January 2012

Dear Friends, Brethren and Family

Motorcycle hic-ups
After the first blown tyre last month we have had over 6 flats since. One of the problems was I could not get the proper size tube here or replacement tyre. When I had the next two flats I called Steven to have him come help. It got to the point that if I called him his first question was "where are you broken down." The tyre is a 3.50 x 16 and the only tubes I could find at first were 2.00 x 16.

The second flat happened on Christmas Day when returning from services at Eton. As per normal Kathy and I went out to the village for Sunday services with the brethren at Eton. Stephen had called earlier asking if we needed the truck. But since Abu Morris was already out in the village and we wouldn't be taking him out I said no since it was sunny and we had the motorbike.

We loaded up the motorbike (9:15 am) and headed to the village. We always take camp chairs and lunch with us as we all eat together after services either at the building or Morris' house.

Everyone was late getting to services for some reason (none had to do with opening presents that Santa had brought since Santa does not know where the village is, obviously). I stated singing some songs and after half dozen or so we had enough brethren there to start "official" services. (11:00 am)

I taught as normal and after services we had our lunch in the building as it had begun to rain. We had a very enlightening thunder and lightening storm and it rained very heavy for over an hour. It let up about 2:30 pm (no lightening or thunder) so we loaded the motor bike back up, and put on our rain gear (in case of further showers on the way back home).

Just after we left the village a truck in front of us started driving down the middle and then the front seat passenger threw an empty whiskey bottle out the window breaking it on the road. Just after that they slowed down so we went around them but within a couple of miles they sped up behind us and rode my backside for about a mile before they sped around us, yelling drunkedly as they went by. This is the season where a lot of people think getting drunk is the best thing to do.

We didn't run into anybody else like them and the rain was held off. We were traveling about 50 mph, about halfway to Port Vila, going up a hill and the front tyre suddenly started going flat. I was able to get it up on the hill and on the side of the road before it went completely flat. 3:15 pm (The repair on the tube had not held and the can of flat fix just ran right back out the holes!)

While at the village we had been expecting Stephen as he said he was planning to come out that morning. So as we waited on the side of the road I tried to call him, then I tried to call the village. No luck there was no signal! We waited some more! We didn't know whether he was still coming out or was already out at the village.

About 4:15 pm a truck stopped that was headed back to Port Vila (we had several cars stop headed out the the beaches but had told them we were waiting for Stephen). Kathy got a ride back to Vila with them to see if she could find Stephen in town and have him come get me and take me back to Vila to get what I needed to repair the tyre.

I kept trying to get a signal and when I finally did (by holding the phone over my head in a certain direction with my mouth puckered a certain way and my right little finger in my left ear) but I still could not get Stephen. I did call the house and Kathy said she had gone over the Stephen's house but was told he had gone to the village that morning. I then tried to call the village again, no answer.

I waited some more thinking that Stephen would eventually be headed back to Vila.

There were a lot of vehicles headed back to Vila from the beaches and several even stopped to ask if I was okay. I replied, "I'm okay but the tyre is flat." To which they would say "Okay" and drive off. There were a couple of periods of light rain and it was very humid. I finally got a signal again and called the village and Rebecca answered. I told her the situation and she said that Stephen had just been at Eton and then headed back to the beach. She said she would send someone to the beach and tell him I was waiting. 6:30 pm (dark)

As I waited for Stephen I backed the bike off the road into some bushes, took the mirrors off and unstrapped the carry box so when he came I could off load everything onto the truck so there wouldn't be much to steal when I left the bike.

There is also a custom of people screaming and yelling at us when you are on a motorbike. It usually happened just as we go by a group standing on the road or a vehicle drives by going the other direction and it really, really, really doesn't make me very happy! As I waited by the motorbike several vehicles full of drunks drove by after a day of drinking on the beach yelling as they went by. One bus full of drunks even came back, stopped and ask if everything was alright and I told them I was doing alcohol breath-testing for the police - they got very quiet and left very quickly!

Stephen came by around 7:00 pm and we transferred everything. When we got closer to town I called Kathy to let her know I had been picked up. Stephen dropped me off at the house while he took everyone home. I scurried around getting the jack, screw drivers, spanners, filling up the portable air tanks and finally locating the spare new tube I had put up so I would not misplace it (found it the last place I looked).

Stephen came back, we loaded the truck and went back to the motorbike. I jacked it up, took off the tyre assembly, pried the tyre off, took out the tube, put in the new tube, put the tyre back on, filled it with air, remounted the tyre assembly and let down the jack. Put the mirrors back on. Put all the tools in Stephen's truck and got on the motorbike to head home. Stephen followed me.

This was when I found out that the headlight on the motorbike is misaligned. The low beam is like a high beam (just not as bright) and the high beam was shinning up looking for flying foxes. I also found out that a lot of drivers here do not know how to dim their lights. At one place I almost had to stop, so I would not drive off the road, because the oncoming lights were blinding me so much. (I do not like to drive at night in the best of conditions!)

I finally made it back home (after negotiating the potholed roads which are like minefields after dark). 8:45 pm 

Stephen stayed around to talk awhile. He said if he didn't know better I did these things just so I would have a good story for the next newsletter (little did he know!). He said he was impressed how efficient and quick I was able to repair the motor bike. He said they had come out late in the morning. They had been there all along at the beach but his phone had no signal either.

I put everything away, hung all the rain gear up to dry and cleaned up. 9:15 pm The next day I put tire goo in the tube to keep it from going flat again.

The third flat happened while Kathy and I were coming back from the grocery store. The tire goo looks very suspicious leaking out - that didn't work very good! I called Steve, he came and ran me down the hill to the house, taking all the groceries with us, I got all the tools and air tanks and went back with a new tube, repaired it and drove it home.

After the third flat I took the precaution of having a spare tube, the tools, a jack and a tank of air on the bike.

We headed out to the village for services Sunday January 1st with high hopes. (I had gone out Saturday to see Morris and talk about the block building for this week. No problem!) The fourth and fifth flats happened on this day (Happy New Year): #4 going out to Eton, about 1/4 mile from the building, front tyre flat - jacked it up and changed out the tube (I had gotten repaired on Friday) drove on to services only a few minutes late.

We had services, ate with everyone and headed back to Vila about 3:00 pm. About 10 kilometers from Vila the front tyre went flat again #5. The repaired tube did not hold! As I did not have another tube to replace I ran the bike off a side road into the brush. We took everything removable off the bike, left a note that I would be back sometime, and waited on the side of the road for about 45 minutes before a van stopped and we got a ride back to town.

I knew I would not be able to do anything until Monday morning and maybe not even until Tuesday since everything was still closed. I called the village to let them know what had happened and that we had finally made it home - bikeless again!

Steve came by the house after he got back from the beach and said he would take me around Monday morning to see if we could get a new tube. The two tubes I previously had bought were 2.00 x 16 and since my tyre is 3.50 x 16 when the smaller tunes are blown up they are stretched pretty thin.

Well, sure enough, Monday the places we thought would have the tube were closed but we found a Chinese bicycle shop open. He said all he had was a 20" tube. I looked at it and it was a bigger size so I thought "oh, heck what do I have to lose." Steve and I went back to the house and picked up all the tools, air tanks and the helmet. I had put a patch on the tube that went flat yesterday morning - I took it also. We got out to the bike and took off the wheel. As I was checking the tyre AGAIN I noticed that there was a weak spot where the punctures had been occurring. This happened when we had the first puncture in the pothole in town! There never was a nail but I guess since the tubes were stretched thin and they got hot on the road the tube was being pushed out the hole and that pinched it. So I cut up the old tube and put a hunk of it in the tyre where the weak spot was, put the new tube in the tyre (it is a 16 inch tube after all) and put it all back together and aired it up. Drove back to town with no problem. (Of course the last four flat tyres were when Kathy was also on the bike. And don't think she hasn't already thought of that!) The next day I went and bought another tube from the Chinese bicycle shop for a spare.

Flat #6 was this morning (01/24) when I got up I noticed that the front tyre was flat again. I jacked it up and took it apart and found that the tube had a small hole from rubbing on the patch I had put in on the weak spot on the tyre. I put another patch on the weak place and a patch on the tube and aired it up. Perhaps it will hold together until we can get a replacement tyre and a proper tube (which my son is sending). At least it got us home from the village yesterday. (I had taken it out during the week before with no problem as well!)

Building
Steve had hauled a trailer load of sand to the house site one weekend and I went out the 16th and hauled a couple of loads as well. I then went to the village Wednesday and Thursday (18th & 19th) and started laying the cement blocks for the house walls. A 63 year old and a 14 year old building a block house - it tired Morris out - he was sitting in the truck watching us!!!!!!! I took out my generator and used the electric cement mixer that we had bought for Morris last year to build a cement floor in the church building so he could get around better with his wheelchair.

Wednesday we got about a fourth done (above). Thursday we put reinforcing rod down through the blocks and cemented them in and finished the rest of the 3 high block wall. We will let that dry over the weekend and then will put the other row of two blocks all the way around. The blocks have sharp edges and so I have cuts on 7 of my fingers that are really sore right now. (I wore cloth glove the second day - slow learner!)

Tomorrow (24th) I will go out and put the other two rows of blocks up and after a week of drying will do the the rest of the walls of wood/frame.
Steve has talked to his friend with the sawmill and they are going to go look at trees on the farm this week so we can get started cutting the wood we will need to finish framing it out. We will have to pay the fuel and they will split the cut wood for their part.

Steve has also said he will be bringing a group of young men out to dig the septic tank and the water seep holes this next weekend.

Life
After getting home Christmas Day (after all the trouble with the motorbike) I went in to check email and found that the internet was down. Kathy said she had tried it when I was out waiting on the motorbike and it wasn't working then. It finally came back on the 28th. Since the government (our IP provider) shut down Saturday - Dec 28th for the holidays I guess we are lucky it is back at all. (Christmas was Sunday and Boxing Day was Monday so the Holidays all moved forward another day.

On January 18th, Neddie Karris, Christian sister and the wife of Eddie Karris for 57 years, passed away in the village. I only found out about her death on Tuesday when I ran into one of the Port Vila Christians in town and he told me Neddie had died. I went out with Steve on Wednesday for the funeral. It was too hot and too humid (no wind) for Kathy so she stayed home. When we got there everyone was waiting for Aaron, another missionary, to get there to start the services. Eddie had called him and asked him to do the service but finally asked me if I would say something as the family was getting restless and the body had been there for over 24 hours (no embalming here).

After I spoke they carried the body across the road and gathered around the grave site (her son's side yard).

Aaron gave the graveside talk and they sang some songs and lowered her into the ground and covered her up. The family came by and thanked me for the talk. On Sunday they gave me a mat for helping.

Neddie had been in pain for some time and in fact had lived a month longer than the doctors thought she would. She will be missed!

In January, I started building some kitchen cabinets for Rose Hanna and a sink unit and upper cabinet for Island Property to replace a rotten cabinet that they have in their office. It would not take as long if I would remember to measure twice and cut once. My cyfurin' is struggling as well. I lined up the door frames together before I did anything else and caught the mistake but not before I had cut out out all the door frame pieces. I forgot to subtract 4 inches off the top/bottom door rails to allow for the two (2 inch) side stiles when I build the doors. I just had to cut down 14 pieces of wood and then re-router them.
I finished Pose Hanna's cabinets and installed them on the 14th. She had been without kitchen cabinets for over 3 years. Her sink was held up with a frame of 2 x 4's.

Rose Hannah's cabinets in use

On December 30th we had a 7.01 tremor just off shore which rattled the house

We are having 75-85% humidity night and day right now and getting about an inch of rain a day with on and off showers.

It was nice to get some boxes of goodies this past month: trail mix, books and pictures from Terasa; cheeky gifts from our son! Thank you Ally Franks (Cottondale, Tuscaloosa Al) for the small box of homemade cookies. Thank you brethren at Northland KC for the styrofoam plates, rain weather clothes for riding the motorcycle, licorice and stuff. We even got a Christmas card from Kathy's mum that was mailed Nov 29th and got here January 20th. One box of ebay stuff from our son took over two months (that was Air Mail!) and travelled through New Caledonia.

On January 17th Kathy and I celebrated our 43rd Wedding Anniversary. We borrowed Steve's truck and went out to a Steak place run by a couple from Colorado. We had BBQ beef ribs. Not rib crib but close!

The Lord continues to provide
We continue to receive some funds over and above our regular needs. These are being applied toward the building project and we thank you all for your continued faithfulness. The extra from last month will be used to get the house framed up and some doors with the next big cost being the metal roof ($3200). Keep tuned for progress reports.

We received $5000 toward the vehicle fund and will be looking for a small vehicle which will give Kathy wheels as well as transport when it is raining.  Thank you so very much Cole!!!!

Counseling, chatting, reading, sharing ........ being family
I am still spending time (during the week and weekends) talking with Morris and other brethren here on spiritual growth and freedom in Christ. Eton wants me there every Sunday so I am teaching a series on Paul's Letters. Trying to cover a book a week - trying being the operative word!

Needs
As you have read moving here has been expensive and living here will be expensive. We really need to increase our monthly support $500-1,000. If you can or know of someone who can help this need please pray about it and let us know.

I repeat some of the needs we have as we move forward: house ($35,000), guttering, water tanks and pumps ($1,800), a solar hot water unit ($2,800), a bigger generator ($5,000), a solar/wind power unit ($2,500), septic system ($1,200), a classroom ($12,000), a student duplex ($15,000).

Thank you so much for all of you who are supporting us and have contributed to our needs. God bless you!

Your seed sowing workers in the Kingdom.

Tobey & Kathy

Contributions for Huffs and building the Bible school, vehicle and house can be sent to:

Huffs/Bible School
c/ Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Rd
Webb City MO 64870

or

Mailing Address:
PO Box 3229
Port Vila, Vanuatu
South Pacific

Ph:
(678) 710-1617
(678) 22-418