Volume 7: No.1                                                                                JANUARY 1984

Dear Brethren;

Greetings in the name of the Lord!

SUMMER HOLIDAYS UNDERWAY
We are now having our summer holidays. School is out for two months, so you can't convince me it is Christmas time/New Year's. With daytime temperatures in the 80-90's my body refuses to connect with my brain and I feel short circuited. We did receive A Christmas card so I feel compelled to give intellectual assent to the season. It just seems strange to sing "dashing thru the snow ...”

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, AND STILL MORE RAIN, RAIN...
With the advent of summer we begin our raining season here in the Highlands region. The coastal area (Lae) begins their dry (not so much rain). The type of rain we are receiving is a continual type. We do experience periods of downpours resulting in up to an inch or two within a 10 minute period. But we do not expect the types of rain that the coastal regions receive. What has happened is the ground is completely saturated and the rain has nowhere to go. This has resulted in a quagmire outside the church building and around the swingsets. Some days we have as much as 2 hours of sunshine, other days well ... NONE. Makes for short tempers when everyone has to stay inside most of the day. The golf course is in such a soggy state that Kathy and I haven't even tried to play recently.

ALL SYSTEMS SHUT DOWN
One of the other things that takes place during the summer months here is a complete slowdown/shutdown of business here in PNG. This is a result of most of the whiteskin workers going on holiday out of country. Also we have an additional holiday after Christmas Day called Boxing Day. This year all shops where closed from Dec.24-28th. And then, several are closed until after the New Year for stocktake. This includes the Hospital, Dental clinic and Veterinarian. I know: I wanted to build something, can't get wood from the lumber yard; I broke a tooth (crown) in half, no dentist; one of our dogs began internal bleeding, no vet. With the dog we gave her Vitamin K injections (which we had gotten from the maternity ward at the hospital, as the Pharmacy was closed) trying to stop her bleeding,. but she died New Year's Day anyway. If I haven't learned anything else it is: Don't die on a Holiday here because you wouldn't get taken care of (it's not a good idea to get sick here anytime).

MISSION-1000: COURSE DATES
In our last report I (my wife takes no blame) listed the course dates incorrectly. The Mission1000 courses are scheduled to run:
MARCH 5 - MAY 25,1984
SEPT. 10 - NOV. 30, 1984
If any congregations would be interested in Joe Cannon coming and speaking to your congregation either on Mission-1000 or regarding mission work in general (Papua New Guinea in specific) then contact him thru: JOE CANNON 443 S. HIGHLAND MEMPHIS, TN. 38111

PRINTDATE 1983
During December with building on the school and all I only printed 43,800 pieces of literature. This included a 75 page book and an 8 page booklet. The total for the period July - Dec. 1983 was: 281,340 pieces. Not bad for being short of paper stock.

Our shortage of paper for printing has been alleviated with the arrival of four pallets of paper from Australia. This represents 1080 reams (540,000 sheets) of paper. The reprinting of the Topical Index will take over 550 reams.

NEW EQUIPMENT PURCHASED
Let's say it this way, "used equipment which is new for us". We have been able to purchase a plain paper copier which the local Pre-school used on loan while they were waiting for their new machine. We were able to buy a $3500 machine for just over $925. We are using it for the short run (under 50) copies so that we don't have to run-up the press. We had a motor burn up on the main printing press and performed a motor transplant from the standby press. Patient running fine.

THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN'S SOULS
After bringing the Xerox MemoryWriter back to help with the printing and having continual troubles I had just about had it. I installed a disc drive unit in the machine earlier and that fixed one problem but created others. I could only use the machine for a short period of time before it would take itself off the line with a malfunction. I sent hot letters off to Kansas City and to Singapore for assistance. Finally got a reply from Kansas City telling me who to contact in Singapore (their FarEast representatives). I called Singapore and got assistance in changing the voltage of the- machine from 110V to 240V. Now I don't have to run it off a transformer. But the machine was still malfunctioning. After much hair pulling (of which I have precious few left) I figured the problem out. It was a design flaw which didn't allow the disc drive unit to operate properly. THE MEMORYWRITER NOW WORKS.

I also completed construction of my Heathkit computer and after working out the bugs- IT WORKS TOO !!!

EVERYTHING WHATSOEVER
Time told: (review last report) the tree kangaroo was a boy. So it is called "Bell. We were able to buy another tree kangaroo from Janet Cope in Lae. It is a girl !

We now also have a pair of Bird of Paradise and another fruit parrot. We had a small green striped lorrikeet but it died. I built a 12 x 3 cage so that the birds would have flying space. We acquired a small cassowary (Emu) which is about half grown. It has one powerful kick. The new birds and cassowary came from Joe Cannon. He gave them to us upon his departure this month.

Terasa is having to do two lessons per day of her correspondence course so that she will be able to start grade 7 here at the High School in March.

The electricity board recently announced a 11% decrease in charges next year, that doesn't surprise us, they have been cutting the power off almost daily for an hour or so. That does wonder to one's computer operation.

Due to recent budget cuts to the national radio network the director announced that reporters would no longer work after 4:30, on weekends or on holidays. Sure hope the world doesn't end during those times as we wouldn't find out about it until later.

Rebecca Mesa (Jab's wife) finally had the surgery she needed. She had been experiencing abdominal pain for some time but the doctors here had told her they could find nothing wrong. One even told her it was in her head because she was a she. Kathy and I both told her it sounded like appendicitis. Kathy finally convinced a doctor here and he went ahead with surgery. Guess what he found: a bad appendix, ready to go BLOOOM!  It had inflamed everything around the area also. She is in much better health now. (l told you about the doctors.) Kathy and I are thinking about opening up a small clinic next to the bird cage.

We killed and ate our first crop of chickens this month. Most of the broilers dressed out over 7 lbs each. Who needs turkey?

Until next month keep the card and letter coming.

Your servants in the cross;

the Huffs