Dear Friends, Brethren and family
Ni sa Bula Vinaka
PRAYER ANSWERED
Last month we asked for help and prayers in the shipping expenses
for the printing equipment sitting in Vanuatu. The prayer was answered by a
great friend and brother in Christ in England who has provided funds for us
to ship the equipment. Thank you Peter! We have since contacted Goman Mesa there
in Port Vila who has gotten the equipment down to the shipping company. We were
also given a number of used Apple computers and printers from some dear friends
there in Port Vila who have upgraded their equipment and this was surplus to
their needs. Thank you Island Property! The ship should berth here in Fiji around
the end of the month. We will have to go pick it up in Suva or Nadi. After that
I can get busy cleaning the presses so we can make use of them when necessary.
Talk about an International effort!
We also sold our house there in Joplin this past month. The deal finally went
through and we cleared over a $110 at the closing! (Actually only $60 after
the final electricity bill.) At least now we only have one house to make rent
payment on. We still need to sell my Dodge Ram truck though!
FRUSTRATION!
Well we have been doing our exercising, walking. We go to the local golf patch and I hack 9 holes of golf with Kathy walking alongside. Neither one of us can find golf balls though. Miss the fairway and you find yourself in dense gardens. Even when I hit in the fairway we can’t always find the ball because of the clumps of cut grass that are left behind when they brushhog the fairways. Guess what, I miss the fairway A LOT! So far this month I have lost 18 golf balls. I am just thankful that I have so many practice balls. I will not get out any new ones until I have too! Thank goodness there are no bunkers or water on this course. The putting surfaces can be called “greens” only because that is the color of the grass. The side yard at the house I grew up was smoother than these nobby “greens.” I can assure you that nobody, that’s nobody would plan a practice round on our local course in preparation for the British Open. Even the sand putting surface on the Cook Islands golf course would be preferred. (Do you call it a “green” if it is sand?) I am thinking of either tying a string to the ball, get a golf ball with GPS or a voice actuated system that says, “Yoo hoo, I’m over here stupid!”
I must say though, it sure does get hot out here. We walk (and I hack) from 8-10.00am, the cool of the day! I would say I lose about a quart of sweat per day. This is good because not working like I was there in the states I was getting a little fluffy. I do spend a lot of time on the computer here! I even wondered the other day if Noah had the same problem to some extent. He spends 120 years getting an Ark built and then getting the animals all in with their needed food supplies and then he gets shut up in an ark for over a year and a half. Waiting on God! I'm sure Noah had some things to do but he sure wasn't as busy as he had been. Neither are we!
I have been putting a lot of time on the computer putting together the many reports and stories of our over 30 years of missionary wanderings. Joe Cannon put together a book of his early New Guinea reports called, “The Experiences of a New Guinea Pig”. I have therefore given my compilation the title “Experiences of a New Guinea Piglet.” Without Joe’s direction and leading the stories and reports we filed in the over 30 years we have been pursuing this vocation would never have happened. These reports bring back a lot of memories as I put them together in book form. (Some things I don’t remember! Go figure!) I pray that they will be of use to someone and especially an honor to Jesus Christ who has blessed us with these experiences. I will finish the early years and get them posted to our web site for your amused reading very soon.
It is not just me feeling a bit frustrated as Kathy too was busy working there in the USA as a bank teller before I drug (or is that dragged) her over here. Just keeping house here is not very fulfilling even though it is a necessary task! Not knowing the language brings its own frustrations to both of us.
As I asked last month, “Please say an extra prayer for my patience as we are in a holding pattern awaiting finances to buy land for the school and get things going towards building what will be necessary to get started next year.” Please pray that doors will open here that will allow us to use more of our abilities.
WBS
We have started advertising in the Fiji Times for students for World Bible School. The Fiji Times is the major national newspaper for Fiji and in the past we have been very pleased with the results of requests from Fiji people for WBS courses. The requests are being sent to our sponsoring congregation who will use us aa follow-up when requested.
GROUND FOR THE SCHOOL
We finally received information back from the village which had land we were looking at for the location of the school. This was the first place we looked at and is currently planted in Pine plantation. The pines were due for harvesting this year so we asked how much it would cost to leave the pine trees standing on the acreage we wanted to lease. The final price put this section of land out of our grasp. The figure of F$65,682.33 (US$43,700) for Fiji Pine and F$60,000 (US$39,000) for “goodwill” to the landowners put the costing way out of our reach financially. Especially when we have to factor in what it will cost us to build facilities required and preparing the land for crops. There are other parcels of land which are more viable and affordable for the school needs. These are negotiable when one has cash in their hand! (HINT, HINT!!!!)
In the meantime we are looking at maybe renting a storefront in
town to use as an office for the school and perhaps a place for people to come
and study the Bible. I have been reading how the Islamic nations have been pushing
and providing funding for “Chairs of Islamic Studies” on many of
the major universities in America so that they can push their belief forward.
So why don’t I establish a “Chair of Christian (Biblical) Studies”
here in a country with a large populous of Muslims? That is what we could call
our store front office. We are looking!
We are also looking at the possibility of starting an English gathering on Sunday
afternoon here in Lautoka. At present the services at Sabeto Junction are basically
in Fijian. I teach in English and with singing we sing from a Bi-lingual song
book we printed several years ago. We sing a couple of verses of each song in
English and then a couple in Fijian. Communion and prayers are mostly in Fijian.
On Friday nights we get together with the Conivanua family and have a common
meal and English singing.
STUDIES
I have been teaching Sunday mornings at the Sabeto congregation. I finished up my series of lessons on “Understanding Spiritual Gifts” and have begun a series on “Christian Evidences”. I find the series very stimulating personally because it reaffirms why I believe what I believe. Kathy got on to me after the first lesson because I taught for over an hour. What can I say? I had a captive audience and was really into what I was teaching. I teach in English and then it is explained in Fijian for about 10 more minutes. We always have a meal together after services and the food has already cooled anyway so what are an extra 30-40 minutes? None of the local brethren complained only an American who is somewhat time oriented. I personally don’t even wear a watch here, true!
TIDBITS
This month Kathy had a bit of bother with some medicine she takes. The medicine (Zetia 10mg) she was taking while in the USA was going to cost over $100 per month here so her local Fijian doctor put her on another cheaper brand which gave her an allergic reaction. She then had to take an antihistamine to counteract that medicine. We are now looking at how to solve her medicine needs. I myself survive on antihistamines. My sinuses block up within minutes without antihistamies due to the allergies I have here just breathing the air. How bad is the air, you ask - the fan blades in our house have to be cleaned weekly just to keep the crud buildup on the edges at a controllable level. Most of the taxis and buses are diesel and they do not use “clean” diesel, bellowing clouds of unburned diesel smoke.
For some reason the mosquitos find Kathy very appealing. They do not have malaria here but she welps up quite good when she gets bitten. The past few weeks we have started to receive heavy rains which has increased the humidity and the bugs. For some reason I can be in the same room and have no problem with mosquitos, go figure. Oh, those little battery operated “mosquito repellers”, HA- they do not repel anything here!
The houses here do not have central cooling so we make use of ceiling fans and other fans to create wind movement inside the house, because the more humid it gets the less real wind blows. We have an a/c unit in the bedroom and had to use it once this month just to get some sleep. The mattress we have was not designed as a waterbed but the amount of copious sweating just lying there trying to get to sleep makes it feel like a waterbed that is leaking. Doesn’t feel real good!
I found out that mobile phones do not do well after going through the washing and rinse cycles of the washing machine. I had to replace my mobile phone which I left in my pants pocket. However the one I bought had $70 worth of free call time with the $70 purchase price. So in reality I got a free phone for buying call minutes.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray and consider the following needs we still have: (feel
free to copy and send this email to any and everyone you know for their consideration)
1. Personal support: we have about $2800 monthly. The budget we have proposed
we need an additional $700 plus $800 monthly for work fund expenses. We have
been able to cope up until now on what we are getting but will need to get additional
funds especially as we get more involved in the work here.
2. "The Christian Institute of Biblical Studies - Fiji"
>Immediate funds of $50,000 to buy land and build basic facilities (URGENT!)
>Additional funds to update facilities: classroom, office, student &
faculty housing $75,000-$125,000
>Monthly funds of $3,600 for 5 years or until the school can be self supporting
from planted cash crops
Thank you so much for all who presently financially support this work and especially all your prayers for us and the work. We beseech you for your continuance of both.
In Christian Service and because of the Cross of Jesus Christ
Tobey & Kathy
Sponsoring congregation:
Mt Hope church of Christ
2830 Mt Hope Rd
Webb City Mo 64870
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Dr Tobey & Kathy Huff
PO Box 4615
Lautoka, Fiji Islands
Home (679) 664-5808
Mobile (679) 938-2808
web Site: http://cibs-fiji.fiji.com/CIBS-Fiji/Index.html
Tobey & Kathy Huff