Jan 11, 1976

 

Dear Brethren.

 

Greetings in the name of Jesus from the church in Papua New Guinea.

 

Brethren, we could want nothing greater for you then that which Paul desired for the Ephesians when he said: "the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened in order that you my know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparable great power to us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead...."(Eph.1:18-20a). Brethren, how exilerating it is to think that Christ's victory was our victory, that God has raised us up to sit together with Christ in heavenly places. As we then contemplate our position in Christ we are filled with Jay.

 

Among the many things for which we have to be thankful and the greatest is the faithfulness of you brethren who are having fellowship with us to this work. Fellowship is a real work with a real meaning. It means simply, joint participation, which means that we are all sharing in this work. It is God's work and to Him be all the glory and praise, but you and my family and I are sharing in this work of sharing the Gospel to the world. I hope this means as much to you as It does to us to know that you are engaged in God's work in Goroka and the Sina-Sina area in Papua New Guinea.

  Port Moresby brethren

Dec. 22-29 our family spent the holidays with the Gary Hyer family in Port Moresby. The work there is progressing extremely well even though they work alone in that town of 90,000. We were able to see some areas of their work in which our work needs to be improved here in the highlands. We really enjoyed our week together. The Lord's church is truly blessed with such workers as the Hyers.

 

No one likes to tell of short comings in that work but I'll tell anyway.

 

The congregation at Dumun has almost completely fallen apart. This congregation was started with a flash and a bang in May during our campaign there, Kilil was one of the first baptized, He is the clan chief in the area and immediately following his baptism several of his line wanted to be baptized. We talked with them and feeling they were sincere they were united with Jesus. Last mouth Kilil left for 6 weeks in Australia for a look-see. The first Sunday he was gone no one showed for worship. The following weeks has seen only four attending of the 28 Christians there. We have here the dying of children. First on their part they didn't fully understand the commitment they made to Christ. Second on our part they haven't been feed enough spiritual food to keep then healthy. This year my family and I have to move closer to our brethren In this area so we can teach then more than just on the weekends as we are now doing. We don't know how or where the necessary money will be forth coming to help us build a bush house and move but we truly believe the Lord would have us do this as His children are dying of spiritual malnutrition. The majority of these village people cannot read and write and thus rely on others to teach them orally.

 

Please, Please pray for this need and see if you can help in some way.

 

The other two congregations in the area are at present carrying on fine but they too are susceptible to spiritual malnutrition. Our plans include week long schools at each village for sometime in Feb. and Mar. We plan on setting up house in each village during our week there and teaching morning and evening class.

  Yuana Village Workshop

During Jan.5-9 Andy Scott, John Wallace and myself hold another village workshop for our village leaders. We brought in the leaders from all our congregations and spent a week schooling them in such subjects as, worship, church government, My responsibility to myself, to others, to God etc, We had 35 attending and one boy from Dumun was baptized during the week. The workshop was hold at Yuana outside of Goraka. The road was quite treacherous due to no rock base and the rain on clay. Andy and I both almost lost our cars off the mountains save for the hand of God. But the Lord still looks out for us and we were able to continue on (with our adrenaline pumping).

 

The Lord truly blesses faith. Last week there was a long wheel base land rover for sale here In Goroka. We looked it over but had to tell him we couldn't buy until we found out from the brethren if they could help. It was ideal for our needs. The car is a used one several years old. This type of rover has been selling for $3500 used and $8000 now. He made a deal with us for our little car plus cash. Our only problem now in to pay back the bank what we owe them. We borrowed the balance of the cash we didn't have from the bank on a 30 day note and they are allowing us to overdraft the $300 we needed to do immediate repairs on the vehicle. We definitely got the better bargain as we could not do the work without a four wheel drive vehicle. One of the most frustrating things here is the cost of spare parts for cars: used generator-$95, new regulator-$40, used front axle shafts-$45 ea. etc. Our only problem now is to pay the bank back the loan and the overdraft. The amount needed is $1700 U.S..

 

As of Jan. 1st our electric rates jumped 30%. This had been announced last month but it didn't sink in until we received our latest bill.

 

Andy Scott's fiancee is here and they are to be married the 24th of Jan. in Lae. We are all going to be there to see it, Andy's folks came in from Anderson South Carolina to be here for the wedding. He preaches there in Anderson.

 

Please if you can help toward our car fund send your contribution marked "car fund" or if you want to help our house then mark it "house fund",

 

Yours in the Master's service

 

Tobey Huff family
Box 878
Goroka
Papua New Guinea