"Church Planting, Leadership Training and Bible Training in Oceania"
Dear Brethren, Friends and Family
Bula Vinaka! (greetings in Fijian)
If you are not sitting down do so now, hang on and read...........
After much email traffic with the Fiji powers in immigration in Washington DC and Fiji it was decided that I needed to take a trip to Fiji and see if I could personally get things rolling if we were ever going to get the ball rolling for the Bible School in Fiji. Kathy was needing surgery but it looked like that would wait until I got back. We figured three weeks. I also thought that since I was going to be over there already it would be prudent to go to Vanuatu and check there for the school if the Fiji authorities would not let it work in Fiji The snagging point with Fiji was the registration of the school so that it could act as our sponsor for our visas.
So I booked my flight out of Joplin MO to Dallas to LAX to Fiji for Monday, 15 January, not knowing that we were going to be hit with another ice and snow storm on the 12th that locked up the region with schools closing early and all churches cancelling services the 14th. Jason, Mel and the kids spent Saturday night with us because their part of town was without electricity. Sunday night ice brought a power line down in our neighborhood and we were blessed with an electrical light show until the next morning because the electric company was not told by 911 of the line down even though I notified them when it went down. Thankfully it did not affect our electric supply. I broke off a front tooth on my denture the night before I left which was not repairable before I left so was snaggletooth the whole trip. T'was fun!
Monday morning we arrived at the airport to find that our plane was still sitting on the ground in Joplin and had to make a trip to Kansas City and back before we went to Dallas, which it did and we were only 2+ hours late for departure. Then I had the privilege of personally being involved with Homeland Security in action. Of the less than 15 passengers traveling to Dallas 5 of us were chosen for complete checks. Two were women over 80 years old. All bags were opened and searched thoroughly, then a hand pat down. All while one of the agents kept bemoaning the fact that he was attached to an area where "he wasn't happy about being, especially having to learn to drive on ice and snow." He was from California. I was so glad they frisked the two women because they definitely profiled out as terrorist, NOT!
On to Dallas, another hour delay due to ice and snow delays on other flights. Dallas was wet but not icy when we landed. Boarded the plane but it was delayed about an hour more while we were on board because of several gauge faults. We finally took off!
Arrived in LA with about 2 hours until my flight to Fiji. I had to re-check my bags because the Joplin people didn't know how to tag thru to Fiji so they only tagged them to LA. (And they wonder why I will not fly out of Joplin when we finally leave for Fiji.) I also found out as I tried to clear the first security check that the boarding pass given to me in Joplin was not correct and I had to go shuffle over to the Quantas counter and get it changed. I was finally in the boarding area with over 450 other passengers, mostly Australian, New Zealand tourists heading home to school.
I had a seat in the upper section which would have been 1st class but had been changed over to smaller regular seats. I had a window seat but we were crammed in like sardines. My silent prayer must have been heard as right before takeoff the stewardess asked the couple sitting in my row if they wanted to move downstairs as he was tall and long legged. She left a piece of paper on the aisle seat and said someone else would be moving there after we took off. After we took off I waited and nobody came so I put up the arm rests and stretched out the whole flight for a long nap. I only woke a couple of times to shift positions. Thank you Lord!!!!
We landed in Nadi Fiji at 5:15am their time 17 January. Happy Anniversary without the love of my life present. Kathy and my 38th Wedding Anniversary. I told you earlier that we thought she would have her surgery after I got back, wrong she had it on the 16th. I missed the 16th all together crossing the international date line. She was recuperating on our anniversary.
I cleared immigration with no problem. I waited and I waited and I waited for the two bags I had checked in LA which never came. Finally I, with about 20 other people who were also missing some of their bags, filled out the forms and were told the authorities would call us when the bags came in. My situation was that I was headed to Vanuatu on Thursday and another LA flight was not due in until Saturday. It was good that it was warm here, 85-95 degrees and 80-100% humidity. However I didn't think it wise to run around naked just coming from winter. So I rented a car and drove to Lautoka where Josua and Anna were expecting me. I caught up on things Weds and Thursday with Josua and Anna before my flight to Vanuatu. I went to town and bought a few clothes to tide me over if I never saw my bags again.
Kathy and I had decided that I needed to check out the possibility of using Vanuatu as our School platform in case Fiji did not allow us visas to live there. Air Pacific was having special fares on travel between Fiji and other islands for local people so I decided it might be wise for me to have Josua go with me to Vanuatu as he had never met the brethren there. So Thursday night Josua and I headed to the airport early (or so I thought) where we found out they had received my bags from a flight from Australia (say, can bags get frequent miles awards?) just that evening, so I picked up my bags scooted thru customs and checked into our flight to Port Vila. We went thru immigration formalities and into the departure lounge just in time to hear our flight announced. My watch had been an hour early the whole two days and we almost were late for this flight.
We landed on time in Vanuatu at 10 pm the 18 of January. We saw Steven and Rose-Anna, Goman and his family up on the observation deck. We cleared immigration and picked up our bags only to picked out by customs for a complete bag check. I was carrying a number of items which I was bringing from Goman and his electronics school. I was $40.00 over the allowed allocation so we got to go into the office and pay $20.00 duty. All the time we were talking with the customs people I was doing so in Bislama. Then it clicked with the head customs lady that we had met before when we lived there. We got to talking and talking about the Bible and why we were there. She was apologetic but she had already started the duty charge on the computer so I told her no problem I would go ahead and pay. She was from the same village as Shem, one of the Christians and knew Steven Felix and his father Morris. Steven is a magistrate in Port Vila and highly respected because he does not put up with any guff from anyone in his court room. Steven is one of the leaders of the Port Vila church. All the time this was going on Josua was waiting on the table where the bags were open. After they found out who we were they apologized and explained that some so-called church workers had been bringing in trade goods and selling while there, which was illegal. One of the customs people asked Josua if I was the one who used to write the weekly column in the local newspaper. They then asked me if I was coming back to live again. I told them you never know. We then went out to be embraced by the brethren. It felt like I was home.
On the weekend Josua and I went out to Eton village and stayed. They asked me to teach class and Josua preached. Steven and his family also came out for the weekend and other Pt Vila Christians came out for Sunday services and lunch afterwards. Monday Josua and I went back to Pt Vila where we stayed with Steven until we left Tuesday afternoon. Steven was involved with a deportation case of an Australian who had come into Vanuatu illegally. The group of American missionaries who have been in Pt Vila almost two years have been building a building in Pt Vila but the church has become divided over the use of the facilities. The building is not complete and does not have running water or toilet facilities, no doors or windows but some want to use the building while some have said they will not.
Goman Mesa, brother of Jab Mesa, decided to join us back to Fiji for a few days to enjoy the hospitality of the Fiji brethren. He lives with his family in Pt Vila and owns and teaches an electronics school. One of the dreams is to have some vocational classes with the Bible school, he hopefully will be available for that. He was with us in Fiji for two days and now appreciates the cooler Vanuatu weather. Vanuatu's is in the 70's, Fiji's is in the 80's. After putting Goman on his flight back to Vanuatu, the next day Josua and I headed to Suva (141 miles) to talk with Immigration as to what paperwork we needed to lodge for us to get a long term visa. On the way as we topped a long hill and started down the other side a policeman stepped out from some bushes and zapped us with his radar unit. He said we were doing 96kmh in an 80kmh zone. Merry New Year - Fj$80 (US$50) fine. Since the Military coup they have been short of government money and this is one way to make sure they get paid. Local people call them the "bad men".
We arrived in Suva to be told that the man I needed to speak with about our long term permit was in a meeting all day long. The new office hours were also only until 12:30 daily. I waited, waited, waited, they locked the doors so nobody else could come in, I waited until 1:00 when I finally spoke to someone who explained what was required. The only thing missing was a letter from a local sponsor and $465. This meant that we did not have to register the school and could have local men sponsor us. So Josua and I visited some of the brothers in Suva before we headed back to Lautoka. That night we wrote the sponsor letter and on Saturday morning, after I paid my traffic fine, got it printed off so we could get it signed by some of the brothers so we can put everything together and into the Immigration Department's hands Monday morning. I was told that if everything checked out we should have approval for Long Term Permits in less than a month at which time we will have to lodge a deposit bond Fj$4,000 (US$2,500) with the government and they will then issue visas for three years to allow to us come and start working toward the establishment of the Bible School. I am encouraged!
I met with the brethren for services on Sunday at a house of a brother just outside of Nadi. We drove out about 9:15. We met in a shelter attached to one of the brothers home. Cement floor with woven mats, open sides, metal roof. About 90 degrees with a hot breeze, but at least it was a breeze. Services didn't get started until 10:30 but we sat around from 9am singing. I was asked to speak but everything else was in Fijian. We ate lunch together and then sat around talking. Since most of the talk was in Fijian I just laid back on the mats and napped. We headed back to town about 2:30pm.
Monday morning bright and early Josua and I headed back to Suva and stopped to get Bro Emosi and Bro Jeri to sign the sponsor letter for immigration. Before I could go to immigration I had to get the application fee and that meant a bank draft because cash is not accepted. So I went to the ANZ bank where over the next 45 minutes I - took a number - waited, waited - had my number called - gave the clerk the information for the draft - had to show my passport - they wanted proof that I was in the country - took off my hat to show them it was me - had to prove the draft was for the immigration department - showed them the letter - they photocopied my letter and passport - gave me a paper to take back downstairs to the teller - gave the teller the paper plus the $350 fee - they gave me a receipt - I took the receipt back upstairs to the clerk - he had another customer so I waited a bit - he then gave me the bank draft. I joined up with Josua at the front door of the bank where he was reading the daily paper awaiting my return.
After I got the draft we went to Immigration and after about a 20 minute wait we were able to meet the immigration man we had been communicating with by email, Jone Ledua. At first he did not remember the emails we had sent back and forth. I had Josua come and talk with him. Finally he remembered. He started by saying we needed the school to be registered but then I showed him an email (which he should have received) from the education minister a Mr Filipe Jitoko that stated "the Min of Ed does not register schools that offer purely religious instruction". At which point he agreed and said the only thing needed changing was the letter from the group of local sponsors HAD to be on letterhead.
We did not see the point (The letter and now the letterhead gives the names of all four signatures and their phone numbers in case they need to be contacted for confirmation of their letter of application.) but said fine and left the immigration office. I was scheduled to leave Fiji on Feb 3rd but since I was finished with what I could do I checked with Quantas and changed my tickets to travel back on Tuesday night, 30 January, instead. After changing the ticket Josua and I dropped into McDonalds there in Suva for him to re-fuel and we bumped into Julia Wright. Alan and Julia are long term missionaries in Fiji and just happened to be there for the week checking up on the work. They currently live in Birmingham Alabama. Julia was waiting for Alan to come to the internet cafe close to McDonalds so they could email conference with their children back home. After about 30 minutes I had Josua call a local Brother, Bimlesh who works with Alan to see where Alan was. He was another internet cafe so we went there and talked with them for a while before we drove back to Lautoka.
Tuesday morning the letter was re-done on letterhead and the packet of information, application and cheque was sent FastMail to Mr Ledua in Suva. This sentence was quick to type but the reality was much different. See I had my Apple laptop with me and all the internet cafes and secretarial kiosks in Lautoka use Microsoft powered PC's. So I had to create a letterhead with graphics which could be downloaded on a jump drive and then downloaded to their computer for printing. So I created an eps of the letterhead mast which I dropped into a microsoft word file which then had the letter from the local men to immigration. That then had to be printed on a printer in the kiosk which had different paper parameters then the file did. The final letter was reduced when it was printed by 25% so it did not fill the page. It was the best we could do so we sealed it all and mailed it to Suva.
I then went to an internet cafe and caught up on my emails and sent an email to the First Secretary of the Fiji Embassy in Washington to bring him up to date on my progress. I spent the rest of the afternoon picking up presents for home and getting pictures of available housing around town to show Kathy.
My flight departed Nadi Fiji at 10:50pm, January 30th and after 2 plane changes landed in Tulsa at 10:30pm, January 30th. That's right I landed 20 minutes before I took off! Kathy and I were re-united. She is recovering well from her surgery. The day after I got back we received 4 inches of snow through-out the day and church services were canceled for the evening due to conditions. How rude!!!!!!! Post script: Our yard catches all the run off from the hill behind our house and the current melting is running under the ice on the ground creating a running creek under the ice which freezes at night and we now have over 2 inches of ice from the back porch out.
NOW WHAT! We are very encouraged by what we were able to accomplish and ask for your prayers that God will continue to work to provide the necessary visas for Fiji. The military coup is still in place but everyday life is not affected much especially outside the government circles. The Fiji dollar is losing value but that is good for us in the short term as we will receive more Fiji dollars for every US dollar.
We were told by Fiji immigration in Suva that we should hear within a month if the visas are approved, at which time immigration will contact Josua and let me know so we can send the necessary funds for the required bond ($2500). After the bond had been posted they will issue the visas and we will only have to have a one way ticket to Fiji as the bond acts as our return ticket. So we could be travelling to Fiji to live as soon as April 1st. For this to be a reality we are asking for your help in providing the necessary funding for this. At present we have assured income of just over $1,100 and our budget calls for $3,600 per month + $800 work fund. We are still in need of one time help of $12,000 for the bond, shipping the container and setup fee when we arrive in Fiji. We have no commitments at this time for the school monthly or one time so we very much need to begin gathering this up so we can start looking for land to lease this year in Fiji for the future school.
What we need are 66 people or churches to purpose $50 per month for our personal support. We are also still in need of $12,000 which includes our tickets, our bond to the Fiji government, shipping the container and setup fees once we arrive in Fiji.
We need 72 people or churches to purpose $50 per month for the monthly support of "The Christian Institute of Biblical Studies - Fiji" and at least $60,000 to set up the land lease and get things started.
Please give this consideration and help financially if you can, get us in contact with churches we can come talk to about help and most of all please pray for these needs: our visa approval, personal support and school support.
Thank you for hanging on!
In Christ and because of His sacrifice
Tobey & Kathy Huff
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Send your funds and pledges to:
OCEANIA OUTREACH FUND
Tobey & Kathy Huff c/o Mt Hope church of Christ 2830 Mt Hope Road Webb City MO 64870or
Tobey & Kathy Huff 4835 S. Jackson Joplin MO 64803