August 22, 2013
Dearest Friends and family
VEHICLES
When we left off last month the truck was parked waiting for the front wheel
bearing to get here from the USA. While waiting I was able to replace and reroute
new brake lines to the rear brakes (line and connectors sent by Jason). After
I replaced the main brake lines I found that the lines going to the wheels were
also rusted through so I replaced them all. We now have working brakes on all
wheels. I also took the time to paint rust convertor on every place under the
truck I could get to.
I finally received the front wheel bearing the last day of July, was able to get it pressed back into the wheel hub, took it back home and re-installed the bearing, hub and tire and wha-la, a running truck again August 1st.
Later I disconnected the hot water hoses to the heater (like we need a heater here) and replaced the rusted bumper on the truck with another better bumper I had brought with us in the container.
While the truck was down we used the motorcycle to go back and forth to town and Kathy was getting tired of the ride. It did not help her back at all. The last trip on the bike we went around in town see someone about some pieces of cement board and the bike just quit. The road was gravel and very bumpy and it caused the main electrical fuse to break in the holder. It had rusted so it was weak. I was able to wire it together without a fuse, temporarily. The last trip back from town also was a bug buster. They have a bug here that looks like a lightning bug but without the light on their tail. They are in the thousands and are everywhere this time of year. We ended up with bugs in our helmets, down our shirts and smacking us on any exposed flesh. Not fun!
COMBINED WORSHIP
On August 4th we had combined worship with the Etas congregation which is located
just outside of Port Vila. Kathy was not able to go because she had a bit of
a cough after traveling on the bike while the truck was off the road. There
was a good turnout from the other congregations (3 of them) and we were all
surprised when communion was served, cucumber juice for the fruit of the vine!
I have no clue where they came up with that. Even though we have a shortage
of grape juice from time to time Steve Felix had taken a liter of grape juice
(but I guess the cups were already filled) and we always have wine available
in the stores. Another point for discussion!
THIS N' THAT
This is our cooler season and it actually got down to 68 a couple of times this
month. It seems cooler because the humidity is around 75-85%. We also had a
low humidity of 46% one Sunday morning as well.
Morris and Rebekka were not able to be out in the village for three weeks this month because a well meaning person trying to help him lose some weight. It seems the routine includes drinking 1.5 liter of salt water every morning for four days along with several liters of warm water. They advertise that "once you empty your bowl, it certainly starts to cleans you right away". Morris ended up with diarrhea (water I run) and throwing up. While they were preparing the warm water one day they spilled some hot water on his (only) foot. We thought it was going septic like his other foot did which they had to cut off four years ago. He was finally able to get the burn under control by soaking the foot in a solution. We had to explain to him that drinking salt water was not good for his organs.
With him not out here and Steve neither the marking of the boundary for the school ground is still in the air. So we haven't been able to string up a fence and start clearing garden space there.
Advertising works
I helped make a sign for Morris and his family last year to advertise when they
cook village bread. It is a sandwich board type that they put out by the road
when they have bread. They usually cook bread once a week on the weekend. They
cook it in a 44 gallons drum with fire wood. That went so well I was asked to
make a sign for one of Morris' daughter who is part of a kayaking/ feed the
fish tourist attraction up the road. When I finally finished the sign and they
took it they said within 30 minutes of putting the sign on the road they had
someone stop in.
Solar power system
Since we got back I enlarged the solar system with two larger panels and two
larger batteries. We now are on solar/battery power all sleeping night and most
of the day. In the mornings I usually turn on a generator for the coffee maker
and the toaster. We use the solar power (battery) overnight and during the day.
I use a generator from 6 pm to bedtime because we use more lights and the TV/videos
and use battery chargers to boost the battery since the sun had gone down (might
as well use the power to charge the batteries since the generator is running
anyway).If I need to use power tools I just use a generator for that time. I
started up the generator one day for Kathy to use the washing machine. After
Kathy was finished I went to change-over back to battery power and noticed that
after I started the generator I had not changed over from solar to generator
power (just ran the generator for 2 hours nothing). Just showed me the batteries
would pull the load (when the sun is shining). They never went below 12.5 volts.
(We have a 3000 watt inverter which changes the 12 v DC to 240 v AC with 90%
efficiency.) This has cut our fuel costs significantly. It is still around $7.50
a gallon here.
Wedding feast - Vanuatu
style
During the last week of July our neighbors had a wedding feast that went on
for 4 days and nights. The marrying couple have a year old baby. The week before,
on Morris' advise I had run barbed wire along the top of our fence with this
neighbor. Morris said if I didn't then people would be crossing into our property
using it as a toilet. The village has a some-what water system with pipes being
fed from a stream by the village. It usually is only a trickle and not everyone
has paid for a hook-in. Morris' neighbors cut into the pipe that supplies water
to his house and ran a line to a communal eating area next door. They basically
cut off any water to Morris' house. So the Saturday after the wedding was over
Tal and I repaired the cut pipe and re-buried it much to the displeasure of
the neighbor, but nothing was said to us because they knew they had done wrong.
They had to go back to carrying buckets of water from across the road at a friend's
house. Morris and Rebekka were not out in the village then but Tal lives there.
There were a few young men who decided the thing to do was stay drunk the whole time. They made a real donkey of themselves and at one point I called the police in town to report on-going fights from dusk to dawn to dusk. The police never showed up but the drunks finally ran out of alcohol and went back home, someplace, leaving their empty bottles all around. The music and noise was till late at night and we did not get much sleep. We put a log blocking people from parking their cars on the church property (there was plenty of space elsewhere) but that night someone took it and used it for firewood as it was chilly after dark. So then I put some cement blocks across the entrance and the next morning some of the young men from the wedding feast had broken them into little bitty pieces over night.
July 30th was also Vanuatu Independence day (33 years). The celebrations started on the 24th. On Sunday July 28th we had a low number in attendance so we didn't have fellowship meal like we usually have.
Morris had asked me to build a bookcase for the church building to be able to put the songbooks and Bibles up out of the plastic boxes they are stored in. So I did that one day.
We finally got the satellite dish aligned and are able to watch the Australian Network free-to-air. We get news, information shows and Australian Rules Football on the weekend. We can get EPSN but because it is pay-for-view we only get the audio. Nice to keep up with the world again. We still have to go to town for internet services, we cannot get the local radio in the village and mobile phone service is spotty.
Gardening
We have been putting work in on our garden. Did I tell you the lettuce seeds
we planted last December finally came up after we got back in May? I planted
seeds and transplanted seedlings several times this month. Our garden is doing
well (having to water due to little rain). We have radishes, beans, sunflowers,
cucumber, pumpkin, beets, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, egg plant,
Chinese cabbage and a lot of Asian lady bugs that love to eat all the leaves.
None of this is mature yet but everything should be ready to eat just as we
leave. I am clearing new garden ground every week as I have tomatoes, green
peppers and Chinese cabbage to transplant.
new ground being cleared
onions and island cabbage bushes
Cucumbers
We have pawpaw trees, coconut trees, pineapple plants and banana trees as well.
I finished building a screened-in porch.
I forgot how heavy new timber is. This will give us a shaded place to have people
come over and just talk. Right now they don't want to come into our house and
as it is there is really no place to just sit around inside the house.
I have started to build a roof shelter between the
containers to have a place to work on things out of the sun and rain.
(With money we are saving on fuel.)
The new shelter going up.
Tal helping - mixing cement for the posts
We have had to strengthen the fence with more fencing because dogs and chickens
still continue to get in under and through the wire messing up the garden. While
cleaning the garden August 3rd I found a hen sitting on 20 eggs. I had warned
her before and so I shooed her out of the property and took the eggs. I started
up an incubator I had brought back and set back to see what nature would wrought.
On August 20th Kathy and I became foster parents.
By the 21st we had 12 chicks who have survived. Today was their first day outside.
\
Tobey with foster chicks outside (brooder box and hand made feed
and water trays)
When we went to buy starter feed ($20 for 20#) for the chicks we found out that
the chicken farm here sells day old chicks every Friday and we can order just
layers or broilers for $2 each. This will save us from having to get them up
from Australia and we plan to do so after my surgery the end of the year and
when we come back. We are talked to them about getting quail and turkey eggs
up from their suppliers in Australia that we can hatch for the school.
CIBS COURSE - CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE
AND FAMILY
I started teaching my course on Christian Marriage and Family on Sundays and
have had some good discussions. We are not looking at Marriage as it relates
to Western or Island ways but what does God say about it. It has opened some
eyes. My newspaper column also carried my discussion on such.
There is still a need for a Christian counseling service to help with the increased
spousal abuse and non-understanding of the different roles in the family as
God sees it. This is something we plan to implement when we get the time.
FINALLY
We have been organizing our "stuff" so when we have to leave for a
few months next time things will be better protected and less vulnerable to
damage.
We have started the ball rolling for my required VA prostate surgery. We were told it might take 4-6 months. I have notified the VA in Fayetteville who will contact Houston for an appointment. We are not sure if I will have to have a full body scan or any other prep before going to Houston. They will notify Jason who will notify us and we will then make the necessary travel plans. In the meantime Kathy and I plan to fly to New Zealand and be there Sept 4-14 to visit with friends and celebrate with them our September birthdays - Kathy 64, Tobey 65. It is still cold there and we will be taking our long pants and long sleeve clothing.
It may seem to some that all we do is "live" here. But rest assured the amount of teaching and interaction with people is a 24 hour thing in our lives. They see how we deal with life and I am always interjecting Bible teaching. One thing we use to outreach is we buy 60# bags of flour in town and sell it to people in the village who make their own bread for consumption as well as for sale. We sell it for what we pay and the people know we do it to help them. There is a Chinese merchant who has a truck which travels up and down the road daily who sells the same flour for $27 per bag, we sell it for $21.50 and the people appreciate the gesture. We buy/sell about 10 bags a week.
I still try to fix TVs, generators, DVD players, amplifiers, grass cutters and most anything. I only ever charge them for parts if it can be fixed.
We call it just being lights and salt.
Our plans - Lord willing
- your help providing
With the plans we have (Lord willing) we ask for your continued consideration
of the needs we have in this work. We see this as the Lord showing us that He
is still with us and perhaps "piece meal" building the school at this
time is the best way (we have not won the lottery nor been included in anyone's
large estate). If we can get the land cleared, fruit trees and crops planted
and a caretaker house build before we have to come back for the prostate surgery
toward the end of the year then that will get us along the road to making the
school self-supporting. This would also give us funds to continue to build facilities
as we need them.
By doing the development "piece meal" we might also not need monthly operating funds for the school and perhaps by the time we need monthly support the gardens and fruit trees will be suppling funds back into the school.
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 what we have!
Grace & Peace
Tobey & Kathy
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Contributions for the Huffs, the Bible school and house can be sent to:
Huffs/Bible School
c/ Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Rd
Webb City MO 64870
or
Tobey & Kathy Huff
c/ 2730 E. 24th St
Joplin. MO 64804
Ph: 678 596-4821 (Vanuatu is + 17 hours)
Web Site: http://www.oceania-outreach.com/Index.html