Volume 5; No.2                                                               February 1982

Dear Brethren;

Greetings from Papua New Guinea.

STARTING OUR EIGHTH YEAR
This month marks the start of our eighth year here in PNG. It doesn't seem possible some times, but other times it seems like it has been longer. The kids have spent the majority of their life here.

TWO FAMILIES COME TO GOROKA
During January we welcomed the arrival of two new families to join us in the work here in Goroka; Gordan and Ruth Goldsmith and Dave & Heather McMillan and two children (theirs). They are both from Canada. The Air Niugini flight from Hawaii which was SUPPOSED to bring them here ran into some trouble and they were two days late getting here. (We're glad that they had aircraft trouble right off the bat. If everything had gone fine they might have thought things are normal here. It's good to have them here.

WALLACES MOVE TO PORT MORESBY
The John Wallace family departed Goroka in January . They will be spending a month in Port Moresby before returning to the States on leave. Upon their return to PNG they plan to stay in Port Moresby .

BACK UNDER WATER AGAIN
As we were been mentioning for several newsletters the rainy season is here. The tune "Back in the Saddle Again" is now sung to the tune of "BACK UNDER WATER AGAIN". The council hadn't cleaned out the ditches around town and whenever it rained and the runoff in a square mile area ran across behind John's house (and through it.)

This rain/flood cycle happened thrice (once more than twice). All this can be quite frustrating when one is trying to pack up.

VISITING CONGREGATIONS
As reported in the newsletter last month the rains have been causing considerable damage to the roads. On the 18th of January (the day after our 13th Wedding anniversary) I went to Keu to see the Christians there for Sunday service. The leader of the congregation had been in Lae for two weeks. While he was gone they members didn't have the key to the cupboard with the communion in it. Soooooo, no communion for two weeks. We are also having trouble from some of the men we have been trained in the Bible school in Lae (not the missionaries fault). They (the students) have a misconception that the monies being sent to us for the work is really their money and that we are not giving it to them. All we do is sent them to the villages to preach and then we go get reports or the baptisms and sent out our monthly reports and then receive more money which we then spend ourselves. The students have it all figured out how to "show us". If we missionaries come to services on Sunday than when the report is given after the services as to the baptisms. and such then this would be done in "tok ples" (local dialect). That way we wouldn't be able to send reports back to you, for you to send more money.
I was able to admonish several of the students and explain things to the leaders.

RAINS CAME DOWN & SO DID THE MUD
When we had come over Daulo Pass that Sunday morning the road was open for traffic. When we came back it was closed. The whole side of a ridge had come down and covered the road. Some men were trying to clear the slide with shovels when we arrived. I pitched in the help (I HAD to get back to Goroka as we were due to fly to Wewak Monday morning). We finally cleared enough for 4-wheel drive cars to navigate through (off the right side the hill stopped about 300 feet on down).

R & R IN WEWAK
With the children out of school in January we planned to go somewhere for 2 weeks of R & R (Rest and recreation out of the war zone). Air travel here in PNG is expensive and the hotel rates are in line with space rates on the space shuttle ($110. per night for beds for our family). But finally we located cheap beds even though the airfares would be costly. We went to Wewak.

WEWAK
Wewak is located on the northern coast of New Guinea. The SIL Bible translators have a guest house where we were able to get lodging during our stay. The first day there I fixed their truck (replaced the starter). The apartment was only about 3 minutes from the beach (we could see the shoreline from the porch). The first two days we where there it rained and the temperature was really pleasant. Even though Wewak is located 2 degrees south of the equator with the sea breezes it was nice. The third day we were there we went to the beach (it was cloud covered). The following week we paid for our frolics.

1,2,3,4, COOKED LITTLE INDIANS
My mother maybe didn't raise an idiot but he sure was dumb. I ended up losing three layers of skin off my ankles and feet (where I always wear socks) and two layers off my back. Terasa blistered her face which resulted in more freckles. We spent two weeks there and spent the last week building up our tans. (After our peeling.)

THE CHURCH IN WEWAK
The Church in Wewak was begun in 1981 when Christians from others areas moved back home. Wewak is predominantly a Catholic area. The Church meets in a members house located at the back of the Catholic property there in Wewak. Another congregation meets in a village located some distance outside of town. The Lae church sends evangelists there to help the brethren. We met with the brethren in Wewak while we were there. The Catholic church is a huge gothic building which we drove by on our way to worship.

Just before we arrived in Wewak one of the old men who had become a Christian only last year died and they buried him back in the village. The Christians were not sad they were glad because he had obeyed the Gospel before he died and thus he LIVES.

DEATH ON EARTH: BUT ALIVE IN CHRIST
During January one of the missionary families here, the Rex Morgans lost their infant daughter to a sudden intestinal illness. They are returning to the states for a Period. our prayers go with them.

We also heard that a former missionary here Bob Herndon lost his wife Millie in death. These are trying times for sure. But because of Jesus they yet live.

Your servants

the Huffs