Volume 6; No. 10 September 1983
Dear Brethren;
Greetings in the name of the Lord? This t'was the month that was.
FLOOD HITS LAE -18,000 HOMELESS
We were there. The kids had a school break from Sept.19-23rd so we went down
to Lae to shop. Jason had already been in Lae all week staying with the Art
Ford family. This is rainy season in Lae so one expects rain everyday. They
had been experiencing steady rain for several weeks. We drove down on Friday
intending to return to Goroka on Sunday afternoon. (Yes, Lord willing ! He wasn't.)
From Friday morning to Weds Lae received over 40 inches of rain. That's over
3 feet! The hardest was during a 6 hour period early Sunday morning when 13
inches fell. 18 people are thus far confirmed dead and over 19,000 homeless.
The flood waters destroyed two bridges in Lae city and
three bridges on highways outside of Lae. This cut off parts of the city from
other parts of the city and the whole city was cut off from the highlands where
we live.
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Loading a DC-3 with relief food for flood victims in
Lae. (I am the one with the Joplin Water Co. hat)
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The majority of the homes destroyed were squatter settlements which were located
in low lying areas along the river bank. Since the Highlands Highway was washed
out we were stranded. We flew back to Goroka (during a let-up in the rains)
and left our car there in Lae until they repair the bridges. We came back to
Goroka on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday I decided we should try to get some relief
to the victims in Lae. The church in Lae, has begun to house the homeless in
the Bible School facilities. The first to be housed were Christians who had
lost their houses. Then the government asked them to house others. Right now
over 200 are currently being housed by the church.
The squatters who were now homeless were also without food as their gardens
were also destroyed. Most of the victims are poor and live on whatever their
gardens provided. With this in mind Jab Mesa and I began buying all the kaukau
(sweet potato) and cabbage we could locate. We were even considering chartering
aircraft to get the food into Lae. At this point I was in communication with
David Lock in Lae who is on the relief committee. The PNG Defense Force (Army)
said they would make available a DC-3 aircraft if we could guarantee a load
of produce. So far we have sent three plane loads of cabbage and sweet potato
down via DC-3 (over 4.5 tons, some 2,000 cabbages). Our first consideration
was to provide food to David for the people he was looking after at the church.
As it turned out, we were the only ones who thought to provide fresh food aid
and have now been appointed coordinator with the Army on providing loads of
fresh veggies to ALL the flood victims in Lae. As Lae is a seaport there is
no shortage of canned goods and rice. We are still scheduling DC-3 loads of
produce daily for the next week.
Scores of Christian families have lost their houses. We are looking at how we will best be able to assist them after things have calmed down. At present the government takes a dim view if churches help only their own. Anything sent to Lae now goes through the committee. Most of the victims were poor before the flood and owned very little worldly goods. Most saved what they had except their houses. Response from Australia is overwhelming and a lot of it is impractical. Now people who had no shoes will have shoes, now will have several changes of clothes. Tons of blankets, clothes, shoes, tents etc. arrive daily.
Other poor people around Lae town who were not affected by the flood are demanding some of the booty as well. Some are even praying for their own flood.
I felt like a migrant farm worker bagging cabbages and loading them on the
truck and then on to the plane. I worked muscles I didn't know I had. Wow! !
The bank here is allowing me to overdraft my account to cover the cost of this
relief operation on the condition we repay
it by October 31st. Many of you have been contacted by phone but if you haven't
and want to help please send your funds marked:
FLOOD RELIEF
NORTHSIDE CHURCH OF CHRIST
2510 HWY 62
JEFFERSONVILLE, IN 47130
or to us here.
TOBEY HUFF
P.O.BOX 878
GOROKA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
THANK YOU !
GOROKA AFFECTED BY FLOOD ALSO
With the Highway out the pressure is on us also. All of our store goods, gasoline
etc come up the highway. The stores here in town only have enough stock for
10 days.
This flood came at a time when coastal brethren were attending the annual Christian workshop here in Goroka. Over 30 brethren were stranded here in Goroka. Their bus and Art Ford's van are still here but we flew them back to Lae. The highway isn't suppose to be opened to normal traffic for another week.
MEMORYWRITER ON THE BLINK
Some of you will have noticed by now that this report is not the same style
as the past few have been. That is because the Xerox Memorywriter decided to
act up and I am waiting on parts from the states to repair it. One of the main
problems of electronic typewriters is the down time when you do have troubles.
PRINTING UPDATE
In my spare time this month I did some printing. I printed over 114,030 sheets
of paper. This included 100 x 17pp coloring book on Cain and Abel. Also 600
x 35pp teacher's manual for a Bible class series in Pidgin English.
CALENDERS BEING MAILED
We are presently preparing to send out a 1984 calender to all of you who have
written us and/or contributed to our labors. If you didn't receive a calender
this year but would like to receive one now, just drop us a note (on the back
of a check would be alright) and we will send you a calender. "You have
not because you ask not."
Kathy and I both celebrated birthdays this month. 35 isn't so bad.
Until next month- God be with you.
the Huffs