May - September 1992

Dear Brethren and Friends;

You all are very patient with me. I have no excuse, reasons yes- but no excuse!
In our past history I mailed out a newsletter in April (Remember?). I am now sending you another. It isn't that we haven't been busy it's just that the days roll into night and the nights back into day. (Very profound heh!) Before I knew it, it was Kathy's birthday again. (My 44th is this week. No sympathy cards please.)

Kathy and I just want to give you a big thank you for your prayers and support of our labors. Without your prayers and support we would not be able to continue the work we are trying to do.

JAB MESA VISITS NEW ZEALAND

During June the South Pacific Bible College here in Tauranga celebrated their 10th Anniversary and Reunion. The local congregation helped raise sufficient support to allow Jab to come back and speak. Becky and the kids stayed in PNG. Remember, June is winter here in New Zealand. Jab was here for three weeks. The first two weeks he was sick with a cold. He had 3-4 layers of clothing on ALL the time and his bedroom was like a sauna. It was good to see him again. The brethren here have a warm spot in their hearts for Jab and Becky and hope to bring the entire family over next time.

Jab is currently working with the Melanesian Bible School. Becky has a job and both of the boys are in school. Andy and Catherine Scott and girls are also in Lae working with the Bible School. Civil unrest is still very much a part of everyday life. While Jab was here there was a fight just behind the school property and the school fence was knocked down and some of the Christians moved in with Becky and the boys when the fight overran their housing compound. Things have returned more to normal since Jab returned.

PRINTING UPDATE

The pallet of song books arrived in PNG a bit worse for wear. When Jab went to pick the pallet up someone obviously decided that a forklift bar would look good through some of the paper. Such is life in the tropics. Jab is distributing the new song books.

We continue to print and distribute material for Correspondence courses. Over 50,000 letterbox cards were printed for distribution here in New Zealand. Over 12,000 tracts were printed in Fijian. We are doing the final format for the World Bible School Red Book course for Papua New Guinea in Pidgin English. We haven't decided how many to print yet. We will need at least 5,000 but if money is available we may do 15,000.

As seen from the front page we are using a new computer. For some time we have thought about getting an Apple Mac for the typesetting. While Kathy was back to see her family earlier this year she talked with James Smith in Joplin who runs a ComputerLand about getting a Mac for us. He was able to get a Mac Classic and Laser printer at cost which was sent to us. Kathy and I took a short class at night school to brief us on the computer's operation. This came at just the right time because we have just been through a very trying time with the Printing Service.
In the last newsletter it was mentioned that we were publishing a weekly TV listings. Easter weekend was the last publication date and we are still reeling from the outflow of that. The Printing Service it's self is continuing to go well but the advertising agency side which was running the TV listing booklet went belly up, to the tune of $30,000. Several things brought about its demise. The personnel I had selling for the booklet were not Christians and I have learned my lesson there. Even debts still owing look to be uncollectible as the customer was lied to as to their listings. Because of this we have had to restructure our operations. The man who we have had working for us for almost three years, John Topping was let go. His area of work had become more redundant in the past year and his level of competence had fallen since we got back last September. His wife was the one doing our typesetting and she ceased that when John was laid off. They then took us to the lawyers where for a month we worked out their claims (which were proved groundless in the end).

The shop has settled down to a routine again and the work load is being shared by everyone. Everyone working in the shop now are Christians which gives us all a common bond for work and relationships.

Through this whole episode the Lord has shown me that He is the One in control and sometimes limits us in our level of achievement so as to allow Him more impact. We had hoped that the TV Listing work would generate additional monies which would then allow us funds for more outreach, especially travel to the Islands. It was not to be. What we have seen from this exercise is that the dream of being self supporting through the Printing Service is not realizable in the present economic climate. Yes, we have been able to provide supplement support to allow us to remain here in the mission field and continue to be effective in the outreach of the Lord's Kingdom. But without your support we would not be able to do what we have been able to do.

Because of this recent reorganization of the Printing Service and the large amount of loan we are having to service through the Printing Service, we have given serious thought that it might be time to get back into a more direct work here in the South Pacific.

With this in mind we have listed the Printing Service for sale here in New Zealand. What we are thinking of doing is selling up and moving back either to Papua New Guinea or to Vanuatu and work more with Leadership Training. We have prayed about this and are putting it all in the Lord's band. We see that because our children are now on their own we have a bigger freedom of travel and this allows us to go and live where families of younger children have the worry of education, etc with their children.

I would like to get more into Leadership Training and I would like to finish a series of correspondence courses on Leadership for churches who are scattered throughout the Pacific Basin region. Kathy and I have said we would like to make the move by the end of the year, but that depends on what the Lord has in store. So far no serious offers have been made for the shop. Another option is that we keep the Printing Service, hire a manager to run it and raise enough support to move back to PNG or Vanuatu or even get a secular job and help the church. We have talked about moving to Rabaul if we went back to PNG because Jab's brother already has the church meeting there and the area is developing into an International Airport by 1995. Pray with us about this, please!

It's not that we feel like we are not being productive for the Lord here but feel that we would like to be doing more on the Leadership side and less of the commercial printing which we have to do to support the level of outreach we do. Even if we don't know by the end of the year we are determined to continue furthering the Lord's Kingdom to the best of our ability. Your continued prayers and support make this a reality.

OUTREACH NEWS
In our last report I mentioned that Stephen Felix is doing well. Early this month he called us late one night to talk about his baptism. For some time he said he was concerned that when he was baptized there in Vanuatu that he had no faith that Jesus was the Christ. We talked and he asked if he could be baptized. We went down to a local hot pool resort and Stephen was baptized that hour of the night. This brings to point that many times national people are baptized in mission areas and the missionary doesn't always know why some people are baptized. A lot of times it is pressure from the families. Because Stephen is the one who realized the situation he will be able to relate to his people and more conversions and less 'just baptizing.' (I am not being critical of missionaries just frank that if people are converted we would not have such a hard time grounding them later on.)

CATCHING UP ON THE FAMILY
Jason spent the summer working in Joplin Mo. He bought himself a car and is back for another year at Harding University. Terasa is continuing her studies in Mobile Ala. She and Chris celebrated their 1st Anniversary but the bikes they bought haven't been ridden very much (have they kids?).

Kathy and I are putting our trip to PNG and Vanuatu off until early next year due to work commitments and lack of finance. I will write sooner.

Until next month, your servants for and because of the Cross of Jesus Christ

the Huffs