I grew up in Joplin Missouri the second of thirteen children born to Claude and Mary Joe Huff on September 17, 1948. They were of the Baptist persuasion therefore I was raised in the Southern Baptist faith which I responded to with baptism when I was 12 years old. We attended all services which included Sunday School and AM worship, Training School and PM worship, choir, Wednesday night, all gospel meetings, church retreats and summer camps. I was always enthralled when we would have a visiting missionary at church and their talks of far away places. From early on I desired to serve as a missionary. As I moved into the teenage years, even though I was still active in church activities my spirituality levels were not peaking but de-peaking.
I was going steady with a young lady named Kathy Haynes who had grown up in the churches of Christ and she was active in their activities. She attended some of our activities and became friends with my friends but seldom did we attend activities with her youth group from church. Our first date was when she asked me to attend a dinner at Spring River Inn. I graduated from High School in 1966 and continued my job as a night chef with Howard Johnson Restaurants as a full time job. I began smoking and drinking beer at this time due to peer involvement and late nights. I was also having clashes with my parents and had broken up with Kathy. I was going thru a very stressful time due to my own "wanting independence".
In the fall of 1966 still working full time, I enrolled in a local College but when the first tests and papers came due I was not prepared and went down to the local Air Force recruiter and took their entrance test. When I returned the following day they told me I had aced their test, make 100% on all four aptitude tests, and I could choose any field I wanted to train in. I signed up for Electrical Power Production and on Oct 13, 1966 I left for 6 weeks of Basic training in Amarillo, Tex. I was happy as a lark to get away from home. During basic training and subsequent 27 weeks of Technical training for Power Production I reached out and re-connected with my folks and my girl friend, Kathy Haynes. I finished Tech school and was shipped off to Vietnam where I served for 18 months. After this posting I was told I would get a stateside assignment and planned to get married to Kathy. However the military determined that Okinawa was a better place for me and posted me there. (In hindsight I see the working of the hand of God.) I went home to Joplin and during my 30 days leave got married and tried to get my posting changed. I did the first but failed in the second and headed to Okinawa.
When I joined the Air Force and left home I left "my" faith at home as well. I blended very well with the world during my tours of military duty in Texas, Vietnam and early Okinawa. Kathy joined me in Okinawa after about 3 months. I honored her desire to worship with the church by taking her and picking her up from services. I had no thoughts of re-establishing my faith even though my mother encouraged me in that direction in her letters. Kathy didn't push me into attending with her but I finally attended a get-together at one of the Christian's homes and met this champion missionary of their's, Joe Cannon. I was not a member of the Lord's body at the time but was in attendance because my wife Kathy was a member and had made a number of new friendships and met up with former friends from back in Missouri. Many of you have been in Joe's presence when he regaled audiences with his 'hold the nose, beat the throat and bleat noise' bagpipe routine. I was embarrassed because I thought this missionary representing the churches of Christ had imbibed a bit much in party juice.
There were others in the group who didn't really know what to think either as they had not had much association with Joe because he worked primarily with the Japanese people and this was a gathering of mostly English speaking military personnel. I finally met the man, Joe, and he got to know me like I got to know him. I had questions and he patiently gave answers. He accepted me for who I was (a baptized Baptist), where I was (in my understanding) and did not push. After my initial embarrassment and proper introduction to this wild Canadian, I thought, "If this man can be a missionary in God's service then there is hope for me."
The Ojana church of Christ on Okinawa was the English speaking group, primarily made up of us military types. I soon found out that they were not a bunch of religious fanatics but loving, serving people of God. In May 1970 over a few short days, Kathy had a miscarriage and I was admitted to the hospital after blinding myself while welding. During those days the church looked after us and even stocked up our pantry when we arrived back home. Ojana was having a gospel meeting with Maurice Tisdale, a man who had recently baptized several Baptist missionaries on Taiwan. Joe's wife, Rosa Belle, wanted me to be exposed to Maurice so she gave Kathy $5 so we could have Maurice over for hamburgers before the evening meeting time. We did, he did and I did! Maurice came over for dinner, he answered my questions in regard to my prior religious convictions and I decided that my relationship with God was not correct. That night I made that relationship right, I asked Joe to assist. That night I became a son in the kingdom!
Kathy and I (and little Terasa) stayed with the younger Cannon children while Joe and Rosa Belle returned to the USA to place two of their children in Harding University prior to going to PNG in August 1971. When Joe, Rosa Belle and family left for Papua New Guinea in 1971 my desire was to go with them when we were discharged that year in July from the USAF. I was heartbroken when that was not the case. But the Lord worked in our lives so that trip to PNG went through Sunset School of Preaching/Missions before we finally landed in Papua New Guinea in February 25th 1975. Our daughter Terasa had just just turned 4 years old and our son Jason was not quite 2 years old. Many brethren in the US were surprised that we would take our children to such distant lands.
Initially we had thought of working closely with Joe in Lae but ended up working in the Highlands, because of the greater need and it seemed that Joe was always up there anyway. Besides it was hot, humid and malaria infested in Lae, on the coast, while it was Springlike (no malaria) in the highlands. Joe and I walked and drove many miles on patrol - Saruwaged Mountains, Chimbu, Rockamunda, Waipi, etc.
If ever I have been in the presence of a person with the mind of Christ, it is Joe Cannon, my "true father in the faith". Joe Cannon put together a book of his early New Guinea reports called, "The Experiences of a New Guinea Pig". I have therefore given this compilation the title "Experiences of a New Guinea Piglet." Without Joe's direction and leading the following stories and reports we filed in the over 30 years we have been pursuing this vocation would never have happened. These reports brought back a lot of memories as I put them together in book form. I pray that they will be of use to someone and especially an honor to Jesus Christ who has blessed us with these experiences.
Tobey Huff - October 2007, Lautoka Fiji
Our Family