Permanent Visas Granted

Rejoice! The Lord has answered our prayers. The New Zealand government has finally gotten around to granting us Permanent Visas. This will allow is to remain here in NZ and use it as the base for reaching out into the South Pacific. This will also allow Kathy to work if need be. The day our visas expired I called the local member of Parliament and he called immigration who finally gave the go ahead. Talk about going to the last minute.

PRINTING UPDATE
I have been very busy over the past months in the printshop. The more I print the more I realize the great power that is available through the printed page. From Feb. through April we printed 256.6!13 sheets. Included in this was a run of 2,500 copies of the World Bible School booklet.

RETURN DATE
Even with our visas secured we will have to return to the States this July. We have lost so much support that we cannot carry on with our present support base. We are desperately in need of a sponsor and support. We beseech your prayers on our behalf for a congregation to act as our sponsor and congregations and individuals who will support this outreach work into the many island nations where the Gospel of Christ has not been proclaimed. With our present finances only one-half of one of us can come home. (I wonder which half of who it will be.) As always the Lord will provide! We hope to be back sometime the middle to end of July. We will be packing everything up AGAIN and putting it in storage since we are just renting here. Please pray for us and our support needs !!

Thank you so much for the encouragement from our last letter and your prayers.

In April Jason and I went to Fiji on a survey trip. Jason was able to go due to an airline special with his ticket only costing $50 roundtrip. The trip is related below and I hope you can visualize the great opportunity which is shown here. Since our return 5 people have been baptized, two of which who were on WBS courses. We now have over 2300 people on WBS in Fiji.

FIJI TRIP

APRIL 7 - APRIL 14 Workers: Tobey and Jason Huff, Peter & Joan Craig
Objectives: 1) To assess and prepare groundwork for National Bible Schools to be held in Fiji in July 1988 for the students on World Bible School correspondence courses. 2) To promote a bond of unity among the congregations. 3) To talk with immigration about work visas which will allow teachers to come into Fiji and teach in the National Bible Schools.

THURSDAY 7 April
We departed Auckland International airport and after an uneventful flight arrived in Nadi Fiji at 1.1:45 pm. After clearing customs we were met by Ledua and Sera Naivalurua. Ledua and Sera along with Josua Conivanua graduated from the South Pacific Bible College last December and returned to Fiji as full time workers with the South Pacific Focus Program and World Bible School. They are working with the Lautoka congregation about 30 minutes up the road from Nadi. There is no congregation in Nadi at the present time.

Peter and Joan rented another car as Loyd and Velma Bixler would be arriving on Saturday. The Craigs went on to the motel and Jason and I went home with Ledua and Sera.

FRIDAY 8 April
We finally got to bed around 0200 after chasing a 3 inch cockroach around the living room. We were up and at um at 0700. Welcome to the tropics where everyone has chickens in their yards. The chickens were crowing and the trees were full of chirping birds. Ledua and I went to visit a WBS student at 0800. This student lives just out of town in a squatter settlement house. I sat on the floor in his house looking out over gardens and sugar cane fields in the background. Food was being cooked over an open fire on the floor in the other room. It reminds me so much of Papua New Guinea and the people there. They have the same Melanesian features. I expect them to understand Pidgin English, they don't. We returned home after encouraging the student to continue his studies. After a breakfast of grilled cheese sandwiches Jason, Ledua and I went up to the church building. I had brought a mimeograph duplicating machine with us from New Zealand and we took it up to the church building. We then went down to the shops in town scouting out duplicator supplies for the machine. A light drizzle was falling all day. The congregation in Lautoka has services on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday night. The services are on Fiji time 7:00 pm. We finally started at 7:45 pm. Peter taught the class.

I talked with Sera about her ideas for a National Bible School and she expressed that she thought July was too early as they had not contacted that many of the students yet. She wanted to have a get together barbecue for them first to break the ice.

SATURDAY 9 April
By 8:00 am we were on our way to visit one of the brethren. He is a cane farmer and has a truck which the congregation uses on Sunday to transport brethren to and from services. The Fiji government has a travel restriction on Sunday driving. No public transport operates on Sunday and all petrol stations are closed the whole day. All stores are closed and sporting events banned. We had to go with Manu to the police station and get a police permit to allow us to use his truck the next day. He then had to fill it with petrol. Tourists do not have to have a permit to travel but are limited due to no petrol stations being open. After seeing Manu we visited another WBS student before we met Manu at the Police station. This student is a government carpenter with three children. He was enjoying the courses. After our visit to the police station where we applied for the permit (which was approved and issued at 4:00 pm) we visited with another WBS student. Sunita Devi finds the courses very helpful and plans to come to New Zealand and visit sometime. We then returned to Ledua's house. While we had been running around Peter & Joan had gone to Nadi and picked up Loyd and Velma Bixler from Denver Colorado. Loyd is the author of the World Wide Bible School program and a co-worker in the program in Fiji with the Otumoetai congregation in Tauranga New Zealand. We found them at Ledua's house. After talking for some time the Craigs and Bixlers went back to their motel. Ledua, Jason and I went out to find Josua. He had returned from out of town the night before. We picked Josua up from his house and went to the building. We then filled up the car with petrol and bought some groceries. We dropped Josua off at the motel with Peter and Loyd and went back to the house. After eating a bit we took off for a Bible study in Nadi. It was raining heavily due to Cyclone Dovi off the west coast of Fiji. I drove, wow! They are crazy drivers especially at night in the rain. The center stripe on the road was used by the majority of people as a guide line, straight down the middle. A nasty night to be out. Ledua and Sera have been studying with this relative of Sera's for several weeks.

SUNDAY 10 April
We worshiped with the brethren at Lautoka. Peter taught the class and I presented the lesson. After services Josua, Jason and I piled into Ledua's car and headed for Suva. The Craigs and Bixler went in their rental car. On the way to Suva we stopped at a resort and tried to find a WBS student who had written that she wanted to be baptized. We could not locate her.

We were going to Suva at the invitation of the Raiwaqa brethren to discuss various areas of dispute which had surfaced between the congregation there and the congregation in Otumoetai, Tauranga New Zealand. Brethren from the United States had visited Fiji in January and raised a number of rumors as to the soundness of faith of us who are associated with the South Pacific Bible College. One rumor which has been circulating for over 2 years and is stated as fact is that Otumoetai has instrumental music in their worship. This rumor has been shown as a complete lie. Other differences were shown to be a matter of personality conflict and matters of opinion. These same American brethren, headed by Robert Martin, refused to talk face to face with Mike Austin in January when they met each other at Ledua's house in Lautoka. Another doctrine introduced in January by the American brethren is that a person had to be baptized by a Christian or the baptism would not be valid.

We arrived just in time for services and the meeting was held afterwards. The meeting lasted until 11:00 pm. As a lot of the rumors had been directed at Peter Craig, Peter moderated the meeting and fielded the areas of dispute. The meeting was conducted in an orderly and loving matter, even though these were sensitive issues. One man wanted a debate between Peter and Robert Martin. This was finally discounted as not the way to discuss the issues. We drove back to the motel. No supper as everything was closed because of the curfew.

MONDAY 11 April
Still raining! 7:15 am Ledua called to talk with Josua. He wasn't there. He had stayed with Semisi. Josua was to meet us at 8:30am. We left the motel to go into town to scout out some nourishment. Left a message for Josua to meet us at the market at 10:00. We finally located a food parlor open for business. A pizza joint. Jason and I shared a cheese pizza. It was two feet in diameter and only cost $7.00. The Craigs and Bixlers had hamburgers with egg and bacon and chips. After the feast Peter, Jason and I went to the market to join up with Josua. Joan and the Bixler made like tourists and took off with their cameras. We went to immigration to check out getting the proper visas to be able to preach and teach. (The visitor visa issued on arrival in Fiji forbids public preaching and teaching.) The Fiji immigration people were very receptive to our desire to have work visas. This finished we split with Peter and went shopping with Josua. As we had accomplished the objectives of our trip I changed our tickets to fly back to New Zealand on Thursday morning instead of Saturday. On the way out of Suva back to Lautoka we picked up a couple of Josua's friends. We came back too late to see the WBS student at the resort. The lack of TV in Fiji was finally getting to Jason, he spent the evening chasing geckos (lizards) and coloring pictures for Sera's Bible class.

TUESDAY 12 April
Still raining! We went to the church building were I showed Ledua and Sera how to operate the mimeograph machine. Ledua dropped Jason and I uptown. We went to the council offices and got maps of Fiji. While walking down the street Jason was stopped by an Indian man and he asked if Jason wanted to be a penpal. Jason said no and the man started to walk off when I noticed that he had a World Bible School envelope in his hand. I stopped him and found out he was a WBS student named Lawrence and he had just mailed the third course back to Tauranga for grading. That evening Ledua and Sera had a tea for some of the WBS students around Lautoka. Six of them were able to come. After the gathering Ledua took everyone home. Jason and I put a frog in Josua's shoe and he was really hopping around.

WEDNESDAY 13 April
Monday Ledua had two punctures. The tires were bald and the steel was showing. So this morning I took Ledua and the car down for new tires. We were able to buy some retreads for $36 each. We bought them at one place and took them to another place to have them fitted. While we were having them fitted I watched a couple of Indians regrooving bald tires so as to beat the regulations.

One of the Christians had spent the night at Ledua's. His name is Sanna. After getting the tires fitted I dropped Ledua off at the house and drove into town. Ledua and Josua went with Peter and Loyd up to Ba to talk with a young man who had written that he wanted to be baptized. Later in the afternoon I took Sanna home. After a cup of tea at Sanna's, I was getting ready to leave when I was asked if I could drop a young boy off at the hospital. The nine year old boy who lived next door had stepped on a three inch nail which was still through his foot, at the front by his toes. I took them to the hospital it was an hour an a half before the doctor showed up. The father was worried that I (a white-skin) was having to wait. I was more concerned for the boy. While in the emergency room waiting for the doctor they brought in a little 7 year old Indian girl who had been hit by a car and had a compound fracture of her right leg. All the family of the little girl had to go over and see the nail in the boy's foot and all the boy's family had to go over and see the broken leg. I finally left the hospital in just enough time to take Sanna back home and back to Ledua's before services.

THURSDAY 14 April
The morning came very early. We had to get up at 3:00 am to get to Nadi in time to catch our flight back to New Zealand. The Craigs and Bixler met us at the airport. They were almost late as the person who was to wake them fell asleep.

We arrived back in Auckland and were greeted by Kathy and Dan Martin. I put some of the Bixler luggage in our car and headed back to Tauranga. On the way to Peter's house I ended up hitting the back end of a panel van and damaging the whole left front of our car. The van wasn't hurt much. (Repairs on both cars totaled- $550.)

Your servants in the service of Christ,

the Huffs