August - October 1990

Dear Brethren & Fellow-workers;

Isn't it great being involved with the greatest work in 4 out of this world, the sharing of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
It seems that somewhere along the line the "August - September Newsletter" never got where it was suppose to go - to you! So with another month gone I will try to bring you up to date with the happenings of the Huff household during that time. As most of you will suspect we hardly do anything. But hang on here we gooooo

MUNDANE DAILY HAPPENINGS
Another year another birthday (better than the alternative). In September Kathy turned 41 years young and me 42 years old. I had a party down at the printshop with a BBQ over the lunch hour. advertising it on the radio for everyone to help celebrate with me. My age has been acting up in my left knee. I recently hit it a whack on one of the printing presses and this activated an old injury I had from Vietnam. After many x-rays and numerous doctors it has been diagnosed that I have 'degenerating cartilage' in my knee. Which means the next step is the removal of the knee cap when it begins to hinder my life-style and the pain becomes unbearable. September was also the month we found out our US medical insurance was to increase to over $300 per month. We have had to drop that policy and have since taken out a policy here in New Zealand and Terasa has her own insurance now.

WORLD BIBLE SCHOOL & COMPUTERS
As always the WBS courses continue to return from Papua New Guinea (on the rate of 80-150 per week). We had run out of the yellow books, "The Church" and thus had a wee backlog for that course. The backlog we had for the new Blue Book, "Foundation For Faith" has been cleared with over 250 now on that course. In August/September we were unable to answer the courses due to a computer breakdown. We use a Laser 128 computer and no one here could repair it and after I found the fault no one could supply the needed replacements chips. So my brother Greg shipped me his old Apple 2c which allowed us to get back on line. The Laser 128 was shipped back to Joplin for repair ($105). Without the computer grading and answering it is too long and arduous. I would love to acquire (I didn't say buy) a laptop computer that I could use while traveling.

The World Bible School Program in Papua New Guinea is following up over 150 students who have completed at least one course. We send the certificate to the missionaries/ churches in their area and then the students have .o contact the workers. Many good contacts have been established due to this approach and over 25 baptisms have resulted.

The WBS Program in Fiji has taken over the work we used to do through the congregation here. It was decided that we would expand into another viable area with the WBS. We chose Vanuatu because we already had a few contacts there and it has close ties with Fiji (economic) and Papua New Guinea (language and cultural). It wasn't two days after this decision that we received a letter from Vanuatu requesting enrollment in the WBS. (Was God spurring us on or what?) It was also at this time we received word from our sponsoring congregation that they were having a special missions contribution in October and had earmarked some funds for us and wanted to know if there was a special need for these funds. Well howdy!

Jab Mesa had become good friends with a Christian man, Paul Vuhu from Vanuatu when Paul was attending Goroka Teacher's College in PNG. Paul is back in Vanuatu, married and with a baby boy. He is teaching in a local high school.

WBS: VANUATU & FIJI TRIP
The South Pacific Bible College had an off week in October and Kathy was not working so we planned a trip for that time. God was still directing us in this direction. When we booked the tickets all direct flights from NZ were full and we HAD to travel through Fiji going and coming back. It just happens that we needed to get some tracts, WBS books and Bibles to the WBS Program in Fiji at this time. I also needed to talk with Ledua, our WBS worker, about a possible WBS follow-up seminar for mid 1991. Just lucky we had to fly via Fiji going and overnight in Fiji coming back.

OCT- 20th: I worked late at the printshop finishing up jobs and tidying up work to be gone for a week.

OCT- 21st: 0500 drove to Auckland to catch flight to Vanuatu via Fiji. Loaded down with four bags of WBS material, tracts and Bibles for Fiji.

1100- Arrived Nadi Fiji, met by Ledua and two brothers. We off loaded the bags of WBS material. (Our luggage was suppose to have been checked thru to Vanuatu but they were on the carousel in Fiji. I re-directed them back to the Vanuatu flight.) Talked with Ledua about WBS and follow-up school before boarding 1530 flight on to Port Vila, Vanuatu.

1800- Arrived Port Vila, Vanuatu. We are met by Daniel Kalulu and Paul Vuhu. Daniel has been on WBS and Paul is Jab Mesa's friend. We are speaking Pidgin English. Their Pidgin is called "Bislama" which has more English mixed in.

By the time I had changed some currency into Vatu (Vanuatu dollar equivalent - 100 Vatu = $1.00/US) Kathy and the bags were loaded into a taxi ready to go to the Hotel. The taxi was driven by a man named AMOS WAKI, who we will discuss later but first the accommodation factor.

In booking our trip to Vanuatu the government requires accommodation for those coming on a tourist visa. We had booked our rooms through our travel agent. Due to heavy booking our first night had to be at one hotel and all the other nights at another hotel. Transfers and lodging taken care of - WRONG! The hotel for the first night had no listing of us. No problem! Took the taxi to the other hotel and they found us room in the inn. (At least something worked out.)

Now back to Amos. He is a leader of a group called "Vanuatu Christian Fellowship." They were formed after several events over the past recent years. Amos was a 'pastor' of a denomination called the "Associated church of Christ". This group, though immersing for the remission of sins, believes in pentecostal Holy Spirit and a woman's active role in public worship.

In the early 1980's while living in Santo (a major island north of Port Vila the capital) the associated church of Christ became politically aligned with a man called Jimmy Stevens who advocated separation of political ties with the new nation of Vanuatu. The association held a conference and demanded allegiance of all their preachers/pastors. Amos resigned as a pastor and began meeting with other people who sought to restore the Bible as a rule of faith and practice in their spiritual life. fie said for some time he had been very uncomfortable with Holy Spirit pentecostalism because he could find no scriptural basis for such a practice. Jimmy Stevens was jailed for his part in the uprising.

Amos asked if I would preach for their group on the morrow- being Sunday. The Vanuatu Christian Fellowship has about 10 groups meeting throughout the islands. The group in Port Vila has cleared some bush ground just outside town. They meet in a pole shed with a tin roof, wooden logs as chairs and crushed seashell as the floor. They are currently building a more permanent building. We were 37 in attendance, 8 being small children. It was different: Amos spoke first followed by the Lord's Supper (being orange drink and brown bread), three young girls sang a Chorus they had written, I spoke, a woman led closing prayer.

After services Amos took us back to the hotel. I asked him why they used orange drink and brown bread for communion. He said, "no real reason just convenient." I asked why a woman led last prayer, no reason. We had a discussion on communion elements and woman's role in public worship. He agreed these needed to be corrected in light of scriptural evidence. I feel that he is very sincere in his approach to the Bible, just needs some serious studying.

During the week we received calls from several other WBS students who we had written letters to. We had dinner with Paul and Miriam at their house.

A good bus/taxi service is in place and we were able to travel around to and fro to town. We went to the newspaper office to place an ad in the weekly paper for WBS students. The girl who took our money wanted to enroll. We talked with the immigration officer on requirements for permanent visas to Vanuatu. He had been a student of WBS several years ago. He wanted to sign his children up for WBS. I also talked with several resorts about doing their printing from New Zealand which would give me a reason to visit more often.
Friday night the group had a fellowship meal in the shed to bid us good-bye. We provided two cooked chickens we bought from a store. We had taken 50 introductory WBS lessons with us. They were given out during the week and many were finished, hand delivered back to us and were brought back to NZ for grading. VERY good prospects!

OCT 27 - The weather was beautiful all week, today rain. Thank you Lord! Amos took us to the airport in the afternoon for a flight to Fiji where we had to overnight. Paul and Miriam were there to see us off.

1800- Arrived in Fiji, met by Ledua, Sera and their baby Charlie. We drove to Lautoka. Ledua and Sera are living in the back classroom of the church building. The landlord of the house they were to have moved into on the 26th forbade them to have anyone visit in the house. They are looking for a house so we stayed in a nearby hotel. We stayed up for a couple of hours catching up on all the mutual news before we crashed on the bed.

OCT 28- Worship with the Lautoka brethren. I taught class and preached the lesson. We stayed for lunch with some of the brethren. Ledua and I had more discussions for the National Bible School planned for July/August 1991.

1530- Departed Fiji for New Zealand. Arrived Auckland 2000. Met by Pat Martin who took us back to the house where we picked up our car, drove through McDonald's Drive Thru for quick meal (10 minutes to get), on back to Tauranga.

Unloaded baggage in the house crashed in bed. Try to get some sleep before getting back to work at 0700 Monday morning. (Forget those travel posters talking about a get-away holiday in the South Pacific.)

MESAS TO VANUATU FOR WBS FOLLOW-UP
In May I reported that the Mesas had moved out of the Goroka work and down to Lae due to a major break-in at their house in Goroka. They received support until August 1st but as of that time they have had no regular monetary support. They have been living with Jab's family. Jab in the meantime is doing WBS follow-up around Lae and in other parts of the country. Living with his parents has been a strain on Jab's family so Becky and Tobey have gone back to Bali Island until a better solution can be found. We believe this solution had been provided in an opportunity from Vanuatu.

With the current situation developing in Vanuatu a position now exists for strong Bible grounded teachers who can be available to ground sincere God seeking believers to establish New Testament based congregations. The government will allow us to send workers in on tourist visas for a 4 month term.

Many things point to Jab and Becky Mesa being the right people for this right time.
(1) Vanuatu is very similar in language, culture and climate to PNG.
(2) Vanuatu is very receptive to PNG citizens working there.
(3) Primary education is free even for tourist children.
(4) The islands are reasonably inexpensive to live in.
(5) The Mesas have the background and desire to ground new converts in the truth and establish congregations after the New Testament pattern
(6) The Mesas are without support at the present time and deserve our monetary support as well as prayerful support.

After prayerful thought we contacted Jab and proposed the following plan to him and Becky.
(1) They would move with their family to Port Vila, Vanuatu the first part of January 1991.
(2) They would work with the WBS follow-up program with the primary design of baptizing and grounding believers and establishing congregations after the New Testament pattern.
(3) They would work with the Christians presently there by grounding them in the truth.
(4) During the 4 months they are there Jab 6 Becky are to evaluate the prospects of secular jobs as to whether they could stay in Vanuatu and provide their own support after the initial 4 months.
(5) The South Pacific Focus Program under the Otumoetai congregation here would act as their overseers in regard to their support and maintenance while in Vanuatu.

Many of you have expressed an interest in helping the Mesas after their incident in Goroka and we believe that this is a God given opportunity to do so. We are seeking the following funds to support the Mesas for the 4 month period.
1. Monthly Support - $600 x 4 months = $2400
2. Travel Funds - $3600 (Round trip 2 adults, 2 children)         $6000 (US$ Total)

At the present time we have $250 per month committed for their monthly support. We ask that you give this unique opportunity your prayerful consideration. Let it not be said that we have closed doors that the Lord has opened. Your funds can be sent through our account earmarked "Mesa Fund".

Thank You so very much for your prayers and your financial support. We are still seeking work fund support to print tracts and World Bible School material.

In Christ,

the Huffs