February 17, 2008
Dear Brethren, Friends and family!
Greetings and grace from Fiji.
Bula Vinaka!
WEATHER DOWN-UNDER
We have continued to have heavy rains in Lautoka with over 22
inches of rain since our last report. This means that there is an overwhelming
odor of rotting vegetation in the air and a layer of mildew and mould on anything
that is just sitting around. This included and is not limited to all leather
products such as shoes, wooden items, backpacks, hats, furniture. You name it
the mildew and mould was on most everything because the humidity never got below
90%. However the last couple of weeks we have seen drier weather with thunderstorms
in the afternoon only. We even had a few days without any rain with lower humidity
but higher temperatures. When it was raining the temperatures even got down
into the high 70’s.
SUVA TRIP
I drove Kathy and Anna to the Ladies’ Saturday workshop
in Suva the last weekend in January. Friday afternoon we were able to go shopping
at Cost-U-Less and bought stuff we can’t get in Lautoka. (Coffee mate,
Pretzels, Frosted Mini Wheat cereal (giant bag), Chex cereal, grape jelly).
We also went to a real live book shop. While the Ladies were at the meetings
I shopped around town. On Sunday we stayed and worshiped with the house church
which Bemlish works with in Suva then drove home in the afternoon.
CYCLONE GENE
Then on Monday January 28th we had our third cyclone of the season.
It was called Gene. It developed very quickly on the Northern Island of Vanua
Levu. It then made a bee line straight Southwest across our island and right
through our area. We had driving winds and heavy downpours for 5 days. We were
without power several times including one day for 6 hours and another days for
8 hours. Basically all we could do was hunker down in the house and mop up puddles
of water where the rain was being blown in the louver windows. Thankfully it
was only a category 1 storm when it came through. It also kept us from going
to Friday night singing/Devotional as well as Sunday services. The associated
system following the cyclone lingered in the area for another week of rain and
diminishing winds. After the cyclone left out shores it brushed the Southern
island of Tanna in Vanuatu. There was a lot of damage to roads and bridges and
a lot of the vegetable gardens and sugar cane was flooded and or flattened.
A number of the less better built houses were destroyed as well.
Brother Bola from Sabeto called Josua to tell him to tell me that I needed to
come look at the container as they had sustained flooding in the Sabeto area.
A river had overflowed down from their house and the water was running 2 feet
high through their property and around the container. I did go out once the
roads were re-opened and found that the door seals had done their work and there
was no water in the container. Bola had a wrong phone number for me in his cell
phone thus he could not call and talk with me.
THIEVES IN THE NIGHT
It was during the night when it was still raining the week following
the cyclone that thieves cut through the chain link fence were we live. The
landlord’s dog had a fit of barking about 2 in the morning and since he
is known for barking with other dogs and when he sees the neighbor’s cat
Kathy and I just told him to shut up and the landlord told him the same thing.
The water system here in Lautoka is not very good. In fact it is downright lousy.
Many times we don’t have water coming through the pipes from the street
so the landlord has a water tank that he keeps filled up and a water pump, like
a well pump, which supplies pressured water as required. That morning when I
got up and turned on the water to fill up the coffee maker I found that there
was no water coming so I went out to see if the pump was working. The pump had
been worked on the previous weekend because the bearing were going out on the
motor. The landlord was down on his veranda and informed me that thieves had
made off with the water pump in the early morning hours, $1800 to replace. It
had been bolted to the floor and the thieves had shut the water off at the tank
and then unbolted the pump and the water lines and made out through the hole
in the fence to an awaiting van on the road (so the police found out later).
I checked to see if everything was in place up on our veranda and found that
the thieves had indeed been upstairs also and they had taken a Black & Decker
110 volt hand sander and a pair of flip flops. I would love to see their face
when they plug the sander in and try it. We have 240 volts power supply here!
I had to use a stepdown transformer when I used the sander. The landlord is
more trusting of his dog barking now and we are putting motion sensors on all
the verandas. Thievery is on the rise here due to high unemployment and high
prices, drinking and drugs. We have heavy grates on all the windows and doors
so whatever is left outside is the only things they can take.
Kathy caught a chest cough due to the cooler and rainy weather and has been
trying to cough her toes up. She said it is not pleasant having a fever and
hot flashes when it is so hot and humid!!! She was not able to attend services
at Sabeto when the rains finally let up. In fact Josua and Anna and their family
did not travel out either because of muddy conditions where they live. I went
but there was no communion because Anna and Josua usually bring it with them.
If I had known they were not coming I could have taken some. There is a reason
it is brought instead of left. In the past the children of the house have drunk
the juice and eaten the bread. I have since talked with Bola, whose house we
meet in, and explained why his children should not eat what we leave for the
communion. The bread we use is a common bread used by the Indo-Fijians called
“Roti”. It looks and tastes like a Burrito shell. However grape
juice is imported and not always available so I try to buy it when it is in
stock and ration it out when the stores are out.
COMMUNITY BIBLE CLASS
I finally started a community Bible class on Sunday afternoons
in the Public housing area. Initially we had thought to have classes Sunday
and Monday nights from 5-7 pm. We have since dropped the Monday night session
and only teach Sunday nights. The first Sunday night was sparse but last night
was our third week and we had about 30 in attendance. I am teaching Old Testament
History and Geography. I am also still teaching on Sunday mornings.
INSECT INFESTATION
With the less frequency of the rains the insects have come out.
In a climate where it never freezes cockroaches and ants never are thinned out.
(Even though we have plague-like-proportions of frogs around our house which
sit under the outside lights at night and feed on the buffet.) We have lived
in these climates for over 30 years and should know better but they got us.
We were not vigilant and the ants got us. After a shower one morning I took
my towel off the hooks where it was hanging on the wall and dried myself off.
After I put my clothes on I kept scratching thinking I had not gotten all the
soap off. However there was not a soap rash but whelps. Kathy then came in with
whelps and said there were ants crawling in the bathroom, from the window above
the toilet along a ledge and behind and on the towel I had hanging there as
well as the towel she used. Those whelps itch!!!!!!!!! I took my Biblical command
to "subdue the critters" seriously and sprayed the whole marching
line and the area they were coming from. We are more vigilant for ants and thieves
now!!!!!! The cockroaches are the 2-3 inch variety and usually are attracted
to the lights on the veranda and then they try to sneak under the door into
the house. That size they don’t sneak very well so when they open the
door to come in they get sprayed or smashed with a handy shoe. It not unusual
to have them try to take the shoe away from us but in the end we always win!
Gurrrrrrrrrrrrr!
We are still waiting for a letter from the finance department
regarding the printing equipment. A Christian brother in Suva is working on
it.
Proposed Christian Institute of Biblical Studies here in Fiji
Proposed Christian Institute of Biblical
Studies here in Fiji
We are still praying for the needs of the proposed Christian Institute
of Biblical Studies here in Fiji. We are still working toward securing leased
property and building facilities.
For some time now we have talked about the need for a Basic English-Speaking
Bible School in the Oceania region. These discussions have been with the brethren
in Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. It is recognized
that there is a Pidgin English Bible school in PNG and a very good English school
in Tauranga, New Zealand but the consensus is that the English level is too
difficult for most island English speakers. The cultural stress has been extreme
for some of those coming from a more temperate climate and the more mature Christians
with families are handicapped from attending the school in New Zealand due to
higher costs. So here is the proposal: we would like to have a Basic English-Speaking
Bible school in the temperate zone of the Island region; we would like to have
an intake of 10-15 students per year with a total enrollment of 25 boarding
students; we would like to build the facilities to accommodate these students
and at least three teachers and their families.
We have talked with a contractor who will build a 2 bedroom house
for $12,200 and a 3 bedroom house for $16,700. Another contractor submitted
a bid of $72,000 to build the classroom office block, staff housing (1 x 2bd,
1 x 3 bd) and student housing (1 x 2 bd duplex). So with land to cost up to
$30,000 (27 acres) and building costs we are in the neighborhood of a minimum
of $100,000. Realistically we need $150,000. Please continue to pray earnestly
for this need. The sooner we can get the land and facilities in place the sooner
we can get to teaching and training fulltime the workers who will indeed take
the gospel to the ends of the Oceania region.
One of the main reasons this school is so important is that we need to be training
local Christians in their own cultural settings to evangelize their own people
language groups. Even though the country of Fiji is English speaking a lot of
the communication is done in Fijian or in Hindi among the Indo-Fijian people.
The Fijian people are the indigenous people of Fiji. The Indo-Fijian people
are decedents of the people from India who were brought to Fiji in the late
1880’s to work the sugar cane for the British. They now make up about
39% of the population and most of them where born and raised here so they are
Fiji citizens. Many Indo-Fijians follow the Hindu faith and almost all speak
in Hindi. Kathy and I have picked up a smattering of Fijian and can sing most
of the songs we have in the printed songbook we helped prepare. However we don’t
know what the words mean in the songs! When the brethren get together most of
the conversation is done in Fijian. We understand this and don’t want
them to think they have to speak English all the time we are around them but
it does make us feel a bit shut out. One Sunday night last year we attended
services at the Lautoka congregation. They knew we were there but all the communication,
singing, preaching etc was done in Fijian without any effort to include us in
the service. It was not intentional they just figured we had been here several
months and might know Fijian, we didn’t and we don’t.
Our primary mission for being here in Fiji is the establishment of the Proposed
“Christian Institute of Biblical Studies”. We did not come here
to do the work of evangelizing Fiji which is in the capable hands of the local
Fiji brethren. (Though we will do our part in the great commission of “as
you go, teach.....”) We came here to help equip them to do a better job
and to encourage them to continue in the faith. Because of that we didn’t
come with the thought in mind of having to learn either Hindi or Fijian to accomplish
our mission. (I am almost 60 years old and my memory chips are maxed out for
languages!) English is one of the official languages in Fiji and we speak that
to a large degree. So what we have to do is get this school up and going so
we can get about the job we are here to do otherwise we are just existing here.
Just existing does not make Tobey or Kathy happy!
Please pray fervently with us that finances will become available so we can
get started on this school. If finances do not come we in fact might have to
come back there and shake the bushes (not George) until we get what we need
and then come back to Fiji and establish and build the school. So here is what
I see is your choice:
(1) You, from there, help us secure a sponsoring church and the support needed
to get the school started
OR
(2) We will have to come back there and stay with you until we can find the
support we need to get the school started. Your choice - your prayers! I hate
to resort to blackmail but......................:>)
PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray and consider the following needs we still have: (feel
free to copy and send this email to any and everyone you know for their consideration)
1. Personal support: we have about $2900 monthly. The
budget we have proposed we need an additional $600 plus $800 monthly for work
fund expenses. We have been able to cope up until now on what we are getting
but will need to get additional funds especially as we get more involved in
the work here.
2. Printing Equipment: Customs charged wavered and the storage charges not too
high.
3. "The Christian Institute of Biblical Studies - Fiji"
>Immediate funds of $50,000 to buy land and build basic facilities (URGENT!)
>Additional funds to update facilities: classroom, office, student &
faculty housing $75,000-$125,000
>Monthly funds of $3,600 for 5 years or until the school can be self supporting
from planted cash crops
Funds can be send to our sponsor:
Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Road
Webb City MO 64870
or you can contact my son Jason about helping or even buying my
truck <j13huff@yahoo.com>
Again we thank you who have emailed us this past month and sent
letters and care packages of encouragement.
In Christian Service and because of the Cross of Jesus Christ
Tobey & Kathy
--
Dr Tobey & Kathy Huff
PO Box 4615
Lautoka, Fiji Islands
Home (679) 664-5808
Mobile (679) 938-2808
web Site: http://cibs-fiji.fiji.com/CIBS-Fiji/Index.html