talk and present our work for
consideration of monthly or one time support for the school and personal we
would ask you to please contact us. (email me or email or call my son - info
at the bottom) I have attached an auto pay form to allow anyone who wishes to,
to fill out and submit to our supporting congregation. These funds are shifted
straight into our account from your account when you authorize it. It would
be so helpful if you can do so. We are trying to secure at least $800 a month
additional support for the next year.
BIBLE CLASSES
I finished the six weeks of English Bible classes this past Thursday night.
I taught two classes, each two nights, three hours a night. I taught Old Testament
History and Geography (Monday/Tuesday) and Acts (Wednesday/Thursday). We ended
up finishing with 4 full time students and three adults monitoring from the
Eton congregation.
I will restart classes when we get back in June and hope to have more people
attend if even only to monitor the classes and not for credit. If we want to
teach locals here we need to adapt to their needs of providing for their families
and their work schedule. I still hope to have overseas and full time students
in the future but for right now I am back in the teaching mode and loving it.
Once we have full time students we will have classes at the school and then
probably night classes at the church building for locals students who have to
provide for their families.
Kathy still drives in every Wednesday to Port Vila for Ladies' Bible classes
there. They want her to continue when we get back.
CIBS BUILDING
Goman and I got together and put up the wall framing for the school toilet block.
We put up three of the cement sheet walls and I then make the doors with pine
planks I had. He will mount the doors and finish putting up the cement sheet
walls. He will also be plastering the walls.
Goman Mesa
Toilet
block
Little ol' me! Mennonite look?
With all the rain the undergrowth has built up at the
school the mosquitoes are fierce. We have to pretty much bath in repellent to
work outside.
They had malaria testing this past week in the village and there were four confirmed
cases, all school ages children.
THIS 'N' THAT
I forgot to tell you last month we have finally been able to get jellied cranberry
sauce here in Vanuatu. It is Ocean Spray in a 275g (9.7 oz) glass bottle for
only $6.75 per bottle. Cranberry gold for sure but good, good, good!!!!
SOLAR HIC-UPS
We have a number of solar panels and 12 volt batteries to service the power
needs here at home. To save on gasoline costs for generation of power (was running
$850 per month) now currently $600 per month we try to use battery power as
much as possible. After Kathy uses the generators for the washing machine in
the morning we usually go to solar (battery) power from 11 am to dusk when we
go back on generator until we go to bed about 11 pm. Then battery power from
11 pm to 7 am. The sun charges the batteries during the day but is not affective
for solar power after about 4:30 pm until 7 am the next morning. So we have
to charge the batteries and do so when we have the generator on supplying power.
All this changes when we have rainy days and have to use the generators for
normal power needs as well as power the clothes dryer, which we have had quite
a number of this past month. Well, we have to have an invertor which converts
the 12vdc from the battery to 240vac which our house is wired for. Even though
the refrigerator is rated at only 110 watts of power when it kicks in the invertor
had to work overtime to get it kicked over and that means the voltage drops
and florescent lights go out momentarily and the satellite TV system had to
reboot. Fun, fun, fun! We have quit using fans at night because we hear when
they quit and then start back up once the refrigerator starts its cooling cycle.
The invertors we have here for sale, from China, are rated at 2500 watts (5000 peak). I have since bought some bigger ones (4000 and 5000 watts) which we are awaiting delivery, via mail from China, hoping this will help correct the power drain problem. Something to look forward to when we get back after the USA trip. The new invertors are cheaper to buy and ship then the local stock and there is no duty on them. I think they are mis-labeled for power!
EARTHQUAKES
This past month the United Nations rated Vanuatu as the most likely place on
the planet earth for disasters to occur (and it has nothing to do with the fact
I live here - thank you).
But we have had three significant earthquakes (which I personally have not felt) in our island chain, North and South of our island (see middle picture for Port Vila location).
4/19 - magnitude 5.9 South
4/16 - magnitude 7 North of Santo
4/28 - magnitude 7 North on Malakula
THE HOUSE
Our house is being eaten by wood mites and flying ants. Every day we have piles
of dust where they are eating the plywood ceiling, furniture and kitchen cabinets.
I have tried surface spray but to no obvious effect. The ceiling over the office
is now showing spots where all the wood had been eaten out and only the paint
is holding the plywood sheets together. So when we get back home it looks like
I either will evacuate the house and burn it down or replace all the ceiling
plywood with masonite and rebuild the dressers and kitchen cabinets with marine
or construction plywood.
I heard rats last week and put out poison blocks in the laundry room trying to keep them from going up into the roof - didn't happen. Yesterday while working on my Sunday lesson for the combined worship of all the congregation on Efate here at Eton I notice and rotten smell coming from the verandah. I checked but found no rat carcasses. We have been having nice Easterly breezes but since I have been sitting in the office the smell has become really ripe with the breezes dying down at dark. I have narrowed it down to a dead rat in the roof just over the eves (not accessible to extraction without tearing out part of the outer wall). They win! I have shut the louver windows and put on an extraction fan but am hurrying to finish this newsletter before I succumb to the smell. Since we are leaving tomorrow the carcass smell should be gone when we get back. Just another prize when I change out the ceiling - lucky me!
MEDICAL
The same finger I had the tumor cut off was in a accident three weeks ago. I
had changed out the nylon wire on the weed whacker with a cutting blade because
the grass was over a cubit (18 inches) high. I was doing a pretty good job around
the water well/lemon tree area behind the class room until I noticed the guard
on the head of the cutter was twisted. I powered the machine down and reached
down to twist the guard back straight when the blade hit my right index finger
- whoa, it stopped the machine!
After looking to see if the finger was still there (and yes I could still feel
it was there). I immediately got to the bike and found a surgical towel (that
I use for sweat rags) and wrapped the finger up tight with the towel and masking
tape (used what was in the tool box because the first aid kit is in the truck,
dah!). Goman and his son, Moses, were cutting grass and bush in other areas
of the school so they did not know what was happening. It took about 10 minutes
(I think it was only 15 minutes) to let the shock settle down before I decided
I could finish the small area I was working. I did finish and saw the towel
was red but not dripping. I loaded everything on the bike and decided to call
it a morning. On my way out I stopped and talked with Goman and gave him some
safety instructions on the use of weed whacker blades, with an illustration
of my wrapped up finger. When I got home I unwrapped the towel outside to see
the damage and these were the pictures.
I took three swipes of the blade with the major damage being on top of the finger with the blade going about 7 mm deep and slitting my finger nail.
I rinsed out the towel (in outside sink) and as I went into the house I said, "I might have injured my finger". The reply from my help-meet was, "do you know how old you are??????" She wanted to go immediately to Dr King in Port Vila but I said we would wait and if needed would see him the next day when we normally went to town (I was so wanting to just take a small nap). I thought of super gluing the slits but chose to just bandage it up tightly.
It has been three weeks and healing very nicely, the broken nail catches in my pocket but other than that a few more scars I am getting up every morning to a new day with all my digits. The Lord does look after fools and children! My guardian angels are tired but never bored!
CHICKEN FARMER
One of the things you might have noticed in the past year is that we are getting
into chicken farming again. It is a plan for CIBS to raise chickens for the
school when we have boarding students. After cyclone Pam the big chicken producers
have not rebuilt and thus almost all our chicken meat and the majority of our
eggs are imported.
I am doing this so we can personally have good chicken but also a way in which I can help some of the brethren make addition money for their families. All the day old chicks are brought in from New Zealand on the weekly Wednesday Air Vanuatu flight. We started in Dec 2015 with 200 day old broilers: Goman had 75; Sul had 50; I had the rest. We raised them and sold them. We have had to wait for the second lot which are now 2 1/2 weeks old: Goman has 100; Sul has 60; Arthur in Epau has 25 (his first time to raise house chickens); and I have the rest.
broiler chicks
This past week I took delivery of 50 day-old layers pullets. We will have to feed them for 16 weeks before we can expect any eggs but the brothers want to expand with these as well because eggs are so high.
4 day old layer chicks
In addition we have 8 local chicken layer hens who lay a total average of 1 egg a day (I let them out for a couple of hours every afternoon to free range - any longer they lay their eggs outside to hide them from me). Also a batch of local chickens that John Dean gave that I am looking after. In reality I have them because if they were not housed the village dogs kills over 95% of the new born chicks born in the village. Goman is to move the local layer hens and the local chickens down to the school grounds and look after them there. Any of the John Dean chicks that turn out to be roosters he gets back and we keep the layers.
I have contracted for 300 day old broiler chickens for delivery May 25th. We are hoping to start getting day-old chicks every 4 weeks so we have a continuous supply for sale. We have to prepay for all the chicks. But we also have to buy the required feed and stock it so we have enough to feed out to kill. The local agricultural stockers are just now stocking broiler feed for our needs and it takes a month or so lead time for them to get the feed from Australia and they have a minimum order as well. So that means I do not pay for preorder if I am not guaranteed the feed. It also means we have bought the feed and it is stored in our container for the 200 broilers and 50 layers we currently have and the 300 broilers I have paid for delivery on May 25th. Hopefully we will see some of the expended funds being reimbursed as we cycle with the feed and kill of the broilers. The funds have come from my VA benefits but those have been cut in past months.
NORMAL DAY
My day usually starts with me getting up around 6 am and going out and getting
the paper (which was delivered with bread delivers to the local stored in the
early morning), starting the generator (to recharge the batteries and give Kathy
electricity to have breakfast and do laundry), sitting down to read the paper
to let my thyroid replacement pill get to work, then the morning parade: some
wanting flour we stock for the village bread makers (we haul Fiji flour out
in the truck when we go in which saves the local people $5.00 a bag and our
truck would be empty otherwise); some of the brethren come by to just talk,
Goman comes by to pick up his copy of the daily paper after dropping Pamela
off at the primary school and we chat about what needs to be done at the school
and what we can do to help the village get their water supply working again
and other village needs and just church needs in general; I go get my bowl of
cereal and sit out on the verandah eating and finishing the paper; Kathy is
up and gets the coffee made and I get my cup and return to the verandah to meditate,
but not for long. We will get a steady stream of villagers who have a need or
something needs to be looked at to fix.
We are finally accepted in the village and the daily interaction shows the family mentality.
THE LORD'S CHURCH HERE ON EFATE
Efate is the small island when we live. Port Vila is the capitol. We have four
small congregations scattered here and we have for some time been talking about
how we can help these groups grow without qualified local elders. We have been
looking at New Testament groups which had the same problem and after this morning's
lesson we have set a course to set up a leadership ministry which will be represented
by men of every group to facilitate the maturity of all the church here on Efate.
You will notice I did not use the word "congregations" though they are. Because if I said "congregations" then some would say, "what about local autonomy". To which I would reply, "please give me the Bible book/chapter/verse for such a practice. The verse is not there.
On the other hand, we need to be painfully honest and brutally blunt with ourselves regarding the concept of congregational autonomy. As promoted by some today, it is about as far removed from the practice of the early church as one can get. There are some "non-cooperation" brethren who hide behind this concept of "autonomy" in order to avoid any and all united efforts with parts of God's family with whom they would just as soon not have association. They withdraw into themselves, shutting out all others, under the guise of "autonomy." It thus becomes the watchword for "acceptable" dissociation and exclusivity. Frankly, I don't believe it is the intent of our Father that His children, either individually or congregationally, be "autonomous" in the sense of "existing or functioning independently." The more we distance ourselves from one another, avoiding involvement with one another in cooperative efforts to further the mission of the One Body on earth, the more that dissociation deteriorates into dissension and division, and the more that separation devolves into sectarianism. One of the greatest failings of the churches of Christ, in my opinion, is the tendency of congregations to "go it alone!" In so doing, we have lost sight of the fact of FAMILY, and we have thereby facilitated factions. Existing and functioning independently has been, to be perfectly blunt, our downfall.
The concept of congregational autonomy, as too often practiced today, was unheard of in the church of the first century. The church in the New Testament did not have buildings where everyone in one location came together like we do today. The early church in any location, such as Ephesus, were made up of house churches where brethren came together for mutual edification, until about 200 AD. When Paul in Acts 20:17 called the Ephesian elders to come to him he was calling for the elders that looked after all the house churches in the town of Ephesus. Not every house church had elders but the elders looked after all of them collectively. Congregational autonomy where the house churches did not work together and talk together did not exist then and should not now.
In Acts 15:22 when it says “Then it seemed good
to the apostles and the elders with the whole church...” it means that
all the house churches had come together to discuss this situation.
Congregations of believers, regardless of their location, should be joining
hands in accomplishing the work of evangelism, benevolence, and any other area
where the combined energy and resources of God's family can better meet needs
and touch hearts.
The four different groups, which have family members from the other groups in them here on Efate, will spend the next month talking with their group and if they choose to do so will be nominating a qualified man or men from their group to represent them on the ministry. During the next combined in June the plan is to have the names submitted from each group and if there is no opposition then these men will serve on this leadership ministry for one year with the blessings of the whole church. We are looking at 6-7 qualified men who will meet at regular intervals to pray and talk together about the needs of their groups and how the whole family can work together "to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Eph 4:12-16)
We look forward to getting back and sharing with you the things God is doing in and through our lives. God is good!!!!!!!!!
Onward and upward!
We especially want to thank all of you so much for praying for us, supporting
us and have contributed to our needs so we can do what we are doing. God bless
you! Thank you for your prayers and fellowship!
Thank you Lord for healing and providing what we need!
Grace & Peace
Tobey & Kathy Huff
Ph: (678) 596-4821 (Vanuatu) We do texting.
------------------------------------------------
Contributions for the Huffs, the
Bible school, the Scholorship fund and/or cyclone/drought relief 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
(417) 396-9122
j13huff@yahoo.com