November, 2016
Dearest Friends and family
BAPTISM
I heard one of the young boys who has helped up build the Bible School facilities
was thinking bout being baptized one Sunday morning. His name is JuJu and is
the son of Morris and Rebekka's oldest daughter, Mary, who lives on the island
of Santo. Juju has been a fixture here for years as he was doing his schooling
and we have watched him grow up. He is 18 years old and and loving kid. Right
now he is in town helping Stephen rebuild his house from Cyclone Pam and old
age. Stephen as a magistrate lives in a government paid house for right now.
JuJu came over on the 18th and asked to borrow something and said he was thinking
about getting baptized the next day. We had a talk about the importance of baptism
and he went off. He came back in about 30 minutes and asked if I would baptize
him right then. So we did! There is a beach right down from our house and it
has a small shallow place in the coral reef. I was honored to be a part of his
becoming a member of the Lord's family. I gave him one of my 16 lb chickens
for a family celebration feed the next day.
Juju being baptized
The wind was blowing salt water in my eyes.
WEATHER
Cyclone season started in November and we had our first tropical depression
form Northwest of us and track Southeast and go West of us. In three days we
received over four inches of much needed rain and no major winds. But it has
brought the humidity, heat, becalming winds and now we are sweltering. I had
built some new cyclone shutters the first of the month because some of them
had rotted so we were ready. Did not want it but we were ready for it!
TD 02F
SOME DAYS
Some things survive major storms to die at a future date. The refrigerator we
brought over from Fiji and survived cyclone Pam finally gave up the ghost the
middle of the month. The compressor quit and the repair shop I took it to (run
by an Fijian Indian ) said they could not replace the compressor. What's another
$1,000 for a basic fridge! The replacement fridge had larger freeze space but
less refrigerator space with is a premium when I try and keep LOTS of drinking
fluids available
I brought the old one home and gutted it and Goman is using it as a rat proof
storage box for his chicken feed.
Two of the solar panels damaged by Cyclone Pam also quit this month. I was able to repair one again but the other I fear is unrepairable. I have not replaced it yet.
I also had to rebuilt the shock mounts on the medium generator. The vibrations (and degeneration of the rubber parts of the mounts) had broken three of the four and the whole generator was vibrating on the ground not the shock mounts on the frame. I have not tried to find replacements from the store we bought it from in town yet. I have a feeling they will just laugh at my request!
We have been having fits with the internet connection we are SUPPOSED to have out in the village. It is through the mobile phone system and we have to prepay and it is only good for 7 days and limited download. Some days the speed is good other days it takes hours to download one email. I have talked with the suppliers and they seem to think it is our fault. I have shown then otherwise but they are still not doing anything about it because they DON'T LIVE HERE IN THE VILLAGE and they live in town and their connection in town is super fast. They assure me that is not the case but I told them if they had the same problem with their internet connection they would get it fixed. But out of sight(town) out of mind!
REMAKING FURNITURE
I rebuilt the cabinets in the bathroom and the pantry shelves in the kitchen.
The volume of flying termites at night when we first turn on the lights is slowly
diminishing as we find where they are and eliminate their nests. The kitchen
cabinets might be next for rebuild.
CHICKEN EXPANSION FOR THE
BIBLE SCHOOL
We received 300 day old chicks the first of the month from New Zealand. Over
a hundred were replacement chicks for dead ones in the June order. We sent 42
chicks to a Christian brother on Malakula. (It was supposed to be 50 but when
we were putting the birds in the transport boxes, whish have 4 sections, I told
myself 6 6 6 7 (25) per box but as Goman and I loaded them I obviously did 5
5 5 6 (21) per box because when Flaxon received them he said he only got 42.)
I do not plan to teach math at the Bible School.
I have bought three more small incubators so we can bring in fertile eggs from New Zealand instead of day old chicks. The reduction in chick cost is substantial. HOWEVER we just found out that both businesses that brought in boiler feed will no longer be bringing it in due to lack of demand. So we will have to fund our own container of feed if we want to keep raising chickens. The feed mills (NZ, Australia) have a minimum shipment and we will have to crunch the numbers and see if we can afford it. Pray for this!
BULLDOZER WORK
Stephen had connections with a man and a D-8 bulldozer. They had been clearing
a farm up the island and he wanted to clear his beach so he could develop it.
Sooooooo he also had the dozer clear the fence lines on school property as well
as his beach property. He plans on redoing the fence to the correct boundary
lines. I could only think of all the time JuJu and I spent cleaning the fence
line the first time with the thick jungle. Of course a D-8 does a great job
but it is not smooth. So we will have to clean up but it does give us a lot
of garden space and I was able to get a couple of trailers loads of top soil
for my gardens behind the house.
Down the fence row
Behind the classroom
THANKSGIVING
Though Thanksgiving is just another day here (it was actually Wednesday Joplin
time), Kathy did a great dinner with home garden beans, potatoes and gravy,
cranberry sauce and one of our 12 lb chickens. One of the local stores in town
has had cranberry sauce for some time but it is $7.50 for a 9 oz jar of Ocean
Spray. I will admit I have bought and eaten some but joy of joy a French store
brought in some canned Ocean Spray Jelled cranberry sauce for $3.50 for 14 ozs.
We bought several cans so we can have it more often. It's is the little things
that we find joy in sometimes.
Thank you for your prayers - God hears!
We are still looking for additional monthly support for the running of the Bible School with plans to get it up and running in early 2017. If you can help please do and especially remember us and the brethren here in your prayers - thank you!
God is good!!!!!!!!!
Onward and upward!
We especially want to thank all of you so much for praying for
us, supporting us and have contributed to our needs so we can do what we are
doing. God bless you! Thank you for your prayers and fellowship!
Thank you Lord for healing and providing what we need!
Grace & Peace
Tobey & Kathy Huff
Ph: +678 596-4821 (Vanuatu) We do texting.
Thank you for your prayers - God hears!
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Contributions for the Huffs, the
Bible school, the Scholarship fund and/or cyclone/drought relief can be sent
to:
Huffs/Bible School
c/ Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Rd
Webb City MO 64870
or
Jason Huff
2730 E 24th St
Joplin MO 64804
(417) 396-9122
j13huff@yahoo.com